Name: John Cooley
   Born: by 1740
  Place: prob England
   Died: possibly 1811
  Place: prob Casey County, KY
 Buried: 
Y-Haplo: R1a-YP4491
Married: 
  Place: poss Caroline County, VA

Distribution of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1a-YP355

Current YP355 Tree

My genealogical research — and search for my Cooley roots — began in the late 1970s. This webpage went live in 1994 but remained essentially blank until the spring of 2006 when I began corresponding with Sandra Stanton and her cousin, Don Cooley (descendants of James Cooley, 1772-1821). During this time, some longstanding myths have been dispelled — and perhaps a few others created — but we're confident we've made a breakthrough in identifying John Cooley of Stokes County, North Carolina. Any help with finding additional documentation, including data that disputes any of the following, will be welcomed.

John was likely born about 1738, very possibly in England. He might have been the John Cooley who was transported as a prisoner during July 1753 from London to Virginia on the sometimes slave ship the Tryal. Y-DNA matches led me to a man of the right age in a Cowley family in Derbyshire that appears to have disappeared from the record about the same time — in the early 1750s. But there's no certainty about any of that. For now, we merely have one or two working theories.

John's wife's name is not known but she was not the commonly cited Elizabeth Fermin. But John relocated the family to Town Fork Settlement — then a part of Rowan County, North Carolina — perhaps as early as the late 1750s or early- to mid-1760s. But later census data suggests the move occurred about 1768.

A brief story about a community

From Pay Roll of Capt. Robert Spotswood's Company, 16 Oct 1755:

Richard Goode		11 Sep 1755		20 days
John Cooley		11 Sep 1755		20 days

Although John isn't listed, the July 13, 1756 roll for Spotswood's company makes it clear that the September 11 enlistment occurred at Caroline County, Virginia. The Goodes were long-time plantation owners in the area. This is significant because both Richard Goode and John Cooley eventually moved to Town Fork Settlement, Rowan County, North Carolina (which became Surry County, later Stokes) and often show together on the same land records.

The two men remained associates for fifty years. But it wasn't just them. Several families moved from Caroline County to Town Fork Settlement at about the same time. In addition to the Cooleys and Goodes, the emigration included the Hams, Blackburns, Halberts, Beasleys and Cooks, possibly not at all once, but certainly within a narrow timeframe.

The names shown in blue are known to have lived in both places.

Click for full image

Intermarriages didn't make the community, of course. That was already established. It was the associations within in the community that encouraged the marriages.

Martha Halbert and her husband, Robert Hill, left Caroline County for Town Fork with Robert's father, William Hill Sr. Martha's sister, Hannah Halbert, married Robert Hill's brother, William Hill Jr, a Baptist minister. In fact, religion might have prompted the move. Virginia was a hotbed of anabaptist activity during the late eighteenth century, particularly in Spotsylvania County, which neighbors Caroline County. It was there that Baptist pastors John Waller, Lewis Craig, and James Childs were jailed in 1768, just about the time the Cooleys left. Christian historian Gerald Harris writes,

Court records in Virginia indicate that in the eighteenth century Baptist preachers who were men of deep conviction were sometimes "pelted with apples and stones," "dragged off the stage," "kicked and cuffed about," "shot with a shot-gun," "severely beaten with a whip," and "had their hands slashed while preaching."¹⁰

The western region of North Carolina was still frontier, a great place for harassed Virginians to establish new homes. And such moves often started a chain migration that lasted for several generations — the Goodes and Cooleys to what later became Casey County, Kentucky, for example.

John Cooley and Richard Goode's son-in-law, Methodist preacher William Jean, along with Jean's father, Edmond Jean (married to Martha Beasley, as above), bought land in the Town Fork region upon which Love's Methodist Church was built. In 1811, after John's son Edward Cooley moved his family to Washington County, Indiana, a new church was built on his land, along with the Cooley Meeting House, which included the cemetery in which Edward and his wife, Martha Raper, are buried. The Methodists valued humanitarianism and championed abolition. It's interesting to note that John Cooley never owned slaves and that a major branch of the Underground Railroad traveled from Kentucky and through Washington County. A "station" was operated in New Salem, near the Cooley homestead. To be sure, it would be dangerous to make too great an inference from this. I will not claim that Edward Cooley was a full-throated Abolisionist. Such associations, after all, tend to tell us more about the community rather than the indvidual.

To further highlight the longtime Cooley-Goode association, John Goode's Casey County, Kentucky will of 1800 provides further evidence of it. Again, no direct relationship is stated, but the lingering association is clear.

John Cooley Jr remained in Casey County until his death, presumed to be about 1840. William Matthews Cooley and his brother Cornelius left for Tennessee in 1811 and at about the same time their brother, Edward, went to Indiana. That same year the middle brothers, Joseph, Perrin, and James, traveled to Missouri. This scattering of the family was undoubtedly due to their fathers' death during that year.

Apart from the low number of blue bloods in America at the time, middle names gained popularity after the Revolution. Children were often named for the Founders, say George Washington Browne or Thomas Jefferson Smythe. This quickly began to include well-known men in the community, relatives, in-laws, and family friends. But caution must be taken when making assumptions about a name's origin. Just as it has been assumed that William Matthews Cooley's mother was born a Matthews (I have no real explanation for that), it has also been assumed that Timothy Goode Cooley was taken from his mother's maiden name, even from his maternal grandfather. Although the Goode family tree is relatively well drawn, no one fits as James's wife. It's more likely, until proven otherwise, that the boy was named after a friend of his father's, John Goode's son Timothy.

The point here being that we can make association upon association without proving anything, let alone a marriage. Documentation is always needed — banns of marriage, wills, or other contemporaneous records that clearly state the facts. In the meantime, it's okay to speculate, but only when the matter is made clear.

An aside: According to Hill family legend, the elder William Hill was later a delegate to the Continental Association from North Carolina and signed the Petition to the King in 1774. In fact, the truth is a bit more prosaic. He was sent to 3rd Provincial Congress of North Carolina at Hillsborough as one of five delegates from Surry County. In August 1775, he signed a resolution supporting the Continental Congress's efforts and to "testify and declare that we do absolutely believe that neither the Parliament of Great Britain, nor any Member or Constituent Branch thereof, have a right to impose Taxes upon these Colonies."⁹ To be sure, these were courageous acts for the time but do not elevate Hill to national prominence. The point being that this is a clear example of yet another error made by inexperienced researchers — letting an old family story stray well outside the facts.

John Cooley's Family

No known authentic record exists for John Cooley's family. No will or other estate records have been found and only James and Reuben are named as sons on land records. Two deeds are known to exist between John and Edward, but no relationship is stated. Several other records name John Cooley, John Cooley Jr, William Matthews Cooley, Edward Cooley, and Hannah Cooley, in various combinations, as witnesses. These and other Cooleys, particularly Joseph and Perrin, are found living near one another on Stokes County census records. And there are suggestions — although I have not seen the records — that the marriage banns for Hannah and Elizabeth name John Cooley as their father.

