Benjamin Hobhouse

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Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, 1st Baronet (1757–1831) was an English politician. He served as Member of Parliament from 1797 to 1818.

Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, 1825 engraving

Life

The son of John Hobhouse, a

called to the bar at the Middle Temple.[2]

At the general election of 1796 Hobhouse stood for parliament at

secretary to the board of control. He resigned this post in May 1804, and in 1805 was appointed chairman of the committees for supplies. He was also first commissioner for investigating the debts of the nabobs of the Carnatic.[2]

Hobhouse was made a baronet on 22 December 1812. He was president of the

Literary Fund, and a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1818.[3] He died in Berkeley Square on 14 August 1831.[2]

Works

Hobhouse wrote:[2]

  • A Treatise on Heresy as cognisable by the Spiritual Courts, and an Examination of the Statute of William III for Suppressing Blasphemy and Profaneness, 1792.
  • A Reply to F. Randolph's Letter to Dr. Priestley; or an Examination of F. Randolph's Scriptural Revision of Socinian Arguments, Trowbridge, 1792; another edition, Bath, 1793. Answered by Francis Randolph in Scriptural Revision of Socinian Arguments, vindicated against the Reply of Benjamin Hobhouse, 1793.
  • Three letters addressed to "the several Patriotic Societies in London and its neighbourhood" and to the editor of the
    Morning Chronicle
    , occasioned by the "prevailing disposition to riot and insurrection", 1792.
  • An Inquiry into what constitutes the Crime of compassing and imagining the King's Death, 1795.
  • Remarks on several parts of France, Italy, ... in the years 1783, 1784, and 1785, Bath, 1796.
  • A collection of Tracts, 1797.

Family

Hobhouse was twice married:[2]

  1. In September 1785, to Charlotte, daughter of Samuel Cam of Chantry House, near
    Bradford, Wiltshire
    ; she died 25 November 1791;
  2. In April 1793, to Amelia, daughter of Joshua Parry of Cirencester.

By his first wife he had five children, and by his second fourteen. His eldest son was

John Cam Hobhouse.[2]

Notes

  1. . Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hobhouse, Benjamin" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 27. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainLee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hobhouse, Benjamin". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 27. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Chantry House and Westbury College)
1812–1831
Succeeded by