Sir Henry Hobart, 4th Baronet
A portrait of Sir Henry Hobart by Willem Wissing
Born1657
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
Died21 August 1698
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
OccupationPolitician
Known forKilled in a duel

Sir Henry Hobart, 4th Baronet (1657 – 21 August 1698) was an English Whig politician and baronet. He represented several seats in the House of Commons of England between 1681 and 1698, when he was killed in a duel with Oliver Le Neve.

Early life and family

Henry Hobart was the eldest son to Sir John Hobart, 3rd Baronet and his first wife Mary Hampden, daughter to John Hampden.[1] He was educated at Thetford Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1675.[2] He was knighted at Blickling by King Charles II of England in 1671 and succeeded his father as baronet in 1683.

On 9 July 1684, he married Elizabeth Maynard, eldest daughter of Sir Joseph Maynard, and had by her a son and three daughters.[1] His eldest daughter Henrietta was a mistress of King George II of Great Britain.[3] The second daughter Catherine married Lieutenant-General Charles Churchill.[4] Lady Hobart died in 1701.

Hobart was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son John, later raised to the peerage as Earl of Buckinghamshire.[5]

Career

Hobart was a Member of Parliament for King's Lynn between 1681 and 1685. His father's death in 1683 left Hobart as the leader of the Whigs in Norfolk.[6] He represented Thetford from January to February 1689 and subsequently Norfolk until 1690. In 1689 he was appointed an equerry to King William III. Despite Hobart's influence in the county, he was unable to retain a seat in the election of 1690 when he was the only Whig to stand for election in Norfolk.[6]

Sir Henry Hobart, Bt by Godfrey Kneller

Hobart served as a Gentleman of the Horse to William III during the Williamite War in Ireland and fought under him in the Battle of the Boyne.[7] In 1691 he was removed from office in the king's household, but the same year he was appointed Vice-Admiral of Norfolk.[8]

In 1694, he was elected for Bere Alston in a by-election on the interest of his brother-in-law, the Earl of Stamford.[6] During this parliament he was put on the committee to prepare the impeachment of the Duke of Leeds. In 1695 he was returned again for Norfolk when he continued to vote in support of the king's ministry and was a leader of the Rose Club. He was quick to sign the Association of 1696 and thereafter promoted it zealously in his own county.[6] Following the 1696 Jacobite assassination plot, Hobart successfully lobbied the Privy Council for the arrest of his local rival, Sir Christopher Calthorpe.[6]

In April 1697, he was promised the role of commissioner of customs by the Earl of Sunderland, but Sir John Austen was appointed instead. After Hobart complained to Sunderland about the snub, he was appointed to another vacant commissionership in June.[6] In 1698, Hobart attempted for a third time to bring in a bill to limit the wearing of imported Indian cloth, but he was defeated. In the July–August 1698 election, Hobart lost his seat to a Tory. He had also attempted to win the seat of St Ives, but lost there too.[6]

Death

The Duel Stone

In August, after the 1698 election, Hobart was informed that a neighbouring Tory gentleman, Oliver Le Neve, had been spreading word that Hobart had been a coward while serving in Ireland. Hobart immediately issued a challenge to a duel, and although Le Neve denied the accusation, Hobart would not accept an apology and demanded a fight.[6]

On 20 August 1698, the two fought the duel on Cawston Heath, during which Hobart was mortally wounded. Le Neve of Witchingham Hall, Great Witchingham, fought left-handed and was wounded in the arm by Hobart who had a reputation as a good swordsman. However, Le Neve struck back and injured his opponent so badly that he died the next day at Blickling Hall. As there were no seconds or witnesses, the duel was illegal. Le Neve fled to Holland but returned to England two years later, when he was tried and acquitted.[9][10] Hobart was buried in the Blickling family vault. A plinth with an urn, called the Duel Stone, which commemorates the duel, stands in a National Trust plot on Norwich Road in Cawston.

References

  1. ^ a b Burke, John (1832). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Vol. I (4th ed.). London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. pp. 173–174.
  2. ^ "Hobart, Henry, Sir, Knt (HBRT674H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Howard, Henrietta" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 22.
  4. ^ Burke's Peerage 1949, p. 291.
  5. ^ Debrett, John (1828). Debrett's Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. I (17th ed.). London: G. Woodfall. p. 166.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Hayton, D.; Cruickshanks, E.; Handley, S. (2002). "HOBART, Sir Henry, 4th Bt. (c.1657-98), of Blickling Hall, Norf". The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715. historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  7. ^ Collins, Arthur (1812). Sir Egerton Brydges (ed.). Collin's Peerage of England. Vol. IV. London: T. Bensley. pp. 367–369.
  8. ^ Marsden, R. G. (1908). The English Historical Review. Vol. XXIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 743.
  9. ^ Nicolson, Adam (2012); Gentry: Six Hundred Years of a Peculiarly English Class, Part III: The Great Century 1610–1710, "Honour: The le Neves, Great Witchingham, Norfolk", HarperCollins. ISBN 0007335504
  10. ^ Rye, Francis, Rye, Amy; Calendar of Correspondence and Documents Relating to the Family of Oliver Le Neve, of Witchingham, Norfolk, 1675-1743, Norwich, A. H. Goose, (1895). Reprint Rarebooksclub.com (2012). ISBN 1130313972
Parliament of England Preceded byJohn Turner Sir Simon Taylor Member of Parliament for King's Lynn 1681–1685 With: Sir Simon Taylor Succeeded bySir John Turner Sir Simon Taylor Preceded byWilliam de Grey Henry Heveningham Member of Parliament for Thetford Jan–Feb 1689 With: William Harbord Succeeded byWilliam Harbord Sir Francis Guybon Preceded bySir Thomas Hare, Bt Sir Jacob Astley Member of Parliament for Norfolk 1689–1690 With: Sir William Cook Succeeded bySir Jacob Astley Sir William Cook Preceded byJohn Smith John Swinfen Member of Parliament for Bere Alston 1694–1695 With: John Smith 1694–1695John Elwill 1695 Succeeded byJohn Elwill Sir Rowland Gwynne Preceded bySir Jacob Astley Sir William Cook Member of Parliament for Norfolk 1695–1698 With: Sir Jacob Astley Succeeded bySir Jacob Astley Sir William Cook Honorary titles VacantTitle last held byThe Earl of Yarmouth Vice-Admiral of Norfolk 1691–1698 Succeeded byLord Paston Baronetage of England Preceded byJohn Hobart Baronet (of Intwood) 1683–1698 Succeeded byJohn Hobart
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