The Hobbs Family
Albert Frank Hobbs
known as "Frank"
1867, in Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs

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Mr Hobbs and "Company Car" set off for a
valuation.
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Susie Theyer
Frank was a founder of the company
Hobbs & Chambers, auctioneers and estate agents in Wiltshire and
Gloucestershire. As well as disposing of the contents of some of the larger
country houses in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire in the early
years of the 20th Century, present day buyers might be amused to know that
Hobbs & Chambers, Auctioneers once stood in Faringdon market place
selling chickens and eggs!
1871: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881:
King
Alfreds College, Wantage, Berkshire
Anne Elizabeth Hobbs
1856, in Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1871: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881:
Manor
House,
Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire
- England Birth Index
(2Q1856 vol 6a p318); exact place from 1881 census
Catherine Hobbs
1850, in Wantage, Berkshire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
1851: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881:
Manor
House,
Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire
- England Birth Index
(1Q1850 vol 6 p287); exact place from 1881 census
Charles Hobbs
1822/3, in Buscot, Berkshire, England
William Hobbs
Elizabeth (Turner) Hobbs
Catherine Frampton in 1847. Catherine was born in 1821/2,
in South Marston, Wiltshire. She died in 1877, in Cirencester
district aged 55.
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Kelmscott Manor
watercolor [c1905] by Marie Spartali Stillman
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Kelmscott Manor c1890
by Marie Spartali Stillman
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Kelmscott Manor today
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The drawing room at Kelmscott Manor c1895
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Farmer. In 1881, Charles was
farming 818 acres in Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire, and employed 25
labourers, 5 women and 9 boys.
1893 in Cirencester
district aged 70
Charles farmed an 818 acre farm "The Manor" at Meysey
Hampton from 1848. In 1867 he inherited Kelmscott, on the banks of the River
Thames, from his mother. Charles retained the farmland but in 1871 he leased
(and later sold) Kelmscott
Manor to William
Morris, a noted designer, who used Kelmscott as a summer home. Morris
noted that it looked to him as if Kelmscott Manor had "grown up out of the
soil" and he noted the "quaint garrets amongst great timbers of the roof
where of old times the tillers and herdsmen slept". The manor is now owned
and managed by the Society of Antiquaries
of London. The Hobbses continued to farm the land with Charles's son RW
farming the Home Farm in Kelmscott.
1851: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1871: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881:
Manor
House,
Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire
- 1881 census
- Liza Hobbs; Catherine
birth from 1851 census; Catherine death from England Death Index (3Q1877
vol 6a p205)
- 1881 census
- England Death Index
(4Q1893 vol 6a p289)
- Liza Hobbs and
http://www.kelmscottmanor.co.uk/
Charles Hobbs
1852, in Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Charles Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
Louisa
Jane Plumbe
Farmer. In 1881, Charles was
farming 340 acres in Bampton, Oxfordshire, and employed 10 men, 8 boys and 3
women
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1871: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881: Farm House, Bampton,
Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(1Q1853 vol 6a p318); exact place from 1881 census; Liza Hobbs has
Charles's birth year as 1852, which is, of course, possible with a
1Q1853 birth registration.
- 1881 census
- 1881 census
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Charles Ernest John Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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Charles Ernest John Hobbs
known as "Ernest"
1876, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert William
Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Maud Davis. Maud was the sister of
H. J. V. Davis who married Charles's half-sister Helen.
1881: Kelmscot, Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(3Q1876 vol 2c p254); exact place from 1881 census.
- Liza Hobbs
Charles Ashton Hobbs
1880, in Bampton, Oxfordshire,
England
Charles Hobbs
Louisa
Jane (Plumbe) Hobbs
1881: Farm House, Bampton,
Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(3Q1880 vol 3a p776); exact place from 1881 census
Dorothy Kate (Hobbs) Jones
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Dorothy Kate Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1888, in Faringdon
district, Oxfordshire, England
Robert
William Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
W. J. Preston Jones
- England Birth Index
(3Q1888 vol 2c p265)
- Liza Hobbs
Ethel Elizabeth Hobbs
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Ethel Elizabeth Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1875, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert William
Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
1881: Farm House, Bampton,
Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(1Q1875 vol 2c p267); exact place from 1881 census
Frederick William Hobbs

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Frederick William Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1878, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert William
Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Caroline Reading in 1907 in Faringdon district,
Oxfordshire, England
1881: Kelmscot, Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(4Q1878 vol 2c p278); exact place from 1881 census
- England Marriage Index
(2Q1907 vol 2c p585)
Harold Langley Hobbs
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Harold Langley Hobbs c1905
(click for full photo)
photo courtesy of Peter Duffill
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Harold Langley Hobbs and Mabel Sarah Cross
photo courtesy of Peter Duffill
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1882, in Witney
district, Oxfordshire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Louisa
Jane (Plumbe) Hobbs
Mabel Sarah Cross
Harold farmed in Argentina, where he
was a breeder of Hampshire Down sheep.
