Author: Cobbold, Richard
Biography:
COBBOLD, Richard (1797-1877: ODNB)
He was born to John Cobbold, a prosperous Ipswich brewer, and his second wife, Elizabeth Clark (born Knipe, q.v.), on 9 Sept. 1797. Edward Cobbold was his brother and Robert Henry Cobbold was a nephew (qq.v.). He was baptised at St. Margaret’s church on 8 Nov. 1797. He was educated privately; at King Edward VI school in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk; and at Paston grammar school in North Walsham, Suffolk. Paston had links with Gonville and Gaius college, Cambridge, and Cobbold was admitted there on 28 June 1814 (BA 1820, MA 1823). He was ordained a deacon in 1820 and a priest in 1821 before being appointed a stipendiary curate at St. Mary-le-Tower in Ipswich where his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Cobbold, was the incumbent. On 27 Nov. 1822 he married Mary Anne Waller in All Saints church, Hollesley, Suffolk; she may have been a relation through his grandmother whose surname at birth was Waller. They had three sons. Cobbold became the rector of Wortham, Suffolk, in 1824 (the living, like that of his brother Edward, was a gift from his father) and remained there for the rest of his life. He was an artist and prolific writer both of verse and of novels with his best-known being The History of Margaret Catchpole, A Suffolk Girl (1848). He was also involved with the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution and his lecture “The Character of Woman” was given in London and later published (1848) to benefit the organisation. He died at Wortham on 5 Jan. 1877 and was buried in the churchyard of his church after a funeral with “an immense concourse of persons.” He has not been forgotten in Wortham: the town held a festival to celebrate him in Sept. 1998. (ODNB 17 Jan. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 17 Jan. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 17 Jan. 2024; Ipswich Journal 13 Jan. 1877; Diss Express 25 Sept. 1998; Cobbold Family History Trust at cobboldfht.com 17 Jan. 2024)