Hello Oatley. Just came across your post about your ancestor Benjamin Hobley, who was apprenticed to a London feltmaker in 1711. Among the London Freedom of the City Admission Papers, recently available on ancestry.com, there are two documents relating to the apprenticeship of Benjamin Hobley. These documents add to what is available in Cliff Webb’s calendar of Feltmakers’ Company apprenticeships, the standard printed source. The City freedom documents name Benjamin Hobley as son of John, late of Brandon, Warwicks, taylor, deceased. They also state that upon the death of Stephen Royce, Benjamin’s master, Benjamin was turned over to another feltmaker, Samuel Stephens, on Nov 12 1716. If you have access to ancestry.com, the scans of these records are at Freedom of the City Admission Papers, Bundle 1723 Oct-1724 Mar, Images 711-712. Brandon, Warwicks, is a hamlet in the parish of Wolston, near Rugby. The Wolston register (also available at ancestry.com) has the baptism of Beniamin Hobley, son of John, on May 15 1695. There are other children of John in the register, and there are a number of earlier Hobley entries, going back before 1600. These data, if you don’t have them already, may help you push your Hobley ancestry further back.
