Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/338

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Hussey
332
Hustler

Pitt, on the other hand, to invite his aid in checking disaffection among the Roman catholic soldiers and militia in Ireland. A document was obtained from Rome conferring on him special control of Roman catholic military chaplains, and George III gave him a commission to secure him against the interference of officials of the government in Ireland. Under the advice of Edmund Burke, and without stipulating for any remuneration, Hussey in 1794 proceeded on this mission. While in Ireland he preached frequently to catholic soldiers and militia, who bitterly complained to him of the severe punishments inflicted on them for not attending services in protestant churches. His exertions in their behalf roused the wrath of the executive at Dublin, and proved abortive, but at the request of the Duke of Portland he protracted his stay in Ireland in order to arrange for the establishment of the Roman catholic college at Maynooth, under act of parliament, and in June 1795 Hussey was appointed, with the approval of government, president of the new college. Soon afterwards the pope nominated Hussey to the bishopric of Waterford and Lismore. After a visitation of the see, Hussey announced his intention of devoting the emoluments of his office to the general benefit of the diocese. In a brief pastoral letter to his clergy (published in 1797), Hussey reminded them that ninetenths of the Irish people were Roman catholics, and that temporal rulers had no right to exercise jurisdiction in spiritual matters. Portions of this pastoral were bitterly assailed in print, and were denounced in parliament. In March 1798 Hussey was received in audience by the pope, who granted him leave of absence from his diocese. He is said to have taken part at Paris in 1801 in the negotiations for the concordat between Pius VII and Napoleon. Hussey died from a fit while bathing at Tramore on 11 July 1803, and was buried in the Roman catholic church at Waterford.

Hussey's contemporaries, Edmund Burke and Charles Butler, have left testimonies to his abilities and high character, and Mr. Lecky refers to him as the ablest English speaking bishop of his time. 'An engraved portrait of Hussey is extant.

[Memoirs of R. Cumberland, 1807; Plowden's Hist. Review, 1803; English Catholics, by C.Butler, 1822; England's Life of O'Leary, 1822; Boswell's Life of Johnson; Correspondence of Edmund Burke, 1844; Cornwallis Correspondence, 1859; Brady's Episcopal Succession, 1876; Froude's English in Ireland, 1874; Ryland's Hist. of Waterford, 1824; Lecky's Hist. of England, 1890.]

J. T. G.

HUSSEY, WALTER (1742–1783), Irish statesman. [See Burgh.]

HUSSEY or HUSE, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1495), chief justice, was probably a son of the Sir Henry Huse who received a grant of free warren in the manor of Herting in Sussex in the eighth year of Henry VI. Campbell, however, describes him as belonging to a Lincolnshire family of small means. He was a member of Gray's Inn, and on 16 June 1471 was appointed attorney-general, with full power of deputing clerks and officers under him in courts of record. As attorney-general he conducted the impeachment of the Duke of Clarence for treason. In Trinity term of 1478 he attained the degree of serjeant-at-law, and on 7 May 1481 was appointed chief justice of the king's bench, in succession to Sir Thomas Billing, at a salary of 140 marks a year. This appointment was renewed at the accession of each of the next three kings, and under Henry VII he was also a commissioner to decide the claims made to fill various offices at the coronation (Rutland Papers, p.8).

In the first year of this reign he successfully protested against the king's practice of consulting the judges beforehand upon crown cases which they were subsequently to try (Year-book, 1 Hen. VII, p. 26). In June 1492 he was a commissioner to treat with the ambassadors of the king of France. He seems to have died late of 1495, as on 24 Nov. of that year Sir John Fineux [q. v.] succeeded him as chief justice. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Berkeley of Wymondham, and had two sons, John, lord Hussey of Sleaford [q. v.] and Robert, from whom descend the Husseys family of Honnington, Leicestershire.

[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 309; Burke's Extinct Baronetage, p.275; Rymer's Fœdera, xii. 481; Coke's Institutes, iii. 29; Cal. Rot. Pat. pp. 39, 276, 316, 326; Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices.]

J. A. H.

HUSTLER, JOHN (1715–1790), philanthropist, was a native of Bradford, Yorkshire, where his family had been resident and engaged in the wool trade since the early years of the seventeenth century. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, and he appears to have been educated at the Friends' School at Bradford. He became a wool-stapler, and was an active worker and minister among the Friends. He deeply interested himself in the development of Bradford, promoting the building of a markethouse, shambles, and other conveniences, and projecting in 1782 a new street, connecting