Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/192

  as trustee of Dr. Daniel Williams's foundations. He took part in 1734 in the course of sermons against popery at Salters' Hall. From 1738 to 1750 he was secretary to the presbyterian board. In 1743 he succeeded Samuel Say at Long Ditch (now Princes Street), Westminster. He became one of the Salters' Hall lecturers in 1746. His health failed him while still in his prime, and he died on 10 Dec. 1751. Funeral sermons were preached by Samuel Lawrence, D.D., of Monkwell Street, and John Allen, M.D., of New Broad Street; that by the latter was published. Hughes married a sister of Sir John Fryer, bart., one of the presbyterian gentry, who was lord mayor of London in 1721. He adopted his wife's niece, Delicia Fryer, who married Joshua Iremonger, and died in December 1744.

Wilson gives a list of fourteen separate sermons by Hughes published between 1726 and 1749, eight of them being funeral sermons, including those for Oldfield and Say. To these may be added:
 * 1) 'A Sermon on the Anniversary of King George's Coronation,' &c., 1725, 8vo.
 * 2) 'The Salvation of God's People,' &c., 1745, 8vo. 3. 'Peace attended with Reformation,' &c., 1749, 4to.

A nephew, Obadiah Hughes, son of John Hughes, minister at Ware, Hertfordshire (d. 1729, brother of the foregoing), was a fellow-student with Doddridge at Kibworth, assisted his father at Ware, and was afterwards minister at Staplehurst, Kent.



HUGHES, RICHARD (1729?–1812), admiral, is said to have been born in 1729 (, Baronetage). His grandfather, Captain Richard Hughes (d. 1756), and his father, Sir Richard Hughes, first baronet (d. 23 Sept. 1780), were both in turn for many years commissioners of the navy at Portsmouth. Rear-admiral Robert Hughes (d. 1729), whose daughter was mother of [q.v.] seems to have been his granduncle (cf., iii. 165, 232, v. 43, 293).

In 1739 Hughes was entered at the Royal Academy at Portsmouth, and three years later joined the Feversham, commanded by his father. On 1 April 1745, while acting lieutenant of the Burford in the Mediterranean, he passed his examination, and was declared in the certificate to be 'upwards of 21. The next day he was promoted by Vice-admiral Rowley to be lieutenant of the Stirling Castle, and continued serving in her till the peace. In 1752 he was appointed to the Advice, going out to the West Indies with the broad pennant of Commodore Pye; in her he lost the sight of one of his eyes, which was accidentally pierced by a table-fork. On 6 Feb. 1756 he was promoted to be commander of the Spy, and was posted to the Hind on 10 Nov. In January 1758 he was appointed to the Active, one of the squadron employed during the summer on the coast of France under Commodore Howe [see ]; and in February 1759 to the Falmouth, one of the ships sent out under [q.v.] to join Vice-admiral Pocock in the East Indies. In the following January he was moved into the York, and in her participated in the reduction of Pondicherry in 1760-1. He was shortly afterwards obliged by ill-health to return to England, and in November 1761 he was appointed to the Portland, for service on the home station; in her, in the following summer, he carried the Earl of Buckinghamshire, as ambassador to Russia, to Cronstadt. In April 1763 he was transferred to the Boreas frigate for occasional service, including the convoying troops to Goree in the spring of 1766. From May 1767 to May 1770 he commanded the Firm guardship at Plymouth, and the Worcester guardship at Portsmouth from January 1771 to January 1774. In 1777 he was appointed to the Centaur, and in June 1778 was sent out as resident commissioner of the navy at Halifax, and also, in express terms, `commander-in-chief of his Majesty's ships and vessels which shall from time to time be at Halifax, when there shall be no flag officer or senior officer present.' This office he held till 26 Sept. 1780, when he was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue; in the previous April he had succeeded to the baronetcy, on the death of his father. In 1781 he was commander-in-chief of the squadron in the Downs, and in 1782, with his flag in the Princess Amelia, commanded a division in the grand fleet under Lord Howe at the relief of Gibraltar, and the encounter with the allies off Cape Spartel. He was afterwards sent out to the West Indies to reinforce Admiral Pigot, and on Pigot's returning to England remained as commander-in-chief, with his flag in the Leander, and afterwards in the Adamant, the larger ships being ordered home.

The period of his command was marked by two incidents of interest, mainly from their connection with the career of Nelson. In 1785 Hughes, on the representations of