Person:Peter Hobart (2)

Youth in England

1559 - The "Act of Uniformity", passed early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, ordered every member of the clergy to use the "Common Book of Prayer," as authorized by Parliament. Any clergyman who "shall preach, declare or speak anything in the derogation or depraving to the said book or any thing therein contained or of any part thereof,---shall [forfeit] for his first offense the profeit of all his spiritual benefices or promotions coming or arising in one whole year next after his conviction [and] suffer imprisonment by the space of six months without bail." Some devout people objected to this Act because they sought more religious freedom and wanted to reform or purify the Church of England further. They were given the name of "Puritans." Act of Uniformity, 1559; Cowie, Leonard W., The Pilgrim Fathers, (London, 1970 - American edition, 1972) pp. 11-12.

1626 - In his boyhood, Peter Hobart walked several miles daily to and from a grammar school; then he attended a free school in Lynn, and from this he entered Magdalen College, University of Cambridge. He graduated in 1626, and soon after was teaching a grammar school. He lodged, in Hingham, at the house of Robert Peck, a clergyman of the Established Church of England, who though, at the time, was not openly friendly to his Puritan ideas, sometimes allowed young Peter Hobart to preach for him. Peck's tolerance of non-conformist ideas in the church may have gotten him in trouble with Bishop Harsnet, his diocesan, whose impudence in honor of the church was so great as to excite complaint from the people of Norwich, in 1623, to the House of Commons in Parliament. The Reverend Robert Peck, to escape the religious intolerance, left England in 1638 to join Peter Hobart in Hingham, MA (he returned to his home in England in 1641, and died in his old parsonage in 1656). Peter Hobart later married, second, to Rebbecca Peck, daughter of Joseph Peck, and a niece of the Rev. Robert Peck.

1627 - Peter Hobart was ordained a Minister of the Gospel by the Right Reverend Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Joseph Hall in 1627. In this year also, Peter also married for the first time to Elizabeth Ibrook.

For the next eight years he preached in several towns including Haverhill in Suffolk County. However, he became associated with the Puritans which aroused the hostility of the Prelacy, so he decided to join his father and brothers in New England. He embarked, with his wife and four children, in April 1635, and after a hard journey, arrived safely on June 8. They joined his father and brothers who had arrived in 1633.

New England

Peter joined the church in Charlestown, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts on August 30, 1635 and his family remained there for a time. He was one of the first settlers at Hingham, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts and served as the pastor there from 1635 until his death in 1679. The earliest known settlement of Hingham was made sometime in the year 1633, and the first houses were probably located upon what is now North Street, and near the bay which the erection of tide gates has converted into the Mill Pond. This little arm of the sea although fordable at low tide was still of sufficient depth to float craft of a size considered respectable in those days; and many a fishing smack has ridden out in safety the gales of winter under the lee of the protecting hills which surrounded it, and upon whose sunny southern slopes were perhaps the first cleared lands in the town.

Up it, too, sailed one day in the summer or early autumn of 1635, the Rev. Peter Hobart and his company; they landed, as we are told, on the northerly shore about opposite to where Ship and North streets intersect, and here in the open air, the first public religious services were held. Not far from this spot, and but a few rods in front of where Derby Academy now stands, and upon a part of the hill long since removed, was erected the first meeting-house. This was a plain square building, low and small as compared with modern churches, but constructed of hewn logs and undoubtedly very substantial. It was surmounted by a belfry containing a bell, and around was a palisade for defence against the Indians.^[8]

Rev. Hobart began a journal in 1637, and continued until his death in 1679, with his son David continuing until 1714, providing valuable information about the early residents of Hingham. Shortly after his death in 1679, his Hingham congregation constructed Old Ship Church, which is "the oldest continuously worshiped-in church in North America and the only surviving example in this country of the English Gothic style of the 17th century."^[9]

Peter's first wife died during child birth in December 1645. On February 3, 1646, he married Rebecca Peck, the daughter of Joseph and Rebecca (Clark) Peck. She died in 1692. Peter had a total of 18 children, 11 by his first wife and seven by his second. Five of his sons graduated from Harvard College, and four became ministers.

1. ↑ Edmund Hobart, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   Children... iii PETER, bp. 13 October 1604; m. (1) Covehithe, Suffolk, 12 October 1628 Rebecca Ibrook [ TAG 67:28], daughter of Richard Ibrook; m. (2) say 1646 Rebecca Peck, daughter of Joseph Peck (after his first wife's delivery of her last child in December 1645 [TAG 27:94]).
   [Note: TAG 67:28, co-author Robt. Charles Anderson, says wife is Elizabeth, so naming of Rebecca must be an error. See detailed source citations on Family:Peter Hobart and Elizabeth Ibrook (2).]

2. ↑ Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Hingham, Massachusetts, ca. 1639-1844. (New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   1:16.

   Rev. Peter Hobart Preacher in Hingham [died] Jan'y 20 [16]78-9.

3. ↑ Notes and Queries, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   57:224.

