Ambrose Cobbs

Ambrose Cobbs (1603 - abt. 1655) was an early Virginia colonist and planter who established the long lasting social and political Cobbs dynasty in the southern states.

Ambrose Cobbs was born in 1603 in Kent, England. He was the son of Ambrose Cobbs and Angelica Hunt, the sister of Robert Hunt, chaplain of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown in 1607. Cobbs married before 1627, Ann White with whom he had at least six known children. In 1633, Cobbs and his wife sold their property in Kent in preparation for their immigration to Virginia. It is believed that he, his wife Ann, children Robert and Margaret arrived in Virginia in 1635. In 1639 Cobbs patented 350 acres at the mouth of the Appomattox River as a headright for have paid for the immigration of his family along with Hugh Barker, Thomas Barker and Thomas Harding.

Two of the Ambrose Cobbs children, Ambrose and Jane were born and died in Kent before his immigration. He and his wife Ann bore another two children, sons Ambrose and Thomas after their arrival in Virginia. Cobbs died about late 1655 or within the first few days of 1656, his will was probated January 15, 1656. His home-site was later sold to the Bolling family who used the named Cobbs Hall for their estate.

• Robert Cobbs

The eldest surviving of Ambrose Cobbs, he was born in Kent in 1627. He was executor of his father estate and later removed to York County, Virginia just outside present-day Williamsburg. He is believed to have married Elizabeth Thorpe a relation of Maj. Otho Thorpe. He served as a vestryman of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg from 1674 to 1683 during the period in which the first brick church was built on the present site.

• Margaret Cobbs

The second surviving child of Ambrose Cobbs, she was born in Kent in 1631 and was listed in her father's land patent. Her later fate is unknown.

• Ambrose Cobbs

The second eldest surviving son of Ambrose Cobbs born after 1635 in Virginia. He resided in York County, Virginia and married leaving two children, a son and daughter. His widow later remarried George Glasscock.

• Thomas Cobbs

The youngest surviving child of Ambrose Cobbs was born in Virginia. He died unmarried and without issue in York County, Virginia.

A number of Ambrose Cobbs descendants migrated to Georgia in the later part of the 18th century founding a powerful dynasty which has continued to hold social and political influence into the 21st century. This prominent Georgia branch of the Cobbs family was founded by Thomas 'Old Tom' Cobbs and John Addison Cobbs, great-great grandsons of Ambrose through his son Robert. The two men would eventually drop the 'S' from their surname as would all their descendants by the Civil War. Cobb County, Georgia was named for his descendant Thomas Willis Cobb, grandson of Thomas 'Old Tom' Cobbs

The following is a list of direct and collateral descendants of Ambrose Cobbs .

• Politicians and Activists

1. Benning Betts Moore (Georgia lawyer and jurist)
2. Burton Harrison (Lawyer, politician and private secretary of Jefferson Davis)
3. Charles L. Weltner (U.S. Representative from Georgia and Georgia Supreme Court Justice)
4. Francis Burton Harrison (Governor-General of the Philippines and U.S. Representative from New York).
5. Howell Cobb (Secretary of the Treasury, 40th Governor of Georgia, Provincial head of the C.S.A)
6. Howell Cobb (born 1772)
7. James E. Cobb (U.S. Representative from Alabama)
8. John Lawrence Marye, Jr.(Conservative politician)
9. John Milton (Florida politician) (5th Governor of Florida) married Susan Amanda Cobb.
10. John M. Slaton (60th Governor of Georgia) married Sally Frances Grant
11. John Thomas Glenn (Mayor of Atlanta)
12. Laura Turner Seydel (Environmental Activist) married to Rurtherford Seydel.
13. Lloyd Wescott (Agriculturalist, civil servant, and philanthropist) married Barbara Harrison Wescott.
14. M. Hoke Smith (U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator, 58th Governor of Georgia) married Marion 'Birdie' Cobb, daughter of Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb.
15. Philip Thompson (Kentucky) (U. S. Representative from Kentucky)
16. Pierce Wetter (New York City Preservationist and Pacifist)
17. Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb (Author of the Confederate Constitution, Civil War General)
18. Thomas W. Cobb (U. S. Representative and Senator from Georgia) Cobb County, Georgia is named in his honor.
19. Rufus W. Cobb (25th Governor of Alabama)
20. Susan Cobb Milton (Activist for women's suffrage and equal rights, educator, business woman, first female postmistress in Georgia, First Lady of Georgia) she was the granddaughter of Gov. John Milton and married to Gov. William Y. Atkinson.
21. Walter Eli Clark (1st Governor of the Alaska Territory) married Lucy Harrison Norvell.
22. William A. Hocker (Florida Supreme Court Justice) married Mattie Norvell Glover.
23. William Hayes Pope (last Chief Justice of New Mexico Territory, and the first Federal Judge of New Mexico) married May Nisbet Hull
24. William Yates Atkinson (55th Governor of Georgia) married Susan Cobb Milton
25. Kathryn Denise Rucker Krepp Chief Counsel, U.S. Maritime Administration

