Cokers Of South Carolina Introduction By Steven James Coker Published 1985 in "The Lavender Line" Vol. 4, No. 2 The various Coker families throughout early South Carolina left difficult trails for today's historians to follow. This is compounded by the sad truth that some South Carolina records were lost by fires and the ravages of the Civil War. In this discussion, I shall attempt to relate certain facts and theories concerning two Coker family lines found in early Sumter District, South Carolina. I shall then follow one of these lines to the present day to show what it brought forth. For convenience, allow me to refer to these as the Benjamin Coker Line and the Whitley Coker Line. The main focus shall be on the line of Whitley Coker as this is my ancestral line and the one with which I am most familiar. Current theory has it that Benjamin and Whitley Coker were closely related, possibly brothers or cousins. It has even been suggested that Benjamin may have been Whitley's father. We first find mention of the two men in the records of Northampton, North Carolina. Benjamin and Whitley Coker are both found on the 1780 Tax List for Northampton, North Carolina. Benjamin Coker is shown with a value of $1212.00 and a tax of $93.10, while Whitley Coker is shown with only $100.00 for a tax of $7.10. This discrepancy in wealth combined with the facts that Whitley outlived Benjamin by at least sixteen years, and that Whitley's children were generally much younger than Benjamin's children, allows us to assume that Benjamin was perhaps fifteen or more years Whitley's senior. Whitley Coker shows up again on November 3rd 1781, as witness to the will of James Clark in Northampton, NC. From this date until the Sumter census of 1800, we find no record of Whitley or his whereabouts. We therefore conclude that he moved from Northampton, NC to Sumter District, SC sometime between 1782 and 1800. Benjamin's will of September 20, 1805, in Northampton, NC lists as his heirs, wife Silvie, sons Sugars, Daniel, Thomas, Willie (also spelled Wiley) and John, as well as daughters Polly, Mason, Sally (Caple), Betsy (Smith), and Patsy (Tarver). Some researchers have used this will to support the theory that Benjamin was Whitley's father. In doing so, they read Willie and Wiley as two different names with Willie being a misspelling of Whitley. I rather believe that it is just a variation of Wiley and that if Whitley was a son of Benjamin he had left Northampton long before the writing of the will and thus was not included in it. We eventually find most of these heirs of Benjamin Coker in Sumter District, South Carolina. Wiley Coker's will of January 24, 1809, shows that he, his mother Silvy and brother Thomas were already established in Sumter District by that time. However, Sugars and Daniel are found in Northampton as late as November 26, 1811, at which time they sold land valued at $1,604.00 to Edward Delany. We know that Sugars did come to Sumter District eventually, as his estate papers dated October 28, 1814, show. These papers list his Administrix to be Elizabeth Coker and his Administrator to be Thomas Coker. In these estate papers of Sugars we find that his sister Mason had married Reddin Bird, and is also now in Sumter District. This explains how the name Reddin Coker came into use in later generations. As previously stated, Whitley and Benjamin were thought to be closely related. One theory to support this is based on the 1781 will of James Clark which Whitley witnessed. The will gives James Clark's daughters as Silviah Cook, Mary Cook, Charrity Fennil, Sarah Jordan, Angeline Clark, Nancy Clark, Patsy Clark, and Elizabeth Clark. The theory is that Silviah Cook is actually Silvie Coker the wife of Benjamin Coker and that Mary Cook is actually Mary Coker the wife of Jonathan Coker. Jonathan Coker was the son of Henry Coker of Northampton, NC. The will of Henry Coker dated August 14, 1789, mentions his daughter-in-law Mary, the widow of his son Jonathan. Further, the theory would have it that Nancy Clark became Nancy Coker the wife of Whitley Coker. It is of the same interest to note that a Clark Coker, son of Joshua Coker, is found on the Sumter District census of 1810. Of course, this theory awaits further research and cannot be presented as facts. We know that Whitley Coker Senior and his wife Nancy had at least eight boys and four girls born before 1806. It is reasonable to assume that there were more of which we have found no records, It is also conceivable that Whitley Senior had more than one wife, although no evidence for this has been discovered. From land sale records we know that four of Whitley's sons were Noah, Philip, Henry, and Whitley Junior. We believe that two other sons were Turner and John. We do not have any clues at this time regarding the names of the four daughters. TO BE CONTINUED ...