Peter Hancock

With great thanks to Millie form Australia for sending the following information? I know that there are a lot of Hancock’s from Mow Cop, some in Australia, some in New Zealand and of course over here. To those interested I hope that the following info is of use.

The basics are that Henry Hancock immigrated to Australia with his wife Sarah (Foulkes) in 1852.
He took his children Emily and Abraham, and also his 3 younger brothers Thomas, Sam and Luke.
They had a daughter Hannah on the voyage from England and then 7 more children in New South Wales.

Another of his brothers Charles also emigrated in 1885, he had 11 children, and one of these was another Henry Hancock, who was the grandfather of Millie, mentioned above. Charles died in 1901.

A while back I also had a letter from a Peter Hancock in New Zealand.
He wrote
My Great Grand father Peter Hancock and his wife who was Emma Foster left the UK in 1880 and traveled with their family of two children we think on the Western Monarch bound for Wellington New Zealand. One of the children MY Grandfather was named Enoch Wood Hancock. Peter Hancock was born we think in Kidsgrove Brieryhurst in September 1873. Peter and Emma were married in the Parish Church Smallthorn Norton around the mid 1870s we believe. We think his fathers name was Jabez and his mothers name Anne. We believe they were farmers maybe in Cotton road Hampton. Emma Fosters father was Elijah Foster and mothers name was Hannah she had a brother Thomas H Foster and their family were involved in the potter industry. I hope this will give you some help. Perhaps the 1871 Census information may help perhaps. The James Hancock mentioned by you could be a lead but unfortunately we don't know of any brothers and sisters that Peter Hancock may have had or indeed Jabez.

The Hancock's
This epistle is just to trace the events and information, as we know them regarding our family. Peter and Emma Hancock immigrated to New Zealand in late 1879 from we were told Mow Cop near Stoke on Trent in England. They traveled on the good ship "Western Monarch" which left London in October 1879 and arrived in Wellington New Zealand on the 2nd January 1880. With them they brought my grandfather who was just 7months old when they left. His name Enoch Wood Hancock born 17th March 1879 in Miles Green. They left behind a small daughter Hannah Foster who was brought up by her maternal Grandmother Hannah Foster. Other facts we do know are Peter Hancock's father was Jabez Hancock and his mother was Ann Hancock nee Bromley. Peter was born on 17th September 1853 the address given was Kidsgrove Brieryhurst. He married Emma Foster on March 17th 1878 in the parish church of Smallthorne. He was listed as living in Barthomely and Emma living in Bradley. Emma was born in Smallthorne and her father Elijah Foster a Collier is also listed as living at Smallthorne. Peter's father Jabez was listed as a Farmer and may be presumed to be from Barthomely as was Peter. Although there is no evidence known to us Peter and Emma always refereed to having lived in Mow Cop prior to coming to New Zealand. Peter and Emma traveled to New Plymouth in Taranaki soon after arriving in New Zealand and Peter found work on the railway. Then subsequently moved to Stratford where he also worked on the building of the railway and then started his vocation as a farmer in and around Stratford. He and Emma raised a large family of 14 children. As this is just a note to summarize what we know at this point further information will be forthcoming as we find it. Peter Hancock New Plymouth New Zealand 1st September 2002

