The LDS web site shows William as James Cosby's father and William
Cosby,
Governor of New York as his great-grandfather. If this is true, then that
links Ken Sim's group (Jefferson Count, AL) to the group I am related to
(James Cozby-Isabella Woods from Tennessee.)
As far as a fight, I've heard from a group of Cozby's a family story about
this. According to the story, the reason the name changed from Cosby to
Cozby was that the descendants William Cosby (Gov. NY) changed their name
and fought against the English in the Revolution. This was because William
was so despotic! (He is a large part of the reason why the freedom of the
press was so stressed in the Bill of Rights)
Due to the fact that William's son William is named in his will, I would
tend to doubt the claim. However, this William's son's (also named William)
name appears as Cozby. Since he would have been rather wealthy, it wouldn't
make sense that the name changed without his participation. (Some of the
misspellings can be attributed to illiterate people having others spell
their name phonetically.)
My relation also changed his name from Cosby to Cozby. Since he was a
medical doctor, I can only assume that he also consciously changed his name.
He changed his at the time of the American Revolution also. If I had to
venture a guess, I would say that the Cozby's are all former Cosby's that
changed their name during the Revolutionary war.
I've seen that all(?) of the Cozby's are in the US.
I've seen that most of the Causby's are in, or from Ireland.
The Cosby's are English, so are the Cosbie's. They moved through Ireland on
their way to the US.
Is everyone aware that there is a Cosby, England? And that the above lines
ended up in Ireland fighting against the Irish Chief's? It appears that the
Primogeniture of all Cosby/Causby/Cosbie/Cozby's was Robert of Cosebye. And
that he was from this area of England.
More information on this branch is available at:
http://www.shawhan.com/local_root_folder/Cosby/RR_TOC.htm. Also at:
http://www3.mistral.co.uk/helmstone/nisbett/nesalx.htm.
And finally, there is a Robert Cozby with a web site about Texas that has
posted genealogical information that he has gathered. He is a member of the
Alabama branch of the Cozby's.
Steve Cozby
Thanks for sharing this additonal information. The story about the name
change occurring due to the American Revolution doesn't surprise me at all.
I have found the same thing to be true in various other surnames I am
researching. The branch of the family remaining loyal to the King would
keep their surname spelling as it was, whereas the branch that were Tories
would change theirs.
Wanda