Author: Hodgson, Francis
Biography:
HODGSON, Francis (1781-1852: ODNB)
Hodgson's father and mother, James and Jane (Coke) Hodgson, were a clergyman and a clergyman's daughter; Hodgson himself was ordained in 1814 and combined pastoral and literary work for most of his life. He was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. In 1807 he was appointed to a resident tutorship at King's, which he held until his marriage. In that year he also published his translation of Juvenal, which established his reputation as a classical scholar and brought him the attention and friendship of Byron. A gift from Byron enabled him to clear the debts he inherited from his father and to marry his first wife, Matilda Tayler, in 1815, but he largely lost touch with Byron after 1816. He held various livings, starting with that of Bakewell in Derbyshire. After the death of his first wife, who was childless, he married Elizabeth Denman in 1838, and with her had five children who survived him. From 1840 to his death in 1852, he was a respected Provost of Eton College; he is buried in the College chapel. (ODNB 25 Mar. 2019; Leslie A. Marchand, ed. Byron's Letters and Journals 1 [1973] 276)