Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hobart, John (1694?-1756)
HOBART, JOHN, first Earl of Buckinghamshire (1694?–1756), son of Sir Henry Hobart, fourth baronet, who was killed in a duel early in 1699, was in his fifth year at the time of his father's death. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and was M.P. for St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1715 and from 1722 to 1727, and for Norfolk from 1727 to 1728. In 1721 he was a commissioner for trade and plantations. On 17 June 1725 he was created a knight of the Bath. At the accession of George II he was treasurer of the chamber, and the following year (28 May 1728) was created Baron Hobart of Blickling, Norfolk. On 31 Jan. 1739–40 he was nominated lord-lieutenant of Norfolk, and was sworn of the privy council on 3 Jan. 1744–5. On 5 Sept. 1746 he was created Earl of Buckinghamshire. One of the sisters of Buckinghamshire was Henrietta, afterwards Countess of Suffolk [see Howard, Henrietta]. The favour with which she was regarded by George II is supposed not to have been without its effect on her brother's rapid rise to honour (Coxe, Life of Sir R. Walpole, i. 276). Buckinghamshire died on 22 Sept. 1756. His portrait was painted by Thomas Hudson.
Buckinghamshire married, first, in 1722, Judith, daughter of Robert Brittiffe of Baconsthorpe in Norfolk; she died 7 Feb. 1727; secondly, in 1728, Elizabeth, sister of Robert Bristow. John, his son by his first marriage, succeeded as second earl (see below), and George Hobart [q. v.], eldest son of the second marriage, became third earl.
[Collins's Peerage, v. 153, ed. 1779; Gent. Mag. 1756, p. 451; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 271; Lipscomb's Hist. of Buckinghamshire, ii. 274.]