| DISCLAIMER This is the most recent information I have. If you have additions, corrections, or just better information, please e-mail me. Bob Cozby |
Cosby female lines Cossibye of Ireland My home page Last updated, May 11, 1999 |
| Charles was the founder of the family in Virginia. |
| John Cosby came to Virginia with his father and became the owner of extensive land tracts in York, King and Queen, and New Kent counties. |
| David Cosby moved to Hanover County, which eventually became Louisa County. His will was proved Sept 10, 1770. |
| Overton Cosby moved to Middlesex County before 1765, and became a clerk. He married his housekeeper and they had no children. In 1787, He was a member of the House of Delegates for Middlesex County. |
| David Cosby was one of the commissioners appointed to fix the boundary line between Louisiana and Mississippi. |
| Charles was the founder of the family in Virginia. |
| John Cosby came to Virginia with his father and became the owner of extensive land tracts in York, King and Queen, and New Kent counties. |
| In the 1840s, James and Sarah Cosby and their nine (ten?) children migrated across the mountains and settled "in the far Western Alleghany County." He and his seven sons were soldiers in the Confederate Army. |
| Henry Cosby, along with his brothers, was a Confederate soldier. After the war, he was one of the pioneer school teachers of Alleghany Co. |
| When Anthony Cosby was only a boy, he served as a Sergeant of Infantry and later as Sergeant of Cavalry during the civil war. Shortly after the war, he went with his father to Wilkes Co, Georgia and later (1787) to Franklin County. After the marriage of their daughter, Cynthia, in about 1813, they moved to Mississippi, where shortly afterward, Anthony died. One source states that he died Dec 18, 1822 in Elbert Co, Georgia |
| Charles Sydnor Cosby was appointed by President Monroe, Registrar of the United States Land Office, opened at St. Helena, Louisiana in August 1819. He was a lawyer in Baton Rouge. After his death, Charles' widow, Barbara, returned to Louisville and resided with her father, Capt Aaron Fontaine, until her marriage to John Synal Sanders, formerly of Virginia. |
| He moved with his family to Georgia in 1784 where he married. He was a tax collectory in 1812 for Elbert Co, Georgia, and later was appointed by President Madison, U.S. Commissioner of land claims for that part of Louisiana lying between the islands of New Orleans and the Pearl river and south of the 30th parallel. |
| Fortunatus Cosby graduated from William and Mary College at the age of 19. "Fortunatus Cosby manifested early in life a determination to have his own way. When a small boy, his mother wished him to have dancing lessons, but as his protests were without effect, he cut off one of his little toes hoping by this means to escape the task. His mother was no less resolute for when the wound was healed he was forced to comply with her wishes." He did not accompany his father to Georgia, but remained in Virginia to study law. About the year 1796, Fortunatus accompanied his father-in-law to Kentucky to practice law in Louisville. They settled on Harrod's Creek, a few miles from Louisville. He achieved rapid success. In 1802, he moved to Louisville where he build the third brick house in that city. He was a member of the Legislature, and a Circuit Court judge. |
| Fortunatus Cosby entered Yale with the class of 1821, but was called home due to illness, and took his degree at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1850 he went to Washington under appointment in the U.S. Treasury Department where he remained until August 12, 1861, when he was appointed by President Lincoln as U.S. Consul to Geneva, Switzerland. |
| Robert Cosby had a marked talent as a poet and contributed many poems to the Louisville Journal |
| Lt. Lucius Rich resigned his commission at the outbreak of the Civil War and was commissioned Colonel of the 9th Infantry in Missouri, C.S.A. He was mortally wounded while leading a regiment at the battle of Shiloh and died at Opolon, Mississippi on August 9, 1862. |
| In May 1857, Frank Carvill Cosby was appointed as captain's clerk on board the U.S.S. Cumberland. While in Rome at the outbreak of the Civil War, he received two letters, one from the Secretary of War at Washington offering him a commission as first lieutenant in he Army, and the other from the Secretary of War at Richmond, Va, offering the same rank in the confederate army. He declined both offers and sought and obtained an appointement as Assistant Paymaster in the Unied Stated Navy. He entered the service, August 24, 1861 and was promoted as Paymaster on April 14, 1862. He retired with the rank of Rear Admiral on April 14, 1902. |
| Spencer Cosby graduated West Point Military Academy in 1891, at the head of his class. |
| James Smiley Cosby was named after Major James Smiley. James Cosby was appointed midshipman on Jan 1, 1825, but resigned in August 1826 as a result, it is said, of challenging the First Lieutenant of his ship to fight a duel for some affront, real or imaginary. |
| William Cosby entered West Point as a Cadet in 1831, but finding the life distastful, prevailed upon his parents to allow him to resign and enter Yale. He proceeded to Northfield, Connecticut, to prepare for admission to the Sophomore Class, but died in 1832, it is said of homesickness. He was a young man of brilliant wit, a cleaver writer of verses and was regarded as the family's most promising member. |
| George Blake Cosby entered the Confederate service with the rank of Major. It is stated that he carried the cartel of surrender of Fort Donelson to General Grant, was subsequently transferred as a prisoner to Fort Warren near Boston. He participated in a prisoner exchange, and was later appointed Brigadere General and placed in command of a Cavalry Brigade in Mississippi. He retired at the close of the war, and moved to Canada, before resettling in California where he engaged in farming. He served for some years on the Board of State Engineers. He was later Adjutant-General. General Cosby was of medium height, but with a very military figure and bearing a strikingly handsome appearance. Several of his former army comrades have said that he was considered to be the handsomest man in the army and one of the best horsemen. |