Person:Thomas Hobbs (14)

Thomas Hobbs' origins have yet to be established. His first confirmed sighting is on 11th October 1750, when he married Rebecca Bracey at Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Thomas was working as being a brickmaker when they married.

Thomas and Rebecca initially lived in Hitchin, having their first five children there between 1751 and 1759. Some time between 1759 and 1761 they left Hitchin, moving a few miles south to the town of Ware on the River Lea. They later moved to the parishes Cheshunt and Broxbourne, which are both a short distance downstream from Ware on the River Lea. They had two children baptised in each of Ware, Cheshunt and Broxbourne. Overall, Rebecca and Thomas had eleven children, and Rebecca was 44 when her youngest child was born. Neither Thomas nor Rebecca has been traced after the baptism of their youngest child in Broxbourne in 1772. There are two possible burials for Rebecca at Broxbourne (in 1772 and 1794) but insufficient information given to say which (if either) is her, whilst there do not appear to be any Thomas Hobbs burials in a plausible timeframe at Broxbourne.