Re: PETER HANCOCK born Kidsgrove 1853 who emigrated to New Zealand 1879 & later spoke of having lived on Mow Cop The best & nicest bit of info I have is an entry in the logbook of Woodcocks' Well School, the elementary school that serves the Cheshire side of MowCop, confirming that Peter Hancock spent his childhood on Mow Cop the school was built in 1858, so Peter Hancock was probably one of it very first pupils ; the first headmaster Thomas Charlesworth wrote the logbook, a sort of school diary, and this entry comes from some years later, May 15, 1871 "Admitted Zilpah, Jabez, & Joseph Hancock from Harriseahead. I admitted them because their brother Peter came to this School formerly and was a very nice boy." you'll know how very rare it is to find a human touch like this in genealogical research, which mostly has to deal with dry formal records the school was a Church of England (Anglican) school, but served all sections of the community ; most locals were nonconformists and the use of very unusual Biblical names like Zilpah (Leah's maid, whom she gave to Jacob as concubine) is usually evidence of nonconformist allegiances the school at this time (it was later restricted to Cheshire) could take pupils from the Staffordshire as well as the Cheshire part of Mow Cop, or from villages a little further afield, at the headmaster's discretion ; it evidently had a good reputation, as parents were regularly trying to place their children there, and Charlesworth had to turn many of them away ; but here he is exercising his discretion, for the reason given, even though Harriseahead is in Staffordshire and outside his normal catchment area the 1871 Census will obviously list the family at Harriseahead the reference led me however to the 1861 Census, for at that time presumably they were living nearer to the school ; my notes from that Census are not very detailed, but I find the family listed at Mount Pleasant, in the Brieryhurst division of Staffordshire [Brieryhurst is just an old administrative division, the name is now extinct], in a locality known locally as Top of the Hollow (the Census doesn't call it that, I just deduce it from the position in the list) ; this spot is just a couple of minutes walk downhill from Woodcocks' Well School the family listed here in 1861 is as follows (unfortunately my notes don't contain details of ages etc) : Jabez, Ann, Peter, Alice, Joseph, Jabez (parents plus 4 children in age order) the daughter Zilpah was obviously born after 1861 I have also found Jabez in the 1851 Census, living as a lodger at The Rookery, another satellite village of Mow Cop ; the household in which he's listed is as follows James Barlow, 45, Labourer, born Lawton Fanny Barlow, wife, 49, born Congleton Jabas Hancock, unmarried, 20, Labourer, born Congleton Peter Duman [or Daman, difficult to read), unmarried, 28, Labourer, born Congleton in other words, James & Fanny Barlow have two young men living with them as lodgers ; both lodgers are from Congleton, so they might have some connection with Fanny, but they are explicitly called "lodger" so they're not closely related to her or it would state a relationship instead elsewhere "Labourer" would usually mean agricultural labourer, but you can't tell on the Staffordshire part of Mow Cop, where there's plenty of industrial work too --- however coal miners are called coal miners, etc, so I have to say "labourers" are usually very poor chaps, at the bottom of the occupational ladder so to speak, getting farm or industrial work where they can (much poorer than farmers, which is what you think he was or later became) The Rookery being midway between Mow Cop & Kidsgrove links to your record of Peter's birth at Kidsgrove --- Jabez perhaps lived there when first married, perhaps his wife was from there (I don't know any local Bromley families at the time) so Jabez turns up in the Mow Cop area about 1850 as a lodger and labourer, who'd come from Congleton (town or rural surrounds) (I've checked the Mow Cop area 1841 Censuses, and there's no sign of him) no links to existing Mow Cop Hancocks can be found, & I've concluded he wasn't one of the old native Mow Cop Hancocks (who can be traced back to the 17th century) ; Hancock is quite a common surname in the region generally it looks as though they were a family who moved about quite a bit, so presumably from Harriseahead they moved on to Smallthorne the place "Bradley" where Peter then found himself a wife is a misspelling of Bradeley, a small coal miners' settlement immediately next to Smallthorne I can't shed any light on associations you mention (on the Mow Cop web site) with Barthomley (which is a beautiful agricultural village in Cheshire), or with this place Coton Farm or Road, Hampton, which I've never heard of one final snippet, moving forward in time : an elderly gent called Jabez Hancock, generally just known as "Jabe", was remembered by older Mow Cop folks in the 1960s-70s ; he was a well-known Mow Cop figure about the 1920s/30s, and they remembered him particularly as the attendant or caretaker of the Hardings Row Pump ; this was a major source of water on Mow Cop in the days before piped water, it was a traditional village pump, and was a reliable source of water even when ordinary wells & springs dried up, as they usually did at some point in the summer ; although I believe it was supposed to be exclusive to residents of Hardings Row (in the middle of Mow Cop village, now demolished), lots of Mow Cop people in fact used it ; perhaps Jabe was kind to them & that's why they remembered him fondly ; he lived in the end house of Hardings Row, facing the pump since I haven't found the name Jabez used by the other Mow Cop Hancocks, I assume this is the younger brother, returned to live on Mow Cop ; as he's the youngest in the 1861 Census but still of school age in 1871 he'd be born about 1860, which makes him a man in his sixties when my informants are remembering him in the 1920s, so that fits perfectly ; unfortunately I don't have any further info about him, when he died or whether he was married etc.