Robert (aka Robin) Stanley Cobb was born March 11, 1890; the son of Arthur S. Cobb and Margaret Ritchie Cassels. Arthur was a banker and published author of two books on British economics.
Robert began studying Architecture as early as 1907 as an apprentice in London.Following graduation from Dulwich College, he immigrated to Argentina. There he worked as an architectural assistant in Buenos Aires from 1911-1914, when he returned to England for military service.
During the First World War he served as a Captain in the Royal West Kent Regiment, and participated in the Gallipoli and Palestine campaigns before being sent to France. During service he was severely wounded, and was awarded the Military Cross for his actions on the Somme in 1917.
Following the war he obtained a position in the Colonial Office and posted to Kiambu in the Central Province of Kenya. In 1924, he was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1930, he was made a full member.
During the Second World War he attained the rank of Major while serving with the Occupied Territories Administration in Asmara. The end of the war found him in England; but he returned to Kenya with his family in 1945 to continue his professional career in architecture. He designed a number of the larger post-war buildings in East Africa.
Partly for health reasons and to continue the education of his children, he returned to England in 1951; and retired the following year. The last seven years of his life were spent in or near Oxford. He became a member of the Parish Council of Kidlington and was elected to the Urban District Council. He died April 3, 1959.
Obituary; The Builder; April 10, 1959
"The death has occurred of Mr. Robert Stanley Cobb, MC, FRIBA, founder of the firm of Cobb, Archer, and Scammell, architects, of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kampala, Aden, and Dar-es-Salaam. Among the buildings he designed in East Africa are Government House, Mombasa, and the Town Hall and Barclays Bank in Nairobi. Mr. Cobb served with the British Administration in Eritrea as Director of Transport and Assistant Director of Public Works.He returned to this country in 1951 and made his home in Oxford, moving later to Kidlington.He is survived by a widow and two children."
Robert Stanley Cobb was a 9th generation descendant of Henry Cobb and Pleasance Redwood; and thus a direct descendant of John Cobb of Kent (c1324). His line of ascent is shown below.
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9. Robert S. Cobb (1890-1959).
8. Arthur S. Cobb (1857-1902).
7. Thomas Cobb (1827-1912).
6. Capt. Thomas Cobb (1796-1892).
5. Benjamin Cobb Jr. (1753-1835).
4. Benjamin Cobb Sr. (1709-1757).
3. Robert Cobb Jr. (1672-1727).
2. Robert Cobb Sr. (1634-1676).
1. Benjamin Cobb (1584-1642).
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Son of Arthur S. Cobb and Margaret R. Cassels.
Son of Thomas Cobb and Sarah Hutchinson.
Son of Capt. Thomas Cobb and Elizabeth Newbold.
Son of Benjamin Cobb Jr. and Jane Smith.
Son of Benjamin Cobb Sr. and Catherine Grebell.
Son of Robert Cobb Jr. and Katherine Curteis.
Son of Robert Cobb Sr. and Mary Hunt.
Son of Benjamin Cobb and Alice Knowler.
Son of Henry Cobb and Pleasance Redwood.
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T H E C O B B S O F K E N T
1260 - 1910
by
R. S. Cobb, M.C., F.R.I.B.A.
Written for my Son,
John Stansfeld Cobb,
and my nephew,
Benjamin Cobb.
This electronic version was generated by Alexander Robert Cobb © 2000
It is not mine to dedicate but I have put this together for my mother Gillian Cobb,
my sister Nicola Macintyre, my aunt (and sister of John) Ruth Benton. Also to my wife
Joanne Cobb who acquires the name and the history, and of course posterity of the Cobb
family name.
Maps of County Kent, England
Map #1: Click HERE
A map showing the district of Lydd: New Romney, Hope Chapel, St. Mary in the Marsh, and Newchurch.
Map #2: Click HERE
This is a large map showing the district of Lydd: New Romney, Hope Chapel, St. Mary in the Marsh, and Newchurch. Reposition the map by scrolling down and to the right.
Map #3: Click HERE
A modern road map showing Lydd, New Romney, and St. Mary in the Marsh.
Map #4: Click HERE
Another modern road map showing Lydd, New Romney, St. Mary in the Marsh, and Newchurch.
Contents
Chapter I
The Newchurch Cobbes
Page 1
The story, if it is worth telling, begins at the time of the Battle of Lewes in 1264 when Henry Cobbe was living near New Romney, just outside the liberties of the Cinque Port.
At Lewes, Henry III was defeated by the Barons, led by Simon de Montfort and he and his popular son, Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I, were taken prisoner. The following is an account of the Battle, written at the time:
"The king came from the Cinque Ports to Lewes with an army at nearly 60,000 fighting men; and on the better side (i.e. the baronial) there were 50,000 men, under vigorous leaders, but for the most part quite young. They were joined by the Londoners, who, however, had very little experience in fighting; for at the first sight of it they turned to flight. Now, the baronial party wrote to the king that they would gladly serve him: but the king wrote back, without the usual courtesies, and informed them that he was quite indifferent as to their service, but he reckoned them his enemies and defied them as public foes. Also Edward, the king’s eldest son, and his uncle, Richard, formerly called King of the Romans, informed them that they would destroy their property and lives and their friends’ as well. The baronial party were saddened at this, for they ware anxious for peace and made many offers to secure it; but they were all rejected with scorn by the king’s councillors, who threatened to ruin the barons utterly. Since, therefore, they could obtain peace neither by their offers nor by their emissaries, they prepared for war, and ascending the slope of a hill, they looked down on to the town in which their enemy lay, and would have taken them in their beds, but were prevented from doing so by the chivalry of some among them. For these said: ?Let us await them here and give them time to get up; for if we attacked them in their sleep, we should do ourselves dishonour.’ So while they awaited them, they made some new knights, and, drew up their men in position, till they saw the enemy approaching.
Right at the beginning of the fipple the Londoners took to flight, and were pursued by Edward with a numerous following of knights, by whom a great number of the fugitives were slain. Meanwhile, however, the king was captured; for while his followers were intend on booty - horses, armour, and so forth - the king was overpowered, along with some great nobles; but most of these took to flight and left their lord on the field. Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, took the king
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captive, for the king then held him as a greater and more powerful noble than the others and gave him his sword in token of surrender; and this was because the Lord Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was high in his displeasure. However, it was to this earl that the best men on that side surrendered. After this had taken place, Edward, ceasing his pursuit of the Londoners, returned, thinking that he and his followers had gained a victory; but he was met by the victors, who had now set fire to the town, and though at sight of them Edward's men tried to escape, yet most of them were slain and many knights got into the priory, changing their armour for cassocks. Edward also, followed by numbers of his man, threw himself into the church of the Franciscans. Some, too, in fleeing by a bridge hindered each other's flight, so that many crowded together and were drowned; those who did escape hastened overseen. The number of those slain in the battle amounted to nearly 3,000 gallant men, not counting those slain before the fight nor those drowned."
Six years before the Battle of Lewes, Henry Cobbe had acquired land in the parish of Hope St. Mary, New Romney and Newchurch. (1)
Four years before this, Sir Richard Organistre or "Richard the Organist" built the Manor, afterwards known as Orgeners in the same neighbourhood, the land having been granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. (2)
It was in these years that New Romney was at the height of prosperity and fame, but the Portsmen, following the dissolution after the Battle of Lewes and supported by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, joined with him in piracy, preying on ships of all nations and, throwing the mariners into the sea.
After the Battle of Lewes, Prince Edward was imprisoned in Dover Castle, but retribution followed his success at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, when landowners in the Romney Marshes, who had supported Simon de Montfort, were dispossessed of their land and property. It was at this time that Sir Richard Organistre's estate fell to Henry Cobbe, which he joined to his own property. (3) Cobbe's Place, the home of the family, was situated at Newchurch, about a quarter of a mile to the north of the Church, may have been built about 1320, during the lifetime of Henry's son, John
(1) Kent Feel of Fines 42 Henry III
(2) Kent Feel of Fines 38 Henry III
(3) Hasted. History of Kent. (see Appendix)
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Page 3
who was the first of the Cobbe to be recorded by the College of Heralds. The land on which Cobbes Place stood is known, to this day, by the name of "Cobbe's Place", and was originally acquired from the Fitzbriand family in about 1305. The Manor remained in the Cobbe family until the death of Alice Cobbe, then Lady Cobham, in the reign of Elizabeth I, when it passed to the Cobhams and was sold and later demolished. (1)
Four years after the Battle of Lewes, in 1268, Henry Cobbe was appointed, with others, by the Constable of Dover Castle, Stephen Pencestre, "to enquire into the advisability of giving leave to the Master Brethren of the Domus Dei of Dover to turn the road, which leads through the Court of Honichurch, towards the port of Romney and, whether it is within the liberty of the five ports, so that the King is unable to give such leave, and how broad it is, and what advantage the Master and Brethren will gain by turning it."
The case was tested in Westminster in the 53rd year of the reign of Henry III, under a writ 'ad quod damnum'. The importance of the case was clearly one which involved the prerogative of the Crown.
Honichurch was stated to be a Manor in the parish of Hope All Saints in Romney Marsh, and was given to the Mason Dei, the Hospice of St. Mary by its founder, Hugo de Burgh, Earl of' Kent and chief justiciary in King John's reign. The finding of the court at Westminster, which was signed by Henry Cobbe, was that the proposal would be an improvement to everybody, "because the old road was so low, and would make it possible to close the courtyard?, and the judges agreed that it was outside the liberties of the five ports. (2)
In the reign of Edward I, the prestige of the Ports was restored and the King's loyal Portsmen did great service for the Crown in the war against Wales and, Scotland, and later their ships travelled as far as the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1278 the first General Charter was granted, jointly, to the ports, by Edward I, the liberties having been enjoyed hitherto under individual grants to each of the Cirque Ports.
Henry Cobbe lived through the great disaster of the storm of 1258 of which Holinshed writes:
"On the first Day of October, 1250, the moon, upon her change appearing red and swelled, began to show tokens of the great tempest wind that followed,which was so
(1) Hasted. History of Kent.
(2) Archaelogical Cantiana - Vol. V p. 298.
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Page 4
huge and mightie, both by land and sea, that the like had not been lightlie known, and seldome,
or rather never, heard of by men then alive. The sea, forced contrarie to his natural course,
flowed twice without ebbing, yielding such a roaring that the same was heard (not without great
wonder) at far distance from the shore. Moreover the same sea appeared in the dark of the night
to burne as it had been on fire, and the waves to strive and fight together after a marvellous
sort, so that the mariners could not devise how to save their ships where they laid at anchor
by no cunning or shift which they could devise. At Hert-burne three tall ships perished without
recoverie, besides other smaller vessels. At Winchelsey, besides other hurte that was doone,
in bridges, milles, breaks and banks, there were three hundred houses and some churches drowned
with the high rising of the water course."
In this storm it is said that 700 houses and 50 inns were destroyed but this does not appear to
compare with the havoc of the tempest which fell on New Romney in 1287, when Old Winchelsea was
finally destroyed. In this storm waves broke over the harbour, burying the houses with many feet
of debris. The accumulation of debris has never been cleared and the floor of the Church of St.
Nicholas, at New Romney is, to-day, some five steps below the road level and marks have been
left on the pillars after the muck was taken away from the inside of the church. This great storm
ended Romney's history as a harbour, when the course of the River Rother was diverted from Romney
to Rye and the Great Bay of Romney rapidly silted up in spite of the efforts of the people to
bring back the river by digging out its old course. Today the Church of St. Nicholas, to which
boats had tied to the walls of, the Church is one and a half miles from the sea and the great
Cinque Port of New Romney has become an inland town.
Henry's son, John Cobbe was living in 1324 in the reign of Edward II, 37 years after the storm
and two years before the King was murdered at Berkerley Castle, and it seems that his lands and
property, inland at Newchurch, situated just outside the liberties of the port, did not share
the disaster which befell the people of the town. Although little is known about John, there
is a reference to a John Cobbe in 1375 in 'Stow's Survey of London', reading:
"John Cobbe was admitted "Custos" of the Posterne and all the habitations there
of for tenure for life 'by William Wolworth, the Mayor of London."
This refers to the gate and gatehouse near the Tower of London. The post was probably an honorary
one given in recognition of services. There is however, no evidence that this John Cobbe is the
one of Newchurch.
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Page 5
John's son, Richard, was living in 1338 and survived the Black Death in 1348 which took heavy
toll of the population of New Romney and also through part of the long war with the French, which
caused great economic distress in the town, when it was under constant threat of invasion.
Winchelsea, ten miles away, was sacked by the French in 1359 and 1360 and again in 1380, and Rye
was burnt in 1377 when 66 of the inhabitants were massacred and others taken hostage.
In 1387, Richard II issued a licence to Sir Edward Dalyngrigge to fortify Bodiam Castle, the river
there being navigable as far as Bodiam Bridge.
In about 137O, Edward III took the Manor and the lands of Bilsington, almost adjoining the
Cobbe's Estates, under wardship, when the heir, Geoffrey Steelegate waa a minor, and sold the
benefits to Geoffrey Chaucer for £140. The purchase carried with it the appointment of Chief
Butler to the King, and as such he served the King with wine on official occasions, and received
honours, fees, and a knighthood for the service, together with the income derived from the estate.
Richerd Cobbe was followed, first by his son Edward, who must have known Chaucer, and then by
his grandsons Edmond and Richard. It applears Richard Cobbe, brother to Edmond, held an official
position in the Corporation of Romney, probably that of Justice of the Peace or Chamberlain.
In the records of the Corporation of Romney of 1403, the following entry is made:
"Received 17/6d from Richard Cobbe for rent of the Common House at Snargate from the feast
of Nativity of St. John the Baptist to this day, also 5/- received for the occupation of the
Common House at the Keye, also 19/8d received as a fourth part of wax found by certain men,
not freemen, near the sea."
