Hughes, THOMAS

Hughes, THOMAS, author of Tom Brown's School-days, second son of John Hughes, Esq., of Donnington Priory, near Newbury, in Berkshire, was born at Uffington, Berks, October 23, 1823. He was educated at Rugby under the celebrated Dr Arnold; entered Ariel College, Oxford, in 1841, and took his degree of B.A. in 1845; was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1848, and became a member of the Chancery Bar. In 1856 he gave to the world Tom Brown's School-days, a vivid and truthful picture of life at Rugby, evidently written from the author's own boyish impressions. It is the highest praise to say that it admirably supple- ments Stanley's life as a picture of the greatest of modern teachers. It was followed in 1858 by The Scouring of the White Horse; in 1861 by Tom Brown at Oxford, in which the mental history of his hero is continued, with sketches of college life and incidents; and in 1869 by Alfred the Great. Hughes pursued meanwhile the practice of the law, became Q.C. in 1869, and a County Court judge in 1882. He associated early with Maurice and Kingsley in their work of social and sanitary reform among the London poor, and while he had gained the confidence and good-will of the working-classes by his endeavours to promote a better understanding between masters and men, and by teaching the latter the value of co-operation, he has never failed courageously to rebuke the narrow prejudices and mischievous views held by certain members of trades-unions. At the general election for Lambeth in 1865 he was placed at the head of the poll. He was returned for Frome in 1868, which he continued to represent till 1874, and always took a prominent part in debates relating to trades-unions and the like. In 1880 he assisted in founding a settlement in the United States, described in Rugby, Tennessee (1881). He also wrote Memoirs of a Brother (1873), Lives of Daniel Macmillan (1882) and Bishop Fraser (1887), Vacation Rambles (1895), and the article MAURICE in this work. He died 22d March 1896.