Family and Education

b. by 1461, prob. s. of John Hobard of Sandwich. m. ‘William,’ at least 1s. 1da.3

Offices Held

Overseer of meat, Sandwich 1482-4, constable of the third ward 1487, common councilman (St. Mary’s parish) 1492-5, treasurer 1493-4, auditor 1495, jurat 1496-d., mayor 1496-7, 31 Mar. 1502-3, 1515-16, keeper of the common chest and of the orphans 1497-8, 1501-2, 1508; bailiff to Yarmouth 1501.4

Biography

John Hobard was probably the son of a namesake active in St. Mary’s parish, Sandwich, in the 1480s and 1490s, the two being distinguished by the suffixes ‘senior’ and ‘junior’. Joint owner of a crayer in 1509, the younger man may also have been the John Hubberd who in 1502 received a pardon as a citizen and mercer of London and in 1505 another as a merchant of the staple of Calais: in 1515 John Hobard of Sandwich granted a brewhouse there to a London mercer among others. He became a jurat in 1496 and attended the Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports 17 times between 1491 and 1516. When elected to his first Parliament he had already served twice as mayor, on the second occasion as replacement for William Salmon, and had twice been a candidate for the office. He had also helped procure the royal assent, given in August 1504, to a petition for the benefit of the port presented by John Westcliff, his fellow in the Parliaments of 1512 and 1515. On several occasions Hobard was involved in disputes and quarrels, either as victim or aggressor, with other townsmen.5

In February 1514 Hobard and Westcliff reported to Sandwich the grant of a subsidy ‘as well within liberties as without’ and were authorized to act with the other ports ‘by the advice of their counsel and the favour of’ the lord warden, the 5th Lord Bergavenny. In the event, the Cinque Ports were exempted from all charges by a proviso to the Subsidy Act (5 Hen. VIII, c.17) and in April Sandwich decided that the money collected should be devoted in part to the payment of the Members’ costs and fees. The only payment recorded at this time to Hobard was one of 26s.8d., and when in 1525 Sandwich granted him and John Cock I, one of the Members for 1510, £2 each in full payment of what was due to them in wages, the lapse of time was such that they were incorrectly recorded as having sat in the reign of Henry VII. Re-elected to the Parliament of 1515 in accordance with the King’s desire for the return of the previous Members, on 3 Dec. 1515 Hobard was chosen mayor for the third time and on 10 Dec., 12 days before the Parliament closed, he returned to Sandwich to take the oath of office.6

In his will of 26 Jan. 1530 Hobard asked to be buried in St. Peter’s church, Sandwich, and provided for his wife and his grandchildren (whom he called his ‘nephews’) John Hobard and John Webbe. He named his wife executrix and his son-in-law Thomas Wingfield overseer: Wingfield was to have the house he lived in for life and it was then to pass to his stepson Webbe. The witnesses included Robert Lewis, then mayor of Canterbury, and Thomas Lawrence, a Canterbury notary, and the will was proved on 21 Mar. 1530.7

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. J. Knecht

Notes

• 1. Sandwich white bk. f. 191v.
• 2. Ibid. f. 231v.
• 3. Date of birth estimated from first office. Sandwich white bk. passim; Canterbury prob. reg. A18, f. 270.
• 4. Sandwich old black bk. f. 279, white bk., old red bk. passim; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 127.
• 5. Sandwich white bk. passim, old black bk. f. 294; CPR, 1494-1509, pp. 284, 448; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 110-63 passim.
• 6. Sandwich white bk. ff. 222-5, 240, 348; treasurers’ accts. Sa/FA t. 20.
• 7. Canterbury prob. reg. A18, f. 270.