Ann Hobson was born in 1842 in Wombwell to parents Benjamin Hobson and Harriet Unknown. She had younger sisters Lydia, Elizabeth, Eliza and Mary, and a younger brother, John. Harriet died in 1851 at the age of 28, and Benjamin had two further wives, Sarah and Hannah.
Benjamin had been born in 1819 at Dodworth to parents Luke Hobson and Lydia Swallow, being baptised at Silkstone the same year. Unusually, he had a number of occupations; in 1851 he was a shoemaker at Wombwell; by 1861 he was listed as a pit labourer and methodist preacher living at Jump. In 1871 he was still labouring and preaching, but also had a small farm of six acres at Jump. Perhaps this was inherited by way of one of his marriages. By 1881 he is just listed as a farmer, living at Wombwell.