My Genealogy Hound

FREELAND G. HOBSON, lawyer, banker, and one of the most prominent men of affairs of Montgomery county, is of excellent lineage. On the paternal side he traces his ancestry to the families of Bringhurst, Turner, Lewis, Shaw, Morris, Jenkins, Wainhouse, Hawkes, Prache, Sellers, Johns, Hughes, Currier and Gibbons, and on the maternal side to the families of Vanderslice, Gotwals, Hunsicker and Pennypacker. He is a descendant of Francis Hobson, who came from England in 1712, accompanied by his wife Martha Wainhouse, and settled in New Garden township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. They were members of the Society of Friends, as were most of the settlers in those parts of the province. On February 5, 1712, they presented their letters from Friends at LaGrange, near Charlemont, Ireland, to the Newark Monthly Meeting. Francis Hobson, the first of the family name in America, was a weaver, but became a farmer, buying two hundred acres in New Garden township in 1713.

Francis, son of the immigrant, Francis Hobson, was born September 12, 1720, married Mary Shaw in 1744, and in 1748 removed to Limerick township, Montgomery county, where he bought, near Royersford, a farm of two hundred acres, which is still known as the Hobson farm. One of his sons, Moses Hobson, in 1791, bought the Limerick farm, upon which he resided during the remainder of his life. He was a justice of the peace and a surveyor. Many of the old surveys in that part of the county were made by him, and his field notes, and legal papers executed by him as a justice of the peace shows his penmanship to have been very fine. He died intestate in 1825, when the Limerick farm came into the possession of a brother, John.

John Hobson, born June 10, 1772, married Penelope Turner, and reared four children upon the ancestral farm. Moses, who became the successor of his namesake uncle as surveyor and justice; Mary; Charlotte, who became the wife of Homer Kimberly, of Batavia, New York; and Francis.

Francis, youngest child of John and Penelope (Turner) Hobson, was born October 10, 1803. He inherited the homestead farm, and lived there many years, subsequently removing to Reading, where he died, August 24, 1874. Notwithstanding he was far beyond the military service age, when he was sixty years old he served with the emergency force, called out in 1863 to repel the invasion of the state by the Rebel army under General Lee. He married, January 11, 1829, Matilda, daughter of William and Mary (Morris) Bringhurst. Two children were born of this marriage, Frank M. and Sarah H.

(I) William Bringhurst was a descendant of Dr. Thomas Bringhurst, a noted physician and surgeon of London, England, who married Elizabeth Hughes, August 27, 1647. Their son John, born November 1, 1665, was a printer in London, and, for advocating the freedom of the press, he was, on September 20, 1684, fined the sum of one pound and stood for two hours in the pillory. He married Rosina Prache, daughter of the Rev. Hillarius Prache, a Lutheran clergyman. After the death of Mr. Prache, his widow, Barbara, came to America, where she was subsequently joined by her daughter, Rosina, who was afterwards the widow of John Bringhurst, and who brought her son, George Bringhurst. The last named, born May 15, 1697, married September 1, 1723, Anna, daughter of John and Sarah (Sellers) Ashmead. Their son William married Mary Morris, June 4, 1769, and they were the parents of six children, of whom the eldest was Israel, who was born February 28, 1770, and died in February, 1807. Israel married, September 27, 1792, Mary Lewis, a daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Jenkins) Lewis. She was a descendant of Jenkin Jenkins, who was born in Wales in 1659, came to America and settled in Gwynedd in 1729. Isaac Lewis was a son of Enos, who was a son of Lewis, who in 1704 married Grace Johns, at Gwynedd Meeting. Sarah Jenkins was a daughter of John and Sarah (Hawksworth) Jenkins, and her mother was a daughter of Peter Hawksworth, who died in 1769, and who was buried at St. Thomas. Israel and Mary (Lewis) Bringhurst were the parents of seven children, among whom was Wright A. Bringhurst, who was a member of the state legislature and a noted humanitarian, who, at his death, bequeathed a large sum for the support of the poor in Norristown, Pottstown and Upper Providence. He died in 1876.

W. Super, D. D., (deceased), was during his life president of Ursinus College. His widow is still living, and resides in Collegeville, Montgomery county.