The charge of 19/8d. on a quarter of the total quantity of wax indicates that the value would
be about £400 in present-day values of money. There was, at the time, a purchase tax knowm
as a "maletolt" which was levied on all goods sold in the town of Romney and the
charge on wax was 4d. for each 108 lbs., or about 4d. per lb. in today's money.
The following explanation is given by Miss K.M. Elizabeth Murray, and is taken from her
transcription of Daniel Rough's Register:
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Page 6
"The laws of wreck, prize and salvage are frecpiontly refered to in the Register.
According to the table of Maletolts the town claimed a quarter of all wrecks between Dungeness
and Hythe, but the law was that if man or beast escaped from a vessel alive it was no wreck.
The Warden needed vigilant officers to see that piratical portsmen on lonely stretches of
the coast did not murder the survivors of a crew in order to establish their right to the
cargo. A contemporary record describes how "it chaunceth that sometyme in many places
there are inhuman felons more cruel than dogs or wolves enraged, which murder and slaye the
poor sufferers to obtain theyr money or clothes or other goodes." In 1361 merchants of
La Rochelle complained how, when wrecked at Romney, although the masters and sailors were
saved, evildoers of those parts came and forcibly carried away the cargo and tackle of the
ship, and cut the boat herself in small pieces, which they transported on horses and boats,
whither-soever they would without making any restitution to the owners. As the boat could
be salved the owners should have been able to make bargain with the local inhabitants to
rescue what they could in return for a reasonable share for their trouble. Here again there
was work for the Warden in holding inquests and seeing that everything rescued was duly accounted for.
In later years the Warden was 'ex officio' Admiral, with an Admiral's jurisdiction and a court
at Dover. In the period covered by Rough's records, 'by constant intervention in coastal are
maritime affairs, in matters concerning the placing of fishing nets, and in disputes about
prizes, salvage and wreck, he was building up the tradition which made his recognition as
admiral inevitable when admiralty law was estab1ished. An important stage in this development
was marked by an agreement between the portsmen and Mortimer about prizes, which is given by
Rough. In the thirteenth century all boats and cargoes captured at sea in time of war were
claimed by the king, vwho rewarded sailors engaged in licenced piracy under his authority
with half shares, but by the fourteenth century the king took a quarter only, the owner of
the ship was entitled to another quarter, and the rerminder was shared between the sailors
responsible for the capture, the Admiral taking as much as two sailors if he were present,
or one share per ship if he where not. Accorling to the agreement with Mortimer, the ports
allowed him the admiral's share, in return for his guarantee that the claims of the other admirals sboud thereby bc excluded."
There can be little doubt that the presert holder of the post of Warden (1) would
have given a similar guarantee.
(1) Sir Winston Churchill.
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Page 7
It will be seen later that the Cobbe family aquired lands in Reculver and Host at about this
time, and the reason has been a matter for conjecture. It is a matter of interest, however,
that in 1351, when the first Richard was living at Cobbe's Place, the rector of Aldington,
a place only a mile or two from Cobbe's Place, was also vicar of Reculver.
The following is taken from Archealogia Cantiana Vol. XII, page 25:
"In 1351, a Thomas Nyewe de Wottom, being a vicar of Reculver, for the perpetua1
discharge of himself and successors from officiating in the care of Hoat and for furnishing
the burgers with a constant and resident priest, founded, in Hoat Chapel, a perpetual chantry
to be served by a resident priest and likewise founded one at Reculver in honour of the Holy Trinity."
The Cobbe family owned land in Aldington at the time and Richard must have known Thomas Nyewe de
Wottam; perhaps the family acquired property in Reculver from the rector either by marriage or purchase.
By the end of the Plantagenet period, the Cobbe family were substantial land-owners on the Romney
marshes and in the north at Herne and Reculver, with John Cobbe, the eon of Edmond at Newchurch
and his brother Thomas Cobbe at Reculver.
There are many references to John Combe, the advocante, in the records of the Corporation of New Romney.
He was a young man at the time when Joan d'Arc was burnt in 1431, and judging by his own unhealthy fear
of purgatory, which he exposes in his will, he would have found no alternative to death by burning for
the good of her soul and for his own conscience.
Having been born outside the liberties of the Port he became an 'advocante', taking a vow to uphold
the liberties of the Port but not being resident within the boundaries, and John Forcett, the Common
Clark, described him in 1457 as follows:
"John Cobbe is now the first on the list of advocantes (persons claiming to be free,
but residing without the precincts)."
and again in 1466:
"To wine given to Caxtone of Lyde bringing a message from John Cobbes.
Expenses of John Cobbes and five others viewing the harbour here 2/8d. This John Cobbes or
Cobb was the most influential of the 'advocantes'."
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Page 8
It seems from the "Custumal" of New Romney, written by Forsett in 1564,
that the admittance to the status of freeman or baron was hereditary, if the privileges
were gained under the original charters to the Cinque Ports. John, having taken
the vow, enjoyed these privilages. The Records of the Corporation of the activities of
John Cobbe extend back to 1456 and the following may be of interest:
1456 - 5d paid for the expenses of juriats on interview with John Cobbe as to certain dam
ordered to be made at Stonebridge by the Juriats of the Marsh, to the neusance of the Towne.
1457 - Paid Thomas Hextel and John Cobbe, for having their friendship for delivery of' a
prisoner 13d.
1466 - Paid a man bringing news about French ships at sea. Paid. John Cobbe and certain other
persons of the Marsh for levelling and taking the wrater of the said Marsh by the Fowelanesse
12/2d. Paid to William Selver of Appledore for the labour upon the tree at Bilington given by
John Cobbe for the work on the gutte. (jetty).
It appears that John Cobbe was granted a licence by Henry VI in 1442 to practise as an alchemist;
but it is uncertain if this is the same John Cobbe referred to here. (1)
John the 'advocante' married Denyse (Dionisa) daughter and heir of Bonnington and widow of Roger
Brigland and by his marriage he brought the Bonnington lands to the Cobbes. Hasted, in his
"Histort of Kent? refers to the Briglands in Vol 3, page 462, as follows:
"Roger Brgland or Bresland:-
The Manor of Bonnington, alias Singleton, originally belonged to the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem and later became the property of Roger Bregland or Brasland as the name is sometimes
spelt, who had good estates in East Kent. "They bore the arms sable 3, Cocks argent, which
coat is probably the Cobbes, who were descended from the female line of this family and in some
measure, took the arms they bore from viz. argent, a chevron between three cocks gules."
Roger Bregland had married Dionisia, daughter and heir of Bonnington, of this parish, by whom
she had one son, Roger. She survived him and afterwards married John Cobbes of Nevmburcb and
entitled him to the lands of her inheritance in the parish, of which the Manor does not seem to
have been a part, but to have been purchased by him before - most probably of her former husband.
He died possessed of it in the 13th year of King Edward IV, 1472 and by his will, divided it to
Edward, his second son, remainder to his eldest son
(1) Ashmole Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
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William successively in tail male, the former who dying without issue, the latter succeeding to
it and left three sons, Gervase, Edward and George, the eldest of whom was of Newchurch, and on
his fathers death became possessed of it, and dying without issue in 1512 gave all his estates
to his two brothers of whom Edward, the eldest, held the manor, of which he died seized in 11 Henry
VIIIth, then holding it in ?capite" which Anne or Alice, for she is called by both names, only
daughter and heir of his son Edward. Alice married, first Sir Thomas Norton and afterwards John
Cobham, alias Brooke, third son of George, Lord Cobhmn, died 1580 buried at Newington Church, with
Alice who is also buried there where there is a brass memorial to her. The estate was carried in
marriage to Sir John Norton of Northwood Kent, by whom he had a son Thomas, whose grandson Sir Thomas
Norton of Northwood Kent, in the beginning of King James I reign, alienated; and to White whose son
seems to have sold it to Valentine Knight of Sellinge."
At the time of John's death in 1472, he held considerable property and land on the Marshes and owned
not only Cobbes Place in Newchurch, but the Manor and lands at Bonnington, the Manor of Camerston,
the Manor of Organers and Goddy Hall, which according to the records of All Souls, Oxford, lies between
Millebergh and Bensqukescroche, and a house called Breggis in Wheystreet. His will, which was written
a month before his death, was proved on 17th November, 1472. A translation is quoted in the appendix.
He was survived by Dionisia, his wife and three sons, William, Edward and Thomas, and a daughter, Crystin.
The first part of his will is written in Latin and the second in English and he was clearly a well-educated
man with ability and an astute man of business. In his long will he makes generous provision for the
safety of his soul by making bequests for priests to sing for him in the chapel of St. Michael, at Newchurch
for seven years, and it seems he was ready to pay a good price for his passport to heaven. However, he
shows a kindly disposition when he makes conditional provision for "needy poor people, to foul ways
and to marriages of poor maidens". Finally he provides that "24 of the worshipfullest, trustiest
and most wisest men of Newchurch and of the County ajoining should set up and operate a trust to provide
for the poor and to repair the church?, and says, "and if it be that this will do not stand according
to law" then the money be spent for a priest to sing for his soul for 30 years. He also makes provisional
bequests to the Hospice of Maison Dei, at Dover, which, as previously stated, was founded by Hubert de Burgh
and was used as a resting place for continental pilgrims visiting the tomb of Thomas a Becket. The
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Hospice is still in a good state of repair, having survived both Nazi shells and tourists.
His son, William of Newchurch was born in 1442 and lived at Cobbes Place. He was thirty years old on the
death of his father. In 1480 (three years before the murder of the young princes in the Tower of London)
at the age of 38, he was appointed Bailiff of New Romney. The Bailiff, in the right of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, was the official head of the town of New Romney, and mandates, such as the summons for the
Course of Shipway, were therefore, addressed to him. He had, in the Archbishop's right, the sole authority
in the exercise of criminal jurisdiction in the St. Martin's Hundreds where royal functions were enjoyed
by the Archbishop by special privilege.(1)
William married Alice Cutts of Harrelsham and Barban, from whom he acquired property. His name is
given in a list of gentlemen residing in Kent during the reign of Henry VII.(2)
His will, which is given in the appendix, was made on 2nd March, 1500(3) and he died six
years later at the age of 64 years. William, the Bailiff, left a widow and three sons, Gervase, Edward
and George. The eldest, Gervase inherited >Cobbes Place at Nevrchurch but died without issue in 1512
and gave his estates to his two brothers. Edward held the Manor until his death in 1520 (4).
His younger brother George was Comman Clerk of New Romney and it is recorded in the Historical
Manuscripts of Corporation of New Romney that he received payment, as such, of 12/6d. a quarter.
As Common Clerk he would be required to write in Latin and Norman French and have a knowledge of
the laws, and the appointment might be worth £1,000 a year, to-day. It is probable, however, that
the post carried with it perquisites and the salary may not reflect the present value of money.
George died at Ivychurch in 1515 and his will is now at Maidstone. On Edward's death his son encl
heir, also called Edward, lived at Cobbe's Place until 1579 when the property passed to his only
daughter Alice who was born in about 1524.
She married, first Sir John Norton and after his death, Lord John Cobham. Her marriage to Norton
is recorded in these words:
"Joh'es Norton de Northwood Miles = Alicie Veica filia Ed. Cob. de Cobs Place."
It will be noted that the name is sometimes spelt Cobbes, Cobb or even Cob.
(1) From K,M. Elizabeth Murray's "Register of Daniel Rough".
(2) Archaelogia Cantana Vol XI
(3) Will No, 2
(4) Hasted. History of Kent. Vol. 5 p, 462.
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Sir John Norton owned an estate near Northwood and it is recorded that he was called upon, with
many others, to make a contribution to the King Henry VIII Exchequer in 1542. Alice carried some
of the Cobbe's Estates, including Cobbe's Court, to the Norton family and her grandson, by this
marriage, Sir Thomas Norton of Northwood, sold it to Valentine White of Selling.
The loss of the estates and home at Newchurch must have been grievous to the family after having
held it for 200 years, but it can be said that Alice, by her second marriage, brought her cousins
at Chilham and Reculver into the limelight of the Court of Westminster.
Lord John Cobham (alias Brooke) was the son of George Lord Cobham, K.G., Warden of the Cinque Ports
and brother of William Lord Cobham, K.G., also Warden of the Cinque Ports and a Privy Councillor
whose daughter, Elizabeth, married Robert Cecil, the hunchback Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, in 1589.
William died in 1597. He was a great friend of Sir Walter Raleigh. John Cobham, Alice's husband, was
a Member of Parliament and a favourite at Court. In Cobham Church there is an effigy of him bearing
his arms impailed with the Cobbe arms, viz: argent, a chevron between three cocks. He was buried
with Alice at Newington Church. The following is taken from Archaelogia Contiana. Vol. 12, page 139:
"Lord John Cobham (alias Brooke) was born 22nd April 1534, his education was under the care of Martin
Bucer who, in a letter from Strasburg in May 1548 speaks highly of his abilities and attainments. He
distinguished himself as a soldier in the wars of the Low Countries in a struggle for civil and
religious liberty. But we have complaints of him, William Prince of Orange writes to Elizabeth March
in 1560/7 concerning his elopement from the island of Walcheron with one Lucretia de Affelate, a lady
under the special probation of the Queen, who was therefore much offended by this affair. Later we hear
that John Brocke Captain in Her Majesty's service keeps the whole pa.y of her soldiers from them and
that Brocke has gotten Mr. Norton Green, a Roman Catholic, guilty of no other crime than disobedience
to her majesty in not going to Church, from whom he means to squeese 2,000 marks before he shall be
at liberty. Afterwards we find him in his own country aiding in the preparations against the Armada
and a possible landing of the Duke of Parma.
