This is a VERY long list of Bobbitts! It will take a LONG time to load onto your computer. Use this list for comparisons with your own.
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.
The birth of Miles
Bobbitt recorded in the Bristol Parish records
in 1731, indicates that
Lewis Bobbitt, father of Miles, was to young
to be a son of William
Bobbitt Senior. We can find in the
early
records only three
Bobbitt names who could possibly qualify as sons
of William Bobbitt
Senior from Wales. The three sons
were William
Bobbitt Junior, John
Bobbitt of Chowan, and James Bobbitt of Hanover
There was undoubtedly a
number of daughters who married into other
families of the area.
It is in the records that many of the Bobbitt
males had cousins of
other family names, and these would have to be
from the married
daughters of Wlilliam Bobbitt Senior.
There is substantial
evidence that members of the Bobbitt family
fathered more daughters
than sons from 1673 until after 1750.
The above is mostly all
taken from WFT CD Vol
According
to Josh Bobbitt on the internet, William Bobbitt and his brother John (also
known as Roger) were accused of horse thieving in Wales and chased to England.
They cleared their names and ended up sailing to America out of a port near
Glamorganshire, Wales, possibly even Liverpool. William sailed with his wife
Joanna Sturdivant, and his brother as well, although his brother drops off the
face of the earth as far as I can see, after they reach America.
More About WILLIAM
BOBBITT:
Immigration: 1673, to
Prince George County, Va.
Property: Owned
property on the Appomattox River
Children of WILLIAM
BOBBITT
and JOANNA
STURDIVANT
are:
2.
i. WILLIAM4
BOBBITT, JR,
b. 1675, Charles City County, Va.; d. 1738, Warren County, NC.
3.
ii. JOHN
BOBBITT,
b. 1678, Charles City County. Va.; d. May 07, 1736, Chowan, N.C..
iii. JAMES
BOBBITT3,
b. 16803; d. 17403.
Generation
No. 2
2.
WILLIAM4
BOBBITT, JR
(WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)3,4
was born 1675 in Charles City County, Va.5, and died 1738 in
Warren County, NC5. He
married MARY GREEN5
16955. She was born February 14, 1682/83 in Abingdon Parish,
Gloucester County, Va., and died in
Warren County, NC6.
Notes for WILLIAM
BOBBITT, JR:
1675
Conflict begins between the Indians under King Philip and New
England settlers .
1675
The Prussians under Frederick William defeat the Swedes at Fehrbellin.
1675
The Royal Observatory is established at Greenwich.
1675
Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza finishes his Ethics.
1675
English dramatist William Wycherley writes The Country Wife.
______________________________________________________________
WILLIAM BOBBITT JUNIOR
1675 - 1738
Son of William Bobbitt
from Wales
The
laws of primogeniture used in England were also used in
the English colonies.
These laws gave the first born son, the
right to hold or
inherit all the real property of his father. The
will of every man with
a son had to be written with generous gifts
to the eldest son or
the will could be contested in court.
William Bobbitt Junior
inherited the land of his father. The
95 acres that was first
granted William Bobbitt
Senior on October
27, 1673 was left by
law to his first born son, William Bobbitt Jun-
ior.
The 95 acres of land was sold by William Bobbitt Junior to
John Peterson in 1711.
The money received for the sale was used to
purchase additional
land with surveys that were recorced in
Prince George County.
June 1,
1712....."Surveyed for William Bobbitt of Prince George
County, a tract of land
on the south side of
Jones Hole Swamp, in
Prince George County, 90
acres of land. Surveyed
by Robert Bolling."
December 6,
l7l8."surveyed for William Bobbitt of Prince George
County, a tract of
land, on the left side of
Rocky Run, 254 acres.
Surveyed by Robert
Bolling."
Robert Bolling and his
family are frequently mentioned in the
records and history of
Prince George County, from 1661 to 1798.
The Bolling family name
is found in the same locations and among
the records of the
Bobbitt family the land granted to John Bobbitt
of Sussex County,
adjoins the land of Robert Bolling in1798 and
was described in the
land transfer from Joel Newman to John Bobbitt.
William Bobbitt Junior
was the eldest son of William Bobbitt
Senior, from Wales.
He was a brother of John Bobbitt of Chowan
Precinct in North
Carolina. He was a brother of James
Bobbitt of
Hanover County,
Virginia.
William Bobbitt Junior
married Mary Green, who was a sister of
Sarah Green, the wife
of John Bobbitt of Chowan. William
Bobbitt
born in 1675, married
in 1695, and died in 1738. His
children would
have been born between
1695 and 1725. It is evident that
he lived
his entire life in
Prince George County. He was a
tobacco farmer,
a law abiding citizen,
and a member of the established Church of
England.
He had at least three sons and probably several daughters.
Our studies name the
three sons as William Bobbitt Junior,(III)
Lewis Bobbitt, and
James Bobbitt. All three are named
and logically placed by the records of the period.
William Bobbitt III,
was first mentioned by implication in
the records of the
vestry of Bristol Parish. The
vestry decided
on November 15, 1736 to
pay to William Bobbitt Senior, 100 shill-
ings for the burying of
John Dulaney. Or the son of William
Bobbitt Junior could
have lived in the area and been old enough
to cause the vestry to
refer to William as "Senior". We
also
know from this record
that William Bobbitt Junior, referred to as
Senior, was still
living in 1736.
William Bobbitt III was
undoubtedly the eldest son of William
Bobbitt Junior.
He inherited the property purchased on Rocky Run.
We do not know what
happened to this property as the records for
the period were
destroyed in the War between the States. Before
1728, Lewis Bobbitt had
purchased land for himself, which indicated
that Lewis knew that he
would not inherit the land of his father.
James the youngest son
of William Bobbitt Junior, purchased land
in 1752 and had been a
land owner prior to that date.
We know very little
about William Bobbitt III. His name
seems to have been
confused with the name of BOBLITT. Several
persons with the name
of Boblitt appear in the records in the time
and location of William
Bobbitt III. Descendants appear in
the
county of Bedford,
parts of Kentucky, and Ohio. In
some instances
the name is Boblitt and
in some instances the same families are
listed as Bobbitt.
It is a common mistake in the spelling of the
name, and in its
pronunciation at the present time.
William Bobbitt III
would have been born between 1695 and 1700
He could not have been
the husband of Lucy Bobbitt who left a will in
Bedford County in 1788
in which she left property to her son, Randle,
"not yet of lawful
age". William
Bobbitt III is said to have
married Mary Hill but I
can find no evidence or record to support
this information.
It is likely that the William Bobbitt who moved
to and lived in
Baltimore County, Maryland was a son of William
Bobbitt III.
There are no other Bobbitt families or names that
can be positively
identified as sons of William III, nor are there
any ancestors left free
without a connection to one of the early
established families.
There is nothing in the records to indicate
that William Bobbitt
III went to North Carolina.
Lewis Bobbitt, the
second son of William Bobbitt Junior, is a
part of our family
studies in North Carolina. Lewis
was born in 1704.
The first mention of
Lewis Bobbitt was in the land patent of Richard
Jones, in which it is
stated that one of the boundaries of the prop-
erty of Richard Jones
was a corner of Lewis Bobbitt's land, in the
county of Prince
George. We know that Lewis Bobbitt
owned this land
prior to September 28,
1728, the date of the Richard Jones patent.
Lewis Bobbitt is next
recorded in the Bristol Parish records.
The birth of his son,
Miles Bobbitt, on January 22, 1731 is entered,
with the notation that
he was the son of Lewis and Elizabeth Bobbitt.
Lewis Bobbitt left his
property in Virginia in 1753 to move
to North Carolina.
The history of Lewis Bobbitt is part of the
family history of North
Carolina. Lewis was the father of
three
sons , Miles Bobbitt,
William Bobbitt, and Lewis Bobbitt Junior.
The sons of Lewis and
Elizabeth Bobbitt reached their maturity in
what
is today Warren County,
North Carolina.
James Bobbitt son of
William Bobbitt Junior, purchased land
1752 in what was then
Lunenburg County. Later it was
divided
into Halifax County and
there are several records of James Bobbitt
and his family recorded
in Halifax County. The land was
actually
located in what was
formed into Pittsylvania County in 1767.
Landon C. Bell in his
book "Sunlight on the Southside" best
describes what was
happening to the descendants of William Bobbitt
Junior and the
descendants of James Bobbitt, his brother.
"In time a part or
all of the children of some of
the first settlers
moved on into the newer country.
Sometimes they
emigrated by families and groups of fam-
llies, and it would be
difficult to find a Southside
family which did not
sooner or later contribute its
quota of sons and
daughters to the moving tide of pop-
ulation which flowed on
into the south and southwest.
