Isaac Hobhouse

Isaac Hobhouse (1685 – 1763) was an English slave trader, merchant, and member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. Shortly after his father died, Isaac Hobhouse became interested in Bristol and migrated there in 1717 with his brother-in-law, Christopher Jones. 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. 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.

Hobhouse emerged as an agent for slaving voyages in the 1720s and conducted sixty-eight trans-Atlantic voyages throughout his involvement in the slave trade. At the peak of his career in 1728, Hobhouse sent five ships in that single season. In 1741 and 1743 respectively, Hobhouse sent only a single ship likely due to the conflict between Britain and France in the War of Austrian Succession. As for being a ship-owner, Hobhouse owned thirty-four vessels, including Seaflower and Amoretta. Greyhound, or Greyhound Gally, was the only ship that was used often throughout Hobhouse's career in slavery. He landed slaves once in Spain in 1734 from the Bight of Biafra and the Gulf of Guinea islands. Of the 15,554 slaves that Hobhouse disembarked in his career, the profit to Hobhouse may have been over £400,000.

Of the specified disembarkation ports, the most disembarked slaves were in Charleston, Virginia, 5,508 slaves out of a total of 18,797, or 29 percent. The least disembarked slaves were in Cádiz, Spain, 276 slaves out of a total of 18,797, or 1.5 percent. at his house in Queen Square.