The Bobbitt Family In America

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The majority of Babbitt families in the United States are descendants of Edward Bobet of Taunton, Massachusetts and the majority of Bobbitt families are descendants of William Bobbitt, who settled in Charles City County, Virginia. We know that Edward and William were distant relatives and that both came from Wales. There is no record or indication of a Bobbitt male entering this county between 1673 and 1750. A Bobbitt from England is supposed to have entered Philadelphia in 1750 but I cannot find any records of him or his descendants. In 1824 a Richard Bobbitt, who was a son of Robert Bobbitt, consul to Smyrna, Turkey for the British government, came to Philadelphia. Some of his descendants are supposed to live in Indiana and Illinois at the present time.

Between 1890 and 1920 there were several "Bobbit" families with similar surnames who migrated to this country. Bobit from Frame, Bobet from Austria, Bobbott from Germany, Boblitz from Portugal, are all names that can be found in the later census records. By 1970 the similarity in the spelling and in the pronouncing of the name does not mean that every Bobbitt in this country is a descendant of Edward and William of the colonial period. All the evidence that we can find indicates that the great majority of Bobbitt and Babbitt families are descendants of the colonial period, and were originally from Wales.

The Bobbitt, Babbitt lineages have to be carefully proven. The difficulty is in the hand writing and the spelling of the name. Regardless of the care taken in making the letter "o" and the letter "all it is certain to be copied wrong and mispronounced periodically. We know of one branch of the Bobbitt family who went to Nebraska in 1880 and the teacher insisted that their name should be spelled with an "a" which they carry to this day. Their ancestors before 1880 always spelled their name with an "o".

From our research in England we could find the name in several sections of the country. The name in England goes back to the middle 1300's. The name is found most frequently in Wales and in English counties across the Bristol Channel from Wales. Anthony Bobbett from Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, said that some of his family lived at one time in Sommerset England. In the London directory only two families with the Bobbitt surname were listed. Cardiff, Wales lists about fourteen families in their directory.  The 1970 census of the United States listed 2,000 families with surname of Babbitt and Bobbitt.

Allen Wade Mount, in his book "Our Bobbitt Family" wrote, "The Bobbitt surname is of Dutch Origin. Among the Dutch who came to England during the early days of immigration from the continent were those who used the name " Bobert".