"The road from
Petersburg, by Spains Tavern (in
present day Dinwiddie
County), crossing the Nottoway
River at Cross' Bridge,
thence to North Meherrin River,
crossing at Hawkins'
Bridge, the South Meherrin River
at Barry's Bridge and
thence to Skipwith's Ferry on the
Roanoke, and thence
southward into North Carolina, was
one of the notable
roads by which uncounted numbers,
from the valleys of the
James and Appomattox, traveled
into North Carolina.
"In 1738 the
General Assembly of Virginia passed an
act designed to
encourage the settlement of lands lying
upon the Roanoke River
"on the southern boundary of the
colony", which
lands the act declared were "for the most
part unseated and
uncultivated .
"The rapidity of
the settlement of the territory is
indicated by a few
outstanding facts, such as that with-
in seven years there
was a population of such numbers
in the new section so
remote from Brunswick court house
that a new county,
Lunenburg, had to be created, and
this area in turn was
subdivided into new counties as,
Halifax in 1752,
Bedford in 1754, and Pittsylvania in
1767."
Taken from:
Bobbitt, John W.,
"The Bobbitt Family in America". published by John Bobbitt, 1985,
Pages 647 - 649.
______________________________________________________________
Children of WILLIAM
BOBBITT
and MARY
GREEN
are:
i. WILLIAM5
BOBBITT
III7,8, b. 17029; d. 17789.
4.
ii. LEWIS
BOBBITT, SR.,
b. 1704, Charles City County, Va.; d. 1769.
5.
iii. JAMES
BOBBITT,
b. 1707, Rocky Run, Prince George County, Va.; d. March 13, 1761, Halifax
County, Va. (present day Pittsylvania Co., Va).
iv. THOMAS
BOBBITT10.
3.
JOHN4
BOBBITT
(WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)11,12,13
was born 1678 in Charles City County. Va.14, and died May 07,
1736 in Chowan, N.C.14. He
married SARAH GREEN15,16
170317. She was born 1689 in Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, Va.17,
and died Bef. May 07, 173617.
Notes for JOHN
BOBBITT:
Posted by Doug Tucker on March 17, 1998 at 21:27:50:
In Reply to: Bobbits of
VA and NC posted by Mickey Fournier on November 10, 1997
at 07:27:13:
Have run across a John
and Sarah Bobbitt who lived in Occoneechee Neck along
north bank of Roanoke
River (Bertie Precinct, NC) in late 1720's. I am
interested in their
neighbors, Edward Clark (Clerk) and Hezehiah Massey. The
Sturdivant and Green
families also lived in Occoneechee Neck area at that time.
Most of the family
heads were Indian traders. Let me know if this fits with your
Bobbitt information. If
it does, I'l dig out my notes and see what I have on the
Bobbitts.
"The Bobbitt
Family in America" by John W, Bobbitt in Washington DC
Posted by Patti Thompson on November 25, 1998 at 12:25:31:
In Reply to: Mary
GREEN/Willliam BOBBITT of VA posted by Mickey Fournier on
January 18, 1998 at
16:31:38:
My source, 'The Bobbitt
Family in America' by John. W. Bobbitt, 1985,
Washington, DC, does
not connect Mary Green to William Bobbitt. It says that
John Bobbitt of Chowan
N.C., son of William Bobbitt and Joanna Sturdivant, was
b. 1768 in Bristol
Parrish VA. and married Sarah Green b. c. 1780. They had
children William and
Thomas, born 1704, 1712 respectively. What is your source
of information?
Posted by Della Yocum on May 20, 1999 at 11:00:56:
In Reply to: Re: Mary
GREEN/Willliam BOBBITT of VA posted by Patti Thompson on
November 25, 1998 at
12:25:31:
I don't mean to
contradict you, but I have the same book and it does have Mary
GREEN on
pages 22, 467, and 647.
The marr. of Mary GREEN and Wm. BOBBITT, Jr. was
supposed to have taken
place in 1695 in Charles City Co., VA. Page 647 says Mary
was the sister of Sarah
GREEN who marr. John BOBBITT of Chowan.
Chowan was a precinct
in NC.
Page 50 gives a little
more clues to the GREEN family when it states that John
BOBBITT of Chowan had a
brother-in-law who "lived on
an adjoining
plantation" and gives the text
of the following as
proof:
A deed (the first
record of BOBBITT in NC) is
recorded in Chowan
Precint, record #1182, page 643 (present day Halifax Co.,
NC):
"John Green of
Chowan Precinct, to John
Bobbitt of the same
precenct, planter, on
October 21, 1718, for
the love and affection I bear my brother-in-law, 100
acres of land, on the
north side of the
Morattock River, on the
Camion Meadows,
joining the Shokeko
Meadow, and the said
John Green. Witnessed
by: Robert Hicks,
John Nairne."
I would like to hear
from descendants of this
John GREEN. I would
like to find the parents
of this John and his
sisters, Sarah and Mary.
Della
More About JOHN
BOBBITT:
Fact 3: November 06,
1736, Will proved
Children of JOHN
BOBBITT
and SARAH
GREEN
are:
6.
i. WILLIAM5
BOBBITT,
b. 1704, Prince George County, Va.; d. 1786.
7.
ii. THOMAS
BOBBITT,
b. 1708, Va.; d. 1759, Sussex County, Va..
iii. FRANCIS
BOBBITT,
b. 171017; m. MASSEY?17.
iv. MARY
BOBBITT,
b. 171517.
8.
v. AMEY
BOBBITT,
b. 1718, Sussex County, Va..
Generation
No. 3
4.
LEWIS5
BOBBITT, SR.
(WILLIAM4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)18,19 was born 1704 in Charles City County, Va.20, and died
176920. He
married ELIZABETH
MOORE20
Bef. 1725 in Bristol Parish, Prince George County, Va.
Children of LEWIS
BOBBITT
and ELIZABETH
MOORE
are:
i. MILES6
BOBBITT,
b. January 22, 1730/31, Dinwiddie County, Va.; d. 1794; m. MARY POWELL.
ii. UNKNOWN
BOBBITT,
m. JOHN
EDWARDS.
iii. MARTHA
W. BOBBITT,
m. WILLIAM
PERSON.
iv. WILLIAM
BOBBITT,
b. Abt. 1738; d. 1825; m. MARTHA
TURNER.
v. AMY
BOBBITT,
b. 1741; d. Aft. 1790; m. NIMROD
WILLIAMS,
1762, Granville County, NC.
vi. LEWIS
BOBBITT, JR.20,
b. 174220; m. MARY
PERSON20.
vii. ELIZABETH
BOBBITT,
m. CHRISTOPHER
ROBERTSON.
5.
JAMES5
BOBBITT
(WILLIAM4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)20
was born 1707 in Rocky Run, Prince George County, Va.20, and
died March 13, 1761 in Halifax County, Va. (present day Pittsylvania Co., Va)20.
He married ELIZABETH DALTON20
1734 in Va.. She was born 1715.
Notes for JAMES
BOBBITT:
1675
Conflict begins between the Indians under King Philip and New
England settlers .
1675
The Prussians under Frederick William defeat the Swedes at Fehrbellin.
1675
The Royal Observatory is established at Greenwich.
1675
Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza finishes his Ethics.
1675
English dramatist William Wycherley writes The Country Wife.
______________________________________________________________
WILLIAM BOBBITT JUNIOR
1675 - 1738
Son of William Bobbitt
from Wales
The laws of
primogeniture used in England were also used in
the English colonies.
These laws gave the first born son, the
right to hold or
inherit all the real property of his father. The
will of every man with
a son had to be written with generous gifts
to the eldest son or
the will could be contested in court.
William Bobbitt Junior
inherited the land of his father. The
95 acres that was first
granted William Bobbitt
Senior on October
27, 1673 was left by
law to his first born son, William Bobbitt Jun-
ior.
The 95 acres of land was sold by William Bobbitt Junior to
John Peterson in 1711.
The money received for the sale was used to
purchase additional
land with surveys that were recorced in
Prince George County.
June 1,
1712....."Surveyed for William Bobbitt of Prince George
County, a tract of land
on the south side of
Jones Hole Swamp, in
Prince George County, 90
acres of land. Surveyed
by Robert Bolling."
December 6,
l7l8."surveyed for William Bobbitt of Prince George
County, a tract of
land, on the left side of
Rocky Run, 254 acres.
Surveyed by Robert
Bolling."
Robert Bolling and his
family are frequently mentioned in the
records and history of
Prince George County, from 1661 to 1798.
The Bolling family name
is found in the same locations and among
the records of the
Bobbitt family the land granted to John Bobbitt
of Sussex County,
adjoins the land of Robert Bolling in1798 and
was described in the
land transfer from Joel Newman to John Bobbitt.
William Bobbitt Junior
was the eldest son of William Bobbitt
Senior, from Wales.
He was a brother of John Bobbitt of Chowan
Precinct in North
Carolina. He was a brother of James
Bobbitt of
Hanover County,
Virginia.