In May 1584 John Cobham is named amongst the commoners as the Master in the County of Kent, He married
Alice, daughter and heir of Edward Cobbe Esq., widow of Sir John Norton or Northwood, Knight. He died
in September 25th 1594 - buried at Newington Church where there is a, fine monument in alabaster
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erected to his memory by his nephews William and George representing him in armour, kneeling within a
niche. Lady Norton was also buried here where still remains a brass representing her sons by her side
and a rhyming which speaks of her as John Cobham's late and loving wife."
Alice's marriage into the Cobham family brought her into association with the famous and influential
family of Foggs, as Lord. John Cobham's sister Margaret had married John Fogge.
The Fogg family were at Ashford, Chilham and Limminge.
In 1490 Sir John Fogge, Margaret's great-grandfather, had been privy councillor, chancellor, treasurer
and controller of the house-hold of Edward VI and built the tower of Ashford church in 1499. Margaret's
father, Sir Thomas Fogge, was Sergeant Porter to Henry VII and Henry VIII, for which service he was
knighted by Henry VIII, and the family had much influence at Court.
Alice, or her father, purchased the Manor of East Leigh from Sir Thomas Fogge. The Manor had been owned
by John Leigh in Henry VI reign and Hasted in his History of Kent, Vol. 3 page 330, gives an account of
the subsequent transactions:
"Lyghe Court is a manor on the north corner of the parish near the stone streetway. It was, in Edward
II's reign, held by Stephen Gerard. Nicholas Leigh who, in consequence of a bargain made by his father,
John Leign with Henry VIII in his 36th year, sold to that King, this manor in exchange for other premises.
After which the Manor was granted by the Crown to Allen of the family of that name seated in Bordon in this
county, whence it was soon alienated to Fogge and shortly afterwards to Cobb of Cobbe's Court."
At the time Henry VIII had bought Westenhanger Castle at Lyminge from the son of Sir Edward Poynings,
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and the king who laid out the park and turned it into a residence worthy
of kings. Queen Elizabeth I stayed there during her reign.
Chapter II
The Aldington Family
Page 13
John the Advocante's second son Thomas, received less of his father's estates than his other brother but
he became the owner either through marriage or purchase, of the Goldwell Estate in Great Chast in Aldington.
Thomas' son, another Thomas, built himself a new house in Aldington, known
to this day as Cobbe's Hall and it was here that Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent, served as a scullery
maid. The house is built in an early style of timbering with straight carved oak beams, known as needlework.
Some of the rafters have now been cut away to allow the insertion of an interior stairway.
Upstairs is to be seen a magnificent overmantle, in plasterwork, depicting Adam and Eve and the beasts
and birds in the Garden of Eden.
In Thomas Cobbe's early days Linacre was Vicar of Aldington and founded the Royal College of Surgeons,
In 1511, Erasmus, an illegitimate son of a physician in Rotterdam, was inducted as Vicar of the living
by Archbishop Warham, and his teaching, in broken English, was the unpopular prelude to the Reformation.
William Cobbe was Bailiff to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Estate at Aldington where the Archbishop
had a mansion, part of which still exists, and is known as Court Lodge. Henry VIII and Ann Bolyne are
said to have stayed there on their way to the 'Field of the Cloth of Gold'.
The story of the Maid of Kent is told very fully in many histories of England and by Lambarde the Romney
Historian of Kent of 1570, It begins at Thomas Cobbe's house in 1525 when Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid,
was lying ill from an internal complaint. She lay in a trance from time to time, and when she awoke,
Cranmer records in a letter "she possessed powers which she herself did not understand and told
wondrous things done and said in other places where she was neither herself present nor yet had heard
report thereof and was possessed of the Holy Ghost or the Devil." Thomas Cobbe and his family were
greatly concerned and they called on their Parish Priest, Richard Masters, who had become Vicar of Aldington
after Erasmus, for his advice.
Together they carefully recorded all that fell
from Elizabeth's lips. Elizabeth, it is said, was a good and pious girl who had been brought up in the
Catholic faith and she "spoke words of marvellous holiness in rebuke of sin or vice." After close
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observation of the girl, Thomas Cobbe and Masters decided that Archbishop Warham should be informed
and they mounted their horses and rode to Lambeth Palace to see him. The Archbishop, who was then an old man,
heard the story and was "much impressed and believed that which the maid had said had come from God".
He ordered Masters to keep a diligent account of her utterances. He also sent a message to the Maid, by Thomas
Cobbe, that "she should not refuse or hide the goodness and works of God".
Thomas, being encouraged by such high authority and at the Archbishop's
request, did not keep Elizabeth in his Kitchen. As soon as the girl was sufficiently recovered from her
illness he caused her to sit at his own mess with his mistress and his children Thomas, James, Richard and
Martin, and it seems that Joan, his wife, did not take kindly to this arrangement. Archbishop Warham then
appointed a commission to report the truth. It is from this time onward that this honest but ignorant girl
became the object of political intrigue and propaganda. Her trances became more frequent and she related
the places she had visited, which included Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.
It was not long before the news of the girl spread over much of England and crowds stood round Cobbe's Hall
in the hope of seeing her or of being cured of their ailments. For a time Richard Masters installed her at
the Church, which was visited by many thousands with money and jewels which they laid at the feet of the Maid.
This money was used for the repairs of the Chapel at Court up Street, now sadly in ruin.
It must be remembered that at first the Maid believed, fervently, that the messages which came to her mind
were given to her by the Holy Ghost and it is remarkable that even, when at a later date she was being used
by the Church to rouse popular resentment against the King's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, that she was
able to influence and gain the support of such men as Thomas More, Bishop Fisher of Rochester, Archbishop Warham,
the Earl of Essex and many others. Even Wolsey, in the year of his decline, was convinced of her sincerity.
Archbishop Warham wrote to him on 1st October 1538 saying "Elizabeth is a. religious woman, possessed at
St. Sepulchere, Canterbury, which had all the visions of Our Lady at Court up Street - a well-disposed and
virtuous woman...." and it was evident that even the King himself, when he saw her later, treated her
with respect and, kindness even though he was one of the few who did not fall under her spell. The Commission
appointed by the Archbishop included three monks from Christchurch, Canterbury, Doctor Booking, Master Dan
William Hadleigh and Barnes, and in addition Father Lewis and Richard Masters, Vicar of Aldington.
Bocking stage-managed the whole affair in such a manner that he brought discredit to the Church which resulted
in no small way, in the ultimate dissolution of the monasteries and the Reformation, by giving the King popular
support against the exploitations and superstitions of the Church of Rome.
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Page 15
The Maid, who had not yet recovered fully from her own ailment, is reported by the Commission to have
said that the Virgin had appeared to her and had fixed a day when she would come in person to take away
her disorders, at the ruined chapel at Court up Street, where a hermit was then living among the ruins.
On the appropriate day the "Holy Monks" called a vast concourse of people and the girl was
conducted to the Chapel in a "great procession led by hooded monks, clergy and notables of the best
degree, together with many thousands of people of the common sort."
She was taken to the image of Our Lady where she went into a trance, "her face became distorted,
her tongue hanging out, and her eyes protruding - almost as if they laid upon her cheeks."
Then, it is said that a voice was heard, speaking within her belly, with her lips hardly moving, and she
remained in a trance of three hours. It would seem that, on this occasion, for the first time, she was
unduly influenced by Dr. Bocking and his gang. When she awoke from her trance she is said to have completely
recovered from her ailments. A book was written and published at Canterbury giving an account of her
utterances and was sold all over the Kingdom. The book was given to the King who, after reading it,
sent it to Sir Thomas More, but it is said that neither of them was greatly impressed with what had been written.
It would appear that Thomas Cobbe had, from the first, complete faith in the child and he must have
been apprehensive when Dr. Bocking told him that the Virgin had appeared to the Maid and informed her
that she must leave his house and devote herself exclusively to the Church. It may be that Joan, Thomas'
wife, did not disagree with the Virgin's directions. The Maid was admitted as a Sister of the Priory
of St. Sepulchre at Canterbury and Fr. Bocking was appointed, by the Archbishop, to be her spiritual Father.
It was not long after the Maid's departure that Thomas Cobbe died, but Elizabeth visited him after she
went to Canterbury. In his will, which was proved in June 1528, he left his wife Joan only a pittance saying:
"I will that if my wife is not contented with this portion and vex the executors she shall lose,
and not have anything." (1)
In his will he made gifts to the Church at Aldington and Newchurch and says in connection with the former:
"I bequeath toward the building of a new steeple there 20/- and to making a new window in the
North side 20/-. If the parishoners will make a window, if not the bequest be void"
(l) Will No. 3 given in Appendix.
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Page 16
Each of these bequests to the Church would be valued at about ?100 in to-day's currency.
Archbishop >Warham had intended that the Church should have a steepl but it was never completed;
but in 1911 a parapet was built which has given it the form of a tower. He also made provision for
"Elizabeth his I daughter" and it may be that he had adopted Elizabeth Barton as there
is no record of a daughter having been born to him.
It is of interest to finish the story of Elizabeth Barton. At Canterbury she occupied a cell where
she interviewed many of the most influential people in England and it is remarkable that all those
who talked with her were impressed with her piety and, when, for example, she was visited by Sir
Thomas More, then Chancellor, he gave her a gift and begged her to pray for him and his family.
The Maid had boldly declared that "if the King should divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry
Ann Boleyn, that he should not be a King a month later, but should die the death of a villain".
She was by this time in correspondence with the Pope and the Foreign Ambassadors at the Court of St. James.
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and his secretary, Gould, were in frequent consultation with her.
John Fisher, who was a prelate eminent for his learning and for the high favour which he had long
enjoyed with the King, was ultimately thrown into prison and executed in 1535 for refusing to take
the oath on the King's succession and for his concealment of Elizabeth Barton's statements on the
question of the King's divorce.
The King saw her at Canterbury on his return from the "Field of the Cloth of Gold" but
regarded her as a simple but ignorant child. Elizabeth, however, relates that he offered to make
her an abbess, which she refused.
The time had now come when the Maid's influence was a serious obstacle to the King in his matrimonial
plans and he was well aware that even if Elizabeth herself was innocent, she was being used by those
at Canterbury against his interests. He ordered that an enquiry be made, and a report was published
which disclosed Dr. Bocking's intrigues. The following record is amusing:
"The scandalous prostitution of her manners was laid open to the public. Those passions
which so naturally insinuate themselves amidst the warm intimacies maintained by the devotees
of different sexes, had taken place between Elizabeth and her confederates, and it was found that
a door to her dormitory, which was said to have been miraculously opened, in order to give her
access to the Chapel for the sake of frequent converse with Heaven, had been contrived by Bocking
and Masters, for less refined purposes."
The above account was written in the eighteenth century.
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The Maid was tried by the Star Chamber at Westminster Hall and the Chancellor, in the King's presence,
gave an account of the Maid's doings. He said the King had married a second wife to secure the succession
and provide for the tranquility of the realm.
The woman before them had instigated the Pope to censure him and had
endeavoured to bring about a rebellion, to deprive him of his throne.
On the word "rebellion" the audience, who had so far listened quietly, broke out into cries
on all sides, TO THE STAKE! TO THE STAKE!
The nun showed no alarm but admitted quietly that what the Chancellor had said was true.
On 21st April, 1554, she suffered at Tyburn with Dr. Bocking, Hering, a Monk, Gold, Rich, a Friar and Risby.
At the place of execution she addressed the crowd:
"I am come hither to die, being not only the cause of my own death but also of the death of
all those persons who die with me. Yet, to say the truth, I am not so much to be blamed. It was well
known unto those learned men that I was a poor wench, without learning, but because the thing I
feigned was profertable unto them, therefore they much praised me and bear me in hand that it was
the Holy Ghost, and not I, that did them; and then I, being puffed up with their praises, fell into
a certain pride and foolish phantasy which thing has brought me to this case."
Thomas' treatment of his wife was not praiseworthy and one might think that the money he left for
the singing of 30 masses for his soul might have been spent with better effect if he had devoted
the money to her needs.
Thomas left four sons, James of Aldington, Richard of Bilsington and Martin, whose son Thomas went
to Chilham. James purchased from John Carden, the Manor situated on the west boundary of the parish
of Hodeford which is described in the charter of Horton Priory and lived here or alternatively at
Cobbes Hall at Aldington. It is believed that he continued his father's work as Bailiff for the Archbishop.
James' son, another James who died in 1587, and his grandson William, lived at Aldington and married
Margaret, daughter of Sir Edmond Pelham, Sergeant at law, and Chief Baron of the Exchequer of Ireland
in James I's reign. Sir Edmond Pelham lived at Calsfield Manor in Sussex and was a lawyer of repute,
and his great nephew,
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Henry Pellham, was Prime Minister in 1754. William was living in 1619 at the time of the Herald's
Visitation to Kent, and left three sons and one daughter. The eldest son James went to Bury St. Edmunds
and died in 1664. He married Dorothy, daughter 6f Sir Edmund Bury, a doctor. His arms, quartered,
with the Bonnington and Ermyners, are given in the 1664 Visitation of Suffolk. This branch failed on
the male line and he left three daughters, Margaret, Dorothy and Winifred.
From James' second son, Thomas, the well-known family of Cobbs living at Mockbeggar near Rochester
are said to have descended. This is given in a book published by the Faversham Club of Kent Families,
This Thomas wrote a satire on Oliver Cromwell which he sent to Lord Ormonde and which he described as
"a poem upon Cromwell and his archhayterous rabble of rebellious rascalles and Englands jaoel birdes."
Chapter III
The Chilham Cobbes
Page 19
Martin Cobbe who owned an estate of Lympne died in 1551, and his son Thomas, who was born in the
year of his father's death, married Mary Payne, daughter and heiress of William Payne of the Manor
of Northbrookes, at Oldwood Lees, sometimes called Old Wives Lees or Old Lees, (1)
about a mile east of Chilham, which is six miles west of Canterbury.