The following closely conforms to a family group sheet by Dale "Pat" Walker (1946-1993), an end-product of his research during the 1970s and '80s. I have seen no similar sheet by anyone dated prior to it. The assumption, then, is that Dale was the first researcher to perceive these individuals as a cohesive family unit. Apart from his error in connecting John to a New York Dutch family—and sundry other far more insignificant mistakes—recent research has shown that Dale was remarkably successful in reconstructing John's family.

Based on the evidence at hand, the birth order differs somewhat from Dale's chart, and the name Benjamin is eliminated as a possible alternate name for Cornelius; there is no evidence for it.¹ Some names are here simply because Dale had placed them on his chart. Although Cornelius and Elizabeth were born late enough to have been John's grandchildren, Dale was likely correct in their placement. Certainly, there is no contradictory evidence. Recently discovered genealogic and genetic evidence suggests William Matthews Cooley was also John's son. Not noted here is Edmond Cooley, believed to have been born in North Carolina in 1773. He is an exact Y-DNA match to John's family. I think it's a near certainty that he belongs with this family. (See my note for Rice, below.)

William Matthews Cooley	c1759-1823	Founder of the Stewart County TN Cooleys. DNA test results prove that William was of the Stokes County Cooleys. Although the genealogic/historic record also infers he was of this family, nothing has yet been found that specifically states he was John's son.
John Cooley	1761-1840+	Founder of the Casey County KY Cooleys. Married Sarah Willis. The 1880 Casey County KY census for his son Edmund states that he (John, the father) was born in Virginia.
Edward Cooley	1763-1822	Possibly born in VA. Gravestone states that he was 59 at death on 21 Nov 1822. That places his birth in late 1762 or 1763, likely the latter. He married Martha Raper and moved his family to Indiana. He is named in two deeds with John but the relationship isn't stated. Proof of descent is found in Y chromosomal tests and more.
Daniel Cooley	1765-1826	Possibly born in VA. The 1810 census for Lincoln County KY states that he was 26-45. That puts his birth year no earlier than 1765. He died 6 Sep 1826 at Ray County, MO. Married Mildred Ball, 19 Jan 1786 in Lincoln County, KY. He joined his brothers in Missouri a few years before his death. Note that recent DNA test results prove that Daniel was not of this family.
Joseph Cooley	1767-1826	A 1932 letter by John Pierce Cooley (Joseph's grandson) states that Joseph was born in Virginia. He married Kaziah Casey 1807 Lincoln County KY. He was present at Fort Hempstead, Howard County, MO and died in Clay County MO, 3 April 1826. Many of his family were early settlers in Oregon. Another branch went to Texas. Proof of Joseph's descent is found in Y chromosomal tests, the common surname and in genealogical records that associate the families.
Perrin Cooley	1769-c1840	Possibly born in Rowan (now Stokes) County, NC. However, there is no evidence that the family had yet moved to NC. He was likely born in VA. He appears on the 1810 Washington County KY census as well as land and tax records there. He was a Methodist minister. Perrin left for Missouri in 1811 with two brothers and was present at Fort Hempstead, Howard County, MO. He was the progenitor of the Randolph County Missouri Cooleys.
James Cooley	1772-1821	Born 12 Jun 1772. Died 1 Oct 1821. He married c1795 to Elizabeth, probably in NC. (She's often referred to as a daughter of Timothy Goode, cousin of Richard Goode, and sometimes as Richard's daughter. However, there is no evidence that she was even a Goode. See Goode Family) Proof of James's descent is found in deed John Cooley to James Cooley and further substantiated by Y chromosomal tests (see below). He was present at Fort Hempstead, Howard County MO.
Rice Cooley	c1774-	The only known record for Rice Cooley is his appearance on the 1800 Stokes County census. It lists only one person for his household, a male, 16-26. Pat Walker wrote that Rice was born in 1776. However, the census entry would suggest that he was born in 1774 or earlier. That a descendant of Edmond Cooley (1773-1851) is an exact 37/37 marker genetic match to John's family makes this researcher wonder if Edmond and Rice were the same person. It would explain why another record for Rice has never been uncovered. Essentially, Rice disappears in the record after 1800 and Edmond appears by 1805. It is likely that Edmond and his wife, Charlotte Speace, were married in North Carolina in 1804 or 1805.
Hannah Cooley	1774-1830+	Born in Surry County, NC before it became Stokes County. A Hannah Cooley is listed as witness to a deed along with John and John Cooley Jr (Bk E p 229, 11 Aug 1792, Richard Goode to Reuben Sparks). She married Luke Burnett three years later on 23 Dec 1795. The couple was in Spartanburg SC by some years before her presumed brother, Edmond, is first found there. It's worth noting that her niece, Joanna Cooley (daughter of Edward), is referred to as "Hanah" in a family bible record. Click on Hannah's name in the left column for my notes. More information has lately (summer 2012) been found.
Reuben Cooley	1779-1859	Reuben married first Polly Harris and married second Elizabeth Followell. Proof of relationship to John is found in the 1804 deed John Cooley to Reuben Cooley. This is the Reuben Cooley of Marion County, KY who appears on the 1850 census. He's not the Reuben of Jessamine County who died in 1795, as some suggest, because John's Reuben was still alive in 1804. (The deed serves as the perfect testimony to this fact.) The Reuben of Marion County is also sometimes said to have been the son of Edward, therefore, John's grandson. However, the Reuben Cooley found in Bartholomew County IN, 1850, has been proved as Edward's son.
Cornelius Cooley	1781-1815	His presence here is based exclusively on Dale Walker's chart. He did not marry Dolly White, as often stated. His nephew, Cornelius (son of James), married her. (We now know that she was Dolly/Dorothy Cooley, a cousin.) He is likely the Cornelius who appears on the 1808 and 1810 tax lists for Casey co KY and is probably the same Cornelius found in Stewart County TN by 1812,2 and was married to Lucinda Cherry. The TN Cornelius died 1815 in the aftermath of the Battle of New Orleans. He had a daughter, Burnetta Mathews Cooley, and possibly a son named William. He may have gone to TN to be near William who, if the birth years are correct, was old enough to have been his father.
Elizabeth Cooley	1783-	Married William Blackburn 19 Sep 1805 in Stokes County NC (Stokes County North Carolina Marriages Bonds). A William Blackburn can be found on the 1810 census for Casey County, KY (1 male 26-44, 3 females under 10, 1 female 26-44). It's not known if he's the same man. He may have been the son of Newman Blackburn and grandson of Ambrose Blackburn. As I suspect is true for the Cooleys, the Blackburns came to Town Fork Settlement NC from Caroline County VA.
Girl Cooley	1794+	I believe I'm the first to suggest there may have been a third daughter. There was a girl under 10 living with John and his wife on the 1800 census and a young woman aged 16-25 on the 1810. If it's the same person, she would have been born between 1794 and 1800. Naturally, she might have been a granddaughter or even of no direct relationship at all. Nevertheless, her presence in the household is worth noting.

