University of Virginia Library

BOWCOCK.

The first of the Bowcock family in the county was Jason.
The records mention indeed a Samuel Bowcock, but nothing
more is known of him except that he died in 1783. A daughter
of Alexander McKinzie, who from 1742 to 1799 owned
part of the land now possessed by the University, was the

wife of a Bowcock, and left a daughter who was living at the
beginning of the century. The husband here referred to may
have been Samuel, and he may possibly have been the father
of Jason. The latter lived on the Barboursville Road north
of Stony Point, and died in 1816. He and his wife Judith had
six children, Ann, the wife of Achilles Douglass, Douglass,
Achilles, Tandy, Mildred, the wife of John Douglass, and
John, who succeeded his father on the old place. In December
1822, Achilles Bowcock, while sitting at table at Nathaniel
Burnley's in Stony Point, apparently in perfect health, fell
dead from his chair.

Douglass lived at the junction of the Earlysville and Piney
Mountain Roads, and kept tavern there for some years before
his death in 1825. His wife was Mildred Blackwell, and his
children Catharine, the wife of Dr. John F. Bell, who removed
to Kentucky, and John J. John J. occupied a large place
in the hearts of the people of the county. His early advantages
in point of education were slender, and his natural
gifts not brilliant, yet few men exercised a wider or more
beneficial influence in the community. His powers of perception
were clear, his judgment sound, and his integrity
without spot or suspicion. He inherited his father's farm,
and followed him in the conduct of a public house; but almost
immediately he espoused the views which had then begun to
prevail on the subject of temperance, and turned the tavern
into a house of entertainment. The disputes of the surrounding
country were largely referred to his arbitration, and his
decision was accepted as an end of strife. His neighbors
often desired that he should be the guardian of their children,
and settle their estates. He was a magistrate under the old
regime, and among the first elected under the new constitution;
and four times in succession he was made by the choice
of his fellow justices presiding magistrate of the County Court.
For many years he served as Colonel of the Eighty-Eighth
Regiment, his farm by the way being the regular place of its
muster. He was a member of the House of Delegates, and
according to a friend of opposite politics, such was the universal
regard in which he was held, that no competitor could

stand before him, and he might have been re-elected as often
as he wished; but his unambitious temper soon declined the
honor. He was for a long period a ruling elder in the South
Plains Presbyterian Church. He died full of days in 1892,
and was followed to the tomb by the high esteem and sincere
regrets of all who knew him. His wife was Sarah, daughter
of Nelson Barksdale. Of his five sons and two daughters,
Dr. Charles, who for many years practised his profession at
Everettsville, did not long survive him.