Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

HOBSON The first Hobson ancestor of whom we are sure is Thomas, of Yorkshire, England, who had a son Henry, who married Jane Carr, whose home was at neflete, near Whitgilt, in the south part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. (I) William, son of Henry and Jane (Carr) Hobson, was a "merchant adventurer" of London, who fitted out and provided for the Plymouth Colony in New England. In 1652 he settled in Rowley, Mass., where were born to him by his wife Ann, daughter of Humphrey and Mary Raynor, three sons: Humphrey, John and William. William Hobson, first of the name in this country, and Ann his wife, both died in 1694. (II) William (2), youngest son of William (1) Hobson, was born in 1659, and died in 1725. He married, in 1692, Sarah Jewett. Children: William (died young); Sarah; Mary; William; Martha; Caleb and Jeremiah. (III) Jeremiah, fourth son and youngest child of William (2) Hobson, was born 1707, and died in 1741. Although dying young, a large measure of success enabled him to possess a large estate to leave to his family. He married, 1729, Jane Dresser. Children: William, Ann, Elizabeth, Joseph and Sarah. (IV) William (3), eldest child of Jeremiah Hobson, was born in Rowley, Mass., in 1730, and died in Buxton, where he was the oldest settler of the name, in 1827, aged ninety-seven years. He was a man of martial proclivities, and much engaged in war. In the French and Indian war he belonged to the First Cavalry Company of Rowley. He reinlisted in 1759. He was a soldier in the revolutionary war, was wounded and taken prisoner at King's Bridge by the British and carried into New York City, where he remained a prisoner of war eleven months. He was afterwards at the surrender of Burgoyne, and had the pleasure of maraching into Saratoga at its evacuation. He married (first) Hannah Johnson. Children: Jeremiah and Hannah. His first wife died in 1757, and he married (second) in 1759, Lydia Parsons. Children: William (died young), Joseph, Samuel, Andrew and Lydia. The second wife died and he married (third) Margaret, who died in Buxton, Dec., 1819. (V) Joseph, second child of William (3) and Lydia (Parsons) Hobson, was born in Buxton in 1762, and died Dec. 11, 1830. He married (first) in Buxton, Jan. 3, 1788, Rebecca Sawyer, born July 15, 1765. Children: 1. Joseph, married Mary Townsend. 2. Jabez, married Betsey Hancock. 3. Lydia, married James Marr. 4. Andrew, married (first) Adeline Marr, (second) Statia Hamblin, (third) Jane L. Heath. 5. Jeremiah, married (first) Abigail Lord, (second) Mrs. Olive Merrill. 6. Rebecca, died unmarried. 7. James, married (first) Climena March, (second) Mrs. Sarah Sanborn. 8. Joanna, married Archibald Smith. 9. Adeline, married Tobias Lord. Joseph Hobson married (second), Susanna (Deering Lord), widow of Ichabod Cousins, who died in 1860. (VI) Jabez, second son of Joseph and Rebecca (Sawyer) Hobson, was born Sept. 4, 1790. He had much of the martial spirit of his ancestors, and was a captain in the militia. He was a prosperous lumber man in Buxton when he married in 1815, Betsey Hancock, who bore ten children, the following of whom came to maturity. Children: 1. Sewell, see forward. 2. Rebecca, married Dr. James M. Buzzell; when thrown upon her own resources she took up the practice of medicine, which she pursued succesfully for many years. She was in every respect a remarkable woman, and deserves a large place in the history of Gorham, Maine, where she lived for many years, dying in 1899. 3. Eliza, married Samuel Bangs. 4. Almeda, married Ivory Harmon. 5. Ellen, married Phineas I. Paine. 