Person:Thomas Cobbett (1)

Thomas (Cobbett), Lynn, a man of high esteem, b. 1608 at Newbury, in Co. Bucks, was bred at Oxford, but could not take his degr. being driv. away by the plague, at his native town stud. under famous Dr. Twisse, and first preach. in Lincolnsh. unless Mather be wrong. This brot. him acquaint. with Whiting of Boston; and both, by the intolerance of the High ch. party, were forc. to leave their places. In his wonted looseness the author of the Magn. makes him come in the same ship with Davenport, and says that his parents came after to our shore. Of them we never hear a word; and if we may not infer from silence of Winthrop wh. notes that ano. min. wh. was passeng. in the Hector with D. arr. 26 June 1637, was not C. or the Gov. would have nam. him, yet the New Haven tradit. as if the brother of their Gov. Eaton were that min. bears high probabil. C. was adm. freem. 2 May 1638, tho. the prefix of respect is want. in the rec. Unm. on his arr. I am not able to tell even what w. he found here, but her bapt. name was Eliz. and their ch. Samuel, H. C. 1663; Thomas; Eliz.; John; and Eliezer, wh. d. of consumpt. After long serv. at L. he rem. to Ipswich to fill the place of Nathaniel Rogers in 1656, and there was min. to his d. 5 Nov. 1685, tho. with his usual license Mather says "a. the beginning of the yr. 1686." Magn. III. 166. Lewis, Hist. of Lynn, 140-3, and the dilig. of Kimball, Eccl. Hist. Ipswich, 19-21, leave us ign. of many details that should be desir. of so famous a divine.

Thomas Cobbett, A.M., b. Newbury, Buckinghamshire, Eng., 1608, son of Thomas Cobbett; matric., Trinity Coll., Oxford, Oct. 12, 1627, a. 19; A.B., Trinity Coll., Oxford, 1627/8; A.M., St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, 1632; sett. Lincolnshire, where he was silenced for non-conformity; came to N. E., 1637? sett, Lynn, 1637-1655; sett. Ipswich, 1655-1685; Election Sermons, 1649, 1666; d. Ipswich, Nov. 5, 1685, a. 77.

Thomas Cobbett, the son of Thomas of Newbury, Berks, matriculated as a commoner's son in the University of Oxford from Trinity College, 11 October 1627, aged 19. One of the same name and college took his b.a. 11 February 1627-28; a Thomas Cobbett took his m.a. from St. Mary Hall 26 June 1632; but this may not be the same man, since Mather says that Cobbett removed from Oxford 'in the time of a plague raging there,' and continued his studies with Dr. Twisse at Newbury. Preached 'at a small place in Lincolnshire'; emigrated c. 1637, admitted freeman 2 May 1638; served as teacher of the church at Lynn, as colleague to an old friend, Samuel Whiting. Upon the death of Nathaniel Rogers in 1655, Cobbett became minister of Ipswich, and there continued until his death 5 November 1685. A man mighty in prayer, according to Cotton Mather. Author of a treatise on church and state, The Civil Magistrates Power in matters of Religion Modestly Debated (London, 1653), of a controversial work on the halfway covenant, and other tracts. Overseer of Harvard College. Samuel Cobbett (a.b. 1663) was his son. Magnalia; Lewis & Newhall, Lynn.