HOBBES, John

Hobbes was probably the eldest of four children of a minor Devon gentleman. The family appears to have been originally resident in the parish of Chudleigh, where John’s father asked to be buried. In his will Richard Hobbes bequeathed 6s. 8d. to each of his two sons, John (appointed an executor) and Andrew, and a heifer to each of his two daughters, Philippa and Margaret.4 Reg. Lacy, iv. 43. By the mid 1440s John had entered the service of Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, becoming his parker at ‘Goddesbere’, and it was in his capacity as a comital servant that the city of Exeter presented him with a dagger in 1446-7, when the citizens were seeking the earl’s support in their quarrel with Bishop Lacy over the bishop’s liberty within their walls.5 Devon RO, Exeter city recs., receiver’s acct. 25-26 Hen. VI. Equally, since Hobbes does not appear to have owned any property in Totnes, and is not known to have taken part in town life or administration there, it is probable that it was Courtenay patronage to which he owed his return to Parliament. Certainly, the county elections to both Parliaments to which Hobbes was returned were dominated heavily by the earl’s retainers, and his adherents were returned for the county of Devon, as well as for several of its boroughs.6 Cherry, 273, 277. The Totnes elections were held in the town and there is no evidence to show how the earl brought his influence to bear, but it is likely that the situation in the county court was repeated locally.7 H.R. Watkin, Totnes Priory and Town, i. 402, 413; ii. 947.

The earl of Devon’s interference in the south-western elections of 1449-50 owed everything to his local rivalry with Sir William Bonville* (a protégé of the King’s chief minister William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk), and his associate, Sir James Butler, who in the spring and summer of 1449 were respectively elevated to the barony of Bonville and the earldom of Wiltshire. It is not clear what part, if any, Hobbes, or for that matter any of Thomas Courtenay’s retainers in the Commons, played in the dramatic parliamentary assault on Suffolk, but for John at least his spell at Westminster presented a useful opportunity to pursue some private business, including a lawsuit against the influential Exeter merchant John Shillingford*, whom he accused of assaulting and imprisoning him.8 CP40/752, rot. 222; 758, rot. 130.

Before long, however, Hobbes’s continued association with his comital master catapulted him to the centre of political events in the south-west. Having failed to find any redress for his grievances in Parliament, Thomas Courtenay had withdrawn to the West Country, and from 1451 in conjunction with the duke of York sought to achieve his aims by violent means. A first open uprising in early 1452 was quickly quashed, and the earl and his chief retainers were placed under arrest. It is uncertain to what extent Hobbes was involved in his patron’s activities, but he may have been implicated at least in so far as to think it prudent in August to procure a royal pardon.9 C67/40, m. 16; KB145/6/31. The earl himself also soon regained his liberty and began to plot his revenge for his humiliation. Following a series of skirmishes in 1454 and early 1455, in the autumn of 1455 he once more gathered his armed retainers and began a series of violent assaults on his opponents in the south-west, notably those connected with Bonville and Wiltshire. The most prominent of these was the earl’s own second cousin, (Sir) Philip Courtenay*, who resided at the strategic mansion of Powderham on the river Exe. In November a large contingent of the earl’s men, among them Hobbes, marched from Exeter to lay siege to Powderham.10 KB27/781, rot. 33. But despite bombarding the mansion with serpentines for several hours, the news of a relieving force led by Lord Bonville soon forced them to abandon their goal. Having thus failed to take Powderham, the earl’s men sought to damage their master’s enemies in other ways, and began to sack their property across the county. The detachment of which Hobbes was part made its way to Cadlegh, battered down the doors of Sir Philip’s house, and ransacked it.11 CP40/800, rot. 84. Although he was probably not among the armed mob led by the earl’s son and heir, Sir Thomas Courtenay, which on 23 Oct. brutally assassinated the recorder of Exeter, Nicholas Radford*, within two weeks he had apparently appropriated some £40-worth of the murdered man’s goods.12 KB146/6/35/1.

Yet, as in 1452, the earl’s show of force brought him no lasting benefits. By 1456 he had been firmly reined in, and his opponents exacted their revenge in the royal courts. Like many of Earl Thomas’s retainers, Hobbes found himself in the Marshalsea, awaiting trial for his part in the uprising,13 KB27/781, rot. 33; KB9/16/67. and eventually sued out a pardon in January 1458.14 C67/42, m. 43. Just days later, the earl of Devon died at Abingdon. With his death, Hobbes’s public career probably came to an end, although it is just possible that he formed an association with another south-western magnate, the volatile Henry Holand, duke of Exeter, and that it was he who, described as ‘of London, yeoman’, was among the Lancastrian defenders of the Tower of London in June 1460.15 KB9/75. Nothing further is heard of that John Hobbes, and he may either have been among those who were subsequently executed in retaliation for their bombardment of the city, or alternatively may have escaped with his life, but thought it prudent to lie low. In any case, the downfall of the Lancastrian Courtenays of Tiverton combined with the duke of Exeter’s exile deprived him of any obvious patron who might have facilitated an accommodation with the new rulers.