6. Jabez, married Eliza J. Smith. About the year 1834 Captain Jabez Hobson moved to Steep Falls, Maine, where he was the first independent lumber operator on the Saco river at that point, there having been previously a co-operative sawmill there owned and operated by a number of the early settlers jointly; in fact, each man owned the privilege of operation the mill a stated number of days at a time. (VII) Sewell, eldest child of Captain Jabez Hobson, was born in Buxton, March 26, 1816, and came to Steep Falls with his father, with whom he was associated in the lumber business, a calling which he followed until a few years before his death, which occurred at the home of his youngest son, Sewall M., at Conway, New Hampshire, June 26, 1896. He was a staunch Republican in politics, and possessed the fine physique and good looks which characterized the Hobsons as a race, combined with an intelligence which embraced world affairs as well as matters of local interest. He attended school at Paronsfield Seminary, where he met and married (first) Nov. 22, 1835, Martha A. Buzzell, daughter of Elder John Buzzell, who was for sixty-five years pastor of the Free Baptist church at Parsonsfield. In 1799 "a periodic ministers' training school" was established in his home with Elder Buzzell as dean. Largely through his efforts Parsonsfield Seminary was established in 1832, which was the first Free Baptist denominational school, and from which Bates College was an outgrowth. In 1811 he gave this denomination its first periodic literature, A Religious Magazine, and he aided Colby to arrange the manuscript for his memoirs. In 1823 he published the first denominational hymn book. In 1825 he was one of the prime movers in establishing The Morning Star. He edited and published "The Life of Benjamin Randall," and was prominent in founding the Free Baptist Book Company. He also worked up the conditons which led to the organization of the Free Baptist Foreign Mission Society. His forebears came from the Isle of Jersey in 1696, and settled in New Hampshire, Elder Buzzell being the first one to settle in this state. He was the father of Dr. John Buzzell, a well-known physician of Cape Elizabeth, and of Dr. James M. Buzzell, of Gorham, who was undoubtedly one of the most skillful surgeons of his day, and the grandfather of Dr. John D. Buzzell, who was for many years a prominent practioner in Portland. Martha (Buzzell) Hobson was born in Parsonsfield, May 16, 1816, and died at Steep Falls Oct., 1855. Children: 1. Ethelinda, born at Steep Falls, Jan. 12, 1837. She received her education in her native town and at Limerick Academy. She had an alto voice of unusual sweetness, and sang in the church choir for over forty years. She married Nov. 8, 1857, Gideon Marshall Tucker. 2. Anna Elizabeth, born Aug. 5, 1838. She married (first) Jack Seward, of Wakefield, N. H., in 1855, who died Aug. 20, 1856. She married (second) Dec. 18, 1859, Marshall Paine, of Standish, to whom she bore three children: Adelaide Olive, b. Dec. 8, 1860, is unmarried, living with her mother in Portland Maine; Celia Mitchell, born Jan. 3, 1862, married Walter Hamlin Aug. 31, 1887, and died Dec. 8, 1891; Grace Hobson, b. Aug. 20, 1868, married (first) Wilbur F. Chase Sept. 14, 1887, who d. Dec., 1892; she married (second) Hugh Eustis Potts June 22, 1896; they have a beautiful cottage on the shore of Sebago Lake, in Standish, where they spend their summers. 3. Martha Alma, born at Steep Falls, May 31, 1848. She was educated in the schools of this town, and Gorham Seminary, and was married Sept. 12, 1869, at Hillside Manse, Cornish, Maine, by Parson Cole, to Stephen H. Cousins. She is a woman of great executie ability, and has been for a number of years at the head of the Maine Women's Missionary Society of the Free Baptist denomination, of which she is a devoted member. 4. James Edward, born March 31, 1851, at Limerick, Maine. When quite young he went to Somersworth, N. H., where he entered a dry goods store. He married Oct. 29, 1873, Emma Swain, daughter of Moses and Emma (Gowell) Swain, of Somersworth, where he was for many years a member of the firm of Dorr & Hobson. children: 1. Harry Edward, born July 29, 1874, now an electrician in Poughkeepsie, New York. 2. Herbert Leon, born July 12, 1877; married Nov. 4, 1904, Gertrude Abbott, of Buena Vista, Newfoundland; to them were born two children: Dorothy Emma, b. Aug. 23, 1905, and James Buzzell, b. Dec. 25, 1906. 3. Clifford Maurice, born June 21, 1880, died May 2, 1903. Sewell Hobson married (second) Ann Thompson, widow of Levi Thompson, and daughter of Elijah and Rhoda (Parker) Emery, who lived in Windham, where she was born March, 1823, and died in Steep Falls March, 1895, having borne one child: Sewell M., who married Orphie Eaton, of Brownsfield, in 1884. They live in Conway, N. H. and have one son, Rupert Jabez, b. Sept. 7, 1903.