▶Date of birth:  (baptised) 22 March 1822      Place of birth: Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, Wales (baptised Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire)

▶Father:  James Hughes     Mother:  Mary Bonsall

▶Spouse(s): Ella Thomasina Ross     Date(s) of marriage:  October 1850     Place(s) of marriage: Cheltenham

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: The Revd. James Hughes visited Cheltenham regularly in the late 1840s, courting his future wife, though much of his time as a clergyman was spent in Worcestershire. He was baptised in 1822, in Cardiganshire, the only son of solicitor James Hughes, of Glan Rheidol, Cardiganshire, and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Bonsall. Hughes was brought up at Glan Rheidol, Cardiganshire, and matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford in 1839, BA 1845, MA 1848. He was recorded as residing in Cheltenham at various dates from 1845, when he leased 1 Promenade Terrace in August. He returned in mid 1846, and stayed at the Imperial Hotel, leaving after a while for Tenby.

After graduating from Oxford he took holy orders, and was ordained Deacon in 1847, and Priest (both Gloucester and Bristol) in 1848. In 1847 his stay in Cheltenham was based in Pittville, at Rosehaugh (now East Eglinton), Pittville Circus in November, and when he returned in 1849 and several times in 1850 he resided instead at the Belle Vue Hotel. The reason for the flurry of visits in 1850 was that in October of that year he married Pittville resident Ella Thomasina, second daughter of Frederick James Ross, of 12 Clarence Square, Pittville; they had three sons and four daughters.

Shortly after the wedding he was licensed to the curacy of Flatbury, Worcestershire, where he lived at the time of his marriage. Visits to his parents-in-law at Clarence Square are noted in the local newspapers in 1858 (when he had to attend court on a charge of failing to pay an invoice in full: he unsuccessfully claimed that the case lapsed under the statute of limitations), and also in 1861 and 1862, when his son was born while the family were staying at 11 Imperial Square in Cheltenham.

Hughes lived from at least 1861 at Berrow in Worcester, where he was Vicar until 1870 (he auctioned his household furniture and collection of oil paintings in 1869), and died abroad in 1872, at the age of forty-nine, while staying at the Belle Vue Hotel in Bonn. His personal wealth at death was sworn at under £3,000. [He should not be confused with his contemporary from Cardiganshire, the Revd. James Hughes, of Jesus College, Oxford, nor with his contemporary at Oriel College, the Revd. John Hughes.]

▶Moved to Pittville from:  (various)      Moved from Pittville to: (various)

▶Date of death:   30 January 1872     Place of death: Worcester

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 10979

Contributor(s):  John Simpson