"sanguine vita" Down through the ages our surname has had numerous variations in spelling. My grandfather told me one story that his grandfather decided there were more than one Cobb so the name should have an "s" added to make it plural. We will follow Mike Cobb's format:

• The early British born generations are spelled COBBES.
  
• The early American born generations are spelled COBBS.
  
• The modern international spelling is COBB unless otherwise noted, as several branches of the family, including ours, still spell the name COBBS.

We want to recognize the efforts of Mike Cobbs and all the File Managers of the Cobb and Cobbs site, without whose effort very little would be known about our family and its history. Mike connected with Alexander Robert Cobb, the grandson of Robert Stanley Cobb, who provided his grandfather's genealogical work on the Cobb history in Britain. We have borrowed much from these works to make our files here for you to use. We strongly recommend that you visit Cobb and Cobbs to see the whole story. The first Cobb from County Kent, England, to be recorded in the College of Heralds was the man known to genealogists as John Cobb of Kent (c1324). His American descendants are all from the line of Ambrose Cobb, who arrived in Virginia, in 1635. Researchers have been trying for generations to identify John’s father. Although the most likely answer has been known for almost a decade, a challenge has been presented within the last two years. On the one hand is the claim that John’s father was one Walter Cobbe. On the other hand we have a claim that John’s father was a man named Henry Cobb. Read more about The Hoax. We have the work done by Robert Stanley Cobbs, MC, FRIBA, who in the 1950's began to research the Cobbs in Kent, England. He published this work for his family, not intending it to be a source document for others but, it is a great reference for those descended from Ambrose Cobbs here in the United States. You can begin your search with the Cobbs of Kent or start with the Ambrose "the Emigrant". Chapter IV

 

The Reculver Cobbes

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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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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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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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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.