Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/421

 15 March 1699–1700, in his sixty-first year, according to the inscription on his tombstone in Llanegryn churchyard. Of his children, John (d. 27 June 1700) succeeded him as minister at Bronclydwr; one daughter married Edward Kenrick of Wrexham (who succeeded his brother-in-law at Bronclydwr), and another William Farmer of Whitley, Shropshire.



OWEN, HUGH (1761–1827), topographer, born in 1761, was the only son of Pryce Owen, M.D., a physician of Shrewsbury, by his wife Bridget, only daughter of John Whitfield, esq. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1783, and M.A. in 1807 (Graduati Cantabr. 1846, p. 235). In 1791 he was presented by the Earl of Tankerville to the vicarage of St. Julian, Shrewsbury; in 1803 he was collated by Bishop Douglas to the prebend of Gillingham Minor in the cathedral of Salisbury; and in 1819 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Exeter to a portion of the vicarage of Bampton, Oxfordshire. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and filled the office of mayor of Shrewsbury in 1819.

He was collated by Bishop Cornwallis on 27 Dec. 1821 to the archdeaconry of Salop, and on 30 March 1822 to the prebend of Bishopshill in the church of Lichfield. On the death of his friend [q. v.] in 1826, he succeeded him as minister of the royal peculiar of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, and he then resigned the church of St. Julian, though he continued to be portionist of the vicarage of Bampton. He died at Shrewsbury on 23 Dec. 1827. His only son, [q. v.], is separately noticed.

His principal work, undertaken in collaboration with Blakeway, is ‘A History of Shrewsbury,’ in two large volumes, London, 1825, 4to. He had already published, anonymously, ‘Some Account of the ancient and present State of Shrewsbury,’ Shrewsbury, 1808, 8vo, and 1810, 12mo, a work replete with information, especially in the ecclesiastical part. To Britton's ‘Architectural Antiquities’ (vol. iv.) he contributed, with Blakeway, descriptions of Wenlock Abbey, and of Ludlow and Stokesay Castles.



OWEN, HUGH (1784–1861), colonel, was born at Denbigh on 23 May 1784, and educated at the grammar school at Audlem, Cheshire. Through the influence of Sir Corbet Corbet, bart., of Adderley, a kinsman of (afterwards first Viscount Combermere) [q. v.], Owen was appointed captain in the Shropshire volunteers on 24 Nov. 1803. In December 1805, with the aid of a recruiting party of the 16th light dragoons stationed at Market Drayton, Shropshire, Owen raised thirty men, which entitled him to a cornetcy. He was appointed cornet in the regiment, which was then commanded by Sir Stapleton Cotton, on 31 July 1806, became lieutenant on 9 July 1807, and embarked with it for Portugal in 1809. Speaking French, Spanish, and Portuguese fluently, he was much employed in outpost duties and scouting. He commanded the united skirmishers of the cavalry brigade at Talavera. In 1810 he was appointed captain of cavalry in the Portuguese army, under Marshal Beresford, and was aide-de-camp to Sir [q. v.], in command of the rear-guard of General Hill's division in the retreat to Torres Vedras. He was afterwards brigade-major to Sir Loftus Otway, commanding a brigade of the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th regiments of Portuguese cavalry; and then aide-de-camp and brigade-major to Sir Benjamin D'Urban, commanding a brigade of the 1st, 6th, 11th, and 12th Portuguese cavalry. At the battle of Vittoria on 21 June 1813, when leading the brigade into action, in the temporary absence of General D'Urban, who had been sent on to reconnoitre, his name was noted down by Wellington, who next morning directed him to memorialise for a troop in the 18th hussars, to which he was duly gazetted from 22 June 1813, subsequently receiving Portuguese rank as major and lieutenant-colonel. At the peace he returned with the Portuguese army to Portugal, in 1815 was ordered to organise the 6th regiment of cavalry, which in the subsequent civil wars, as ‘Os Dragones de Chaves,’ became famous for its high discipline and superiority in the field. Electing to remain in the Portuguese army, Owen, after obtaining a majority in the 7th hussars, sold out of the British service on 4 Sept. 1817. In 1820 he accompanied Lord Beresford to Brazil, and was sent home to Lisbon with despatches and the brevet rank of colonel in the 4th cavalry. On arrival he found that the king's government had been superseded, and Lord