Ancestor Birthday - April 6th - Stephen Hockett 1767 - 1839

Stephen is another one of my 4th great-grandfathers. I wrote about his wife, Margaret Thornburg on 10 Jan 2017. They were Quakers and movers.

Stephen was the son of William and Hannah (Beals) Hoggatt, born 6 Apr 1767 in North Carolina. Some of the records declare that he was born in Chatham County. However that county was not formed until 1770/71. From the location of his father's land, I believe it is more probable that Stephen was born in Rowan County, in the section that became Guilford County in 1770/71. In North Carolina the family tended to use the Hoggatt name, with various spellings. After Stephen and his family went to Ohio they began to use the Hockett name quite frequently (again with a variety of spellings). Then when they went to Indiana Stephen entered and purchased government land in Randolph County and used the spelling Hocket.

I just realized that when Stephen's father died in late 1771, Stephen would have been less than 5 years old. He had 2 older brothers and a younger sister who lived to adulthood. His youngest brother died only a few months after William. Stephen's mother did not remarry until after 1800, so I wonder how the family coped during those 30 years. Stephen married Margaret 8 Mar 1786, about a month before his 19th birthday. His next older brother Joseph had married Margaret's sister Ann 2 years before at age 19. Their oldest brother William did not marry until age 28, so maybe he was acting as the head of the family.

If you read my post of 17 Jan 2017 about Isaac Hockett, the son of Stephen who was my ancestor, you would know that 3 of Stephen's children married 3 Frazier siblings. So that makes it possible for me to have some double cousins. On Ancestry DNA there is a DNA circle for Stephen with 51 people and 13 matches to me. Four of the matches are also descendants of Isaac and my 2nd great-grandfather Francis. Of the remaining 9, there are 5 who are my double cousins, both Hockett and Frazier.

Stephen lived to be age 72 as he died 26 Jun 1839 in Salem Township, Henry County, Iowa. It is uncertain which cemetery has his grave, as it is unmarked.