Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/152

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Cobbold
146
Cobbold

at Liverpool, and also by subscription, 'The Sword, or Father Bertrand's History of his own Times,' a novel, in 2 vols. She lost her first husband, Clarke, six months after their marriage. In 1792 she married John Cobbold of the Cliff Brewery, Ipswich, a widower of considerable property, with fourteen children. Mrs. Cobbold had six sons and one daughter by her second husband; but she was indefatigable with her pen and her pencil, and her hospitalities and charities, both at The Cliff and Holy wells, her subsequent residence. In 1800, under the pseudonym of Carolina Petty Pasty, she published 'The Mince Pye,' a poetical skit, the frontispiece to which is a portrait of Mrs. Glasse, from Mrs. Cobbold's own hand. In 1803 she edited the poems of 'The Suffolk Cottager,' Ann Candler [q. v.], prefixing a memoir to them; and having commenced some noted valentine parties about 1806, she published sets of these, as 'Cliff Valentines,' in 1813 and 1814, followed by an 'Ode to Waterloo' in 1815. She established a clothing society for infant poor in 1812, a charitable bazaar in 1820, and she was a frequent contributor to such periodicals as 'The Chaplet,' Raw's 'Ladies' Fashionable Repository,' &c.

Mrs. Cobbold wrote a monodrama, 'Cassandra,' performed by Miss Macauley at what was then called the European Saloon, King Street, St. James's; and she wrote an address for Miss Goward (afterwards Mrs. Robert Keeley), the singer, on her appearance at the Ipswich theatre, the vocalist's talent having been discovered and fostered by her. Mrs. Cobbold died on 17 Oct. 1824. In 1825 many of her fugitive pieces were collected and published at Ipswich in two editions, the large size embellished with her own drawings. For this volume of 'Poems' a memoir was written by Lætitia Jermyn; and the large copies have portraits of the poetess and Mr. Cobbold. Mrs. Cobbold helped Sir W. Smith over his 'Flora Anglica,' and Sowerby named a shell after her, the Nucula Cobboldice.

[Poems, 1825 (large ed.), the Memoir affixed, et infra; The Mince Pye, by Carolina Petty Pasty.]

J. H.


COBBOLD, JOHN SPENCER (1768–1837), divine, son of the Rev. Thomas Cobbold, was born at Occold, Suffolk, on 24 July 1768. He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, of which he was elected a fellow. He graduated B.A. as seventh wrangler in 1790, M.A. in 1793. About 1794 he accepted the mastership of the free school at Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He next became curate to his father at Wilby, Suffolk. In 1805 he removed to Woolpit, in the same county, as his father's curate, and on the decease of his father in 1831 he became the rector of that parish, where he spent the remainder of his life. He also held the vicarage of Shelland, Suffolk, to which he was instituted in 1793. He died at Woolpit on 3 April 1837 (Ipswich Journal, 15 April 1837, 25 Aug. 1838).

In addition to several detached sermons, he published:

  1. 'An Essay tending to show in what sense Jesus Christ "hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,"' Ipswich, 1793, 8vo.
  2. 'An Essay tending to show the advantages which result to Revelation from its being conveyed to us in the form of History,' Coventry, 1797, 8vo (Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.)

Both these essays gained the Norrisian prize.

[Authorities cited above; also Graduati Cantab, ed. 1856, p. 81; Davy's Athenæ Suffolcienses, iii. 246; Gent. Mag. new ser. vii. 665.]

T. C.

COBBOLD, RICHARD (1797–1877), novelist, born in 1797 at Ipswich, the youngest but one of twenty-one children, was the son of John Cobbold of Holywells and the Cliff Brewery, Ipswich, by his second wife, Elizabeth [see Cobbold, Elizabeth], daughter of Robert Knipe of Liverpool. His grandmother on the maternal side, whose maiden name was Waller, was descended from Edmund Waller, the poet. The literary tastes of his mother probably had some influence upon the son. Richard was educated at Bury St. Edmunds under Charles the father of Bishop Blomfield, and proceeded to Caius College, Cambridge, where he gained a scholarship and graduated in 1820. After serving as curate in Ipswich he became rector of Wortham (which he held for half a century) and rural dean of Hartismere. Here he developed into a typical country parson, would ride across country at times with the hounds, and was a keen sportsman with rod and gun. For several years he acted as chaplain to the union, only asking as stipend that the children with their master and mistress should attend the Sunday services at his church. In 1822 he married the only daughter of Jeptha Waller, by whom he had three sons, one of them being the celebrated helminthologist, Thomas Spencer Cobbold, M.D. [q. v.] Cobbold is best known as the author of the 'History of Margaret Catchpole,' a novel based on the romantic adventures of a girl living in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, in whom Cobbold's father had taken a kindly interest [see Catchpole, Margaret]. For the copyright of this book he is said to have received 1,000l. but Cobbold did not make much money by his other literary ventures, which were mostly undertaken for charitable purposes. Thus his