Corks Come to America 1772

*Note: I reviewed documents with exact dates and places in revising this fictional story, but was not able to locate a copy of Mrs. .Phillips’ book which is out of print.

NEW LAND By Dorothy Graham Gast





Labor began violently on a December night nearly ten weeks into the voyage. Women passengers tried to send John up on deck, but he stayed and stroked her brown and held her hand and talked about the farm they would soon carve out of the wilderness. After dawn the baby was born, so tiny and weak the first wail sounded like a kitten. John cuddled him inside his coat while Elizabeth sipped hot broth to give her strength. The baby’s frail -ness, the shock of birth, and the cold were too much. He died at noon and the tiny body was tenderly wrapped and given to the sea.

Days later  John shivered in the penetrating winds and searched the western horizon. The cold was almost as painful as the last weeks had. been. Although the baby had only lived hours, their grief was as great as if they had cuddled and loved and cared for it for years.       She just lies there, he thought. Her gray-green eyes have lost their fire and she is pale as death. I hope she can get her fighting spirit back soon. We’ll need all the fight we can muster to clear land and start a crop.

Low on the western horizon the sun broke through. The ship and the mood brightened simultaneously. “Land ho,” came the long awaited call from the crow’s nest. “Where away?” responded the officer of the deck. Bundled figures from all over the ship made their way to the rail for a first look as their new land.

John hurried to tell Elizabeth the news. She had pulled herself to a sitting position when he reached her. “Is it really true?” she asked. His embrace answered her question. He rejoiced in her first positive response in days.        “We’ve made it. We’ll start the year 1773 in our new land.” he said.

They arrived December 20, 1772, but they were quarantined for fifteen days because small pox had broken out and several children had died. They went before grand court for their acreage allotment on January 6, 1773.


The original house of John Cork, built in 1775 still stands about a mile and a half off South Carolina highway #321 in the Woodward community in a field surrounded by woods. Picture by John Graham, June 2004

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