It was often the case within noble and well-to-do families that the first-born son would inherit the estate, business interests and any titles, the second would join the military and the third would take the cloth. This convention did not suit Thomas Cobbold (1742–1831), the eldest son (to survive infancy) of second-generation brewer, Thomas (1708–67). The young Thomas passed up the opportunity to take the reins of the family business, preferring to pursue a career in the Anglican Church, despite there being no strong tradition of such ambitions within the family. Thomas has acquired the epithet ‘Pious’, though scrutiny of his career suggests that he was, perhaps, as much businessman as clergyman. For the last forty years of his life, in an age when the practice of ecclesiastical pluralism was rife, he concurrently held the living of three Suffolk parishes, Wilby, St Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich and Woolpit, delegating many of his duties to curates, one of whom was his son, another his nephew.

Thomas set a trend for religious service which would be followed by generations of Cobbolds. Both he and, interestingly, ‘Big’ John, through the issue of his second marriage, head branches of the family tree particularly fruitful in producing clergyman. The family's burgeoning clerical contingent was bolstered by unions through marriage with the Chevallier, Patteson, Waller and Dupuis families, all of whom had similarly strong traditions of service to God.