Thomas became the owner of the Estate which remained in his family from about 1575 until 1712
when it was sold to Thomas Belke. The position of the Manor House is shown on an engraving made
in 1722 by E. Kirkall Sculp, and is published under the title Chilham Castle.
It was no doubt a half-way house for his cousins at Reculver travelling to Cobbes Court at Newchurch.
The existing building, now called North Court, stands on the site of the old manor and there are
parts of the original Northbrooks Manor incorporated in it.
During the time that Thomas was at Chilham, theRevd. Ezechias Fogg, a nephew of Alice Cobbe by her
marriage to Lord John Cobham, was appointed rector.
Thomas also inherited the lands at Bislington from his father; they had been owned by his uncle,
Richard, who died in 1557. Thomas died in 1627, aged 75 (2) and both he and his wife
are buried at Chilham and their memorial stones show the Cobb arms. Their daughter Jane's second
marriage was to John Pettit, one of Queen Elizabeth's personal servants who, with Jane, is buried
at St. Peter and St. Paul, Boughton. Her first marriage was to John Osborne, who owned Nutts Manor.
One might well believe that there might have been a good bed for intrigue at Elizabeth's Court
with Cobham, Fogg and Pettit.
One may wonder if John Pettit received his appointment in Elizabeth's household with the help
of Alice, wife of Lord John Cobham, or perhaps through the Foggs.
Thomas' son, William, who married Mary the daughter of Arthur Barnham, died one year before his
father in 1626 when his eldest son was 22 years of age.
The new housing estate recently built at Chilham, on Old Wives Lees, has been named "the
Cobb Estate" after this branch of the family.
(1) Hasted's History of Kent Vol. 5 page 157.
(2) Will No. 4 in Appendix.
Chapter IV
The Reculver Cobbes
Page 20
Thomas, the younger brother of John, the "Advocante" left the Romney Marsh in the
middle of the 15th century and settled in the neighbourhood of Reculver, where his descendants
remained for two hundred years before returning to Romney in about 1676.
Reference has already been made to Thomas Nyewe, rector of Aldingt in 1351 who was also rector
of Reculver, but it is riot possible to say whether this has any bearing on the acquisition of
land by the Cobbes in Reculver. It may well be that Thomas, who had inherited lands from Richard
Cobbe went North following the economic disasters of the great storms, the Black Death and French
Invasions. Following these disasters, Romney and Rye gave place of importance and prosperity to
Sandwich, which is very near to Herne, Reculver and Chislet, the places of residence of Thomas
and his descendants. Thomas must have died when he was a young man in 1441 as his death took place
thirty years before the death of his elder brother, John the "Advocante". His son John
was living at Hampton Hill and Hampton at Broke just outside Herne, and it appears from the record
of the proceedings in the Court of Chancery No, Cl. 28. 264 of 1458 that John was involved in a
legal case at Canterbury with one Simon Nore. The following is taken from the records:
"Before George Bishop of Exeter, and Chancellor. Bill of Simon John Cobbe on 15th July 56 Hen.
VI (1458) of the late King accuse Simon of trespass at a court of piepowder after the market at
Canterbury. At this court it was agreed Simon should not be sued for 7 months as he had to go back
to Florence, but John Cobbe sued Nore on 20th July and said that at Canterbury on 5th Aug. 53 Hen.
VI (1455) Simon had, with force of arms, taken his goods to value ?415 3 4d. The suit was pursued
by Nore's attorney William Rose, 20th July 1460 12th May 38 Henry VI and Cobbe, by subtilty, got
verdict against the attorney by default. Pledges war Staveley of London gent and a Florentine."
The sum involved was ?415 3 4d. was no small amount and would in present day currency be worth
about ?40,000. John seems to have founded the family fortunes and one hopes that the word 'subtility'
was not used in a derogatory sense. In his will dated llth April 1470 he directs that he be buried
at Herney Church near to his wife Alice, that his lands at Hodlowe's be sold and makes bequests to
his sons Thomas and James. He leaves his brother Thomas of Herne a wear. He died on 22nd April 1482.
Although the College of >Arms record these members of the family were of Reculver, the first mention
of the place in the family Wills is in that James dated 1525 when he makes a donation for repairs to
the steeple of the Church at Reculver or for the church wall.
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This James is believed to be the father of James of Staplehurst, whose son, Clemence, purchased an
estate at Brenzett, between Rye and New Romney called "The Rodde", from John Edolf (or Edulph).
This is recorded in his will dated 19th March, 1556. Brenzett Place, as it is called today, fell to
his daughter on the death of her brother. She married John Fagge of Rye, a Mayor of that town whose
family had originally come from Timanstone near Sandwich. In the Church of Brenzett there is a remarkably
fine altar tomb on which are two recumbent effigies, of John Fagge and his son, both in armour, with
the elder leaning on his elbow and looking at his son. The inscription reads:
"Dedicated to the memory of John Fagge of Rye in the County of Sussex, who married one of
the daughters and heiress of Clement Cobb of Canterbury in the County of Kent, by whom he had
two sons and four daughters. He departed this life the 22nd day of June, 1639".
One of the sons was a baronet, but the family died out in 1740.
A.G. Bradley refers to this family and the Edulphs in his book "An Old Gate of England".
John's grandson, Alexander, lived at Reculver, and his inheritance and ability brought him
considerable property. At the time of his death in 1541, in Henry VIII's reign, he owned lands
which extended from Reculver to Herne, Wiitstable, Swaycliffe and Sturry near Canterbury, which
is called Rashbourn (1). His mansion as he describes it, lay between Reculver and
Hillborough and was called Bishopston. The following is taken from Hasted's History of Kent:
The parish of Reculver is low, marshy land, excepting towards the west, where May Street and
the hamlet of Holsborough stand, the latter in the road towards Hoath and Canterbury and a little
northward from it, near the sea, Bishopstone, once accounted a manor, which for many years was
the seat and property of the family Cobbe who resided here until the latter end of the last
century (1676). Alexander Cobbe of Reculver died possessed of it in 1541 and divided his mansion
of Bishopston with its lands, and those at Old Hevyn to his son Robert whose descendant Henry
died seised of it in 1618. There is an entry of this branch of the Cobbe family who lie buried
in this Church in the Heralds Office book D 18, folio 144 b.
Alexander, in his will, is at pains to describe himself as a 'yeoman' a title as much
honoured in his as in our generation, and
(1) Will No. 5.
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Page 22
a relief from the long list of gentlemen, esquires and armigers. He was a contemporary of Thomas
of Aldington, who died in 1528 and probably of Sir William Cobbe, Vicar of Herne, who, in 1556,
soon after the Reformation, referred to the Pope in a sermon as "Papa", for which he
was imprisoned at Canterbury.(1)
On Alexander's death he left a widow, Tomasyn, three sons, Richard Alexander and Michael, and four
daughters, Margaret, Cristen, Agnes and Frideswide, of which only Richard was of age at the time
of the death of his father in 1544. (2) Richard succeeded to the Bishopston Estate and
other property and the remainder was divided between the other sons. His second son Alexander was
a jurist of Sandwich and Mayor of that town in 1574. As a jurist he took some part in the welcome
accorded to Queen Elizabeth I when she visited Sandwich in 1573 and the following is taken from
Thomas Boy's History of Sandwich, in which he quotes from the contemporary annals of the town:
"The Queen intended to begin her progress in the middle of July 1573 and the Archbishop made
preparations for her reception Canterbury, but the Lord Cobham coming out of Kent, and signifying
that the mezels and the small pox reigned in Canterbury and the plague at Sandwich, it caused some
stop of the Queen but she set forward at the latter end of the month (Strype's 'Life of Archbishop Parker').
The Queen was expected at Sandwich and two jurists went to London to purchase a gold cup of the
value of ?100 to be presented to the Queen. Buildings are to be repaired and the houses in the Strand
Street and elsewhere to be beautified and adorned with black and white, the streets to be paved and
all dung and filth to be removed or covered up with earth.
No person to keep hogs but in certain appointed places. Two hundred persons to be apparelled in
white doublets, black gaily gascoignes and white garters and to be furnished with "cabyvers".
Scaffolds to be erected in Strand Street and to be hung with black and white baize. Children to be
placed thereon, spinning yarn. Butchers to carry their offal to the furthest groyne head, till after
her highness' departure. The brewers enjoined to brew good beer against her coming.
The lord warden desires 100 men may be sent from Sandwich, properly armed and accoutred to attend
at Dover Castle while the Queen should stay there.
The Queen arrives at Sandwich on Monday 31st August about seven in the evening, at which time
John Gylbart, Maior accompanied
(1) Page's History of Kent Vol. 2.
(2) Will No. 4.
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Page 23
by IX juriats; the town clerk are form of the Common Council received her highness at Sandwich
at the uttermost thereof, the said Maior beinge appareled in a Scarlet gowne, at which place her
majestie stayeth, and the said Maior yelded unto her majestie his mace, and not far from them
stood three hundred persons or thereabouts appareled in white doblets with black and whyt rybon
in the sieves, black gascoyne hose and whyt garters, every of them having a muryon and a calyver
or di musket having thre drames and three ensignes and thre Captains, viz Mr. Alexander Cobbe,
Mr. Edward Peake and Mr. Edward Wood, juriats. Every of these discharged their shoot, her magestie
being at downes gates."
It is hoped that the Queen enjoyed the fireworks as much as the juriats must have done.
During Alexander's mayoralty an embargo was placed on shipping and the Corporation purchased
an estate belonging to the Carmelites for ?100.
In 1574 he also made a declaration of the arms of Sandwich and certified that these arms had been
held by the Town since the reign of Edward the Confessor and William I, and it is interesting that
while the records of the Sandwich Corporation spell his surname. Cobbe, he himself signs it Alexander
Cob. He married Agnes Peake daughter of Nicholas Peake, a juriat of Sandwich and Mayor in 1544 and
1553. This Alexander is mentioned in his father's will but his name has not been recorded at the
College of Arms.
Alexander's brother, Michael, a Sergent at Arms, married the daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh,
Lord Mayor of London in 1558, at the time of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth and was knighted
after the ceremony.
Sir Thomas Leigh gave the Queen his address of welcome on the day of her Coronation, at the
upper end of Cheapside, where the Queen received the city's gift, a purse of crimson satin with
a thousand marks in gold. She took the purse with both hands and made one of those little extempore
speeches she had always at command. "I thank my Lord Mayor, his brethren and you all. And
whereas your request is that I should continue your good Lady and Queen, be ye ensured that I
will be as good unto you as ever queen was unto her people. No one in me can lack, neither, do
I trust, shall there lack any power. And persuade yourselves that for the safety and quietness
of you all, I will not spare, if need be, to spend my blood, God thank you all." This piece
of royal eloquence moved the crowd to great enthusiasm, "the heartiness thereof was so
wonderful and the words so jointly knit."
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Sir Thomas Leigh was the son of Roger Leigh of Wellinston in Shropshire and came from an ancient
family which were settled in Heigh Leigh, Cheshire. He was a justice of the Peace for Shropshire
and a High Sheriff of London in 1555. He lived at Old Jewry, at North End. His memorial in the
Mercers Chapel records that he was "a lover of learning and a friend of the poor." He
was given a silver cup, the first cup in England to be "hall marked", which weighed
61 oz. Roland, his eldest son, was the ancestor of Baron Leigh of Stoneleigh, Warwick shire.
His second son Thomas Leigh was created Baron Leigh by Charles I. Amongst his descendants is
the Earl of Chatham.
Michael's daughter, Tomasine, married Ralph Brooke, a notorious York Herald. He was a member
of a Cheshire family and for some reason changed his name from Brooksmouth to Brooke. He was
born in 1553 and went to Merchant Taylors School in 1564 being appointed first a Rouge Croix
Pursuivant and later York Herald in 1593. Ralph Brooke appears to have been an energetic but
quarrelsome man and had a quarrel with Camden, Clarnceuse at Arms in 1597. Brooke published
three books in which he claimed to have discovered errors in Camden's works, which "were
prejudicial to the decents of succession of ancient nobility of the relm". (1)
He also objected to the arms granted, on Camden's recommendation, to William Shakespeare's father.
In 1622 he brought a remarkable action against the Rouge Herald Philpot in the Courts of Common
Please. (2) He sued Rouge Herald for his share of the fees given to the Heralds Pursuivant
on rare occasions. One was the first Tilt or Tournament of I the Prince of Wales, James I eldest son,
who afterwards died during the lifetime of his father.
Of the first tilt we have no particulars but we know that Prince Henry was passionately fond of
these entertainments and during the last years of his life they increased greatly in number.
Of the first tilt we have no particulars but we know that Prince Henry was passionately fond
of these entertainments and during the last years of his life they increased greatly in number.
The other state ceremony, for which the York Herald claimed a share was the funeral of the Queen
Consort, Ralph Brooke lived at Reculver and was buried there. 0n the South Wall of old Reculver
Church was hung his portrait showing him with a short trimmed beard in full Herald's ceremonials and under was inscribed:
"Here under, quiet from worldly miseries,
Ralph Brook Esquire, late York Herald lies,
Fifteenth of October he was last alive,
One thousand six hundred and twenty five,
(1) A Discourse of certain errors in Camden's "Brittanica"
1619. Second discoveries of Errors and a catalogue on succession of King, Princes and Dukes of England.
(2) Archaelogia Cantiana.
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Seventy three years bore he fortunes harms
and forty five an officer of arms.
He married Thomasin, daughter of Michael Cobb of Kent,
Sargent at Arms, by who two daughters God him lent,>
Surviving, Mary, William Dicken's wife,
Thomasine, John Eaton's, Happy be their life."
