HOBLER. " As well hohellers as archers." Paston Letters, edit. ISil, ii. 154. " Hoblers or hobilers, so called from the hobbies or diminutive horses on which they rode, or more probably from hohilles, the short jackets which they Avore. They were light horsemen, and proved of considerable sei-vice to Edward III. in his French expeditions. By the tenure of their lands they were obliged to maintain their nags, and were expected to be in readiness, wben sudden invasions happened, to spread immediate intelligence of the same throughout the land." Ibid. Note. Lambarde writing in 1570, concerning beacons and their management in case of invasion, says: " But as no doubt the necessitie of them is apparent, so it were good that for the more speedie spreading of the knowledge of the enimies comming, they were assisted with some horsemen (anciently called of their hobies or nags, Hobelievs) that besides the fire, which in a bright shining day is not so ■well descried, might also run from beacon to beacon, and supply that notice of the danger at hande." Perambulation of Kent, edit. 1826., p. 6-5.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.