the merchants, had been induced to waive the enforcement of the navigation laws with respect to vessels of the United States trading in the West Indies. But Nelson pointed out to him that the suspension of the act exceeded his legal power, and Hughes, accepting Nelson's view, was afterwards thanked by the treasury, for his action, to the annoyance, of Nelson, who considered that the thanks were due to himself alone, and that Hughes had rather deserved a reprimand (Laughton, Letters of Lord Nelson, p. 28). The other incident arose out of the admiral's giving Captain Moutray, the naval commissioner at Antigua, an order to act as commander-in-chief of the ships there in the absence of a senior officer. Hughes was probably misled by the terms of his own commission at Halifax a few years before; but as Moutray was on half-pay, with no executive authority from the admiralty, the order was irregular, and Nelson refused to obey it, thus drawing on himself an official admonition (ib. p. 31). Hughes appears to have been an amiable, easy-tempered man, without much energy or force of character. `Sir Richard Hughes,' Nelson wrote, `is a fiddler; therefore, as his time is taken up tuning that instrument, … the squadron is cursedly out of tune. He lives in a boarding-house at Barbadoes, not much in the style of a British admiral. He has not that opinion of his own sense that he ought to have; he does not give himself that weight that I think an English admiral ought to do'(ib.pp. 25, 34).
In the summer of 1786 Hughes returned to England, and in 1789, again in the Adamant, went out as commander-in-chief at Halifax, from which he returned in May 1792. He became a vice-admiral on 21 Sept. 1790, and admiral on 12 Sept. 1794, but had no further service, and died 5 Jan. 1812. He married Jane, daughter of William Sloane, nephew of Sir Hans Sloane, and had issue two sons, who died before him, and a daughter. The baronetcy passed to his brother Robert, in whose line it is still extant [see under Hughes, William, 1803-1861].
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 180; official letters and other documents in the Public Record Office.]
HUGHES, ROBERT (Robin Ddu o Fon) (1744?–1785), Welsh poet, was born at Caint Bach, in the parish of Penmynydd in Anglesey about 1744. After receiving a good education under the care of the vicar of the parish, he became a schoolmaster at Amlwch, and afterwards spent twenty years in London as barrister's clerk. Ultimately his health failed; he returned to Wales, acted as a schoolmaster at Carnarvon, and dying of consumption 27 Feb. 1785, aged 41, was buried in the parish churchyard of Llanbeblig, Carnarvonshire, where the Society of Gwyneddigion, of which he was a founder, erected a monument to his memory. A portrait of him was engraved.
Hughes's 'Cywydd Molawd Mon,' and a couple of Englynion appeared with a brief biographical notice by the vicar of Llanllyfni, Carnarvonshire, in the 'Diddanwch Teuluaidd,' 1817 (pp. xxx, xxxi, 234, 236). In the `Brython,' iii. 376, appears his 'Cywydd Myfyrdod y Bardd am ei Gariad, pan oedd hi yn mordwyo o Fon i Fanaw; mewn cwch a elwid "Tarw,"' i.e. 'The bard's meditation on his sweetheart's setting sail from Anglesey to the Isle of Man in a boat called the Taurus.' This is dated 1763. There is a 'Cywydd y Byd' by him in Blackwell's 'Cylchgrawn,' i. 265, 1834, and a `Beddargraph' (epitaph) consisting of three Englynion in the 'Greal' (London, 1805), p. 72. Nine of his poems are published in 'Cyfres y Ceinion,' Liverpool, 1879. Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 14993 contains unpublished poems by Hughes dating from 1765 to 1780 in his own handwriting. The statement that there are poems by Hughes in the 'Dewisol Ganiadau' is erroneous.
[Information from the Rev. D. Silvan Evans and Professor Powel; Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Brit.Mus. Cat.]
HUGHES, ROBERT BALL (1806–1868), sculptor, born in London on 19 Jan. 1806, was probably son of Captain Ball, R.N., whose mother's second husband was Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and whose son Edward, the admiral's heir, assumed the surname of Hughes in 1819 [see Hughes, Sir Edward, ad fin] Robert worked for seven years in the studio of E. H. Baily, R.A., and was a student at the Royal Academy. There, in 1823, he gained the gold medal for a bas-relief 'Pandora brought by Mercury to Epimetheus,' which was exhibited at the Academy in the following year. In 1825 he exhibited a statue of Achilles, in 1826 busts of the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Wellington, and in 1828 `A Shepherd Boy.' In 1829 Hughes left England, and passed the remainder of his life in the United States. His most important American works were, the statue of Alexander Hamilton for the Merchants' Exchange, New York, destroyed by fire in 1835; the bronze statue of Nathaniel Bowditch, now at Mount Auburn; and the monument to Bishop Hobart in Trinity Church, New York. In 1851 he sent over to the international exhibition in London a statue of
