Life
He was the son of Richard Lobb of Liskeard, Mill Park, Warleggan, and Tremethick, St Neot, Cornwall, MP for Mitchell (UK Parliament constituency), Mitchell. In 1681 he settled in London as pastor of an independent congregation, first in Swallow Lane, and moving in 1685 to Fetter Lane.Francis J. Bremer, Tom Webster, ''Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia'' (2006), pp. 160–1. He was accused of being concerned in the Rye House plot, and with another minister named Casteers was arrested in Essex and committed to prison in August 1683. After James II had issued his declaration for liberty of conscience (4 April 1687), Lobb was one of the ministers selected by the independents to present an address of thanks to him. He became somewhat isolated because of his stance towards James; his frequent attendance at court, for which he was sometimes called the 'Jacobite Independent,' led the church party to accuse him of promoting a repeal of the Test Act. When on 23 September 1688 Grocers' Hall was opened by the lord mayor, Lobb preached the sermon. After serving as a "preacher to a congregation of dissenting protestants at his house in Hampstead",Alexander Gordon (ed.), ''Freedom after Ejection. A Review (1690 to 1692) of Presbyterian and Congregational Nonconformity in England and Wales'', Manchester University Press, 1917, p. 303. the precursor to what later became Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, in 1694 he was chosen to fill one of the vacancies, occasioned by the exclusion of Daniel Williams, among the lecturers at the Pinners' Hall. He died on 3 June 1699.Controversial writings
In conjunction with John Humfrey, Lobb wrote in 1680 an ''Answer ... by some Nonconformists'' to a sermon preached by Edward Stillingfleet on the ”mischief of separation”. Stillingfleet replied the same year in ''The Charge of Schism Renewed''. Lobb and Humfrey thereupon retorted with a ''Reply to the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet''. Lobb took a prominent part in the controversy between the Presbyterian and Independent denominations occasioned by the republication of Tobias Crisp's ''Works'' with ''Additions'' in 1690. To counteract what he considered to be Crisp's erroneous doctrine, Daniel Williams (theologian), Daniel Williams published in 1695 ''A Defence of Gospel Truth''. Lobb joined issue with Williams in ''A Peceable Enquiry into the nature of the present controversie among our United Brethren about Justification'', (1693). Williams having briefly replied, Lobb published ''A Vindication of the Doctor, and myself'' (1695). Lobb next wrote ''A Report of the present state of the differences in Doctrinals between some Dissenting Ministers in London'' (1697). This was answered during the same year by Vincent Alsop in ''A Faithful Rebuke to a False Report''. Lobb rejoined with a ''Defence'' of his ''Report'' and ''Remarks'' on Alsop's ''Rebuke'' which was in turn castigated by Williams in ''The Answer to the Report'', &c. (1698). At length Lobb sent forth ''An Appeal to Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Edwards concerning Christ's Satisfaction'' (1698), in which he insinuated that Williams and Richard Baxter favoured Socinianism. Stillingfleet in a reply said that the dispute in his opinion was idle and profitless. Lobb, however, still pursued the controversy in ''A further Defence'' of his ''Appeal'', and it was closed by Williams in a pamphlet called ''An End to Discord''. An anonymous disciple of Baxter dealt with Lobb's accusation in ''A Plea for the late Mr. Baxter'', 1699.Family
By the daughter of Theophilus Polwhele, nonconformist minister at Tiverton, Devonshire, he had three sons, Stephen (d. 1720), who conformed and became chaplain of Penzance Chapel, Cornwall, and vicar of Milton Abbot; Theophilus Lobb, a physician; and Samuel (d. 1760), who also conformed and obtained the rectory of Farleigh Hungerford, Wiltshire. Mrs. Lobb died in 1691.Notes
;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Lobb, Stephen 1647 births 1699 deaths English Congregationalist ministers People of the Rye House Plot