Isaac Hobhouse (1685 – 1763) was an English slave trader, merchant, and member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. Based in Bristol, he was at the centre of money, trade, and credit and acquired much of his fortune through the trade and exploitation of African slaves in the 18th century.[1]
Early life
Hobhouse, the youngest of four children, was born in 1685 in Minehead, Somerset, England to John Hobhouse and Anne Maddox. In the seventeenth century, the Hobhouse family worked as shipwrights and mariners in Minehead.[2] Shortly after his father died, Isaac Hobhouse became interested in Bristol and migrated there in 1717 with his brother-in-law, Christopher Jones. Hobhouse was a resident of Queen Square, Bristol.[3] Hobhouse remained unmarried all his life.[4]
Career
Although primarily a merchant, Hobhouse was voted as burgess of Minehead in the elections of 1713 and 1717 and, a year later, he became churchwarden in Minehead. He then became a free burgess in Bristol in 1724 and was a partner of a local copper company in Bristol, Joseph Pervicall and Copper Company.[2] Additionally, he owned shares in a sugar refinery in Redcliffe, Bristol at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At the age of 39, he became a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. When the new African Company was founded in 1750, he became a member. Hobhouse retired from business around 1757 or 1758.[4][2]
Slavery
His business interests were focused on trade between
Death
Hobhouse died around 20 February 1763,[12] at his house in Queen Square.[1]
References
- Isaac Hobhouse, Slave Merchant British City Council: Museum Collections, retrieved 13 September 2017^
- Walter E. Minchinton, Isaac Hobhouse. The Virginia Letters of Isaac Hobhouse, Merchant of Bristol The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, July 1958^
- Madge Dresser. Slavery Obscured: The Social History of the Slave Trade in an English Provincial Port Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016, 6 October 2016, retrieved 25 October 2017