- England Birth Index
(4Q1882 vol 3a p775)
- Marriage: Peter Duffill
- Peter Duffill
Helen Maud (Hobbs) Davis
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Helen Maud Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1893, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert
William Hobbs
Louisa (Heath) Hobbs
H. J. V. Davis.
H. J. V. Davis was the brother of Maud Davis who married Helen's
half-brother, Charles Ernest. He was a partner with Robert Hobbs and farmed
Paradise Farm, Kelmscott Farm (for about 12 years), Mill Farm in South Leach
and Aston Farm. He died in 1978.
1901:
Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
- England Birth
Index (3Q1893 vol 2c p280); exact place from 1901 census
- Liza Hobbs
Henry Hobbs
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
Henry lived for only a few hours.
Henry Hobbs
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Henry Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1886, in Faringdon
district, Oxfordshire, England
Robert
William Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Edith Tayler
1971
- England Birth
Index (1Q1887 vol 2c p273); Liza Hobbs has Henry's birth year as 1886,
which is, of course, possible with a 1Q1887 birth registration.
- Liza Hobbs
- Liza Hobbs
James Parnel Hobbs
1858/9, in Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1871: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881:
Manor
House,
Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire
Kathleen Hobbs
Charles
Hobbs
Louisa
Jane (Plumbe) Hobbs
Langley Hobbs
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Langley Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1882, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert
William Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Evelyn M. O. O. Jenkyn in 1910 in Brentford district,
London, England
Farmer
1940
1901:
Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(3Q1882 vol 2c p270); exact place from 1901 census
- England Marriage Index
(3Q1910 vol 3a p217)
- 1901 census
- Liza Hobbs
Lillian Hobbs
Charles
Hobbs
Louisa
Jane (Plumbe) Hobbs
Mary Anne Hobbs
1848, in Wantage, Berkshire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
1851: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881: Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
- England Birth Index
(4Q1848 vol 6 p26*); exact place from 1851, 1881 census
Muriel Hobbs
Charles
Hobbs
Louisa
Jane (Plumbe) Hobbs
Robert William Hobbs
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Robert William Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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known as "RW"
1851, in Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth Plumbe in 1874, in Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire, England
Louisa Heath in 1892, in Pembroke district,
Pembrokeshire, Wales
Louisa was born in 1862-3, in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
Census:
1901:
Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
Children:
Lottie Goldby
Farmer. In 1881, Robert was farming 600 acres, and
employed 22 men, 3 boys and 5 women. RW founded an agricultural company (RW
Hobbs).
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1871: Westham Farm, Ashton Keynes,
Wiltshire
1881: Kelmscot, Oxfordshire
1901:
Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
1919: Kelmscott, Lechdale, Gloucestershire (manifest of the Adriatic
13 September 1919)
- England Birth Index
(2Q1851 vol 11 p262); exact place from 1881, 1901 census
- England Marriage
Index (2Q1874 vol 5a p49); exact place from Keith Hazell
- England
Marriage Index (3Q1892 vol 11a p1496); Louisa birth from 1901 census
- Liza Hobbs
- 1881 1901, census;
Liza Hobbs
Robert Hobbs
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Robert Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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25 June 1877, in Kelmscott,
Oxfordshire, England
22 July 1877, in Kelmscott,
Oxfordshire, England
Robert was baptised on July 22 1877, the child of Robert William Hobbs, a
farmer resident in Kelmscott, and Fanny Elizabeth.
Robert William
Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
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Adeline May (Elliot) Hobbs
in a brochure from her lecture tour in the United States in 1919
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May Elliot Hobbs in the Rock Garden she
made at her home at Kelmscott, in the same brochure
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Adeline
May Isabella Elliot on 28 November 1906 in the church of Kelscott,
Bradwell, Oxfordshire, England
Robert Hobbs is recorded as a bachelor, aged 29, a farmer, resident at
Kelmscott. He is the son of Robert W. Hobbs, a farmer. Adeline May Isabella
Elliot is recorded as a spinster, aged 29, resident at Fulham, Middlesex.
She is the daughter of Walter Elliot, a farmer. The marriage was witnessed
by Jessie Elliot and Robert W. Hobbs.
Adeline was born on 7 February 1877 in Galashields, Selkirkshire, Scotland,
the daughter of Walter and Jessie Elliot. She was a professional musician,
and in 1919 she undertook a lecture tour of the United States, speaking on
topics of folk song and dance, Morris sword dancing and women's institutes.
A brochure
from that tour provides some additional insight to her life:
After
training in Weimar and Munich, under Bernard Stavenhagen, the famous
pupil of Liszt, May Elliot was first heard of as a pianist in many
countries of the European Continent and in Great Britain.
