JOHN HOBDAY

Born: April 1726 in Gloucester Co. VA

Died: between 1783-1784 in Gloucester Co. VA

Married: between November 1758 – February 1759 to Hannah Green

He was married twice and Hannah was his second wife. She was a descendant of William Howard, an early Gloucester settler. She has a twin sister named Joanna.

Baptism: May 19, 1746 in Gloucester Co. VA

Children of John and Hannah:

Thomas Hobday

John Hobday Jr. - b. November 2, 1759

Frances Hobday - b. 1760 d. 1806

Francis Hobday – b. May 28, 1761 d. about 1793

 Howard Hobday – b. 1765 d. November 1844

The society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge (in VA) awarded the first medal for a practical invention to John Hobday of Gloucester Co., who invented a machine for threshing wheat. This was the first recorded invention of a thresher in the United States – well before Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper in 1831.From “the Colonial Craftsman”, University of Chicago Press:

“In 1772 John Hobday of Gloucester Co. VA, invented a cheap and simple machine for separating wheat from the straw that would daily beat out 120 bushels with the aid of three horses. He announced in the newspapers that any tolerable carpenter could easily make the machine and that he would attend at several places on the York and James to demonstrate it while his brother performed the same services on the Rappahannock. Despite enthusiastic endorsements from prominent gentlemen like Jaquelin Amler and Fanny Hobday who married John Seawell. The Hobday home over looked the Severn River near Glass Post Office. He was known to be a mechanical genius and understood and could set up any kind of machinery.”