The Gookins of County Kent, England

Brothers Thomas, Vincent and Daniel Gookin were born in county Kent in the late 1500's. Vincent and Daniel were to travel to Ireland and settle in Cork by 1616. See The Gookins of County Cork Daniel would also attempt a settlement at Newport News in Virginia in 1621 which was wiped out by natives in 1622 after which he returned to Ireland. Daniel's son Daniel Jr. had been born in 1612, lived in Ireland, had settled in Virginia, been present at the overrunning of the settlement, returned to Ireland with his father and served in the militia in Kent as a young adult. In 1641 Captain Daniel Gookin returned to Virginia with his wife and infant son and settled on as estate of 3,900 acres on the Rappahanock River but re-settled at Annapolis, Maryland in 1643. That line of Gookins of Maryland has continued on into modern times. (ref.: Major General Daniel Gookin (1612 - 1686/87) by Richard N. Gookins)

The Early History of The Gookins of Kent

The earliest known in the direct line of descent would be Arnold Gookin of Ickham, co. Kent as documented in the 1619 Visitation of Kent. The College of Arms recorded him as "Arnoldus Cokeine alias Gookeine of Ickham in Kent" in the record of the bearings granted to his grandson John Gookin of Ripple Court, Kent in 1609. It's also interesting that the small community of Ickham was also home to a Boles family in the 13th and 14th century. See The Boles of Ickham.

Much earlier, according to Hasted's History of Kent, Cokyn's Hospital in Canterbury was founded in 1199 by William Cokyn. An Edmund Cokyn is on record as the Member of Parliament for Canterbury in 1343, 1345 and 1353. A citizen of Canterbury named John Colkin built a seat known as "Colkins" at Boughton-under-Blean in the early 1300's and a tombstone at the Boughton church memorializes Johannis Colkin who died April 18, 1405.

The name is recorded as Golkyn in 1548, as Goolkyn and Goolken in 1566, as Gowkin in 1587 but mostly as Gookyn or Gookin after 1571. Arnold's son Thomas Gookin, lived in Bekesbourne, three miles east of Canterbury and adjacent to the parish of Ickham. Thomas had one son that we know of, John, who had four sons. The two youngest of his sons, Vincent and Daniel, settled in Ireland. Vincent built up a rich estate there and Daniel went on to establish a colony in America. See The Gookins of County Cork

See The Family Tree of the Gookins of Kent