The portrait was afterwards moved to Hillborough Church when Reculver Church was pulled down in 1805.
The portrait has since disappeared.
Ralph Brook seem to have brought the records of the Cobbe family to date during the Heralds Visitation
in 1619 and it may be that he added a ducal coronet to the family crest, with, no doubt, the consent
of the family.
A similar grant of a coronet was made at about the same time, to Sir John Boys, an ancestor of the
famous Sandwich historian.
We now return to the first Alexander Cobbe's eldest son Richard, who inherited Bishopston. Richard in
his will, which was proved on 20th June, 1582, shows that he had a family of five sons and five daughters,
the eldest son being Henry who inherited all his father's property, the other sons receiving an annuity
of four nobles a year. The family fortunes were at a low ebb until Richard's grandson, Benjamin Cobbe of
Christ Church, Canterbury, inherited the property of Reculver and Chislet and married Alice Knowler.
Robert Knowler of Herne is mentioned in Alexander of Reculver's will of 1544 and we are told that he
occupied the lands belonging to Alexander at Rash-bourn in the parish of Sturry, near Canterbury, and
there can be little doubt that Alice was of his family, and that she was an heiress.
Benjamin died in 1642 in the reign of Charles I (1) and left to each of his four daughters
the sum of ?200 which would, in to-day's currency be worth about ?8,000.
To Robert, his eldest son, he gives the Mansion of Bishopston at Reculver and most of his other properties.
To Francis, his second son, he leaves two houses at Canterbury, some houses in Herne, and some small pieces
of land in Chislet and Reculver. Francis died before he was 21 and his property reverted to Robert.
Benjamin, at the time of his death at the age of 58, was a widower and was buried with his wife in
the middle of the aisle of Reculver Church. His eldest son Robert, was eight years old at the time
of his death, and George Knowler of Herne was appointed as their guardian. His wife Alice died in 1641,
a year before her husband, and at the age of 55.
Robert, Benjamin's son, was the last member of the family at
(1) Will No. 4.
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Page 26
Reculver where the family had been for two hundred and fifty years, and his son returned to New Romney
when he was a young man.
In 1663 he brought the family records to date at the College of Heralds during their visitation to
Kent when he was 37 years of age.
He married Mary, daughter of Jonas Hunt of Chislet, who died at the age of 45 in 1684. Her memorial
stone was removed from Reculver Church with those of her son, Benjamin, who died at the age of 21
and a daughter of 10 years, to HillboroughChurch, when ReculverChurch was demolished.
Robert died in 1676, aged 42 years and left a son Robert who went to New Romney. He was 4 at the
time of his father's death and 12 when his mother died.
Chapter V
The New Romney Cobbs
Page 27
The eldest son and heir to the Aldington property, James, who is referred to under the title
Aldington >Cobbs, went to Bury St. Edmonds and died there in 1664. He had married the daughter
of Sir Edmond Bury and left no sons to succeed him. Hasted, in his History of Kent, states that
James, or his executors, sold his property at Aldington and Hodeford to Thomas Godfrey. These
properties which were acquired by the Aldington Cobbs in early times had not been inherited
from the Newchurch Cobbs and the Reculver branch had therefore no claim to them. However, it
seems that some of the lands owned by the Aldington family near New Romney, which had come
originally from the Newchurch Cobbs (notably Goddy Hall and Land and Hope All Saints) fell to
Robert Cobb of Reculver either by inheritance under Gravelkind custom, or by purchase on the
death of James. It is not explained, however, why these lands did not go to either of James'
brothers, Thomas or William.
Robert of New Romney was a child of 4 years at the death of his father, Robert of Reculver and
the property at Reculver and Chislet was sold after his mother's death in 1684 and he and his
sister Ann went to their inheritance at New Romney.
Reculver and Chislet overlooked the Wantsum Channel which divided the Isle of Thanet from the
mainland and it may have been a favourable time to sell the properties as the channel was setting
up the sea route from Sandwich to London.
Ann, who may have been much older than her brother, married Robert Chalker, Town Clerk at New Romney
and outlived him and afterwards married Edward Cranford, a landowner of Great Mongham, not far from
her old home at Reculver. By the age of 36 Robert was mayor of New Romney and served as such in 1708
and 1710.
Robert married an heiress, Catherine Curteis, of Ashford. Her grandfather, a Mayor of Ashford, had
been dismissed from the office at the time of the Revolution for his loyalty to Charles I, but her
father was a member of Parliament after the Restoration. Robert died on 15th December 1727 at the
age of 55. He is buried in the South aisle of Romney Church, with his wife, who died on 5th May
1751, aged 75 years. His arms are impailed with those of the Curteis family which show a chevron
between three bulls' heads.
Catherine left a will, written ten years before her death, in which she leaves silver and other
personal possessions to her sons and makes some reference to the house in which they lived, which
remained in the family until 1825. Archaelogia Cantiana Vol 41
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Page 28
written many years later says "The remains of the Old Cobb Mansion, now our workhouse, with
its magnificent semi-circular sixteenth century walled garden, gives us glimpses of a social
life which has long-since vanished from our midst."
Robert of New Romney left four sons, Thomas who was rector of Upper Hardres, near Canterbury
and later of Lydd; Benjamin, Robert and John.
Benjamin married Catherine, an heiress, daughter of Allen Grebell of Rye who was murdered in
1742, just before his daughter's marriage. Grebell built Lamb House and the following is an extract
from A. G. Bradley's "An Old Gate of England" which gives an account of the house and the event:
Lamb House, both within and without, has all the attractive characteristics of the early Georgian
style, even in its ornamented capped doorway and the flight of steps ascending thereto. It is
flanked by an old-fashioned garden which provides the dwellers upon the north side of the already
favoured Watchbell Street wit a green and bowery outlook from their back windows. It is only worth
noticing here that the house was built and first occupied by the Grebells, a family of note in the
town, because the chief Grebell of the day was stabbed by an irascible butcher (1742) in mistake
for his relative Lamb, into whose possession the house by that time passed, Mr. Lamb it seems had
passed a severe sentence on the said butcher for using false weights. The murder made a tremendous
sensation and has rung down the ages in Rye and if so remote an incident may scarcely seem worth
the telling, it must not be shirked, as the skull of the butcher, as well as the] gibbet on which
he hung upon the marsh outside the town, is carefully preserved in the Town Hall, and duly exhibited
among its other treasures, to visitors.
But it is remarkable that it should have fallen to a simple I gentleman in a country town to entertain
Royalty on two different occasions in the same house. For George the First, in the year I 1725, on
returning from one of his numerous visits to Hanover, was blown ashore while making for Dover on
Camber sands. Tradition I says that he and his party had to grope their way on foot to Rye I through
snow-storm and darkness, but Lydd has something to say about that, as we shall see later. At any rate,
Mr. James Lamb, both as Mayor and as owner of a well-found house, gave food and shelter to the boorish
little German for one or two nights and days, as the weather had destroyed communication with London,
where it was seriously feared that the King was lost, as a reference to the history of the reign will
show. Great though the honour, it must have been an extremely inconvenient moment, for an addition to
the family occurred that very night. The King, however, though he hated England and English ways and
could not speak our language, seems I to have made himself agreeable oh this auspicious occasion. With
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Page 29
dry suit, before a good fire and plenty of beer and tobacco, George I was probably at his best, such as
it was. In any case he did the right thing, became Godfather to the boy, blessed him and gave him his
own name George and a gold cup into the bargain, which is still preserved in the family.
The second occasion was in 1755, just before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, when the Duke of
Cumberland, the so called "Butcher of Culloden", but the best of the whole breed, visited
Eye to inspect the defences of the neighbourhood, and was entertained by Mr. Lamb, who was still Mayor.
These particulars have been kindly given me by almost the only living representative of the Lamb-Grebell
families - which had otherwise died out in Eye. In regard to the Grebell murder, which took place from
this house, my informant gives some particulars, unknown to the local chroniclers, in part at least, that
are physiologically interesting. Mr, Grebell had been supping with his brother-in-law Lamb, and having
some business in the town, borrowed his scarlet overcoat. On returning late through the churchyard, he
felt some one push heavily as he thought against him, and merely remarking "Get away, you drunken
hound" passed on to Lamb House, quite unconcerned. He duly reported the incident, but as the family
were going to bed, said he felt so tired that, instead of going home, he would have a sleep in the
armchair by the fire. In the morning he was found dead, with a stab in the back, which had caused internal
bleeding,"
Benjamin was Mayor of New Romney, first in 1736, when he was 29 years old and thereafter in 1740, 1743,
1746, 1749, 1752, 1754, 1756 and died during his mayoralty on 6th October 1756. He is buried in the South
aisle of New Romney church and the memorial stone shows his arms impailed with the Grebells'. His brother
Robert died when he was 27 years old and left Benjamin his lands and tenements which he had in Romney
and Hope All Saints. To his brother Thomas, the Rector of Upper Hardres, Robert left ?1,300 - worth,
perhaps, ?26,000 in to-day's currency.
Thomas Cobb, Rector of Upper >Hardres, who was a curate of Lydd in his younger days, returned there in
his old age. He was Mayor of Lydd in 1747. He died in 1794 leaving a son, Robert, who was Mayor of Lydd
in 1785-1787, and four grandchildren, Thomas' memorial at Lydd Church, which has been destroyed during
the bombing of the church in the late war, records:
"Sacred to the memory of Revd. Thomas Cobbe, M. A., son of Robert and Catherine Cobb of New Romney,
who after a long life devoted to the faithful performance of pastoral duties, and the practice of every
virtue that could adorn it first as curate of this parish and afterwards as rector of Upper Hardres and
Stitling of this county, died August 26th 1794 in the 92nd year of his age."
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Page 30
He built Cobbe Hall in Lydd, which he left to his son Robert - a fine Georgian building in the main street
near the church, which now belongs to All Souls, Oxford. His son, Robert, owned the Manor of Scotney,
otherwise Bletching Court, which lies about 1/2 mile northward of Seavens Court in the parish of Prombell,
and about 150 acres of land which had previosly belonged to his uncle Benjamin, It is a poor building and
probably was the residence of Robert's overseer.
Benjamin's other son, also called Benjamin, born in 1753, has always been said to have been the spendthrift
who dissipated the family fortune, for, like many others who found themselves in financial difficulties in
those times, he left for Calais when he was over 74 years old and died there in his old age. He lived in
the extravagant Regency age and apart from his mansion at New Romney, owned a house in Great Coram Street,
Brunswick Square.
A. G. Bradley in "The Old Gate of England" writes of his times:
"Echoes of social splendour or Romney in Georgian times may still be found on the lips of the
oldest inhabitants, gathered from their fathers and grandfathers; the string of carriages which
filled the High Street from end to end when a Miss Cobb was married or the resounding convivialities
which cheered the place when a Master Godfrey was born. The old houses where these magnate of the
Marsh, this amphibious fifth continent of the earth, in its great days ate and drank and danced, the
world forgetting and by the world forgot, look rather seedy now.
The Cobb mansion is the workhouse and the lines of its ample gardens may still be seen far out in
the fields."
The Mansion was pulled down between the two great wars, but the writer remembers the spacious rooms
with Adam fireplaces and no less than seven staircases.
It is said that Benjamin was always accompanied at the back of his carriage by a black servant dressed
in red; somewhat ostentatious, perhaps, a family failing which has persisted for 700 years.
It is evident, however, that Benjamin earned and retained the respect of the township until he was
an old man, for he was elected Mayor for the first time in 1777 when he was 24 and six times afterwards,
the 1 time being in 1827 when he was 74. It seems that misfortune overtook in his old age, by which
time, one thinks, he should have sown his wild oats It may well be that Benjamin's sons, Smith and
Thomas, both in the Navy, were bothered with their father's affairs and that he left for Calais on
their instigation. Benjamin married first Elizabeth, daughter and heires
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Page 31
of John Rolfe the Common Clerk of New Romney and Mayor in 1785; who died in 1782 at the age of 28
childless; and afterwards to Jane, daughter and heiress of Elias Smith of Dymchurch, by whom he had
eleven children over a period of ten years, two of whom were twins. Jane died on 30th June 1799 at
the age of 32, when the twins, Robert and Thomas were two years old and the eldest son, Smith, ten.
Benjamin died in Calais in 1835 at the age of 82 years and was buried there, but there is a memorial
stone to him and his wives in the East of the South aisle at New Romney church. It can only be hoped
that he enjoyed good company in his last days at Calais when Nelson's Lady Hamilton and many other
notable persons were in retirement, Benjamin's arms, on the memorial stone at New Romney Church,
carry two escutcheons of pretence to indicate that both his wives were heiresses.
Of Benjamin's sons, Smith, Benjamin, Robert and Thomas, three were in the Royal Navy.
Smith, born in 1786, who was Mayor of Romney in 1818 and 1824 and died in 1833 aged 47,
was buried in a vault which he built in the church at Romney for himself and other members
of the family. Captain Smith Cobb, R.N., contributed to the cost of the publication of
'County Genaeologies - Pedigrees of the Families of Kent', by William Berry, published in 1830,
and in this the family pedigree is brought up to date and the arms inscribed. Berry was on the
staff of the College of Heralds and prepared a drawing showing the quarterings of the Cobb's
arms which was in the possession of Mr. Raymond Cobb of New Romney in about 1928. The official
reference number of the Cobb pedigree with the College of Arms is Surrey 13/ 185. Smith Cobb was
presented with a silver salver and tea service by the Town and Corporation of New Romney in 1821
which records that it was given "In testimony of their sense of eminent service rendered by
him in support of their charter."
