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In 1639, Ambrose Cobbs and his family landed in Virginia, in the original Henrico County deeper inland on the James River, and settled Cobbs Hall, a 350 acre estate on the north side of the Appomattox River in York County. According to Early Virginia Immigrants 1623-1666, by George Cabel in 1912, Robert Cobbs and Margarett Cobbs, the children of Ann and Ambrose Cobbs were brought to Henrico County by Ambrose and Ann Cobbs.
Ambrose Cobbs was born in 1603 in Petham, Kent, England, where he married Ann White on 18 April 1625. Ann White was born in 1608 in Norton Parish, Kent. Before the marriage, Ann was living in Willesborough with her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Thomas Cobbs, the brother of Ambrose. Ambrose and Ann gave birth to son Robert in 1627, and then in 1633 sold their property in England in preparation for the trip to the colonies.
On July 25, 1639, Ambrose patented 350 acres on the Appomattox River, near Swift's Creek, about nine miles from present Petersburg, about fifty miles upriver from Jamestown, and adjacent to properties owned by Abraham Wood and John Baugh. During his lifetime, the entire locale became known as 'Cobbs' or 'Cobbs Hall', a name that was used to identify the entire surrounding area until well after the Civil War.
Robert, the son of Ambrose, became the York County Anglican Church Warden of Marston Parish two years after the death of Ambrose. He was York County’s Justice of the Peace in 1676, and High Sheriff of York County in 1682, “the year Robert died.” At that time Robert’s son, Ambrose, was a member of Bruton Parish in Williamsburg, and helped build the Bruton Parish Anglican Church, which is still operating today.
Robert inherited Cobbs Hall when Ambrose died in 1656, and he immediately sold the property to Michael Masters, who then sold it to John and Thomas Burton that same year. In 1704, a son of Thomas Burton sold "Cobbs" to John Bolling, and though it continued to be known as "Cobbs", the property remained in the possession of the Bolling family for over a hundred years.
John Bolling was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling and his wife Jane Rolfe, daughter of Thomas Rolfe and granddaughter of Pocahontas. The state of Virginia owns a painting of the mansion at Cobbs Hall, but was probably built by the Bolling family. During the Revolution, the property was raided by the British. The crops and outbuildings were burned, but the main house was left untouched. During the Civil War however, the entire property was overrun in 1864 and burned to the ground by Federal troops.
The Flight of Fleming Cobbs
Fleming B. Cobbs, Sr., the great grandson of Robert’s son, Robert Jr., served as a scout in the Indian Wars in 1793, and was one of the first white settlers in the Kanawha River Valley in what would become central West Virginia. His father was Thomas Meade Cobbs, and his grandfather was Vinkler Cobbs. Fleming’s daughter, Judith, married John Meredith Burgess whose wife Margaret Adelia Wood. Their daughter, Adelia Margaret Burgess, married John Harrison Draper, the son of William Franklin Draper. Fleming Cobbs, Sr., was my great great great great grandfather.
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