Welcome to the Hobson One-Name Study

Our aim is to reconstruct Hobson family trees—as far as possible—across all countries, helping individuals extend their own family histories further back in time. If you think you may be able to contribute in any way, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

A further objective of the study is to preserve the results of Hobson-related research. This includes the archiving of electronic copies of historical documents, old photographs, and other family papers. If you would like to deposit material with us, please do get in touch. We make a special appeal to those fortunate enough to hold old family papers: please consider archiving them sooner rather than later, to ensure they are not lost to future generations.

The England and Wales 1881 census records approximately 8,600 occurrences of the Hobson surname (including variants), while the 1880 US census records around 7,000. From this, we estimate that there may be records for roughly 90,000 Hobsons in the UK from the fifteenth century to the present day, and around 50,000 Hobsons outside the UK. These figures would increase dramatically—by perhaps tenfold—if all descendants of female Hobsons (that is, individuals no longer carrying the Hobson surname) were included. For practical reasons, the scope of the study is therefore currently limited to those bearing the Hobson name.

We are particularly keen to hear from any male who carries the Hobson surname and is willing to take a Y-DNA test through FamilyTreeDNA. Y-DNA results are crucial for linking otherwise separate Hobson family lines and establishing deeper ancestral connections that cannot be confirmed through documentary research alone.

If you are willing to assist with the research, contribute to the archive, or simply offer your support, we would be delighted to hear from you.

UK:
We have Hobson trees (of varying sizes) for all the counties depending on where the tree originated.

The current UK focus is to extend the Hobson family trees backwards in time from 1851 to earlier. This does not preclude research on the more recent Hobson families, but “modern” research is secondary and usually arises in response to an enquiry.  The one-name study overview of the earlier records is essential to give more certainty to our research and to reduce the number of Hobson family trees further.

Due to the introduction and expansion of online records, many family historians are now able to trace their roots back to 1841/51 or, if the enquirer does not have access to online records, we can usually manage it for him/her.  We therefore believe that working on the earlier, more disparate and incomplete Hobson records provides more benefit to the general public.

A parallel exercise is being conducted to reconcile all Hobsons (using BMD events) from one census to the next.   Whilst this has always been possible for small one-name studies, we now hope it can be achieved for this much larger study, following the introduction of the GRO indexes and easier access to the mother's maiden name.  It is hoped that this will help us to identify where the Hobsons, who have migrated to other countries, came from (post 1841).

Ireland:
There are numerous Irish connections since many of the English Hobsons migrated to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand via Ireland. Research is currently focused on Hobsons from Wicklow and Armagh counties.  There was a Francis Hobson living Armagh in the early 1600s, his family expanded out across the world.  Are you descended from him?

US:
Hobsons emigrated to the US from the 17th century onwards. It is estimated that there are around 25-30 main family lines in the US, excluding ad hoc migrations and US branches of established UK trees.

In 1994, Jay W Hobson published "The Hobson Family Lineage - Descendants of George and Elizabeth Hobson" (A copy of Jay's book is held in the Hobson one-name study archive and can be viewed on FamilySearch.)  This book covers the descendants of George Hobson (1684-1748) and his wife Elizabeth Lindley.  George settled in North Carolina; he might have come from Cropton, North Yorkshire but this has not been proved yet.  Jay's book consolidates research from three earlier publications but also includes significant additional input from Jay Hobson himself and other more recent Hobson researchers, all of whom are acknowledged within the preface to the book.  The three earlier publications are now out of print: in 1957, the late Earl H Davis produced "Hobson 1707-1957 250th Anniversary of America"; in 1978, the late Marie Wiles produced an updated genealogy of the George Hobson line titled "Hobson Cousins", and more recently Carolyn Camilla (Hobson) Whiteside published "Hobson Family History & Genealogy 1677-1977".

Jay Hobson's book does not include research by Denver Ragland on the Hobsons of Alabama.  It is highly likely that this Alabama family also descends from George and Elizabeth.

