Birth: September 28, 1744 Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Death: November16, 1769 Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts
Baptism: February 25, 1930 Salt Lake Temple
Endowment: August 28, 1930 Salt Lake Temple
Son of: Matthew Cox and Elizabeth Russell (Sealed to Parents: February 18, 1926 Manti Temple)
Married: Judith Deland in 1769 (Sealed: June 24, 1954)
Walter married Judith Deland in 1769. He became a tanner in Boston and Cambridge. He and Judith also owned the Covenant. On April 18, 1775 the signal lights were hung in the belfry of the Old North Church on the top of the hill above Grandpa Robert Cox’s home on Prince Street. Paul Revere and the other riders were across the Charles River at Charlestown waiting for that signal. When they saw it, they rode westward through the County of Middlesex towards Lexington alerting the Minute Men and farmers. Samuel Cox, Walter’s younger brother, was among those Minute Men. The following day Samuel Jr. and his stepmother Jemima hid in the cellar at their home on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge and watched the British Red Coats march by on their way to Lexington. Walter and Judith had two children born to them during the war. Their third child was born only a month after the fight at Bunker Hill. Family tradition says that one of Walter’s brothers, probably Benjamin Cox, was the last man to leave the hill. He was loading his cannon when a British officer came close enough to say, “We have you now.” Cox replied, “Not yet.” Cox fired his cannon and with it retreated down the hill. Walter, at that time, had moved his family to Lexington for safety. Before the British took Bunker Hill they burned much of Charlestown. They sold property in Cambridge in 1783 and 1786. There were financial problems in the family. He and Judith must have separated. Tradition says that Walter moved to New York. Judith must have gone back to Charlestown.
Submitted by Ginger D. Vandenburg, 2010