John Dobbs was the son of Walter Dobbs and Mary Merritt. He was in Flatlands, Long Island, New York in 1675. By about 1698 or 1700, he had obtained a lease on an area of land to be known as Dobbs Ferry, on the east side of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, where he would operate a ferry for the next 40 years or more. He probably died in Palisades, Rockland County, New York around 1745, when his daughter, Mary, took over ferry operations. After his first wife died, he married Elizabeth Hyatt.

John Dobbs married Abigail _____. They have one known child: Mary (1709 - 31 Jan 1810) m. Robert Sneden.