Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Henry Drury to Francis Hodgson, 29 December 1828
Harrow: December 29, 1828.
My dear Hodgson,—I am just off for Eton on a visit to Keate; and am so heartily tired of writing
letters that I must be brief. If’ the schoolmaster is abroad,’ so
are the saints; they are making prodigious efforts, and so am I. Two Governors
I consider secure; from one of them I have an actual promise. Peel has written privately to me most
encouragingly. I have had a private conference with the Lord Chancellor, who has most zealously assisted me by writing
and canvassing in all directions; and I heard yesterday from good authority
(and if so, I am indebted for it to Lonsdale) that ![]()
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the
Archbishop of Canterbury has written
to Lord Aberdeen, requesting his vote for
me. In short, everybody tells me I am certain of success. I have no opponent as
yet but Mills!!! who has not the chance
of a fraction of a vote. Batten will
only stand if the saints think the case dubious.
Now for you. I have been staying a week at Eton, and this
is what I learn. Carter has a
prescriptive right, as Goodall deems it,
as master (not assistant) to a fellowship whenever he stands.1 And why? Because, in the examination before the House of Commons,
the Provost declared that the Masters were provided for
by fellowships; Jesuitically saying afterwards, that he meant by Masters only the Head and Lower Masters. My friends are
very numerous and very zealous, and perhaps a little too confident.
Ever most sincerely yours,
I have heard from Tom
Moore this morning.
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).
Thomas Carter (d. 1868)
Vice-provost of Eton College, 1857-68; he was the father of Thomas Thellusson Carter
(1808-1901).
John Singleton Copley, baron Lyndhurst (1772-1863)
The son of the American painter; he did legal work for John Murray before succeeding Lord
Eldon as lord chancellor (1827-30, 1834-35, 1841-46); a skilled lawyer, he was also a
political chameleon.
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.
Joseph Goodall (1760-1840)
Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (1782); in 1801 he succeeded George Heath as
headmaster of Eton, where he became provost in 1809.
George Hamilton- Gordon, fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860)
Harrow-educated Scottish philhellene who founded the Athenian Society and was elected to
the Society of Dilettanti (1805); he was foreign secretary (1841-1846) and prime minister
(1852-55).
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
William Howley, archbishop of Canterbury (1766-1848)
Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was regius professor of Divinity
(1809-13), bishop of London (1813-28), and archbishop of Canterbury (1828-48).
John Keate (1773-1852)
Headmaster at Eton College (1809-1834) and canon of Windsor; he had a reputation as a
flogger.
John Lonsdale, bishop of Lichfield (1788-1867)
A leading figure in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; he was a contemporary
of Francis Hodgson at Eton and future Bishop of Lichfield (1843).
William Mills (1788-1854)
Of St. John's College, Cambridge; he was assistant-master at Harrow (1815-34) and
headmaster at Exeter School (1834-54).
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
