Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/178

 1006 pp., in 1879, edited by the Rev. Thomas Lewis. The work contains a large number of biographies. Hughes removed to Manchester in 1846, and shortly afterwards to Bangor, where he remained nine years. On 1 Nov. 1855 he settled at Tredegar in Monmouthshire, and remained there till his death on 3 June 1872. Hughes was a large contributor to the 'Gwyddoniadur,' or 'Welsh Cyclopædia,' and edited and enlarged the English and Welsh dictionary of Caerfallwch [see ]. He began, with the author's sanction, a Welsh edition of Home's 'Introduction to the Bible,' but it was not completed.



HUGHES, EDWARD (1720?–1794), admiral, was born at Hertford about 1720. His father is said by his biographers to have been alderman and several times mayor of Hertford, but the local histories fail to corroborate the statement. He entered the navy on 4 Jan. 1734-5 on board the 60-gun ship Dunkirk,with Captain Digby Dent (d. 1737), commodore on the Jamaica station. From the Dunkirk he was moved in September 1736 to the Kinsale on the same station, and again, in July 1738, to the Diamond with Captain Knowles, and in her was present at the reduction of Porto Bello in November 1739 [see ; ]. In the following February he was moved into the Burford, Vernon's flagship, and on 25 Aug. was promoted to be lieutenant of the Cumberland fireship. On 6 March 1740-1 he was transferred to the Suffolk with Captain Davers, and in her took part in the unsuccessful operations against Cartagena in March and April 1741. In June he was appointed to the Dunkirk, and in her witnessed the action off Toulon on 11 Feb. 1743-4, but without taking any part in it, the Dunkirk being in the rear of the fleet under the immediate command of Lestock [see ]. In the following July Hughes was moved into the Stirling Castle, and in October 1745 into the Marlborough, in which in 1746 he returned to England. In June 1747 he joined the Warwick as a supernumerary for a passage to North America and the West Indies. On the way the Warwick, with the Lark in company, met the Spanish 70-gun ship Glorioso. After a sharp engagement, the Warwick, being unsupported by the Lark, was disabled, and the Glorioso escaped. [q. v.], captain of the Lark, was condemned by court-martial for his conduct on the occasion. Hughes was promoted to the vacancy, 6 Feb. 1747-8.

Hughes continued in command of the Lark till July 1750, when, on her paying off, he was placed on half-pay. In January 1756 he commissioned the Deal Castle. In July 1757 he was appointed to the Somerset of 64 guns, in which he joined Vice-admiral Holburne at Halifax. In 1758 the Somerset formed part of the fleet under Boscawen at the reduction of Louisbourg, and in 1759 under Saunders at the reduction of Quebec. Saunders afterwards hoisted his flag on board her and sailed for England with part of the fleet, but hearing of the French being at sea, hastened to reinforce Hawke off Brest, too late, however, to share in the glories of Quiberon Bay [see ]. In the following year the Somerset went to the Mediterranean with Saunders, who in September 1762 moved Hughes into his own ship, the Blenheim, in which he returned to England in April 1763. After another spell of half-pay, Hughes recommissioned the Somerset in January 1771, and commanded her as a guardship at Portsmouth till, in September 1773, he was appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies, with a broad pennant in the 50-gun ship Salisbury. He returned home in 1777, and on 23 Jan. 1778 was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.

In July he was again appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies, though he did not sail till the following spring, being detained, partly by the difficulty of fitting out in the depleted condition of the dockyards, and partly to do the duty of commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, while Sir Thomas Pye was presiding over the court-martial on Admiral Keppel. He was meantime created a knight of the Bath. When finally he put to sea, he had under his command a squadron of six ships of the line, including his own flagship, the Superb of 74 guns, and with these on the way out he had no difficulty in dispossessing the French, who had lately seized on the English settlement of Goree. In India his force was far in excess of anything the enemy could muster in eastern waters, and for the next two years he had little to do. In December 1780 he destroyed at Mangalore a number of armed vessels fitted out by Hyder Ali to prey on English commerce. On 26 Sept. 1780 he was advanced to be vice-admiral of the blue. In November 1781, after receiving intelligence of the war with Holland, he co-operated with the troops under Sir Hector Munro in reducing Negapatnam. He then, taking some five hundred soldiers on board his ships, went to Trincomalee, where he arrived on the evening of 4 Jan. 1782. The place was not