John Cooley was not Dutch

Thanks to Dale Walker's decades-old family group sheet, it is commonly believed that John Cooley was a son of Lambert (sometimes William) Cornelius Cooley. That man might well have had a son named John but all evidence for our John's origins points elsewhere. And in more than forty years years of searching, I have never come across even a crumb of real evidence suggesting a Dutch ancestry. It is my belief that zero evidence should be sufficient cause to end the propagation of something that can only be regarded as having a spurious origin.

In fact, DNA has long ago proved that our Cooleys are not of the "Dutch" Cooleys, real or imagined. The source of this myth, Lura Coolley Hamil's book, has been thoroughly discredited. All male descendants of the same man would have matching Y chromosome, but there are at least seven mismatching Y's. Indeed, the Dutch Kools (etc.) match none of them. Elizabeth Cooley, once the genealogist for the Cooley Family Association of America, once wrote, "Mrs. Hamil went about grabbing up anything she felt might go together, has mixed up many different Cooley families, etc." (More below.)

DNA testing itself has come a long way over the last decade. By about 2010, test results determined only that our brand of Cooleys came from a population that lived in Norway about 4,000 years ago. We knew that much because each of us tested positive for a mutation known as L448, or "The Young Scandinavian" SNP mutation, itself a mutation from the major haplogroup R1a1. As soon as the "Big Y" come along — which tests more than ten million locations on the Y chromosome — previously unknown mutations were quickly discovered. The YP355 mutation, which occurred with the birth of an L448 descendant, was discovered at the beginning of 2014 and is believed to be a little more than 2,000 years old. Our presently known mutation descent from L448, each mutation having occurred in an individual, is as follows:

[R1a] ---> L448 -> YP355 -> YP609 -> FT7019 -> YP4252 -> FT33200 -> YP4248 -> YP4254 -> YP4491

We can clearly see from this map that the R1a haplogroup is heavily concentrated in East Central Europe. And we can see from the map at top (which is several years old) that YP355 testers, descendants of R1a, are concentrated in Norway and the British Isles. We don't yet know at what point the SNP lineage becomes concentrated in Britain. Clearly, YP4491 does have its origins somewhere in the Isles.

Each mutation, or single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), occurred with the birth of a specific man. (There is an undetermined number of generations between each SNP.) These mutations would be replaced with full names and births if they'd only been recorded! We do know that the birth of "YP4491" was roughly contemporaneous to John Cooley and his immediate Cooley forebears. And the situation is somewhat complicated by the fact the descendants of William Whitfield (1751-1835) exhibit the same markers that John had.

YP4248 was discovered in a tester descended from John Hackett (1746-1808) of Derbyshire, a contemporary of John Cooley. A search of Derbyshire records reveals an insignificant number of Cooleys but a large population of Cowleys (which, I understand, was pronounced Cooley by the poet Abraham Cowley). Among them is a John Cowley, christened on 19 May 1738. He was the son of William Cowley and Mary Whitacre.

The Cooley/Hackett connection probably goes back as far as the year 1250. That the two families still lived near one another five hundred years later is a long-shot, as is the notion that our John Cooley is John Cowley. In the meantime, I'll maintain the above link until we can establish either yea or nay.

Several families have been shown to be of YP4248, including Cochran. Although the lineage's accuracy is yet to be determined, it's interesting to note that the family originated in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Legend informs us that the Cochrans descended from a Norwegian settler; others say possibly from a Norman. (See Norse, yes; but is it Viking or Norman? for more information.)

This page, as outdated as it now is, provides a more detailed explanation of SNPs and our presently-known SNP lineage. And here is the Y-SNP trail as provided by SNP Tracker:

I wouldn't place money on its accuracy. I mean, our Cooleys do have the YP355 SNP, but I doubt the man first born with it was born in the middle of the North Sea -- and certainly he was born long after Doggerland went under 8500 years ago. The subsequent markers probably came into play further north than of what's indicated above.

I'm not certain how the erroneous Dutch connection was started but Lura Coolley Hamil certainly had something to do with it. See her 1932 letter to Mildred Tallant and my comments. Also, the July 31, 1977 letter from Elizabeth Cooley, genealogist for the Cooley Family Association of America, does much to dispel Hamil's work as do some of Eleanor Rue's papers. And I've made additional comment about Hamil's errors in The Vanishing Man.

The case for being English

Although geneticists do their thing with science, genealogists, much like historians, need the literature that records the events in the lives of their subjects in order to place them in specific locations and on specific dates. Find persons named in such a record and you know something about their origins. But helpful records are, more often than not, very difficult to find. Genealogists must rely on clues buried in the sparse data that is available — and sometimes in the tall tales told among family members — and make associations that may or may not be true. Without these inferences, the researcher has literally no clue and no real direction in which to proceed. Speculation is essential and, as any scientist will tell you, good speculation can lead to evidence that might one day elevate to the status of hypothesis. Once you've got something strong, you're on solid theoretical ground. A scientific proof (the next and final stage in the game), however, not only presents excellent evidence, it is universally-recognized as simply having no reasonable evidence that points to another conclusion.

Scientific proofs are not found within in the realm of genealogy itself. But genetics has shown us that John's origins are probably in the British Isles. Let's see if we can put some tid-bits together and approach a hypothesis — one, of course, that is readily open, or perhaps even vulnerable, to a serious challenge — John Cooley was from England.

However, it seems that some of the above statements are not strictly true, yet another indication how family stories can mutate, even a generation or two later. We know from the 1850 census, for example, that Reuben Cooley was born in North Carolina, not in England. Likewise, the 1880 census entry for Edmond, a son of John (2), states that his father was born in Virginia, and a letter written by John Pearce Cooley, Joseph's grandson, says that he, too, was born in Virginia. Not noted above is a note written to my father by his aunt Vernal Shelton, telling him that "[he] came from England in early part of 18 century." But she said that about John's son Edward, which was decidedly not the case as he was not yet born.

How could the English tradition be documented down four distinct lineages and yet the specifics be wrong? I know from personal experience that it can happen. I used to think my paternal grandmother was born in France, but I now know that she was born in Connecticut and that her father immigrated from France. If it hadn't been for my interest in genealogy, I might still be propagating misinformation — more than a century after her birth.

Genetic genealogists spend a lot of time looking at Short Tandem Repeats (STRs). Unlike other genetic markers, these are fluid. The values can go back and forth over a relatively small number of generations. What matters isn't so much the specific mutations but the trend. We see a very strong trend in the above statements, one that tells us that John came from England. With that in mind, we can triangulate all of these traditions back to the senior John. It makes sense — many, if not most, Cooley immigrants to the American colonies in the 17th and 18th century were from England, as shown in the following.

