When you look at a Parish Register on an on-line genealogy site, you get a list of births, marriages, and deaths – sometimes accurately transcribed but often wild guesses – but that’s another story! Inside those registers, other records were often made and they can be of historical value.
George Cobbett (1610 to 1689) was the Ash Parish Clerk tasked with keeping the Ash Parish Register up to date. He also used the Register as a notebook and recorded various items of information which I would like to share with you.
‘The Parish Clerk: Much of the work of the parish was carried out for a small salary by the Parish Clerk, an office held for life and commonly passed from father to son. He attended practically every service, keeping dogs out and people awake and collecting pew rents and customary fees. He wrote the accounts if the wardens and overseers were illiterate, made out fair copies of the lists of church rates, assisted officers in their collection’. familysearch.org
First, let me give a brief biography of George Cobbett; his last name was spelled in a variety of ways. He was born in Worplesdon to Richard Cobbett and Joan in 1616. Fortunately, we know two things about Richard Cobbett – he was a woollen cloth maker and he was able to read and write. Richard Cobbett of Ash was fined for making cloth in Ash when the law only permitted it to be made in certain towns (such as Farnham and Godalming – why is another story!). Weavers like Richard paid the fine and carried on their business. We know Richard was literate as he acted as the scribe for a number of personal wills for people for which he usually received a small renumeration. His son George was Richard’s second son and so not due to inherit the family business; George married into the Dawe family of Ash and set up as woollen weaver in nearby Ash. A year later, his sister Joan Cobbett married Robert Dawe of Ash – connectivity was so important! Clearly, Richard Cobbett made sure his son could read and write – an absolute must for a parish clerk! George was appointed during the 1650’s when England was a Puritan-dominated republic; perhaps George’s politics fitted the new regime.
George as Ash Parish Clerk
What did George do when the old register (1549 to 1650) came into his hands? Well, for one, he used it for doodles!
George Cobbett used some blank pages in the middle of the old register to make notes on the churchyard fence of Ash Parish Church. English Canon Law required parishioners to contribute to the building and maintaining of a wall or fence around the churchyard to keep farm animals out.
Ash Churchyard had a rail fence and in 1649, George Cobbett targeted Frimley residents who were responsible for a portion of the fence – called a ‘Panell of Railes’. Although Frimley had its own Chapel of Ease and churchyard due to its distance from the parish church, its residents were still Ash parishioners and required to maintain the fence of the parish churchyard. This was a rather contentious issue and George Cobbett must have felt it warranted being addressed in the Parish Register. The Ash rector was supposed to pay the Frimley curate a stipend but in many years no money was forthcoming from the Ash rector to the Frimley curate. George’s notes:
| House and land called Bomonny’s – Robert Chewter. |
| House & land adjoining unto Burnt House – John Styles the Younger. |
| Burnt House heretofore George Watts – Thomas Watts. |
| House & land at the North West end of the Bowling Green belonging to Mistress Margaret Beard – Richard Sawyer. |
| House & land called Wild House at the South East end of the Bowling Green – Robert Watts of the Bowling Green. |
| House & land belonging to John Styles – Andrew Patience. ‘This Twelth Pane or Pannell of Railes is at the South East corner of the Church yard of Ashe and adjoineth unto the Houses that are built there’. |
George was pleased to record that the above residents had taken care of their allotted portion of the churchyard fence: Memorandum That these several Panes or Pannells of Railes above Written belonging unto Frimley men were Acknowledged to be theirs by their respective Mending and Repairing of their said Railes. Now since the Year of our Lord 1649 they have been All Mended, Repaired or New made by Them. Witness: George Cobett, Clerke of Ashe’.
Who Were These People?
| I have found some of them: |
| Robert Chewter of Frimley had daughter Mercy Chewter baptized at Frimley in 1652; Widow Chewter lived in this property in 1684 |
| George Watts, Yeoman of Frimley, died in 1636 and was buried in Frimley Churchyard and his son, Thomas Watts, born 1635 in Frimley |
| John Stonehill, Yeoman of Frimley, died in 1648 and was buried in Frimley Churchyard |
| Mistress Margaret Beard – formerly Margaret Clee who married Richard Beard, a landowner from Finchampstead, Berkshire. Margaret and Richard had at least 9 children and lived in Frimley in their later years. In his 1644 Will, Richard Beard described himself as a Gentleman from Frimley. Margaret Beard died in 1664, and both are buried in Frimley Churchyard, as well as their daughter, Margaret, for whom there is a memorial plaque in Frimley Church: Here lies interred Margaret Beard the daughter of Richard Beard & Margaret Beard his wife who departed this life the second of September AD 1652 |
| Robert Watts, Yeoman of Frimley, died in 1681 and in his Will left Bowling Green property to nephew Richard Price |
| Andrew Patience of Frimley had least 5 children baptized at Frimley Chapel 1645-55 |
| John Styles the Younger, Yeoman of Frimley, died in 1660 and was buried in Frimley Churchyard |
George Cobbett now turns his attention to those who have NOT done their duty with respect to the churchyard fence!
