MONUMENT TO ALICE COBB and family 1627
| Month: | May 2023 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Mixed |
| Era: | 17th Century |
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St Bartholomew’s Church
Church Square, Corsham, Wiltshire SN13 0BY
More about this monument
This striking monument to a wealthy Corsham widow has had a particularly difficult time: evicted to the churchyard, stored in a cellar, it has now been reconstructed but still presents some puzzles.
Serendipity has played a big role in preserving this monument. Originally erected in front of the sedilia in the church of St Mary the Virgin, Adderbury (Oxfordshire), this substantial monument was disassembled and ejected into the churchyard in 1837. There it languished until 1879, when it was gifted to Lord Methuen of Corsham Court; he was a lineal descendent of Alice Cobb (Alice’s great‑great granddaughter married Paul Methuen in 1749). The pieces were stored in a cellar until 1899, when they were reassembled in the Methuen chapel, which was added to the church in 1879, under the direction of Sir Harold Brakspear. His comments on the monument can hardly be bettered, “As no drawing of the monument is known the present structure was formed merely to include all the fragments that remained and does not in any way claim to be a restoration of the original.” (Brakspear 1924, 59)
As was generally the norm with this type of work, the monument comprises a large basement with an inscription across its top. Above this section are two square compartments, set within which are the fragmentary remains of Alice Cobb on the left, with behind her a damaged figure, likely of her son William Cobb. To the right are some of her sixteen children, presenting us here with four of her daughters. Capping the entire edifice is a large armorial display set within scrollwork, with obelisks to either side, the whole carved in alabaster of various hues. Eighteen displays of armorial bearings can be seen across the entirety of the monument, but to whom all of these relate is a puzzle, for many have lost much of their original detail and tinctures. Nevertheless, it is evident that most – if not all – were the armorial bearings of members of the Cobb family, both male and female.
The inscription reads as follows: ‘HEARE LYETH BURIED THE BODIE OF ALICE COBB, WYDOW, SOMETYME WYFE OF WILLIAM COBB ESQR, DESENDED FROM THE ANCIENT FAMILY OF THE COBBS OF SANDRINGHAM, IN THE COUNTY OF NORFFOLKE, BY WHOME SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF 16 CHILDREN; 7 SONS AND 9 DAUGHTERS, ALL WHICH SHE LIVED TO SEE BURIED BUT 3 ONELY. THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL SR WILLIAM COBB, KNIGHT, HER ONELY SONNE, & DAME CATHERINE, WHOE MARYED TO SR GEORGE RUSSELL, OF BEDFOR SHIER, KNIGHT, & DAME MARGARETT, WHO MARYED TO SR RICHARD CHOMLEY, OF YORKSHIRE, KNIGHT. SHE LIVED A MADE 19 YEARES, & AWIFE 26 YEARES, & AFTER HER HUSBANDS DEATH, WHOE DESECED IN OCTOBER AO 1598, SHE LIVED A WIDOW 30 YEARES, HAVINGE PERFORMED THE PARTE BOTH OF A CONSTANT LOVINGE WIFE, & A KINDE & CAREFULL MOTHER, RESTINGE NOW WITH THE ALMIGHTIE WHOME HER GREATEST CARE WAS EVER TO SERVE & FEARE. SHEE DIED THE 23 OF OCTOBER AO DM 1627.’
Alice Cobb’s indicated in her will her desire ‘to be buried in her parish near her late husband’. There is no mention of the monument in her will, which it is suggested was commissioned by her son and heir, William Cobb.
Something of a problem is to account for the numbers of figures presented here. The inscription tells us Alice Cobb was survived only by her son and two of her daughters, yet the monument apparently shows four daughters, whilst the remnant piece of sculpture alongside Alice apparently represents her son, to judge by the detail of the costume. Alice’s will mentioned several grandchildren, who quite evidently were children of her deceased daughters. Five grand-children from a marriage to a Mr Stone are left bequests. Later in the will Nicholas Barnesty and his son Charles are named, who was left a bequest. It would therefore appear that the additional weepers represent Alice’s daughters, who had married Stone and Barnesty, and who had both died before 1627.
The monument is, overall, in reasonably good shape but it is very dirty, especially so all the kneeling figures, which are both very dusty as well as covered in a layer of grime. It is quite probable that the tinctures on this monument have not been touched in the years following its installation in Adderbury church in c.1630. Nevertheless, it is possible to glimpse through the grime enticing traces of colouring on faces and hands, of hair, the gold on the chains, and the colouring of the cushions on which the ladies kneel. Even so, it may be a blessing that it remains untouched, for many another setting has been dreadfully repainted in shocking colours.
The extent to which Brakspear introduced new stonework into this monument is unknown, apparently no records remain of his work on this setting. However, it seems probable that some of the stonework, especially in the central section of the monument, was introduced by him. The unadorned central pillar perhaps suggests that this and other sections of very clean stone, likely to be Bath limestone, was intruded to create a completed setting.
The whole setting stands 4.10 metres high, by 2.5 metres wide. The figures are contained in compartments that are 0.83 metres high by 0.7 metres wide.
Nicholas Riall
References
Cf 341 in CB Newham’s book, Country Church Monuments, which catches the east corner of the Cobb monument.
TNA Prob 11/152/445 Will of Alice Cobb, Widow of Saint Michael Bassilaw, City of London, 10 October 1627.
Brakspear, H. 1924, The Church of St Bartholomew at Corsham in Wiltshire, Simpson: Devizes
Knubley, Canon E P, ‘The Society’s MSS. Abstracts of Deeds relating to the family of Methuen at Bradford, Corsham, Melksham, Chitterne and Beckington’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, vol 43, 1926, 401-431.