William Bobbitt Junior
married Mary Green, who was a sister of
Sarah Green, the wife
of John Bobbitt of Chowan. William
Bobbitt
born in 1675, married
in 1695, and died in 1738. His
children would
have been born between
1695 and 1725. It is evident that
he lived
his entire life in
Prince George County. He was a
tobacco farmer,
a law abiding citizen,
and a member of the established Church of
England.
He had at least three sons and probably several daughters.
Our studies name the
three sons as William Bobbitt Junior,(III)
Lewis Bobbitt, and
James Bobbitt. All three are named
and logically
placed
by the records of the period.
William Bobbitt III,
was first mentioned by implication in
the records of the
vestry of Bristol Parish. The
vestry decided
on November 15, 1736 to
pay to William Bobbitt Senior, 100 shill-
ings for the burying of
John Dulaney. Or the son of William
Bobbitt Junior could
have lived in the area and been old enough
to cause the vestry to
refer to William as "Senior". We
also
know from this record
that William Bobbitt Junior, referred to as
Senior, was still
living in 1736.
William Bobbitt III was
undoubtedly the eldest son of William
Bobbitt Junior.
He inherited the property purchased on Rocky Run.
We do not know what
happened to this property as the records for
the period were
destroyed in the War between the States. Before
1728, Lewis Bobbitt had
purchased land for himself, which indicated
that Lewis knew that he
would not inherit the land of his father.
James the youngest son
of William Bobbitt Junior, purchased land
in 1752 and had been a
land owner prior to that date.
We know very little
about William Bobbitt III. His name
seems to have been
confused with the name of BOBLITT. Several
persons with the name
of Boblitt appear in the records in the time
and location of William
Bobbitt III. Descendants appear in
the
county of Bedford,
parts of Kentucky, and Ohio. In
some instances
the name is Boblitt and
in some instances the same families are
listed as Bobbitt.
It is a common mistake in the spelling of the
name, and in its
pronunciation at the present time.
William Bobbitt III
would have been born between 1695 and 1700
He could not have been
the husband of Lucy Bobbitt who left a will in
Bedford County in 1788
in which she left property to her son, Randle,
"not yet of lawful
age". William
Bobbitt III is said to have
married Mary Hill but I
can find no evidence or record to support
this information.
It is likely that the William Bobbitt who moved
to and lived in
Baltimore County, Maryland was a son of William
Bobbitt III.
There are no other Bobbitt families or names that
can be positively
identified as sons of William III, nor are there
any ancestors left free
without a connection to one of the early
established families.
There is nothing in the records to indicate
that William Bobbitt
III went to North Carolina.
Lewis Bobbitt, the
second son of William Bobbitt Junior, is a
part of our family
studies in North Carolina. Lewis
was born in 1704.
The first mention of
Lewis Bobbitt was in the land patent of Richard
Jones, in which it is
stated that one of the boundaries of the prop-
erty of Richard Jones
was a corner of Lewis Bobbitt's land, in the
county of Prince
George. We know that Lewis Bobbitt
owned this land
prior to September 28,
1728, the date of the Richard Jones patent.
Lewis Bobbitt is next
recorded in the Bristol Parish records.
The birth of his son,
Miles Bobbitt, on January 22, 1731 is entered,
with the notation that
he was the son of Lewis and Elizabeth Bobbitt.
Lewis Bobbitt left his
property in Virginia in 1753 to move
to North Carolina.
The history of Lewis Bobbitt is part of the
family history of North
Carolina. Lewis was the father of
three
sons , Miles Bobbitt,
William Bobbitt, and Lewis Bobbitt Junior.
The sons of Lewis and
Elizabeth Bobbitt reached their maturity in
what
is today Warren County,
North Carolina.
James Bobbitt son of
William Bobbitt Junior, purchased land
1752 in what was then
Lunenburg County. Later is was
divided
into Halifax County and
there are several records of James Bobbitt
and his family recorded
in Halifax County. The land was
actually
located in what was
formed into Pittsylvania County in 1767.
Landon C. Bell in his
book "Sunlight on the Southside" best
describes what was
happening to the descendants of William Bobbitt
Junior and the
descendants of James Bobbitt, his brother.
"In time a part or
all of the children of some of
the first settlers
moved on into the newer country.
Sometimes they
emigrated by families and groups of fam-
llies, and it would be
difficult to find a Southside
family which did not
sooner or later contribute its
quota of sons and
daughters to the moving tide of pop-
ulation which flowed on
into the south and southwest.
"The road from
Petersburg, by Spains Tavern (in
present day Dinwiddie
County), crossing the Nottoway
River at Cross' Bridge,
thence to North Meherrin River,
crossing at Hawkins'
Bridge, the South Meherrin River
at Barry's Bridge and
thence to Skipwith's Ferry on the
Roanoke, and thence
southward into North Carolina, was
one of the notable
roads by which uncounted numbers,
from the valleys of the
James and Appomattox, traveled
into North Carolina.
"In 1738 the
General Assembly of Virginia passed an
act designed to
encourage the settlement of lands lying
upon the Roanoke River
"on the southern boundary of the
colony", which
lands the act declared were "for the most
part unseated and
uncultivated .
"The rapidity of
the settlement of the territory is
indicated by a few
outstanding facts, such as that with-
in seven years there
was a population of such numbers
in the new section so
remote from Brunswick court house
that a new county,
Lunenburg, had to be created, and
this area in turn was
subdivided into new counties as,
Halifax in 1752,
Bedford in 1754, and Pittsylvania in
1767."
Taken from:
Bobbitt, John W.,
"The Bobbitt Family in America". published by John Bobbitt, 1985,
Pages 647 - 649.
______________________________________________________________
Children of JAMES
BOBBITT
and ELIZABETH
DALTON
are:
i. JOHN6
BOBBITT20.
ii. JAMES
BOBBITT20,
m. ELIZABETH
MCKENZIE.
iii. RANDOLPH
BOBBITT20.
iv. DINAH
BOBBITT20,
m. JINNINGS20.
v. ANN
BOBBITT20,
m. HINSON20.
vi. MARY
BOBBITT20.
vii. LAVISA
BOBBITT20.
9.
viii. WILLIAM
BOBBITT,
b. 1744, Prince George County, Va.; d. 1817, Mountain Plains Cem., Hillsville,
Va..
6.
WILLIAM5
BOBBITT
(JOHN4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)21,22,23 was born 1704 in Prince George County, Va., and died 1786.
He married AMY BENNETT24,25,
daughter of RICHARD
BENNETT
and MARY
BEATTY.
She was born 1705 in Edgecombe, N.C..
Children of WILLIAM
BOBBITT
and AMY
BENNETT
are:
10.
i. JOHN
RICHARD6
BOBBITT,
b. 1725, Warren County, N.C.; d. November 1791, Warren County, N.C..
11.
ii. WILLIAM
BOBBITT,
b. 1727, Warren County, N.C.; d. 1798, NC.
iii. AMY
BOBBITT,
b. 1729, Warren County, N.C.; m. (1) JOSEPH
SHEARIN26;
m. (2) NIMROD
WILLIAMS,
March 09, 1762, Granville County, N.C..
7.
THOMAS5
BOBBITT
(JOHN4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)
was born 1708 in Va.26, and died 1759 in Sussex County, Va.26.
He married LUCY JONES26
175126.
Children of THOMAS
BOBBITT
and LUCY
JONES
are:
i. JOHN6
BOBBITT26.
ii. WILLIAM
BOBBITT26.
8.
AMEY5
BOBBITT
(JOHN4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)
was born 1718 in Sussex County, Va.26. She married PETER
THREEWITS26.
He died 180126.
Child of AMEY
BOBBITT
and PETER
THREEWITS
is:
i. JOHN6
THREEWITS26,
b. 174926.
Generation
No. 4
9.
WILLIAM6
BOBBITT
(JAMES5,
WILLIAM4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)27
was born 1744 in Prince George County, Va.27, and died 1817 in
Mountain Plains Cem., Hillsville, Va.27.
He married NANCY ANN
MCKENZIE27
1768 in Pittsylvania County, Va.27, daughter of JOHN
MCKINZIE.
She was born 175327, and died 180727.
Notes for WILLIAM
BOBBITT:
The presumed birthdate
for him is 1744, which may or may not be a few years off the mark.
His wife was named Nancy, and the family researchers suspect she was
Nancy McKenzie, but after the fashion of her day, she was referred to as Ann as
often as Nancy. William was
mentioned in his father's will(Halifax, W.B. 0-131), his parents being James and
Elizabeth Bobbitt. He was taxed in
Pittsylvania in 1767 Clement, Pittsylvania, p.276) and in 1770 he sold a tract
of land in Pittsylvania, the deed describing him as being a resident of
Pittsylvania (D.B.1-421). He is
also mentioned in the parish records as one of the processioners on the Pigg
River in 1768 (Clement, Pittsylvania, p.118).