Frank M. Hobson, only son of Francis and Matilda (Bringhurst) Hobson, was born January 22, 1830, and was educated at Washington Hall, Collegiate Institute, Trappe. When eighteen years old he removed from the homestead to Trappe, where he taught school and engaged in farming. In 1856 he became identified with a mercantile business in Collegeville, which he continued until 1880, when he relinquished it to enjoy comparative ease. His life has been one of great activity and usefulness. He was a practical surveyor and a conveyancer and general business manager, and acted in many fiduciary capacities, settling numerous extensive estates, among them that of his uncle, Wright A. Bringhurst, who left a large sum of money for the support of the poor of Norristown, Pottstown and Upper Providence township, and he was a trustee of the Bringhurst fund from its founding until 1900, when he resigned. Mr. Hobson, also continually occupied with the duties of important positions, was at various times postmaster, auditor or school director. He was also treasurer of the Building & Loan Association of Collegeville; president and director of the Perkiomen & Reading Turnpike Company; a director of the First National Bank of Norristown, and of the Iron Bank of Phoenixville for nearly twenty years; and for many years the secretary and treasurer of Ursinus College.

Mr. Hobson was married, October 8, 1856, to Miss Lizzie Gotwals, a daughter of Jacob and Esther (Vanderslice) Gotwals, and a sister of Jacob V. Gotwals, a leading lawyer of Pottstown. Of this marriage two children were born: Freeland G. and Mary Matilda. The latter became the wife of the Rev. O. P. Smith, D. D., who was for fifteen years pastor of the old historic Trappe Lutheran church, and is now pastor of the Lutheran church of the Transfiguration of Pottstown.

Lizzie Gotwals was descended from a number of lines prominent in Montgomery county. She was a descendant of Reynier VanDerSluys (Vanderslice). She came to Philadelphia from Friesland, Holland, and settled in Germantown prior to 1739. The son of Reynier VanDerSluys was Anthony, who married Martha Pennepacker, a daughter of Hendrick Pennepacker, a man of great influence in the early colony, who was born in 1674 at Flombon, married in 1699 to Eva Umstead and died 1754. Governor Pennypacker of Pennsylvania is descended from this same ancestor, and has published an interesting book concerning his life and times. Through Eva Umstead, this line runs into the large Umstead families.

John Vanderslice, a son of Anthony, married Elizabeth Custer. Their son was named Anthony, who married Sarah Hunsicker, a daughter of Bishop Heinrich Hunsicker of the Mennonite church. Heinrich Hunsicker was the son of Valentine Hunsicker, born in 1700, and died in 1771, who married Elizabeth Kolb, born in 1716, who was the daughter of Jacob Kolb, born in 1685, and of Sarah VanSintern, who was the daughter of Isaac VanSintern, born in 1660, who was married in Amsterdam to Neeltjee Classen, and who came to America in 1687 with his four daughters.

The daughter of Anthony and Sarah (Hunsicker) Vanderslice was Esther, who was born December 5, 1810, and died September 3, 1898. She married Jacob Gotwals, and they became the parents of Lizzie Gotwals (Hobson), mother of the subject of this sketch. The mother of Jacob Gotwals was Elizabeth Funk, who was the daughter of Christian Funk and Barbara Cassel, who were married in 1757. Christian Funk was a Mennonite bishop, living in Franconia township. In 1776 at a township meeting he opposed Pennsylvania throwing off allegiance to the king, but after the establishment of independence, while the Mennonites still refused allegiance, Christian Funk advised his brethren to pay their taxes to congress, for which offense he was in 1778 suspended from his church. Afterwards he published a pamphlet, having very wide circulation, entitled A Mirror for All Mankind. Christian Funk was the son of Heinrich Funk and Anna Moyer. Barbara Cassel was a daughter of Yellis Cassel, who came to America on the ship Friendship, October 16, 1727, and settled in Skippack township. He was a Mennonite preacher at Skippack for many years.

Freeland G. Hobson, eldest child and only son of Frank M. and Lizzie (Gotwals) Hobson, was born October 13, 1857, in Collegeville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He began his education in the public schools of Upper Providence, and completed a full course at Ursinus College, graduating in 1876. He entered the office of his uncle, Jacob V. Gotwals, then District Attorney, as a student at law, and was admitted to the bar October 1, 1880. He opened an office in Norristown, and soon acquired a lucrative practice. One of his cases was a veritable causa celebre, and excited great and genera1 interest. Antonio Frederico, in 1890, killed a fellow Italian at Conshohocken. He fled but was captured at San Francisco and brought to trial under an indictment for murder. Mr. Hobson defended him in a trial lasting for a week, which resulted in acquittal, and Mr. Hobson received many congratulations for the ability he had displayed in his defense, which was founded upon the theory that there was an inter lack of motive in the shooting, and that the killing was accidental.

