The Bobbitt Family In America

2


  

The record is from colonial land grants, book 8, page 481. The language is different from present day usage. There are some phrases, with a few words of introduction, which are to be understood. With the aid of the Archives staff, the grant reads:

TO ALL, to whom these presents shall come, Greeting in Our Lord God Everlasting, WHEREAS, it doth please Our Soverign Lord, KING CHARLES II, Now, Know ye that, I Lord Governor, WILLIAM BERKLEY, appointed by the King, Governor of this Commonwealth etc.... ; Give, and Grant, unto the said WILLIAM BOBBITT, a divident of land, containing ninety six acres, three roods, 24 poles, on the south side of the Appomattox River, in Charles City, County, extending as followeth.

1, begining at a point at a hickory, near Mr. Whittington, thence along, his line 200 poles, along Mr. Coopers, thence along his line to a corner, continueing by the same course, 40 poles to a small red oak, near by Cattail Branch, thence along the line 80 degrees; 80 poles to a head of a valley, to a white oak marked four ways, 80 degrees; 56 poles, to Mr. Whittington, thence along his line, then 20 poles along his line, northeast; by 80 degrees; 296 poles; north 6 poles; to the place aforementioned. The said land being due by transportation of two persons into this colony, to have and to hold etc...

Dated this day, the 27th day of October, 1673.

Wittnesses: John Leader, Richard Tonstall.

There is no proof that William Bobbitt was married in England.   Therefore, the first sentence is an assumption and, also, the fourth sentence is an assumption. - K.B.

William Bobbitt and his wife paid their transportation to the Virginia colony and received fifty acres of land for each. The grants had to be made to the head of the family or to a single man. Women could not receive land grants. We know from this land patent that William Bobbitt and his wife did not have any children when they arrived into the colony, or they would have received additional land for the children.

It is the first and only record of the Bobbitt family name south of Taunton, Massachusetts. It was the beginning of the records of the Bobbitt family name which have appeared periodically from 1673 throughout the south to the present day.

To me, the patent is a charter of the Bobbitt family in the new country of America. It was the beginning of one of the families who would be part of forming a new nation. It was the beginning of the Bobbitt name on the daily pages of American history.