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Descendants of William Bobbitt
Yvonne
Barrall - genealogist
Generation
No. 1
1.
WILLIAM3
BOBBITT
(JOHN2,
DAN1)1,2
was born 1649 in Glanmorganshire, Wales3, and died 1703 in
Petersburg, Va.3. He married JOANNA
STURDIVANT,
daughter of JOHN
STURDEVANT
and SARAH
HALLOM.
She was born 1652 in Wales.
Notes for WILLIAM
BOBBITT:
Taken from at the State
of Michigan Library on November 6, 1994
Nugent, Nell Marion,
"Cavaliers and Pioneers; Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and
Grants", Volume II 1666-1695, 1977, page 134.
Will. Bobbett, 96 A.,
3R., 24 P., Chas. City Co., S. side Appomatock Riv., neigh Mr. Whittington; on
Major Eps line; and the Cattale Br. 27 Oct. 1673, p 481. Trans of 2 pers: John
Lead, Richard Tonstall.
______________________________________________________________
1649
Charles I is executed; the English Commonwealth (republic) begins.
1649
French artist Georges de La Tour paints Saint Irene Mourning Saint
Sebastian.
1649
Oliver Cromwell suppresses a Catholic rebellion in Ireland.
1673
The Test Act excludes Catholics from public office in England.
1673
Marquette and Jolliet explore the Great Lakes region and the
Mississippi River.
1673
The first mail service in North America is established between New
York and Boston.
1673
Leibniz begins to develop his theories of differential and integral
calculus.
______________________________________________________________
WILLIAM BOBBITT FROM
WALES TO THE VIRGINIA COLONY
"In Virginia there is nothing wanting to make people happy;
there is plenty,
health, and wealth. And let no man
doubt of the
truth of it.
There be many in England, land and seaman, that can
bear witness of it.
And if this plantation be not worth encourage-
ment, let every true
Englishman judge."
"The farmers have
under cultivation many hundred acres of ex-
cellent wheat; their
maize, or Virginia corn, yields an increase
of 500 to 1, and makes
good bread and porridge; they have plenty
barley and six
brew-houses, which brew strong and well flavoured
beer."
The above two
paragraphs were published in 1649 to lure
Englishmen to the
Virginia colony and settle the land for each of his children."
Kingdom of Great
Britain.
The year 1649 was about
the time that William Bobbitt was
born in the
Glanmorganshire area of Wales, near the "Port of
Bristol".
By the time William Bobbitt had reached the age of
paradise.
Edward Bobbitt, a relative of William Bobbitt had gone
to the colony of
Massachusetts in 1640, and no doubt the
stories
that came from all the
colonies were of much interest to the Bobbitt
family in Wales.
The government of
England, in order to encourage the settlement
of the colonies,
offered fifty acres of land to each person who would
pay his own
transportation to the colony. The
fifty acres of land
would be granted to
each person transported, including children and
wives.
Robert Beverly wrote in
his book, "The History and Present
State of
Virginia", published in 1705, Chapter XII, parts 58, 59,
and 60, the following
procedure for obtaining land.
"A right is the
Title any one hath by the Royal Charter,
to fifty acres of land,
in consideration of his persona
transportation into
that country, to settle and remain
there; by this rule
also, a man that removes his family,
is entitled to the same
number of acres, for his wife,
and for each of his
children."
As soon as a person
arrived from England to the Virginia Colony,
he made application for
the land he was entitled. Application was
made to the governor
who had been appointed by the King to make such
grants in his behalf.
It was only necessary to get the captain of
the ship to vouch for
the payment of the passage made by his pass-
engers.
Robert Beverly in
"History And Present State of Virginia",
written in 1705 gives a
description for obtaining land in the new
colony
The history was written just 32 years after the arrival
of William Bobbitt, and
only 2 years after the death of William
Bobbitt
These quotes are from Robert Beverley's history.
"A patent for land
upon survey, is acquired thus.
First, the man proves
his rights; that is, he makes
oath in court, of the
importation of so many persons,
with a list of their
names. This list is then
certified by the clerk
of the court; who examines
into the validity of
them, and files them in that
office, attesting to
them to be regular."
