The Phipps name, from Greek, meaning a lover of horses (also a nickname for Philip, and meaning the son of Philip), occurs first in an early deposition of one Johannes Phipps, of Cemely, Somersetshire, England, who appears in a deposition of 1292 stating that he was about 60 years old hence born about 1232.  Again in Cemely, about 200 years later in 1493, a second Johannes Phipps is found.  It seems likely that the second Johannes is a descendant of the first Johannes.
The Phipps family outlined in these pages is believed to be the descendants of these earlier Phipps.

Descendants of Johannes Phipps

  JOHANNES1 PHIPPS was born before 1493, and was from Cemely, Somersetshire, England1. Possibly a descendant of the Johannes Phipps found in the same place and born about 12322  In 1493, Johannes granted his home to a son, Richard3

Child of JOHANNES PHIPPS is:
  RICHARD2 PHIPPS (JOHANNES1) was born before 1493, and was from Cemely, Somersetshire, England3.  He married MARGARET in England.

Children of RICHARD PHIPPS and MARGARET are:
 i. THOMAS3 PHIPPS (RICHARD2, JOHANNES1) was born in England about 1510(?).  He married ANNE before 1550 in England4.   They had a son, RICHARD PHIPPS, of Tankersley, Yorkshire, England5. On May 08, 1587 he granted to Humphrey Bowler of Ludlow, Shropshire, a messuage (small farm) in Cemely, Somerset.5  Richard Phipps had received this through his "grandfather Richard Phippe and Margaret, wife5"

Is Robert a descendant of the above ancestry?

 ROBERT3 PHIPPS  was from Nottingham, England.   He married ISABEL BROUNLEY of Parish of St. Nicholas, formerly Heynor, Derbyshire, England, December 11, 1570 at St. Mary's Nottingham, England.  She died July 18, 1588. A branch of his descendants were English & Irish nobility. A Robert Phipps/Fypes of Nottingham had will dated 1624/5 and proved 1626 according to Archdeaconry records.
A Robert PHIPPES m. Alice Cadman January 16, 1587 at St. Peters, Nottingham. December 17, 1594, Roberte FYPPES, of Nottingham, cordwainer, m. Joane [blank], of St Nicholas, Nottingham.
Another Robert Phipps, grocer, yeoman, signed The Second Charter of Virginia on May 23, 1609.
("We greatly affecting the effectual Prosecution and happy success of the said Plantation, and commending their good desires therein, for their further Encouragement in accomplishing so excellent a Work, much pleasing to God, and profitable to our Kingdom, do of our especial Grace, and certain Knowledge, and mere Motion, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, GIVE, GRANT, and CONFIRM, to our trusty and well beloved Subjects, ....Robert Phipps, grocer, yeoman, and to such and so many as they do, or shall hereafter admit to be joined with them, in the form hereafter in these presents expressed, whether they go in their Persons to be Planters there in the said Plantation, or whether they do not, but adventure their monies, goods, or Chattles, that they shalTbb one Body or Commonalty perpetual, and shall have perpetual Succession and one common Seal to serve for the said Body or Commonalty, and that they and their Successors shall be known, called, and incorporated by the Name of The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London, for the first Colony in Virginia.")
Who were these Roberts? Could the second Robert have been this Robert marrying again after the death of his wife in 1588?  1574/75 a Robert Phipps was Sheriff of Nottingham.

  Brounley Family

  Children of ROBERT PHIPPS are:
A. i. GEORGE4 PHIPPS, b. abt 1571, of Walton Hall, near Nottingham, England; married ANNE ELLIOT.  He was named "a descendant of Richard Phipps" and died in 16186.
ii. HENRY PHIPPS, b. abt. 1577
1. iii. WILLIAM PHIPPS, born 1578 in Mangotsfield, Gloucester, England7; died June 1625, England7; m. ELIZABETH, before 1597, England7. William's burial was June 07, 1625 at Mangotsfield, Gloucester, England.  His occupation was, tyler.
iv. ROBERT PHIPPS, buried in 1582.
v. ANTHONY4 PHIPPS, b. about 1583.
vi. JOHN PHIPPS, d. 1585.
vii. EMOT, b. 1588.

Thanks to Piers Phipps for some of the information on the early UK lines.

"James Phips had been one of the first wave of English settlers to move to coastal Maine.  He had been raised in Mangotsfield, one of the four parishes of the hundred of Barton Regis, several miles east of Bristol.  Apprenticed to John Brown, a Bristol blacksmith and probably a gunsmith, Phips migrated with Brown at some time in the late 1620s or early 1630s.  Following Mather, and considering James Phip's indentureship, historians have traditionally viewed the Phips family as being poor folk with humble West Country antecedents, but in fact the family's principal connections were neither humble nor centred in the west of England.  Robert Phips of Nottingham had received the family's coat of arms in the mid-sixteenth century, a mark of at least technical gentility. Robert had three sons.  The oldest, George, belonged to 'Walton hall neere Nottingham', but George's only surviving son, Francis Phips, moved to Reading in Berkshire. While little is known of his social status there, he was certainly able to offer educational opportunities to at least two of his five sons. The oldest, Francis, attended King's College, Cambridge, The youngest, Constantine, was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1678, and later became a leading London attorney, a prominent Tory, and for a time lord chancellor of Ireland. In the 1690s he also served as a London agent for Massachusetts, a post he received through his second cousin, Sir William Phips.
The connection between William Phips and the Robert Phips family is established by a letter written in 1693 by Sir Henry Ashurst, who was well acquanted with both Sir William Phips and Constantine Phips. Constantine, Ashurst mentioned, was Sir William's 'Coszen'. The relationship is also demonstrated by the use of the same coat of arms by the two branches of the family. A family pedigree was compiled by Elias Ashmole in 1664 for Constantine's oldest brother, Francis Phips Jr., who was then a student at Cambridge. It included the family coat of arms granted to Robert Phips, and this same coat of arms appears on the marble monument to Sir William Phips in the London church where he was buried, on the family tomb in Charlestown, and on the wax seal attached to his will.  The pedigree is incomplete, failing to include the offspring of either William or Anthony, the younger sons of Robert Phips of Nottingham." (The New England Knight)

Descendants of the George Phipps shown here owned lands in county Berkshire, England.  Both Solomon Phipps of Charlestown, MA, and Joseph Phipps of Pennsylvania, had ancestry from county Berkshire.  This suggests that there could be a possible relationship between the three earliest Phipps immigrants to America.