• Military officers and figures

1. Daniel W. Abercrombie, III (U.S. Naval Commander)
2. Henry L. Benning (Confederate General, Lawyer, legislator and Georgia Supreme Court Justice) Fort Benning Georgia is named in his honor.
3. Howard Bucknell, III (U.S. Naval Captain)
4. Jefferson Mirabeau Lamar (Confederate Lt.-Colonel of Cobb's Georgia Legion) married Mary Athena Lamar.
5. Luther Glenn (Confederate Lt.-Colonel of Cobb's Legion, lawyer, Mayor of Atlanta). married Mildred Lewis Cobb.
6. Norvell P. Cobb (Confederate Colonel of the 44th Virginia)
7. John Harllee Carmichael (U.S. Naval Captain)
8. Robert Cobb Kennedy (Confederate Captain of the 1st Louisiana, Spy and terrorist)
9. Theodore Gordon Ellyson (First Naval aviator) married Helen Mildred Lewis Glenn.
10. Thomas Moon Cobb (Confederate Lieutenant of the 13th Virginia)

• Industrialists, inventors and business leaders

1. Augustus Harrison Benning (Atlanta developer and builder of Atlanta's 'Flatiron building')
2. Fairfax Harrison (Railroad executive, lawyer, historian, writer)
3. John Thomas Grant (Antebellum railroad baron and reconstruction era developer) married Martha Cobb Jackson
4. John W. Grant (Atlanta merchant and owner of the Kimball House)
5. Mary E. Cobb (first American manicurist and inventor of the modern manicure)
6. Oliver Markham Healey (Atlanta developer)
7. Paul B. Seydel (Belgian-American chemical manufacturer)
8. Samuel Spencer (First president of the Southern Railway) married Louisa Vivian Benning, daughter Gen. Henry Lewis Benning.

• Artists, Writers, Journalists and Educators

1. Anton Papich (Washington D.C. photographer)
2. Barbara Harrison Wescott (publisher)
3. Constance Cary Harrison (Writer) married Burton Harrison
4. Dorothy Jordan (Film actress) wife of Merian C. Cooper
5. Henry W. Grady (Georgia journalist and orator)
6. Joseph Beckham Cobb (Antebellum author, Planter and Mississippi legislator)
7. Lucian Lamar Knight (Georgia historian and newspaper editor)
8. Merian C. Cooper (Film director, Producer, Screenwriter and adventurer) best known for 'King Kong'
9. Maciej Słomczyński (Polish translator and writer)
10. Mildred Lewis Rutherford (Educator and writer)
11. Mildred Seydell (journalist)
12. Nathan Franklin Barrett (American landscape architect) married Lucy Mildred Lampkin
13. Peter D'Oench (Television news reporter)
14. Russell Grace D'Oench, Jr. (W.R. Grace & Co. heir and co-owner of newspaper owner)
15. Thomas Cobb Benning (Methodist minister and founding member of Emory University)
16. P. Thornton Marye (Georgia architect and preservationist)

• European and American Social and Titled Figures

1. Sir Gilbert Eliott, 10th Baronet, of Stobs, Scotland, married Dora Adams Hopkins
2. Sir Arthur Eliott, 11th Baronet, of Stobs, Scotland
3. Margaret Eliott of Redheugh (Elliot Clan Chief)
4. Russell Grace D'Oench (W.R. Grace & Co. heir)
5. Sarah Alberta Addison Alexina Telfair Cobb (Savannah socialite and Telfair heiress presumptive)
6. Sarah Frances Grant (Atlanta based socialite and philanthropist of the late 19th and early 20th century)