"The survey being
made, a copy thereof is carried
with the certificate of
rights to the secretaries
office, and there, if
there be no objection, a
patent must of course
be made out upon it, which is
presented to the
Governor and Council for them to
pass; the Patentee
having no more to do, but to
send for it when it is
perfected and to pay the fee,
at the first crop, to
the Sheriff of the county, by
whom annually the fees
are collected."
"The patent gives
an estate in fee-simple, upon
condition of paying a
Quit-Rent of twelve pence for
every acre of ground
and of planting and seating
that is to clear,
plant, and tend an acre of ground
with corn, or to build
a house, and keep a stock of
cattle, for one whole
year together upon the land-
after which it is
presumed they will continue the
settlement...."
It was exactly
according to the above procedure that our ancestor,
William
Bobbitt, obtained his land, built his home, and reared
his family.
William Bobbitt could
not have been more than 20 years of age
when he arrived into
the colony. He and his wife were
probably
married in Wales.
They had to be man and wife before the voyage
in order to receive 100
acres of land as husband and wife, for
making the voyage and
paying their own transportation.
The land William
Bobbitt received in 1673 is in present day
Hopewell, Virginia.
William and his family lived on the land
until his death in
1703. His eldest son, William
Bobbitt Junior, sold
the land on May 12,
1703. The deed was recorded in
Prince George
County, Virginia.
The laws of the colony, guided the descendants
of William Bobbitt in
obtaining and cultivating land until after
the American
Revolution.
William Bobbitt cleared
his land, built his home, Cultivated
the soil, and reared
his family on the 94 acres granted to him by
the King.
On June 10, 1702, William Browne, took a list of tithables
ln Southwark Parish of
Surry County. This list was taken
29 years
after William had
received his land grant and on June 10, 1702
was living on the same
land.
"William Bobbitt,
94 acres of land, O sons over 16"
From October 27, 1673
until June 10, 1702 William had reared his
famlly.
His sons were grown and had left home.
William and his wife
were content to live on
their first home-place in America.
The William and Mary
Quarterly, volume 2, page 3, second series,
gives an interesting
account of the land of William Bobbitt.
"On November 12,
1723, John Peterson of Prince George
County, the Bristol
Parish, to John Fitzgerald of the
same (Parish), for 200
pounds, water grist mill and
corn mill, called
Fragghole Mill on Bailey creek, in
Prince George County,
in Parish and state aforesaid,
three tracts of land in
the Parish and County aforesaid."
" 95 acres of
land, purchased from John Peterson, the
feoffer, of Wlilliam
Bobbitt Senior, by deed, May 12,
father of said William
Bobbitt Junior, by patent on
October 27, 1673 and
descended to said William Bobbitt
Junior, as heir at law
to his said father. " (Prince
George County Records,
Vol ume 1713, page 28.)
William Bobbitt Senior
died in 1703 and the law of English
primogeniture
prevailed. After William Bobbitt
Junior sold the land
of his father, he
purchased 90 acres of land on June 18, 1712, and
245 acres of land on
December 6, 1718 on the north side of Rocky
Run in Prince George
County near the border of present day Dinwiddie
County, south of
Petersburg Virginia.
We do not know the
maiden name of the wife of William Bobbitt
Senior, but believe it
was Joanna Sturdivant and that she was called
"Anna".
The Sturdivant and Bobbitt family came to the colony at the
same time and the two
families were related but the records are not
clear as to the exact
relationship.
William Bobbitt Senior
died in 1703 a member of the Church of
England.
He is believed to have been buried in the church yard of
the "Ferry
Chapel" of Bristol Parish. His
grave has been calculated
to be under the old
Norfolk and Western Railroad station in the city
of Petersburg Virginia.
His tiny plantation was in the present day
city of Hopewell
Virginia.
As near as can be
determined from the history of Bristol
Parish, the "Ferry
Chapel" was located in the present day city
of Petersburg,
Virginia. The chapel was near the
ferry used for
crossing the Appomattox
river, and for this reason has called the
"Ferry
Chapel". The place of worship
was surrounded by a cemetery
and in this cemetery is
where W!illiam Bobbitt and probably his
wife were interred in
long ago forgotten graves. The
Norfolk and
Western Railroad
Station was built on the cemetery space before the
war between the states.
William Bobbitt born in
1649 in Wales, came to the colony in
1673, reared his family
on a small farm, and died in 1703.
