Robert Hoblyn 1710-1756

Robert HOBLYN 1710-1756

Biographical Note

Born at Nanwhysden House near St Columb Major, Cornwall, son of Francis Hoblyn, JP and member of the Cornish stannary parliament. BCL Corpus Christi College, Oxford 1734; he travelled in Italy as part of his education. MP for Bristol 1742-54; he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1745. He undertook extensive redevelopment of Nanwhysden House, where he died.

Books

Hoblyn assembled a large library in which he took great interest, and which he made available to local clergy and interested people. He made a manuscript catalogue of his books, dividing them between natural and moral philosophy, and noting books not held in the Bodleian Library; this was printed after his death, in two editions in 1768-69. He is known to have destroyed any records relating to the cost of buying books. His library was inherited by his wife Jane, and auctioned in London, beginning 2 March 1778. He used an engraved armorial bookplate, made when he was at Oxford, giving only his initials (R.H.) and the abbreviation C.C.C. for his college (Franks 14910). One of his books, a copy of Theseus by Joannes Meursius (Utrecht, 1684) was advertised and illustrated in Quaritch's New Acquisitions list, March 2022 (item 16), including an image of the bookplate.

Sources

• Bibliotheca Hobliniaia, London, 1768, ESTC t21589 (and the 1769 edition, t9580).
• Bibliotheca Hoblyniana, [London, 1778], ESTC t2199.
• Boase, G. C., and Ian Maxted. "Hoblyn, Robert (bap. 1710, d. 1756), politician and book collector." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.