John Fairfax Bolling^[1]

1676 - 1729  (53 years)

• Name	John Fairfax Bolling
  Birth	26 Jan 1676	Kippax, Charles City, Virginia, USA   [2, 3, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1704	Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA
  Death	20 Apr 1729	Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA   [2, 3, 4]
  Burial	Enon, Chesterfield, Virginia, USA   [3]
  Person ID	I33232	Master
  Last Modified	22 Jul 2020

  
  

  Father	Robert Bolling,   b. 26 Dec 1646, All Hallows, Barking, London, England d. 17 Jul 1709, Kippax, Charles City, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)
  Mother	Jane Rolfe,   b. 10 Oct 1650, Varina, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 26 Jan 1676, Hopewell, Prince George, Virginia, USA (Age 25 years)
  Marriage	1674	Petersburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA   [5]
  Family ID	F8099	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Sarah Kennon,   b. 29 Jun 1679, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 29 Jun 1727, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 48 years)
  Marriage	29 Dec 1697	St Johns Church, Henrico, Virginia, USA   [2, 6, 7]
  Children	+ 1. Margaret Bolling,   b. 1698, , Charles City, Virginia, USA d. 6 Nov 1756, , Sussex, Virginia, USA (Age 58 years) + 2. Anne Bolling,   b. 1700, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 6 Nov 1756, , Powhatan, Virginia, USA (Age 56 years) + 3. Major John Kennon Bolling, Jr.,   b. 20 Jan 1700, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 6 Sep 1757, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 57 years) + 4. Jane Kennon Bolling,   b. Apr 1703, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 4 Mar 1766, Curles Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)  [Father: natural]   5. Evelina Bolling,   b. 1705, Hopewell, Frederick, Virginia, USA d. 1763, Chesapeake, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA (Age 58 years)   6. Thomas Bolling,   b. 1706, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA   7. Judith Bolling DePriest,   b. 1708, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 1770, , Goochland, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)  [Father: natural] + 8. Elizabeth Bolling,   b. 17 Dec 1709, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 24 Jul 1766, Curles Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 56 years) + 9. Mary Kennon Bolling,   b. 15 Jul 1711, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 10 Aug 1744, , Powhatan, Virginia, USA (Age 33 years)  [Father: natural]   10. Martha Bolling,   b. 1713, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 23 Oct 1749, , Prince George, Virginia, USA (Age 36 years)  [Father: natural]   11. Susan Bolling,   b. 1720, Chesterfield, Chesterfield, Virginia, USA d. 6 Sep 1757, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 37 years)  [Father: natural]   12. Sarah Bolling,   b. 1727, , , Virginia, USA d. 1816 (Age 89 years)
  Family ID	F8096	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	10 Dec 2022

