From the book, Glas(s)cocks in England
& America by Lawrence A. Glassco on
page 158, xii:Dropping the "ck" - Apparently Glasscocks
were dropping the "ck" from their names
even before the American Revolution. A
John Glasscock is listed in a Luneburg Co,
Virginia land transaction in 1767 and apparently the same man is listed (on the
same page) as John Glasco. Abraham &
Isaac Glasscock were also listed in Revolutionary records as Glassco. During
the Revolution, Robert Glascock, a fifer
from VA, is also listed as Glasscock, Glasecock and GLASCOW. While it is
doubtful that any of these particular people
were descended from our Thomas (that's
Thomas Glasscock & Jane(Juet) emigrated
to Jamestown, VA area in 1643 from Essex, England), there were at least four
known families in our Saga (including
Lawrence Glassco's family) who did change their names to Glassco during the
middle of the 19th century. And there were
apparently others who have done the same thing over the years. Many English
Glasscocks have dropped the "ck" also.
-------------------------------------
In the Glassco-Glasscock Saga book
by Lawrence Glassco, page x and xi,
some possible explanations are given. One possible explanation is simply that
many colonial ancestors were not especially literate and that court and
parish clerks often spelled names as
they sounded. (a common problem among emigrants
was the misspelling of their names either
by themselves or the emigration officers
too. Sometimes emigration officers forced
emigrants to change the spellings of their
names.) Lawrence Glassco notes on page
xi, that in Scotland, the city of Glasgow
was often pronounced "Glassco" and
that old Gaelic pronunciations and Scotland Highlanders pronounced it
"Glassco". "glass" means "green"
and "cock" means "hill" in ancient
Gaelic. There are Scottish and English
Glasscock families even Irish. Lawrence Glassco says that there
were a few scattered Glas(s)co (e)
famililes in Virginia and the Carolinas
as early as the late 1700's although
not very very prolific.
|