Charles, who was killed off Boulogne by a hit on his head by a cannon ball during the French
Wars, in 1811, when he was 25 years old, has a place of honour in the centre aisle of the same
Church in New Romney. Commander Thomas Cobb was buried at Stockbury in Kent, and the following
obituary notice was published in the Times of 29th April, 1892:
"The death of Commander Thomas Cobb, R.N., occurred on April 24th at Stockbury Vicarage at the
great age of 96 years.
The deceased gentlemen was the father of the Revd. Thomas Cobb, Vicar of Stockbury (with whom he lived)
and also of the Revd. Charles Cobb, Vicar of Rainham. He was also a twin brother of the late Revd.
Robert Cobb, Vicar of Debtling. Commander Cobb was one of the oldest, officers of the Royal Navy.
Born October 5th 1796, he entered the Service as a second-class volunteer in 1810 on board the
Venerable, 74. Captain Home Popham and afterwards served successfully as a midshipman and mate on
the Onyx, 10, commanded by his brother, Commander Smith Cobb; the Bulwark, 74; Tersor, Bomb, and Severn, 28.
On his promotion to Lieutenant in 1824 he came ashore and did not serve again. Commander Cobb's family
has been connected with the Navy for centuries.
He had two brothers in-the service, one of whom was killed in action with the French off Boulogne
in 1811; his father was a Baron of the Cinque Ports and present in that capacity at the Coronation
of George IV.
He was also a direct descendant of John Cobb of Cobb's Court I in Romney Marsh, who flourished in the
reign of Edward II and assisted to furnish a ship in the Royal Navy of the Cinque Ports, I Commander
Cobb was a Magistrate of New Romney, married in 1826 and had nine children, but there is no one of
his name now serving as an officer in the Navy.
The remains of the deceased gentleman were interred at Stockbury on Thursday in last week, where his
four sons were present, viz: Revd. T. Cobb, Revd. C. Cobb, Lieut. Col. Cobb, R.M. and Mr. Henry Cobb
of New Rornney."
Commander Cobb was Mayor of New Romney in 1841 and nine times thereafter the last time being 1876
when he was 80 years old. His brother Smith had this honour in 1818-1824 before his father's last
term of office.
Smith's son Benjamin was vicar of Newchurch from 1869 to 1875. On his death his wife gave a new
chalice to the church of Newchurch to replace the one bequeathed by John the 'Advocante' in 1472
which had been lost during the Reformation.
Benjamin of Newchurch had five sons, Benjamin, Cramer, Raymond and Murton and Mitford, of which
the latter was living in New York in 1955.
Commander Cobb had four sons. Thomas, who was first headmaster of King's School, Rochester and
later Vicar of Stockbury, was the writer grandfather. He died on 8th June, 1912 at the age of 85.
Charles, his second son, was first, Vicar of Dymchurch and then of Rainham. Whilst at Dymchurch
he effected a notable rescue from a French ship on 5th January 1867 and the account given below
was published nearly seventy years after the event, in the Sunday Pictorial of 29th March, 1936:
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Page 32
They are accustomed to the wind and sea at their in the village of Dymchurch on the Kent Coast,
and when a gale raged through the night early in January, 1867, it did not not disturb the Rev.
Charles Cobb in his little vicarage, looking out on the Church.
It was early, for it was Sunday, and while at breakfast he read through his notes. Faintly,
underneath the roar of the waves and the rattling of the window panes, came the sound of gunfire.
A French lugger, the Corrier de Dieppe, had been blown far off her course and wrecked on the
Dymchurch Sands.
The Coastguards were trying to fire a lifeline aboard the wreck, in which four people could be
seen clinging for dear life. The line fell short, a great wave crashed against the boat and broke
her in two. Three men were washed overboard and drowned. One man remained, his arms twined in
the rigging. John Batist, a Coastguard, clad in a cork jacket and with a lifeline round his waist,
tried to battle his way out to the wreck. He failed and was dragged back by the men on the beach.
The Vicar, a powerful swimmer, took off his coat and said he would try without a cork jacket,
which would make him too light.
His parishoners, who had gathered on the shore, begged him not to make this desperate attempt.
Mr. Cobb was resolute. He plunged in and for some minutes, they seemed like hours to the watchers,
he was lost to sight, and then he was seen clambering on the wreck.
He had still to reach the man in the rigging who was numb with cold and exhaustion.
After a pause to recover his breath, the Vicar started to crawl towards the sailor.
Three thimes he was washed back and saved himself as if by a miracle. The fourth time he
got his hand on the ropes.
Meanwhile Batist, with his lifeline, had managed, by a mighty effort, to reach the wreck and
together the Vicar and the Coastguard grasped the survivor and all three were hauled ashore.
The records tell how Rev, Charles Cobb won the Albert Medal in gold, and John Batist the bronze.
Charles Cobb was also awarded a medal by the Emperor of France. He died at Rainham, leaving one
daughter, and his son-in-law succeeded him as Vicar of Rainham.
John, the third son, was a Lieut. Colonel in the Royal Marl Henry Cobb, the younger son of
Commander Cobb, who remained in New Romney and was known as Captain Cobb, lived at Cobbes Corner,
and was seven times Mayor of the town from 1871. His last term of office was in 1893.
Of Thomas of Stockbury's sons, Robert was a Director of Medical Services in India; Hamilton Smith,
Canon and Preceptor at Rochester; Arthur Stanley (the father of the writer) married Margaret Ritchie
Cassels in 1860. He was a banker and wrote two books on finance, viz. 'Threadneedle Street' and
'Metallic Reserve' in 1892. He died in 1902.
The Genealogy of the Cobbs of Kent
First Generation
- Henry COBBES.
We know little about Henry, except that in 1258 he acquired land in the parish of Hope, St. Mary (in the Marsh), New Romney and Newchurch. In 1265, he obtained the property of Richard Organistre which he joined to his own property. In 1324, the former Organistre property was the home of his only known child, son John. The name of Henry's wife is lost. Henry COBBES had the following children:
+2i. John COBBES Esquire (of Kent).
Second Generation
- John COBBES Esquire (of Kent) (Henry-1).
John Cobbs of Kent is the earliest documented progenitor of our Cobb family, meaning only that he was the first to be recorded in the College of Heralds. We do not know when John was born; but by 1324, he had acquired possession of the former property of Richard Organistre. It was located about a quarter of a mile north of St. Peter and St. Paul Church at Newchurch. This manor became known as Cobbs Place (a name that remained in use until the late 1700's) and remained in the family until the death of Alice Cobbe, then Lady Cobham, in the reign of Elizabeth I, when it passed to the Cobhams and was sold and later demolished.
John was still living at Cobbe's Place in the 17th year of the reign of King Edward II. During his life he was awarded the title of Esquire, for having performed some unidentified service to the Crown. This title continued to be born by several generations of his direct male descendants. The name of his wife is lost, but it is known that he had at least one son, Richard.
+3i. Richard COBBES Esquire (born before 1326).
Third Generation
- Richard COBBES Esquire (John-2, Henry-1) was born before 1326 in Cobbs Court, Romney, Kent.
More specifically, Richard was born during the first quarter of the 14th century. He was living in 1337. Richard also carried the title of Esquire (by the right of his father), and was still living at Cobbs Court in 1338; the 11th year of the reign of King Edward III. The name of his wife is lost, but it is known he had at least one son, Edward.
+4i. Edward (Edmund) COBBES Esquire (born in 1387).
Fourth Generation
- Edward (Edmund) COBBES Esquire (Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born in 1387 in Cobbs Court Romney, Kent. The names Edward and Edmund were used interchangeably in early England.
During his life, Edward continued to carry the title of Esquire, by the right of his father. He was still living at Cobbs Court in the 10th year of the reign of King Richard II. The name of his wife is lost, but it is known he had at least two sons, Edmund and Richard.
+5i. Edmund (Edward) COBBES Esquire.
6ii. Richard COBBES was born. It appears Richard held an official position in the Corporation of Romney, probably that of Justice of the Peace or Chamberlain.
Fifth Generation
- Edmund (Edward) COBBES Esquire (Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was living in 1417.
Edmund was still living at Cobbs Court in the 5th year of the reign of King Henry V. The name of his wife is lost, but it is known he had at least two sons, John and Thomas.
+7i. John ("the Advocante") COBBES (of Newchurch).
+8ii. Thomas COBBES (of Reculver).
Sixth Generation
- John ("the Advocante") COBBES (of Newchurch) (Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) signed a will on 14 October 1472. He died on 16 October 1472 in Chislete, Reculver, Kent, England. He was born in Cobbs Court, Romney Kent.
There are many references to John, the advocante, in the records of the Corporation of
New Romney. "He was a young man at the time when Joan d'Arc was burnt in 1431, and judging by his own
unhealthy fear of purgatory, which he exposes in his will, he would have found no alternative to death
by burning for the good of her soul and for his own conscience." The Records of the Corporation show
the activities of John from 1456 to 1466.
The oldest son and heir of Edmund Cobbs, his was the right to continue carrying the
title Esquire. At the time of his death in 1472, he held considerable property and land on the Marshes
and owned not only Cobbes Place in Newchurch, but the Manor and lands at Bonnington, the Manor of Camerston,
the Manor of Organers and Goddy Hall, which according to the records of All Souls, Oxford, lies between
Millebergh and Bensqukescroche, and a house called Breggis in Wheystreet. His will, which was written a
month before his death, was proved on 17th November, 1472.
He was still living at Cobbes Place (Court) when he made his Will in the 12th year
of the reign of King Edward IV, and died there that same year. In his Will, he named his wife Dionicia
and his three sons John, William, and Thomas. He further requested that his body be buried in the
Chapel of St. Michael's Church.
(Extract) WILLS FROM THE CLOSE ROLLS.-III. Cobbe, John, of co. Kent. 14 October, 12 Edw. IV. [1472].
"To Dionyse my wife, the manor of BoDyngton for lite, &c, and two acres in Bonington, held by her mother for life.
To William my SON, the principal tenement that I live in, save to my wife the chamber that I lie in myself, with the dorter, while she abideth in the same.
To Edward my SON, a manor or tenement called Organers.
To John my SON, a tenement called Breggys in Whitestrtte.
To Thomas my son, 43 acres called Brodewater, &c.
[All with remainder to son William.]
Lands to pass to my sons Edward and Roger after death of testator and Dionyse, with reminder to three daughters of said Dionyse.
Bequests to church, poor, mending of foul ways, and marriage of poor maidens. "If the livelode will not stretch thereto, then to find fewer priests [for masses] ; and the remanent above the said preestys fyndyng to be employed to relief of poor parishioners," and reparation of church. Tea marks to each daughter of Dionyse.
The entry proceeds to state that the said John Cobbe, the testator, died Friday before St, Luke. 12 Edw. IV. [16 October, 1472]."
John married Dionicia BONNINGTON before 1436 and had the following children:
9i. John COBBES was born in 1436 in Cobbs Court, Romney Kent. The oldest son and heir, he died unmarried and without issue.
+10ii. William COBBES (born in 1442).
+11iii. Thomas COBBES (born in 1448).
12iv. Edward COBBES was born in 1450. Named in his father's Will of October 1472, he inherited Cobbe's Place.
13v. Crystin COBBES was living and as yet apparently unmarried when her father made his Will in October 1472.
- Thomas COBBES (of Reculver) (Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) died in 1441 in Chislete, Reculver, Kent, England. He died in the 19th year of the reign of King Henry VI. He was born in Cobbs Court, Romney, Kent.
Thomas, the younger brother of John, the "Advocante" left the Romney Marsh in the middle
of the 15th century and settled in the neighborhood of Reculver, where his descendants remained for two
hundred years before returning to Romney in about 1676.
It is recorded that he sold his brother John all his interest in a field called Cobbs
Close, in the 14th year of the reign of Henry 6th. It is believed he moved to Chislete, Parish of Reculver,
at this time. The name of his wife is lost, but it is known he had at least one son, John.
+14i. John COBBES.
Seventh Generation
- William COBBES (John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1)
was born in 1442. He signed a will on 2 March 1500. He died in 1506.
He was thirty years old when his father died in 1472, and shared Gavelkind with his brothers
Thomas and Edward from their father's estate. In 1480, he was appointed Bailiff of New Romney. He was heir to his
oldest brother John who died unmarried and without issue. William COBBES married Alice CATTS and had the following children:
+15i. Robert COBBES.
16 ii. Gervase COBBES died in 1512.
He was named as a beneficiary of his brother Robert's Will which was proved on February 11, 1509. Being the
eldest son of William and Alice, he inherited Cobbes Court from his father. However, since he died without
issue, the manor was passed to his brother George who in turn possessed it until his own death in 1515.
+17iii. Edward COBBES.
18iv. George COBBES died in 1515 in Ivychurch, Kent.
His Will is now found at Maidstone. He was named as a beneficiary of his brother Robert's Will which was proved February 11, 1509.
- Thomas COBBES (John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1)
was born in 1448 in Cobbs Court, Romney, Kent. He was living and named in his father's Will of October 1472.
Per the Kentish custom of Gavelkind, he received an equal share of the lands that had belonged to his father.
The name of his wife is lost, but it is known he had at least one son, Thomas.
+19i. Thomas COBBES (of Aldington).
- John COBBES (Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1)
died on 22 April 1482 in Reculver Parish, Kent.
He was the only known son of Thomas Cobb of Reculver and was probably born at Chislete.
He made his Will August 21, 1445, in which he requested one John Yong (sic) and William Allen to sell
enough of his lands to pay his debts, and to Alice his wife, a piece of land called Towne (Pece) (sic)
in Reculver. It is known he had two children, but only one is known, his son Thomas. John COBBES married
Alice LNU (COBBES). John and Alice had the following children:
+20i. Thomas COBBES.
Eighth Generation
- Robert COBBES (William-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4,
Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) signed a will on 20 November 1508. He died before 11 February 1509 in Newchurch, Kent, England.