He came to the New
River Valley in late 1770 or early 1771, for he was taxed in Botetourt in 1771
(Kegley, tithables). It is not
clear at this time exactly where he first made his home. He sold the last of his Pittsylvania property in 1775
(Pittsylvania, D.B. 4-164). He may
have lived for a time on the west side of Big Reed near the site of the
"Camp Virginian" where his son William and son-in-law James Bobbitt
later lived. With equal force it
can be argued that he lived north and west of Hillsville on a stream that even
today is known as Bobbitt's creek which arises near the airport in Carroll and
flows easterly into Little Reed. The answer may be that he lived at both sites
at different times. In 1788 he was
disignated as surveyer of the road, a new road by Craig's Ferry, which seemingly
would have run from present day Pulaski county through the northeastern part of
Carroll and then to the Lead Mines in Wythe county on New River; this road would
have been his likely access to the outside world from Big Reed Island (Summers,
Annals, p.821). Later, in 1790, he
was appointed one of the overseers of the road from Poplar Camp to the Wards Gap
(Summers, annals, p.826), and by that time he obviously was living near the
present Mountain Plains community in Carroll, the site of his final homeplace.
He came to prominence
quickly in Montgomery County. He was recommended as Captain in the county
militia (Summers, Annals, p688) and served as such for four years before he
resigned in 1782 (Summers, Annals, p779). The
Montgomery minutes also contain a claim he made in 1782 for furnishing a steer
for the militia (Summers, Annals, p. 770), although in the interest of
historical accuracy it must be said that the steer was taken from him.
The details of
Bobbitt's four years as militia commander are not known, but they covered the
period when the Revolution was touching western Virginia.
Aaron Collier's pension application makes it plain that his company met a
Bobbitt's house before marching on to the far western Virginia in the
Indian campaign. Again
Collier refers to the company meeting at Bobbitt's house before going to North
Carolina and the battle at Shallow Ford on th Yadkin River.
The implication is that Bobbitt commanded the company on both occasions.
(Collier, Pension File # R2111).
By 1782 William wa a
prosperous man; that year he was taxed with six slaves, five horses and twenty
cattle. In 1793 he attended the
first Grayson Court and stood as surety for the first sheriff of the county
(Grayson, Orders, 1793-1794, p.1). a
few years later he was appointed Justice and for many years sat on the court.
There are many references to him in the minutes, the most memorable being
found in the records for April 1808 (Grason, Orders 1806-1811) on which occasion
he was fined eighty-three cents for having profanely sworn one oath in the
presence of the court.
He sold eight tracts of
land during his lifetime and his heirs sold tow more after his death.
His tracts were scattered over several parts of the county and seem to
have been acquired for the most part for investment purposes. He entered into a
business deal with Moore and Nathan Bell of richond, whereby he secured for them
several land surveys, and years after Bobbitt's death, a suit was brought by the
Bobbitt heirs agains the Bell heirs for Bobbitt's portion of the lands (Grayson,
Chancery File # 137).
William died intestate
in Agust 1817 (Grayson, Chancery File # 14). His estate was appraised in
September, and, when sold, brought the considerable sume of $1830.
(Grayson, W.B. 1-165; W.B. 1-167). It
is not certain where he is buried, but the likely place is th Bobbitt Ceetery at
Mountain Plains. the deeds whereby
his children sold the land and the old chancery records in Grayson furnish a
list of the children: (1) Jane Bobbitt, born perhaps about 1768, maried David
Richardson (some of the old records suggest that her husband may have been named
John). (2) Caleb Bobbitt, born Jan. 5, 1770, probably in Pittsylvania, died June
12, 1830 in Pulaski Conty, Kentucky and married Nancy Blair in 1795. (3) James Bobbitt, born Apl. 27, 1772, and died
Nov. 12, 1853, married Rebecca Day, daughter
of Joseph Day, in 1796. He left for Kentucky about 1804.
(4) Nancy Bobbitt, born about 1773, married Esau Worrell in 1793; she
lived in the 1860's. (5) William
Bobbitt Jr. born about 1774, married Nancy Clifton, lived on Big Reed Island and
moved away about 1841. (6) Rosanna
Bobbitt, born about 1779, died in the 1840's, who married her cousin James
Bobbitt. (7) Elizabeth Bobbitt,
born about 1780, married William Morgan in 1798 or 1799.
(8) Lucy Bobbitt, born about 1784, married Shadrach Collier on Feb. 8,
1803. (9) John Bobbitt, born about
1786, married Nancy Nuckolls on Mch, 26, 1806, and died a little before 1820,
leaving six sons. (10) Robert
Bobbitt, born Oct. 12, 1790, died Dec. 23, 1864, was the tenth and youngest of
the children. He married Dicey
Bullard in 1813.
The above taken from:
Alderman, John Perry,
Carroll 1765-1815 The Settlements, Alderman Books, Box 1255, Hillsville, VA
24343, 1985, pp 77-78.
______________________________________________________________
1744
King George's War begins in North America between Britain and
France.
1744
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab founds the Wahhabi Muslim sect about this
time.
______________________________________________________________
Captain William BOBBITT
Son of James and
Elizabeth Bobbitt
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
SOLDIER
William Bobbitt was the
second son of James and Elizabeth
(Dalton) Bobbitt.
He was born in 1744 in Prince George County
Virginia, in or near
the home of his grandfather William Bobbitt.
In 1759 the family of
William Bobbitt moved to what at that
time was called Halifax
County. In 1767 that section of the
county
became Pittsylvania
County, Virginia. His father, James
Bobitt had
a plantation on the
banks of the Pigg River and Frying Pan Creek.
The land and location
is easily found in a community called Sandy
Level.
The first record of
William Bobbitt is recorded in Halifax
County, Virginia, on
January 6, 1764.
"Timothy Dalton,
and Elizabeth his wife, of the County of
Bedford, and William
Bobbitt of Halifax County, for five
shillings, paid by
William Bobbitt, for 240 acres of land
brother of William.
James Bobbitt, father of John and William
died in 1761.
His mother, Elizabeth (Dalton) Bobbitt was living
with the family of his
brother, John Bobbitt.
James Bobbitt, father
of William Bobbitt, mentioned his son
William Bobbitt, in his
will written on March 13, 1761, and recorded
in Will Book O, page
131 of Halifax County, Virginia.
"I give to my son,
William Bobbitt, that part of the
tract of land, I had of
Timothy Dalton, lying on the
south side of Pigg
River, to him and his heirs and
assigns forever, he
paying likewise to the said James
Bobbitt Junior, the sum
of seven pounds......."
After the death of
James Bobbitt Senior, his sons William and
James Junior lived
together on the above mentioned tract of land.
In the tax lists of
Pittsylvania County they were taxed as living
in the same household.
James Junior and William lived closely
together until James
moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1796.
William married Nancy
McKenzie and James married Elizabeth McKenzie.
The McKenzie women are
believed to have been sisters.
William Bobbitt was
listed with his brother James
Bobbitt
in a list of tithables
taken in 1767 in Pittsylvania County.
In 1768, William
Bobbitt was selected as a member of the parish
vestry for the
processioning of land in Pittsylvania County.
In 1768, William
Bobbitt married Ann McKenzie in Pittsylvania
County Virginia.
In the records Ann is frequently called Nancy.
In almost every land
deed recorded for William Bobbitt, his wife,
Nancy is included in
some way, and what was more unusual for the
time, Nancy frequently
signed the deeds along with William Bobbitt.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1769,
Volume 1, pages 421-423, Pittsylvania County.
"William and Nancy
Bobbitt of the county of Pittsylvania,
to David Ross, of the
county of Goochland...ll acres of
land, on Frying Pan
Creek, for 15 pounds....Tract of land
known as Bobbitt's Mill
Seat...in Pittsylvania County....
Witnesses:
Jonathan Jennings
David Walker, John
Bobbitt,
Joseph Law.
WILLIAM BOBBITT
SS
NANCY BOBBITT
SS
Jonathan Jennings is
believed to have been the brother-in-
law of William and John
Bobbitt. David Walker and Joseph
Law
were members of the
same parish vestry of which William was a
member.
It was after the sale of this land that William and Nancy
Bobbitt moved into what
was then Fincastle County Virginia.
AUGUST 26, 1775, Volume
4, pages 164-165, Pittsylvania County.
"Indenture between
William Bobbett of the county of Fincastle,
of the one part, and
David Ross of the county of Dinwiddie,
of the other
part....for 160 pounds of current money of
Virginia...approximately
87 acres of land on the south side
of Pigg River and
Frying Pan Creek.......
WILLIAM BOBBETT
SS
Teste:
William Tunstall, Clerk.
Fincastle County
embraced all of south-western Virginia includ-
ing Kentucky.
The county was discontinued in 1776.
The area in
which William Bobbitt
was then living was known as Montgomery County.
Later a section of
Montgomery County was taken to form Grayson.
