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Frederick Lee Cobourn

American politician and judge (1885–1962)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ116200998 ↗
Source-derived summary

Frederick Lee Cobourn (October 12, 1885 – June 23, 1962) was an American politician and judge from Maryland. He served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing Harford County, from 1918 to 1920 and from 1927 to 1930.

Early life

Frederick Lee Cobourn was born on October 12, 1885, in Havre de Grace, Maryland, to Lydia (née Cox) and Hiram C. Cobourn. His brother was Harold E. Cobourn.

At the age of 12, his father died and Cobourn left school to work. Cobourn studied with a local minister to be eligible for college. Cobourn graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1913. He was then admitted to the bar.

Career

Following his admission to the bar, Cobourn opened law offices in Havre de Grace and Bel Air.

Cobourn was a Democrat.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Frederick Lee Cobourn” is american politician and judge (1885–1962). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Frederick, Cobourn and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1885, 1962, 1918, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1885-10-12. For this dossier, Frederick, Cobourn and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician and judge (1885–1962)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q116200998. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1885, 1962, 1918 and 1920.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Frederick Lee Cobourn”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Frederick Lee Cobourn primary sources, Frederick Lee Cobourn archive and Frederick research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Frederick Lee Cobourn”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Frederick Lee Cobourn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.