Person:Henry Webb (1)

Biography

Henry Webb11 Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements, By John Perry Alderman; Published by Alderman Books, 1985, p. 84-86. His grandson was Elder Isaac Webb who in his youth know the old man and who in his later years took a greater interest in the background of the family than most; moreover, the good Elder in his own family Bible wrote out the family genealogy as it had been told to him. Whenever it has been possible to test the assertions in the Webb Bible, they have proved to be accurate. Concerning the Webbs, Elder Isaac wrote that “Henry Webb, was the son of Jacob Webb and Mollie (Mary Austin). Jacob Webb was son of James Webb.” Additionally he wrote: “John Webbs father’s name was Henry Webb, from Black-water in Franklin County, VA. Said John Webb’s mother was Susanna Cocke.” A search of the Franklin Courthouse (and the neighboring counties) has not turned up anything to prove or disprove the Bible record. In the 1750 list of Lunenburg tithes (perhaps in the area which is now Charlotte County), there appear the names of James Webb and John and Joseph Austin; moreover, the names are adjacent on the tax list (Bell, Sunlight on the Southside, p. 149). The immediate past of Henry Webb remains to be discovered. From the old census, it appears that he was born in the 1750s and his wife in the 1760s; more clearly, the eldest child was probably born in 1782. Elder Isaac’s statement that his grandmother was named Susanna Cock is the only evidence found for the proposition that she was a Cock; it is clear from several other records that her name was Susanna. There is no reason to question Elder Isaac’s claim that she was a Cock; he must have remembered her. The unanswered question is her lineage. She could have been the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Goad) Cock—but if she was, one has to wonder why Elder Isaac did not say so in the Bible, for then his parents would have been first cousins. The first records found of Henry are in the year 1782. Since we think his eldest child was born that year, it is assumed that Henry had not been married long, and he paid tax only on himself, one horse and one head of cattle (probably the family cow). The same year he entered his land, a tract of eighty acres between Burks Fork, “on the branch which runs into Big Reed Island near Andrew Cock’s Landing, running down a branch of burks fork, to include the Chestnut Hill” (Montgomery, Entry A-61). His land was exactly where it was described, perhaps a mile upstream from the mouth of Burks Fork on the ridge which divides that stream from Big Reed for a couple of miles from their junction. In brief, Henry lived a half mile from the old John Cock settlement on Burks Fork. Henry had the land surveyed, but assigned his rights to old John Cock who received the land grant in 1784 (Grants, M-183). Henry’s second home was on Big Reed, adjoining Robert Goad; Henry acquired this tract from Ben Bailey (it was one of Bailey’s many surveys in the area) and received the grant in 1797 (Grants, 39-592). Henry moved to Snake Creek in 1798; that year he bought 120 acres on that stream from Randolph Collier (Grayson, D. B. 1-365), and in two transactions he sold his Big Reed property (Grayson, D. B. 1-190; D. B. 1-286). His Snake Creek property probably included the site of the old Webb Cemetery (now called the Thompson Cemetery ) and had been known in the early days as Andersons Camp (Montgomery, Entry A-50). There is little mention of Henry in the records, either during the years he was on Burks Fork and Big Reed or after he moved to Snake Creek. He did belong to the Montgomery militia, and his name appears on Capt. Jonathan Isham’s muster roll. In his younger days, he was on the Grayson jury about once a year. In 1808 he and his son James A. Webb were sued by Bob Henson (Grayson, Orders 1806-1811); the case was dismissed as agreed, meaning they had settled it. He was not acquisitive. In 1815 he described his land to the tax assessor as 120 acres, “having there on one small dwelling house, Stable, Valued at $250.” (Grayson, 1815 Assessments). He signed his name by mark, while his sons, so far as is known, could read and write; one supposes that Susanna Cock Webb had a better education than her husband and that it was she who taught the children. Although the Webb house was small, it was not a cabin—which is what most of his neighbors had to live in. About 1815 he bought another tract on Snake Creek from Ephraim Dickens. He deeded all of it during his lifetime. It is not known exactly when he and Susanna died; they were both apparently living in 1840 (as shown by the census) and both were dead by 1850. Since there was no will or administration of his estate, there is no list of his children in the Carroll or Grayson records. All accounts agree that there were eight boys and two girls, excepting the one daughter whose identity remains unknown, there is no question about old Henry’s family. It should be said here that for years it was claimed that Henry’s wife was Molly Austin, and that Molly was the daughter of old Moses Austin who lived in southern Wythe County and owned the mines (Austinville being named for him) before going on to Texas. This is not true. The known data on the Austin family plainly show that they did not come into the area until long after Henry Webb had married, and Elder Isaac’s Bible makes it abundantly clear that Molly Austin was Henry’s mother and not his wife. The unsolved genealogical riddle is the relationship between Henry Webb and the Cuthbert Webb who followed him to Big Reed Island. The ten children of Henry and Susannah Webb: (1) James Austin Webb, born about 1782, died in 1870, married Sarah Goad. James and Sarah had eleven children, all grown before her death in the early 1850s. He then remarried Rebecca Edwards in 1856. (2) Giles Webb, birthdate uncertain, married Rachel Horton in Patrick in 1807. Giles lived in the county for many years, but in the 1830s he sold out and went to Raleigh County, West Virginia where his descendents intermarried with still other Webbs. (3) Mary Webb, born about 1785, died in 1876, married Joseph Horton in Grayson in 1801; they also lived on Snake Creek and are said to be buried next to Henry and Susannah Webb in the Thompson Cemetery. (4) Andrew Webb, born about 1789, died in 1870. He lived on Snake Creek on a tract of land his father-in-law gave him; he married Catherine Cock, daughter of Andrew and Penelope. (5) John Webb, born in 1792, died in 1876, married Hannah Cock in Patrick in 1815; they were parents of nine including Elder Isaac Webb. (6) Joseph Webb, born about 1793, is said to have married Marjorie Dickerson. (7) a daughter, identity uncertain, shown in the 1820 census as aged 16/26. Some have said she was Susannah who married Benford Dickens, but this version apparently confuses her with a niece of the same name who married Dr. Jesse Dickens. It may be that the daughter died when grown and unmarried. (8) Jacob Webb, born in 1797, died in 1845, married Hester Dickerson in 1822. (9) Henry Webb, born about 1802, married first Nancy Bobbitt in 1823 and remarried Amelia Ashworth in 1838. (10) William Webb, born about 1804, married Catherine Dickerson in 1825; died in 1885.