Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of James BADCOCK

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Descendants of James BADCOCK

Generation No. 1

1. James¹ BADCOCK was born 1612 in Essex, England, and died June 12, 1679 in Westerly, RI. He married (1) Sarah. She died 1665. He married (2) Elizabeth 1669.

Notes for James BADCOCK:
"The Immigrant." James Badcock was born in 1612, "probably" in Essex County, England. It is not known exactly when he immigrated or where he landed. The first official mention of James Badcock was when he was "admitted an inhabitant" of Portsmouth, RI, February 25, 1642. He was almost certainly related (very possibly a brother) to two brothers, Robert and George Badcock, who settled in Dorchester (now Milton) MA, somewhere between 1630 and 1650. The tradition that James arrived in North America on the ship "Anne" in 1623 and brought with him four children born in England has been proven to be spurious.

The records of Portsmouth, RI, contain many references to James Badcock between 1642 and 1662. He moved with others from Portsmouth to a new settlement being started at "Squamucuck" or "Misquamicut", now Westerly, RI, in that year. In 1665 he sold his house and farm in Portsmouth. The new settlement was formally incorporated as Westerly in May 1669 at which time, among the 24 freemen in the town four were Badcocks -- James and his three sons, James, John and Job.

His first wife is identified only as Sarah_______, and no date for the marriage has been found. Sarah died in 1665 "or later." They had four children: James, born 1641, married Jane Brown; John, born 1644, married Mary Lawton; Job, born 1646 (?), married Jane Crandall; and Mary, born 1648 (?), married William Champlin.

James married in 1669 (?) a woman identified only as Elizabeth. They had three children: Joseph, born 1670 (?) and Nathaniel and Elizabeth, dates of birth unknown.

In his 59th year, (1678) James was baptised and united with the Seventh Day Baptist Church of Newport and Westerly, RI.

SOURCE: Babcock, Stephen, BABCOCK GENEALOGY, 1903, pp 1-6, plus Introduction.

Note on name: I have never seen this in writing, but I remember well my father telling me that he believed the derivation of the name Badcock, came from an individual or family who raised fighting cocks, back in the days when cock fighting was a common and popular "entertainment". My father speculated that he supposed this unknown ancestor may have achieved distinction (or noteriety!) for owning, or having raised a particularly "bad" (read "successful") fighting cock. Whether there is anything to this explanation of the name, I don't know -- though it contains a certain logic.

It should also be noted that the Babcock Coat of Arms, pictured in the Babcock Genealogy (see above) features a cock's head as the crest, as well as three more cocks on the shield. So the association of the name with that of someone associated with raising cocks is lent some credance.

The name may be of Saxon origin. The Babcock Genealogy refers to an "assertion" made in American Family Antiquity, vol. iii, p.199, that the Badcock family was founded in 449 A.D. by a Saxon warrior "in the ranks of Hengist and Horsa" who came with a Saxon army to fight the Picts and Scots, but this is nowhere else substantiated that I know of. The author of the Genealogy states that the name is "numerous" in England, being found in Cornwall, Devonshire, Lincolnshire, Middlesex and especially in Essex. He refers to a narrative written by a Sir William Seager who said that he visited in Essex County (in 1612) a Sir Richard Badcock who was the 19th in descent from the first holder of the family mansion there.

If this narrative is true, this would take the family back to about the time of the Norman Conquest in the 11th Century. Conjecture leads to the possibility that a Saxon family of that name existed earlier but was only formally recognized at that time. That the family existed and was well established in Essex from very early times, seems rather certain.

SOURCE: The Babcock Genealogy, 1903, "Coat of Arms and Family Origin"
-- Bryce Babcock

"James Badcock (1612-1679) (the spelling was later changed to Babcock) came with his family to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island sometime between 1638, when it was founded and 1642. He was voted an "inhabitant" of the town of Portsmouth in 1642 and was made a freeman (citizen) in 1648. He was appointed to various tasks in service to the town: he mended arms (guns), he was sent with a party to deal with the Indian leaders, and to deal with the representatives of other towns. He doled out parcels of land to those who wanted it and settled boundary disputes. A year before his death James was baptized and joined the Seventh Day Baptist church of Newport and Westerly. The Seventh Day Baptist church had been founded in this county only 6 years earlier in Newport, Rhode Island. The Seventh Day Baptist Church was related to the Sabbaterian Church in England."

SOURCE: From a paper entitled "A Bristol-Babcock-Weeks Family History" written by a descendant, Christine Salem, June 6, 1989.

Children of James BADCOCK and Sarah are:

	2	i.	James² Badcock, born 1641.
+	3	ii.	John BADCOCK, born 1644 in Portsmouth, RI; died 1685 in Westerly, RI.
	4	iii.	Job Badcock, born 1646.
	5	iv.	Mary Badcock, born 1648.

Children of James BADCOCK and Elizabeth are:

6	i.	Nathaniel² Badcock, died January 02, 1718/19.
7	ii.	Elizabeth Badcock.
8	iii.	Joseph Badcock, born 1670.

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