Editing Howell Cobb (section)

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Jefferson County, Georgia]] in 1815, son of Sarah (''née'' Rootes) and John A. Cobb.<ref>[John Cobb's brother Henry Cobb was the father of Susan Amanda Cobb first wife of Florida Civil War Governor  [[John Milton (Florida politician)]].]</ref> Cobb was of [[Welsh people|Welsh American]] ancestry.<ref>A memorial volume of the ''Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia'', edited by Samuel Boykin, p. 14</ref> He was raised in [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]] and attended the [[University of Georgia]], where he was a member of the [[Phi Kappa Literary Society]]. He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and became solicitor general of the western judicial circuit of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Cobb was a [[United States Electoral College|presidential elector]] in the [[1836 United States presidential election in Georgia|1836 presidential election]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d11DAQAAMAAJ |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |publisher=[[James T. White & Co.]] |year=1898 |volume=I |location=New York, N.Y. |pages=226 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

He married Mary Ann Lamar on May 26, 1835. She was a daughter of Colonel Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville, from a prominent family with broad connections in the South.<ref>A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 3, L. L. Knight, Lewis Publishing Co., 1917, p. 1339</ref> Her relatives include [[Texas]] President [[Mirabeau B. Lamar]] and Georgia resident [[Gazaway Bugg Lamar]].{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} They would have eleven children, the first in 1838 and the last in 1861. Several did not survive childhood, including their last, a son who was named after Howell's brother, [[Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb]].