When John Bodkin was born on July 12, 1793, in Pendleton, Virginia, his father, James, was 51 and his mother, Dinah Hicklin, was 57.
John married Jane Curry on June 13, 1811, in Pendleton, Virginia. They had two daughters, Mary Ann and Eliza during their marriage.
They moved westward and in Ohio John abandoned his wife and children. They were able to return to Doe Hill, Highland, Virginia, with the assistance of an uncle Curry.
He died in 1855 in Williamsburg, Whitley, Kentucky, at the age of 62.