Hobhouse is a rare English surname, generally belonging to members of a family originally from Somerset. Those currently with this surname are members of several branches of this patronymic that achieved prominence from the 18th century. Originally merchants, the family diversified into the slave trade, joined the ranks of the West country gentry, accumulating wealth through advantageous marriages and entering into local and national politics, both with success.
Notable Hobhouses include:
- John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton (1786–1869), a British politician and memoirist
- Thomas Benjamin Hobhouse(1807–1876), a British Liberal Party politician
- Arthur Hobhouse, 1st Baron Hobhouse (1819–1904), an English judge
- Henry Hobhouse (MP) (1854–1937) an English landowner and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1906
- Emily Hobhouse (1860–1926), publicised the poor conditions inside the British concentration camps built in South Africa during the Second Boer War
- Sir Charles Hobhouse, 4th Baronet (1862–1941), a British Liberal politician. He was a member of the Liberal cabinet of H. H. Asquith between 1911 and 1915
- Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929), a British liberal politician and proponent of social liberalism
- Stephen Henry Hobhouse (1881–1961) British peace activist, prison reformer, and religious writer
- Sir Arthur Hobhouse (1886–1965), a long-serving English local government Liberal politician, who is best remembered as the architect of the system of National parks of England and Wales
Hobhouse may also mean:
- Hobhouse, Free State, town in South Africa