Uncle Tom Cobley

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title: "Uncle Tom Cobley" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["culture-in-devon", "dartmoor", "english-folk-songs", "placeholder-names"] description: "Phrase from an English folk song" topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom_Cobley" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Phrase from an English folk song ::

The phrase Uncle Tom Cobley and all is used in British English as a humorous or whimsical way of saying et al., often to express exasperation at the large number of people in a list. The phrase comes from a Devon folk song, "Widecombe Fair", collected around 1890 by Sabine Baring-Gould. Its chorus ends with a long list of people: "Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all." The surname is spelt as "Cobleigh" in some references.

The historical Tom Cobley

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.{{Cite journal | pmid = 10208748 | year = 1999 | last1 = Sinclair | first1 = A. M. | title = Distinct 5' SCL enhancers direct transcription to developing brain, spinal cord, and endothelium: Neural expression is mediated by GATA factor binding sites | journal = Developmental Biology | volume = 209 | issue = 1 | pages = 128–42 | last2 = Göttgens | first2 = B | last3 = Barton | first3 = L. M. | last4 = Stanley | first4 = M. L. | last5 = Pardanaud | first5 = L | last6 = Klaine | first6 = M | last7 = Gering | first7 = M | last8 = Bahn | first8 = S | last9 = Sanchez | first9 = M | last10 = Bench | first10 = A. J. | last11 = Fordham | first11 = J. L. | last12 = Bockamp | first12 = E | last13 = Green | first13 = A. R. | doi=10.1006/dbio.1999.9236 | doi-access = free | pmid = 10216069 | year = 1999 | last1 = Begley | first1 = C. G. | title = The SCL gene: From case report to critical hematopoietic regulator | journal = Blood | volume = 93 | issue = 9 | pages = 2760–70 | last2 = Green | first2 = A. R. | doi = 10.1182/blood.V93.9.2760

Other occurrences

Tom Cobleigh is the name of a chain of pubs/restaurants acquired by the Spirit Group in the UK in 2003.

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.

References

References

1. Archive Reference 285A/PR/1/13, Archive: South West Heritage Trust
2. 285A/PR/1/2, South West Heritage Trust
3. (1913). "Songs of the West: Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall: Collected from the Mouths of the People". Methuen.
4. "Andrew Singleton to offer portrait of Uncle Tom Cobley from Widecombe Fair song | Antiques Trade Gazette".
5. "Home".
6. ''The Devon and Exeter Gazettre'', 1900-1905
7. ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' or [[The Pickwick Papers]] by Charles Dickens
8. (1994). "Expression of lineage restricted transcription factors precedes lineage specific differentiation in a multipotent haemopoietic progenitor cell line". Oncogene.
9. (3 March 2003). "Spirit buys Tom Cobleigh".

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