Thomas Hobbes was born at Westport, now part of Malmesbury in

Wiltshire, England, on 5 April 1588.[8] Born prematurely when his mother

heard of the coming invasion of the Spanish Armada, Hobbes later
reported that "my mother gave birth to twins: myself and fear." [9] His
childhood is almost completely unknown, and his mother's name is
unknown.[10] His father, Thomas Sr., was
the vicar of Charlton and Westport. Thomas Hobbes, the younger, had a
brother Edmund, about two years older, and a sister. Thomas Sr. was
involved in a fight with the local clergy outside his church, forcing him to
leave London and abandon the family. The family was left in the care of
Thomas Sr.'s older brother, Francis, a wealthy merchant with no family.
Hobbes Jr. was educated at Westport church from age four, passed to
the Malmesbury school, and then to a private school kept by a young man
named Robert Latimer, a graduate of the University of Oxford. Hobbes
was a good pupil, and around 1603 he went up to Magdalen Hall, the
predecessor college to Hertford College, Oxford.[11][12][13] The principal John
Wilkinson was a Puritan, and he had some influence on Hobbes.
At university, Hobbes appears to have followed his own curriculum; he
was "little attracted by the scholastic learning" and completed his B.A.
degree in 1608. He was recommended by Sir James Hussey, his master at
Magdalen, as tutor to William, the son of William Cavendish, Baron of
Hardwick (and later Earl of Devonshire), and began a lifelong connection
with that family.[14]
Hobbes became a companion to the younger William and in 1610 they
both took part in a grand tour of Europe. Hobbes was exposed to
European scientific and critical methods during the tour, in contrast to
the scholastic philosophy that he had learned in Oxford. His scholarly
efforts at the time were aimed at a careful study of classic Greek and
Latin authors. One outcome was, in 1628, his translation
of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, the first translation of
that work into English from the original Greek. It has been argued that
three of the discourses in the 1620 publication known as Horea
Subsecivae: Observations and Discourses also represent the work of
Hobbes from this period.[15]
Although he associated with literary figures like Ben Jonson and briefly
worked as Francis Bacon's amanuensis, he did not extend his efforts into
philosophy until after 1629. In June 1628, his employer Cavendish, then
the Earl of Devonshire, died of the plague and the widowed countess
dismissed Hobbes.[citation needed]