Synopsis: Part of a partial one-name study of Cobb's in Co Norfolk, England

At this stage Henry's ancestry is unfortunately unknown. Likewise details on his spouse are unknown. There were several known Henry Cobb's born/baptised in Co Norfolk in the same time period that Henry of St Giles, Norwich, was probably born:

Henry of Blofield & Henry of Ranworth are otherwise accounted for with families distinct from that of Henry of Norwich (unfortunately since Henry of Blofield married a Judith in the right time frame!). It is unlikely Henry of Norwich and Henry of Shelfanger were the same person given the distance between the two locations and that at least one of Henry of Norwich's daughters was still in Norwich in the 1680's when she married (it is likely tho' not certain that she was still living with her parents when she married implying her parents were still in Norwich by the 1680's). Henry of Martham is probably too early - he would have been in his 50's when he had a son named Henry, after himself. Given Henry of Norwich named sons after himself in 1654 & again in 1662, it is a reasonable hypothesis that he was no more than his early 30's when the older of the two children named Henry was baptised, that is, Henry Sr was likely born between 1620-1630. That leaves Henry, s/o Geoffrey of Sandringham, as the only candidate for whom a birth/baptism is known. Of course, since records are rather patchy in that era, there are no doubt other Henry Cobb's for whom baptism records have either been lost or have not been transcribed in readily accessible indices. Geoffrey of Sandringham was minor nobility and whilst Henry was a 4th son and by the 1650's the family's possessions were only a shadow of what they were in the 1500's, it would be somewhat surprising if Geoffrey's son married outside of the nobility. Whilst the wife of Henry of Norwich is unknown, his daughter, Judith, did not marry into nobility.

Assuming Henry of Norwich was not the son of Geoffrey, another avenue of search would be to assume Henry was named either after his father or an uncle and to look for Henry Cobb's in Co Norfolk from his father's generation. Assuming Henry was born 1620-1630, his father's generation would have been born between 1570-1610, probably in the late 1580's and into the 1590's. Possible candidates are:

Henry of South Walsham vanishes from the South Walsham records after his marriage in 1608. It is a reasonable, tho' unproven, assumption that he moved to Norwich and married again in 1611. Henry baptised St Clement in 1592 is probably too young to have married in 1611, although not impossibly young. Note that Henry of South Walsham had a brother, John, in whose family the name Judith also appears. Christian names in the immediate family of Henry baptised 1592 include: Thomas, Emma, Hester, Francis, Sarah, Elizabeth. Christian names appearing in the immediate family of Henry of South Walsham included Robert, Christian, William, Alice, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Clement, Margaret, Anne, Jeffrey, Emma, Frances, Christopher, Rebecca. Neither of these two groups of forenames has any similarity with those of Henry of St Giles.

Unfortunately at this stage none of these candidates is any more likely than any of the others. It is hoped that as additional records become available the origin of Henry of St Giles may become clear.

St. Giles on the Hill is the tallest parish church in Norwich at 34 metres and on top of that it stands on the highest point within the old city walls. In fact in terms of height above sea level it is as high as the Anglican cathedral. The present church dates from the 1420s apart from a few minor additions in subsequent centuries. It replaced a previous St Giles which was built on the site in 1136, but there appears to have been a church on the site even before that (mentioned in the Domesday Book). The dedication is to the patron saint of the poor and marginalized, which may connect with the presence of a leper house just outside St. Giles Gate. Unlike most of the Norwich churches, St Giles remains today a functioning Anglican church. After the Norman conquest it was one of the three large parishes forming the French Borough, the richest part of Norwich.