COBBE, Clement (aft.1527-?74), of Rye, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1572

Family and Education

b. aft. 1527, s. and h. of Clement Cobbe of Brenzett, Kent and Rye by his w. Joan. m. Mary. suc. fa. 1557.

Offices Held

Freeman, Rye 1564, jurat, mayor 1566-7; brodhull rep. 1567.

Biography

Next to nothing has been discovered about the Cobbe family of Brenzett in Romney Marsh, apart from the information contained in the will of Clement Cobbe, senior. On his death in 1557 he left part of his property in trust until his son and namesake reached the age of 30, when he would receive four buildings and two gardens. Meanwhile he was to be paid £3 6s.8d. a year. He was to inherit other property on the death of his mother, including a house and land at Brenzett.

Cobbe was returned to Parliament at a time when Rye was experiencing foreign competition, and he and his colleague were instructed

to have conference with the residue of the barons of the Ports, and also with the burgesses of Yarmouth and knights of the shires where are fisher towns ... for the drawing of a bill to be exhibited this Parliament for the maintenance of the fishermen of this realm and avoiding of strangers fishermen.

If he was the ‘Mr. Cobbe’ who gave evidence to the House on the bill for the Earl of Kent on 9 June 1572, it might be guessed that he had had some legal training. In 1573 the Privy Council ordered the Rye authorities to hand over a sum of £200 which a French merchant had given them. The port refusing to comply, Cobbe and other townsmen rode to the lord warden at Cobham Hall to seek his advice. The chamberlain’s accounts show expenses incurred by the party at Cranbrook, where they stopped overnight, and at Cobham and Rochester. Another entry in the town records shows Cobbe taking depositions from suspected pirates in April 1572. He was dead by 3 July 1574, when Robert Carpenter replaced him as burgess, and his will was proved in the archidiaconal court at Lewes.

W. Holloway, Hist Rye, 198; L. A. Vidler, New Hist. Rye, 160; E. Suss. RO, Rye mss; PCC 24 Wrastley; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 16, 18-19, 23; Trinity, Dublin, Thos. Cromwell's jnl. f. 59; archdeaconry of Lewes, wills bk. A6/333.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: M.R.P.

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.