Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hogg, John
HOGG, JOHN (1800–1869), classical scholar and naturalist, born in 1800, was second son of John Hogg, and brother of Thomas Jefferson Hogg [q. v.] After passing through Durham grammar school, he entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, as a pensioner in 1818, was chosen Ramsay scholar in 1820, and graduated B.A. in 1822 as junior optime. In 1827 he proceeded M.A., and was elected bye fellow of his college on Lady Ramsay's foundation (Cambr. Univ. Calendars); on 8 Feb. 1844 he proceeded M.A. ad eundem at Oxford. On 21 Nov. 1828 he was admitted of the Inner Temple, was called to the bar on 27 Jan. 1832 (Inner Temple Register), and chose the northern circuit; he was also a J.P. and D.L. for the county of Durham. He died at Norton House on 16 Sept. 1869 (Stockton Herald, 24 Sept. 1869). He married Anne Louisa Sarah (d. 1864), second daughter of Major Goldfinch of the Priory, Chewton Mendip, Somerset (Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. xvii. 802), by whom he left a son and two daughters (Walford, County Families, 1889, p. 524).
Hogg was kind-hearted and popular, though somewhat wanting in practical common sense. He was an excellent classical scholar, antiquary and geographer, and well read in modern languages. His acquirements as a botanist and naturalist were considerable. He travelled frequently, and contributed to the ‘Metropolitan Magazine’ some pleasantly written ‘Letters from Abroad to a Friend at Cambridge,’ reprinted separately in 1844. He wrote articles in ‘Annals of Natural History,’ the ‘Transactions and Proceedings’ of the Linnean Society, ‘Hooker's Botanical Journal,’ the ‘Museum of Classical Antiquities,’ ‘Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,’ and the ‘Magazine of Natural History.’ To the ‘Transactions’ of the Royal Society of Literature, of which he became a member in 1843 and foreign secretary and vice-president in 1866, he contributed numerous papers, many of which were reissued singly. He was elected F.L.S. in 1823, and F.R.S. on 20 June 1839, and was also fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, fellow and secretary (1849–50) of the Royal Geographical Society, fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities of Copenhagen, and president of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. He read memoirs at many meetings of the British Association. Besides the papers already alluded to Hogg published: 1. ‘A Catalogue of Sicilian Plants, with some Remarks on the Geography, Geology, and Vegetation of Sicily,’ 8vo, London, 1842. 2. ‘A Catalogue of Birds observed in South-Eastern Durham and in North-Western Cleveland; with an Appendix containing the Classification and Nomenclature of all the Species included therein. From the Zoologist,’ 8vo, London, 1845. 3. ‘On the Distribution of certain Species of Fresh-water Fish, and on the Modes of Fecundating the Ova of the Salmonidæ. Read before the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club,’ 8vo, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1856. 4. ‘Address to the Members of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club,’ 8vo, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1857. In his various studies Hogg found a ready helper in his elder brother, Thomas Jefferson Hogg [q. v.], of whom he contributed a sympathetic memoir to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 3rd ser. xiii. 643.
[Report of Royal Soc. of Lit., 1870; information kindly supplied by the Rev. Philip Rudd; Durham County Advertiser, 24 Sept. 1869; Proc. Royal Geog. Soc. xiv. 298–9.]