Elder Henry Cobb @ Barnstable

Signatures of Henry Cobb and Thomas Huckins

Old Cemetery, Barnstable

aka; Lothrop Hill Cemetery

Henry Cobb is the 6th great-grandfather of Lewis Way. (Henry Cobb, Hannah Cobb, John Lewis, Edward Lewis, Sarah Lewis, Soloman Way, Edward Lewis Way, Hiram Lewis Way, Lewis Way)

Henry Cobb was born 1603 in Reculver, Kent, England, son of Baronet Henry Cobb and Pleasance Redwood. He probably came to the New World aboard the Anne in 1629. He married 23 Apr 1631 to Patience Hurst, daughter of Deacon James Hurst and Catherine. They had 3 children at Plymouth before removing to Scituate, Massachusetts, about 1633, where they had 2 children, including Hannah, and then they removed to Barnstable, Massachusetts, where they had more children.

The Cobb line is shown to extend as far as 1258 in England,

12 generations before Henry comes to Plymouth Colony.

"He removed to Scituate; with wife Patience joined in the organization of the church, Jan. 20, 1634-5. Removed to Barnstable, proprietor 2 Jan 1638-9. Deacon, ruling elder..."

-The Pioneers of Massachusetts, Charles Henry Pope

In 1633, Henry Cobb has a farm at Stockbridge Mill Pond

-Scituate Historical Society

“Among the early settlers at Plymouth was Henry Cobb, the ancestor of many of the family. Just when he came is not recorded, but his name appears in the Colony Records on a list of “Ratings by order of court, 2d Jan. 1632-3,” with the amount of his tax, nine shillings. His name is also among “The names of the Freemen of the Incorporation of Plymoth in New England, An: 1633.”  In after years his name appears frequently on the records, giving us a clear idea of what his position and standing in the Colony was.”

“He doubtless had been a member of Rev. John Lothrop’s church in England, as we gather from what Mr. Lothrop wrote in his Church Records. So that when Mr. Lothrop came to this country, Henry Cobb was among the very first who came to his support and joined him in the planting and establishing of a new town and church.”

-Introduction to Barnstable, Philip L. Cobb

The records of Rev. John Lothrop, a Puritan preacher who emigrated from London in 1634, after having been imprisoned there, provides details on the history of the time and Henry Cobb’s place in the church and the Colony.

“Decemb. 15, 1635, our Brother Cobb was invested into the Office of a Deacon.”

When it was proposed that the church remove to Sippican, now Rochester, Dea. Cobb was one of the committee to whom the Colony Court in 1638 granted the lands for a township. When it was afterwards decided to remove to Mattakeese, latercalled Barnstable, he was a member of the committee having charge, or the selecting, of a suitable location for the settlement.

The following part is given reference by “Barnstable Families, Otis”:

“Deacon Cobb's house lot in Barnstable containing seven acres, was situate at a little distance north from the present Unitarian Meeting House, between the lots of Thomas Huckins* on the north and Roger Goodspeed on the south, extending from George Lewis' meadow on the "Old Mill Way" on the east. This tract of land is uneven and a large portion was originally a swamp. It was not one of the most desirable lots the settlement.

His other lands were the neck of land and the meadows adjoining, where Cobb & Smith's wharf and stores are now situate, bounded southerly by Lewis Hill and John Davis' marsh and on the other sides by the surrounding creeks. His Great Lot, containing three score acres, was situate on the south side of the County road, between the present dwelling houses of Joseph Cobb and James Otis. It was bounded in 1654 easterly by the lands of Henry Taylor and Joshua Lumbard, southerly by the commons, westerly partly by the commons and partly by Goodman Foxwell's land, and northerly by the highway and Henry Taylor's land. Two lots of six acres each in the Common Field.”

…

“Deacon Cobb's house lot was rough and uneven, and not desirable land for cultivation. His Great Lot had some good soil. It was a good grazing farm, and as the raising of cattle was the principle business of the first settlers, his lands were probably selected with reference to that object. His two lots in the new Common Field had a rich soil, and were occupied as planting lands.

He appears to have built two houses on his home lot.”

* [Thomas Huckins was later chosen by Jonathan Cobb as his guardian after the death of his father and this was approved by Mr. Huckins and the Court.]

[More can be found in the Cobb’s “History”.]

In Barnstable he was active and useful in promoting the temporal, and in ministering to the spiritual wants of the first settlers. He was a town officer, a member of the most important town committees, and a deputy to the Colony Court in 1645, 1647, 1659, 1660 and 1661. On the 14^th of April, 1670, he was chosen and ordained a ruling elder of the church in Barnstable, an office which he held until his death in 1679.

“In the government of his town and Colony Henry Cobb took a modest, yet not unimportant, part. For many years he represented Barnstable at the General Court at Plymouth. There were two deputies from the town. … There can be no question but he was a man of standing and importance, valued and respected by his associates.”

Elder Henry Cobb married in 1631, Patience, daughter of Dea. James Hurst, of Plymouth. She was "buryed May 4, 1648, the first that was buryed in our new burying place by our meeting house." (Lothrop's Church Rec.) He was married to his second wife, Sarah, sister of Governor Thomas Hinckley and a daughter of Samuel and Sarah Hinckley by Mr. Prince, December 12, 1649. He died in 1679, and his wife Sarah survived him.

The precise date of his death is not known, “but he had lived in the Colony forty-seven years or more.”

A plain simple granite shaft about six feet in height from the base, on the front of which has been engraved the following inscription to his memory:

ELDER HENRY COBB THE ANCESTOR OF THE COBB FAMILY, IN BARNSTABLE. DIED IN 1679 --- ERECTED BY ENOCH T. COBB, A DESCENDANT IN 1871. (Barnstable, Old Cemetery aka Lothrop Hill Cemetery)

In his will dated 4 April 1673, proved before the court at Plymouth on 3 June 1679, and in the Codicil thereto dated 22 February 1678, he gave his “Great Lott of Land in Barnstable” to his son James; the latter paying Elder Cobb's son John 5 pounds for his interest therein. Names his sons John, James, Gershom and Eliezer, to whom he had theretofore given “half my Lands at Suconeesset”, gave his "new dwelling house" and all the rest of his “Lands both upland and meadow” to his wife Sarah. In his will he gave his dwelling house after the decease of his wife to his son Samuel; but in the codicil to his son Henry. He also named his son Jonathan and daughters Mary, Hannah, Patience and Sarah.

Henry Cobb, by wives Patience Hurst and Sarah Hinckley, fathered fifteen children. His first wife Patience died five weeks after giving birth to their seventh child in 1648. When he died in 1679, Henry had outlived twelve children and witnessed the births of twenty-eight grandchildren, none of whom died in infancy, quite a blessing in those times. Of his seventy-two grandchildren, all but fourteen had issue, which adds up to four hundred and twenty-three known great-grandchildren.