One of the Babb settlers, however, did come to America from Bavaria. This does not necessarily mean that he was of German origin, as many of the early settlers first went to the European mainland before coming to this country. Some possibly stayed there longer than others, even taking wives and husbands in the country they had first gone to, and finally following their earlier friends to America.
There were a number of Babb settlers stretched out over a period of more than one hundred years. I have not been able at this writing to identify all that I have been told were settlers, and there is some likelihood that some who are listed as settlers were actually the children of earlier settlers who in turn moved on in search of greener pastures. To date I have identified, or have been given the names of eight settlers and have been told of others who may or may not have come to this country from Europe. In order to keep the various lines separated I have assigned a letter of the alphabet to each in the order of their arrival. Should I later identify others, they will be assigned letters for identification purposes but they may not be in proper time sequence. The following is the brief data that I have on each:
(A) Christopher Babb: Mrs. Eugenia Babb Gentry of Columbia, Missouri, in a letter to my mother written around 1930, told of finding a reference to Christopher as a lawyer in Massachusetts in 1636. She did not give the name of the book, but stated that she had come upon the reference while doing family research in the Denver, Colorado library. I have not been able to confirm this as yet and will appreciate anyone who can writing me.
(B) Edward Babb: A number of books dealing with early Virginia land grants list Edward as one of a group of settlers transported to Virginia by an Edward Panderson, for which he was given a Land Patent. No mention is made of where he settled, and to date I have been unable to find any other references to him. He came to Virginia in 1639.
(C) Captain Thomas Babb: Thomas was a ship's captain and in the early 1600's was captain of the HOPEWELL of London, England, which was used to bring settlers and supplies to the American Colonies. In 1641 he left the sea, settling in Virginia where he was given a land patent in Norfolk County. Some say that he and Edward (B) were brothers. I have not yet been able to get other data on Thomas; there are still a number of Babbs in the Norfolk area, however.
(D) Phillip Babb: is listed as settling in Kittery, Main in 1652. It could be that he was a son of Christoper as he had a commission from Massachusetts to take part in the governing of the Kittery-Isle of Shoals settlements. This is the line that I will trace. No records have been found which give te parentage and early history of Phillip Babb.
Some of today's residents of Maine, many of whom are the direct descendents of the original settlers on the Isles of Shoals, say that the story that has been handed down, but never confirmed, is that Phillip was the son of a country squire who had been doing what was then called 'humanitarian work' among the fishermen at Bristol, England. He was so successful that he was recommended as the most suitable man to take charge of the proposed settlement on the Isles of Shoals.
There are some who feel that Phillip may have bene the son of Christopher Babb who was an attorney in the Massachusetts Colony in 1636. Still others feel that he may have been the son of Thomas Babb, Master of the Hopewell of London, who brought supplies to the Colonies. In 1638 Thomas' wife and four young children lived at Wapping, near London. In either case, in view of the available dates, Phillip could have been the son of Christopher or Thomas; or could have been the son of the country squire as is told by the descendents of the first settlers of the Isles of Shoals.