Mr. Hobson is actively interested in numerous financial and commercial companies which engage much of his attention. In September, 1888, with others, he organized the Norristown Trust Company, of which he was made secretary, treasurer and trust officer, positions which he has held to the present time. This corporation, of which he has been the executive head from its founding, has rapidly grown in public favor, and is now the largest and most flourishing financial institution In the county, with assets under its control of over four million dollars. His popularity amongst his fellow bankers is best attested by his recent unanimous election as president of Group 2, Pennsylvania Bankers’ Association, comprising the banks and trust companies of Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Berks and Schuylkill counties. He is a director of the United Telephone Company, with lines extending all over eastern Pennsylvania; is a director of the Montgomery County Gas Company, a corporation furnishing gas to Norristown; a director of the Rambo & Regar Company, one of the most successful hosiery manufacturing corporations in the Schuylkill valley; president of the Perfect Light Company of Pennsylvania, and interested in the same; and treasurer of the Iberia Lumber Company, a very successful Montgomery county corporation, operating in the state of Louisiana; secretary of Riverside Cemetery Company, as well as of the Montgomery Cemetery Company; treasurer of Hamilton Apartment Company; and director in numerous other corporations.

Mr. Hobson is a member of Trinity Reformed church of Collegeville, in which he has been an elder for ten years. Active in church work, he has been a delegate to the classes, synods, and general synod of the Reformed church in the United States, and in all of these bodies he has taken a very active part and on several occasions he has argued important appeals before them. At the general synod in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1902, he was elected vice president of the body and presided at many of the sessions, an honor never before conferred upon a layman, and his prompt dispatch of business gained him very general commendation. He has also served as secretary and treasurer of the Montgomery county Sunday-school Association and as president of the Schuylkill Valley Union of Christian Endeavor, and he has appeared upon the programs at two International Christian Endeavor conventions, one at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1894, and at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1895.

Mr. Hobson has ever been deeply interested in education. For six years he served most usefully and acceptably as president and director in the Collegeville school board. His principal effort, however, has been to advance the interests of Ursinus College, from the days of his leaving it as a graduate in 1876, and since then he has ever lived under its shadow. For many years he served as secretary and treasurer of the Alumni Association, and when ten years ago that body was invited to elect directors from its own numbers, he was the first alumnus so chosen and in 1903 he was elected for the third five-year term. When his father resigned the two-fold position of secretary and treasurer, in 1900, Mr. Hobson was elected treasurer, a position which he yet occupies. He is a member of the executive committee and chairman of the finance committee, and he is in constant request for addresses before the students on anniversary and various other occasions. Mr. Hobson is otherwise industrious in the field of literature. He is the founder and editor of Montgomery County Law Reporter a weekly legal periodical now in its twentieth volume, which reports all the decisions of the Montgomery county courts. He is author of the History of Providence Township and a contributor to Bean’s History of Montgomery County, writing much of the township work. In 1884, when the centennial of Montgomery county was celebrated, he acted as chairman of the executive committee of the Montgomery County Historical Society, of which he is a charter and a valuable member, and it was in no small degree owing to his energy that the event proved so decided a success. He was also editor-in-chief of a beautiful and well written commemorative volume.

An ardent American, Mr. Hobson is a prominent leader in the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America, holding membership with Camp No. 267, at Ironbridge. In August, 1893, he was elected state president at the state convention held in Chester. At the conclusion of his term of office, at Erie, Pennsylvania, he was made the recipient of a handsome cane fashioned from a piece of the hull of the old flagship “Lawrence” the presentation being made by Hon. John F. Dowling, mayor of Erie.

Mr. Hobson is also a prominent member of the Valley Forge Memorial Association, and since 1886 he has been the treasurer and chairman of its executive committee. He is a Republican in politics, an earnest supporter of the principles of his party, but he has never sought political preferment. He was one of the three organizers of the Riverside Cemetery Company, a beautiful lawn cemetery, and has been secretary of the corporation from its founding.

Mr. Hobson married, September 15, 1880, Miss Ella M. Hendricks, daughter of the Rev. Joseph H. Hendricks, D. D., and Kate Hendricks. Three children have been born of this union: Frank H., a graduate of Ursinus College, class of 1903, and at present pursuing his law studies in the University of Pennsylvania; Anna M., a sophomore at Ursinus College; and Catherine, who is attending Ursinus Academy. During the summer of 1903 Mr. Hobson, with his wife and three children, made an extended voyage abroad, visiting the principal cities of Great Britain and the continent.