Our earliest documented VENABLE family record is that of Joseph VENABLE who fought in the Revolutionary War with the South Carolina militia. His service is on record as a member of Roebuck's Regiment. His wife was Lucy DAVENPORT and we are descended from their daughter who married Anderson COCKRILL in South Carolinia in 1799. Their first child, Larkin Davenport COCKRILL was born in South Carolina, January 4, 1800. Larkin's age and place of birth are verified by census records. This COCKRILL family moved to Kentucky before the second son, William Barrett COCKRILL was born, April 22, 1804. His age and birth place are also on record. Rebecca and Anderson COCKRILL were my great-great-grandparents.

In those early days extended families usually moved long distances in groups, so it can be assumed the VENABLEs and Anderson COCKRILL's did also. Although several descendants of Joseph and Lucy VENABLE became DAR members through their daughter Rebecca, none of those applications name other children of Joseph and Lucy. Rebecca told my grandmother, Ellen (COCKRILL) CLAYPOOL, when my grandmother was a little girl, a story about an occurance during the Revolutionary War. It involved an older brother, but unfortunately his name has not survived. The story implied that while the father was away at war more than one grown woman was at home with the children.

A Joseph VENNEBLE (undoubtedly our Joseph VENABLE) is in the 1790 Census, 96 District, Spartenburg County, South Carolina. On the same page in that printed census record are possibly related families such as VEANIBLE, HAMMETT, and especially John BENNETT with a wife and two children. More of him later. Another family whose records say they migrated from South Carolina to Kentucky in 1804 were the HAMMETTS, relatives of the COCKRILLS. Some of these people may have traveled together.

Anderson COCKRILL was in the South Carolina census for the first time in 1800. He had a wife and one male child. That fits. Neighbor to him was a William COCKRILL who could have been his father. Also in that Spartenburg County census were two Joseph VENABLE familes and a Richard VENABLE. The Joseph VENABLES could have been father and son. At the time of the next census our COCKRILLS and perhaps VENABLES should have been in Kentucky.

Families of both names are in the following censuses of Allen, Barren and Warren Counties. The Heritage Book Company of Bowie, MD, has published census records for several Kentucky counties for the period 1810-1840. Allen County was formed from Barren and Warren Counties in 1815, so the first census for Allen County was that of 1820. I have read the microfilm of Warren County for 1810 and was able to find Anderson COCKRILL; however the compiler of the Warren County book does not list him probably due to poor copy. He was next to a William COCKRILL whom she does list. VENABLE families were in all three counties, but mostly in Allen -- and there exclusively after 1820. First names include Joseph, Larkin, James and John.

Another searcher of VENABLES, Karen VENABLE of Riverside has tried to trace her VENABLE family to our Joseph. She has researched from the present back to Arkansas, Henry County, Tennessee, in 1830 and to a John VENABLE family in Allen County, Kentucky, earlier. But she cannot prove a connection. Karen, however, found a very interesting story, that of an Elizabeth (or Betsy) VENABLE who lived in the Spartenburg area of South Carolina during the Revoutionary War.

This Elizabeth VENABLE, by that time the widow of John BENNETT, applied for a Revolutionary War widow's pension in 1856 at the age of 94. Could she have been an older sister of our Rebecca? At the time of the application Betsy lived in Allen County, KY. Another source shows she died about a year later and was then identified as the daughter of Joseph and Lucy VENABLE. Both Betsy and her brother Joseph VENABLE made depositions containing interesting information. Hers tells that she married Joseph BARRETT during the Revolutionary War and that that he and her father volunteered at the same time. She had a child during the war named William BARRETT which suggests the source for the name of Anderson and Rebecca COCKRILL's second son, William Barrett COCKRILL. In the brother's deposition is a story of a happening during the Revolutionary War that suggest he might have been the brother in Rebecca's war story. There are apparently no records of two Joseph VENABLEs in the war from the Spartanburg area. Betsy married again in 1789 to John BENNETT, Joseph BARRETT having been killed shortly after the Battle of Cowpens.

Another document of interest is the will of a Joseph VENABLE, Sr. who died in Allen Co., KY, in 1810. Analysis of this will indicates he must have been Betsy's father although neither she nor Joseph, Jr. appear in the document. Both she and her brother as well as Rebecca were long since married; so it is not surprising that they were not in the will. Betsy had said they came to Kentucky form South Carolina in 1801. This Joseph VENABLE left a widow named Lucy and the will was witnessed by John BENNETT. A son Larkin was in the will which suggests a source for the name of Rebecca and Anderson's first son, Larkin Davenport COCKRILL. A son James was in the will and "other children" [John VENABLE's name was missing from Carolyn Thorsen's copy of this will].

There is some doubt, however, that Betsy and Rebecca were sisters. The DAR applications filed by Rebecca's descendants say Lucy Davenport VENABLE was born in 1753 and that Joseph was born in 1759. Those ages would make them too young to have been Betsy's parents. Also those papers say Joseph VENABLE died in South Carolina in 1803. The sources of these dates are not clear. These papers were all filed long after Rebecca and Anderson COCKRILL were dead and all their children too. Could the dates be wrong? No land records have been found to determine when the VENABLE land in Spartenburg was bought or exactly where it was, but family tradition says it was near the site of the Battle of Cowpens.

To summarize, Elizabeth (VENABLE, BARRETT) BENNETT had a father and mother named Joseph and Lucy VENABLE. Her father was a soldier in the Revoltionary War, but was her mother Lucy DAVENPORT? They lived in the same area of South Carolina during the Revolutionary War as did our VENABLE family. I've heard of but not seen a history of Allen County, KY that mentions an early Joseph VENABLE as its oldest citizen. What more proof is needed an how do we find it?

And then there were those brothers' names.

Carolyn Claypool THORSEN

Riverside, CA

March 21, 1989