Japhet HOBART

Notes:

Name:
Harvard College class of 1667.

About 1670 he "went in the Quality of a Doctor of a Ship to England, (before the Time for the taking his second Degree at College) and designed to go from thence to the East-Indies, and never was heard of more." "The Family Tradition is that one of Peter's ons went home to England & travelled into foreign Parts, renounced his Religion & became a Romanist, & died a Cardinal or some great Dignitary in the Church of Rome."

Notes:

Name:
"I with my wife and four children came safely to New England June ye 8; 1635 for ever praysed be the god of Heaven my god and king." Arrived at Charlestown, Massachusetts, age 31, with pregnant wife and four children aged one to seven; removed to Hingham, Massachusetts by the following September, joining his father and brothers, who had arrived in New England in 1633.

Peter Hobart is the son of EDMOND HOBART, and first wife MARGARET DEWEY. Borther of EDMUND HOBART, THOMAS HOBART, ALICE HOBART wife of THOMAS CHUBBUCK, and JOSHUA HOBART. Name also spelled Hobert, Hubbard, Hubbert.

Admitted Freeman 2 Sept. 1635.

Involved in the great controversy of 1645 that began when the local train band elected Bozoun Allen as their lieutenant replacing Anthony Eames. After a number of scuffles between Eames and Allen's followers (including Peter Hobart's bothers Edmund, Joshua, and Thomas), Eames complained to the magistrates in Boston. A warrant was issued for the three Hobart brothers and others who were deemed the leaders of the coup, bringing Rev. Peter to Boston "using such high words that the Magistrates told him that only their respect for his Ministry saved him from being committed." The disagreement touched on a sore point between the Boston magistrates and church authorities and the local town leaders who insisted they could choose their own officers. The men were required to give bond against appearance at court. Deputy Governor John Winthrop tried to make them see the error of their ways, but eventually arrested them a few weeks later for refusing to give the bond.

Eighty-one Hingham men, with Peter Hobart's name as the first, presented a petition to the General Court asking it to hear the case. the proceedings took seven weeks and included accusations against Winthrop for false imprisonment. Winthrop spoke in his own defense at the court, but the magistrates and deputies were split between those who agreed that the magistrates exercised too much power, endangering the people's liberty, and those who felt authority was being flaunted and would bring down the colony. The matter went back and forth between the magistrates and the deputies, at one point talk of arbitration fro the elders entered the picture, but eventually the political factions agreed to censure everyone and levy some modest fines. Rev. Hobart was fined, L2, apparently for being "y first subscribed ye peticon." However, when the marshal went to Hingham to collect the fines, he was resisted, and what he did collect was "rescued" from him. Pastor Hobart was called back to court and accused of "seditious practice and a derogation and contempt of authority" in encouraging the resistance, Hobart asked for a trial by jury, which found that e "seemed to be ill-affected toward this government, and that his speeches tended to sedition and contempt..." The court fined him L20 and ordered him to give bond against his "good behavior" until the next court. "It is said that at this sentence his spirit rose; he would like to know what the "good behavior" was..."

OCCUPATION:

Minister of the Gospel for fifty-two years (eight in England and forty-four in New England.)

PERSONAL:

Educated at the local grammar school and at the free school at Lyn, where he prepared for the University of Cambridge. he received his B.A. at Magdalen College in 1625, then taught grammar school until returning to college and earned his M.A. in 1629. five of his sons graduated fro Harvard College and four became ministers.

Peter married Rebecca PECK on 3 Jul 1646. Rebecca (daughter of Joseph PECK and Rebecca CLARK) was christened on 25 May 1620 in Hingham, Norfolk, England; died on 9 Sep 1693 in Hingham, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]