ADCOCK FAMILY

   The Adcock family of Bedford County came from Granville County, North Carolina where the name was numerous and relationships are confusing.  They settled first in Rutherford County, Tennessee.  John Adcock died in Rutherford County in the fall of 1822, leaving a will naming his son John Adcock and William Vinson as executors.  Children listed were Livina Adcock, Polly Adcock, Willie Adcock, William Adcock, John Adcock, Marcus Adcock, Harmon Adcock, Stephen Adcock, Doctor Adcock, Robert Adcock, America Adcock, and Jesse Adcock. 

     Various members of the Adcock family are mentioned in Bedford County records, but the first one to make Bedford County his permanent home was America Adcock who was here, apparently as a newly wed, in the 1840 census of District Nine.  By 1850 America and his wife, Martha Ann Turner (or Wright), were the parents of nine children:  Harriett F. Adcock, William M. Adcock, Levina Jane Adcock, Jesse M. Adcock (male), Benjamin F. Adcock, John W. Adcock, James R. Adcock, and Mary Ann Adcock. 

     By 1860 the two older girls, Harriett and Levina, were out of the home and there were four more children, E. S.  (Ervin) Adcock, Jennings Adcock, Jo Adcock, and T. J. Adcock (all four were males).  The birth of Thomas Jefferson Adcock in 1860 completed the dozen children of America and Martha Ann Adcock.

          America Adcock and Martha Ann Wright are listed as the parents of James R. Adcock (1848-1925) on his Bedford County, TN, death certificate.  Census records indicate that America was about 17 years older than Martha Ann.  The death certificate of Thomas Jefferson Adcock (1860-1941) gives his parents as Colie America Adcock (born in West Virginia) and Martha Turner (born in Bedford County, TN).  Mrs. Gladys Eley Harper includes this family in her book, The Turner Family (1985), but does not seem to have any recollection of kinship.

   By Carolyn Smotherman