Category: cobbwebs-news-and-views

A chance stumble upon ‘Cobboldites’ in Wikipedia tells us that it “is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine anthropods, the trilobites.  It lived during the Botomian stage, which lasted from approximately 524 to 518.5 million years ago.  This faunal stage was part of the Cambrian Period”.

What it didn’t say, but which it probably true, is that it was named after Edgar Sterling Cobbold, D.Sc. FGS (1851-1936) the internationally respected amateur geologist whose collection of specimens was split between the British Museum, the Sedgwick in Cambridge and the Geological Survey in Kensington.

Edgar is #250 on the family tree.

It is doubtful whether such an adventure-packed life could be recorded in two books, let alone one.  It is not the Trust’s intention to try but we are avid collectors of all things related to his quite extraordinary life.  Amongst many other items we hold his book Innermost Asia (1900) and a copy of his Papers housed in the Yale University Library.  Anecdotal evidence suggests a colourful lifestyle which earned him the sobriquet ‘Wicked Ralph’ and tinges we straight-laced males with not a little touch of jealousy!

A page from The Graphic dated 8^th April 1899 was acquired recently and gives us a taste of his experiences.

“Mr R P Cobbold is an English traveller who has just returned from a thirteen month journey in the Pamirs, during which he was arrested and detained for three weeks by the Russians, and was finally escorted by Cossacks across the Chinese frontier.  Mr Cobbold visited several districts never before explored by Englishmen, and brings back with him, in addition to a fine photographic collection, much valuable geographical and political data.

It was while shooting in the Central provinces of India that he decided to go on an expedition to the Pamirs, and, visiting Kashgar and Yarkand, to make on the spot an inquiry into the condition of British trade in Chinese Turkestan.  Mr Cobbold was arrested on the Bokharan frontier and detained until the commandant of the Pamirs district personally visited him.  Finally he was given the option of remaining where he was, pending receipt of instructions from Marghilan or being escorted to the nearest point on the Chinese frontier.  Preferring this to another month’s delay he consented, and after three weeks’ detention left with an escort of four Cossacks, and was released without a word of explanation.

Throughout the whole of Russian Turkestan, the tribesmen firmly believe in a coming conflict between the Power advancing from the south and the one marching from the north.  This was a matter of common talk, and the natives always expressed the hope that one day they would come under British rule.  In Chinese Turkestan, too, Mr Cobbold said the Russians were extremely active.  He heard a good deal of the Sarikol question while he was in the province.

The Russian Consul at Kashgar discussed the question with him quite openly and said the British Government would not consider it worth while to protest, and added that in a short time the whole of Chinese Turkestan would be absorbed by Russia.  ‘Whatever’, said Mr Cobbold in reply to questions, ‘may be the views of the Imperial Government of St Petersburg, no traveller in these regions can ignore the fact that the Russian officials in Central Asia would eagerly welcome orders for an advance’.”

Ralph Patteson Cobbold assumed the additional name and arms of Sawle by Royal Licence in 1932.  He is #316 on the family tree.

The majority of family members shown on our interactive family tree share a common ancestor in the form of ‘big’ John Cobbold (1745-1835). He was the grandson of the founder of the brewery, inherited the business when he was only 22 years old and added to its prosperity enormously. The high regard in which he was held for his business acumen was only exceeded by envy for his philoprogenitive capacity which gave us 15 ancestors by his first wife and another 7 by his second.

One day an email arrived from a collector in New Zealand saying that he had in his collection a mourning ring inscribed “Sarah Cobbold ob 30 July 1777 ae 60”. Did we know who this was, he asked. Well, we most certainly knew that it was none other than ‘big’ John’s mother and to cut a long story and a protracted negotiation short the Trust has acquired the ring.

When it arrived it was clearly a lady’s ring so we fell to wondering who might have worn it. On the assumption that it will have been made and worn immediately after the death there are relatively few candidates. ‘Big’ John’s first wife Elizabeth (née Wilkinson 1753-1790) is a possible but much more likely is one of his two living sisters, either Sarah (1744-1839) who married William Rout of Stowmarket or Mary (1750-1832) who was married to Rev George Routh, who was Rector of St Clements and St Helens at that time.

Mary’s candidacy would seem to be slightly enhanced by the fact that her father, Thomas (1708-1767), the 2^nd generation brewer had been the first to occupy the family tomb in St Clements having been laid there beneath a stone declaring him ‘Common Brewer’ only 10 years previously. Of course the term ‘Common Brewer’ did not have the derogative overtones that it carries today; it simply indicated that he supplied beer to other pubs as well as his own.

The ring is gold and carries 21 small diamonds around a glass oval in front of what would have been either a picture or a lock of hair had not some decay occurred. It appears that it would not be difficult to open the ring to see whether a DNA sample could be obtained.

In October 2011 The Daily Telegraph carried the story of a mourning ring being restored to its rightful owners (the Hare family in Norfolk) after an absence of 180 years. Our score is 234!

Sarah is #45 on the family tree.

Gordon was born in West London and went to Westminster School. Cobbold major did not shine in the classroom except perhaps in Maths, but on the athletics track, the football field, the rackets court and the shooting range he demonstrated a will to win that was to determine the rest of his life.