Immigrant	Date Imm.	First Settled	Sources/Notes
Benjamin Cooley	1643, England	Massachusetts	The Cooley Family Association of America [link]
Tho Cooly	1662	Virginia	Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666, Nell Marion Nugent.
John Cooley	ca 1665, England	New York?	Directory of Persons in New Netherlands from 1613 to 1674 vol IV. It doesn't list a source for this entry. Therefore, I'm suspicious.
Richard Cooley	1674	Maryland	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Skordas (1979). On page 105: Cooley, Richard, book 18 page 84, transported 1674. References are "compiled from records of land patents, 1633-1680, in the Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland."
Roger Cooly	1693	Virginia	Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666, Nell Marion Nugent.
John Cooley	1723	Virginia	Transported on the Forward, Captain Daniel Russell, Oct 1723. Source: The King's Passengers to Maryland and Virginia, Peter Wilson Coldham.
James Colley	1729, England	Maryland	Virtual Jamestown [link]. From St. Giles in the Fields, Middlesex. Indentured February 14 1729 for 4 years. Age 20.
Richard Cooley	1743, England	Virginia	This may not be the man found at Old Bailey Online [link]. He was sentenced to death. Bonded Passengers To America vol 4 pg 35, by Peter Wilson Coldham. Richard Cooley, transported Apr 1743 on the Justitia (Barnet Baird, master) from London to Virginia with a total of 132 convicts. Richard's age is given as 14, making him born c1729. Ref #T53/41/227.
John Cooley	1746, England	Maryland	Old Bailey Online [link]. If our John Cooley was born as early as the 1730s this man could have been about the right age.
John Cooley	1746, England	Virginia	Transported on the Laura, Capt William Gracie, April 1746. Source: The King's Passengers to Maryland and Virginia, Peter Wilson Coldham.
Robert Cooley	1751, England	Virginia	Bonded Passengers To America vol 4 pg 117, by Peter Wilson Coldham. Robert Cooley transported Sep 1751 on the Greyhound (William Gracie, master) from from London to Virginia with a total of 153 felons. Ref #: T1/349/1, T53/44/243
Thomas Cooling/Cooley	1751, England	Maryland	Bonded Passengers To America vol 4 pg 18, by Peter Wilson Coldham. Thomas Cooling (indexed in Filby as Cooley) transported May 1751 on the Tryal (John Johnston, master) from London to Maryland. T1/346/24
John Cooley	1753, England	Virginia	Old Bailey Online [link]. Among the records discovered to date, we believe that this John Cooley is the most likely to have been our ancestor.
James Cooley	1755, England	Maryland	English Convicts in Colonial America 1617-1775 vol 2 pg 62, by Peter W. Coldham. James Cooley departed Feb 1755, arrived Apr 1755 on the Greyhound (Alexander Stewart, master) from Bristol to Maryland with a total of 78 convicts. Ref #:T53/45/117, C05/750
James Cooley	1755, England	Maryland	Transported on the Rose, Capt Thomas Slade. Source: The King's Passengers to Maryland and Virginia by Peter W. Coldham.
Margaret Cooley	1755, England	Unknown	Old Bailey Online [link].
John Cooley	1756, England	Virginia	English Convicts in Colonial America 1617-1775 vol 2, by Peter W. Coldham. He was sentenced in Worcestershire (near Birmingham) and transported Oct 1756 on the ship Barnard, Captain Phillip Weatherall, from London to Virginia. There were 114 convicts on board. Ref #T53/45/575.
John Cooley	1774, England	Maryland?	Old Bailey Online [ link]. Possibly the same listed as "runaway" transported on the Thornton, Capt John Kidd, May 1774. Could he be the John Cooley who was advertised in the Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), 21 April 1775 as being one of the "seven English servant men" who were "living near Bush River, Harford County, Maryland?" (The former link for this is defunct.) "John Cooley, about 22 years of age, by trade a plaisterer, about five feet eight inches high, round faced, and well set."
Peter Cooley	1774, England	Virginia	"The following indentured servants bound for four years to go from London to Virginia by the Planter, Mr. David Bowers... Peter Cooley of London, weaver, aged 38; Peter Cooley Jr. of London, weaver, aged 18; John Cooley of London, weaver, aged 16; Joseph Cooley of London, weaver, aged 12." The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776, Sec V, Ch 25, 1774, p. 44.
William Cooley	1774, London	Maryland	From Irish Emigrants to North America: "Cooley, William, born 1753, a founder in Dublin, emigrated from London to Maryland on the Rebecca as an indentured servant. 9.1774. [PRO.T47/9-11]". The full passenger list is found in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register by Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, volume 64, page 113. Current speculation is that he is the William who married Elizabeth Firmin.

I've already mentioned the John Cooley who was transported to Virginia in 1753. We know that our John Cooley was in Caroline County, Virginia two years later. We also know that Port Royal in Caroline County was a busy port during this time and that the Tryal arrived in Virginia on many occasions, stopping in several ports to drop off slaves. Could it have stopped in Port Royal with its cargo of servants in 1753, thereby explaining our John's presence in the county two years later? Certainly, it's possible, but we lack any proof of it.

In the meantime, other possibilities for John's origins need to be explored:

Was John Cooley Scottish?

DNA tells us that our Cooley forebears were not only of Scottish heritage but that they may have been distantly related to (not descended from) the great 12th century Scottish chieftain Somerled, the founder of clan MacDonald.³

The claim of Scottish descent becomes a bit more interesting after hearing the story of Charles Cooley, a cousin through Edward and Martha (Raper) Cooley's grandson, James Armstrong Cooley. Charles's father is buried with a small of piece of tartan that had been passed down from one generation to the next. He told his family stories about the kirkings that had taken place in Putnam County, Missouri and that the ancient Cooleys were Jacobites, the older brothers having been executed and the younger ones transported to America. Although Charles is unable to provide a time frame for this immigration, the shipping to America of 936 Jacobites following the 1746 Battle of Culloden Moor⁴ would have been contemporaneous to the child version of John Cooley.⁴

In January 2018, I received an email from David Cooley, a descendant of Edmond Cooley (and Charlotte Speace), a genetic match and a probable son of John Cooley's. He writes, "I was told family stories about us being involved in a fight in Scotland and killing some high ranking people and were criminals and had to flee to America." It's not, of course, the same story, but it's close enough to add credence to Charles's version. And there are other factors that can be considered.

Inspired by the prospect that the Cooleys may have been involved with the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, I researched and wrote a college paper, American Memories of Culloden Moor, about Bonnie Prince Charlie's arrival on the Scottish coastline with a small army from France. His goal was to install his father, James Stuart the Old Pretender, and the Stuart lineage back onto the English throne. Charlie's ranks swelled as the army marched southward toward England. They battled to within one hundred miles of London where the Prince's council successfully argued for a strategic retreat back to Scotland. It proved fatal. "Bloody" Cumberland, the son of King George II, met the Scottish army at Culloden Moor, defeated them, slaughtered those left on the battlefield, pursued the survivors through Scottish villages, and arrested ordinary townspeople, as well as children, and sent them to London for trial, conviction, hanging them in many instances, or transporting them to America.