   Baptism from parish records of Hingham, Norfolk, England:
   "John Hubbert s. of Edmund Hubbert baptized xiii daie Oct. 1604".
   Source:Charles Smith and Rachel Amy Bryant : their ancestors and descendants, p. 178, notes this entry, but points out this is the same date, 13 Oct 1604, given by Rev. Peter Hobart in Hobart's Journal for his own birth, and so assumes this entry applies to Peter.

4. ↑ "Hobart Notes", in Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History and Biography
   19:188.

   Will of Peter Hobart of Hingham, dated 16 Jan 1678[/79?], proved 26 Feb 1678/79, names "Rebekah Hobart my wife" and "my six Children which shee have born unto mee, that is to say to my son Japhet Hobart, my son Nehemiah Hobart & my son David Hobart, and to my daughter Rebekah Hobart, my Daughter Abigail Hobart, And my Daughter Lydia Hobart"; "my brother Joshua Hobart"; "my son Josiah Hobart", "my son Israell Hobart"; "my eldest son Joshua Hobart", "my other Children not yet mentioned in this my will (to witt) my sonne Jeremiah Hobart, my sonne Gershom Hobart, my daughter Elizabeth Ripley the wife of John Ripley of Hingham[,] my daughter Hannah Browne of Salem widdow late the wife of John Browne deceased, my daughter Bathsheba Turner, the wife of Joseph Turner of Scittuate, & my daughter Jaell Bradford the wif[e of] Joseph Bradford of Plimoth".

5.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   2:435.

   "PETER, Hingham, s. of the first Edmund, b. 1604, at Hingham, Eng. bred at the Univ. of Cambridge, where on tak his A. B. 1625-6, and A. M. 1629, he wrote his name Hubberd, was of Magdalen Coll. had preach. at divers places, and last at Haverhill in Suff'k. bef. coming hither, where he arr. 8 June 1635, at Charlestown freem. 2 Sept. 1635, and in few days was sett. at Hingham, with old friends. He brot. w. and four ch. certain. Joshua, and Jeremiah H. C. 1650, bef. ment.; prob. Josiah and Elizabeth wh. m. John Ripley; and had here Ichabod in 1635; Hannah, 1637, both d. soon; Hannah again, 1638, wh. m. John Brown of Salem; Bathsheba, 1640, m. Joseph Turner of Scituate; Israel, 1642; Jael, Dec. 1643, m. 25 May 1664, Joseph Bradford; Gershom, b. prob. in 1645, H. C. 1667; Japhet, Apr. 1647, H. C. 1667; Nehemiah, 21 Nov. 1648, H. C. 1667; David, Aug. 1651; Rebecca, 3 Apr. 1654, m. 10 Oct. 1679, Daniel Mason of Stonington, as his sec. or third w.; Abigail, 19 Oct. 1656, d. unm. Apr. 1683; and Lydia, 1659; and the patriarch d. 20 Jan. 1679. His d. Lydia, the seventeenth ch. bec. 2d w. of capt. Thomas Lincoln in 1690, and d. 1732. His will, made only four days bef. he d. names fourteen liv. ch. names w. Rebecca, prob. d. of Richard Ibrook,[1] wh. was mo. of the last six ch. but it is quite observa. that in Hingham rec. ment. is not made of d. of the first w."

6.   Deed from six children of Rev. Peter Hobart, in Suffolk Co., Massachusetts Deeds 58 : 88.

   On 10 June 1680, Mr Jeremiah Hobart of Topsfeild in the County of Essex and Mr Gershom Hobart of Groton in the County of Middlesex and John Ripley and Elizabeth his Wife (of Hingham) in the County of Suffolk in the Massachusetts Colony in New England and John Rogers with Hannah his Wife of Duxbury and Joseph Bradford with Jael his Wife of Plimouth, and Joseph Turner with Bathsheba his Wife of Scituate in the Colony of New Plimouth", for 63 pounds, silver money of new England, sold to "Daniel Stodder, Josiah Lane, Ephraim Lane and Ebenezer Lane all of Hingham in the county of Suffolk ... All that their Second Division ... att Conahassett in the above said Hingham being the Twenty fifth Lot and Contain five and Twenty Shares: which said Division was formerly Mr Peter Hobart's of said Hingham who by his will gave it to his Children abovementioned as part of their portion:"

7.   Alicia Crane Williams. Early New England Families, 1641-1700. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013).

   Son of Edmund Hobart and Margaret Dewey. Baptized Hingham, Norfolk 8/13 October 1604 [citing GMB II 959 S1, supra), TAG 27:95 (13 Oct): NEHGR 57:224 (S3, supra); FamilySearch England Births & Christenings 1538-1975 (8 October 1604)).
   Died Hingham, Mass, 20 Jan 1678/9 "Peter Hobard my Hon Father dyed the twentieth day of Jan; about 10 of the o'clock at night being munday and was buried on thursday ye 23 day In the 75 years of his age being 53 yeares a Labourer in teh worke of the ministrie." (citing NEHGR 121:203; Hingham (1893), 2:335; Cohasset VR, 203).

8. ↑ History of Hingham published 1893
9. ↑ Old Ship Church, in Wikipedia, quoting The New York Times.