Edward was born on June 7, 1807 in New London. His parents were George(1767-1841) and Elizabeth (Mason) (1775-1831) Hobron. Two of their sons, Edwardand George (AM2623), would become whaling captains; their son John was captain but is not shown in AOWV. Edward married Nancy Howard of New London on April 24, 1829. Nancy was born on June 15, 1807. Nancy’s sister Martha married Edward’s brother George. Find A Grave for Edward shows that they had three children: Nancy (Lamphear) (1830-1914), Elizabeth (1837-1838), and James (1841-1913). Edward died on August 5, 1868 in New London. Nancy died there on March 15, 1888. They are buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery (sec. 6) in New London where they are memorialized on an obelisk bearing their dates of birth and death.
Edward started his whaling career by sailing as member of the crew onnumerous voyages on six ships, two of which he would later command as master. His crew positions were all on ships with New London as home port: NEPTUNE (AS2032) for its 1827-1828 voyage, ANN MARIA (AS0879) for its 1828-1829 voyage, COMMODORE PERRY (AS1137) for its 1830-1831, 1831-1832, 1832-1833, and 1834-1836 voyages, FLORA (AS1369) for its 1833-1834 voyage, and FRIENDS (AS1418) for its 1847-1850 voyage. Edward’s brother George was a member of the crew for several of these voyages.
With that experience, Edward became master of two of those ships:
COMMODORE PERRY: (ship, 270 tons, length 91 ft., built in E. Greenwich RI in 1815, broken up in 1848). PERRY sailed on June 11, 1838 for the So. Atlantic and returned on April 20, 1840. Colby shows this voyage as two voyages; Decker shows the return date as “ ’30”. Dennis Wood Abstract 1-119. Frink, Chew & Co. was the agent. AV03173.
FRIENDS: (ship, 403 tons, length 109 ft., built in Portsmouth VA in 1811,broken up in 1859). When FRIENDS sailed on July 24, 1847, the master was James Howard (AM2683) who unfortunately died in California on November 2, 1850. Edward, a member of the crew, replaced him for the durationof the voyage. Edward’s brother John was also a member of the crew. Wood Abstract 2-238 makes no mention of the death of James but does shows “Hobron” above the name of “Howard” at the beginning of the abstract. Decker shows the sailing master as “Hobron, James M”, perhaps misreading the last name in the abstract.
Sources used: see sidebar and sources cited in text.
George Shaw
American Institute for Maritime Studies
Mystic Seaport Museum
March 2026