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The Cobbold family became influential in Ipswich and Suffolk in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The family is best known for brewing, moving its operations from Harwich to Ipswich in 1746, and as the driving force behind Ipswich Town Football Club, both as an amateur and professional team. During its Victorian heyday, the family also had interests in shipping, the railways and banking.
Beyond the family's commercial interests in Suffolk, Cobbolds and their kin found success and influence on a much wider stage in almost every sphere of human endeavour, including the arts, the sciences, religion, sport, military service, and public and political service both at home and across the British Empire.
48 Cobbolds were killed across the two World Wars.[1]
The Cobbold Family History Trust, a registered charity, holds and maintains a large archive of the family and its associated families. Its interactive family tree bears more than 15,000 entries.[2] The archive resides at Knebworth House, the home of Henry Lytton Cobbold, 3rd Baron Cobbold, and is held under the umbrella of Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust (KHEPT).[3]
Thomas Cobbold (1680-1752), a maltster, founded a brewery at King's Quay Street, Harwich in 1723. The brackish water of the coastal town compromised the quality of his beer. To improve it, in 1741, Thomas rented land at Holy Wells (now Holywells), Ipswich, to secure access to its natural spring and began transporting this water to his Harwich brewery by schuyt.[4] In 1746, the family's brewing operations moved to Ipswich, when Thomas purchased land at the Cliff beside the River Orwell below the springs at Holy Wells, and built the Cliff Brewery there. The move was overseen by Thomas' son, Thomas (1708-1767). Workings were constructed to channel the spring waters from Holy Wells directly into the brewery.[5]
The rapid expansion of Ipswich during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and the establishment of a garrison in the town in 1793[6] increased the market for Cobbold ale. Third-generation brewer, John Cobbold (1746-1835) took full advantage, acquiring several old Tudor properties in the town and the surrounding area which he converted to pubs.[7] John also bought Pitt's Farm adjacent to the springs at Holy Wells to tighten his grip on the supply of water and, in 1814, he moved his family into the old farmhouse which he had renovated and extended. John's second wife, Elizabeth (née Knipe) chose the name Holywells for the new home.[8]
The brewery continued to thrive under the stewardship of John's son, John Wilkinson Cobbold (1774-1860) and grandson, John Chevallier Cobbold, MP (1797–1882) as the family diversified into shipping, the railways and banking. In 1896, seventh-generation brewer, John Dupuis Cobbold (1861-1929), demolished the original brewery, replacing it with a state-of-the-art building to increase productivity by employing new technologies.[9] The new Cliff Brewery remains an imposing landmark on Ipswich's foreshore.
- William Cobbold (1560-1639), composer
- Thomas Cobbold (1680–1752), 1st generation brewer
- Thomas Cobbold (1708-1767), 2nd generation brewer
- John Cobbold (1746-1835), 3rd generation brewer and businessman
- Elizabeth Cobbold (1765–1824), patron of the Arts
- John Wilkinson Cobbold (1774-1860), 4th generation brewer and businessman
- John Chevallier Cobbold, MP (1797–1882), 5th generation brewer, businessman and politician
- Richard Cobbold (1797-1877), novelist, illustrator, Rector of Wortham
- Thomas Spencer Cobbold, FRS (1828-1886), helminthologist
- John Patteson Cobbold, MP (1831–1875), 6th generation brewer and politician
- Thomas Clement Cobbold, MP (1833-1883), politician and diplomat
- Felix Thornley Cobbold, MP (1841-1909), politician, agriculturist and philanthropist
- Edgar Sterling Cobbold, FGS (1851-1936), geologist
- John Dupuis Cobbold (1861-1929), 7th generation brewer
- William Nevill Cobbold (1863-1922), England footballer
- Zainab Cobbold (1867–1963), countrywoman, traveller and writer
- Ralph Patteson Cobbold (1869-1965), British Army officer and explorer
- John Murray Cobbold (1897-1944), 8th generation brewer, British Army officer and chairman of Ipswich Town FC
- Cameron Cobbold, 1st Baron Cobbold (1904–1987), Governor of the Bank of England, Lord Chamberlain
- John Cavendish Cobbold (1927–1983), brewer and chairman of Ipswich Town FC
- Patrick Cobbold (1934–1994), chairman of Ipswich Town FC
- David Lytton Cobbold, 2nd Baron Cobbold (1937-2022), banker
- Richard Cobbold (1942-2022), Rear Admiral, Royal Navy, and Director of Royal United Services Institute
- Peter Cobbold (1946-2021), geologist
- Marika Cobbold (1956-), writer
- Henry Lytton Cobbold, 3rd Baron Cobbold (1962-), screenwriter
The family has owned Glemham Hall in Little Glemham, Suffolk, since 1923.[10] It was offered for sale with Strutt & Parker in 2024, for £19,000,000.[11]
![Thumb](#/media/File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Cameron_"Kim"_Cobbold,_1st_Baron_Cobbold,_KG,_GCVO,_PC,_DL.png)
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