Notes for Henry Cobb: Most of the Sawyer's of Buxton and Elliotsville, Maine are descended from the Cobb family. The two families united with the marriage of Joseph Sawyer of Cape Elizabeth, Maine and Joanna Cobb also of Cape Elizabeth. Immigrated to Plymouth Mass abt 1629, moved to Scituate 1633, and was the founder of Barnstable, Mass 1639. (Extracted from "The Ancestral Lines of the Sawyer and Drake Families of Elliotsville, Maine" by Fred E. Sawyer 1978-1979) p.233 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Immigration in "Anne"[5]. Occupation: Pilgrim.
Henry Cobb Pilgrim
"Henry Cobb was the first known Cobb to emigrate from England to the Plymouth Colony, Cape Cod, MA. Many distinguished descendants have long searched for his English origin and background. In developing this vignette of the immigrant I have drawn liberally from the scholarly works of Philip L. Cobb, author of The Cobb Family (1907), Richard Cobb, Harvard professor and Richard Cobb a retired Navy Supply Corps Captain. However, the hypotheses and conclusions contained herin are my own.
Much is known on the activities of Henry Cobb, the Puritan, in the Bay Colony but little has been done to unravel the specifics of his origin. There is general agreement that "The Elder Henry or the Deacon Henry Cobb" came from an area in County Kent east of the Medway River which flows out of the hills of southern Kent through Maidstone and Chatham and into the Thames Estuary. It is within this area that inhabitants are called "Men of Kent" (Jutish origin); those to the west of the Medway are known as "Kentish Men" (Saxon origin). Professor Richard Cobb, through study and acquaintance with the Cape Cod descendants of Henry Cobb, suggests that as a young man Henry Cobb was "rather short, with blue eyes and reddish sandy hair." Interesting, as this description agrees with the perceived appearance of the Germanic Jutes who invaded and settled in Great Britain in the 5th century.
The most visible trail of "Henry the Elder" in England is found in his relationship with his church leader, the Reverend John Lothrop. Lothrop, "a man of good family and education" was baptized at Eton on 20 December 1584. He received BA and MA degrees at Queens College, Cambridge. In 1611 we find him with the established Church of England at Egerton, Kent, a distance of about 15 miles from the probable home of Henry Cobb in Reculver, Kent. Obviously disenchanted with the autocratic dogma of the King's Church, the Reverend Lothrop is found as minister of an independent church in London in 1623; and then on 29 April 1632, we find him imprisoned in London with 40 members of his flock for violating the laws relating to religious gatherings. Following two years imprisonment, Lothrop left England in the ship "Griffin" with his family and some members of his church for the Plymouth colony, arriving there 18 September 1634. Here Henry Cobb, the Lothrop protege who had been in the Colony for about five years, responded to the call of his old friend and esteemed pastor. He aided the Reverend in getting his family and church established in the newly formed town of Scituate. Lothrop's records published in the New England Register, Volumes IX and X, leaves little doubt of Henry Cobb's membership in Lothrop's London church:
"Uppon January 8, 1634, Wee had a day of humiliation and then at night joyned in covenaunt together, so many of us had beene in covenaunt before. To Witt.
Mr. Gilsonn and his wife Goodman Anniball and his wife Goodman Rowly and his wife Goodman Cobb and his wife Goodman Turner Edward Foster Myselfe Goodman Foxwell Samuel House."
