- GB-2014-WSA-019215
- Person
- 1786-1869
HOBHOUSE, JOHN CAM, 1ST BARON BROUGHTON, eldest son of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, Bart. , MP, and his first wife Charlotte, dau. of Samuel Cam, Chantry House, near Bradford, Wilts. ; b. 27 Jun 1786; adm. 27 Jan 1802 (Clapham); in school list May 1803; left 1803; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 18 Oct 1803, matr. Easter 1806; Hulsean Prize 1808; BA 1808; MA 1811; founded the Cambridge Whig Club; when at Cambridge became an intimate friend of Lord Byron, with whom he travelled in Greece and the Mediterranean in 1809-10; adm. Middle Temple 4 Feb 1806; a partner in firm Whitbread & Co. , brewers; contested Westminster as Radical candidate at 1819 by-election; imprisoned in Newgate Prison for breach of privilege 14 Dec 1819 – 19 Jan 1820; MP (Radical, subsequently Whig) Westminster 1820-33, Nottingham 1834-47, Harwich 1848-51; active member of Greek Committee in London 1823; succeeded father as 2nd baronet 15 Aug 1831; Secretary at War 1 Feb 1832 – Apr 1833; Privy Councillor 23 Feb 1832; Chief Secretary for Ireland 28 Mar – 17 May 1833; Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests 19 Jul – 31 Dec 1834; President, Board of Control 29 Apr 1835 – Sep 1841, Jul 1846 – Feb 1852; created Baron Broughton 26 Feb 1851; GCB 23 Feb 1852; as Byron’s executor, advised the destruction of Byron’s Memoirs 1824, and as Byron’s best man drew up a reply to Lady Byron’s Remarks 1830; FRS 19 May 1814; member, Society of Dilettanti 1839; one of founders of Geographical Society 1830; is said to have invented the phrase “His Majesty’s Opposition”; his Commonplace Book when at the School, containing the themes set, extracts from books, and occasional translations, is in the British Library, Additional MSS; author, Recollections of a Long Life, 1865, and other works; m. 26 Feb 1828 Lady Julia Hay, youngest dau. of George Hay, 7th Marquis of Tweeddale (S); d. 3 Jun 1869. DNB.