Page 484, FRANCIS WHITTINGTON, October 30, 1673. 1200 acres. on the south side of Appomattox river. Begining at the point of sw

The Bobbitt Family In America

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Page 484, FRANCIS WHITTINGTON, October 30, 1673. 1200 acres on the south side of Appomattox river. Beginning at the point of swamp at ye head of Baylyes Crek. (Baileys Creek)

Page 486, EDWARD BIRCHETT, October 31, 1673. 551 acres, 32 poles, on the south side of Appomattox river, part of the bounded as followeth. Begining at a corner of Henry Batt's land next to JAMES THWEATE. (James Threewit.)

Page 488, RICHARD TAYLOR, October 3, 1673, 1000 acres on the south side from James river, on the Blackwater, where Merchant's Hope begins, at a place named Saw Tree.

All of these patentees probably came to the colony on the same ship with William Bobbitt and his wife. They all lived in the same area. They were members of the same parish and attended the same church for worship.

William Bobbitt and his wife were the youngest of those who applied for land grants in October 1673. They had the least amount of land of all those who were granted land in that month. Note that all of these patents were lands located south of the James river, south of the Appomattox, and were to the head of the Blackwater river. All of this land is in present day Prince George County, Virginia.

Prince George County was formed between 1702 and 1704, from Charles City County. William Bobbitt died in 1703 and the records that should show the settlement of the estate were burned in the war between the states. Some deed and will books were saved and they date consecutively from 1713 until 1728.

In 1714, Prince George County had only 1,040 tithable persons. That is to say that they had only 1,040 males between the ages of 16 and 60.

In the early days of the county, it was divided into four important parishes, Westover, Weyanoke, Martins Brandon, and Bristol. Bristol Parish was the one that our Bobbitt family lived in and were counted as tithables of the parish.

John Peterson sold to John Fitzgerald, land that John Peterson had purchased from his neighbors, including William Bobbitt Junior, and a record of this transaction is in the deed books of Prince George County between 1713 and 1728.

In areas of the south, where so many records were destroyed by the war between the states, one must search not only those records which pertain specifically to one's family name, but to all the records of the period and location where the family is known to have lived.

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