Notes – Cobb Cobbs

Table of Contents

A Probable History of the Golden Family
of Newberry, South Carolina Since 1761
Updated 2026.06.02

 

Cobb and Cobbs DNA Project — genealogies have become tangled and different family members misassociated over the years. What we currently know based upon DNA.

Two Cobb(s) families lived in early Virginia in the 1660s. Both were of English origin and lived in close proximity to one another. I am DNA kin to both, but only one line stands out as having close association with William and Nelly Golden (W&N) descendants.

Cobb 1: Joseph Cobb (Flinton) c1588/94-1653.^[1]Joseph Cobb (Flinton) c1588/94-1653:  https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/173427102/person/142690573037/facts This line’s partriarch arrived in Virginia in 1613.^[2]1613 date of arrival give for Joseph Cobb. Ship name not listed in book by Peter Wilson Coldham: The Complete Book of Emigrants: A Comprehensive Listing Compiled from English Public Records of Those … Continue reading DNA matches with W&N Golden descendants are numerous across all branches of Goldens that branched after 1770. DNA matches are so numerous and cross so many Golden lines via a specific Cobb descendant that it would seem to be a grandparent line. No known direct descent exists.

Cobb 2: Kin to me (9th GGF)^[3]Ancestry record for 9th GGF Robert Cobbs (Thorpe) 1626–1682 https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/173427102/person/142588512362/facts but not W&N Goldens: Robert Cobbs (Thorpe), 1626–1682, and son (8th GGF) Ambrose Cobbs (Pinkett), 1662-1718. ^[4]Ambrose Cobbs (Pinkett), Birth 7 Jan 1662 • Bruton, York, Virginia; Death 12 Jun 1718 • York, Virginia, or, Williamsburg, Williamsburg City, Virginia. This line does not seem to be kin to William … Continue reading These Cobb(s) lived on the northside of the James River.

~~~ This Cobb line is related to one other W&N Golden descendant, but not through her Golden lineage. As of May 2026, MHJ, also a Nathaniel Greene Golden (b1783) descendant, has a DNA match with the English Cobbs above.^[5]See MHJ2605311523  for MHJ DNA match. My line (WDG) and MHJ shared a grandfather in the 1860s: Nathaniel Green Golden, b1812 SC. MHJ has another anomalous Cobb connection^[6]MHJ2605311927 which demonstrates how interconnected were early American UK-centric families. This connection leads back through a Massachusetts Cobb line^[7]MHJ’s Cobb-Gould-Belcher connection is John Cobb, 1714–1777, of Norfolk, Massachusetts. which leads to a Gould and Belcher line. Once again, my own lineage descends from this same Belcher and Gould line as does MHJ’s: John Gould, 1648–1712, and Abigail Belcher, 1655–1687 of Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts. Much more research needs to be done. Not much effort has gone into exploring the different Cobb DNA lineages outside of my own line (May 2026).

Golden Cobb kin: A separate Cobb family would appear to be a grandparent line to the Goldens that settled at Newberry, South Carolina, c1759. Cobb DNA matches exist with living Cobb descendents and W&N Goldens. These matches are across W&N Golden lines that diverged by the early 1800s. DNA matches always lead back to the same patriarch Joseph Pharoah Cobb I, 1624 (Virginia or Holland) and wife Jebra Ann Williams, 1625–1670. This line arrived in Virginia in 1637 ostensibly from Holland, but may have resided for a short time in England just prior to Virginia.

Per an extensive number of DNA matches, I am descendant from both South Carolina and Virginia Cobb families on both my maternal and paternal lines.

Black / African-American (AA) Cobbs: One Black Cobb line comes out of Caswell, North Carolina. North Carolina is home to many of the Cobb family that is W&N Golden kin. An AA match has been noted with only one W&N descendant.^[8]MHJ2605310925, a W&N Golden descendant shares DNA with descendants of Jefferson Cobb, born c1825-1830 in the Caswell, North Carolina area. This match is unique in that a Kentucky Cobb married a North Carolina Cobb. Both AA Cobb lines have 1820s origins in different states. There are seven pages of shared matches, about 140 total. All appear to be a paternal line unassociated with our Goldens.

The individuals below may appear in your DNA matches. 

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TIMELINE

Add lineage from both lines here. There is a very discernible Cobb connection to W&N Goldens.

1637 Joseph Cobb, c1588-1653, arrived in Virginia ‘by’ 1637, and was a resident of Isle of Wight County, Virginia.^[9]Early Virginia Immigrants; 1623–1666 A bit of odd phrasing indicating that he may have arrived in an earlier year. There was an earlier Joseph Cobb that arrived in 1613 aboard the ship Treasurer and Elizabeth Cobb aboard the Bone Bes / Bonnie Bess in 1623^[10]1613 arrival of Joseph Cobb aboard Treasurer and Elizabeth Cobb aboard the Bone Bes / Bonnie Bess in 1623 per The original lists of persons of quality Virginia, by John Camden Hotten, 1874, pg 246; … Continue reading

