John Hobart Caunter
British writer and cleric
John Hobart Caunter (21 June 1792 – 14 November 1851) was an English cleric and writer. Serving briefly in India as a cadet, he entered the Church and served as the Incumbent Minister of Portland Chapel in Marylebone, London, for 19 years. His writings primarily focused on Biblical subjects and on India, his best-known work being a collection of tales, The Romance of History. India (1836).
Life
John Hobart was born at the rectory of Dittisham, a village in South Devon where his maternal grandfather John Hutchings was the rector. Hobart's family were Devonshire gentry; he was the second son of George Caunter of Staverton and Harriett Georgina, née Hutchings, of Dittisham. His middle (and primary) name came from his godfather, Lord Hobart. Hobart's father went to the East when his son was one year old and became acting superintendent of Prince of Wales Island – today Penang, Malaysia. His wife soon joined him and died there in childbirth in 1798, while Hobart stayed in England. His uncle Robert Sparke Hutchings, who became deacon at Dittisham in 1803 and rector in 1805, was his guardian; Hobart later described him as having "a heart perfection scarce could mend" and as being the source of "most of what I know".
The public source identifies “John Hobart Caunter” as british writer and cleric. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Hobart and Caunter.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18530237. VIAF identifies the subject as 9907830. The Library of Congress control number is n85134005. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1792, 1851, 1836 and 1798.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Hobart Caunter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.