When I wrote the paper in 2011 (as it happens, the 200th anniversary of John Cooley's death), I didn't pay much attention to the fact that Bonnie Charles turned back toward Scotland at Derby. And what I didn't know at all is that a man named John Hackett was born in Derbyshire in 1746, and that his cells contained a Y-DNA mutation now known as YP4253, a mutation found in all male Cooley descendants of John Cooley. Now, this is particularly circumstantial evidence, especially considering that the mutation is judged to be 800-900 years old. Nevertheless, the Hacketts and Cooleys were related.

To date, none of these claims have been substantiated. It is worth noting, however, that in 1755 John Cooley served in Captain Spotswood's company with John MacDonald, whose father Alexander is believed to have been at Culloden Moor. And I find it interesting that one Alexander MacDonald and one John Cooley were transported as prisoners together in 1753 on The Tryal. However, John MacDonald's father, who was associated with the Spotswood family, was transported in 1747 on the Gildart.

The name Cooley itself doesn't appear to be Scottish. But research suggests that the largest concentration of Cooleys is to be found in the North of England, just below the Scottish border.

Are we reading too much history into what may be no more than coincidence and even fantasy? Possibly. Whatever the truth turns out to be, this is a valid line of inquiry.

Culloden Moor

The case for being a servant

Apart from the fact that John's older children were born in Virginia, the only record we have that places him there is the militia payroll. There's not much that can be said about that, but we can turn to later records for Spotswood's company to get an idea as to who he served with. One of the first things that strikes me about the July 1756 roll is the number of foreign-born recruits: 45%. This statistic alone increases the likelihood that John was also foreign born. (He had to come from somewhere, after all.) Furthermore, at least four other men of the company, particularly the 46 year-old John Pedder, may have been convicts. (The others being Thomas Douglas, John Donally and William Thomas.)

According to historian Richard Hofstadter, more than half of the immigrants to America during the mid-eighteenth century were convicts, indentured servants, or redemptioners (contracted to pay off their passage with work).⁵ It might seem odd that so-called criminals would be in His Majesty's service but, in fact, they often were. And, unlike New England, where indentured servitude was relatively scarce, Southern men of some wealth and standing could send their servants in place of themselves—and were sometimes additionally reimbursed by the crown. If John was a servant, who might have hired him out? Can clues be found in the rolls?

Captain Robert Spotswood was the son of one-time Virginia governor, Alexander Spotswood. Not surprisingly, the governor ran a large plantation populated in part with indentured servants. In fact, there are published newspaper accounts of servants running away from his estate. It was only on September 6, 1755 that Colonel George Washington, as commander of the Virginia Regiment, ordered Spotswood to recruit a company of soldiers.⁶ Two had enlisted a few days earlier and the others between the 9th and the 25th. Spotswood had only a few weeks to assemble his men and to march them to Fort Cumberland. It's possible he might have recruited from within his own domestic staff.

We also know that Richard Goode came from a planter family (and he later owned slaves in Stokes County, NC). Might he had brought John along, either as a friend or perhaps as someone having the double benefit to him as servant, along with the additional revenue from the Crown? John Sale, William Blakey and William Thorpe, all of Caroline County, may have also been of the same class.

After moving to Town Fork Settlement, Richard Goode went on to hold several positions in the local government, including the office of Sheriff. He was eventually elevated to Major during the Revolution and seemed to have garnered a good deal of respect in Stokes County. He was doubtlessly well-educated, literate and was a large property owner. John Cooley, on the other hand, was known to sign with his mark, a 'C', indicating that he was likely illiterate. He may have been the John Cooley given "poor money" in 1761 and is described in a 1772 document as being a laborer.

The John Cooley convicted in London during July 1753 was given seven years indentured servitude. That sentence would have been up in 1760 and John's first child was born in Virginia⁷ in about 1759. As it was common practice not to allow servants to marry, it can well be inferred that he married following his release. And with that scenario, and having emigrated to a new colony (North Carolina) with a young family, the community could well have found that John should receive benefit of the poor tax. (The birth places of his children suggest that he didn't move to North Carolina until about 1768. However, a John Cooley is recorded as a laborer on the Great Wagon Road, which went through Town Fork Settlement, North Carolina, Cooley's home for nearly forty years.)

So how could it be that an illiterate ex-convict banished from his homeland, released from servitude seven years later, soon to have a family, and considered indigent end up being a constable owning hundreds of acres of land?

To answer that question, we need to look at Britain. The government sought to solve two important problems by exporting its criminals. The treasury needed relief from the burden of paying out of the poor tax to a very substantial number of its population. Exiling them to colonies, even for such minor offenses as petty theft, curtailed some of that expense. And the practice helped populate the colonies with the cheap labor needed to grow the economy—the idea being that the general British population would not go voluntarily (although, of course, many did). They simply were not willing to endure the dangerous passage over the Atlantic at a time when up to half the passengers and crew could die. Even the most desperate in the country, those who might well have benefited from a new life elsewhere, were dissuaded by horror stories and preferred the certainty of their present condition, regardless of its bleakness. Transportation to the colonies, most famously to Australia after American independence, was the simple answer.

But even a nation and country that enslaved Africans for life believed that a person convicted for a crime was redeemable. Certainly, seven years (sometimes less, sometimes more) of selfless service to another, albeit forced, was adequate demonstration of his or her ability to become a productive member of society. To that end, the freed Britains were routinely given several acres of land, in some cases even cash and clothing. An enterprising young man, as John doubtlessly was, could have parlayed that into a reasonably comfortable life. Indeed, he successfully raised a large family, all of whom, so it appears, lived into adulthood.

Does a hairy coo live in a hairy coo ley?

A Scottish Hairy Coo

The name Cooley has potentially several origins. In his blog, Bill Cooley does a pretty good job of dispelling the notion that it's essentially an Irish name, showing that Cooley is found in Ireland almost exclusively as a place name rather than a surname. I had long favored the MacAuleys as possible ancestors, (from MacOlaf, the son of Olaf), which I found particularly appealing after learning that my yDNA has Norse/Scottish markers. Historically, however, Cooley has been found most often in the North of England. And there's a case to be made for the idea that names ending in ley come from the Old English word lea, meaning field. The word coo is simply the Scottish pronunciation of cow.

Frankly, since we have no idea what John Cooley's father's last name was, let alone his first name, there's no way of knowing the surname's origin among his own ancestors. But the following meaning of cooley, found at the online edition of the Oxford English dictionary, is probably not relevant as its first published usage did not occur until 1796, when John was already well-advanced in years.

cooley

rare.

