Thomas Cooch

Ancestor Number

A025243 »

Date of Birth

1698

Place of Birth

Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England

Date of Death

November 16, 1788

Place of Death

New Castle County, Delaware

Spouse(s)

Sarah Lowen

Children

Thomas Cooch, Jr and Frances Elizabeth

American Revolution Service

Colonel and Commander of the 2nd Militia Battalion, Lower Division, on May 20, 1775. He was compensated for property damage taken by the British Army in Pencander Hundred in 1777. He subscribed to the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity in 1778.

State of Service

Delaware

Donor

Richard Cooch, Ian Haningham (City Churches of England)

Colonel Thomas Cooch was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England around 1698.

Thomas Cooch married Sarah Lowen Vaughn, widow of Robert Vaughn, in 1733 in St. Benet’s Peter and Paul Wharf Church, London, England. St. Benet’s has been on its present site since 1111. It was destroyed in the Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt by Wren and Hooke between 1677 and 1683. It has a long-standing connection with the College of Arms, located across the street. Shakespeare refers to it in Twelfth Night: Feste, the Clown asks Duke Orsino to add a third of the two coins he is offering and reminds him: “the bells of St Benet, sir, may put you in mind — one, two, three.”

Thomas Cooch home. Courtesy of the Cooch Family - Richard Cooch and his sister, Anne Cooch Doran.

Silver tankard and oak chest. Courtesy of the Cooch Family - Richard Cooch and his sister, Anne Cooch Doran.

Iron Chest. Courtesy of the Cooch Family - Richard Cooch and his sister, Anne Cooch Doran.

St Benet’s Church. Courtesy of Ian Hadingham, City Churches of London.

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Two children were born to the union of Thomas and Sarah Cooch; son, Thomas Jr and daughter, Frances Elizabeth.

The Cooch family sailed for America in 1746. Cooch purchased 200 acres of land and a grist mill from John Dayett, in what is now the State of Delaware. In 1760, he built the first two stories of his stone house on a rise facing east to the Christiana River.

During the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge on September 3, 1776, the Cooch house witnessed the burning of its mill by British commander Lord Cornwallis, who commandeered the house as headquarters for five days. Cornwallis stabled his horses in the dining room until his army moved toward Philadelphia on September 8. Cornwallis considered using this location for a permanent headquarters but ultimately felt the location of the house was not suitable and moved his army north to Philadelphia.

Cooch was a Captain in the French and Indian Wars, commissioned by Lieutenant Gov. John Pen, and he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for New Castle County, Delaware. On March 20, 1775, he became the Colonel of Regiment for Lower Division of New Castle County. Thomas Cooch died in New Castle County, Delaware on November 16, 1788, at the age of 88. He is buried in Old Welsh Tract Baptist Cemetery, Newark, New Castle, Delaware.