... We can be certain that the Robert Coleman, Sr. (who acquired the land from Lt. Col. Walter Chiles, in 1652) was not the same man as the well known Robert Coleman of Gloucester County, who is generally known as Robert Coleman of "Mobjack Bay" (sometimes called "Mockjack Bay").
... Robert Coleman of Mobjack Bay was the ancestor of the Essex County (Virginia) Colemans and of the numerous descendants so carefully studied and described by Judge S. Bernard Coleman, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in his most excellent manuscript at the Virginia State Library, of which he gave J. P. Coleman a copy in 1957.
Robert of Mobjack Bay first appears in the Virginia Patent Records on March 18, 1662, When he was granted 110 acres in "Gloster" County, on a branch of Burt's Creek adjoining "his own land." He had a son named Robert, later known as Captain Robert Coleman, who became Sheriff of Essex, at Tappahannock. This Robert, the son of Robert of Mobjack Bay, was born in 1656. [Essex County, Va., Deed and Will Book 13. p. 76.] Therefore, the future sheriff was only seven years old when the Appomattox River Robert Coleman, Jr., received the deed of gift from Robert Coleman, Sr.
It might further be pointed out that neither of the patents dated March 18, 1662, and March 1, 1672, to Robert Coleman in Gloucester County (Who most certainly was Robert Coleman of Mobjack Bay) referred to the grantee by the descriptive Senior or Junior. Robert of Mobjack Bay did have a son by the name of John. This is well established by the writings of Judge S. Bernard Coleman, supported by the records cited by him, including entries in the Abbingdon Parish Register. However, this John had wives named Margaret and Ann, while the wife of John Coleman of Prince George County, as we have seen, was named Mary. ...
