Richard Cobbold was the son of the poet Elizabeth Cobbold, the next-to-youngest of her twenty-one children. He studied at Bury St. Edmunds and Caius College Cambridge (B.A.1820; M.A. 1823). After serving as a curate in his native Ipswich he was Rector of Wortham, Suffolk for half a century. Cobbold published poems, novels, sermons, and devotional works, some with his own illustrations. His novel Margaret Catchpole (1845) was a popular success.
TEXT RECORDS:
1827Christmas Day, 1826.
1827The Midnight Tale.
PUBLICATIONS:
Original, serious, and religious poetry. 1827.
Valentine verses: or lines of truth, love, and virtue, with illustrations. 1827.
A sermon preached ... to ... St Mary Tower Church, Ipswich. 1829.
The spirit of the litany of the Church of England. 1833.
Men and women. 1843.
The history of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk girl, with illustrations. 3 vols, 1845.
Mary Ann Wellington: the soldier's daughter, wife, and widow. 3 vols, 1846.
Zenon the Martyr: a record of the piety, patience, and persecution of the early Christian nobles. 3 vols, 1847.
The young man's home, or the penitent returned: a narrative of the present day. 3 vols, 1848.
The bottle, or Cruikshank illustrated: a poem. 1848.
The character of woman: a lecture delivered April 1848. nd.
A voice from the Mount, or pastoral letters. 1848.
A sermon preached at St. Clement's East Cheap. 1849.
The comforter; or short addresses from the Book of Job. 1850.
A father's legacy to his children. The Proverbs of Solomon in prose and verse. 1850.
Freston Tower: or the early days of Cardinal Wolsey, with illustrations. 3 vols, 1850.
Courtland: a novel. 3 vols, 1852.
The union child's belief: being a series of letters upon the creed. 1855.
John H. Steggall: a real history of a Suffolk man. 1857.
Canticles of life. 1858.
Geoffrey Gambado: or a simple remedy for hypochondriacism and melancholy. 1865.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Bury St. Edmunds
Gonville and Caius College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
clergyman
painter
novelist
poet
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd ed).
"Extraordinary Talents Discovered" [Cobbold and John Cordingley] St. James's Chronicle (3 February 1827); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (1892-1921); bibliography in M. Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction (1951); C. R. Johnson, Provincial Poetry 1789-1839 (1992); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. Richard Cobbold:
1. | 1827 Anonymous, Review of Cobbold, Valentine Verses, Literary Magnet NS 3 (1827) 248. |
2. | 1828 Anonymous, in New Monthly Magazine NS 24 (December 1828) 557. |
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. Richard Cobbold:
1. | 1825 Laetitia Jermyn, Memoir in Elizabeth Cobbet, Poems (1825) 8-9. |
2. | 1892 Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (1892-1921) 1:659. |