Robert Hobart, 4th Earl Of Buckinghamshire

Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, was born on 6 May 1760 at Hampden House. He was the son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire, and Albinia Bertie, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie, who was the younger son of Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven.

Hobart received education at Westminster School in London. He participated in the American Revolutionary War, serving as a soldier.

In his political career, Hobart served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Irish House of Commons, representing Portarlington from 1784 to 1790, and Armagh Borough from 1790 to 1797. Additionally, he was an MP for the British parliamentary constituencies of Bramber from 1788 to 1790 and Lincoln from 1790 to 1796.

He served as aide-de-camp to successive Lord Lieutenants of Ireland beginning in 1784. From 1789 to 1793, Hobart held the position of Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, where he was involved in the political process regarding Roman Catholic concessions, advocating against such reforms.

Hobart was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1793 and was also appointed Governor of Madras. In 1798, he was recalled to England by Henry Dundas, then President of the Board of Control overseeing Indian affairs. He was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Hobart.

In the House of Lords, Hobart supported the union between England and Ireland. He was the leader of the House of Lords from March to October 1801. His subsequent governmental roles included serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1801 to 1804, a period during which he was noted for his understanding of colonial and local conditions.

He also held positions as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1805 and again in 1812; Postmaster General between 1806 and 1807; and President of the Board of Control from 1812 to 1816.

The city of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, was named after him.

Regarding his family, Hobart married firstly in 1792 to Margaretta (Margaret) Adderley (born 1766), widow of Thomas Adderley and daughter of Edmund Bourke. Margaretta had three sons and a daughter with her previous husband. Before their marriage, Hobart had two illegitimate children with Margaretta Adderley: Charles John Robert Ellis (1786–1835), who married Myra Ann Kinchant, and Lady Sarah (1793–1867), who married Prime Minister Lord Goderich and was the mother of George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon. Margaretta Adderley died in 1796 in Madras.

In 1799, Hobart married secondly Hon. Eleanor Eden, daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland. William Pitt the Younger had previously withdrawn from an informal engagement with Eleanor Eden two years earlier. No children resulted from this second marriage.

Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, died on 4 February 1816 at the age of 55, following a fall from his horse. He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, George Hobart. Lady Buckinghamshire died in October 1851 at the age of 74.