| ‘The Railes of the other Inhabitants of Frimley which are to be Made, Maintained & Repaired by Them (as Named underwritten). They are contained or included in the several Panes or Pannells of the Walls of the Houses between the South East corner of the said Church Yard and the Entrance or Church Gate; who they are, they know themselves’. |
| John Hillier’s house & land called Charter’s in his own possession. |
| William Thayre’s house & land – John Bartholomew & Joan Daw. |
| John Gonner’s land of Whitewells – William Cobbett & Mark Carpenter. |
| Thomas Cobbett’s house & land – William Cobbett. |
| Richard Gates house & land adjoining to John Bartholomew’s land. |
| William Whiting’s house & land adjoining the land of Richard Gates. |
| Thomas Gunner’s house & land adjoining unto William Cobbett’s land – John Finch. |
| John Bartholomew’s house and land – in his own possession. This man’s Railes are next to the Churchyard Gate on the east part of it. |
Who Were These People?
| I have found some of them: |
| William Thayre, Yeoman of Frimley, died 1663, buried in Frimley |
| John Gunner, Yeoman of Whitewells Farm |
| William Cobbett, Yeoman of Frimley, 1617 to 1690; Church Warden of Frimley Chapel; related by marriage to John Bartholomew below |
| Mark Carpenter, born 1633 in Farnborough (just a few miles from Frimley) and was related to William Cobbett above |
| Richard Gates, Yeoman of Frimley, died 1686, buried in Frimley |
| Thomas Gunner, Yeoman of Frimley, died 1633, buried in Frimley |
| John Finch – record of Elizabeth Finch, daughter of John, baptized in Frimley Chapel in 1652 |
| John Bartholomew, Yeoman of Frimley, died in 1658 and buried in Frimley; Church Warden of Frimley Chapel |
Are we seeing a stand being taken by Frimley church wardens on having to pay to repair the fence of the parish church when they also have to find the money for the upkeep of Frimley Chapel? Apart from shaming them in the Parish Register, how did George Cobbett go about getting these people to do their duty to repair their allotted panels ~ ‘which they are, they know themselves‘?
George Cobbett wrote ‘All the West Side of the Church Yard of Ashe is fenced by the Hartshorn House‘. Hartshorn House still exists and is a Grade II Listed Building. At one time, it was the rectory for the clergymen of St Peter’s Church and was probably referred to as ‘the Parsonage’. Whitewell Farm in Frimley mentioned above still exists today.
George Cobbett – now the Archaeologist
George Cobbett added a Memorandum on the discovery of an old wall around the churchyard during post-digging to repair the fence.
| ‘Memorandum that the Churchyard of the church of Ashe in Surrey in the Countie of Surrey was previously some what larger than now it is. Without the Railes on the East part of the Churchyard, those that have trenched the Ground there, have dugg upp a Foundation which lay under ground from the North Corner of the Churchyard unto the highway on the South. And also on the North part of the Churchyard, there is to be seen under Ground, the Foundation of a Wall there also by John Pratt and Robert Draper digging holes on that side for the posts of John Pratt’s Railes. There appeared under ground an evident Foundation of a Wall which I my Selfe saw as well as the Diggers of it’. Signed by George Cobbett |
George Cobbett made other doodles in the old Register such as school children might make: George Cobett of Ash 1669 Anno Dom; George Cobett of Ash in the County of Surrey 1669; George Cobett of Ash in the Country of Britain; these were later scratched out. George started his own Parish Register in 1653 and he made no doodles in that one!
George Cobbett lived a long life and did not die until 1689 and he was buried in Ash Churchyard.
This record needs a quick explanation; after Parliament passed an act taxing the use of linen shrouds (in a rather ludicrous attempt to promote English wool), people had to produce an affidavit testifying that a woollen shroud was used and this had to be verified by a minister from another parish. Such time-consuming bureaucracy was soon abandoned, but George Cobbett died not long after the Act was passed.
Select Sources
- Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: FRM/1/1-3
- England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 Record
- www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk