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.
There is some suggestion that his relatives have been traced to a family which had moved to Plymouth in the early 1900s, but that no longer hold the name Cobley.
The strongest claim is held by the village of Spreyton, to the north of the moor, whose churchyard does indeed contain the grave of a Tom Cobley, buried 11 January 1844.
The original "Uncle Tom Cobley lived in a house near Yeoford Junction, in the Parish of Spreyton.
This characteristic seems to have been to his advantage, for when paternity orders came in thick and fast, he refused to maintain any babies that did not have red hair like himself.
However, there remains some doubt as to whether this was the same Tom Pearse who features in the song since the earliest recorded Widecombe Fair was held in 1850.
On 8 November 1909, an obituary claimed that the recently deceased farmer "learned farming, at Colebrook, with the original 'Uncle Tom Cobleigh' ..... who died between 50 and 60 years since.
A. J. Coles (Jan Stewer) began his dialect writings with a series called "The Talk at Uncle Tom Cobleigh's Club.
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.