• The earliest recorded ancestor of the Hubbards in America was Thomas Hubbard, a gentleman residing at Hornden-on-the-Hill, co. Essex, England, “of good estate and great estimation,” and “zealous and religious in the true service of God.”
During the persecutions in the reign of Queen Mary (Bloody Mary), Thomas Hubbard was reported by an informer to Edward Bonner, Bishop of London, and was imprisoned at Colchester in Essex. Bonner paid him the honor of a visit to convert him but he refused to recant his Protestantism. He was later removed to London where he was examined three times at the Consistory of St. Paul’s but he refused to yield. He was then sentenced by the Bishop before the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs and a gathered assemblage to be burned for his heresy.
Thomas Hubbard was then bound and taken in a cart to the village where he lived and on 26 May 1555 he was burned at the stake, strong in his faith and a long remembered example to his friends and loved ones. Undoubtedly, his persecution influenced the religious life of further generations of the Hubbard family.
It was believed by his grandson that his fate was related in Fox’s Book of Martyrs (Book III, Chapter XIV, page 764) under the name Thomas Higbed.3565, pp 62-3

• Burned at the stake for religious convictions.3683, p 153