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Old Courthouse Poster John Hartwell Cocke Soldier, Reformer, Friend to Thomas Jefferson Member of the Founding Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia John Hartwell Cocke and Thomas Jefferson shared many interests in spite of a 37-year gap in age and temperamental differences. Both were educated at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, and valued learning, knowledge, and books. Cocke was instrumental in helping establish, build, and govern the University of Virginia in Charlottesville as the realization of Jefferson’s vision and design. Born in 1870 in Surry County in eastern Virginia and raised there, Cocke married Ann Blaws Barraud in 1802. Seven years later, Cocke moved his family to inherited land grant property in Fluvanna County along the James River where he would develop Bremo Plantation. A distinguished soldier, during the War of 1812 Cocke was commissioned a brigadier general. Soon after relocation to Fluvanna, Cocke began a friendship with his older neighbor Thomas Jefferson of Monticello in nearby Albemarle County. Both men owned vast lands and believed in agricultural experimentation and innovation. They traded seed stock, plants and horses, shared agricultural information, and pursued the substitution of crops to replace tobacco—a crop that caused depletion of soil and was heavily dependent on enslaved labor. Practical and disciplined, Cocke was also a reformer who embraced temperance, a devout Christian and a philanthropist. After the 1816 death of Anne, his first wife and mother of their six children, Cocke became evangelical and a member and officer of the Virginia Society for the Promotion of Temperance. In 1821, Cocke married widow Louisa Maxwell Holmes from Norfolk. Louisa John Hartwell Cocke shared her husband’s spiritual and philanthropic pursuits. She died in 1843. The couple had no children. Artist: Edward Troye Although Cocke and Jefferson owned many enslaved workers, they were both conflicted about the institution of slavery. Like Jefferson, Cocke believed in training his enslaved people in skills. Moreover, although against the law in Virginia at the time, Cocke provided for the education of his slaves by his wife Louisa or a hired teacher. This practice subjected Cocke and his wife to violence. Although he was to become discouraged and disillusioned, Cocke advocated for the emancipation and expatriation of slaves to a new homeland in Liberia, Africa, spent personal funds towards this end, and even established another plantation in 1848 in Alabama with the aim of preparing slaves for independence in freedom. Both men were passionate about architecture. Jefferson offered advice to Cocke through Issac Coles, their mutual friend. John Nielson, a builder at Monticello, also assisted Cocke. An expert mentor to Cocke, Jefferson had designed and built Monticello using ancient and renaissance principles, particularly those of Palladio. With his Roman temple Virginia Capitol, Jefferson set a model for American public architecture and established the classical revival movement. Monticello and the “academical village” at the University of Virginia are a World Heritage Site. Cocke, following Jefferson’s practices, oversaw the design and building of three architecturally distinguished properties at the privately-owned Bremo Plantation: the Palladian masterwork that is the Upper Bremo mansion, Lower Bremo, and the Recess. All are preserved, along with many associated outbuildings and farm structures, and remain in family ownership. To promote religious and moral guidance to his enslaved peoples, Cocke built the Bremo Slave Chapel, a simple Gothic-revival structure which survives today at its relocated site in the village of Bremo Bluff in southern Fluvanna county. It is Virginia’s only known slave chapel. Cocke is also credited with the design of the courthouse and the nearby stone jail at the county seat in Palmyra, and with the privately-owned Glen Burnie just north of Palmyra. The architectural legacy of John Hartwell Cocke is well-documented and strongly recognized. The Slave Chapel was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Glen Burnie was listed at the state and national levels in 2000. In 1969, an historic district encompassing Upper Bremo, Lower Bremo, and the Recess was listed as a Virginia Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later the Bremo Historic District was further designated as a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation given in the United States. Bremo Slave Chapel Cocke and Jefferson shared a genuine respect for each other. Referencing his friend Cocke, Jefferson wrote: “There is no person in the U.S. in whose success I should have so much confidence. He is rich, liberal, patriotic, judicious & persevering.” (Thomas Jefferson to John David, Jan. 13, 1816) In consideration of Jefferson’s esteem for his friend, Cocke was appointed to the board of Central College, the predecessor to the University of Virginia: “Resolved that Thomas Jefferson and John H. Cocke be a committee on the part of the Visitors with authority, jointly or severally, to advise and sanction all plans and the application of monies for executing them which may be within the purview and functions of the Proctor for the time being. Th. Jefferson, James Monroe, James Madison, J.H. Cocke. May 5, 1817.” In 1819, Cocke was appointed by the Virginia Governor James Patton Preston to the first Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia. Cocke joined Jefferson to supervise the construction of the campus, and Cocke went on to serve on the governing board of the University of Virginia for more than three decades. Cocke Hall on the south side of the Lawn at the University of Virginia was completed in 1898 and is named for The First Meeting of the Board of Visitors Jefferson’s devoted friend. While opposed to slavery, John Hartwell Cocke maintained his allegiance to Virginia and the South during the Civil War. When the war ended, Cocke applied for a presidential pardon from the United States government and took an oath of amnesty in 1865. The following year Cocke died at the age of 85. He is interred at Bremo Recess near the graves of his first and second wives. Palmyra Area Revitalization Committee .
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