William Armfield Hobday (1771 - 17 Feb 1831) was an English portrait painter and miniaturist whose clientele included royalty and the Rothschild family.

Hobday was born in Birmingham, the eldest of 4 sons of Samuel Hobday (1746-1816), a rich Birmingham spoon manufacturer. Showing a capacity for drawing, he was sent to London when still a boy, and articled to an engraver named William Barney, with whom he remained for six years, studying at the same time in the Royal Academy schools. He then established himself in Charles Street, near the Middlesex Hospital, as a painter of miniatures and watercolour portraits, and commenced to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1794. He was fortunate in soon securing a fashionable clientele, married Eli...