Extract of the Last Will & Testament of Robert Cobbes.
"Robert Cobbes of Newchurche, Gent. 20 Sept 1508. To be buried in the church bifore
the highe crosse. To the making of a silver crosse in Newchurche aforesaid 100s if the parisshens there
ordeyne & bye the same to the value of 20 marcs. To the Crosse light in Newchurche 3s 4d. To the
brotherhed of Or Lady there a Kowe yf the brethern & sustern will putt ther money of the same broderyeld
into a stokke for to encreasse. To the herse light 20d. An honest preest to syng by the space of oon hole
yere in the chapell of Seynt Thomas in Newchurche, 10 marcs.
To Elizabeth my doughter to hir marige 40 marcs. If she dye then between Benett my wif & Thomas Cobbes my son.
To William Cobbes my son £20 when 22 & a pece of silver called a bolle pece, a salte of silver wt a
couering parcell gilte & 6 silver sponys wt knopps of wodwoses gilte which pecs my saltes &
sponys I will shall remayn in the custody of the forsed Benett during the terme of her life.
To Thomas Cobbes my son £20 when 22 and another bolle pece of silver, a salte of silver wt a couering
parcell gilte & 6 spones of silver knopped wh Postells gilte.
To Elizabeth my doughter a pece of silver parcell gilte, a salte of silver parcell gilte, the better
of two wtoute covering & a doseyn sponys of silver a gyrdell harneysed wt a demysent of silver
& overgilte, a payre of beds of corall gawded wt stones of silver gilte and a ryng of golde
callid an hopryng.
To Sr Laurence Snelle, chanon of Bylsington 10s.
To Dame Anne of the Mynster of Shepey doughter of Benett my wif 40s.
To every of my household servants 3s 4d. To Laurence Hunte 3s 4d.
To George Cobbes my broder my blakke gowne furred wt blakke booge.
To Gerveys Cobbes my broder my russet gowne furred wt foxe.
To Edward Cobbes my broder my tawney gowne furred wt shanks.
To Edward Brekhell broder to Benett my wif 20s. Residue to Benett my wif, executrix.
Proved 11 Feb 1509 by executrix."
Robert COBBES married Benett BREKHELL. She was named the Executrix of
her husband's Will which was proved on February 11, 1509. Robert and Benett had the following children:
21i. Elizabeth COBBES was
living and named as a beneficiary of her father's Will which was proved on February 11, 1509.
From the wording of this instrument one gets the impression she was married but her married name is not given.
22ii. William COBBES was born after 1486.
He was referred to as being under 22 years of age in his father's Will of September 20, 1508.
23iii. Thomas COBBES was born after 1486. He was referred to as being under 22 years of age in his father's Will of September 20, 1508.
- Edward COBBES (William-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4,
Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) died in 1579 in Cobbs Court, Romney, Kent.
He lived at Cobbe's Place at Newchurch until his death. The property then passed to
his only daughter Alice who was born about 1524. He was named as a beneficiary of his brother Robert's
Will which was proved on February 11, 1509. Edward COBBES married a Miss CATESBY and had the following children:
+24i. Alice COBBES (born about 1524).
- Thomas COBBES (of Aldington) (Thomas-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4,
Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) died before June 1528. This was the date his Will was proved.
Thomas built himself a new house in Aldington, known to this day as Cobbe's Hall and it
was here that Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent, served as a scullery maid.
In his will, which was proved in June 1528, Thomas left his wife Joan only a pittance saying: "I
will that if my wife is not contented with this portion and vex the executors she shall lose, and
not have anything." In his will he made gifts to the Church at Aldington and Newchurch.
Thomas left four sons, James of Aldington, Richard of Bilsington and Martin, whose son Thomas went to Chilham.
Thomas COBBES married Joan LNU (COBBES) and had the following children:
+25i. James ("of Aldington") COBBES.
26ii. Thomas COBBES was born. The well known
family of Cobbs living at Mockbeggar near Rochester are said to be his descendants.
+27iii. Richard COBBES (of Bilsington).
+28iv. Martin COBBES (of Chilham).
- Thomas COBBES (John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4,
Richard-3,John-2, Henry-1) lived in Chislete, Reculver, >Kent, England.
Thomas COBBES married Alice LNU (COBBES) before 1480 and died after 1482.
Thomas and Alice had the following children:
+29i. Alexander COBBES (born about 1480).
+30ii. John COBBES (of Faversham) (born about 1482).
31iii. Edward COBBES was born after 1482 in Kent.
Ninth Generation
- Alice COBBES (Edward-8, William-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born about 1524 in Cobbs Court, Romney, Kent.
She inherited Cobbes Court from her father.
From Hasted’s “History of Kent” (1788): “The land on which Cobbes Place stood
is known, to this day, by the name of "Cobbe's Place", and was originally acquired from
the Fitzbriand family in about 1305. The Manor remained in the Cobbe family until the death of
Alice Cobbe, then Lady Cobham, in the reign of Elizabeth I, when it passed to the Cobhams and was
sold and later demolished
Alice COBBES married first Lord John NORTON who was also known as Sir John NORTON (of Northwood).
Alice COBBES married second Lord John COBHAM who was born on 22 April 1534. He died on 25 September 1594.
Lord John Cobham (alias Brooke) was the son of George Lord Cobham.
John Cobham was a Member of Parliament and a favourite at Court. In Cobham Church there is an effigy of him bearing
his arms impailed with the Cobbe arms, viz: argent, a chevron between three cocks. He was buried with Alice at Newington Church.
The following is taken from Archaelogia Contiana. Vol. 12, page 139.
"Lord John Cobham (alias Brooke) was born 22nd April 1534, his education was under the care of Martin Bucer
who, in a letter from Strasburg in May 1548 speaks highly of his abilities and attainments. He distinguished himself
as a soldier in the wars of the Low Countries in a struggle for civil and religious liberty. But we have complaints
of him, William Prince of Orange writes to Elizabeth March in 1560/7 concerning his elopement from the island of
Walcheron with one Lucretia de Affelate, a lady under the special probation of the Queen, who was therefore much
offended by this affair. Later we hear that John Brocke Captain in Her Majesty's service keeps the whole pay of
her soldiers from them and that Brocke has gotten Mr. Norton Green, a Roman Catholic, guilty of no other crime
than disobedience to her majesty in not going to Church, from whom he means to squeese 2,000 marks before he
shall be at liberty. Afterwards we find him in his own country aiding in the preparations against the Armada
and a possible landing of the Duke of Parma.
In May 1584 John Cobham is named amongst the commoners as the Master in the County of Kent, He married Alice,
daughter and heir of Edward Cobbe Esq., widow of Sir John Norton or Northwood, Knight. He died in September
25th 1594 - buried at Newington Church where there is a, fine monument in alabaster erected to his memory by
his nephews William and George representing him in armour, kneeling within a niche. Lady Norton was also buried
here where still remains a brass representing her sons by her side and a rhyming which speaks of her as John Cobham's
late and loving wife."
- James ("of Aldington") COBBES (Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) married Johanna LNU (COBBES)
and had the following children:
+32i. James COBBES.
- Richard COBBES (of Bilsington) (Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) married Elizabeth SCOTT.
- Martin COBBES (of Chilham) (Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) died in 1551.
Martin married a Miss CRESSY and had the following children:
+33i. Thomas COBBES (born between 1551 and 1554).
+34ii. Anne COBBES.
- Alexander COBBES (Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born about 1480 in Chislete, Reculver, Kent, England.
He signed a will on 7 April 1541. He died before 31 May 1541. His Will was probated on that date,
indicating he had passed since signing it on April 7.
Alexander, lived at Reculver, and his inheritance and ability brought him considerable
property. At the time of his death in 1541, he owned lands which extended from Reculver to Herne,
Whitstable, Swaycliffe and Sturry near Canterbury, which is called Rashbourn. His mansion as he
describes it, lay between Reculver and Hillborough and was called Bishopston.
The following is taken from Hasted's History of Kent: "The parish of Reculver is
low, marshy land, excepting towards the west, where May Street and the hamlet of Holsborough stand, the
latter in the road towards Hoath and Canterbury and a little northward from it, near the sea, Bishopstone,
once accounted a manor, which for many years was the seat and property of the family Cobbe who resided
here until the latter end of the last century (1676). Alexander Cobbe of Reculver died possessed of it
in 1541 and divided his mansion of Bishopston with its lands, and those at Old Hevyn to his son Robert
whose descendant Henry died seised of it in 1618. There is an entry of this branch of the Cobbe family
who lie buried in this Church in the Heralds Office book D 18, folio 144 b."
Extract of Last Will & Testament of Alexander Cobbes.
"ALEXANDER COBBE, yeoman.
7 April 1541. Buried beside the Palm cross in the churchyard of Reculver. At my burial in dirige and
masses for my soul and to poor people, 100s.
Son Richard have 150 wethers, 100 ewes, when he is twenty-one.
Daughters Margaret, Cristen, Agnes and Frideswide, £20 each at their marriage, but if any daughter
die, then Thomsine my wife have £5 to her own use, and £5 among the others.
To every child of my daughter Sawkyn, and of my daughter Knoller, 4 ewes each.
Residue of goods to wife Thomsine my ex'or.
That my mansion house called Bishopston with all its appurtenances and lands, also four acres of land at
Rushbourne yeate (sic), four acres at Holt Hill, a piece called Town-piece, three acres in a close called
Ewellscroft, two acres at Little Blakesham, one acre at Taylerscroft, one acre and a rood at the Crokydtree,
all my lands and tenements at Old Hevyn, and all lands in Well-lease otherwise Bogywell, with their
ppurtenances to son Richard and his heirs.
To my Sons Richard and Alexander, as much land in Rushbourne Marsh as will keep and feed yearly 150 sheep.
The tenement called Danys in Herne and all lands, etc., thereto in Reculver, with all my other lands and
tenements in Herne, to son Michell and his heirs; also as much land in Rushbourne Marsh as will keep
and feed yearly 50 sheep.
My tenement at Helbrough and other lands in Reculver to son Alexander, also all my land at Rushbourne in Sturrey.
Sons Michael and Alexander have all my lands and tenements in Whitstaple (sic) and Swayclif, and to their heirs.
That wife Thomasine have all my lands and tenements and the profits therefrom to her own use, until sons
be of full age of twenty-one years, and as every son comes to that age to have his share and pay to his
mother 40s. yearly.
Witnesses: Sir Alexander Bullok, clerk, Robert Seeth, John Cobbe, William Paramore. Probate 31 May 1541.”
Alexander COBBES and Thomasyn DEATH were married before 1520. She was the daughter of
John DEATH of Hearne, Kent. She was living in 1581 in Reculver Parish, Kent. She was named as Executrix of
her husband's Will in 1541. Alexander COBBES and Thomasyn DEATH had the following children:
+35i. Alexander COBBES (born before 1520).
+36ii. Michael COBBES (born before 1520).
37iii. Sawkyn COBBES was living in 1541.
The spelling of her name is taken directly from her father's Will of 1541. The wording of the instrument
lends the impression she was already married by that time.
38iv. Knoller COBBES was living in 1541.
The spelling of her name is taken directly from her father's Will of 1541. The wording of the instrument
lends the impression she was already married by that time.
+39v. Richard COBBES (born after 1520).
40vi. Margaret COBBES was living and named
as a beneficiary of her father's Will of 1541.
41vii. Cristen COBBES was living and named
as a beneficiary of her father's Will of 1541.
42viii. Agnes COBBES was living and named
as a beneficiary of her father's Will of 1541.
43ix. Frideswide COBBES was living and
named as a beneficiary of her father's Will of 1541.
- John COBBES (of Faversham) (Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born about 1482 in Chislete, Reculver Kent, England.
He was living in 1510. He was named in the Will of his mother in law Isabelle HAWLETT. Although he
relocated to Faversham, he retained control of the home at Eastleigh Court, until he gave it to his son Thomas.
John married Rose HAWLETT before 1510. She was the daughter of Nicholas and Isabelle HAWLETT
and was specifically named in her mother’s Will as the wife of John Cobbes.
The number of children actually produced from this marriage is difficult to determine. The only reference
available is the Last Will & Testament of Isabelle HAWLETT, mother of Rose. Only two children;
John "the younger" and Alice are specifically named. However the Will also states,
"every daughter of John Cobb" was to receive an inheritance. John and Rose had the following known children:
44i. Alice COBBES was born before 1510.
She was named as a beneficiary in the Will of her grandmother Isabelle HAWLETT.
45ii. John COBBES was born before 1510. He was named
as a beneficiary in the Will of his grandmother Isabelle HAWLETT.
+46iii. Thomas COBBES was not yet born when his
grandmother Isabelle HAWLETT made her Will in 1510.
Tenth Generation
- James COBBES (James-9, Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) died in 1587. James COBBES married.
Edith SMITH and had the following children:
+47i. William COBBES.
- Thomas COBBES (Martin-9, Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born between 1551 and 1554. He died in 1627 in
Chilham, Kent, England. Both he and his wife are buried at Chilham and their memorial stones show the Cobb arms.
Thomas became the owner of his wife’s (Payne) estate which remained in his family
from about 1575 until 1712 when it was sold to Thomas Belke. Thomas also inherited the lands at Bislington
from his father. They had been owned by his uncle, Richard, who died in 1557.
Thomas married Mary PAYNE. She was the daughter and heiress of William Payne of the Manor of Northbrookes,
at Oldwood Lees, sometimes called Old Wives Lees or Old Lees, about a mile east of Chilham, which is six miles
west of Canterbury. She is buried at Chilham with her husband. Thomas and Mary had the following children:
+48i. Jane COBBES.
+49ii. William COBBES (born in 1604).
- Anne COBBES (Martin-9, Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) married Thomas WILMOT (of Hythe, Kent).
