The Joshua Peck Connection

 

How Many Joshua Pecks Were There?

 

Lots!!!

 

The 1st Maryland Regiment holds the line at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse,

March 15, 1781.

 

An Overview

 

The book of life of Joshua Peck, shows that he was born c 1759, and died in Newcastle in Australia in 1825.

 

The pages in between, for the period 1759 to 1786 are nothing short of supposition!

The clear facts are that he has no baptism records in that name, in England. 

Joshua was an old biblical name, often interspersed with Josiah, or Jos. 

In the 178^th century, names were often shortened, Jno for John, Jos for Joseph. 

However there are thousands of people named Peck!!!!  It literally is almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Joshua Peck was entwined with the Jillett Family, ancestors of John Herron.

Both families travelled to Norfolk Island in 1803, and of all things had adjoining land blocks.  Elizabeth Bradshaw a free woman, owned land at Balls Bay. Joshua Peck had the adjoining lot.  Elizabeth’s partner was Robert Jillett/Gillett/Gillette, or any other variants, and later they both returned to Tasmania.

Joshua Peck’s 4^th great granddaughter, worked with John Herron in the 1950’s in Canberra, and both families have been friends since.  John’s 1^st great uncle, Henric Jillett, married another of Joshua Peck’s granddaughter’s, Elizabeth Mary Maude Lette

An Overview

 

The book of life of Joshua Peck, shows that he was born c 1759, and died in Newcastle in Australia in 1825.

 

The pages in between, for the period 1759 to 1786 are nothing short of supposition!

The clear facts are that he has no baptism records in that name, in England. 

Joshua was an old biblical name, often interspersed with Josiah, or Jos. 

In the 178^th century, names were often shortened, Jno for John, Jos for Joseph. 

However there are thousands of people named Peck!!!!  It literally is almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Joshua Peck was entwined with the Jillett Family, ancestors of John Herron.

Both families travelled to Norfolk Island in 1803, and of all things had adjoining land blocks.  Elizabeth Bradshaw a free woman, owned land at Balls Bay. Joshua Peck had the adjoining lot.  Elizabeth’s partner was Robert Jillett/Gillett/Gillette, or any other variants, and later they both returned to Tasmania.

Joshua Peck’s 4^th great granddaughter, worked with John Herron in the 1950’s in Canberra, and both families have been friends since.  John’s 1^st great uncle, Henric Jillett, married another of Joshua Peck’s granddaughter’s, Elizabeth Mary Maude Lette.

Joshua Peck’s granddaughter Heloise Lett married John Herron’s 5^th cousin.  His mother was Sarah Kingdom, 4^th great aunt, and sister of Elizabeth Kingdom who married Thomas Mudge.

This family were descendants of the Sprye family, from Portsmouth, where shipbuilding was an important industry.  Of interest a William Peck married Elizabeth Howard, and they had two sons, William who married Elizabeth Sprye. 

The best guide for his name would be in relation to the English naming patterns.  He and Mary Frost had many children.

 

• The first son was named after the paternal grandfather                                         William
• The second son was named after the maternal grandfather                               John
• The third son was named after the father                                                         Joshua
• The fourth son was named after the oldest paternal uncle                                Thomas
• The fifth was named after the second oldest paternal uncle or the oldest maternal uncle Jerimiah

• The first daughter was named after the maternal grandmother                         Elizabeth
• The second daughter was named after the paternal grandmother                                  Mary Anne
• The third daughter was named after the mother                                                           Sarah Mary
• The fourth daughter was named after the oldest maternal aunt
• The fifth was named after the second oldest maternal aunt or the oldest paternal aunt

If there was duplication (for example, the paternal grandfather and the father had the same name), then the family moved to the next position on the list.

 

So to make that work, his parents would be William and Elizabeth Peck (Peeke/Poke/Peake) or any number of variants of transcriptions. They would have a birth around 1730.  He would have an uncle Thomas, and a second older uncle Jerimiah. His grandmother would be Mary Anne.

Perhaps the Thomas and Jerimiah Peck, who were butchers in London in 1781 were related.

His life before he was 30, has been the subject of conjecture.  There are hundreds of “trees” on Ancestry alone, showing the incorrect parents.

He was not the son of John Peck and Mary Downs.  He was not the Joshua Peck, born in Massachutussus who fought in the Revolution

From the time of his arrest and hearing in the Devon Assizes, until his death, has been clearly documented.  .

The Joshua Peck who fought in the 16^th Regiment in the Revolution was a descendant of Deacon Joseph Peck, from Norfolk who travelled to settle in America in 1628.

 

DNA testing for Joshua Peck Convict, would invariably match with some of the American Peck families, and if so, would give an indication of where the common ancestors lived.