Montgomery County was
formed in 1776 from Fincastle. Wythe
County was formed in
1789 from Montgomery. Grayson
County was
formed in 1792 from
part of Wythe and part of Patrick. Carroll
County has formed in
1842 from part of Grayson and part of Patrick.
For the most part, the
land the Bobbitt family lived on for so many
years is now in Carroll
County Virginia.
March 4, 1778 - Order
Book 2, page 164 Montgomery County.
William Bobbitt is
recommended as a Captain in part
of Captain Trigg's
Company.
May 7, 1782 - Order
Book 2, page 333, Montgomery County.
William Bobbitt proved
in court that he ought to be paid
62 shillings and 6
pence for one steer taken by the County
Militia.
The court approved.
AUGUST 8, 1782 - Order
Book 2, page 345, Montgomery County.
William Bobbitt
resigned as Captain of the County Militia.
FEBRUARY 5, 1788 -
Order Book 1, page 306, Montgomery County.
William Bobbitt is
appointed by the court as an overseer of
a road passing by
Craigs Ferry.
MARCH 1790 - Order Book
4, page 103, Montgomery County.
William Bobbitt is
appointed by the court as an overseer
of a new road passing
from Ward's Gap to Poplar Camp
Mountain, near
Herbert's Ferry.
SEPTEMBER 28, 1789 -
Volume C, page 165, Montgomery County.
William Bobbitt enter
140 acres joining an entry of the
said Bobbitt; also 117
acres joining an entry on Pine Creek,
also an entry of 118
acres on the waters of Buckhorn and
Greasy Creeks.
(This land surveyed on October 7, 1789).
In 1782 William Bobbitt
and his brother James Bobbitt were listed
in the Montgomery
County tax lists. James 1 tithable,
O slaves.
William was listed as 1
tithable, 6 slaves.
Wythe County Virginia
was formed from Montgomery County in 1790,
and Grayson County was
formed from Wythe in 1792. At the
first court
held in the newly
formed Grayson County, William Bobbitt was the bonds-
man for the newly
appointed sheriff, Phillip Gaines, on May 27, 1793.
The land William
Bobbitt had acquired in 1789 was now in the
County of Grayson.
Here is the William Bobbitt family in the tax
lists of Grayson County
from 1794 until 1804, showing the number of
males over the age of
16 years.
1794 - 2
1795 - 3
1796 - 1
1797 - 1
1798 - 1
1799 - 1
1800 - 1
1801 - 1
1802 - 2
1803 - 2
1804 - 1
Many families from
Pittsylvania County Virginia had migrated
to what is today
Grayson and Carroll Counties. Most
were tobacco
farmers and they were
in constant need of new fertile land on which
to raise their crops.
Iron ore was also an attraction in this area.
William Bobbitt and his
brother James Bobbitt received land
grants for their
service in the Revolutionary War. Both
chose
land in this area.
By 1790 the Bobbitt family along with many of
their relatives by
other family names were living in this area.
The other family names
were Jennings, Hensen, Phillips,
Blair,
and McKenzie
Most were families of Welsh and English heritage.
In 1790 James Bobbitt,
son of John Bobbitt, and a nephew of
Captain William
Bobbitt, moved into the family compound. James
married a daughter of
Captain William's named Rosames Bobbitt. I
believe that a sister
of James Bobbitt also lived in the area and
was a widow who made
her home with the family of James-
For the most part
the records of Grayson County are concerned
with those Of the
famiiy of Captain William and those of his nephew,
James Bobbitt.
By the year of 1803 we
had families living in Grayson County
with the following
heads of households.
Captain William
Bobbitt.........son of James Bobbitt Senior
William Bobbitt
Junior..........son of Capt. William Bobbitt
James...........................son
of Capt. William Bobbitt
Caleb
Bobbitt...................son of Capt. William Bobbitt
James
Bobbitt...................son of John Bobbitt and a
nephew of Capt. William
Bobbitt.
Before 1803, James
Bobbitt, brother of Captain William Bobbitt
had moved to Pulaski
County Kentucky. In 1803 he was
followed by
his nephew, James
Bobbitt, son of Captain William Bobbitt. By
1830
many members of the
family were living in Pulaski County Kentucky.
In 1803, Captain
William Bobbitt was taxed for a son over the
age of 16.
Subsequent records prove that this had to be his son,
William Bobbitt.
There were many
marriages between first cousins and especially
between first cousins
once removed. In fact the records
indicate
that most of the
families for many miles around were related in
some way to each other.
Almost every male of one name had
a son
by the same name.
Almost every brother honored
his brother by
naming a son after him.
The duplication of a name must be associ-
ated with some dated
record in order to identify which is being
recorded.
The name "James Bobbitt" is the name most used in the
families of Grayson
County. At one time there was as
many as five
with the name of James,
and all were related to one another.
There are several
interesting indentures recorded in Grayson
County Virginia, which
give an insight into William Bobbitt, his
family, and the other
Bobbitt families living in the area.
FEBRUARY 22, 1802 -
Grayson County, Book 1, pages 480-481.
From Milleton Collins
of Grayson County to James Bobbett of
Grayson County, for 80
acres of land, lying and being on the
waters of Big Reed
Island, the waters of New River....-
WitnesseS:
James Bobbett Senior MILLETON
COLLINS
John Dalton, William
Dalton
ROY COLLINS
1802 - Grayson County
Between James Bennet of
Pittsylvania County and William
Dalton of Grayson
County...unto the said William Dalton..
a tract of land
containing 250 acres which was then in 1782
surveyed in Montgomery
County, now Grayson County, on the
Burks Fork, a branch of
Big Reed Island..............
WitnesseS
James Bobbett Junior,
JAMES BENNET
James Bobbett, William
Bobbett,
John Cock, William
Bobbett.
These deeds establish
the relationship between Grayson County
and Montgomery County.
John and William Dalton were first cousins
of Captain William
Bobbitt. James Bobbett Junior was
the son of
Captain William
Bobbitt. James Bobbitt (the senior
by age not by
relationship) was the
son of John Bobbitt. William
Bobbitt was the
son of Captain William
Bobbitt. James Bennet was a
relative through
Richard Bennett the
half brother of Captain William Bobbitt. John
Cock is believed to
have been married to one of Captain William's
daughters.
James Bobbitt (senior) in the later deed was also a son-
in-law to Captain
William, also his nephew, and the husband of his
daughter Rosanna
Bobbitt. It is important to
remember that this
James Bobbitt, son of
John Bobbitt, lived and died in the Grayson-
Carroll County area of
Virginia.
AUGUST 1, 1805 -
Grayson County, Book 2, page 194.
William Bobbitt Senior
and Anne his wife, of Grayson County
and William Bobbitt
Junior...for one hundred dollars, hath
sold unto the said
William Bobbitt Junior, a parcel of land
containing 110 acres on
the waters of Big Reed Island River.
Witnesses:
John Green,
WILLIAM BOBBITT
William Thornbrough,
James Bobbitt
This is Captain William
and his wife selling to their son
William Bobbitt Junior.
This is a legal gift to their son.
0n the same day, a
similar deed was made to their son-in-law
James Bobbitt, who had
married their daughter, Rosanna Bobbitt.
AUGUST 1, 1805 -
Grayson County, Book 2, page 195.
William Bobbitt and his
wife Anne of Grayson County, and
James Bobbitt of the
same County for one hundred dollars
sold to James Bobbitt a
tract of land on the waters of
Big Reed Island
River..containing 100 acres............
Witnesses
John Green, WILLIAM
BOBBITT
William Mornbrough
We know that this James
Bobbitt was their son-in-law both
by the location of the
land and the fact that James the son of
William and Anne was
now living in Pulaski County Kentucky.
The
tax lists of 1805 in
Grayson County are additional proof.
MARCH 4, 1807 - Grayson
County, Book 2, page 258.
William Bobbitt Senior
and Nancy his wife, of the County of
Grayson, and John
Dalton....land lying in said County on the
waters of Snake
Creek..corner of William Thornberry's line
near Nathan Bell's
line...to a corner of Robert Goads land..
containing 87
acres.....
William Bobbitt
Witnesses: G.G.
McKenzie Nancey
Bobbitt
William Fagan, John
Blair.
APRIL 23, 1810 -
Grayson County, Book P, pages 530-531.
William Bobbett and
Robert Bobbett of Grayson County, for
one hundred pounds of
lawful money...paid by Robert Bobbett
...land in Grayson
County on the waters of the Big Snake Creek..
containing 113 acres of
land.......
William Bobbitt
(no witnesses)
Robert Bobbitt was a
son of Captain William Bobbitt. By
1810
the date of this
indenture, Anne (Nancy) the wife of William was
deceased.
The price of the land sold in comparison to the values
of the time, was
clearly an act of William Bobbitt distributing
his property to his
sons and daughters before his death.
