The Bobbitt Family In America

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James Bobbitt son of William Bobbitt Junior, purchased land in 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 families, 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 population 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 within 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."

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WILLIAM BOBBITT SENIOR      1704-1768

Son of John and Sarah Bobbitt of Chowan

William Bobbitt was born in 1704 in the newly formed Prince George County of Virginia. He was the son of John and Sarah (Green) Bobbitt. The family moved to North Carolina in 1718.

In 1744 William sold 100 acres of land to John Smart. The land was located in the "fork of Buffaloe Branch" and join Richard Bennett. One of the witnesses to this transaction was Richard Bennett. The Bennett family early names were "John" and "Richard". Like the Bobbitt family there were so many different members of the famith with first given name being John or Richard that it is not easy to know which one is being mentioned in the records. In going through the records the name of Richard Bennett is frequently associated with the Bobbitt families both in Virginia and North Carolina.

When Robert McDaniel Bobbitt was doing research on the family, one of his older relatives thought there was an Amy Bennett marriage to one of the early Bobbitt males. There is much evidence but no proof that William Bobbitt Senior married Amy Bennett. There is evidence and some proof that Frances Bobbitt, sister of William married a Massey, and the Bennett family is mentioned as relatives of the Massey families.

We are inclined to think that John Richard Bobbitt was named after his father's father, John, and that the middle name was from his mother's father, Richard Bennett. John Richard was a brother of William Bobbitt. John Richard Bobbitt and William Bobbitt are both names used over and over again in and throughout the family.

William Bobbitt apparently had only two sons, William and John Richard. William Bobbitt married Amy Bennett and lived in Orange County, North Carolina. The records of this county are not clear as to the exact genealogy of the Orange County families.

Not so strange for colonial days is the fact that James Bobbitt son of William Bobbitt Junior of Prince George County Virginia was married to a widow named Elizabeth Bennett and she was the first the wife of Richard Bennett. This James Bobbitt was a double first cousin to William Bobbitt of North Carolina. He was also a brother to Lewis Bobbitt Senior who moved from Virginia to North Carolina.

I am accepting as history rather than genealogy that William Bobbitt Senior, a son of John Bobbitt of Chowan, married Amy Bennett and had two sons, one named John Richard Bobbitt and one named William Bobbitt Junior.