Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Hugh (1761-1827)
OWEN, HUGH (1761–1827), topographer, born in 1761, was the only son of Pryce Owen, M.D., a physician of Shrewsbury, by his wife Bridget, only daughter of John Whitfield, esq. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1783, and M.A. in 1807 (Graduati Cantabr. 1846, p. 235). In 1791 he was presented by the Earl of Tankerville to the vicarage of St. Julian, Shrewsbury; in 1803 he was collated by Bishop Douglas to the prebend of Gillingham Minor in the cathedral of Salisbury; and in 1819 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Exeter to a portion of the vicarage of Bampton, Oxfordshire. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and filled the office of mayor of Shrewsbury in 1819.
He was collated by Bishop Cornwallis on 27 Dec. 1821 to the archdeaconry of Salop, and on 30 March 1822 to the prebend of Bishopshill in the church of Lichfield. On the death of his friend John Brickdale Blakeway [q. v.] in 1826, he succeeded him as minister of the royal peculiar of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, and he then resigned the church of St. Julian, though he continued to be portionist of the vicarage of Bampton. He died at Shrewsbury on 23 Dec. 1827. His only son, Edward Pryce Owen [q. v.], is separately noticed.
His principal work, undertaken in collaboration with Blakeway, is ‘A History of Shrewsbury,’ in two large volumes, London, 1825, 4to. He had already published, anonymously, ‘Some Account of the ancient and present State of Shrewsbury,’ Shrewsbury, 1808, 8vo, and 1810, 12mo, a work replete with information, especially in the ecclesiastical part. To Britton's ‘Architectural Antiquities’ (vol. iv.) he contributed, with Blakeway, descriptions of Wenlock Abbey, and of Ludlow and Stokesay Castles.
[Gent. Mag. 1826 pt. ii. pp. 321, 431, 1828 pt. i. p. 89; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 575, 591, ii. 681; Upcott's Engl. Topography, iii. 1141; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1750; Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, iii. 395; Leighton's Guide through the Town of Shrewsbury, pp. 103, 184.]