Cobb, John

COBB, Johnjnr (1814–1900) was born at Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, second son of John Cobb, carpenter and joiner, and Mary Larence. He probably trained with his father. In 1835 he married Zillah [Leeah] Davison at Olney. In 1851 they were living at Bedford where he was working as a builder employing six men. After arriving in Australia, he entered partnership with James Bocking as Cobb & Bocking, contractors, builders etc, at Campbelltown, NSW by May 1859 when the foundation stone of the Congregational Church was laid for which they were architects and builders. In 1864, after the partnership was dissolved, Cobb moved to Toowoomba. Aged 50, he justly claimed to have had “considerable professional experience, both in England and New South Wales”. He practised as an architect, builder and civil engineer in Toowoomba from c1865 to 1884. He was architect for the earliest buildings for the Royal Agricultural Society’s showgrounds in Toowoomba and for those of a pioneering meat preserving works, at Gowrie, with the plant supplied by HOGARTH & Co, Aberdeen, Scotland. Cobb declared bankruptcy in February 1874 after unsuccessfully claiming compensation from the Municipal Council for his competitive plan for draining the local swamps which included the creation of lakes, a proposal dismissed as a ‘very pretty picture on paper, but visionary and impracticable’. After his death they were favourably remembered by a correspondent to the Darling Downs Gazette. Thereafter he practised as architect, civil engineer and builder at Toowoomba, later in partnership with his son Richard Cobb (c1849–1916) as J&R COBB.