- Alexander COBBES (Alexander-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born before 1520.
He was named as a beneficiary of his father's Will; and the impression is given that
he was already of legal age in 1541. This Alexander is mentioned in his father's will but his name has
not been recorded at the College of Arms.
Alexander married Agnes PEAKE. She was the daughter of Nicholas Peake, a juriat of Sandwich and Mayor in 1544 and 1553.
- Michael COBBES (Alexander-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born before 1520. He was named as a beneficiary of his father's
Will; and the impression is given that he was already of legal age in 1541.
Michael married Mary LEIGH in 1558. It is reported she was the daughter of Sir Thomas LEIGH,
Lord Mayor of London in 1558. However, this appears to be erroneous. An examination of the Leigh genealogy
does reflect a daughter Mary who married a Cobb; but one named Richard. Also, the daughter of Sir Thomas
would have been close to thirty years younger than this Michael Cobbes. Michael and Mary had the following children:
+50i. Thomasyn COBBES.
- Richard COBBES (Alexander-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born after 1520. He was referred to as being less
than 21 years of age in his father's Will of 1541. He signed a will on 26 February 1581. He died
before 30 June 1582 in Reculver Parish, Kent. His Will
was proved at Canterbury on that date.
Richard married Elizabeth LNU (COBBES) before 1561. He was still living in 1581.
Richard and Elizabeth had the following children:
+51i. Henry COBBES (born in 1561).
52ii. Alexander COBBES was born.
Alexander was a jurist of Sandwich and Mayor of that town in 1574. As a jurist he took some part in
the welcome accorded to Queen Elizabeth I when she visited Sandwich in 1573.
53iii. Richard COBBES
54iv. William COBBES
55v. Nicholas COBBES
56vi. Mary COBBES
57vii. Margaret COBBES
58viii. Elizabeth COBBES
59ix. Suzanna COBBES
60x. Thomasine COBBES
- Thomas COBBES (John-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5,
Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born after 1510 in Faversham, Kent. The exact
date of his birth can only be estimated. It is known he was not yet born at the time his
grandmother Isabelle HAWLETT made her Will in 1510. He died in 1599 in Eastleigh Court Lyminge, Kent.
He was buried in Faversham, Kent.
It is believed he married first Christina YOUNG on 21 January 1543 in
Chislete, Reculver, Kent, England. Her name is not confirmed; however it is known that
all of Thomas' children were by her. She died sometime after 1563. Thomas COBBES and
Christina YOUNG had the following children:
+61i. Edmund\Edward COBBES (born in 1560).
+62ii. Ambrose COBBES (born between 1563 and 1565).
+63iii. FNU COBBES. (a daughter)
Thomas married second Agnes MUSARED (of Thanet) in July 1579 in St. Nicholas
Church, Kent, England. She was the widow of William Musared whose Will was proved August 24, 1576,
in the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Canterbury. William and Agnes had two children; son Valentine
and daughter Margaret who married Edmund Cobbs, her step-brother.
From the time Thomas Cobbs married Agnes Musared, he was involved in one aggravating and troublesome
court action after another, right up to the time of his death. These suits seem to have stemmed from
debts Agnes had accumulated while still a widow. It seems she had failed to pay the Lord's rent on the
property she had inherited from her first husband, and had also accumulated additional unpaid debts.
Thomas did not think he should be held responsible for all her former accounts and refused to pay them.
Much litigation ensued, during which he won some cases and lost others.
All these legal problems caused a strain on the marriage. At one time, Thomas and Agnes were either living
with or visiting Ambrose Cobbs (son of Thomas by his first wife) at Eastleigh Court. Thomas had become
concerned about his estate and had determined to write his Will, a decision Agnes adamantly opposed. He
found it necessary to order her return to Faversham, after which he summoned a Notary Public and composed his Last Will and Testament.
Thomas died in 1599 at Lyminge, probably at Eastleigh Court. He left a sizeable estate, and was more than
generous to all his heirs. However, even though he had left Agnes well cared for, she contested the Will
and further litigation continued for several years. In the end, the Will of Thomas Cobbs was upheld.
Eleventh Generation
- William COBBES (James-10, James-9, Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was living in 1619, at
the time of the Herald's Visitation to Kent, and left three sons and one daughter.
William married Margaret PELHAM. She was the daughter of Sir Edmond Pelham,
Sergeant at law, and Chief Baron of the Exchequer of Ireland in the reign of King James I. William
and Margaret had the following children:
+64i. James COBBES.
65ii. Thomas COBBES
66iii. William COBBES
67iv. Margaret COBBES
- Jane COBBES (Thomas-10, Martin-9, Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) married first John Osborne,
who owned Nutts Manor. Her second marriage was to John Pettit, one of Queen Elizabeth's personal
servants; and who is buried with Jane at St. Peter and St. Paul, Boughton.
- William COBBES (Thomas-10, Martin-9, Thomas-8, Thomas-7, John-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born in 1604.
He died in 1626 in Chilham, Kent, England.
William married Mary BARHAM. She was the daughter of Arthur BARHAM. William and Mary had the following children:
68i. Thomas COBBES died in 1649.
69ii. Martin COBBES
70iii. Jane COBBES
71iv. Suzanna COBBES
72v. Maria COBBES
73vi. Elizabeth COBBES
74vii. Dorothy COBBES
- Thomasyn COBBES (Michael-10, Alexander-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) married Esquire Ralph BROOKE.
He was born in 1553. He died on 15 October 1625 in Hillsborough, Reculver, Kent.
Ralph BROOKE was a member of a Cheshire family and for some reason changed his name
from Brooksmouth to Brooke. He was born in 1553 and went to Merchant Taylors School in 1564 being
appointed first a Rouge Croix Pursuivant and later York Herald in 1593.
Ralph Brooke lived at Reculver and was buried there. 0n the South Wall of old Reculver Church was hung
his portrait showing him with a short trimmed beard in full Herald's ceremonials and under was inscribed:
"Here under, quiet from worldly miseries,
Ralph Brook Esquire, late York Herald lies,
Fifteenth of October he was last alive,
One thousand six hundred and twenty five,
Seventy three years bore he fortunes harms,
and forty five an officer of arms.
He married Thomasin, daughter of Michael Cobb of Kent,
Sargent at Arms, by who two daughters God him lent,
Surviving, Mary, William Dicken's wife,<
Thomasine, John Eaton's, Happy be their life."
Ralph Brook seems to have brought the records of the Cobbe family to date during
the Heralds Visitation in 1619 and it may be that he added a ducal coronet to the family crest,
with, no doubt, the consent of the family.
- Henry COBBES (Richard-10, Alexander-9, Thomas-8, John-7,
Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was
born in 1561 in Reculver Parish, Kent. He died in 1618 in Reculver Parish, Kent. He made his Will the previous year.
Henry married Pleasance REDWOOD. She was named as being deceased in the Will
of her brother John REDWOOD, dated April 16, 1633. Henry and Pleasance had the following children:
+75i. Benjamin COBB (born in 1584).
- Edmund\Edward COBBES (Thomas-10, John-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born in 1560 in Eastleigh
Court, Lyminge, Kent. He died between May 1602 and October 1602 in Faversham, Kent.
Between 1590-1602, Edmund was a member of the Common Council of Faversham.
Although married twice, it is believed he died without issue. This would indicate that his
younger brother Ambrose, came into possession of all the property that their father Thomas,
had bequeathed to Edmund... "All house and land... and all other of my houses and
lands in the Parish of Reculver and Herne, and also in Chislet in the County of Kent, and
also my tenement in Faversham... on West Street with grounds... I give and bequeath unto
Edmund Cobb, my son, to be had and holden to him... his natural life. And after his decease...
if he die without heirs... then, I will all my lands and tenements before mentioned shall
remain unto Ambrose Cobb, my son".
Edmund\Edward married first his step-sister Margaret MUSARED on 6 July 1584 in Lyminge, Kent.
She was the daughter of William and Agnes MUSARED. She died before 14 December 1594.
Edmund\Edward married second Ann ELFRITH on 14 December 1594. After his death she married one Henry Johnson.
- Ambrose COBBES (Thomas-10, John-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6,
Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born between 1563
and 1565 in Eastleigh Court, Lyminge, Kent. He died between 31 December 1605 and 26 March 1607 in Petham, Kent.
Ambrose signed a will on 31 December 1605/6. It was proved March 26, 1607,
indicating he had died during the interim. In it his three sons shared an inheritance per the
Kentish custom of "gavelkind", meaning all shared equally, without preference to the
eldest son. His brother in law, Stephen Hunt, was named Executor. He was buried in Petham, Kent.
He was the first in our lineage to be called "Ambrose", a name which has been repeated
so many times in America.
His sixth child was also named Ambrose, however this infant died within days of being born. To
continue the name in the family, the eighth child was also named Ambrose. And this child would
become our emigrant ancestor.
Ambrose Cobbs relocated from Eastleigh Court to Petham, about 1601. Quoting from "The Cobbs
of Tennessee", Ruralist Press; Atlanta,1968, " It is possible that while living at
Petham, Ambrose and his family lived on a tract of land there known as 'Great Cobbs'. This
tract contained 5 acres and was bounded in 1660 by lands of John Thompson to the north, south
and east and by the highway to the west, and another parcel of land called 'Little Cobbs' containing
2 acres bounded by the highway to the east, land late of William Crammer to the south and west, and
lands of John Thomsen (sic) to the north. The two tracts of land, Great Cobb and Little Cobb, were
across the highway from each other, making a total of 7 acres. This land was sold the first of June
1660 by John Hawked of Petham, yeoman, to John Thompson (sic).
Ambrose died at Eastleigh Court and was buried at Petham Parish, which is about six miles south-southwest
of Canterbury, near Faversham. In his Will he requested that his brother-in-law Stephen Hunt be the
sole executor. He also requested that Hunt be appointed the guardian of his minor children, a
responsibility which Hunt chose to reject. He petitioned the court to be excused from this duty,
and was relieved from that duty. It is not known if a replacement was appointed.
“THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF AMBROSE COBBS, OF EASTLEIGH COURT AND PETHAM:
In the name of God, Amen, the 31 December 1605/6. I, Ambrose Cobb(s) of Petham in the County of Kent
of perfect remembrance make my last will and testament in the manner and form following:
FIRST, I bequeath my soul to Christ, my Redeemer, and my body to be buried in Petham Churchyard.
ITEM: My will is that my Manor of Eastleigh Court with all services and appurtenances thereto belonging
in the County of Kent and all my land goods and chattels wheresoever shall be sold by my executor for
the payment of my debts and these my legacies following:
First, I give and bequeath of the premises 20 shillings unto the poor of the parish of Petham.
ITEM: I give unto my daughter, Susanna, three score pounds.
ITEM: I give unto my daughter, Rachel, 50 pounds.
ITEM: I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Elizabeth, 50 pounds.
ITEM: I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Jane, 50 pounds.
ITEM: I give and bequeath unto my son, Thomas, 120 pounds.
ITEM: My will is that the remnant of my goods, chattels and the price of my said manor and lands
with the appurtenances shall be equally divided between my other two sons, Edmund and Ambrose Cobb(s)
unto whom I give and bequeath it by even portions. And of this my last will and testament, I make
Stephen Hunt of Chislet, my brother-in-law, my sole executor and my daughter, Susanna, overseer.
In witness whereof to this my last will and testament I have set my hand seal and delivered the
same day above written in the presence of:
Ralph Bower,
Elizabeth Maxted (her mark),
Richard Stimson (his mark),
Elizabeth Gilven (her mark).
Signed: Ambrose Cobb(s) by his mark"
Ambrose married Angelica HUNT about 1584/85 in Kent. She died and was buried on 18 September 1603 in Petham, Kent.
Angelica Hunt had at least one brother, Stephen Hunt of Chislete. However, it is reported she had at least two others; the Reverend Robert Hunt who migrated to America on the original voyage to Jamestown, in 1607; and Thomas Hunt who arrived in Jamestown on the second supply ship in September 1608. Ambrose and Angelica had the following children:
76i. Susanna COBBS was born about 1586 in Eastleigh Court, Lyminge, Kent. She was christened on 27 November 1586 in Lyminge, Kent.
77ii. Rachel COBBS was born about 1588 in Eastleigh Court, Lyminge, Kent. She was christened on 19 November 1588 in Lyminge, Kent.
+78iii. Thomas COBBS (born about 1590).
79iv. Edmund COBBS was born about 1592 in Eastleigh Court, Lyminge, Kent. He was probably about 13 years of age when his father died in 1605. He was one of three sons to share gavelkind from his father's estate. He was eventually apprenticed to Thomas Pordag of Canterbury, and after completing his training, he became a "freeman" of Canterbury, on 28 Oct 1619, at Elmstone. He was successful at business and was the bondsman for the marriage of his sister Elizabeth, in 1619. He was a dealer of textiles and fabrics, especially silks. He probably died single without issue.
+80v. Elizabeth COBBS (born about 1594).
81vi. Ambrose COBBS was christened on 24 August 1595 in Lyminge, Kent. He was buried on 27 August 1595 in Eastleigh Court, Lyminge, Kent.
+82vii. Jane COBBS (born about 1597).
+83viii. Ambrose COBBS "the Emigrant" (born about 1603).
- FNU COBBES (Thomas-10, John-9, Thomas-8, John-7, Thomas-6, Edmund (Edward)-5, Edward (Edmund)-4, Richard-3, John-2, Henry-1) was born. The will of Thomas Cobb indicates he had a daughter, given name unknown, who married one Richard Tylman of Faversham. This based on the fact that Thomas bequeathed to each of Richard Tylman's children 20 shillings; the same amount he had bequeathed to each of the children of Ambrose Cobb. This indicates that the Tylman children were Thomas Cobb's grandchildren.