Cobb, Cesar , 1740 -
Cesar Cobb was born circa 1740 and, after purchasing his freedom from Captain Cobb of Martha's Vineyard, he married a Mashpee woman named Anne. He maintained a household as early as 1776, when he was numerated in a Mashpee community census. Cesar, his wife, another married couple, and two minors or unmarried children lived in the Cobb household.
Although he was not a Mashpee Indian, he signed, ostensibly in right of his Mashpee wife, four petitions between July of 1788 and May of 1795, each bringing to the attention of the Massachusetts General Court infringements on the community’s self-governance.
By 1793, Cesar and Ann lived in the Great Neck region of the tribal lands and although they had no children of their own, they did adopt a child and had two minor apprentices living with them. Apparently, Cobb and Anne were industrious and their farm prospered. Gideon Hawley described Cobb as having "a good house & barn, and lodges in a good bed; and can treat any Company handsomely - Joseph Nye Esqr. often lodges there". Their home also served as a location for other events, such as the April 19, 1798 marriages of the Pocknet brothers, Elijah and Nathan, to their respective wives. Years of hard work caught up with Cesar and by 1800 he was infirm. The 1808 census of the Mashpee community listed Anne Cobb as a widow.
1800 Mashpee Census, Ms. 48: SPG, Account of Indians, Box 2, Folder 16, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; 1776 Census, Unbound Papers of Gideon Hawley, MHS, Boston, MA; Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Massachusetts General Court, 1788.07.30.00; Remonstrance of Mashpee Proprietors and Others to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788.10.31.00; Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Massachusetts General Court, 1788.12.29.00; Petition and Remonstrance of Ebenezer Queppish and Other Mashpee Indians to the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1795.05.20; 1793 Mashpee Census, Autograph File, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Hawley, Gideon. Missionary journals, 1753-1806, Vol.2, Asset 289, Congregational Library & Archives, http://www.congregationallibrary.org/nehh/HawleyGideon1237; 1808 Mashpee Census, Misc. Bound Docs. 1808, MHS, Boston, MA.