Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: John Cobham III
  • Creator:
  • Description: Sir John Cobham, the third Lord Cobham of Kent, was a soldier and diplomat who took an active interest in building. Among his impressive projects were defensive crenulations on Cooling Castle and the foundation of a chantry college for chaplains in conjunction with the church at Cobham. Unlike the colleges we think of today, the goal of this college was to have priests offer masses and say prayers for the benefit of those living and deceased. John Cobham was also heavily involved in politics before he was exiled late in life for sentencing two men to death without King Richard II’s permission. The new king, Henry IV, recalled Cobham from exile and restored him to favor. John commissioned his own brass forty years before he died probably to assert his social prestige as the founder of a college and to remind the priests of their duty to pray. The tomb inscription reads: “From earth I was made and [lived] on earth and to earth am I returned John of Cobham, founder of this place that was previously named. May the Holy Trinity have mercy on my soul.” Cobham’s personal choices in his self-presentation further Nigel Saul’s idea that John Cobham believed “piety and lineage” were connected, making religion intrinsic to the family and to the social order as represented by those who prayed, those who fought, and those who worked.
  • Source: Haverford College donated by David and Maxine Cook
  • Rights: Permission of Haverford College
  • Subject (See Also): Brass Rubbing Church, Image of Tomb Effigies
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 15
  • Date: 1407-8
  • Related Work: Drawing of John Cobham III's monument:
    http://effigiesandbrasses.com/653/875/
  • Current Location: Haverford College
  • Original Location: Cobham, Kent, England Church of St. Mary Magdalene
  • Artistic Type (Category): Brass rubbing
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Heelball; Paper
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 35.56 cm/152.4 cm/
  • Inscription: De Terre fu fait et en Terre et a terre suy retourne Johan de Cobham foundeur de ceste place qu fu nomme Mercy de malme eit la seinte Trinite. (Translation: From earth I was made and [lived] on earth and to earth am I returned John of Cobham, founder of this place that was previously named. May the Holy Trinity have mercy on my soul.)
  • Related Resources: Brass Rubbings Collection. Hamline University. http://www.hamline.edu/brass-rubbings/ Accessed 2016;
    Saul, Nigel. Death, Art, and Memory in Medieval England: The Cobham Family and Their Monuments, 1300–1500. Oxford University Press, 2001.