According to George F Peacock in his 1887 manuscript "History of the Peacock Family" the progenitor of the Peacocks of New Jersey was said to be a John Peacock born on the 10th. August 1698 in Bridgend, Melrose, Scotland.
Did Bridgend in Melrose exist in 1698 and were there any Peacock's?
Records in the Origines Parochiales Scotiae, Melrose Parish Register 1642-1820 and Thomas Pennant's "Tour of Scotland" 1769 and 1772 (Vol. iv.,p.265) would appear to support the account given by George F Peacock.
After being tricked by sailors in Melrose to board a ship bound for the USA, John Peacock was sold by the Captain to John Gosling, a justice of the peace. Squire Gosling had a milling business and there is a record of a John Peacock sawing the first log at Friendship Mill, Melford in 1714. He was married by Squire Gosling in 1723 to Elizabeth Prickitt, daughter of Zachariah and Aletheia. John died of dropsy on 25th. June 1759 and was buried in the Episcopal yard at Mount Holly, Burlington Co., New Jersey, where a stone marks his grave. His wife Elizabeth died on the 20th. April 1774 and was buried in the Peacock Family Burying Ground at Chairville.
The origins of the Parish of Melrose in Origines Parochiales quotes directly from Pennant's book of 1772, " At a place called Bridgend stood till within these few years a large pier, the remaining one of four which formed here a bridge over the Tweed. In it was a gateway large enough for a carriage to pass through, and over that a room, 27 feet by15, the residence of the person who took the tolls. This bridge was not formed with arches, but with great planks laid from pier to pier."
It was placed at the point where the "Girthgate" crossed the River Tweed. Pilgrims visiting Melrose Abbey from the north approached by a road known as the girthgate, which led from Soutra Hospice by Colmslie, near the centre of the northern portion of the parish and across the Tweed to the bend. It seems to have had the privilege of sanctuary. It crossed the river at Bridgend, one mile west of Darnick. It is quite possible that the Peacocks were at some point the collectors of the toll for crossing the bridge.
The Melrose Parish Register of births and marriages does not record the birth of John Peacock,1698, however there are Peacock marriages prior to and around 1698. In 1692 a John Pekah (Peacock) married a Marion Dick and on the 4th. January 1698, John Peaco (Peacock) had a son Andrew, witnesses were John Maban and R. Hislop.There is no known relationship between these events. Prior to this in 1655 a John Breadie married Jenet Peaco (Peacock), in 1656 Andrew Peacocks married Margaret Thomson and in 1691 a James Pekah married Isobell Wilsone. While the name Peacock was not common in this part of the borders there were obviously several families around the time of John's birth.
All the evidence suggests that the manuscript by George F Peacock is based on facts passed down the generations of Peacocks in New Jersey.
Below is a copy of Joan Blaeu's map of Tweedale with the Sheriffdom of Ettrik Forest (1596-1673),
taken from Timothy Pont's original. It shows Briggend on the south side of the River Tweed close to Melrose and was in existance until c.1850.
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