Another US family line is well documented in the "Saco Valley Settlements and Families" by G T Ridlon, also available on FamilySearch.   William Hobson b 1613 was the son of Henry Hobson of Ousefleet, Yorkshire (perhaps formerly of Gildersome, Yorkshire) and Mary Wardman of "Bellesyse".  William settled in Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts and married Ann Reyner, the daughter of Humphrey Reyner.  The town of Hobson in Montana was named after one of William's descendants, Simeon S Hobson. (Pierce Hobson Tree)

Henry Hobson (b abt 1630 Ulster Down, Ireland) settled in Henrico, Virginia.  Henry might have been the father of William Hobson who married Elizabeth Woodson.  This is a very large tree spreading in many directions.  Admiral Richmond Pearson Hobson was a member of this family. (Virginia Tree)

John Hopson (b abt 1615) emigrated to Virginia in 1635 and was settled in New Haven, Connecticut by 1649.  (Hopson Bartlett Tree)

18th century settlers included Francis Hobson (b abt 1705 Armagh, Ireland) in Pennsylvania and Morning Hopson (b abt 1754) in South Carolina.  Morning Hopson might have been Cherokee, but some speculate he emigrated from Yorkshire, neither is known.

Martin Hopson b 1750 Virginia had sons Hardy, Caswell, Chapman and Zachariah.  One of his descendants has a y-DNA match with a descendant of Briggs Washington Hopson b 1813 Georgia.  We are trying to establish who the common ancestor was. (Hobson Smithwick Tree)

Canada and Australia:

We are developing Canadian and Australian Hobson family trees as migration is identified.  Often, the data is incorporated within a UK or US tree depending on where the line originated.

All countries:
The aim is to enter all information into TNG (The Next Generation) software package.  We have around 160,000 names in the main Hobson database of which 80,000 (300 trees) have been entered into TNG.   There are, of course, many hundreds of trees not yet entered.  The aim is to try and consolidate as many of the Hobson trees as possible prior to entering them.  Results from the Hobson DNA project are helping to limit/confirm any conjectures made. 

The principal variant of the surname Hobson is Hopson. This change appears to have occurred as families migrated southwards from Yorkshire, most likely as a result of regional dialect differences influencing pronunciation and spelling.

The surname is also frequently mis-transcribed in historical records as Robson (which shares a similar origin), as well as Holson, Kobson, Hodson, Habsen, Hebson, and other variants.

It is important to note that Hobson is not related to Hodson or Hodgson, which derive from the diminutive of Hodge, a pet form of Roger. Nor is it related to Hudson, which comes from the diminutive of Hudd, a pet form of Hugh or Richard, or to Hebson, which derives from Hebb, a short form of Hebert or Herbert. Despite superficial similarities, these surnames have distinct and separate origins.

A Hobron family line from New London County, Connecticut (USA) has been included within this study. This decision was made because a significant number of Hobron records have been incorrectly transcribed as Hobson. Including the Hobron family provides a practical means of identifying and eliminating erroneous Hobson entries from the Hobson datasets.

The Dictionary of English Surnames by Reaney and Wilson provides valuable insight into the origins of the Hobson surname. Hobson (and the variant Hopson) is a patronymic name meaning “son of Hob(b).” Hob was a common pet form of Rob or Robert, which also gave rise to related surnames such as Robson, Hobbs, Hobbes, Hobbis, and Hobbison.

In the introduction to their work, Reaney and Wilson include statistical observations on the popularity of personal names, while noting an important limitation: their analysis is based on recorded documentation, much of which reflects the upper classes rather than the far larger peasant population. They state that in the twelfth century the most common given names were William (10 per cent) and Robert (7 per cent), followed—though with regional variation—by Richard, Ralph, Roger, Hugo, and Walter. John, at only 3 per cent, was comparatively uncommon at that time. Over the following centuries, naming patterns shifted significantly. By the fourteenth century, John had become dominant (34 per cent), followed by William (18 per cent), then Thomas (9 per cent), Richard and Robert (6 per cent), with Henry, Roger, and Geoffrey also in use.

According to Wikipedia, Hobson is a patronymic surname with roots in Scandinavian Denmark, later reaching England during the Viking (793–1066) and Anglo-Saxon (450–1066) periods. This theory may help explain the strong historical presence of the Hobson surname in English counties such as Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire.