Phonetic spelling of F. coulis, cullis

Broth of boiled meat.

1796 H. GLASSE Cookery v. 41 Make a rich cooley.

The alternate etymological origin of cooley (cullis) appears to have dated back to at least 1420. The OED cites this quotation:

1543 TRAHERON Vigo's Chirurg. IX. 228 If the pacient be weake..ye shall gyve hym the coleys of a yonge capon.

The point here, really, is that we're not only unlikely to find the origin of our name as first used among John's antecedents but that it's a subject that should probably not be taken too seriously.

Who was John's wife?

We know only three things about John's wife: She was likely one of the three white females on the 1790 census for John in Stokes County, NC, and probably the woman of 45 and over on the 1800 census of the same place, and the woman 45-plus on the 1810 census for Casey County KY. Even if the enumerations are for John's wife, we can't be sure they're for the same woman. In other words, it's possible he married more than once.

John's eldest known child was William Matthews Cooley. Middle names weren't common in the colonies, even among the elite classes. (After all, George Washington was plain George Washington.) But men would often make up a middle initial so as to avoid confusion with someone else in the vicinity. (The 'S' in Harry S Truman is such a fabrication.) And, as most Cooley researchers know, there was another William Cooley from the region who had been a companion to Daniel Boone in his exploration of Kentucky. But William added more than an initial. Records in North Carolina clearly refer to him as William Matthews Cooley. For an unknown reason, he chose a simple 'M' while later residing in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The claim hasn't been verified and there is no record to support it, but someone in the foggy mist of time suggested that his mother was Sarah Matthews, possibly a daughter of James Matthews Jr, a resident of Rowan County, North Carolina from about 1755. It's certainly possible, and it fits, but the claim needs at least one supporting document. It wouldn't be the first time that an amateur researcher made an assumption without clear evidence, in this case that a man named William Matthews Cooley had to have a mother born a Matthews. Still, the possibility has gained a lot of currency and is far preferable to Hamil's assignment to of Elizabeth Firmin as John's wife.

Today, the name Perrin would not commonly be given to a child as a first name (neither would Rice) but it was common practice to give one of the children their mother's maiden name. Certainly, when genealogists see a surname assigned as a given name, they've got something to think about. So, with that as a possibility, as well as the notion that John probably lived in Caroline County and that he was possibly a indentured servant, this is worth noting. Sandra Stanton found the following in Colonial Caroline, A History of Caroline County, Virginia by TE Campbell:

• Year: 1756
• Servant: Thomas Perrin
• Master: Timothy Smith
• Why in Court: Escaped for 5 days - serve according to law and 200 lbs. of tobacco fine.

Frankly, I would think that with all the sons that John Cooley had, one of them would have been named after his father-in-law. None, of course, were named Thomas. But it would also not have been uncommon to name the second son after the mother's father. That appears to have been John Jr. And let's say their first daughter was named after her maternal grandmother. It's wild and reckless speculation but it's all we have. Shall we look for an John and Hannah Perrin? How about a John and Hannah Rice? There were several similar naming conventions used in 17th and 18th century colonial America. At this point, any guess would be as good as another.

Whoever John Cooley's wife was, the family she was born into may have simply not been adequately recorded. Likewise, John Cooley's descendants may be resigned always to talk of this ancestress in the most general terms. Even so, genetic and historical research have shown that much more is yet to be learned.

William Matthews Cooley

I began following a hunch in September, 2006 that the William Matthews Cooley mentioned in Surry County, North Carolina records during the 1780s might have been the William M Cooley who died in Stewart County, Tennessee in 1823. William's presence in Tennessee during the last decades of his life is well documented but there seemed to be nothing to cover the 20 year period between 1786 and 1806. Although I could not place William in Surry County for 1786, I could, with some reliability, place him the following year in Kentucky and on land very near Reuben Cooley's residence. This Reuben was indeed a son of John Cooley of Stokes County, North Carolina. However, much has come to light recently, assuring William's place as a member of John's family. This includes the fact that William's patrilineal descendants belong to the haplogroup R1a-YP4491.

The key is Joseph Gray, father-in-law of William Cooley, who deeded property to William's son, Joel Cooley, in 1812. Earlier that year, Joseph drew up his will in Stewart County, Tennessee, leaving the land he still owned on the Rolling Fork in Washington County, Kentucky to his son, Joseph Gray Jr. That southeastern part of Washington County later became Marion County and home to Reuben Cooley (the Rubin Cooley Branch is a tributary of the Rolling Fork) and lays adjacent to what was then the Lincoln County border. The Rolling Fork flows out of that region (now Casey County, Kentucky) into present-day Marion County. This Reuben Cooley was the founder of the Marion County Cooleys. His brother, John Cooley Jr, was the progenitor of the Casey County Cooleys.

Here's William's timeline as sourced in the documentation.