The inventory and sale
of the personal property of William
Bobbitt states that
William Bobbitt died on September 25, 1817.
There were several
deeds both from Pulaski County Kentucky and from
Grayson County Virginia
that reconstruct and identify this family.
William and Nancy
(McKensie) Bobbitt are ancestors of long lineages
lineages throughout the
United States.
One of the most
important deeds regarding the William Bobbitt
family was recorded in
Pulaski County Kentucky. This deed
is the
proof that James
Bobbitt, son of Captain William and Anne Bobbitt
had migrated to
Kentucky. Because of this deed, it
was possible
to trace the family and
their relationships back to Grayson County
Virginia.
AugusT 24, 1818 -
Pulaski County Kentucky, Book 3, pages 367-368.
James Bobbitt and Jane
Richardson, of the county of Pulaski
and State of Kentucky
....for good causes...have nominated,
and authorized...our
trusty friend, William Morgan of the
County and State
aforesaid as our true and lawful attorney,
for us, and in our
names....to ask and receive...our part
of the legacy
bequeathed to us by our father, William Bobbitt,
deceased, of the county
of Grayson and state of Virginia-
JAMES BOBBITT
JANE RICHARDSON
JUNE 27, 1818 - Grayson
County, Sale Book 1, page 165.
The inventory and sale
of the personal property of
William Bobbitt,
deceased September 25, 1817, lists
items sold, persons
making purchases, total $1,830.00
David Pierce
Randolph Bobbitt
William Phillips
Robert Bobbitt
James Bobbitt
Nancy Bobbitt
Thomas Bobbitt
Henry Moore
Charles Moore
Timothy Dalton
William Bobbitt
Esau Worrell
Caleb Bobbitt
Most of the persons who
attended these sales and made purchases
were relatives.
In order to make purchases at these sales a person
had to be present, pay
cash, and take their property with them. The
proceeds were used to
pay any debts, and distribute the balance to
the heirs.
The long list of items sold is very interesting and
among the personal
property was undoubtedly items that were used
on the James Bobbitt
plantation in Pittsylvania County Virginia.
Most of the sons and
daughters of William Bobbitt went to live
in Pulaski County
Kentucky and many of them migrated from Kentucky
to Missouri.
Many of the relatives and neighbors of the sons and
daughters also followed
the same path of migration.
William and Anne and
many of the other members of the family
are believed to have
been burried in the Old Bobbitt Cemetery, in
Mt. Plains Virginia, a
small community south of Hillsville Virginia,
in what is today
Carroll County Virginia.
After William Bobbitt
died and the settlement of his estate
a deed was recorded in
which the heirs sold 150 acres of land to
David Fleming of Surry
County, North Carolina. This deed
names
all the children of
William and Nancy Ann Bobbitt Jr.
JANUARY 5, 1824, Deed
Book 5, pages 153-155 Grayson County.
"William Bobbitt,
Caleb Bobbitt, Robert Bobbitt,
James Bobbitt, Esau
Worrell (for Nancy), Jane Richardson,
William Morgan (for
Elizabeth) Nancy (Blair) Bobbitt (for
John)
James Bobbitt, Shadrack Collier (for Lucy), all heirs
of WILLIAM BOBBITT
deceased, late of Grayson County
and David Fleming of
Surry County, North Carolina, for the
sum of 330 dollars, for
150 acres of land in Grayson County
....on the waters of
Snake Creek...-
(signed by all the
heirs)
Witnesses:
Edward Jones
Greenberry G. M.
Bobbitt
EXecuted by: Thomas
Baldwin, John Cock, Justices of the Peace
Captain William Bobbitt
was born in 1744, married in l768,
and died in 1817.
Nancy Ann McKensie Bobbitt was born in 1753
and died in 1807.
William and Ann Bobbitt went to MIontgomery
County Virginia in
1778. Of their ten children six
were born
in Pittsylvania County
and four in what was then Montgomery
County but is today
Carroll County, The family that
lived to
maturity is:
William Bobbitt, Jr.
born 1769 married Nancy Clifton
1792
Caleb Bobbitt
born 1770 married Nancy Blair
1795
James Bobbitt
born 1772 married Rebecca Day
1796
Rosanna Bobbitt
born 1773 married James Bobbitt
1799
Elizabeth Bobbitt
born 1775 married William Morgan
1799
Nancy Bobbitt
born 1777 married Esau Worrell
1793
Lucy Bobbitt
born 1779 married Shadrack Collier 1799
John Bobbitt
born 1783 married Nancy Nuckolls
1806
Jane Bobbitt
born 1785 married David Richardson 1804
Robert Bobbitt
born 1790 married Dicey Bullard
1813
Two of the sons of
William and Nancy served in the War of 1812.
They were Caleb and
Robert Bobbitt. Randolph Bobbitt a
grandson of
Captain William, and
son of William Junior also served in the War of
1812.
Lacy Bobbitt a nephew of Captain William and son of John Bobbitt
also served in the War
of 1812.
The well documented
family of William and Nancy (McKenzie)
Bobbitt
is one of the key
families in our family history. Descendants
of this
family live today in
Virginia, Missouri, Illinois North Carolina,
Kentucky, Tennessee and
later descendants live throughout the United States.
William Bobbitt Junior
born in 1768 married Nancv Clifton in
Grayson County.
She was the daughter of John Clifton.
William
was listed in the 1810
tax lists of the county. We think
that
William and Nancy lived
in Pulaski County Kentucky for a short
time, but returned to
Virginia where they both died.
Caleb Bobbitt born in
1770 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
married Nancy Blair the
daughter of Thomas Blair and a sister to
John Blair, who was a
representative in the Virginia State legis-
lature.
In 1826 Caleb and his family went to live in Pulaski
County Kentucky where
he died in 1830 at the age of 58. Nancy
and her son Thomas
moved to Howard County Missouri where Nancy died
in 1876 at the age of
98. Caleb was a Sergeant in the War
of 1812.
James Bobbitt born in
1772 married Rebecca Day in Grayson
County.
James moved from
Virginia to Pulaski County Kentucky in 1804.
Rosanna Bobbitt born in
1773 married her first cousin, James Bobbitt
son of John Bobbitt of
Pittsylvania County Virginia. They
were
married in 1799.
They reared a large family and both lived and
died in what is today
Carroll County, Virginia.
Elizabeth Bobbitt born
in 1775 married William Morgan who was from
Pulaski County,
Kentucky. They were married in
Grayson County and
it was probably William
who caused so many from the family in
Virginia to move to
Kentucky. In later years Elizabeth
and William
moved to Illinois where
both died.
Nancy Bobbitt born in
1777 married Esau Worrell and reared a large
family in Grayson
County. The Worrell family says
that Nancy and
Esau were married on
August 18, 1793. Both Nancy and
Esau lived
out their lives in
Grayson County.
Lucy Bobbitt was born
in 1779 married Shadrack Collier in Grayson
County in 1799.
They reared a large family and lived out their
lives in the
Grayson-Carroll county area. Many
descendants live
there today.
John Bobbitt, born in
1783,married Nancy Nuckolls on January 29, 1806.
John and Nancy had six
sons and no daughters. John died in
1819 and
Nancy never remarried.
Most of their sons have a separate chapter
in this work.
Jane Bobbitt born in
1785 married David Richardson in 1804 in
Grayson County.
Soon after their marriage they went to live in
Pulaski County Kentucky
where they lived near James Bobbitt. Jane
and David Richardson
had several children. Jane died in
1846 in
Pulaski County
Kentucky.
Robert Bobbitt born in
1790 was the last child of William and Nancy
Bobbitt.
He married Dicey Bullard in Grayson County until Robert
died in 1864.
After his death James Bobbitt his son,
and his
family, along with
Dicey Bobbitt and many other relatives moved
from Carroll County to
Howard County Missouri. Robert
served as
a soldier in the War of
1812.
Captain William Bobbitt
and his wife Nancy were buried in the
Bobbitt family cemetery
at Fancy Gap Virginia, near Galax. The
headstones of many
graves have been chipped away by the freezing
and thawing of the
weather. Many of the stones are no
longer read-
able.
Descendants for years have known where the grave of Captain
William Bobbitt was
located. Old letters describe the
location of
the grave as next to
the grave of his grandson Caleb Bobbitt Junior.
Descendants and
interested Bobbitt family members have commiss-
ioned a memorial to be
erected over the graves of William and Nancy
with a notation of the
names of all their children. The
Veterans
Administration has
erected a bronze plaque to note the Revolutionary
War service of Captain
William Bobbitt.