Other sources suggest that some Hobsons may derive their name from the Anglo-Saxon form Hobbeson, meaning “son of a worker.” In this context, a Hobbe was someone who worked with their hands.

Regardless of its precise origin, the surname Hobson clearly has multiple independent roots. As a result, there is considerable potential for a very large number of distinct family groupings within this one-name study.

Searching www.englandsimmigrants.com provides the names of three Hobsons who are known to have migrated to England towards the end of the Hundred's Year War (1337-1453): Helmer Hobson (living Middlesex) John Hobson (living Burton Pidsea, Yorkshire) and William Hobson (living Aberford, Yorkshire).

The first governor of New Zealand was a naval officer, William Hobson b 1793 Waterford Ireland, the son of Samuel Hobson, a prominent Barrister.  Hobsons Bay, a tidal inlet at the north end of North Island was named after him.  Founded in 1994, the City of Hobsons Bay, a local government area in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia was named after the Bay.

Thomas Hobson (1545-1631), the Cambridge Carrier, from whom Hobson's Choice (no choice at all) was derived.  Thomas ran a carrier business between Cambridge and London and hired out horses.  Each customer had to take the next horse in line or take no horse at all.  He is remembered in verse by John Milton.  A Conduit in Cambridge is named after him and the present Hobson House in Cambridge replaced a workhouse built by Thomas Hobson's charity.

Hobson's Choice was also the name of a 1954 British romantic comedy film directed by David Lean, based on the 1916 play of the same name by Harold Brighouse.

Hobson, Judith Basin County, Montana took its name from Simeon S Hobson, a prominent citizen.  Simeon was born 19 April 1839 in York County, Maine, but moved to Montana when it was comparatively new.

Rear Admiral Richmond Pearson Hobson (1870-1937) was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and received a medal of honour for his part in that conflict.  He went on to serve as a congressman for Alabama.

Inspired by Richmond Pearson Hobson's duty of patriotism, Hobson City, Calhoun County, Alabama, was named after him.  Founded in 1899, Hobson was the first all-black township to be incorporated in Alabama, the second all-black township in the US South.

The USS Hobson, a Gleaves-class destroyer minesweeper, was also named after Richmond Pearson Hobson.

Yule and Burnell's 1886 Anglo-Indian dictionary Hobson-Jobson gives definitions and origins of words in common use by the British in colonial India in the late nineteenth century.  The italicised words in the following paragraph all appear in the Hobson-Jobson dictionary.  "The British Empire, many pundits now agree, descended like a juggernaut upon the barbicans of the East, in search of loot. The moguls of the raj went in palanquins, smoking cheroots, to sup toddy or sherbet on the verandahs of the gymkhana club, while the memsahibs fretted about the thugs in bandannas and dungarees who roamed the night like pariahs, plotting ghoulish deeds.” (Rushdie, 1992:81)  

Sir Ronald Frank Hobson KCVO (1921-2017) was born in Edmonton, England to a poor family.  He served in the Army during WWII.  In 1948 he and Donald Gosling purchased a bombed-out plot of land in Holborn with permission to convert it into a carpark.  They invested £100 each.  In 1958 they bought National Car Parks (NCP) and then Green Flag in 1984.  They sold NCP (which had 650 car parks by that time) in 1998 for £801m.  They donated £25m towards the restoration of HMS Victory and paid for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's birthday celebrations in 2000.

The Right Honourable Sir John Gardiner Sumner Hobson (1912–67), trained as a lawyer, served in the Army in World War II and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.  He took silk in 1957, the year in which he became MP for Warwick and Leamington Spa (1957–67).  He was appointed Solicitor General in 1961, and from 1962 to 1964 he was Attorney General and legal adviser to Edward Heath.  He was one of the five Ministers who vetted the statement to the House of Commons in which John Profumo denied any impropriety in his relationship with Christine Keeler. He successfully prosecuted the spy William Vassal (1924–26), and then played a major part in the subsequent Radcliffe Tribunal (1963).

