Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hughes, William (1803-1861)
HUGHES, WILLIAM (1803–1861), legal writer, born at Maker vicarage, Cornwall, on 2 March 1803, was fourth son of Sir Robert Hughes, third baronet, by his second wife, Bethia, daughter of Thomas Hiscutt, and was nephew of Admiral Sir Richard Hughes [q.v.] His father matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 30 March 1757, aged 17, was a demy of Magdalen College 1758–67, B.A. 1761, M.A. 1763, rector of Frimley St. Mary and Weston, Suffolk, from 1769 until his death, and was buried on 4 June 1814. William was admitted to the bar at Gray's Inn on 11 June 1833, and practised as a conveyancer on the western circuit, where he was also auditor of the poor-law union district of Cornwall and Devonshire. He died at Millbay Grove, Plymouth, on 20 Aug. 1861. He married Jane Caroline, daughter of Edward Knapman of Bideford, by whom he had five children.
Hughes's chief writings were: 1. ‘Practical Directions for taking Instructions for, and drawing Wills,’ 1833. 2. ‘The Practical Angler. By Piscator,’ 1842. 3. ‘Fish, How to Choose, and How to Dress. By Piscator,’ 1843; 2nd edit., 1854, entitled ‘A Practical Treatise on the Choice and Cookery of Fish.’ 4. ‘The Practice of Sales of Real Property, with an Appendix of Precedents,’ 1846–1847, 2 vols.; 2nd edit., 1849–50, 2 vols. 5. ‘The Three Students of Gray's Inn: a novel,’ 1846. 6. ‘The Practice of Mortgages of Real and Personal Estate,’ 1848–9, 2 vols. 7. ‘The New Stamp Act,’ 1850. 8. ‘Concise Precedents in Modern Conveyancing,’ 1850–1853, 3 vols.; 2nd edit., 1855–7, 3 vols. 9. ‘A Table of the Stamp Duties payable in Great Britain and Ireland,’ 1850. 10. ‘It is all for the best: a Cornish Tale,’ 1852. 11. ‘The Practice of Conveyancing,’ 1856–1857, 2 vols.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 258.]