The Webb surname traces it’s origins to the 14^th century in England.   Webb is a quite common name throughout southwestern part of that nation. The Webb families are primarily concentrated in the English Counties of Somerset, Wiltshire, Hants, Suffolk, Norhampton and Worchestershire. The name Webb literally means "one who weaves" or "weaver".   A great many Webbs migrated to America when the colonies offered good wages to men with craft skills and to those who would build a new life. In 1790, when president George Washington authorized the first Census, there were 395 Webb families listed with an average of 5.7 members per family.  There were also 1864 adult and single Webbs not member of these households.   These were primarily young men seeking their fortunes on the frontier.   A later count, taken in 1960, revealed that the Webb name is the 121^st most common name in America. At that time there were approximately 148,000 adult Webbs in the United States. (Source , the Webb Family, published by the American Genealogical Research Institute, 1973)

Most of the WEBB family in the Southern States, including my branch, was originally from Dorset, one of the shires in England. For nearly two hundred years the WEBBs had resided in this place before Alexander Webb Jr., with his four sons, came to Boston, MA in the early 1600s.    Alexander and his brothers had become quite wealthy land owners in England.   Alexander sold his portion of the Webb estate for a large sum of money prior to his departure.   This English property was inherited through their ancestor, Sir Henry Alexander Webb.   A copy of the letter which Catherine Parr sent her Council (Cabinet Ministers) asking them to grant her beloved friend, Sir Henry Alexander Webb, the lands and estates that had been mentioned for him is still in existence.  These lands had been confiscated by the King at the suppression of the monasteries and were located in Dorsetshire, England.   In later years they became of value to the children who came to America.

Sir Henry Alexander Webb was usher in the Privy Council of Catherine Parr, Queen Regent of Britian in the 16th century. Catherine Parr, 6th Queen of Henry VIII of England, tactful, kindly woman to whose influence her stepchildren, the future sovereigns Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I owed much.   Among the few existing documents connected with the regency of Catherine Parr was one while Henry VIII was conducting the siege of Boulogne in 1544 AD.   There is in the Crotonain Collections a letter to her council headed: Katherine, Queen Regent, K.P. in favor of her trusty and well beloved servant, Henry Alexander Webb, gentleman, usher of her Privy Chamber."   The letter is in regard to some grants and privileges to Henry Alexander Webb, but which have not been fulfilled.   It concludes "we most heartily desire and pray you to be favorable to him at this our earnest request. Given under my Hand and Signet, at my Lord, the King's Majesty's Honor of Hampton Court, the 23d of July and the 36th of his Highness most noble Reign."

My branch of the Webb family migrated from Massachusetts to Virginia and later to North Carolina to become early settlers of what is now Rutherford County, NC and Greenville County, SC.    As early as 1810 this group of Webbs moved to East Tennessee where I found my 4^th great grandfather, John Roach Webb, living in Grainger County, TN with two of his brothers, James and Larkin.    John later moved with his family to Blount County, TN.    My branch  descends from John's son, William E. Webb, who resided in Blount, Monroe and McMinn Counties in the early to mid 1800s.

My  Oklahoma branch of Webb’s  originates with Isaac Franklin Webb, who was born in McMinn County, TN in 1869. "Ike", grandson of William E. Webb and son of James Pleasant Webb, was the only one of his family to leave Tennessee and head westward.  He was in Lamar County, TX by 1890 and in McMillian, Indian Territory by 1892. Family rumors suggest that Ike was on the run, having killed a man in a fight.   My research confirms that Ike was indeed the only one of his immediate family to leave Tennessee, probably about the year 1890.   His mother, brother Henry and sister Esther were in McMinn County as late as 1910.   Ike never returned to, or ever saw his family in Tennessee after moved to Oklahoma.   It is possible, however, that Ike knew Webb relatives in Lamar and Milam Counties in Texas.   Webb families in these Texas counties have close ties to East Tennessee and are descended from the same Webb ancestors only a few generations before.   Family tales suggest a relation to Webbs in Hugo, OK, which were the same family that resided in Paris, Lamar County, TX.