1782	William Cooley and James Grey appear on a list for Captain James Downing's Company of militia in Lincoln County, Kentucky. (Joseph Gray did have a brother named James.)
1784	Joseph Gray granted 400 acres along the Rolling Fork, Jefferson County, Virginia (now Kentucky). This area was later Nelson co, later Washington co, later Marion co KY. (Kentucky Land Grants, bk 9, p357, 15 Mar 1784.)
1784	John Cooley Sr, William Matthews Cooley & John Cooley Jr app Constable of Willis Dist. 1784, 85, 86. (Surry Co Deeds, Book C p257)
c1785	Richard Cooley of Stewart County, Tennessee, son of William M Cooley, is born in North Carolina.
1785	John Douglas to John Bryson for £5, 2½ A on E side Loving Creek, middle fork of Arrarat River in sd Bryson's line, wit: Wm Matthews Cooley, John Cooley, Junr. (SCDB C:258, 8 Feb 1785; quoted in Jo White Linn, Surry County, North Carolina Will Abstracts, 1992, p. 126.)
1785	Joseph Goode to Morgan Davis, south side Dan River below mouth Flat Shoal Cr. Witnessed by John Cooley, Sr, John Cooley Jr, and William Matthews Cooley; 17 Apr 1785 (Deed Book C page 257.)
1785	Joseph Goode to Morgan Davis 30 pds 100 ac S side Dan River below mouth Flat Shoal Creek. John Cooley, Senr.; William Matthews Cooley; John Cooley, Junr.; 17 Apr 1785 (Surry County Deeds Book C, page 264; from notes received from Sandra Stanton.)
1786	Mark Hardin, Senr. Guilford County to Robert Dearing, Orange County, VA 150 pds 400 ac both sides Evans Creek adj Isaac Vernon & Thompson. William M. Cooley; Joseph Vaughn; George Ray; (Surry County, North Carolina County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1790-1795, Vol 1. Compiled by Agnes M. Wells.)
1786	William M Cooley mentioned in Surry County records. (North Carolina County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1790-1795 Vol. 1.)
1786	Joseph Gray appointed Justice of the Peace, 1 Aug 1786. (Mercer co KY Order Book #1, 1786-1790)
1787	Last mention of William Cooley in Surry County: that it be "Ordered by the Court that William Cooley be Exempted from paying a poll Tax for himself for the future." (Feb 16, Surry County court minutes, p 79.) Note that one of the conditions by which a taxpayer could be exempt is that he is in the process of relocating.
1787	"Willm Cooley" first appears on the tax list for Madison County, Virginia (now Kentucky).
1789	In Nelson County, Joseph Gray and William "Cooly" sign a petition to the Virginia government. (Remember, Kentucky was still part of Virginia. Washington County was later formed out of Nelson County.)
1789	"W.M. Cooley purchased land on Dyers Creek in present day Stewart County, from Robert Fenner in 1789." (Jeff Clark's website, no longer extant.)
1789	William Cooley v Jeremiah Gray on debt, 25 Nov 1789, Mercer co KY. Several appearances in court. Suit was dismissed 24 Aug 1790.
1794	Washington co KY tax list, 22 May 1794, William Cooley, 15 cattle, 2 horses.
1795	Washington co tax list: William Cooley, 1 white male above 21, 20 cattle, 3 horses.
1796	Washington co KY tax list: William Cooley, 52 acres, Rolling Fork, land was entered by Jonathon Ingram, land was surveyed for Joseph Gray and grant issued to Joseph Gray. 1 white male over 21, 2 horses, 9 cattle.
1797	William Cooley and Joseph Cooley appear on the Washington co KY tax lists.
1800	Will Cooley appears on the tax list for Washington County, Kentucky.
1800	Joseph Gray commissioned Captain of the 4th Regiment of the Kentucky Militia (1 Apr 1800).
1800	William Cooley and John Cooley are witnesses to the will of John Good of Lincoln County KY. John's "trusty and well beloved friend," Major Joseph Gray of Washington County, is one of the executors. John's son, Timothy Good and father, Thomas Good, are named. Note that the Goodes and Cooleys were closely aligned in Surry (later Stokes) County NC. The senior John Cooley and Richard Goode, nephew of Thomas, served together 1755 from Caroline co VA.
1801-1804	William Cooley appears on Washington co tax list for each year.
1803	Joseph Gray of Washington County, Kentucky sells "negroe Girl Slave named Betty" to Anne Cooley, wife of William Cooley of the same county. [link]
1803	Court Order Book 2 for 7 Nov 1803, p 67: "For reasons appearing to the Court it is ordered that William Cooley be released from the payment of county levies in the future." Again, he had probably made claim that his residence had moved, this time to TN.
1804	Joseph Gray sells to Bird Lawless land that is adjacent to "William Cooleys line." [link] Eula Ray Kirkland states, "This land is located south of Gravel Switch about 1 1/2 miles on Hwy. 337." That would place it near to or right at the Rubin Cooley Branch. That same year, John Cooley Sr deeds land (Stokes County NC) to sons Reuben and James Cooley.
1804	William Cooley sells Washington County, Kentucky land to Bird Lawless (Washington County Kentucky Deed Book C). [link]
1804	William Cooly, Joseph Gray and Richard Cooly witness deed of John Butler of Washington co KY to William Crowdes of Washington co KY for land in Mercer co KY. (Bk 5 p 340 19 Oct 1804).
1805	Hezekiah Boyce vs. Isaac Brunson - "This day comes into court, by their consent their suit is taken out of court, and let to the award of William Cooley, Thomas French, William Haggard and Aaron Fletcher as arbitrators, to settle and adjust all the accounts and disputes between the said Boyce and Brunson now depending in said court. And the said arbitrators come into court and are sworn as such proceeds." (Minutes of the Stewart County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Minutes of the Stewart County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 11 June 1805).
1806	John and Reuben Cooley taxed for land on the Rolling Fork, Lincoln County, KY. Perrin Cooley appears on the Washington co tax lists for 1806-1809 and 1811, the year he moved to Missouri with brothers Joseph and James Cooley. Joseph Cooley appears on the Washington co tax lists for 1806 and 1811.
1806	"William Cooley records his ear mark, a crop and a hole in each ear." (Minutes of the Stewart County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 10 March 1806).
1806	Joseph Gray deeds Stewart co TN land to William Cooley, witnessed by A Atkins and Richard Cooley (Stewart co TN deed bk 2 pg 25, 4 Nov 1806).
1812	Joseph Gray, now of Stewart County, Tennessee wills his Rolling Fork, Washington County, KY land to son Joseph Gray Jr: "...gets land in Washington Co., KY on the Rolling Fork of the Salt River, and gets part of land shared with Peter R Booker (originally granted to Joseph Gray Sr and his brother James Gray)." Earlier that year he gifts land in Stewart County to Joel Cooley, son of William M Cooley.

Robert Fenner, from whom William Cooley purchased his land in Stewart County, received the land from his father Richard, one of the original military grantees in Tennessee following the end of the Revolution. The land that Joseph Gray granted to Joel Cooley was originally owned by James Cole Montflorence, also an original military grantee.

Jeanette Pollard notes (website now defunct) that the Stewart County Cooleys found themselves in Houston County when it was carved out of Stewart County in 1871. She visited the gravesite there of Richard W Cooley's son, William Mathis Cooley. (Note that Mathis and Matthews are alternate spellings of the same.) The Houston County 1880 census record for this William states that his father (Richard) was born in North Carolina. That places his birth at the time and place of William Matthews Cooley's presence in Surry County, North Carolina.

A compilation of notes for William's descendants is found at Patrilineal Descendants of John Cooley (second entry). See Cooleys in Stewart County, Tennessee Records for more information on William.

Some Miscellaneous Records

1800 Census, Stokes County, North Carolina

546 16 454 Cooley Edward 1201020010 0 0 Salisbury Dist 546 18 454 Cooly John 0110111001 0 0 Salisbury Dist 546 19 454 Cooley James 0001010100 0 0 Salisbury Dist 546 20 454 Cooley Perrin 2001020010 0 0 Salisbury Dist 547 1 455 Cooley Rice 0010000000 0 0 Salisbury Dist

1810 Census, Casey County, Kentucky

males females -10 -16 -20 -40 40+ -10 -16 -20 -40 40+ free slaves Randolph White 2 2 - - 1 3 2 - 1 - - - John Cooley 1 1 1 - 1 3 2 - 1 - - - John Cooley Sr - - - - 1 - - 1 - 1 - - Reuben Cooley 1 - - 1 - 2 - 1 - - - -

1810 Census, Washington County, Kentucky

Perrin Cooley 4 - - 1 - 2 1 1 - 1 -

Other Cooleys

There were other Cooley individuals and/or families living in the vicinity near John. Abraham Cooley, said to have been born in England, is noted in the section on immigrants. DNA has disproved any relationship between him and John and has shown that he's descended from the Tring, Hertfordshire, England Cooleys, a group from which Ensign Benjamin Cooley of Springfield, Massachusetts and Samuell Cooley of Milford, Connecticut also descended.

