It is the wistful desire of every true sailorman to quit the restless sea and own a farm. This boon was vouchsafed Elijah Cobb and it is fitting to bid him farewell when “the wind has got around to the south” and he is just returning from a visit to the young orchard--a mellowed old gentleman who had lived through the most stirring era of American ships and sailors and had survived hazards innumerable to find a quiet harbor! Not a flamboyant career, but splendidly competent as one reads between the lines. He was one of the pioneers, blood brother of the men who turned landward to tame the wilderness. Ralph D. Paine. _Durham, New Hampshire April, 1925._ [Illustration: decorative line] _BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH_ _The following Biographical sketch; with a few of the incidents of my life, are committed to paper, for the gratification, and amusement of my beloved Grand-children. Considering the advanced age of the writer, on the brink of 75, it must be expected, there will be imperfections, of various kinds--the old mans trembling hand is conspicuous at first sight--but even that, may interest, when the reader reflect, that the hand which pen’d these lines, is now mouldering in Dust._ In the year 1802, I was in Yarmouth, a sea port, in the East of England; and by one of those casual events of life, was favoured with an interview with an aged Gentleman, a Port admiral, by the name of Isaac Cobb--lea[r]ning, that I was an American, and my name Cobb, he expressed a desire to know the names of my ancestors, as far back as I could recolect; I could only give him, to my great G^{r.} Father Jonathan Cobb--he then told me, that it was clear to him, that my ancestor originated from Harwich in England, that he had been at the seat, where he was born, many times,--that Silvanus Cobb, had 4 sons. viz Jonathan, Eleazer, Silvanus, & Benjamin, that the two first named embarked for America in the May Flower[1] that Silvanus followed them some 2 or 3 years after; & that Benjamin remained with his Father untill he died, & then followed his Brothers to America. He then produced a very lengthy Biography of several generations, & read many particulars of the Cobb families, and among them--that Jonathan, son of Silvanus, setled upon Cape Cod--Eleazer, somewhat further westward--& Silvanus, some distance north of Boston--and that I was, no doubt, a decendant from Jonathan. The old gentlemen ordered his secretary, to make a copy, of such parts of the biography, as related to my ancestry, but circomstances obliged me leave, before I received it. So much for Admiral Cobb. [Sidenote: Ancestry]