William Bobbitt Jr.
born 1769 died
1845 Virginia
Caleb Bobbitt
born 1770
died 1830
Kentucky
James Bobbitt
born 1772
died 1853
Kentucky
Rosanna Bobbitt
born 1773 died
1850 Virginia
Elizabeth Bobbitt
born 1775
died 1864
Illinois
Nancy Bobbitt
born 1777
died 1867
Virginia
Lucy Bobbitt
born 1779
died 1865
Virqinia
John Bobbitt
born 1783
died 1820
Virginia
Jane Bobbitt
born 1785
died 1846
Kentucky
Robert Bobbitt
born 1790
died 1864
Virginia
The Bobbitt family
lineage of Captain William Bobbitt is:
William Bobbitt from
Wales.........1649 - 1703 Johanna
Sturdivant
William Bobbitt
Jr.........................1675 - 1738 Mary
Green
James
Bobbitt...............................1707 - 1761 Elizabeth Dalton
Captain William
Bobbitt................1744 - 1817 Nancy
McKenzie
Taken from The Bobbitt
Family in America, John W. Bobbitt, Published by John W. Bobbitt, 1985.
Pgs 664-673.
___________________________________________________________
Children of WILLIAM
BOBBITT
and NANCY
MCKENZIE
are:
i. JANE7
BOBBITT27,
b. 176827.
ii. CALEB
BOBBITT27,
b. January 05, 177027.
iii. JAMES
LEVI BOBBITT27,
b. April 27, 177227.
iv. NANCY
BOBBITT27,
b. 177327.
v. WILLIAM
BOBBITT27,
b. 177427.
vi. ROSANNA
BOBBITT27,
b. 177927.
vii. ELIZABETH
BOBBITT27,
b. 1778, Va; d. 1864, Ill.; m. WILLIAM
MORGAN.
12.
viii. JOHN
BOBBITT,
b. 1783, Carroll County, Va.; d. 1819, Nuckolls Cem., Judge Matthews Farm, Old
Town, Grayson Co., Va..
ix. LUCY
BOBBITT27,
b. 178427.
x. ROBERT
BOBBITT27,
b. October 12, 179027.
10.
JOHN
RICHARD6
BOBBITT
(WILLIAM5,
JOHN4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)28,29,30
was born 1725 in Warren County, N.C., and died November 1791 in Warren County,
N.C.. He married (1) AMY
ALSTON31,32
1743 in Warren County, N.C., daughter of JOHN
RICHARD
ALSTON.
She was born 1730 in Bertie County, N.C., and died 1796 in Warren County,
N.C.. He married (2) AMY
SHEARIN32
1753 in Granville County, N.C., daughter of JOSEPH
SHEARIN.
She was born 1732 in Bertie County, and died 1799 in Warren County, NC.
Notes for JOHN
RICHARD
BOBBITT:
Colonial Edgecombe
County, NC
in 1746 became
Granville County, NC
in 1764 became Bute
County, NC
in 1779 became Warren
County, NC
Posted by D W Dockrey on July 18, 1998 at 09:18:07:
In Reply to: Re: JOHN
BOBBITT d 1789 Warren Co., NC posted by Bunting on June
08, 1998 at 02:37:22:
You may have seen this
but I wanted to pass it along as I find this very
interesting.
Misc. County Records
1774-1804. The men had to sign the oath to vote. Capt.
William Borrough's
District, Oaths were taken by Mr. Thos. Turner, J.P.
"List included
Jno. Bobbitt, Sr., Drury Bobbitt, Isham Bobbitt, Jno. Bobbitt,
Jnr. Stephen
Bobbitt." [note, these are the oldest boys and of voting age]
list also includes
Chas. James, George James and Isaac James. One of these may
be the father of
Elizabeth James, the wife of Isham Bobbitt.
The Oath!!
I will bare faithful
and true allegiance to the State of North Carolina and will
truly endeavor to
support maintain and defend the Independent Goverm't thereof
against George the
third King of Great Britain and his succossors and the
attempts of any other
person, prince, power, State, or potentate who by secret
are treason conspire
copies or by open force shall attempt to subject the same
and I will in every
respect conduct myself as a peaceful orderly subject and
that I will disclose
and make known to the Governor [or] some member of the
Council of State or
some Justice of the Superior Courts or of the peace all
treason conspiracies
and attempts committed or intended against the State which
shall come to my
knowledge so help you God.
Children of JOHN
BOBBITT
and AMY
ALSTON
are:
13.
i. DRURY7
BOBBITT,
b. 1744, Warren County, N.C.; d. 1826, Moore County, NC.
ii. WINNIE
BOBBITT32,
b. 1746, Warren County, N.C.; m. JOHN
GOLIGHTLY.
14.
iii. STEPHEN
ERASMUS
BOBBITT,
b. 1747, Granville County, N.C.; d. August 1824, Warren County, NC.
iv. JOHN
RICHARD
BOBBITT32,
b. 1749, Granville County, N.C.; d.
1824, Warren County, NC33; m. SARAH
JONES.
v. ALSTON
BOBBITT34,
b. 1752, Warren County, N.C.; d. 177935; m. MARY
SAULS.
Children of JOHN
BOBBITT
and AMY
SHEARIN
are:
15.
vi. ISHAM
DRURY7
BOBBITT,
b. May 03, 1754, Warren County, N.C.; d. March 06, 1836, Morgan County, Ill..
16.
vii. RANDOLPH
BOBBITT,
b. 1755, Bute County, N.C.; d. November 27, 1804, Warren County, N.C..
17.
viii. SALLY
BOBBITT,
b. 1758, Warren County, N.C..
18.
ix. WILLIAM
BOBBITT,
b. 1761, Warren County, N.C.; d. November 12, 1839, SC.
x. AMY
BOBBITT36,
b. 1763, Warren County, N.C.; m. (1) GEORGE
JAMES;
m. (2) WILLIAM
T. EMMERSON,
November 27, 1792, Warren County, N.C.37.
11.
WILLIAM6
BOBBITT
(WILLIAM5,
JOHN4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)
was born 1727 in Warren County, N.C., and died 1798 in NC38.
He married (1) MARTHA TURNER38,
daughter of THOMAS
TURNER.
He married (2) MARY EATON38.
Children of WILLIAM
BOBBITT
and MARTHA
TURNER
are:
i. JOHN7
BOBBITT,
b. 1746.
ii. WILLIAM
BOBBITT38,
b. 174738.
iii. JAMES
BOBBITT38,
b. 174938.
iv. SARAH
BOBBITT38,
b. 175238.
v. ARTHUR
BOBBITT38,
b. 175438.
vi. SION
BOBBITT38,
b. 175538.
vii. TURNER
BOBBITT38,
b. 175738.
Generation
No. 5
12.
JOHN7
BOBBITT
(WILLIAM6,
JAMES5,
WILLIAM4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)39
was born 1783 in Carroll County, Va.39, and died 1819 in
Nuckolls Cem., Judge Matthews Farm, Old Town, Grayson Co., Va.39.
He married NANCY NUCKOLLS39
January 29, 180639. She
was born 179039, and died February 1852 in Nuckolls Cem.,
Judge Matthews Farm, Old Town, Grayson Co., Va.39.
Notes for JOHN
BOBBITT:
1783
British forces abandon New York, their last stronghold in North
America.
1783
Britain recognizes the independence of the United States at the
Treaty of Paris.
1783
The British return Florida to Spain under the terms of the Treaty of
Paris.
1783
Russia gains control of the Crimea after three centuries of Turkish
rule.
1783
An earthquake kills 30,000 people at Calabria in Italy.
1783
The Montgolfier brothers make the first manned flight in a hot air
balloon.
1783
French scientist Jacques Charles demonstrates the first hydrogen-inflated
balloon.
_____________________________________________________________
JOHN BOBBITT 1783 -
l8l9
Son of Captain William
and Nancy Bobbitt
John Bobbitt was the
fourth son of Captain William and Nancy
(McKenzie) Bobbitt.
John was born in 1783 in Mlontgomery County,
Virginia and in what is
today Carroll County, Virginia.
When John was 22 years
of age he married Nancy Nuckolls
a daughter of Charles
Nuckolls of Grayson County. John
and Nancy
were married on January
29, 1806 in Grayson County and their
marriage is recorded.
The section of Grayson County that they
lived in later became
Carroll County. The Nuckolls family
was a
large, wealthy and
influential family in the county. The
village
that John and Nancy
lived near was named "Nuckollsville" Virginia.
John and Nancy Bobbitt
had six sons and no daughters. The
six sons all lived to
maturity, married and raised key Bobbitt
families that later
settled in Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia
The second wife of
Charles Nuckolls was Mary Black. They
had three sons.
John Nuckolls moved to Kentucky, James Nuckolls
moved to Missouri, and
Charles Nuckolls died single. They
had
five daughters, Betty,
Sally, Polly, Susan, and Nancy. Nancy
Nuckolls, the last of
the children, married John Bobbitt.
The John Bobbitt family
was counted in the Grayson County,
Federal Census in 1820.
John Bobbitt died in 1819 and his son
James was born after
his death. Here is the Census
record.
