Thomas Hubbard

THOMAS HUBBARD, died circa 1600, ancestry unknown, a resident of Norfolk, England, and Mendlesham, Suffolk, England. Several old genealogical works -- including C. C. VanDauenter's 1902 The Ancestors and Descendants of Rev. Henry Clark and Edward Warren Day's absurdity-ridden 1895 One Thousand Years of Hubbard History -- erroneously identify our ancestor Thomas Hubbard as the Thomas Higbed/Highbed/Hubbard, Gent., of Horndon House, Essex, England, who was burned at the stake for obstinate heresy on 26 March 1555 at Horndon-on-the-Hill in Essex. As a matter of fact, there were several unrelated Hubbard and Hobart families, each of whom had rival -- and unsubstantiated -- claims to be descended from Thomas Higbed of Horndon. http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~fesschequy/genealogy/Hubbard.html

This is where some of this story comes from:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hubbard-2475

Thomas Hubbard was a persecuted Protestant who was driven out of the town of Mendlesham in 1556.. Some sources, including his grandson Samuel, say he was burned at the stake rather than recant his Protestantism, others disagree . His story, from the book "Samuel Hubbard of Newport (his grandson):

Thomas Hubbard was gentleman residing at Hornden on the Hill in Essex, "of good estate and great estimation in that county" and withal "zealous and religious in the true service of God." An informer discovered him to Edward Bonner, Bishop of London, who imprisoned him at Colchester and paid him the honor of a visit to convert him. Later he was removed to London, thrice examined at the consistory of St. Paul's, and remaining obdurate was sentenced by the Bishop, "before the Mayor and Sheriffs in the presence there of all the people assembled" to be burned for his heresy. A fortnight later he was "fast bound in a cart" - and brought to his " appointed place of torment" - the village in which he had lived. There on the 26th of May 1555, he sealed his fate says the narrator, shedding his "blood in the most cruel fire to the glory of God and the great joy of the godly." His maternal grandsire, though possessing simliar convictions, was more fortunate; yet he too, was the object of suspicion and search. As late as 1682, Mr. Hubbard (Samuel) had in his Newport house a testament printed in 1549, which Thomas Cocke of Ipswich,(England), his mother's father, had brought safely through those fiery days by hiding it in his bed straw. To a man of Mr. Hubbard's turn of mind this volume, with such a history, must have been a priceless treasure. In all probability, the testament was a later edition of the translation from the Greek by Tyndale made in the reign of Henry VIII, which says Welsh, "*revised by Coverdale and edited in 1539 as Cromwell's Bible, and again in 1540 as Cranmer's Bible, was set up in every parish church by the very sovereign who had caused the translator to be strangled and burned". To this testament some special authority was attached, it appears, for it was consulted by parties at a considerable distance."

Of the Bible that was in the collection of Alfred University and returned to the Seventh Day Baptist Church in 1946:

The 1549 Bible is believed to have been mentioned in Samuel Hubbard's journal; "Now 1675 I have a testament of '''my grandfather Cooke's''' printed in 1549 which he hid in his bed-straw lest it be burnt in Queen Mary's days."  This fits the inscription found in the Bible at the end of the Gospel of John: "This book was my grandmother's great grandmother;s, and I know not how many generations before.  It was given me by my grandmother, Judity Rigers AD 1762.  Caleb Potter."  In an earlier journal entry, Samuel Hubbard wrote that his "grandfather was Thomas Hubbard of Mendlsham [Hubbard is listed in the Fox book of Martyrs as having been driven out of Mendelsham] in Suffolk.  He had four children, Jeremiah, John, Martha, and James.  James married Naomy Cooke of Ipswich in Suffolk, daughter of Thomas Cooke of that place."The original manuscript is not known to be in existence.  In addition, all current copies of the work are descendants of a transcription by Issac Backus.  The original manuscript of Backus's transcription is in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence, Rhode Island.

Sources:

1.) Development of English Literature by Alfred H. Welsh

2.) Samuel Hubbard of Newport, 1610-1689 by by Huling, Ray Greene, 1847-1915. [from old catalog] Published 1880

3.) Book of Martyrs, John Foxe

Discussion: https://archive.org/details/samuelhubbardofn00huli

___________________________

Notes: Ancestry of Thomas is clouded, at best. Some sources indicate he was born 1538 and died 1555, before his children were born, so I'm hesitant to include earlier generations, at this point. Suffice it to say, he is likely to descend from one Joh n Hobart/Hubbard, b. 1274, La Tye, Monks Eligh, Suffolk, England, d. 1304, same. This John Hubbard is listed as direct descendant of Ragner Lodbrock de Denmark, b. 711, Uppsala, Denmark... though the generations run WAY too fast in my opinion . So something's been left out.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188474419/thomas-hubbard