Richard Cobbold (1797 – 5 January 1877) was a British writer.

Life

Richard Cobbold was born in 1797 in the

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

town of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, to John (1746–1835) and the poet and writer Elizabeth (née Knipe) Cobbold (1764–1824). The Cobbolds were a large and affluent family who made their money from the brewing industry. Educated at

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, Cobbold entered the church, starting at

St Mary-le-Tower St Mary-le-Tower is the civic church of Ipswich and a Grade II* listed building. It was in the churchyard of St Mary that the town charter of Ipswich was written in 1200. History Although medieval, the church mostly dates from 1860 to 1870, wh ...

before moving to Wortham in 1825 with his wife and three sons. He remained there until his death on 5 January 1877. Cobbold is best known as the author of the ''History of

Margaret Catchpole Margaret Catchpole (14 March 1762 – 13 May 1819) was a Suffolk servant girl, chronicler and deportee to Australia. Born in Suffolk, she worked as a servant in various houses before being convicted of stealing a horse and later escaping from Ips ...

'', a novel based on the romantic adventures of a woman living in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, in whom Cobbold's father had taken a kindly interest. For the copyright of this book he is said to have received £1,000. However Cobbold did not make much money by his other literary ventures, which were mostly undertaken for charitable purposes. Thus his account of ''Mary Ann Wellington'' brought in no less than £600, much of it in small gifts, for the subject of the book, who was afterwards placed in an almshouse by Cobbold's exertions.

Family

In 1822, he married the only daughter of Jeptha Waller, by whom he had three sons. One of the sons, Edward Augustus (born 1825), became vicar of the neighbouring parish of Yaxley, and another Thomas Spencer, a leading parasitologist. Parish, W.D. ''List of Carthusians, 1800–1879'' p.51

Legacy

During his time at Wortham, more significantly, he recorded the daily lives of his various parishioners, both in words and pictures. His four volumes eventually found a home at the Suffolk Record Office, and have become an invaluable source of information about everyday life in the countryside at that time. In 1977 a book entitled ''The Biography of a Victorian Village'' was published, in which Ronald Fletcher presents Richard Cobbold's account of 1860s Wortham.

Work

Cobbold achieved considerable success with his popular historical novels which include: *''The History Of Margaret Catchpole: A Suffolk Girl'' (1845) *''Mary Anne Wellington: The Soldier's Daughter, Wife and Widow'' (1846) *''Zenon The Martyr: A Record of the Piety, Patience and Persecution of the Early Christian Nobles'' (1847) *''Freston Tower: A Tale of the Times of Cardinal Wolsey'' (1850) *''The Young Man's Home'' (1848) *''JH Stegall, a Real History of a Suffolk Man'' (1851) *''The Biography Of A Victorian Village – Wortham'' (1860) *''Cobbold's Wortham - The Portrait of a Victorian Village'' (2019) Edited by Sue Heaser - Publication of Cobbold's watercolours and notes of Wortham 1860.

Adaptations

*''The History Of Margaret Catchpole: A Suffolk Girl'' became the 1887 play ''An English Lass'' by

Alfred Dampier Alfred Dampier (28 February 1843? 1847? – 23 May 1908) was an English-born actor-manager and playwright, active in Australia.John Rickard,Dampier, Alfred (1843–1908), ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol. 4, Melbourne University Pres ...

and C.H. Krieger, which formed the basis for the film ''

The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole ''The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole'', generally referred to as ''Margaret Catchpole'', is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and starring Lottie Lyell. It is based on the true story of Margaret Catchpole, an advent ...

'' (1912)

References

;Attribution

External links

* * * Richard Cobbold
''The Character of Woman''
London 1848, PDF * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbold, Richard 1797 births 1877 deaths Writers from Ipswich Richard Cobbold Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge English male novelists 19th-century English novelists 19th-century English male writers