Joseph Allicocke

Joseph Allicocke (alternatively Joseph Allicock or Allicoke ) was an American colonist possibly of mixed African and European descent, and an early leader of the Liberty Boys and Sons of Liberty during the protests against the Stamp Act of 1765.

Biography Allicocke's origins are uncertain. Some records say that he was the son of an Antiguian, likely Captain Syer Allicocke, though in later life he himself claimed to hail from Ireland. Most interesting is the record of Capt. John Montresor, who, in his journals from the 1760s, noted Allicocke to be 'son of a mulatto woman'. It remains unclear whether this was an unfounded rumor being repeated by Montresor, his own spurious assumption – perhaps based on Allicocke's Antiguan origins – or in fact true and simple common knowledge no one else felt worth writing down. where he became involved with the New York Liberty Boys in 1765, and quickly rose to a leadership position alongside John Lamb and Isaac Sears. There, he participated in negotiations with the New Haven Sons of Liberty. With the success of the protests and the overturning of the Stamp Act in 1766, Allicocke was honored with a 21 gun salute

In 1774, he accepted the position of Secretary for the New York Committee of Correspondence, but voluntarily resigned from the position soon after. Although acquitted, the Congress finding that "e had supplied such Provisions inadvertently, and without any design to injure the Country", he nevertheless was briefly forced to flee the city to Antigua in early 1776. and identified as a Loyalist.

On July 8, 1811, his wife Martha died and was buried in Southampton, England. On March 7, 1815, he died and was buried beside her.

Family Allicocke married Martha Jardine on January 31, 1760. She was the daughter of Charles Jardine, a New Yorker of Huguenot ancestry. Her sister Catherine had previously married John Lamb, later one of Allicocke's co-leaders in the Sons of Liberty, in 1755. They had a large family of ten children, which Allicocke would describe as "expensive".