As a child—the daughter of an eminent
Scottish agriculturist—she had been brought up on the songs and dances
of her native Scottish Border, the scene of the romantic legends and
poetical traditions first made known to the world by Sir Walter Scott.
After her marriage to a member of one of the oldest and most
famous farming families in England, she went to live in the Thames
valley village of Kelmscott, where the Manor House belonging to her
husband’s family was rented to the poet, William Morris.
At Kelmscott May Elliot Hobbs was brought into contact with Cecil
Sharp, then in full swing of his English Folk Song and Dance collecting.
From 1908 onwards she was his close friend and supporter.
...During the War, May Elliot Hobbs was Administrator to the Ministry of
Agriculture, and she had the opportunity of helping on the formation of
Women’s Institutes, now 4,000 string in Great Britain, and recognised as
the most important agency for the development of community life and
rural arts and handicrafts.
May Elliot Hobbs is a woman who, in the phrase of her friend,
General Smuts, has “raised the temperature” of life.
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Gravestone of Adeline May (Elliot) Hobbs
in St George's churchyard, Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
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Adeline died on 30 December 1956 in Witney
district, Oxfordshire, England, aged 79.
England &
Wales, National Probate Calendar Wills 1957 p505
HOBBS Adeline May Isabella Elliot of
Kelmscott Lechlade Gloucestershire (wife of Robert Hobbs) died 23
December 1956 Administration Oxford 7 February to Barclays Bank
Limited. Effects £1414 12s. 3d.
Census & Addresses:
1906: Fulham, Middlesex (marriage record)
1911:
Kelmscott, Berkshire
- Robert Elliot Turner Hobbs (1907 - ? )
Farmer. Bert took over the farm
at Kelmscott from his father "RW". He was very well-known amongst the wider
farming community in his day, since he was a pioneer breeder of Short Horn
cattle. It's a breed no longer favoured, but his name will still
occasionally raise a glint in the eye of an older farmer.
known as "Bert".
Robert and Adeline traveled to the United States aboard the SS Adriatic,
arriving in New York on 13 September 1919.
26 December 1967, in Witney
district, Oxfordshire, England, aged 90
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Gravestone of Robert Hobbs in St George's
churchyard, Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
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St George's churchyard, Kelmscott,
Oxfordshire, England
The inscription reads:
In loving memory of Robert Hobbs died Dec 26 1967
aged 90 years
granted on 14 May 1968
England &
Wales, National Probate Calendar Wills 1968 p395
HOBBS Robert of Bradshaws Kelmscott
Lechlade Glos died 26 December 1967 Probate Gloucester 14
May £16186.
1881: Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
1891:
Bedford, Bedfordshire
1901:
Kelmscott, Oxfordshire
1906: Kelmscott, Oxfordshire (marriage record)
1911:
Kelmscott, Berkshire
1967: Bradshaws, Kelmscott, Lechlade, Gloucestershire (probate)
Stanley Hobbs
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Stanley Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1879, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert William
Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Emmeline Mary Badham in 1907 in Gloucester district,
Gloucestershire, England
1881: Kelmscot, Oxfordshire
- England Birth
Index (1Q1880 vol 2c p282); exact place from 1881 census; Liza Hobbs has
Stanley's birth year as 1879, which is, of course, possible with a
1Q1880 birth registration.
- England Marriage Index
(3Q1907 vol 6a p690)
Wilfred Hobbs
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Wilfred Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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1881, in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire,
England
Robert William
Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Olsa Steele
1881: Kelmscot, Oxfordshire
William Frampton Hobbs
1859/60, in Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Charles
Hobbs
Catherine (Frampton) Hobbs
Sarah Elizabeth Akerman in 1885,
in Faringdon
district, Oxfordshire, England
- Edith Hobbs
- Grafton Hobbs
Farmed at Langford.
1861: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1871: Manor House, Meysey Hampton,
Gloucestershire
1881:
Manor
House,
Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire
- 1861, 1881 census
- England Marriage Index
(2Q1885 vol 2c p503)
- Liza Hobbs
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Winifred Hobbs c1898
(click for full photo)
scan courtesy of Liza Hobbs
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Winifred (Hobbs) Lusty
1884
Robert
William Hobbs
Fanny
Elizabeth (Plumbe) Hobbs
Frith Lusty in 1908 in Faringdon
district, Oxfordshire, England. Frith was a banker.
- Robert Frith Lusty (1909 - 1991). Sir Robert Lusty was a noted
publisher and Governor of the BBC from 1960-1968. He was knighted in
1969. Robert wrote an autobiography "Bound to be Read" published in
1975.
- Liza Hobbs
- England Marriage Index
(3Q1908 vol 2c p659)
- Robert details from
http://www.library.rdg.ac.uk/colls/special/lusty.html
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