In the year of 1703, a
list of tithables was taken for the
combined counties of
Charles City and Prince George. The
inventory
of the counties
according to the list of tithables was:
161,239
acres of land
4,045 total number of
white souls
1,406 number of
tithables (males over 16)
2,639 women and
children
625 members of the
militia
203 horses
Robert Beverly wrote,
"That a true account of all these
tithables may be had,
they are annually listed at crop
time, by the justices
of each county respectively; and
the masters of families
are obliged under great penalties,
then to deliver to
those Justices, a true list of all the
tithable persons in
their families."
In 17O3, Prince George
county covered all of present day,
Dinwiddie, Brunswick,
and a large part of Lunenburg counties.
With only 1,406 males
over 16 years of age, it is easy to
believe that many of
the people were relatives of each other. It
is easy to believe that
the more common names of Green, Jones, and
Smith, were relatives
of the same family names. Certainly
the
less common names were
all members of the same family.
The names in the parish
records, land deeds, and tax lists,
are useful
for specifying locations and possible relationships
of our ancestors during
the early periods of our history.
Many of the names in
these early records are the wives, in-la
and cousins of the
Bobbitt family members and their daughters.
We
may never know the
exact relationship between the other family names
and the Bobbitt name,
but we can be sure their names were related
Chronologically the
names and the records can be followed
through the counties of
Virginia into the counties of North Carolina.
In 1673 Charles City
County covered an area of Virginia which
extended south of the
James river to the border of North Carolina,
and extended west to
the Blue Ridge mountains. To the
east of this
location was Surry
County which was established in 1652 and extended
along the James river
to the coast..
It has been a puzzle to
me that William Bobbitt Senior our
ancestor from Wales,
was in a list of tithables taken by William
Browne on June 10, 1702
in Surry County. I have discovered
that the
extent of a parish did
not take the same boundary lines as those of
a County.
The Surry county line, the Bristol Parish line and the
Southwark Parish line
were all very close and sometimes within the
territory of Charles
City County. Very little of our
history of the
Bobbitt family concerns
Surry County. Our history is within
the pres-
sent day boundaries of
Prince George County and Sussex County and it
ls mostly concerned
with Bristol Parish and Albermarle Parish.
The
County of Prince George
was formed out of Charles City County in the
year of 1704.
According to the
records of land patents in Charles City County
the land of William
Bobbitt was recorded in book number 6, page 481
Entries from the same
book and the same year as the entry of our
William Bobbitt are
interesting.
Page 182 WILLIAM
PEOPLES. November 3, 1673. 862 acres
3 roods, 24 poles. On
the south side of James river, part of
the land bounded as
follows: Begining on a line formerly
surveyed for Thomas
Newhouse, thence....to the Birchen swamp.
Page 446, EDWARD
BIRCHETT. March 15, 1673. 351
acres, 32 Poles.
On the south side of
Appomattox river, adjoining the land of
HENRY BATT and JAMES
THWEATE. (This name also Threwitt)
Page 466 THE PARISH OF
WESTOPHER. August 8, 1673 93 acres,
1 rood, 8 poles.
On the NORTH side of the Appomattox river.
Page 480 HUGH lEE.
October 28, 1673. 374 acres 2 poles. On
the south side of
Appomattox river. Begining.-+to the
Blackwater.
Page 480 HENRY BATTS
AND JOHN STURDIVANT. October 28, 1673.
3528 acres on the south
side of the Appomattox river, on the
second branch of the
Blackwater.
Page 481 JOHN MAIES.
October 27, 1673. 89 acres,
23 poles
on the south side of
Appomattox river. Begining at the
Esterly
end of ye long slash,
enigh Samuel Woodward's head line.
Page 481 WILLIAM
BOBBITT. October 27, 1673. 96
acres, 3 roods,
24 poles.
On the south side of the Appomattox river
Page 484, FRANCIS
WHITTINGTON, October 30, 1673. 1200
acres-
On the south side of
Appomattox river. Begining at the
polnt
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 Black
water 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 import-
ant 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.
On November 12, 1723, a
deed was recorded in Prince George
County Virginia which
tells part of the story of the early Bobbitt
family.
Land Book of 1723, page 658.
