The Webb families are numerous and widespread. According to House of Names, Webb is the 125th most popular surname in the United States with an estimated 179,000 people with that name.
I appreciate the assistance of several people in the preparation of this column: Judy Webb, Pat Miller, Connie Mashburn and Ed Malowney, all of whom are steeped in the history of North Fulton County. Thanks also to Brent Lerch, an “avid reader” of “Preserving the Past,” for suggesting as a subject the Web family and “how deeply invested they were in the history of the Alpharetta/Ocee/Milton area.”
Perhaps we should start with Clinton Toliver Webb, born in North Carolina in 1778, moved to Georgia, raised a family, died and was buried in Alpharetta in 1862. While he and his wife, Jane Christian Robinson (1777-1872), were not the first Webs to immigrate to the United States, they were probably among the first to settle in Georgia. They are buried in Old Big Creek Cemetery in Alpharetta. According to Judy Webb, they had 12 children who gave life to 40 offspring.
Pat Miller says that by the early 1920s, seven generations following Clinton Webb, there were nearly 150 Webb descendants in the North Fulton area, including spouses and many more after that. Most of the descendants remained in the North Fulton area although some lived in Cherokee and Forsyth Counties. Through marriage with other local families, many if not most families are somehow linked genetically. Surnames, such as Paris, Martin, Maxell, Shirley, Buice, Bagwell, Morton, Devore, Mansell, McGinnis, Medlock, Mayfield, Strickland, Phillips and other well-known names intermarried with the Webbs.
The name means “weaver” in Old English and can be traced back to the Norman conquest of 1066. Locally, various branches of the Webb family exist, some individuals with the same names or…
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