Person:John Fobes (3)

Name: John was left in Holland when his father returned to Scotland after being granted a reprieve by King James. In Holland, it is said, he acquired a soft accent resulting in the recording of the name as Vobes, or Ffobes and finally Fobes.

He was one of the 15 young men in Rev. Robinson's group and was indentured to Isaac Allerton to pay for his passage.

He initially lived in the Duxbury area (Powder Point and Green Harbor) but removed to Bridgewater and became an original Proprietor.

1. ↑ Mitchell, Nahum. History of the early settlement of Bridgewater, in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, including an extensive family register. (Boston, MA: Kidde and Wright, 1840)
   p.162.

   "John Fobes (from Duxbury) was one of the original proprietors of Bridgewater, where he settled, and d. a. 1661; made his nuncupative will before William Brett and Arthur Harris; his wid. Constant, sister of Experience Mitchell, m. John Briggs of Portsmouth R. I. 1662. -- he had John, Edward, Mary, Caleb, William, Joshua, and Elizabeth."

2. ↑ "Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories", in Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History and Biography
   Vol. 15, p. 59.

   [Nuncupative will of John Fobes]: "Wee whose names are heer underwritten according to our best Remembrance; Being with goodman ffobes of Bridgwater lying sicke and expecting his Change in Respect of Death of which sicknes hee Died; willed to some of his Children by name; soe much of his estate as followeth
   Imp^r: to his two sonnes John and Edward his two eldest sonnes sixty acrees of land layed out with one share of his meddow equally to bee Devided betwixt them one muskett and his sword to his son John a lesser gun to his son Edward; a yeerling steer to his Daughter Mary and the Rest to bee Disposed of by his wife; and Desireth his brother Experience Michell of Duxburow to bee what help hee could to his wife and Children after his Decease;
   Willam Britt
   Arthur harris his marke"
   July the 31 Ann^o: 1662 The Inventory of the moveable goods of John ffobes of the Township of Bridgwater now Deceased; and exhibited at the Court held att Plymouth the fift of october 1663 on the oath of Constant Briggs; sometimes the wife of the said John ffobes:" was taken by Thomas Hayward, Sr., John Willis, Sr., and William Brett.

3. ↑ Winsor, Justin. History of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with genealogical registers. (Boston: Crosby & Nichols, 1849)
   p. 92.

   Aug 1643: Duxbury men able to bear arms
   ...
   John Vobes
   ...

4. ↑ Jacobus, Donald Lines, and Edgar Francis Waterman. The Granberry Family and Allied Families: including the ancestry of Helen (Woodward) Granberry. (Hartford, Conn.: E.F. Waterman, 1945)
   pp. 216-8.

   "Nahum Mitchell ... stated that John Fobes married Constant Mitchell, sister of Experience. Mr. Mitchell's grandfather was a grandson of Experience Mitchell ... his early interest in genealogy of the families of that town and his relative closeness in time to the early settlers inclines us to accept this statement." [See other evidence elsewhere on wife's page.] On 1 Mar 1658/9 John served on a jury of inquest [e.g., see here ]. Request dated 13 Jun 1660 by "the widdow Vobes ... her husband, John Vobes, late deceased [e.g., see here ]" [i.e., death between those dates].