From the Mountains to the Prairies
Joseph Cobb
Born 1700? ?Isle of Wight VA
Died 1777? Northhampton Co. NC ?West Feliciana Parish LA
SPOUSE CHILDREN
Catherine Whitehead

m. by 1732
?Southhampton Co. VA
b. 1711?
?Isle of Wight Co. VA
d. 1769
Southhampton Co. VA
Lt. William

b. 1732
Southhampton Co. VA
d. 1788?
Martin Co. NC
Joseph III

b. 1732/33?
Southhampton Co. VA
d. before 1786?
Wilkes Co. GA
Penelope

b. 1735?
Southhampton Co. VA
d. 1761
Arthur

b. 1737?
?Isle of Wight VA
d. 1812?
?West Feliciana Parish LA
Frederick

b. 1739
Southhampton Co. VA
d. 1816?
?West Feliciana Parish LA
Patience

b. 1740?
Southhampton Co. VA
d. 1804
Carter Co. TN
Pharoah

b. 1742?

d. 1781
?Charles

b. 1745


Southhampton Co. VA was created in 1749 from Isle of Wight Co. which bordered the south shore of the James River. Southhampton included the eastern side of the Blackwater River (see Present Day Map for location of both counties at bottom of map).
Northhampton Co. was created in 1741 from Bertie Co. (see Present Day Map for location).
Son William served in the revolutionary war with his cousin Jesse under the command of Col. Caswell who later became Governor of VA. William married Sarah Stancil in 1755 and they eventually moved their family to Martin Co. NC.
Several Cobb sons, including Arthur and Frederick, arrived in Natchez by 1782.
On Feb 19, 1785 son Arthur Cobb and a Gibson Clark, "both of District, appraisers" were the appraisers for the sale of the plantation seized from Joseph Ford [McBee, Book A, p. 30].
On Mar 23, 1787, "two negro women and one negro girl" belonging to the indebted John Stillee were guaranteed surety by Natchez resident Arthur Cobb at the Fort of Natchez. These three slaves were identified in the court records only as "Belinda" and "Dorinda" but would actually be Bella, aged about 16, and Dorinda, aged 14, and Lucinda, aged about 17, who belonged to Elizabeth Holloway Stillee and had been confiscated to pay the debts of her husband [McBee, Natchez Court Records, p. 171].
Two slaves belonging to John Stillee, husband of Elizabeth Holloway Stillee, a "mulatto named Frank" and another named "Bright" were sold at public auction to John Vauchere (born 1742), a creditor and former partner of Stillee [McBee, p. 40]. He also purchased at least 400 acres of the Stillee land on St. Catherine's Creek at the auction [McBee, p. 171].
In a letter dated Mar 2, 1790, from Carlos de Grand-Pré, Natchez to Governor Don Estavan Miro, the amount of tobacco produced in 1790 was reported by growers of Natchez. The "Arthur Cobb" plantation reported producing 3,800 pounds of tobacco that year [MS Dept of Archives & History, website].
In 1790, a survey of 500 arpents of land in the Louisiana part of the Natchez District was done for "Arturo Cobbs" bordering the lands of Bingaman (east) and Smith (west), vacant land to the north and a fork of Bayou Sarah to the south[MDAH].
Bayou Sara no longer exists because the Mississippi River now runs through it. In 1820 it was partly in Wilkinson Co. MS (formed in 1802 from a part of Adams Co.) and a part of West Feliciana LA, south of the town of Natchez (see present day map for location of Wilkinson Co. and present day map for location of West Feliciana Parish.
The 1792 Census of the Natchez District was translated from the Spanish handwritten records. Located in the Second & Sandy Creek (Adams and Franklin Cos.) subdivision is a household under the name "Arturo Cobb", with 1500 arpents of land with 5 white persons and 13 slaves living there.
Son Joseph married Rachel Ellis (1742-1796) by about 1761 when they had a son Jacob in Wilkes Co. GA. In 1795 Jacob was grsnted 350 acres of land on a branch of Sandy Creek 18 miles east of the Fort of Natchez, which he and his wife, Rachel Ow-wah-teah (1763-1819), a Choctaw, sold for $900 on Jul 3, 1801 [McBee, Book D, p. 458].
Grandson Jacob Cobb married Rachel Horn on Dec 16, 1794 at Natchez, according to Catholic church records. Jacob and Rachel are identified as Calvinists, and their "parents not given" [Diocese of Baton Rouge, Catholic Church Records, vol. 2, p. 387]. Jacob died Mar 6, 1818 in St. Helena Parish LA.
Map of the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799.
Daughter Patience married James Cooper who was killed by Indians on Jul 21, 1776 in Washington Co. NC.
Son Frederick married Sarah Berthe who was born in 1756. They may have had a daughter named Patience who married Josephus Smith first and then John Baker between 1790 and 1797, and died in West Feliciana Parish LA in 1846. Frederick's youngest daughter Priscilla married Calvin Smith. Another daughter Sallie married Israel Smith "of Mt. Independence plantation, Second Creek" who owned land adjoining Frederick's brother Arthur Cobb by 1790 [microfilm source in Price Genealogy Case Study Project, p. 6].
Feliciana Parish was established in 1810. In 1824 West Feliciana Parish was created from it. It is located just south of the southern Mississippi state line. (see Map of Louisiana Parishes for location).
In the 1840 Census for West Feliciana Parish LA, there is a "Mrs. Mary Cobb" but no other Cobbs.
SOURCES:
Adams Co. Mississippi Genealogy & History Network, "1792 Census for Natchez District (under Spanish Government control)", 2009, 1792 Census.
Adams Co. MS Index to Deed Records, 1780-1798, on microfilm, A-105.
Clark, Walter, State Records of North Carolina Vol XVII 1781-1785, Broadfoot Publishing, Wilmington NC, 1994, pp. 287-8, 294.
Diocese of Baton Rouge Department of Archives, Catholic Church Records, vol. 2 (1770-1803), Baton Rouge LA, p. 387.
McBee, May Wilson, Natchez Court Records 1767-1805, Abstract of Early Records, Greenwood MS, 1953, Book A, p. 30, pp. 14-15, 27, 55, 40-43, 88-89, 152-3, 171, 309-10, Book D, p. 458.
MS Dept. of Archives & History (MDAH), Jackson MS, rootsweb, Early Mississippians in Spanish Natchez.
MS Dept. of Archives and History (MDAH), microfilm no. 5618, roll 3, various doc.
Price Genealogy, Case Study - John Baker, Jun 22, 2019, within website, pricegen.com.
U.S. 1840 Census, West Feliciana Parish LA, Index, USGenWeb, transcribed by Karen Sherman, 2002.
Virginia Land Patents, Book 8, p. 16.
Wells, Carol, Natchez Postscripts 1781-1798, Heritage Books, Bowie MD, 1992, pp. 50-52.
White, Gifford, "James White and John White", Wm. Wiseman & the Davenports, Pioneers Of Old Burke County, North Carolina, v.2, by M.L.Vineyard & E.M.Wiseman, Franklin NC, 1997, pp. 86-96, 107-112.
White, Gifford, James Taylor White of Virginia and some of his descendants into Texas, Austin, TX, April 1982.