Hughes, Thomas Smart (1786–1847), historian

Thomas Smart Hughes was born on 25 August 1786 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where his father, Hugh, was curate. After attending Shrewsbury School, he was admitted as a scholar to St John's College, Cambridge, on 27 June 1803. He won the Browne medal in 1806 and 1807, the Members' prize in 1809 and 1810, and the Seatonian prize in 1817. He graduated B.A. in 1808, and proceeded M.A. in 1811 and B.D. in 1818. He was successively Fellow of St John's (1810-15), Trinity Hall (1815), where he was also a Tutor, and Emmanuel (1817), where he was Dean. He was Assistant Master at Harrow between 1809 and 1811 and travelling tutor to Robert Townley Parker of Cuerden Hall, Lancashire, between 1812 and 1814.

He was ordained as a deacon on 24 August 1815 and as a priest on 3 October 1819. He held a number of appointments in the Church, but spent most of his career as Rector of Fiskerton (1829-45). He was afterwards Perpetual Curate of Edgware, where he died on 11 August 1847.

As a writer and historian, he published Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania and a continuation of Hume and Smollett's History. He also edited Bishop Sherlock's Works.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Alumni Cantabrigienses