Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/294

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Hobhouse
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Hobhouse

for the church schools, and helped to found the Culham training college for school-masters. On his father's death in 1854 he devoted part of his patrimony to providing at St. Edmund Hall and St. Alban Hall, Oxford, help for necessitous students. On the subdivision of the diocese of New Zealand, Bishop G. A. Selwyn [q. v.] obtained the appointment of Hobhouse to the new see of Nelson, for which he was consecrated in 1858. The diocese, extending over 20,000 square miles, had a sparse and scattered population, with few roads. Its difficulties were increased by the outbreak of the Maori war, and by the discovery of gold. Hobhouse was diligent in ministering to his scattered flock, was generous in hospitality, provided a residence for the holder of the see, and founded the Bishop's School. But the work broke down his health; he resigned the see in 1865 and returned home in 1866. In 1867 he became incumbent of Beech Hill, near Reading. On Bishop Selwyn's translation to Lichfield he made Hobhouse, in 1869, his assistant bishop, and in 1871 gave him the rectory of Edlaston, Derbyshire. During 1874r-5 he was chancellor of the diocese, though he had no legal training (Life and Episcopate of G. A. Selwyn, ii. 350). On the death of Selwyn in 1878, the new bishop, W. D. Maclagan [q. v. Suppl. II], retained him as assistant; but ill-health led him to resign in 1881. He retired to Wells, lending aid to clergy around him but refusing office. The Somerset Archæological Society gained in him an active member, and he helped to found the Somerset Record Society. He died at Wells on 20 April 1904.

Hobhouse was twice married: (1) in 1858 to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of General the Hon. John Brodrick (d. 1864), by whom he had two sons; and (2) in 1868 to Anna Maria, daughter of David Williams, warden of New College, Oxford, who survived him. Hobhouse, who was from his Oxford days a zealous student of English mediæval history, more especially on its ecclesiastical side, published 'A Sketch of the Life of Walter de Merton' (1859), and edited the 'Register of Robert de Norbury, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry' (in 'Collections for a History of Staffordshire,' vol. i. 1880). For the Somerset Record Society he edited 'Calendar of the Register of John de Drokensford, 1309-1329' (1887); 'Churchwardens' Accounts of Croscombe, &c.' (1890); 'Rentalia et Custumaria Michaelis de Ambresbury' (1891); and (with other members of the council) 'Two Cartularies of the Augustinian Priory of Bruton and the Cluniac Priory of Montacute' (1894). A volume of sermons and addresses was printed in 1905.

[Memoir by his son, Walter Hobhouse, prefixed to Sermons and Addresses, 1905; The Times, 22 April 1904; Guardian, 27 April 1904; Athenæum, 30 April 1904.]

A. R. B.


HODGETTS, JAMES FREDERICK (1828–1906), commander and archæologist, son of James Hodgetts (d. 1830) by his wife Judith, daughter of Richard May, portrait painter, was born in London on 18 Jan. 1828. After his father's death his mother married Edward William Brayley [q. v.]. Hodgetts did not get on with his stepfather, who educated him for a scientific career. As a boy he assisted Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick [q. v.] in the arrangement of the Tower armoury. At an early age he went to sea, was in the East India Company's service in the Burmese war of 1851, became commander in the Indian navy, was wrecked, and had a narrow escape from drowning off the coast of Australia. He volunteered for service in the Crimean war; not being accepted, he became professor of seamanship at the Prussian naval cadets' school in Berlin till 1866, when the school was abolished. Having studied Russian in India, he transferred his services at the suggestion of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison [q. v.] to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he lectured as professor in the Imperial College of Practical Science till his retirement in 1881. Coming to London, he patented a design for ships' hulls, which was not carried out; wrote stories for boys in the 'Boys' Own Paper' ('Harold the Boy Earl ' being the first), afterwards published separately; and wrote and lectured on archæological subjects, contributing to the 'Journal of the British Archaeological Association' and to the 'Antiquary.' He was engaged on an unfinished fife of Alfred the Great. , He died at his residence, 24 Cheniston Gardens, Kensington, on 24 April 1906. He married (1) in 1858 Isabella Gough (d. 1862), by whom he had a son, Edward Arthur Brayley Hodgetts; and (2) in 1867 Augusta Louisa von Dreger, by whom he had one daughter.

Among his publications were : 1. 'Ivan Dobroff: a Russian Story,' Philadelphia, 1866. 2. 'Anglo-Saxon Dress and Food,' &c., 1884 (lectures at the International Health Exhibition). 3. 'Anglo-Saxon Dwellings,' &c., 1884 (ditto). 4. 'Older England,' &c., 1884 (six lectures at the