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 26 Jan 1676 - Kippax, Charles City, Virginia, USA Marriage - 29 Dec 1697 - St Johns Church, Henrico, Virginia, USA Residence - 1704 - Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA Death - 20 Apr 1729 - Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA Burial - - Enon, Chesterfield, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  The Cobbs from County Kent, England In 1639, Ambrose Cobbs and his family landed in Virginia, in the original Henrico County deeper inland on the James River, and settled Cobbs Hall, a 350 acre estate on the north side of the Appomattox River in York County. According to Early Virginia Immigrants 1623-1666, by George Cabel in 1912, Robert Cobbs and Margarett Cobbs, the children of Ann and Ambrose Cobbs were brought to Henrico County by Ambrose and Ann Cobbs. Ambrose Cobbs was born in 1603 in Petham, Kent, England, where he married Ann White on 18 April 1625. Ann White was born in 1608 in Norton Parish, Kent. Before the marriage, Ann was living in Willesborough with her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Thomas Cobbs, the brother of Ambrose. Ambrose and Ann gave birth to son Robert in 1627, and then in 1633 sold their property in England in preparation for the trip to the colonies. On July 25, 1639, Ambrose patented 350 acres on the Appomattox River, near Swift's Creek, about nine miles from present Petersburg, about fifty miles upriver from Jamestown, and adjacent to properties owned by Abraham Wood and John Baugh. During his lifetime, the entire locale became known as 'Cobbs' or 'Cobbs Hall', a name that was used to identify the entire surrounding area until well after the Civil War. Robert, the son of Ambrose, became the York County Anglican Church Warden of Marston Parish two years after the death of Ambrose. He was York County’s Justice of the Peace in 1676, and High Sheriff of York County in 1682 – the year Robert died. At that time Robert’s son, Ambrose, was a member of Bruton Parish in Williamsburg, and helped build the Bruton Parish Anglican Church, which is still operating today. Robert inherited Cobbs Hall when Ambrose died in 1656, and he immediately sold the property to Michael Masters, who then sold it to John and Thomas Burton that same year. In 1704, a son of Thomas Burton sold "Cobbs" to John Bolling, and though it continued to be known as "Cobbs", the property remained in the possession of the Bolling family for over a hundred years. John Bolling was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling and his wife Jane Rolfe, daughter of Thomas Rolfe and granddaughter of Pocahontas. The state of Virginia owns a painting of the mansion at Cobbs Hall, but was probably built by the Bolling family. During the Revolution, the property was raided by the British. The crops and outbuildings were burned, but the main house was left untouched. During the Civil War however, the entire property was overrun in 1864 and burned to the ground by Federal troops. Major John Bolling (January 27, 1676 – April 20, 1729) was a colonist, farmer, and politician in the Virginia Colony. John Bolling was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling and Jane (née Rolfe) Bolling. His maternal grandfather was Chief Powhatan's grandson, Thomas Rolfe and maternal great grandmother was Pocahontas. John Bolling was born at Kippax Plantation, in Charles City County, a site which is now within the corporate limits of the City of Hopewell. He made his home at the Bolling family plantation "Cobbs" just west of Point of Rocks on the north shore of the Appomattox River downstream from present-day Petersburg, Virginia. (Cobbs was located in Henrico County until the area south of the James River was subdivided to form Chesterfield County in 1749.) John Bolling married Mary Kennon (1679–1727), daughter of Richard Kennon and Elizabeth Worsham, on December 29, 1697. They had at least seven children, whose names appear in John Bolling's will: John Bolling Jr. (1700–1757) married Elizabeth Lewis in 1720. Later married Elizabeth Bland Blair (the niece of James Blair, the first president of the College of William & Mary) on August 1, 1728 and had at least nine children, including John Bolling III, who married Mary Jefferson (the sister of United States President Thomas Jefferson. Jane Bolling (1703–1766) married Colonel Richard Randolph in 1714 or 1720 and had seven children. Elizabeth Bolling (b. 1709), married William Gay of Scotland and had three children. Mary Bolling (1711–1744), married John Fleming and had eight children. Martha Bolling (1713–1737), married Thomas Eldridge in 1729 and had four children. Anne Bolling (1718–1800), married James Murray and had six children. Sarah Bolling (1727–1816), married Major Robert Davis and had one child. In 1722, he opened a tobacco warehouse in what is now the 'Pocahontas' neighborhood of Petersburg. William Byrd II of Westover Plantation is said to have remarked that Major Bolling enjoyed "all the profits of an immense trade with his countrymen, and of one still greater with the Indian.". Major Bolling served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1710 until his death in 1729. John and Mary Bolling's descendants are some of the descendants of Pocahontas, and include Latter-day Saint pioneer Martha Jane Crismon Lewis, First Lady of the United States Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, astronomer Percival Lowell, Virginia Governor then Senator Harry Flood Byrd, New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. In Old Virginia Houses Along the James by Emmie Ferguson Farrar (New York: Bonanza Books, 1957). On pp. 61-62, Ms Farrar has this to say about Cobb's Hall: "AMBROSE COBB patented three hundred and fifty acres on Appomattox River in 1639. The patent was granted him in order that he might bring over himself, his wife, his son and three others to Virginia and settle on the patented land. He was in business in York, and from the records, there were two other sons, Ambrose II and Thomas. (Bishop Meade mentions Ambrose Cobb, vestryman at the Church in Williamsburg, some time between 1674-1769.) Cobb built the first mansion at Cobb's. Its site was on the north side of Appomattox River in what is now Chesterfield County. Later John Bolling (the great-grandson of Pocahontas and John Rolfe) and his wife, Mary Kennon, of Brick House, bought Cobb's, and it became a Bolling home for many generations. John Bolling went into mercantile business and carried on extensive trade with the Indians as well as the English. John and Mary had a son, John, who was something of a gay blade and liked dancing, fishing, hunting, dogs and horses. He was devoted to his family. He became a justice in the courts, while the family acres were still a part of Henrico, and later presided over the first Court of Chesterfield County. John had a son, Thomas, who married Elizabeth Gay. She rode about the county and to church with her coach and four, with coachman, footman and postillion in bright yellow livery. Many distinguished Americans, including the second Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, were descendants of this family. The burial ground at Cobb's is surrounded by a high brick wall, and many Bollings are buried here. There is a granite monument on which is inscribed, 'Around this stone lie the remains of Colonel John Bolling of Cobbs. Great Grandson of Rolfe and Pocahontas--Born 1676--Died 1709.' Some members of the Bolling family were deaf, so William Bolling engaged a teacher, John Braidwood, of Washington, and in 1815 organized the first school for the deaf in America. It continued for only four years. Cobbs suffered damage both during the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars. It eventually burned down but was rebuilt. After the Bollings sold the place, there was a succession of owners and several changes of name. Now, since Mr. M. T. Broyhill, of Hopewall, purchased the property and subdivided it into small farms, there are many people living at Cobb's."

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=154094295&pid=57 [S1091] Ancestry.com, Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Alabama Department of Archives and History; Montgomery, AL; Alabama Surname Files; Box or Film Number: M85.0590 (Reliability: 3). Name: John Bolling Gender: Male Marriage Age: 21 Death Age: 53 Birth Date: 27 Jan 1676 Marriage Date: 1697 Death Date: 20 Apr 1729 Spouse: Mary Kennon https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61266&h=213962&tid=167141933&pid=172171889577&hid=1035308796316&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PFA1906&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S705] Ancestry.com, Global, Find a Grave™ Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.) (Reliability: 3). Name: John Fairfax Bowlling Birth Date: 27 Jan 1676 Birth Place: Henrico County, Virginia, USA Death Date: 20 Apr 1729 Death Place: Henrico County, Virginia, USA https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60541&h=1909806&tid=167141933&pid=172171889577&hid=1035308795908&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PFA1910&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true [S887] Ancestry.com, Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.) (Reliability: 3). Name: Robert Bolling Birth Date: 26 Dec 1646 Birth Place: London Marriage Date: 1675 Death Date: 17 Jul 1789 Death Place: Kippax, Prince George's Co., VA Spouse: Jane Rolph https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61175&h=32778&tid=167141933&pid=172171889588&hid=1035308793958&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PFA1922&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true [S627] Dodd, Jordan, Virginia, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1660-1800, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997.Original data - Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Virginia.Original data: Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individu) (Reliability: 3). Name: John Bolling Spouse: Mary Kennon Marriage Date: 29 Dec 1697 Marriage Location: Henrico County, Virginia https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3002&h=18947&tid=167141933&pid=172171889577&hid=1035308796034&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PFA1912&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true [S386] Edmund West, comp., Family Data Collection - Marriages, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001.).