NANCY BOBBITT: (Widow
of John Bobbitt)
4 males under 10
(1810-1S@O) l female 26 - 45 (1775-1794)
2 males 10 - 16
(180l-1810)
John Bobbitt was only
36 when he died and his widow Nancy
was greatly aided by
the Nuckolls family. Here are the
names and
birth dates of the
children:
Charles Bobbitt
born 1807 William
Bobbitt born 1816
Martin Bobbitt
born 1810 John Bobbitt
born 1818
George Bobbitt
born 1813 James
Bobbitt born 1820
Nancy was born in 1790
and was only 30 years of age when she
faced the
responsibility of raising her six sons. There
were many
indications that John
Bobbitt was not physically well and that he
tried to solve his
health problems with alcohol. In
March of 1818
John Bobbitt, school
master of the county was summoned before the
grand jury for
insulting and interrupting the meeting house on
Little Reed Island on
the third Sunday of January 1818. The
information was given
by Esq. George Cornwallis.
John must have been
very intelligent and well educated for
his time to be the
school master of the county.
Nancy Nuckolls Bobbitt
was an intelligent and remarkable
woman.
She kept her family together and used her strong character
to raise her sons.
Between 1821 and 1826, Nancy sold over 800 acres
of land in Grayson
County. Much of her land has been
left to her
by her father, Charles
Nuckolls. She apparently gave each
of her
sons land and in 1823
made a very unusal deed for one of her sons
This deed apparently
was made to her son John as the namesake of
her husband.
All of her sons were at home at the time she made
this deed.
Charles was the eldest son, and James was the youngest
son.
The deed is recorded in Grayson County Book 4, pages 456-457.
"July 22, 1823,
indenture between Nancy Bobbitt and
John Bobbitt, her son,
a minor of the same place,
that out of love and
affection, which she bears towards
her son, the following
real and personal property, by
estimation, 140 acres
of land, whereon, the said Nancy
Bobbitt now lives, it
being her share, as one of the heirs
of the estate of
Charles Nuckolls. Also, one slave,
named
Mary, also 14 head of
cattle, one set of smith's tools,
beds, household
furniture, farming utencils and so forth,
to the said John
Bobbitt, free of any claim-
Witness: Sam Cox
NANCY BOBBITT "
Nancy Nuckolls Bobbitt
was an intelligent and remarkable
woman.
She kept her family together and used her strong character
to raise her sons.
Between 1821 and 1826, Nancy sold over 800 acres
of land in Grayson
County. Much of her land has been
left to her
by her father, Charles
Nuckolls. She apparently gave each
of her
sons land and in 1823
made a very unusal deed for ory of Grayson County and the Nuckolls family.
This deed apparently
was made to her son John as the namesake of
her husband. All
of her sons were at home at the time she made
this deed.
Charles was the eldest son, and James was the youngest
son.
The deed is recorded in Grayson County Book 4, pages 456-457.
"July 22, 1823,
indenture between Nancy Bobbitt and
John Bobbitt, her son,
a minor of the same place,
that out of love and
affection, which she bears towards
her son, the following
real and personal property, by
estimation, 140 acres
of land, whereon, the said Nancy
Bobbitt now lives, it
being her share, as one of the heirs
of the estate of
Charles Nuckolls. Also, one slave,
named
Mary, also 14 head of
cattle, one set of smith's tools,
beds, household
furniture, farming utencils and so forth,
to the said John
Bobbitt, free of any claim-
Witness: Sam Cox
NANCY BOBBITT "
This is a generous deed
to a five vear old son. One can
only
guess at her motives,
but apparently she felt that this son woul(l
one day care for her
and her youngest son, James. In any
event
John married an Amanda
(some think a Bobbitt, some a daughter of
Sam Cox) and lived his
entire life in Grayson County, Virginia.
Benjamin Floyd Nuckolls
wrote a book in 1838 which tells the
story of Grayson County
and the Nuckolls family. The book
is now
called "Pioneer
Settlers of Grayson County, Virginia".
In this
book is an interesting
account of the early settlers.
"Flower Swift and
Charles Nuckolls (father of Nancy Bobbitt)
donated the one hundred
acres of land for the prupose of
building the first
court house and public buildings for
Grayson County.
The town was first named Greenville, the
post office was Grayson
Court House. After the courts
were moved and Carroll
County formed, the post office
was changed to
"Nuckollsville."
Living near to the home
of Nancy Bobbitt and her six sons
was Randolph Bobbitt, a
son of William Bobbitt Junior. Randolph
was a first cousin to
the sons of John and Nancy Bobbitt.
Randolph and Rachel
(Phillips) Bobbitt had a family of four sons
and five daughters who
were near the ages of Nancy's sons.
There were at least two
and probably three marriages between
the children of
Randolph Bobbitt and the children of John Bobbitt
his first cousin.
As you know this would be marriages between
first cousins, once
removed.
When Randolph Bobbitt
and his family moved from Virginia to
Pulaski County,
Kentucky, his action was influential in causing
manv members of the
Bobbitt family to also moved to Kentucky.
Nancy's sons, James
Bobbitt married Mlargaret Bobbitt, and her
son William Bobbitt
married Nancy Bobbitt. We think
that it is
also likely that John
Bobbitt married Amanda Bobbitt.
From census records,
deeds, and marriage records, we have
the following marriages
for the children.
Charles Bobbitt
m. Sarah DeFries 1825
Virginia
Martin Bobbitt m.
Elizabeth Lee 1829
Kentucky
George Bobbitt m. Sarah
Littlejohn 1844 South Carolina
William Bobbitt
m. Nancy Bobbitt 1837
Kentucky
John Bobbitt
m. Amanda (Bobbitt?) 1841 Virginia
James Bobbitt
m. Margaret Bobbitt 1841 Kentucky
Charles Bobbitt reaised
a very large family of mostly sons,
and lived his entire
life in Grayson-Carroll Counties.
George Bobbitt lived
for a time in South Carolina after he was
married.
George returned to Grayson County where he and his wife
Sarah raised their
family. Sarah died in 1861 and
George died
in 1892.
John Bobbitt married
Amanda (Bobbitt?). There is no
record
of their marriage that
we can find. John and Amanda had
several
children, many of whom
died shortly after birth. John and
Amanda
lived their entire
lives in Grayson County Virginia. Apparently
both died between 1870
and 1880.
James Bobbitt went
first to Kentucky where he married Margaret
Bobbitt, a daughter of
Randolph and Rachel Bobbitt. He
moved later
to Howard County,
Missouri and eventually settled in Linn County,
Missouri.
James was killed in the war between the states while
serving as a
Confedelate soldier.
Nancy Nuckolls Bobbitt
died in February of 1852 in Grayson
County, Virginia.
She is believed to have been buried beside her
husband in the Nuckolls
family cemetery which is now located in
Carroll County.
After the death of Nancy Bobbitt the Grayson
County Court appointed
Goodman Anderson, John Weaver, and Umetree
Jones to appraise her
estate. At the sale were three of
her sons,
John, Charles and
George Bobbitt. Also attending were
her grandsons
Alexander, and Calvin
Bobbitt.
Taken from the Bobbitt
Family in America, John W. Bobbitt, published by John W. Bobbitt, 1985, Pgs.
370-372.
_____________________________________________________________
Children of JOHN
BOBBITT
and NANCY
NUCKOLLS
are:
19.
i. CHARLES8
BOBBITT,
b. 1809, Carroll County, Va.; d. 1866, Franklin County, NC.
ii. MARTIN
BOBBITT39,
b. 181039.
iii. GEORGE
BOBBITT39,
b. 181339.
iv. WILLIAM
BOBBITT39,
b. 181639.
v. JOHN
BOBBITT39,
b. 181839.
vi. JAMES
BOBBITT39,
b. 182039.
13.
DRURY7
BOBBITT
(JOHN
RICHARD6,
WILLIAM5,
JOHN4,
WILLIAM3,
JOHN2,
DAN1)40
was born 1744 in Warren County, N.C., and died 1826 in Moore County, NC41.
He married ELIZABETH HARRIS
176141, daughter of NATHANIEL
HARRIS.
She was born in Va.41,
and died 1814 in Warren County, NC41.
Children of DRURY
BOBBITT
and ELIZABETH
HARRIS
are:
i. JOHN8
BOBBITT41,
b. 1762, Warren County, NC41; d. 1829, Moore County, NC41;
m. MARY HAZELWOOD41;
b. 176441.
ii. SHEERWOOD
HAYWOOD
BOBBITT41,
b. 1763, Granville County, NC41; d. November 21, 1827, Halifax
County, NC41; m. SARAH
BURROUGHS41,
June 28, 1779, Halifax County, NC41; b. 1765, NC41;
d. March 04, 186341.
iii. CHARITY
BOBBITT,
b. 1764, Granville County, NC; d. Aft. 1855, Overton County, Tenn41;
m. BENJAMIN
JOHNSON,
1781; b. 176041; d. June 08, 1821, Overton County, Tenn41..