The Beginning Part 1

Wilcox Family

We'll start with learning a little of the Wilcox's which may give an insight into who they are. We'll start with the New England Families Genealogical and Memorial: Volume IV Author: William Richard Cutter. This is Volume IV of a four-volume set. It has records of achievements of people from England, who have set up commonwealths in New England. About 6000 names included in this record.

Bibliographic Information:
Cutter, William Richard. New England Families Genealogical and
Memorial: Volume IV. 1913. Reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc., 1996.
Wilcocks, Wilcox, from Will and Cock which signifies little. A “Wilcock” one rather obstinate. The family of Anglo-Saxon origin seated at Bury St. Edmunds, county of Suffolk, before the Norman conquest. The linage traced to 1200.
Ref: Directory of Ancestral Heads of New England Families.
Edward Wilcox, admitted inhabitant of Aquidneck, R. I., at establishment of the government there, 1638.
Ref: First Families of America Vol 2, pg. 321.
Edward Wilcox from England; at Aquidneck, R. I. 1638; one of first settlers in forming civil government.
Ref: First Families of America Vol 7, pg 275.


The George Henry Wilcox Family, by William R. Patchin.
Edward Wilcox is mentioned in Savage's Genealogical Directory. Austin's Genealogical Directory of Rhode Island gives his descendants to the third generation. The best account of this is to be found in a paper read before the Pawcatuck Valley Historical Society, by Ray Greene Huling, D. Sc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and published in a series of chapters on the “The Early Wilcox's” in the Westerly Rhode Island Sun, April 1896. For some suggestions as to a possible ancestry of the Edward see “Devon (England) Notes and Queries” for October, 1900, page 102. See also a pamphlet: The Wilcox Family, in the Westerly Rhode Island by Rev. S. P. Merill of Rochester, New York reprinted from the Narragansett Historical Register for July, 1889. See the Visitation of Leicestershire in Vol. XIII of the Harleian Society's Publications. In the New Hampshire Register, Vol. 2 pg. 32-33 is an article by J. W. Gardiner claiming that this Edward was the one who carried on the trading post at Quidnesset from 1646 to 1651 with Richard Smith, Sr., and sold out to Rodger Williams.
Ref: Edward Wilcox by Will Alonzo Wilcox.



WILCOX: An Anglo-Saxon word meaning – Obstinate.
Listed among the meanings for obstinate are: Commendable perseverance, persistence in behavior, fixed in ones purpose ir opinion and dogged determination to overcome a handicap.

The Wilcox family is of Saxon origin, and was seated at Bury St. Edmunds, county Suffolk, England, before the Norman conquest. Sir John Dugdale, in the Visitation of the Co, of Suffolk, mentioned fifteen generations of this family previous to the year 1600. This traces the lineage back to the year 1200, when the surname came into use as an inherited family name. On old records the spelling Wilcox, Wilcocks, Wilcoxon and Wilcox are used interchangeably. It is of interest to note that the names Northington and Southington were names of communities in England where the Wilcox family were prominent as peers before their migration to America. The Wilcox family had a coat-of-arms of which account is found in a number of heraldic works. From a member of the family in Connecticut was secured a reproduction of the original arms brought from England, the features of which were the mantling motto, crest, lion rampant, and demi-lion sable issuing out of the mural crown and collared with a ducal crown. The ducal crown indicates the relation of the person to the crown who bore the arms, that of a duke, and the highest next to a prince or sovereign, and usually a son or brother or near relation of the sovereign (pictured above). The significance of the lion rampant is that the person bearing the arms had, as general of the army of England, won great victories and honor to the crown. The motto, Fidux et audax, means faithful and true, or faithful and bold. The supporters here shown are the same as used by the Earls of Norfolk, a branch of the family, and recognizable in the fact that the family were seated in Northington, Connecticut, a place of the same name as in England. Northington is a community in Norfolk, England. the history of which is the most rich in antiquity as connected with the progress of Anglican civilization, and at one time nearly all of the eastern part of England was governed or controlled as one province by this same family. A branch of the family were dukes of Suffolk directly south of Suffolk, but political changes caused them to be submerged, and only ancient history discloses these facts.




He was encouraged to go to the meeting that he now set in, and he was captivated by what this man was speaking about.



The speaker enthralled his audience with the Gospel John. And what burned in Edwards heart was "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." "¶He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." These verses haunted him.



Edward Wilcox became a Christian. Edward studied that Bible faithfully for several years becoming a faithful servant of God, started to follow the ways of Puritans.



Puritans, by definition, were dissatisfied with the limited extent of the English Reformation, and the Church of England's tolerance of practices which they associated with the Catholic Church.



Puritans believed that men had the right of free speech, the right to assembly, the right to worship, and the right to protect one's property and family.



Finding these things difficult to do in England; Edward decided to migrate to the new world.



Edward looked back to the shores of England, as he sailed to the new world, the words at his first meeting came back to his mind.



He was thrilled yet apprehensive going to the new world with his new wife Susan (Susan Thompson).



About year 1630 Edward and Susan landed on the shores of the new world and settled at Narragansett, Rhode Island.