William Wilcoxson

Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England

Stratford, Fairfield Co., CT

General Notes

The first specific allusion to William Wilcoxson in either English or American records, is to be found in Hotten's "Original Lists of persons emigrating to America prior to 1700". There we find that William Wilcoxson, age 34, together with his wife Margaret, age 24, and their infant son John, age 2, sailed from London on the ship, Planter, April 5, 1635. Besides the Wilcoxson family, the Planter's list included the families of John Tuthill, Thomas Olney, George Giddings and William Beardsley, as well as several single persons, including Richard and Charles Harvey, William Felloe, Thomas Savage, Michael Willinson, Francis Peabody, Francis Baker, Thomas Greene and a few others. The vessel arrived at Boston, May 26th of the same year and we have the word of "Orcutt, "History of Stratford and Bridgeport", that his first American home was at Concord, MA. Since he appeared at Stratford, CT. in the year 1639 he could not have lived for more than four years there.

At the very beginning of its settlement, Stratford was called Pequennocke, then changed to Cupheag Plantation and then to Stratford. The earliest map of Stratford (as it was in 1639) shows seventeen families living there. This map shows William Wilcoxson's lot in the central part of the "town". On one side of it was the lot of William Beardsley and on the other that of John Peat. Across the street lived widow Elizabeth Curtis, Francis Nichols, Thomas Fairchild and Arthur Bostwick. Further down the street lived Richard Harvey, who, with William Beardsley had come over in the Planter with William Wilcoxson.

William Wilcoxson was selected to serve his town as Deputy in the Connecticut Assembly and was on intimate terms with Governors Winthrop and Bulkley.

William Wilcoxson died early in the year 1652. This we know from the fact that there is record of the inventory of his will on June 16th, 1652. Margaret remarried in 1664 to William Hayden of Windsor, CT, later removed to Killingworth (now Clinton, CT) .

The name of this line was originally Wilcoxson, but the last syllable was generally dropped about the middle of the eighteenth century.

From "Abner Wilcox & Lucy Eliza Hart Wilcox" the fact that just because the passengers of the Planter embarked with a blanket certificate from the minister of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, there is no reason to believe that William lived there. The records of the shire do not contain his name, and he was more likely from Derbyshire, the town of Biggin. If so, his father could have been the William Wilcoxson who married Anne Howdische 2/8/1575. Since William was a linen weaver, and Biggin was an area where flax was grown and woven into cloth, there is credibility to this theory.

Children:
John Wilcoxson b: Abt 1633 in England
Joseph Wilcox b: 1636 in Concord, MA
Timothy Wilcoxson b: 1637 in Stratford, Fairfield, CT
Samuel Wilcoxson b: Abt 1640 in Stratford, Bridgeport, CT
Hannah Wilcoxon b: Abt 1644 in Stratford, Fairfield, CT
Obadiah Wilcoxson b: Abt 1648 in Stratford, Fairfield, CT
Mary Wilcoxson b: 1650 in CT
Phoebe Wilcoxson b: 31 Aug 1650 in Stratford, Fairfield, CT

Click here for details of William's family with Margaret Birdseye