THE COBBOLD ELLISTON AFFAIR

"... and the sin of the father shall be visited ...

(published in conjunction with The Cobbold Family History Trust)

Mary Cobbold and her five daughters

A packet of eight letters, written in 1901 from Buenos Aires, in the Argentine started this investigation into a strange and tragic situation. One of the authors was Mary Hay Cobbold, a young mother of five daughters, all under the age of eight. Her husband, Frederick George Cobbold, had died suddenly, leaving her destitute and several thousand miles away from family and friends.
    Mary wrote to her family and that of her late husband, asking for help in returning home to England. The former, who were poor, did help; the latter, who were rich, did not – but why not?
    The letters raised many questions concerning not only the details of their family history, but also the social attitudes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; questions such as:
•    What happened to Mary and her daughters when they eventually     managed to get back to England?
•    What were these apparently normal middle-class people doing in the Argentine?
•    How had the situation arisen which culminated in such tragedy?
They all demanded answers.
    Delving into records uncovered a major illegitimacy of ten children; bigamy; emigration to New Zealand, Australia and South America; shipwrecks; fighting with Indians, and many other numerous dangers and excitements along the way. Ultimately there was a reasonably happy-ever-after conclusion.
    The Cobbolds were – and indeed still are – a varied and most interesting family, with all the complexity, complications and emotions that one would expect from a very large and powerful dynasty. Their reactions to the tragedy of Mary Hay Cobbold and her children in 1901 were rooted in much earlier events, which in turn find their explanations in the social mores of their own time. Some of these, while valid in the 1800s, may perhaps seem less justifiable now than they were then.

And so began THE COBBOLD ELLISTON AFFAIR ‘… and the sin of the father shall be visited …’.

Anthony Camp, former Director of the Society of Genealogists, wrote: 'Illegitimacy was not common; it was never ... "an accepted way of life", and the Victorians were not the first to stigmatise it.'

Anthony Cobbold, Settlor of the Cobbold Family History Trust, wrote: 'This is the most detailed study on this branch of the family ever completed and it raises issues that are of great interest to all family members. I commend it to you.'

Learn more about the Cobbold Family History Trust from their website at www.cobboldfht.com.

THE CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

                        INTRODUCTION

                        PART ONE    The End
THE TRAGEDY    Letters sent from Buenos Aires to England in 1901: Mary Hay Cobbold, recently
                                widowed; her five young children, in a foreign country trying to return home; seeking
                                help from her own family and that of her late husband, Frederick George Cobbold
MARY COBBOLD AND HER DAUGHTERS    Their lives in Newcastle; Mary’s death; the girls’
                                subsequent careers and their own children

                        PART TWO    The Middle
FREDERICK COBBOLD AND HIS SIBLINGS    Fred and nine siblings - ten children, born out of
                                wedlock; emigrations to New Zealand, Australia and the Argentine; bigamy;
                                gold-prospecting; sea voyages; cattle and sheep stations; life in the Argentine from
                                the early 1860s: history of the conflicts, descriptions of life on the pampas, setting up
                                a community, fighting Indians; a move to Buenos Aires and the subsequent tragedy

                        PART THREE    The Beginning
FREDERICK COBBOLD’S PARENTS    Arthur Thomas Cobbold’s life as the youngest son of John and
                                Harriet Cobbold; Sarah Elliston, the mother of his children; Sarah’s family; the births
                                and baptisms; childhoods in East Anglia; marriage after the death of Arthur’s parents; their
                                subsequent life in Essex
THE COBBOLD DYNASTY    The powerful and influential family and its status in the community:
                                brewery, banking interests, local & national politics, links with the Church; marriages
                                with like families; John and Harriet Cobbold; their fourteen children and the
                                relationships/marriages

                        CONCLUSION    The people Mary turned to for assistance; what was wrong?

APPENDIX I, SOURCES, PHOTOGRAPHS, WHO’S WHO

THE COBBOLD ELLISTON AFFAIR "... and the sin of the father shall be visited ..."