John Peterson of
Bristol Parish, to John Fitzgerald
of the same Parish, all
that water grist or corn mill
call Froghole Mill on
Bailey's Creek, 118 acres and
is bounded as by deed
dated January 26, 1677 from
Francis Whittington to
John Peterson senior,deceased,
which descended to said
John Peterson, as heir at law,
on part of which land
the mill stands. Another tract
of land adjoins and
contains 60 acres as in deed dated
October 11, 1703 from
Henry Batts to John Peterson, the
said tract of land had
descended to Henry Batts from
his father Henry Batts
Senior. The other tract of land
of 95 acres, was
purchased by John Peterson from William
Bobbitt (Junior) by
deed on May 12, 1703, it being land
on which the said
Bobbitt then lived, and was granted
to William Bobbitt
(Senior), father of the said William
Bobbitt Junior, by
patent on October 27, 1673 and des-
cended to William
Bobbitt Junior as heir at law.
Witnesses: Henry Wood
Joshua Irby
Francis Poythress
(si gned ) JOHN PETERSON
Note the names of Henry
Batts and Francis Whittington in the list
of land grants and in
the deeds recorded in Prince George County.
All
of these land grants
were made at about the same time that our Willian
Bobbitt received his
land grant in 1673.
Francis Whittington,
Henry Batts, and William Bobbitt had land
on the south side of
the Appomattox River, and on the south side of
the James River....at
the head of Baileys Creek, on the second branch
of the Blackwater
River, near Cattail Branch. The
land today is in the
Arlington section of
the city of Hopewell Virginia. It
is bounded by
state route 36 on the
north, and route 156 on the west, and Bailey's
Creek on the south.
Froghole Mill tells
some of the story of the Bobbitt family and
in the history that
follows it is evident that many members of the
family were trained in
running mills. The family in
Pittsylvania
County Virginia had a
mill and the family in Warren County North Caro-
lina had a mill.
There is little doubt that William Bobbitt Senior
was a skillful yoeman
from Wales and knew exactly how to serve the
needs of the early
settlers in the Virginia colony. His
service was
the means by which he
was able to raise his family on what even in
his time was a small
acreage for Supporting a family.
I do not believe that
any members of the family were living in
Prince George County by
1760.
In 1673 the political
life of the Virginia colony was stable.
The Indians seemed
content and the government was seeking settlers
for the vast areas of
land.
This serenity did not
last long and in 1674 the small planters
were much aggravated by
the Parish taxes the quitrents, and poll tax.
In fact it was the
taxation problem that started Nathaniel Bacon Jun-
ior on his
"rebellion". By the year
1675 William Bobbitt was in the
exact middle of Bacon's
Rebellion and the Indians had become hostile.
There is nothing in the
records to indicate that William Bobbitt
had anything to do with
Bacon's Rebellion. William paid his
taxes
and held on to his land
grant of 95 acres-
Not far from where
William Bobbitt lived, was the small plantat-
ion of Thomas
Jefferson, the great grandfather of our president Thomas
Jefferson.
Jefferson lived on 167 acres of land near the so called
falls of the James
river and near the plantation of William Byrd.
The
William Byrd plantation
was the real trading center of the area and
it was the place that
most of the small planters took their tobacco
for market and shipment
to England.
Robert Beverly gives us
a picture of the time, ''They have in
each Parish a
convenient church, built either of timber, brick, or
stone, and decently
adorned with every thing necessary for the cele-
bration of divine
service."
"If a Parish be of
greater extent than ordinary, it hath gener-
ally a chappel of ease;
and some of the Parishes have two such chap-
els, besides a church,
for the greater convenience of the parishion-
ers.
In these chappels the minister preaches alternately, always
leaving a reader, to
read prayers and a homily, when he can not attend
himself."
"The people are
generally of the Church of England, which is the
religion established by
law in that country, from which there are a
very few dissenters.
Yet liberty of conscience is given to all other
congregations
pretending to christianity, on condition they submit to
all Parish duties.
They have no more than five conventicles amongst
them, namely, three
small meetings of Quakers, and two of Presbyter-
ians."
"The maintenance
for a minister there is appointed by law at
16,000 pounds of
tobacco per year."
William Bobbitt lived
on land located in Bristol Parish and he
and his family attended
one of the "chappels of ease" which was then
located near present
day Petersburg Virginia and called the "Ferry
Chappel" mostly
because it was near a ferry that crossed the Appomatt
ox river.
The Charles City County
court order book has been preserved.
