The Stately Homes of EnglandJewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
History
The Stately Homes of England
Jewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
Historic buildings -- England
_Ralph de Cobham_, 1405, a semi-effigy in armour, holding in his hands
a tablet, bearing the inscription in old English characters. _John de
Cobham_, the founder of the College, bearing in his hands the model
of a church. _John Broke_ and _Lady Margaret_ his wife, under a rich
canopy with pendants and other ornaments, with triangular compartments,
containing circles with shields, one of which bears the crown of
thorns, and the other the five wounds; between the pinnacles, in the
centre, is a curious representation of the Trinity, in which the Deity
is delineated with a triple crown, and the Holy Spirit has a human
face. The figure of the knight is gone, but that of his lady remains;
and beneath are groups of eight sons and ten daughters. _Sir Reginald
Braybroke_, the second husband of Joan, Lady Cobham. _Sir Nicholas
Hauberk_, her third husband. _Joan de Cobham_: she died, as appears
from the inscription, ‘on the day of St. Hilary the Bishop, A.D.
1433.’ At her feet are six sons and four daughters; and surrounding
her, are six escutcheons of the Cobham arms and alliances. _Sir Thomas
Broke_ and one of his three wives. Below them are seven sons and five
daughters. Sir Thomas died 1529.”
“The COLLEGE of Cobham” is now only a collection of almshouses, to
which presentations are made—of old people, without restriction to
either sex—as vacancies occur, by the parish and ten other parishes
adjacent. It lies immediately south of the church, and is entered
by a small Gothic gateway. Its occupants are twenty aged men and
women, who have each a little dwelling, with a neat garden and an
allowance monthly, sufficient to secure the necessaries of life. It
is a quadrangular building, of stone, measuring about 60 feet by 50;
and contains a large hall, with painted windows, a roof of blackened
rafters, an old oak screen, and a fire-place of cut stone. The history
of the college is curious and interesting. A college or chantry was
originally founded here, about the year 1362, by John de Cobham, thence
called “the founder,” in the reign of Edward III. In the Church is a
brass to the memory of William Tanner, Master of the College, who died
in 1418. The brass consists of a half-length of the master, in clerical
costume, with the inscription in black letter:—“Hic jacet Willmus
Tannere qui prim obiit magister istuis Collegii xxii. die mensis
Junii Anno Dni. M°CCCC°XVIII. cujus anime propicietur deus Amen.”
Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth it was rebuilt, as appears
by a record—“finished in September 1598”—inscribed over the south
portal, under the arms and alliances of the Brokes, Lords Cobham. The
endowments of the old foundation were ample, and were, with the college
itself, bestowed by Henry VIII., at the dissolution, upon George, Lord
Cobham, who had the “king’s roiall assent and licence by hys grace’s
word, with any manner of letters patent or other writings, to purchase
and receyve to his heires for ever, of the late master and brethren, of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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