Edward Cobden

Edward Cobden (1684 – 2 April 1764) was a British divine, poet, and Archdeacon of London, from 1742 to 1764.

Life

Cobden was the son of William Cobden of Haslemere, Surrey. He was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1702, graduating B.A. in 1706; moving to King's College, Cambridge, he graduated M.A. in 1713, then returned to Oxford, graduating B.D. and D.D. in 1723.^[1]^[2]

Edmund Gibson, Bishop of Lincoln, to whom he was chaplain, gave him the prebend of Erpingham in Lincoln Cathedral in 1721, the prebend of Buckden in 1726, resigned 1727; a prebend in St. Paul's, the united rectories of St. Austin and St. Faith, with that of Acton, Middlesex, in 1730; the chaplaincy to George II, 1730; and the archdeaconry of London, in which he succeeded Robert Tyrwhit, in 1742.^[3]

He fell from his horse in 1749, and seriously impaired his memory. In 1751, he was elected president of Sion College, and in 1752 resigned his warrant for chaplain. He says all his preferments together did not amount to £350. a year clear. Soon after he met with losses of £2,000.^[3]

Edward Cobden died on 22 April 1764. His wife, a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Jessop of Tempsford, Bedfordshire, died in 1762.^[3]

Works

Cobden's early work A Letter from a Minister to his Parishioner, upon his Building a Meeting-House, London, 1718 marked him out as a High Churchman. It was followed by A Poem on the death of Joseph Addison, 1720.^[4] In 1753 appeared Concio ad Clerum, and in 1755 An Essay tending to promote Religion, London, a piece half prose and half verse, making clear show his disappointment at not having a canonry of St Paul's Cathedral to add to the archdeaconry. He speaks of his chaplaincy, and affirms that the reward received for his 22 years' service was one meal a fortnight and no salary.^[3]

Cobden published nine sermons separately. One, delivered at St. James's before George II in 1748 on Genesis 39:9, led eventually to the resignation of his chaplaincy.^[4] He published it in 1749, under the title A Persuasive to Chastity. It had been censured, and the preacher had been lampooned in a court ballad. William Whiston calls it "that seasonable and excellent sermon" delivered "when crime between the sexes was at its greatest height". In 1748, he published a volume entitled Poems on several Occasions, London, printed for the widow of a clergyman, formerly his curate. In this work he eulogises Stephen Duck's poetic fame, glorifies somebody's squirrel and a lady's canary, and laments over a dead cow.^[3]

In 1756, Cobden published A Poem sacred to the Memory of Queen Anne for her Bounty to the Clergy, London. In 1757, he published a collection called Twenty-eight Discourses on various Subjects and Occasions, London, and the next year, when residing at Acton, he republished the whole of his works, under the title of Discourses and Essays in Prose and Verse.^[3]

References

^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Cobden, Edward" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
^ "Cobden, Edward (CBDN713E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Gibson 1887.
^ ^a ^b Sharp, Richard. "Cobden, Edward (1683–1764)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5740. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gibson, John Westby (1887). "Cobden, Edward". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 147-148.

[1] Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Cobden, Edward" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.

[2] "Cobden, Edward (CBDN713E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[FOOTNOTEGibson1887-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Gibson 1887.

[ODNB-4] Sharp, Richard. "Cobden, Edward (1683–1764)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5740. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

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v t e Archdeacons of London and of Charing Cross
High Medieval	Edward Reinger William de Beaumis Hugh de Mareni Nicholas Peter de Waltham Alard de Burnham Peter of Blois Walter Gilbert de Plesseto William of Sainte-Mère-Église Geoffrey de Lucy William de Rising Peter de Newport John Chishull William Passemer Geoffrey de Mortuo Mari Richard Swinefield Robert de Ros Richard de Gravesend
Late Medieval	John de Bedford John de Sancto Claro Peter de Dene Bego de Cavomonte Reginald de Sancto Albano Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord Richard de Aston Pontius de Podio Barzaco Itherius de Concoreto Edmund Howard John of Thoresby Richard Kilvington Peter Cardinal du Cros James de Beaufort John Barnet Fortanerius Vassalli, Patriarch of Grado Adam de Hertington Thomas Baketon Thomas Stowe Reginald Kentwood John Snell Richard Moresby William Fallan Richard Martyn John de Gigliis John Forster Pedro de Ayala William Horsey John Young, suffragan bishop Geoffrey Wharton William Cliffe Thomas Bedyll Richard Gwent
Early modern	Edward Moylle John Wymmesley John Harpsfield John Mullins Theophilus Aylmer Thomas Paske John Dolben Thomas Lamplugh Edward Stillingfleet Thomas Tenison William Stanley Robert Tyrwhit Edward Cobden John Jortin Anthony Hamilton Richard Beadon William Bingham Joseph Pott William Hale
Late modern	Piers Claughton Edwin Gifford William Sinclair Ernest Holmes Ernest Sharpe Oswin Gibbs-Smith George Appleton Martin Sullivan Sam Woodhouse Frank Harvey George Cassidy Peter Delaney David Meara Nick Mercer Luke Miller
Charing Cross	John Klyberg Bill Jacob Rosemary Lain-Priestley, Archdeacon for the Two Cities Adam Atkinson Katherine Hedderly

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