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 178th 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 4th great
granddaughter, worked with John Herron in the 1950’s in Canberra, and both
families have been friends since. John’s
1st 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 178th 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 4th great
granddaughter, worked with John Herron in the 1950’s in Canberra, and both
families have been friends since. John’s
1st 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 5th cousin.
His mother was Sarah Kingdom, 4th 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 16th
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.
