Thomas Dobbs

[Neil M]

Thomas Dobbs was an 18th century Kings Norton water mill owner who had a contract with Boulton & Watt to convert to steam power and lived at Lifford Hall but he was also a well known comedian, apparently "of infinite jest and of most excellent fancy". What does anyone know of this intriguing Kings Norton character?

 

[superdad3]

Thomas Dobbs was an 18th century Kings Norton water mill owner who had a contract with Boulton & Watt to convert to steam power and lived at Lifford Hall but he was also a well known comedian, apparently "of infinite jest and of most excellent fancy". What does anyone know of this intriguing Kings Norton character?

From an auction catalogue:

A View of Lifford Hall, Kings Norton, Worcestershire, the Residence of Mr Dobbs, with a spectacular Captain Cook's Pine in the foreground​

Other notes: Thomas Dobbs bought Lifford Hall in 1789; he was an engineer who constructed both the Birmingham to Worcester and the Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon Canals. Thomas Dobbs and his wife had three daughters; Mrs Dobbs and the three girls are depicted in the present watercolour.

Albion Metal:
It was introduced and patented in 1804, by Thomas Dobbs, an inventor from Kings Norton who was also a comic actor at the Theatre Royal in Birmingham, England.[Wikipaedia]

 

[mikejee]

Don't know if any of these are of interest

 

[Pedrocut]

Alas poor Yoric ! A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.
(Hamlet)

 

[Neil M]

Alas I knew him not, Horatio...​

Will

 

[Pedrocut]

Will the real Mr. Dobbs, comedian, please stand up !

Methinks Wikipedia has Thomas and James (not related) mixed up together !

Thread 'Janes Dobbs: "I Can't Find Brummagem"'

Sep 20, 2017

This, I guess, is still very appropriate today although written in 1828 almost 200 years ago!
I Can't Find Brummagem
(James Dobbs)

Full twenty years and more are passed
Since I left Brummagem.
But I set out for home at last
To good old Brummagem.
But ev'ry place is altered so
Now there's hardly a place I know
Which fills my heart with grief and woe
For I can't find Brummagem.

As I was walking down the street
As used to be in Brummagem,
I knowed nobody I did meet
For they've changed their face in Brummagem
Poor old Spiceal Stret's half gone,
And Old Church stands alone
And poor old I...

• Radiorails
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Original Poems & Stories

• 

 

[superdad3]

Will the real Mr. Dobbs, comedian, please stand up !

Methinks Wikipedia has Thomas and James (not related) mixed up together !

Thread 'Janes Dobbs: "I Can't Find Brummagem"'

Sep 20, 2017

This, I guess, is still very appropriate today although written in 1828 almost 200 years ago!
I Can't Find Brummagem
(James Dobbs)

Full twenty years and more are passed
Since I left Brummagem.
But I set out for home at last
To good old Brummagem.
But ev'ry place is altered so
Now there's hardly a place I know
Which fills my heart with grief and woe
For I can't find Brummagem.

As I was walking down the street
As used to be in Brummagem,
I knowed nobody I did meet
For they've changed their face in Brummagem
Poor old Spiceal Stret's half gone,
And Old Church stands alone
And poor old I...

• Radiorails
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Original Poems & Stories

• 

You may well be right. Doesn't seem likely that a successful entrepreneur was also a music hall entertainer! but then Wiki should always be taken with a pinch of salt!

 

[Neil M]

You may well be right. Doesn't seem likely that a successful entrepreneur was also a music hall entertainer! but then Wiki should always be taken with a pinch of salt!

Yes I agree that Pedrocut is right about this - the mistake gets promulgated by AI search engines e.g. according to Google's Gemini: "The 1814 reaping machine benefit performance at the Theatre Royal on New Street is one of the most eccentric chapters in Birmingham’s theatrical and industrial history. The event perfectly captured the dual identity of Thomas Dobbs (referred to in some theatrical archives as J. Dobbs), who worked simultaneously as a successful comic actor and a pioneering industrial inventor."

It's a bit alarming just how confidently this is spun into an apparent truth when it is quite wrong. In fact the main reference gets it right and doesn't mention Thomas at all:
"in 1814 J. Dobbs, an actor at the Theatre Royal who had invented a reaping machine, demonstrated it in character, in a play, on an artificial field of wheat on the stage." See https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol7/pp209-222

So an eye opener in terms of validating searches these days but also disappointing that the hillarious mill owner turns out not to have been funny at all!