| Notes |
- "The Cobb Family of "Rocky Mount" Piney Flats, Tennessee 1613-1972"
that is put out by the historic home of William Cobb(Rocky Mount
Museum Press 1999); this book states that William first married
Barsheba and had the following three children: William Cobb, Pharoah
Cobb, and Penelope Cobb; second married Sally and had the children:
Sally Cobb and William Pharoah Cobb. Pharoah married his first cousin
also named Barsheba Whitehead. Sally Stancil married Thomas Wilkerson
after William's death.
The book also states that after his father's death Pharoah brought his
father to buried at his home (Pharoah's) at Cobb's Ford, Hawkins Co.,
Tennessee; at the same time Pharoah became the guardian of his half-
sister Sally Cobb; and "directed his step-mother, Sally, in a suit
against the heirs of Henry Conway.
The book also states that "William Cobb's will in Knox County Court
Minute Book No. 9, page 1686, Will Book 1, page 26; Knox County Court
Minute Book No. 6, 1800-1806, pages 26, 161. January 13, 1804, Sarah
Cobb et al from William Cobb Estate, Tract Holston River, Knox and
Jefferson County, Tennessee, Book 4, Page 211, East Tennessee
Historical Society Publication No. 26, 1954. Tax List 1806, Page 67,
94. "Sally Cobb 376 acres, 7 slaves, widow of William Cobb, whose home
near Bluff City was the first seat of government of the Southwest
Territory. William Pharoah Cobb by Sally Cobb 608 acres, 5 slaves.""
From the Book "The Cobbs of Rocky Mount". The book states that William
of RM's will is located in Knox County, TN Will Book 1 page 26. I have
not actually located this document. I also have information that in
not located in any of the Cobb information I have accessed. The
Patience Cobb Cooper of the Watauga settlement was the daughter of
Joseph and Katherine Cobb of Southhampton, VA. Joseph was the brother
of Benj. Cobb so she was William of RM's cousin. I got this
information from a deed where Patience and her husband James sold land
in Southhanpton, Va. It says that Joseph was the father-in-law of
James.
William who was born in Isle of Wight County, Virginia sometime
between 1730 and 1735. In North Carolina in 1751 he married Barsheba
Whitehead (born in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in 1735). Their
children were: William, Pharoah and Penelope. They moved to what is
now Sullivan County, Tennessee sometime in late 1769 and built a house
at the forks of the Holston and Watauga rivers. In 1770 they built
“Rocky Mount,” which is now a state park. When North Carolina
organized Washington County in 1778, William Cobb was one of the
justices of the peace. When a stage road was built from Abingdon,
Virginia to Jonesboro, North Carolina (now Tennessee) in 1776 and 1777
it ran in front of Rocky Mount, which became a stop on the route. One
of their frequent quests was Andrew Jackson, who was a relative of
Barsheba’s. On September 25, 1780, a large gathering of frontiersmen
from Virginia and western North Carolina rendezvoused at Rocky
Mountain, and began the march which took them to the battle of King’s
Mountain on October 7. Included among the frontier soldiers were
William’s son, Pharoah Cobb, and fifteen or twenty of William’s
slaves. William was apparently related by marriage to Governor Richard
Caswell of North Carolina, and, perhaps in part because of this
relationship, stayed loyal to North Carolina during the movement to
create the State of Franklin. North Carolina ceded her western lands
to the United States in 1789. In 1790 Congress created the Territory
South of the river Ohio (called the Southwest Territory) and President
Washington appointed William Blount as governor. Blount arrived in the
territory on October 11, 1790, and made his home and first capitol at
William Cobb’s home, Rocky Mount, remaining there for two years.
Sometime after 1795 William Cobb moved to Grainger County. Rocky Mount
became the home of his daughter, Penelope, and her husband, Henry
Massengill. William died in Knox County in 1803, and is buried near
Cobb’s Ford in Hamblen County.
(Source: http://64.235.34.221/rosehill/gencobb.htm)
Listed in the Battle of King's Mountain:
Cobb, Arthur
Cobb, Jerry
Cobb, Pharoh
Cobb, William Jr.
Cobb, William Sr.
The Rocky Mount site has important historical and cultural significance for the state of Tennessee because it was built by one of its earliest settlers and served as the capital of the territory from 1790 to 1792. Questions had been raised concerning whether the two main log structures (the Cobb House and adjoining dining room) were built by William Cobb between 1770 and 1772. We used tree-ring dating to determine the year(s) of construction of these two
log structures. Three nearby reference tree-ring chronologies anchored the Rocky Mount treering chronology from 1667 to 1829. The cutting dates obtained from 19 logs revealed that the Cobb House was built beginning in 1827 and finished by 1828, while the Dining Room was begun in 1829 and finished by 1830. An additional six logs had outermost dates between 1820 and 1825. These 25 logs demonstrate that the house and dining room were constructed by Michael Massengill between 1827 and 1830, and not by William Cobb between 1770 and 1772.
The Cobb House is a two-story log house (Figure 2) constructed from oak (reported to be white oak, Quercus alba L.) logs likely cut from the surrounding forest. The house was considered extravagant for its period. The stairway leading to the top floor was paneled, the handrails were made from walnut, and a large fireplace decorated with a pine mantel warmed thegreat room. Of notable importance were the glass windows, a rarity in the frontier landscape, which seemed to please Governor Blount (DeFriece and Williams 1966). The Cobb House measures 29 x 22 feet. These dimensions are large for an early frontier cabin (Glassie 1968; Morgan 1990) if the structure was indeed built between 1770 and 1772. The floor plan of the house represents a hall-and-parlor plan that was common in the region in the 18th and early 19th centuries (Glassie 1975; Patrick 1981). The logs on the Cobb House and the dining room are well-preserved, possibly attributable to the weatherboarding that was installed in the late 19th century (DeFriece and Williams 1966). In 1959 and 1960, two logs were replaced because of decay (McGowen 1960; Elizabethton Star 1979), while another 16 were “partially or entirely replaced” during restoration in 1979 (Elizabethton Star 1979).
(Source: Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and Saskia L. van de Gevel http://web.utk.edu/~grissino/downloads/Rocky%20Mount%20Final%20Report. pdf)
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1739 - Abt 1802 (63 years)