Marjory Cobbe

Marjory Cobbe (sometimes written as Margaret[1][2] or Margery[3]) was an English midwife active in the 15th century.[4][5] She was the first midwife to be recorded by name in English written history.[2][6][7][8]

Career in midwifery

Cobbe spent her recorded life in Stafford and Devon.[9][5] She was a midwife and attendant to Queen Consort of England, Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV, in the latter half of the 15th century.[10][11][5]

It was common for nobility at the time to retain midwives as personal attendants who also provided support on matters related to women's health,[10][12][13] although their training was often poor and informal.[2][7][14] In her 1938 chronicle, Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead assessed that midwives of the time, including Cobbe, would have nonetheless been "better educated for practical obstetrical work" than male practitioners, owing to the comparatively lesser priority given to women’s health.[15] Biographer Elizabeth Jenkins further suggests it is possible that Cobbe was unusually educated for the era, owing to her background: her husband John may have been the same John Cobbe who was appointed to a commission to decide a land dispute in Kent in February 1468.[9][16][17]

On 15 April 1469, Cobbe and her husband John were granted an annual pension of £10 for Cobbe's attendance on Queen Consort of England, Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV.[9][10][11] This sum, which was ordered to come from the revenues of the county of Stafford,[9] was granted to Cobbe one month after the birth of Cecily of York.[18]

Historian Arlene Okerlund suggests this grant indicates Cobbe was a "trusted" attendant of Elizabeth who offered "long-term and dedicated" service to the queen.[19] Jenkins and journalist Sarah Gristwood similarly interpret this provision of a pension as evidence of Elizabeth placing personal trust in, or reliance upon, Cobbe.[20][16] Jenkins further posits that the timing of the pension suggests Cobbe had been in Elizabeth's retinue since at least the 1467 birth of Mary of York.[16]

Edward's reign was briefly interrupted between 2 October 1470 and 11 April 1471, when he was deposed by Henry VI.[21] Elizabeth Woodville, pregnant with her sixth child, sought sanctuary in Westminster Abbey.[22] On 2 November 1470, Cobbe likely delivered Elizabeth's son Edward (later Edward V), with the assistance of royal physician Domenico de Serigo.[18][19][16][23][24]

Later life

Cobbe was recorded as still being in Elizabeth's service in 1473.[1][25] By this time, her husband had died; she was recorded as a widower on that year's rolls of Parliament.[1][25] When Cobbe's pension was renewed on 8 November 1475, now to be met by revenues of Devon, she was recorded as a widow.[11][26]

References

  1. ^ a b c Aveling, James H. (1872). English Midwives: Their History and Prospects (1st ed.). London: J. & A. Churchill. p. 15.
  2. ^ a b c Martindale, Louisa (1922). The Woman Doctor and Her Future (1st ed.). Plymouth: The Mayflower Press. p. 35.
  3. ^ Wade Labarge, Margaret (24 April 1986). A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life. Beacon Press. p. 181. ISBN 9780807056271.
  4. ^ Dean, Ruth; Thomson, Melissa (9 December 2002). Women of the Middle Ages. Lucent Books. p. 52. ISBN 9781590181713.
  5. ^ a b c Great Britain (1891). Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public record office 1467-1477 Edward IV, Henry VI. London: H.M.S.O. p. 154.
  6. ^ Haydon, M. Olive (3 January 1920). "English Midwives in Three Centuries". British Journal of Nursing. 64 (1657): 14.
  7. ^ a b Cianfrani, Theodore (1960). Short History of Obstetrics and Gynecology (1 ed.). Charles C. Thomas Publisher. p. 131.
  8. ^ Fasbender, Heinrich (1906). Geschichte der Geburtshülfe [History of Obstetrics] (in German) (1st ed.). Jena: VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag. p. 79.
  9. ^ a b c d Office, Great Britain Public Record (1900). Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Edward IV, Henry VI A. D. 1461-1485. p. 154.
  10. ^ a b c Laynesmith, J. L. (2004). The last medieval queens: English queenship 1445-1503. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-19-924737-0.
  11. ^ a b c Pidgeon, Lynda J. (2019). Brought up of nought: a history of the Woodvile family. Stroud, UK: Fonthill Media. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-78155-743-3.
  12. ^ Gottfried, Robert Steven (1986). Doctors and medicine in medieval England, 1340-1530. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-691-05481-0.
  13. ^ Kitzinger, Sheila (2011). Rediscovering birth (2nd ed.). London: Pinter & Martin. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-905177-38-7.
  14. ^ Dewhurst, John (1 January 1980). Royal Confinements: A Gynaecological History of Britain's Royal Family (1 ed.). St. Martin Press. p. 2. ISBN 0312694660.
  15. ^ Hurd-Mead, Kate Campbell (1938). A history of women in medicine : from the earliest times to the beginning of the nineteenth century (1st ed.). Connecticut: Haddam Press. pp. 355–356.
  16. ^ a b c d Jenkins, Elizabeth (1978). The princes in the Tower. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. pp. 61–65. ISBN 978-0-698-10842-4.
  17. ^ Office, Great Britain Public Record (1900). Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Edward IV [Henry VI, Edward V, Richard III A. D. 1461-1485. p. 70.
  18. ^ a b Hilton, Lisa (2008). Queens consort: England's medieval queens. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 371. ISBN 978-0-297-85261-2.
  19. ^ a b Okerlund, Arlene (2005). Elizabeth Wydeville: the slandered queen. England's forgotten queens. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-7524-3384-4.
  20. ^ Gristwood, Sarah (2012). Blood sisters: the hidden lives of the women behind the Wars of the Rose. London: HarperPress. pp. 106–107. ISBN 978-0-00-730929-0.
  21. ^ Archontology. "England: Kings and Queens: 1066-1649". www.archontology.org. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  22. ^ Strickland, Agnes (1851). Lives of the Queens of England. Vol. 2. Bell and Daldy. pp. 17–18.
  23. ^ Okerlund, Arlene (2009). Elizabeth of York. Queenship and power (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-230-10065-7.
  24. ^ Baldwin, David (21 April 2010). Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower (2nd ed.). Sutton: History Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0750938860.
  25. ^ a b Parliament, Great Britain (1767). Rotuli Parliamentorum: Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII (1472-1503). p. 93.
  26. ^ Public Record Office, Great Britain (1900). Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Edward IV. Henry VI. A.D. 1467-1477. Vol. 2. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 547.
  27. ^ Jarman, Rosemary Hawley (2008). The King's Grey Mare. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 978-0-7524-4563-2.
  28. ^ Penman, Sharon Kay (1982). The sunne in splendour (1st ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-061368-5.
  29. ^ Michael, Livi (6 October 2015). Rebellion (1st ed.). Fig Tree. pp. 295–298. ISBN 978-0241966709.
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