Giles Hosier (1682-1750) & Elizabeth Cobb (1691-1772)
The families of Giles Hosier and Elizabeth Cobb were recorded in the parish of Corfe Castle from the early 17th Century. The parish and borough of Corfe Castle was one of the largest in Dorset (returning two members of parliament) and owed its commercial importance to the castle which controlled major trade routes – the castle was slighted in 1645 after it was captured by Parliamentarian forces, which was in the lifetime of the grandparents of Giles Hosier and Elizabeth Cobb. The prosperity of the area was also due to the surrounding Purbeck marble and clay quarries and associated trade.
Giles Hosier was born in 1682 in the village of Corfe Castle in Dorset and baptised on 25 June 1682, the son of William (1640-1738) and Alice (d.1697).
His parents had been married at Corfe Castle parish church. The parish register recorded that “Alice Hosier buried in woollen on March 4” 1697. [The reference was to the 1666 Act requiring the dead to be buried in pure English woollen shrouds, unless they were plague victims or destitute.]
Elizabeth Cobb was born in 1691, the daughter of Nicholas [i] (1666-1741) a prosperous brewer of Corfe Castle and Margaret Cobb (d.1728). Her father was possibly the son of the Giles Cobb (c1635-1694) and Mary Jane Cobb. After Elizabeth’s mother died, her father re-married in 1729, and the articles of marriage between Nicholas Cobb of Corfe and Joan Gauntlet of Lytchett Matraver include an indenture of the Ship Inn’s messuage [dwelling, outhouses and land].
The extent of the property owned by Elizabeth’s father and step-mother in the village of Corfe Castle was detailed in the will of Nicholas Cobb, dated 1739, where he left his property (including yearly rents from lands in the parish, all the goods in the shop, the two houses and “the stock of beer in the sollar”) to his second wife, Joan, but listed specific bequests to his children and eight grandchildren, which suggested he had well furnished and equipped properties.
Giles Hosier and Elizabeth Cobb, both of Corfe Castle, were married on 7 July 1707 at Poole, Dorset. Their family seemed to live in Poole but maintained close connections with Corfe Castle. In 1727 a Giles Hosier is listed in the Quarter Session Order Books of Dorset as having paid 2 pence for the maintenance of highways in the borough and parish of Corfe Castle.
The will of Nicholas Cobb made specific mention of his brewing apparatus (namely the large furnace, cooler, mashing tub and pumps) which he gave to his grand-daughter for her lifetime with the condition that it remained in the house for the use and benefit of his grandson William Hosier of Poole; his daughter, Elizabeth wife of Giles Hosier of Poole, was left a table and four chairs and Giles was given “one crown piece”.
The children of Giles and Elizabeth listed in Nicholas Cobbs’s will were William Hosier, who was given right of use of the brewing equipment, Jane was given “all the goods in the long room”, Mary was given “two table boards standing in the long room chamber” and “one pair of brass doggs standing in the porch chamber”, and Giles Hosier was given “one prop bed, bedstead and bedding…standing in the shop chamber” as well as an iron grate, “spitts”, a jack and one pair of gridirons from the kitchen.
The will of Giles, dated 22 October 1750, bequeathed to his son Giles his house and land in Strand Street, Poole – with the condition that Giles paid his brother William the sum of four pounds yearly for his life – and except for the “chambers over the shed and old shop” which were left to William for use in his lifetime. He left his property near the Strand Street which was in the occupation of his daughter and her husband, Jane and Robert Farwell, to Jane and her heirs; and if Jane had no children the property was left to his daughter Mary, who was also left two properties near the Strand Street then occupied by tenants. He gave shared rights to all his children to the well (along with its water, pump, and leaden pipes) situated on the property he left his son Giles. He left his son-in-law, John Mills, half a gold guinea and to his grandson, Hosier Mills, he left his leasehold property near “Stanley Green in the Tythings of Longstreet”. He also gave his wife the use for her lifetime (and then to their Giles) the “brewing vessels, meshing tubs, furnaces, coolers, casks, barrels and all and singular other utensils and materials” belonging to his “Brewing Trade or Business and…my malt mills”.
In 1772 the will of Elizabeth Hosier, widow, left to her son, William Hosier, of the “Town and County of Poole Innholder”, one third of “all that plot of parcel of garden land situate in Poole aforesaid on the east-side of the dwelling house in which I now live, lately purchased by my late husband Giles Hosier and myself…(that is to say) the northern most part thereof on which the cooper’s shop now stands”. The other thirds were given to her daughter Elizabeth, the wife of John Mills of Poole (mariner), and to her daughter Jane, wife of Robert Farwell of Poole (mariner). The will also gave permission for all the children to have access over the land. The will carried Elizabeth’s mark rather than signature.
Giles Hosier was buried at Poole on 3 November 1750.
Elizabeth Hosier, aged 81, was buried at Poole on 18 December 1772.
Footnote:
[i] Nicholas Cobb and the Hosiers are referenced in the BBC programme “Who Do You Think You Are?” as he was the 8x great-grandfather of the comedian Katherine Ryan. The grandson of Giles Hosier, also Giles (1756-1812), lived and died in Newfoundland.