_Richard COBBS ______+
                                            | (1300 - 1348)       
                       _Edward COBBES ______|
                      | (1387 - 1417)       |
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 _Edmund COBBES ______|
| (.... - 1418)       |
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|
|--John COBBES 
|  (1401 - 1472)
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|_____________________|
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                      |                      _____________________
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                      |_____________________|
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[N2770] "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'."

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.

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:

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 Newchurch 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."

[N2771] The oldest son and heir of Edmund Cobbs, his was the right to continue carrying the title Esquire. He was still living at Cobbs 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.

" 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." (rsc)

"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 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."