Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hughes, Obadiah
HUGHES, OBADIAH, D.D. (1695–1751), presbyterian minister, son of George Hughes (d. November 1719), minister at Canterbury, was born in 1695. His father was grandson of George Hughes (1603-1667) [q.v.], and son of Obadiah Hughes (d. 24 Jan. 1704, aged 64), who was ejected in 1662 from a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, before taking his degree, received presbyterian ordination on 9 March 1670 at Plymouth, and ministered from April 1674 in London, and afterwards at Enfield (his portrait, by Dobson, engraved by J. Caldwall, is given in Palmer, Nonconformist's Memorial, 1775,i. 392; an inferior engraving is in the 2nd edit., 1802, ii. 62). Obadiah Hughes the younger was educated at a Scottish university (not Edinburgh). In 1728 King's College, Old Aberdeen, sent him the diploma of D.D. Having acted for some time as a domestic chaplain, he was ordained on 11 Jan. 1721 at the Old Jewry, being then assistant to Joshua Oldfield, D.D., at Maid Lane, Southwark. Though a non-subscriber at Salters' Hall in 1719, he was an evangelical preacher, With Lardner and others he established a Tuesday evening lecture at the Old Jewry; he belonged also, with Jeremiah Hunt [q.v.] and others,to a ministers' club which met at Chew's Coffee-house, Bow Lane. On Oldfield's death on 8 Nov. 1729 he became sole pastor at Maid Lane, and was at once elected Oldfield's successor as trustee of Dr. Daniel Williams's foundations. He took part in 1734 in the course of sermons against popery at Salters' Hall. From 1738 to 1750 he was secretary to the presbyterian board. In 1743 he succeeded Samuel Say at Long Ditch (now Princes Street), Westminster. He became one of the Salters' Hall lecturers in 1746. His health failed him while still in his prime, and he died on 10 Dec. 1751. Funeral sermons were preached by Samuel Lawrence, D.D., of Monkwell Street, and John Allen, M.D., of New Broad Street; that by the latter was published. Hughes married a sister of Sir John Fryer, bart., one of the presbyterian gentry, who was lord mayor of London in 1721. He adopted his wife's niece, Delicia Fryer, who married Joshua Iremonger, and died in December 1744.
Wilson gives a list of fourteen separate sermons by Hughes published between 1726 and 1749, eight of them being funeral sermons, including those for Oldfield and Say. To these may be added:
- 'A Sermon on the Anniversary of King George's Coronation,' &c., 1725, 8vo.
- 'The Salvation of God's People,' &c., 1745, 8vo. 3. 'Peace attended with Reformation,' &c., 1749, 4to.
A nephew, Obadiah Hughes, son of John Hughes, minister at Ware, Hertfordshire (d. 1729, brother of the foregoing), was a fellow-student with Doddridge at Kibworth, assisted his father at Ware, and was afterwards minister at Staplehurst, Kent.
[Funeral Sermon by Allen, 1752; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 232; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 257; Calamy's Own Life, 1830, ii. 514; Protestant Dissenter's Mag., 1799, p. 14; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1814, iv. 96 sq.; Jeremy's Presbyterian Fund, 1885, pp. 122, 130 sq.]