COBHAM, a parish (formerly a market-town) in the
hundred of SHAMWELL, lathe of AYLESFORD, county of
KENT, 5 miles (W.) from Rochester, containing 646 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage not in charge, in the
archdeaconry and diocese ofRochester, endowed with£600
parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Earl of
Darnley. The church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene,
has parapets and an embattled tower, which, with the
north porch, and a fine basin, or water drain, under a richly
canopied niche, are in the later style of English architecture;
but the chancel and some other portions of the
fabric are of early date: it contains some very ancient
monuments and brasses to the noble families of Cobham
and Brooke. In 1362, John, Lord Cobham, made it
collegiate, erecting the college contiguous to the church"
yard, and amply endowing it for five chaplains, which
number he afterwards increased to eleven: at the suppression
it was valued at £ 128.1.2., and was confirmed
by the crown to George, Lord Cobham, whose executors,
in 1598, built upon its site the present college, and endowed
it with the former possessions, for the maintenance
of twenty poor persons. It is a neat quadrangular
building of stone, comprising part of the ancient
structure, and containing a spacious hall, and an apartment
with a garden for each inmate: in the 39th of
Elizabeth the incorporated wardens of Rochester bridge
were declared to be perpetual presidents of " the New
College," in whose successors the government is solely
vested. The village stands upon an eminence, and is
supplied with water from works constructed for the purpose
by the family of Cobham: it had formerly a weekly
market on Monday, and a fair on St. Mary Magdalene's
day, granted to John, Lord Cobham, in the 41st of Edward
III.; the fair is held annually on the 2nd of August,
but the market has been long disused. The course
of the Roman Watling-street is visible in the parish;
and on a hill in Cobham Park is a splendid mausoleum,
in the Doric style, erected by the Earl of Darnley, at
an expense of £15,000.