Thomas Hughes | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Hughes | |
| Born | (1822-10-20)20 October 1822 Uffington, Berkshire (nowOxfordshire), England |
| Died | 22 March 1896(1896-03-22) (aged 73) Brighton, East Sussex, England |
| Pen name | Vacuus Viator[1] |
| Occupation | Lawyer, writer, reformer |
| Education | Oriel College, Oxford |
| Period | Nineteenth century |
| Genre | Children's literature |
Thomas HughesQC (20 October 1822 – 22 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novelTom Brown's School Days (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set atRugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel,Tom Brown at Oxford (1861).
Hughes had numerous other interests, in particular as a Member of Parliament, in theBritish co-operative movement, and in a settlement—Rugby, Tennessee, USA—reflecting his values.
Hughes was the second son ofJohn Hughes, editor of theBoscobel Tracts (1830), and was born inUffington, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). He had six brothers, and one sister,Jane Senior, who later became Britain's first female civil servant. At the age of eight he was sent toTwyford School, a preparatory public school near Winchester, where he remained until the age of eleven. In February 1834 he went toRugby School, which was then under the celebratedThomas Arnold, a contemporary of his father atOriel College, Oxford.
Hughes excelled at sports rather than in scholarship, and his school career culminated in acricket match atLord's Cricket Ground.[2] In 1842 he went on to Oriel College, and graduated BA in 1845. At Oxford, he played cricket for theuniversity team in the annualUniversity Match againstCambridge University, also at Lord's, and a match still regarded asfirst-class cricket.[3]
Hughes wascalled to the bar in 1848, becameQueen's Counsel in 1869 and a bencher in 1870. He was appointed to acounty court judgeship in theChester district in July 1882.[4]
A committed social reformer, Hughes became involved in theChristian socialism movement led byFrederick Maurice, which he joined in 1848. In January 1854 he was one of the founders of theWorking Men's College inGreat Ormond Street, and was the college's principal from 1872 to 1883.[5]
Hughes gave evidence in 1850 to a House of Commons committee on savings.[4] In so doing he participated in a Christian Socialist initiative, which led shortly to theIndustrial and Provident Societies Partnership Act 1852, and the emergence of theindustrial and provident society.[6] The Act was the work ofRobert Aglionby Slaney, with whom Hughes worked in alliance.[7][8]
Hughes was involved also in the formation of some early trade unions, and helped finance the printing of Liberal publications; and acted as the firstPresident of theCo-operative Congress in 1869, serving on theCo-operative Central Board.[9] He invested withWilliam Romaine Callender in co-operative mills, in 1866.[10]
Hughes was elected to Parliament as aLiberal forLambeth (1865–68), and forFrome (1868–74). He stood as candidate in 1874 forMarylebone in 1874, but dropped out just before the election, despite support fromOctavia Hill.[4][11] The context for the end of his political career was the unpopularity with Hughes's Frome constituents of his support for theElementary Education Act 1870.[12]
As an MP Hughes worked ontrade union legislation, but was not in a position to have major changes passed.[4] He had greater success in improving the legal position ofco-operatives, which in particular became able to operate as alimited company.[8] The issue of legal obstacles to the operation of labour unions was topical, and in 1867 Hughes was made a member of a Royal Commission set up to consider the matter. Initially he was the only one on the committee sympathetic to the union point of view; after some lobbying he was joined byFrederic Harrison, and a concession was made to union representatives, allowing them observer places in the proceedings.[13] Hughes then worked with Harrison andRobert Applegarth to diminish the effect of some of the testimony from employers.[14]
The outcome of this commission was that Harrison, Hughes andLord Lichfield produced a minority report (1869), recommending that all the legal restrictions should be dropped.[13] Then the matter was raised again in a second Commission, at the end of Hughes's time in Parliament. At that pointAlexander Macdonald used a minority report to refer back to Hughes's earlier view; but Hughes signed the majority report. It advocated amendment of theMaster and Servant Act 1867, but little substantive change to theCriminal Law Amendment Act 1871 and the law ofconspiracy.[15]
During theinvasion scare of 1859, Hughes raised the19th (Bloomsbury) Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps from among the students of the Working Men's College, and commanded it with the rank ofLieutenant-Colonel until 1869, when he became the unit's firstHonorary Colonel. The battalion was known as 'Tom Brown's Corps'. Hughes estimated that it was the poorest in London,Rifle Volunteer Corps at the time being predominantly middle class. He also served as deputy editor of theVolunteer Services Gazette.[16][17][18]
In 1878–9 Hughes began writingThe Manual for Co-operators (1881), withVansittart Neale, for the Co-operative Congress. As a side-product he developed an interest in themodel village.[19] In 1880, he acquired the ownership ofFranklin W. Smith'sPlateau City and founded a settlement in America—Rugby, Tennessee—which was designed as an experiment inutopian living for the younger sons of the English gentry. It followed closely on the failed colony Buckthorn (existing about 1872 to 1879), established by another Englishman, Charles Lempriere, in western Virginia; this settlement had supposedly been suggested by Hughes.[20] Rugby was also unsuccessful on its own terms, but it still exists and is listed on the U.S.National Register of Historic Places.
Hughes was also a prominent figure in the anti-opium movement, and a member of theSociety for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.[21]
At the end of the 1880s Hughes clashed withJohn Thomas Whitehead Mitchell of theCo-operative Wholesale Society, over thevertical integration Mitchell favoured for the Society.[22] Hughes died in 1896 aged 73, atBrighton, of heart failure, and was buried there.
While living atWimbledon, Hughes wrote his famous storyTom Brown's School Days, which was published in April 1857. He is associated with the novelists of the "muscular school", a loose classification but centred on the fiction of theCrimean War period.[23] Although Hughes had never been a member of thesixth form at Rugby, his impressions of the headmaster Thomas Arnold were reverent.
Hughes also wroteThe Scouring of the White Horse (1859),Tom Brown at Oxford (1861),Religio Laici (1868),Life ofAlfred the Great (1869) and theMemoir of a Brother. His brother,George Hughes, was the model for the Tom Brown character.
In 1847, Hughes married Frances Ford, daughter of Rev.James Ford, and niece ofRichard Ford, and they settled in 1853 at Wimbledon.[4] Their house there was built by the North London Working Builders' Association, a Christian Socialist co-operative; and was shared withJ. M. F. Ludlow and his family;[24] Ludlow already shared barristers' chambers with Hughes, and the arrangement lasted four years.[4] There were five sons (Maurice, James, George, John, and Arthur) and four daughters (Lilian, Evie, Caroline andMary) of the marriage.[25][26]
Lilian Hughes perished in the sinking of theRMSTitanic in 1912. The youngest child Mary Hughes was a well knownPoor Law guardian and volunteer visitor to the local Poor Law infirmary and children's home.
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A Hughes Scholarship was founded at Oriel College, Oxford. It was a closed award, open only to members, or sons of members, of some Co-operative Societies, in which aspect the award reflected Hughes's involvement with the Co-operative Movement.[27] The first scholar was elected to Oriel in 1884.[28] It was later combined with an award honouring the social reformerEdward Vansittart Neale.[29]
A statue of Hughes (pictured right) stands outside Rugby School Library: the sculptor wasThomas Brock, and the statue was unveiled in 1899.[30]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLambeth 1865 –1868 With:Frederick Doulton | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forFrome 1868 –1874 | Succeeded by |