Geoffrey Dudley Hobson (1882-1949) bought a partnership in Sotheby’s Book Auctioneers in 1909 where he became a director and then Chairman. Geoffrey was a very good classical scholar and a fine linguist, fluent in seven languages.  He became a renowned authority in the field of rare books, specialising particularly in book bindings. He had significant influence on the development of Sotheby’s and expanded it to include all aspects of antiques and art as well as books.

William Hobson (1752-1840) was a renowned south London builder. In 1805 William Hobson was commissioned to build Martello Towers along the South and East coast as a defence against a potential French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars.  He was also involved in the construction of the London Docklands and the building of the new Newgate Prison.  William built Markfield House, Stamford Hill, Middlesex in 1798 where he lived with his large family.  The house was demolished in 1880 for housing development.

Analysis of the 1881 England and Wales census records shows a strong concentration of the Hobson surname in Yorkshire, particularly in the Sheffield area. Research to date suggests that the variant Hopson developed from Hobson, most likely as a result of regional dialects, as families moved west and south out of Yorkshire.

The distribution of the Hobson surname in the 1881 census is as follows:
West Yorkshire: 2,882 (33%), of which 534 were in Sheffield
North & East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: 1,021 (12%)
Lancashire: 1,103 (13%)
Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire: 1,086 (13%)
Other regions: 2,500 (29%)

Overall, the surname appears predominantly in Yorkshire, England. Traditionally, Hobsons worked in agricultural and skilled manual trades such as farming, stonemasonry, carpentry, and shoemaking. The highest concentration of the surname has long remained in Sheffield and its surrounding districts.

The Industrial Revolution drew many Hobsons into Sheffield and other rapidly expanding cities, including Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool, Doncaster, York, and Hull. Stonemasons were employed in the construction of new infrastructure, while others entered mining, steelmaking (with a notable concentration of cutlers), wool manufacturing, and related industries. Some Hobsons followed the growth of shipbuilding northwards to Durham and Teesside, while others moved further afield to work as potters in the Stoke-on-Trent and Burslem area, or later to Birmingham. As with most families, a number also relocated to London and the South of England. Nevertheless, the principal Hobson occupations of the nineteenth century were closely tied to mining and the steel industry.

From the sixteenth century onwards, there was significant growth of Hobsons in Cambridgeshire, thought to have originated from Yorkshire, with some families later spreading into Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Lincolnshire. This line produced the Cambridge carrier from whom the phrase “Hobson’s Choice” originated.

Hobsons began emigrating to the United States and Canada from the seventeenth century. While many of these origins have yet to be conclusively proven, evidence suggests that they frequently originated in Yorkshire, often migrating via Ireland. During the nineteenth century, further migration took place to Australia and New Zealand. The first Governor of New Zealand was William Hobson.

In the United States, the Hobson surname is most commonly found in the following states: California, North Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi.

In Canada, the highest concentrations of the Hobson surname occur in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta.

We are working to identify and confirm Hobson family DNA connections through FamilyTreeDNA.

Y-DNA testing (male Hobsons with the surname):

If you are a male Hobson who still carries the Hobson surname, we invite you to take a Y-DNA test through FamilyTreeDNA. This requires a direct male Hobson line, as Y-DNA is passed exclusively from father to son. Individuals who meet this criterion are quite rare, so if you are able to participate, we would be extremely grateful. The results will help us verify connections between Hobson family lines dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries—and potentially even earlier. When ordering the test, please be sure to join the Hobson Group.

Autosomal DNA testing (all Hobson descendants):

If you are a Hobson descendant—male or female—and have already taken an autosomal DNA test with Ancestry, 23andMe, or MyHeritage, you can upload your results to FamilyTreeDNA free of charge. Visit www.familytreedna.com, click “Upload DNA Data” in the top menu, and follow the instructions. You may also choose to take an autosomal DNA test directly with FamilyTreeDNA. While autosomal DNA is typically effective for tracing connections within the last five or six generations, it complements Y-DNA results, which allow us to explore much deeper ancestral links.

Once your results are uploaded to FamilyTreeDNA, please join the Hobson Group.  You can find the group here:
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/hobson