There was the "famous" William Cooley⁸ who set out with Daniel Boone from Salisbury (considerably south of present-day Stokes County, NC) to Kentucky in 1769. Although there is little known about William, his origins may have been in Pennsylvania, not Virginia. The only thing that connects the two Cooleys to one another is that they lived in early Rowan County, which was much larger than it is now, and probably in locations somewhat distant from one another. (The Boone property was located in what is now Davidson County. The John Cooley property was in present-day Stokes County, North Carolina.)

A James Cooley enlisted in the revolutionary army for a second time in Surry County and was made prisoner there by the British. Lura Coolley Hamil states in her book that he served in Virginia with William Cooley (above). However, she was clearly mistaken. DNA evidence for this man is still needed.

Although Reuben Ransom Cooley is believed to have never resided in Stokes County, North Carolina, he does show up near Edward Cooley's family in Indiana. It's claimed that he was the Reuben R Cooley who married in Bartholomew County, but he certainly is not the Reuben living there in 1840. He is the the R R Cooley appearing that same year in Decatur County, Indiana. Other Indiana families are explored in Cooleys on the 1830 and 1840 Census. Subsequent DNA testing has indicated Reuben was probably descended from Ensign Benjamin Cooley.

And there were other North Carolina Cooleys residing several counties east of Stokes County. To date, nothing has been found to suggest they were related to our John Cooley. But it should be noted that they came from counties very near Caroline County VA, where our John enlisted into the Virginia Regiment in 1755.

A descendant of James Cooley (born c1809 in PA) is nearly an exact yDNA match. The fact that he shares the name makes it a near certainty that James was related to John Cooley in some way. The age difference is large enough that James could have been a great grandson of John's, but there are certain STR marker that indicate that James was of a collateral line to John.

There is no evidence that John Cooley came from Pennsylvania but there are several reasons to investigate some of those families. To that end, I've started a page for Pennsylvania Cooleys and a related project for the Cooleys on the 1860 census.

Finally, I'm "mapping out" the Cooley lineages I'm working on, all in an attempt to find any family that may have been collateral to John's ancestral line.

1. The only evidence that a Benjamin Cooley might have been associated with John's family is the presence of a Benjamin Cooley on the Stokes County 1820 census. In fact, DNA has shown that he was of a different group. His descendants go by the name Coley. The DNA suggests that he might have been related to the James Cooley (1758-1834) and Penelope Gargus line of Halifax County, NC.

2. 1812 Stewart County TN Tax List, Capt. Pearce's Company, by David Hogan.

3. See also Electric Scotland: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/articles/norse.htm. Somerled descendants have 8 repeats at DYS459a. (Our line has 9. However, a Norse origin is confirmed by being 22 or less at YCAIIb.)

4. The following account of the Culloden prisoners is found at the website Swanstrom Genealogy: "After the Battle of Culloden, 3,470 people were prisoners of the English. Of these, 936 were transported to the colonies, 222 were banished, 120 were executed, 88 died in prison, 58 escaped from prison, 76 received a conditional pardon, and 1,287 were released or exchanged. The fate of the remaining 684 is unknown. Those who were transported spent nearly two years in miserable conditions in English jails while the government negotiated with merchants. Finally, in the spring of 1747 the prisoners were taken from the jail in Liverpool, handcuffed in pairs, and locked in the holds of ships bound for America."

5. From America at 1750, A Social Portrait, Richard Hofstadter, 1971: "If we leave out of account the substantial Puritan migration of 1630-40, not less than half, and perhaps considerably more, of all the white immigrants to the colonies were indentured servants, redemptioners or convicts. Certainly a good many more than half of all persons who went to the colonies south of New England were servants in bondage to planters, farmers, speculators and proprietors. The tobacco economy of Virginia and Maryland was founded upon the labor of gangs of indentured servants, who were substantially replaced by slaves only during the course of the eighteenth century. `The planters' fortunes here,' wrote the governor of Maryland in 1755, `consist in the number of their servants (who are purchased at high rates) much as the estates of an English farmer do in the multitude of cattle.'" And from His Excellency George Washington, Richard J Ellis, 2004: "The raw material from which Washington recruited was raw indeed. He kept several rosters of enlisted men, that reveal that most of his recruits were recently arrived immigrants, primarily from England, Ireland, or Scotland, or second-generation carpenters, bricklayers, and tanners from the Pennsylvania or Virginia back country."

6. From Washington, George, 1732-1799. The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: volume 1. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. "To Captain Robert Spotswood... As soon as you arrive in Town with your Recruits, you are to put yourself under the Command of Major Andrew Lewis, or the Field Officer appointed for that Rendezvous: And you are to be strictly obedient to all such lawful Commands, as you shall from time to time receive from him: and particularly to observe, that the Muster Rolls of your Men are regularly called three times a day, and that they are as often called out to their Exercise; at which times you are to be present. If it should so happen that you arrive before the Field Officer; you are then to receive your Orders from, and make your daily Reports to, the Oldest Officer present, having regard to the above Directions. [Note: The same orders were sent to Captains Lewis and Harrison, Lieutenant Lowry, and Ensign Weedon.]"

7. There is a John "Cooley?" listed on the 1758 tax list for Rowan County, "a vast territory with an indefinite western boundary" (Wikipedia) and a 1761 entry for John Cooly, "One of the Poor of the Parish of St. Luke" (Abstracts of the Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions, Rowan County, North Carolina, 1753-1789). The following quote, appears at http://www.djhooker.com/7202.htm (I've corrected the typos): "Among the early tax lists in the North Carolina State Archives is a fragment of the 1758 Tax List of Rowan County, dated 8 October 1758. The persons named in this one page list lived in that portion of Rowan County which became Guilford in 1771 and Randolph County in 1779 - and resided in the Northwest quarter of Randolph County, north and northwest of Asheboro..." In other words, the John Cooley named in 1758 was some distance from Town Fork Settlement, the only place we can reliably place our John Cooley. Although both of these citations (1758 & 1761) may well be for our John, the first wholly reliable reference to him is found with the 1771 Surry County tax entry for John Cooley, Constable. His son, James, was born there in 1772. It must be noted, however, that there is good evidence to suggest that Perrin was born there in 1769, the same year that William Cooley set out for Kentucky with Boone.

8. Dale Walker stated in 1978 that William was "born 1747 and died 1818 in Jessamine Co., Ky." He doesn't cite his source but I suspect it was from the much maligned (for good reason) A Story of Pioneering.

9. "Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina", Documenting the American South https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr10-0089.

10." Gerald Harris, "The culture's subtle approach to driving Christianity underground", The Christian Index, https://christianindex.org/culture-subtle-approach-driving-christianity-underground/.