Second Edition

I am now working furiously on the second edition, which I am expanding to include the fourth generation (in America) for all Tapscott descendants. Of course a large number, with interesting stories, go even farther towards the present than that.

I run into a big problem with William the Preacher, born 24 Jan 1764 in Cumberland County, Virginia, died about Mar 1837 in Green County, Kentucky, son of Edney Tapscott. In spite of the fact that I am his direct descendant (GGG grandson) and have extensive information about his military service and even his own personal life, I know next to nothing about his family. A major problem is that Buckingham County court records were destroyed by a fire in 1869, and it was there that William is believed to have started married life. Only one plat book survived, although some lost wills and deeds were rerecorded later. William is said to have married Winifred Cobb and to have had five children: Henry, William Stewart, George Rice, Richard, and Winifred; however, no original or even contemporary secondary sources have been reported. We know a lot about the four boys, but nothing that says their father was William. No original record has been found that gives either his wife’s family or given name. In fact, in his Revolutionary War pension application which contains a brief biography, William says not one word about his family. But his four supposed sons do appear in numerous documents at the same times and in the same locations as does William. For convenience I am taking the name of William’s wife as “Winifred Cobb,” though given the middle names of two of the “sons,” a family name of “Rice” or “Stewart” seems also likely. “Cobb” (or “Cobbs”), “Rice,” and “Stewart” are all relatively common Virginia names.

Where in the world did the name Winifred Cobb come from! Does anyone have a reliable source (not someone's unsourced family tree!)?