Locke Genealogy

Bookshelf


Miscellaneous genealogical notes

Locke Genealogy Supplement 3

Locke Genealogy Supplement 3 will be the latest supplement to the Locke Genealogies for the New England Locke families. (See below)

FAQ

When will the supplement be available?

  • The next volume, a 500-600 page book, will be printed in December, 2020.

How much will it cost?

  • This depends on how many orders we get for the print run and the page count. We will have more information in September.

Can I pre-order the book?

  • We are not taking payment or firm orders yet. Please leave a note if you are interested.

Locke Genealogies

The original genealogies

  • A History and Genealogy of Captain John Locke [1627-1696] of Portsmouth and Rye, N. H., Arthur H. Locke (1866-), Rumford Press, Concord, NH, 1916
  • Book of the Lockes, A Genealogical and Historical Record of the Descendants of William Locke of Woburn, John Goodwin Locke (1803-1869), J. Munroe & Co., Boston, MA, 1853

The Locke Family Association published updates in 1979 and 2000.

  • Locke Genealogy Supplement Volume I, Donald P Hayes, Jr., Locke Family Association, 1979.
  • Locke Genealogy Supplement Volume II, Locke Family Association, Peter Randall Publisher, Portsmouth, NH, 2002.

Locke Family Association

The Locke Family Association (web) (facebook) was founded in 1891 by descendants of Captain John and Elizabeth (Berry) Locke who settled at Locke's Neck in the middle of the Seventeenth Century. In 1898, a desire to make the Association a permanent organization led the members to incorporate under the laws of the State of New Hampshire. This is the oldest incorporated organization of this type in the U.S.

The Association owns and preserves the Old Locke Burying Ground on Locke's Neck in Rye, NH which is the final resting place of John and Elizabeth (Berry) Locke and many of their children and grandchildren. The Association also publishes updates to the genealogies and holds an annual reunion every August.

Since its earliest days, the Association has included descendants of other Locke families, especially from New England, including descendants of Nathaniel Locke (Capt. John's brother) and of William Locke of Woburn, Massachusetts, as well as historians and researchers interested in local or genealogical history.

Locke Families

There are actually many Locke/Lock families that are unrelated. Here is a guide to the ones we know about, along with a web reference if we have found it. Unfortunately, most sites are inactive (but still informative) as of Dec. 2017.

By earliest known immigrant (to America or Australia):

  • Capt. John Locke (1627-1696) of Rye, NH

    -- here at lockegenealogy.org
  • Nathaniel Locke of Portsmouth, NH,

    probably brother of above -- here at lockegenealogy.org
  • Deacon William Locke (1628-1715) of Woburn, Mass

    , immigrated to America 1634 (age 6!) -- here at lockegenealogy.org
  • John Locke

    , arrived in Virginia on the Truelove in 1628. See here
  • Robert Locke (1607- )

    , arrived in Virginia on the Warwick in 1621.
  • Philip Locke (1696-1761) of St. Mary's County, Maryland

    . His descendants spread into the Carolinas and to Sonoma County, California, in the late 1880s. See website (inactive)
  • George Locke (1747-1823) of Frederick Co, Virginia

    , m. Sarah Hiatt; VA, WV, Ohio, Massachusetts. An update to his genealogy was included in Supplement Volume I published by the Locke Family Association. (Many contemporaneous Lockes from this county, he is likely not the first generation.)
  • Johannes Lock, Frederick Co., MD

    from Germany in 1730s or 1740s, try Reid-Mellot (inactive)
  • William Lock (c. 1770- )

    of colonial Virginia (and son John B Locke). John B Locke web site (inactive)
  • John Lock (c. 1695-1744)

    , whose widow brought children to Lancaster Co., PA, about 1750; NC, Georgia, Texas. Lockes of Penn. & MD (inactive?)
  • Jonathan Lock (1768-1835)

    , sent to NSW, Australia, for stealing 3 geese, on the Grenada in 1821. See Australian Royalty
  • Suey Gim Locke

    , of Guangdon Province, China, arrived in Olympia, WA, 1921, grandfather of Gary Locke, former governor of Washington. There are many Locke families from Guangdon , see Facebook site (requires login)

Another interesting look at the different Locke lines can be found at the Lock & Locke DNA Project. The Y results partition descendants into separate family groups, based on descendants with an unbroken male line to a Locke. The corresponding Facebook site (requires login) is active.

If you have any further information on other Locke lines, please let us know -- use the contact link below.

Links Between Locke Families

Capt. John Locke and Nathaniel Locke -- These two lines are connected through cousin marriages in the 2nd generation. This is not surprising given the geographic and familial proximity.

Capt. John Locke and Deacon William of Woburn -- Due to the proximity of these two families, just 58 miles apart, we would expect their descendants' lines to cross numerous times in the first six generations. Both families fanned out across adjacent states as the country expanded, and there's a single major city (Boston) nearby as a magnet. This expectation is embedded in the lore of the association. The 1953 Book of the Lockes mentions looking for intermarriage between the families, in vain. There is also the legend of a cousin at a reuinion in the 1990s who claimed to be descended from both, but attempts to track down this story have been unsuccessful.

In late 2017, Chris Locke discovered that a descendant of the sister of Deacon William's wife Susan Clark may have married into the Capt John line four generations later. We have not been able to confirm all parts of this line yet.

In Feb, 2018, we found a very indirect connection. Fifth-generation descendants of Capt. John Locke and William Locke of Woburn married into the Luce family in Maine, with both Luces being 5th generation descendants of Henry Luce. To make it even more indirect, the line from William includes an adopted child.

Achieve Fame - Help Out!

We are currently entering genealogy from the last supplement (Supplement II) and proactively extending a few family lines. If you'd like to volunteer to work on a line of descent (like your own!), just offer and we'll send instructions. You can see how we are entering citations by looking at the first few generations.

All major contributors will be acknowledged in the next supplement, as in the last two books.