Cocke Family Papers, 1725-1939

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The papers of the Cocke family of Fluvanna County, Virginia, and related Barraud family, Faulcon family, and other families, consist of ca. 25,000 items, (194 Hollinger boxes, ca. 64.5 linear shelf feet), 1725- 1939, and contains correspondence, legal and financial papers, diaries of John Hartwell Cocke, Louisa Maxwell Holmes Cocke, and Lucy Cocke, minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University ofVirginia, diagrams and sketches concerning the University, bound volumes, sketches and drawings, college and school notes, poetry, orations and speeches, essays, genealogy, and lists pertaining to agriculture, music and other subjects.

Major topics covered by the collection include: the development of agriculture in Virginia, merino sheep, horse breeding and purchases, slavery, the American Colonization Society, temperance movement, other religious and reform groups, book dealers, religion, the War of 1812, the Civil War, public education (including the Bremo Seminary), the founding and development of the University of Virginia and public improvements. The bulk of the papers were generated by General John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866) and his immediate descendants.

Biographical / historical:

John Hartwell Cocke was born in 1780 in the Tidewater county of Surry, the son of John Hartwell and Elizabeth (Kennon) Cocke. By the age of twenty-one, Cocke was the master of over 5,500 acres of land in Surry and Fluvanna counties. A few years after Cocke married Anne Blaws Barraud ("Nancy") of Norfolk, Virginia in 1802, he sold his Surry County holdings and moved to a frame dwelling at Bremo Recess, Fluvanna County, and began work on a finer home, "Bremo." He owned three large plantations along the James River, Bremo Recess, Upper Bremo, and Lower Bremo, each containing over a thousand acres of land. During the War of 1812, Cocke served in the Virginia militia, rising from captain to brigadier general in eighteen months. His first wife, Anne Blaws Barraud Cocke (1785-1816) did not live to see the completion of "Bremo" in 1820, but Cocke and his second wife, Louisa Maxwell Holmes (m. 1821), lived there until their deaths.

Other milestones in the life of John Hartwell Cocke include his elections as Vice-President of the Virginia Temperance Society in 1830 and as President in 1834; his election as President of the United States Temperance Union in 1836; his membership on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors from its inception as Central College in 1819 until 1852; membership on the Virginia Board of Public Works, 1823-1829; his primary role in the founding of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle in 1817; and service on the James River and Kanawha Canal Company Board of Directors. John Hartwell Cocke was greatly troubled by the issue of slavery, and he concentrated his time and money in promoting the American Colonization Society, and preparing his slaves for gradual emancipation through vocational training and teaching them to read and write.

Acquisition information:
The collection of Cocke family papers grouped under the number #640, etc. is comprised of several different collections of papers that were formerly on loan to the University of Virginia Library, including: #640, #1335, #1431, #1480, #2890, #3604, # 5213, #5680, #6418, and #2433 (except -a, -f, -g, -h, -k, -m, and -p). On April 5 and November 10, 1979, accessions #640, #1335, #1480, #2433, #2890, #5680, and #6418 were purchased by the University of Virginia Library from John Page Elliott of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Joseph F. Johnston, Trustee of The Bremo Trust, of Birmingham, Alabama. Accession #1431 was purchased by the University of Virginia Library from Mrs. Raymond Orf, "Bremo Recess," Bremo Bluff, Fluvanna County, Virginia, on July 25, 1972. Accession #3604 was given to the Library on November 14, 1950, by Mr. William Cabell Moore, Washington, D.C. and #5213 was given to the Library on April 4, 1956, by Richard C. Marshall, Washington, D.C.
Arrangement:

The various Cocke collections that are owned by the University (gifts and purchases) have been interfiled chronologically in one series and designated as #640, etc. Correspondence, legal and financial papers, speeches, and other types of material are grouped together with material of the same date range in the same boxes. Most of the correspondence is single-foldered, with the correspondents identified in the folder listing and in the Cocke sliplist located in Special Collections.

The collection includes: Correspondence and other material in order by date(s): Boxes 1-178; Undated Correspondence: Boxes 179-181; 3) Undated Miscellaneous Papers re agriculture, architecture, inventions, public improvements, medicine and illness, military papers, slavery and abolition, temperance, and the University of Virginia: Boxes 182-187; 4) Bound Volumes: Boxes 188-191; 5) Diaries of Louisa Maxwell Holmes Cocke: Boxes 192-194 (on microfilm M-1676-1678); 6) Oversize Material: 3 boxes.

Excluded from this series are the following Cocke collections, which remain on deposit: PHILIP ST. GEORGE COCKE PAPERS: #2433-a (reaccessioned as part of #2433-m), #2433-f, #2433-g, #2433-h, #2433-k (withdrawn; no copies retained), #2433-m (withdrawn; copies retained), #2433-p (withdrawn; copies retained). JOHN HARTWELL COCKE PAPERS: #5685, #5685-a.

Physical description:
This collection consists of ca. 25,000 items.