Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Henry Drury to Francis Hodgson, January 1829
A thousand hands could not write all the letters I have to
indite. Many thanks for your very judicious and kind testimonials. I have added
sundry Bishops and Heads to my heap; what invaluable men to me are Butler of Shrewsbury, Maltby, and our own dear Bayley,1 Sutton, and Frere! All goes on very well. What an infinity of old friends
does this bring out! I find I have 532 friends. Now how like Hawtrey was that sentence! I am still in very
confident hopes of the result, and I am sure that
Batten has no
chance.
Yours ever,
Samuel Ellis Batten (1792-1830)
The son of Joseph Batten of Penzance; educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was an
evangelical and assistant-master at Harrow (1815-30).
Henry Vincent Bayley (1777-1844)
An associate of Henry Hallam, William Frere, and William Herbert at Eton, he was sub-dean
of Lincoln (1805-28) and archdeacon of Stow (1823).
Samuel Butler, bishop of Lichfield (1774-1839)
The editor of Aeschylus; educated at Rugby School and St John's College, Cambridge, he
was headmaster of Shrewsbury (1798-1836) and bishop of Lichfield and Coventry
(1836).
Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (1778-1841)
The eldest son of Joseph Drury, Byron's headmaster; he was fellow of King's College,
Cambridge and assistant-master at Harrow from 1801. In 1808 he married Ann Caroline Tayler,
whose sisters married Drury's friends Robert Bland and Francis Hodgson.
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the
The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of
Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).
Edward Craven Hawtrey (1789-1862)
He tutored the sons of the Earl of Shrewsbury before being appointed assistant-master at
Eton (1814), where he was afterwards headmaster (1834) and, following the death of Francis
Hodgson, provost.
Edward Maltby, bishop of Durham (1770-1859)
Educated under Parr at Norwich and at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was preacher at
Lincoln's Inn (1824-33), bishop of Chichester (1831) and of Durham (1836-56). Sydney Smith
described him as “a thoroughly amiable, foolish, learned man.”
