Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/38

28 from indiſpoſition, and a valetudinary ſtate of health. He had ſome time an employment in the office of ordinance; and was ſecretarv to two or three commiſſioners under the great-ſeal, for purchaſing lands for the better ſecuring the docks and harbours at Portſmouth, Chatham, and Harwich.

In the year 1717 the lord chancellor Cowper, (to whom Mr. Hughes was then but lately known) was pleaſed, without any previous ſollicitation, to make him his ſecretary for the commiſſions of the peace, and to diſtinguiſh him with ſingular marks of his favour and affection: And upon his lordſhip’s laying down the great-ſeal, he was at his particular recommendation, and with the ready concurrence of his ſucceſſor, continued in the ſame employment under the earl of Macclesfield.

He held this place to the time of his deceaſe, which happened on the 17th of February 1719, the very night in which his tragedy, entitled the Siege of Damaſcus, was firſt acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane.

He was cut off by a conſumption, after a painful life, at the age of 42, when he had juſt arrived at an agreeable competence, and advancing in fame and fortune. So juſt is the beautiful reflexion of Milton in his Lycidas;

He was privately buried in the vault under the chancel of St. Andrew’s Church in Holborn. Mr.