Person:Jesse Cox (1)

Biography

Jesse Cox11 Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements, By John Perry Alderman; Published by Alderman Books, 1985, p. 244. It is probably that he was from the numerous Cox family of Quakers who migrated from Pennsylvania to north Carolina, several of whom settled on Chestnut and Crooked Creeks. There was a Jesse Cox who was dismissed from the Can Creek Meeting in 1775 (1 Hinshaw 381), and it may be he who came to Crooked Creek. There was a tract of 400 acres on the south side of Crooked Creek settled in 1768 by a William Banks; the claim to the property passed through two additional owners (including a Samuel Cox) before Jesse acquired the claim and in 1782 submitted the claim to the Land Commissioners (Kegley, Adventurers, II, p. 113). He entered it the same year and in 1783 it was surveyed for 360 acres; he obtained the grant in 1785 (Grants, Q-283). Jesse was taxed in 1782 with six horses and nine cattle, which indicates that he was established in the area; otherwise there is no way to determine when he came to Crooked Creek. It is clear that he lived on Crooked until 1810 at which time he packed up and left. Except for the tax lists, there are few records of him. He is carried on tow of Flower Swift’s militia rolls, listed each time amount the Quaker militiamen which probably means that he did not actively participate. There is no record of his selling his land. The same is true of other grants in the neighborhood, and the assumption has to be made that the titles were defective; there is a good chance that they were located inside the old Wood grant. In 1808 Jesse signed a deed conveying to young Elisha Bedsaul an interest in part of old Elisha Bedsaul’s land (Grayson, D. B. 2-419). Presumable Jesse had married one of the elder Elisha’s daughters and this presumption is fortified by the fact that Jesse seems to have had a son named Elisha Cox. It is thought that Mary Cox Edwards, wife of Annuel, was his daughter (no proof is found in the records), and an Elisha Cox was taxed adjacent to him for seven years and left with him in 1810; this Elisha was almost surely his son.