Uncle Tom Cobley

The historical Tom Cobley

Whether Tom Cobley, or the other characters from the song, ever existed is uncertain. Local historians have attempted to trace them in and around Dartmoor (for if they did ride to the fair at Widecombe, they may have travelled some distance).

There is some suggestion that his relatives have been traced to a family which had moved to Plymouth in the early 1900s, but that no longer hold the name Cobley.

The strongest claim is held by the village of Spreyton, to the north of the moor, whose churchyard does indeed contain the grave of a Tom Cobley, buried 11 January 1844. However this is said to be the grave of the nephew of the 'real' Tom Cobley, who died in 1794 and whose grave is unmarked. Cobley disapproved of his nephew and kept him out of his will (signed at Pascoe house, Colebrooke). The house at Butsford Barton, Colebrooke, was supposed to have been the home of Uncle Tom Cobley.

Old ‘Uncle Tom’ was said to have been an amorous bachelor and when he was young had bright red hair. This characteristic seems to have been to his advantage, for when paternity orders came in thick and fast, he refused to maintain any babies that did not have red hair like himself.

The village has made the most of its link with the folk song. It now has a 'Tom Cobley Cottage' and a 'Tom Cobley Tavern'. There also appears to have been a Bill Brewer who lived in nearby Sticklepath, and a Pearse family who ran a local mill; in Sticklepath there is the grave of a Tom Pearse who died in 1875. However, there remains some doubt as to whether this was the same Tom Pearse who features in the song since the earliest recorded Widecombe Fair was held in 1850.

Early in the 20th century, the novelist Beatrice Chase presented an ‘Uncle Tom’ smock to the organisers of the fair, and now a local resident dressed as Uncle Tom appears at the festivities every year, complete with a grey mare.

Scientific papers

There have been instances of scientific papers — where multiple authorship is common — published with "Cobley, U. T." humorously listed as one among a long list of otherwise genuine authors. Two papers indexed by ISI include U. T. Cobley as a co-author:

There are also some cases of papers listed with U. T. Cobley as an author in reference lists, even though the name does not appear in the original paper. This also shows how citation errors are perpetuated, presumably reflecting a reliance on other citations without checking the original source. Thus a paper by Cross, Heyworth, Murrell, Bockamp, Dexter and Green, published in the journal Oncogene in 1994, is frequently listed with the authors cited as "Cross, M. A., Heyworth, C. M., Murrell, A. M., Bockamp, E.-O., Cobley, U. T., Dexter, T. M. & Green, A. R.". (e.g. in 1999 papers by Sinclair et al. and by Begley & Green.) However, Cobley does not appear in the original.

Other occurrences

Tom Cobleigh is the name of a chain of pubs/restaurants presently operated by the Spirit Group in the UK.

Tom Cobleigh, his mare and the song are also loosely but obviously referenced in the last few lines of folk duo Show of Hands's own song "Widecombe Fair", which differs dramatically from the original. In this version the narrator of the song hints at a more sinister reason for the loan of the horse, he needs it to travel with the others named in the original song to a remote tavern whose landlord he suspects (with good reason) of murdering a young boy. Although it is never stated we can assume that the character in this song intends to take his revenge on the murderer. Steve Knightley, Show of Hands' lead vocalist and writer of their version, claims that it was inspired by historical research that has suggested that the original folk song may actually have been intended to convey a darker meaning than is commonly supposed.