Isaac Hobhouse

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. 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. 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. Hobhouse remained unmarried all his life. 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. 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. Slavery His business interests were focused on trade between England, the western coast of Africa, South Carolina, and Virginia, but Virginia was not his main trade concern. Hobhouse was the leader of the firm of Isaac Hobhouse and Company. This company arranged forty-four voyages, and Hobhouse invested in others’ slaving voyages in Bristol. The partners of his firm changed from time to time and included masters of vessels, such as Captain Owen Arnold, and planters in the West Indies, such as John Molineux of Montserrat. Another notable partner of the company was Lionel Lyde who was especially involved in the tobacco and slave trades concerning Virginia. Hobhouse would often petition the government on matters regarding the slave trade; however, he never held public office.