BROUGHTON, JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE, BARON (1786-1869), English writer and politician, the friend of Byron, was the eldest son of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, Bart., by his wife Charlotte, daughter of Samuel Cam. Born at Bristol on June 27, 1786, he was educated at Westminster school and Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took the Hulsean prize in 1808 for his Essay on the Origin and Intention of Sacrifices. At Cambridge he founded the "Whig Club," and the "Amicable Society," and became very intimate with Byron, who accompanied him on a tour in Spain, Greece and Turkey in 1809. Hobhouse was pres ent at the battle of Dresden in Aug. 1813, and, following the allied army into France, saw Louis XVIII. enter Paris in May 1814. He was again in Paris after the return of Napoleon from Elba, and showed his dislike of the Bourbons and his sympathy with Bonaparte by writing in 1816 a pamphlet entitled The sub stance of some letters written by an Englishman resident in Paris during the last reign of the emperor Napoleon. This caused some offence in England and more in France, and the French transla tion was seized by the Government and both translator and printer were imprisoned. A further period of travel with Byron followed, and at this time Hobhouse wrote some notes to the fourth canto of Childe Harold. In Feb. 1819 Hobhouse contested Westminster in the Radical interest but in this he was unsuccessful. He had already written in favour of reform, and in 1819 he issued A defence of the People in reply to Lord Erskine's "Two Defences of the Whigs," followed by A trifling mistake in Thomas, Lord Erskine's recent preface. The House of Commons declared this latter pamphlet a breach of privilege ; Hobhouse was arrested on Dec. 14, 1819, and remained in custody until February, 182o. His imprisonment increased his popularity, and at the general elec tion of 182o he was returned for Westminster. He served in the Grey government of 1832, in the Melbourne governments of and 1835, and in Lord John Russell's cabinet in 1846. He was created Baron Broughton in 1851, and took little part in politics after Russell's resignation in 1852. He died in London on June 3, 1869.
He had married in July 1828 Lady Julia Tomlinson Hay, daughter of George, 7th marquess of Tweeddale, by whom he had three daughters. Lord Broughton was a partner in Whitbread's brewery, a fellow of the Royal Society, and one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society. He was responsible for the passing of the Vestry Act of 1831, and is said to have first used the phrase "his Majesty's opposition." He was a good classical scholar, and although not eloquent, an able debater. In addi tion to the works already enumerated he wrote A journey through Albania and other provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia to Constantinople during the years 1809 and 1810 (1813), revised edition (1855) ; and Italy: Remarks made in Several Visits from the Year 1816 to 1854 (1859). A collection of his diaries, corre spondence and memoranda is in the British Museum.
See T. Moore, Life of Lord Byron (1837-4o) ; The Times, June 4, 1869; Spencer Walpole, History of England (189o) ; Dictionary of National Biography (1891), vol. xxvii.; Greville Memoirs (1896). Broughton also wrote Recollections of a Long Life, printed privately in 1865, and in 1909 published with additions in 2 vols. edited by his daughter, Lady Dorchester, with a preface by the earl of Rosebery.