The records date from
1676 to 1679. No members of Wlliam
Bobbitt and
family are recorded
directly or indirectly in the court orders.
We
may conclude from this
that William Bobbitt and his sons were law
abiding citizens who
did not get involved with their neighbors or the
government to the
extent that they had to appear in court.
There are no
indications that William Bobbitt had any political
aspirations or problems
either in Wales or in the Virginia colony.
He apparently did not
come to the colony for religious reasons as the
records show that he
was a member of the established Church of England
and remained so until
his death in 1703. His son William
Bobbitt was
also a member of the
Church of England as it was recorded in 1736 when
the vestry of Bristol
Parish paid William for burying John Dalahny.
It seems likely that
William Bobbitt Senior came to the colony for
the sole purpose of
economic opportunity for himself and his family.
An extensive search to
prove the name of the wife of William
Bobbitt has failed.
His marriage would have been recorded in Wales
and the records there
do not make a positive case for William. We
know that the family in
the colony of Virginia was related in some
way to the Sturdivant
family. It is somewhat significant
that John
Sturdivant received a
land grant on October 28, 1673. The
land that
John received joined
the land that William Bobbitt received on October
27, 1673.
The first Bobbitt female mentioned in the records before
the year of 1679 was
Joanna Bobbitt. Since the sons of
William were
relatives of the
Sturdivants I have concluded that the wife of our
William Bobbitt was
Joanna Sturdivant and from later records she was
called Anna Bobbitt.
John Sturdivant was a young man when he received
his land grant and was
likely the brother of Joanna rather than her
father.
The Bobbitt family and the Sturdivant family had close re-
lationships which
included subsequent marriages to the year of 1750.
One may search hundreds
of pages of colonial records and find
few names of females
mentioned in any way. Females were
not allowed
to buy or sell land.
Females seldom inherited land from their fathers
or husbands.
The maiden names of females were mentioned only in the
marriage records and
few of these records have been preserved. The
females in the Virginia
colony were not taxable, but were sometimes
listed on the tax lists
if they were widowed.
Our civil wars have
destroyed many of the records that would
prove the exactness of
our genealogy and substantiate much of our
family history.
There are questions and answers in the records that
of the people and times
the records are dated will with logic and
mathematics give us
satisfactory answers.
It does not matter how
changeable the story may be as long as
the essence of the
story can be substantiated by the records we are
fortunate to have as
our heritage from history.
Ihe list of tithables
taken by Wllllam Browne on June10, 1702
in Surry County
Virginia, places William Bobbitt Senior as being
born after 1642 or he
would be over 60 years of age, and too old
to be tithable. William
had to be born before the year of 1653 or
he would not have been
old enough to have been married and receive
the land grant of 1673.
We are very much closer to the exact year
of birth, when we say
William Bobbitt was born in 1649.
We know from the
records that William Bobbitt Senior, died
between June 10, 1702
and May 12, 1703. From the records
of the
area, it is certain
that William Bobbitt died in 1703, and probably
a few weeks before his
eldest son, William Bobbitt Junior, sold
the homeplace to John
Peterson.
James Bobbitt of
Hanover County was the youngest son of our
William Bobbitt Senior.
James was a mature man, with land of his
own, and a home of his
own in 1708. He was a respected
member of
Saint Paul's Parish to
the extent that the men who were appointed
by the vestry to take
the list of tithables for the parish were to
meet at the home of
James Bobbitt. James had to be at
least twenty
years of age in 1708.
He would have been born in 1685 or 1686.
James was born in 1685,
married by 1705, and the father of Randolph
Bobbitt, who received a
land grant in 1737 in Hanover County.
Historically the path
from Petersburg Virginia to North Carolina,
went to the city of
present day Halifax, North Carolina. It is the
logical place to find
the Bobbitt name in 1718. John
Green is the
exact name to find
linked with the Bobbitt family of Virginia.
The
Green family is
recorded in the Bristol Parish records. William
Bobbitt Junior is said
to have married Mary Green. By the
date of
November 8, 1725,we
have recorded that John Bobbitt of the Chowan
Precinct in North
Carolina was married to Sarah Green. We
have
calculated the birth of
John Bobbitt of Chowan as being born in 1678
John was the second son
of William Bobbitt Senior to live to maturity
We know from the will
of John Bobbitt that he died in North Carolina
in 1736.