Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/43

 186). American authorities state that this narrative is substantially accurate (''Edinb. Rev''. No. 337, pp. 174–5).

In 1867, seeking a new career of adventure, Hobart entered the Turkish service as naval adviser to the sultan, in succession to Admiral Sir Adolphus Slade. His first work in this capacity was the suppression of the Cretan rebellion by a strategic intercepting of the supplies from Greece. For this service he was raised to the rank of full admiral, with the title of pasha (1869). The Turkish fleet was reorganised and improved under his direction, but in the war of 1877 the jealousy of the authorities prevented him, as commander of the Black Sea fleet, from achieving any notable naval success, though he displayed considerable skill in baffling the Russian torpedoes, for which weapon he entertained a hearty contempt. In 1881 the sultan, who highly esteemed the admiral, appointed him mushir or marshal of the empire. Hobart's action against Greece in 1867 was a breach of the Foreign Enlistment Act, and he was accordingly struck off the British navy list. Restored to his naval rank in 1874 by Lord Derby's influence, he was again erased from the list in 1877 for having a second time defied the act by his command of the Black Sea fleet against Russia, a ‘friendly power,’ but was finally restored in June 1885, with the rank of British vice-admiral. In that year he visited London with a view to forming an offensive alliance between England and Turkey at the time of the Penjdeh incident in the Afghan crisis. In 1886 he went to Italy to recruit his health, but died at Milan on 19 June. Hobart was twice married: first (1848) to Mary Anne (d. 13 May 1877), second daughter of Dr. Colquhoun Grant, and, secondly (1879), to Edith Katherine, daughter of Herbert Francis Hore of Pole Hore, co. Wexford, who edited his ‘Sketches.’ Hobart's ‘Sketches of My Life’ was issued posthumously in 1887. Many stirring episodes there described (pp. 17–70) belong to the period 1835–44; but the book is so strange and contradictory a mixture of fact and fiction that it is impossible to treat it as a serious autobiography. A writer in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ (January 1887, No. 337), with full knowledge of the navy records, has subjected Hobart's reminiscences to an exhaustive criticism, and proves conclusively not only that he has unaccountably confused dates and places, but that he lays claim to experiences which he could never have had, and to exploits which were those of brother officers. Either Hobart's memory was failing when he dictated these ‘Sketches’ shortly before his death, or else he related whatever good stories occurred to him with the intention of authenticating and revising them afterwards, but was prevented by death. The tone of the book precluded the suggestion of intentional romancing.



HOBBES, ROBERT (d. 1538), the last abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Woburn in Bedfordshire, held the office in 1529 (Dugdale gives the date of appointment as 1524). Hobbes was summoned to convocation in November 1529, and in the following January received a license to hold two annual fairs in the town of Woburn. In 1532 he, with four other abbots, was commissioned by the king to hold a visitation of the whole Cistercian order, in place of the abbot of Chailly, who had been charged to undertake this duty by the head visitor and reformator of the order, but was not allowed to perform it personally, being a Frenchman. In 1534 he not only himself acknowledged the king as supreme head of the church, but by advice and threats prevailed upon many of his monks to do the same. The deed of acknowledgment does not happen to have been preserved, but the fact is clearly proved by his confession. Subsequent events, however, such as the execution of the Carthusians and the suppression of monasteries, led him to repent of his action, and to maintain that ‘the part of the bishop of Rome was the true way,’ and ‘the king's part but usurpation desiderated by flattery and adulation.’ In time this became known at court. In May 1538 Hobbes and some of his monks were examined in the Tower, and his confession showed that he had failed to advocate the royal supremacy in his sermons, and that he did not believe in the existence of episcopal authority except as derived from the pope. Accordingly he was sent down to Lincoln to be tried, together with two of his brethren, Laurence Blonham, alias Peck, and Richard Woburn, alias Barnes, and the three, as well as the vicar of Puddington, were executed at Woburn. In 1818 there was still standing before the gate of the abbey an oak tree which was said to have been used as the gallows on that day.



HOBBES, THOMAS (1588–1679), philosopher, second son of Thomas Hobbes, vicar of Charlton and Westport, was born at Westport (now part of Malmesbury, Wiltshire)