. Supposedly born 1588 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Death 1 Mar 1653 probably at home on 300 acre plantation known as ‘Goose Hill’, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Goose Hill still exists as a location today as an upscale cul de sac community with homes starting in the $850,000 range. There appears to much more info. Need to research. Arrived by 1613 on the ship Treasurer? Search this and this. The Cobb and Cobbs DNA project indicates only three yDNA tests associated and all are older pre-2017.

1662 Ambrose Cobbs, 1662–1718, and Frances Elizabeth Pinkett, 1666–1715, are the first of kin American-born Cobbs. The parents of Ambrose are Robert Cobbs, 1626–1682, and Elizabeth Thorpe, 1643–1684, both families from Kent, England. Both Robert Cobbs and Elizabeth Thorpe came to the Williamsburg, Virginia area very young in life by their immigrant parents:

• Ambrose Cobbs, 1603–1656, and Ann White, 1608–1656; and there are claimed parents for Elizabeth Thorpe but they settled in New England. It was not uncommon for wealthy New England families to further migrate from there to Virginia. The Middlesex, Virginia area is full of such families. I include the names of the claimed parents in footnotes only as it appears they never left New England.^[11]Parents of Elizabeth Thorpe as claimed in some unsourced genealogies: William Thorpe, 1605–1679, and Mary Elizabeth Spencer, 1618–1660, both immigrated from England to New England, living their … Continue reading

1745 Jeremiah Cobb Sr., 1745–1788, is in some genealogies lived his life in the Ninety Six District, later Edgefield District, South Carolina, after being born 22 Sep 1745 at Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts^[12]Birth of Massachusetts Jeremiah Cobb: Jeremiah Cobb born 22 Sep 1745 to Gershom Cobb and Miriam Thomas; source: North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, pg 125., and passing away 1788 at Edgefield, Edgefield, South Carolina. This is an error that has been included by others in their genealogies. It is the blending of two very separate Jeremiah Cobbs. There was indeed a Jeremiah born in Massachusetts with a well documented family line and ancestry.

Jeremiah Cobb Sr of Edgefield, SC, was already living in the area by 1775 as son Jeremiah Cobb Jr was born that year. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Cobb of Plymouth Massachusetts was serving in the Massachusetts militia in 1777^[13]Jeremiah Cobb of Massachusetts 1777 militia service: Jeremiah Cobb; Rank Private; Military Date 1 Feb 1777; Military Place Massachusetts, USA; Military Unit Seventh Regiment, serving through at least 29 Jul 1780^[14]Jeremiah Cobb of Massachusetts 1780 militia service:  29 Jul 1780; Military Place Massachusetts, USA; State or Army Served Massachusetts; Regiment 7th Regiment;
Rank Private and would die in Massachusetts in 1788. He married Abigail Whitman in 1773^[15]Marriage of Cobb and Whitman in Massachusetts, 1773: Registers of Births, Etc. — Massachusetts East Bridgewater (Town), Registers of Births, Etc. — Massachusetts Bridgewater (Town), … Continue reading at Plymouth, MA. South Carolina’s Jeremiah Cobb married Rebecca “Becky” Gentry, 1755–1820. When South Carolina’s Jeremiah Cobb passed away is unknown.

 

1807 My known direct grandparentage begins with Elizabeth Cobb, 1807–1880, married to John Goforth Parker, 1798–1859. I use the term ‘known direct grandparentage‘ because DNA indicates that I am kin to the Cobbs on both my maternal and paternal lines. My genealogy has a direct maternal path to Elizabeth Cobb^[16]There are 17 DNA matches as of July 2025 between descendants of Elizabeth Cobb and myself, William Golden, b1956., and the Cobbs and other closely interrelated families lived close to our Newberry Goldens in Union and York, South Carolina. There are 29 DNA matches with Elizabeth’s siblings, children of William Ambrose Cobb, 1765–1833, and Martha Elizabeth Goforth, 1780–1855.

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W&N Golden DNA Matches with Isle of Wight Cobb Family

This information is kept in a separate file. Tracks specific DNA matches with AXG, CAG, MHJ, SPH, TRG, TXY, WDG.^[17]These Golden lines descend from Abraham Golden (c1770 SC), Nathaniel Greene Golden (c1783), Isaac Golden (c1784), and Vardel Golden (c1812, parents unknown but y700 tested).

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©2026 William Golden, [email protected] // Material may be shared without requesting permission and with appropriate attribution: A Probable History of the Golden Family of Newberry, South Carolina Since 1761, by William Golden