_Robert COBB ________+
| (.... - 1876) m 1661
_Robert COBB ________|
| (1672 - 1727) m 1696|
| |_Mary HUNT __________+
| (1639 - 1684) m 1661
_Benjamin COBB ______|
| (1709 - 1757) m 1742|
| | _____________________
| | |
| |_Katherine CURTEIS __|
| (1676 - 1751) m 1696|
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Benjamin COBB
| (1753 - 1835)
| _____________________
| |
| _Allen GREBELL ______|
| | (.... - 1742) |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Catherine GREBELL __|
(1722 - 1785) m 1742|
| _____________________
| |
|_____________________|
|
|_____________________
[N2848]
From "The Cobbs of Kent, 1260-1910", by R.S. Cobb.
" 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."
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."
[N2847] She died without issue.