The Archive

T H E C O B B S O F K E N T

Foreword

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.

Table of Contents

Chapter I — The Newchurch Cobbes

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 were 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 battle 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 intent 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

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

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

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.

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 was 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.

Richard 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 knovm 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:

"The laws of wreck, prize and salvage are frequently 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 or 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, who 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 remainder 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 should thereby be excluded."

There can be little doubt that the present holder of the post of Warden¹ would have given a similar guarantee.

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 Archaeologia 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 Cobbe, 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'."

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 jurists on interview with John Cobbe as to certain dam ordered to be made at Stonebridge by the Jurists 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 shirps 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 "History 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

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

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, 1500³ 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.

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

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

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

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.

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"

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.

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,

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

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 Lees¹, 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, the Revd. 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 75² 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.

Chapter IV — The Reculver Cobbes

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.

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

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, Mayor accompanied

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."

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.

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,

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 I¹ 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

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 Hillborough Church, when Reculver Church 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

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 Gavelkind 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. (Archaeologia Cantiana Vol 41)

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

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&wuot;, 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."

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

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:

"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.