It is very probable that immigrant Henry Cobb of Plymouth and Ambrose Cobb of the Virgina Colony were of the same Kent Family, they shared a common progenitor in John Cobb, Esquire (b. ca 1300) of Cobb's Court, Romney, Kent. The suggested (but undocumented) relationships shown are bassed primarily on the association of the family names, locations, and dates. That is, Henry Cobb of Plymouth Colony would appear to be a second son of Henry Cobb (1561-1617) of Reculver, Kent. The son Henry was born about 1605. (He married Patience Hurst in Plymouth in 1631; English Yeoman of his time, married at age 26, thus the basis for his date of birth). Most men of Kent were farmers in an area famous for hops, fruit, and grain. Even in this age, importance was attached to the idea of status. The term "Yeoman" was commonly used in legal and other documents to denote status above "Husbandman" (smaller, less prosperous farmer) and below that of "Gentleman" (upper middle class). Yeomen, from whom Henry Cobb was descended, were reasonably well educated. Some Yeomen sons attended the universities; some became clergymen. A review of the Cobbs of Kent and a person inspection of the Manor houses at Reculver and Eastleigh Court suggest 16th century gentry but 17th century Yeomen. Suffice it to say that the emigrant Henry Cobb did not inherit his father's estate. The major inheritance, by custom, probably went to Benjamin Cobb, the first-born son. This situation, as well as the significant influence of Reverend Lothrop, could have given the impressionable 18 year old Henry Cobb ample justification to seek an apprenticeship in the shops or pubs of London in 1623, the year that Lothrop formed his church there. The influence of the charismatic Lotrop on the Cobbs of Reculver must have been substantial. The Cobb home at Reculver was about 15 miles from Egerton, Kent where Lothrop was in residence from 1611 to 1623. Henry Cobb, the assumed father of the emigrant Henry, was himself censured by the establishment. He had become Lord of the Manor of Bishopstone, Reculver Kent, when his father Richard died in 1582. In the record of the Visitations of Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1599 is found the following "We present these persons whose names are hereunder written for they refuse to pay unto a cess made by divers of our parish for the reparation of our said church: .....Henry Cobb 3 shillings, 10 pence (owed)."
The nature of Henry Cobb's apprenticeship or trade in London is open to conjecture. The fact that he came from an area rich in hops and grain and later in the Colony he was authorized to dispense wine suggests the production and/or sale of ale, the national beverage of the era. From the Plymouth Colony Record 1173; "5 June 1644, Henry Cobb is lycensed to draw wine at Barnstable."
What better place than an English pub in the 17th century to keep abreast of politics, religion and emigration. Henry Cobb of London must certainly have been aware of a number of significant events, viz: That in 1604, in a declaration at Hampton Court, James I said of the Puritans, "I shall make them conform themselves or I will harry them out of the Land or else do worst." Henry must have known the story of an undereducated group of separatists called "Pilgrims" who sough refuge first in Amsterdam and subsequently in Leyden, Holland; and the unwilling to be assimilated into the Dutch culture, made their way to Plymouth in 1620 aboard the "Mayflower". (of the 101 passengers on the first voyage of the Mayflower, 35 were Leyden adventurers.) In 1628 the Puritans of Henry Cobb's sect began their mass exodus. In 1630 John Winthrop, a strong and able leader, led nearly 1000 Puritans with their cattle and horses to settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In general the Puritans were a wealthier and better educated class than the Pilgrims but they shared their deeply religious convictions. It was shortly after the Winthrop departure that Henry Cobb made his move, probably in the ship "The Anne" in 1629. Other possible ships include " Mayflower II' and the "Little James", which also arrived at Cape Cod in 1629. Professor Cobb said in his character analysis of Henry, the emigrant, that he was "sensible, shrewd, adverse to making trouble or being a part of it." Cobb didn't linger in London long enough to be jailed in the famous "clink" with the zealous Lothrop and his followers in 1632. When the great Civil War of 1642 came about to settle the question of supremacy between King and Parliament, High Church and Puritans, Henry Cobb is found saving souls and selling wine in Massachusetts."
John E. Cobb, Col, USA
More About Henry Cobb: Died 2: June 03, 1679, Barnstable.890
More About Henry Cobb and Sarah Hinckley: Marriage: December 12, 1649, Barnstable, MA.891, 892
Henry Cobb (b. 1596, d. 1679)
Notes for Henry Cobb: