Author: Hugman, Robert
Biography:
HUGMAN, Robert (1813-75: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised at Halesworth, Suffolk, on 7 June 1813, the youngest of nine children of John Hugman (q.v.) and Mary Ann Reeve, who had married in 1795. He was recorded as master of a school at the White House, Yoxford, in 1841 and later advertised it as a Classical and Commercial Academy. He married Frances (“Fanny”) Cook (1809-99) on 24 June 1834 at Framlington, Suffolk. They had ten children born at Yoxford, seven of whom survived and went with them when they moved to London in 1854 after he had let the school, now called Yoxford Academy. A further daughter, Maria Hughman (1855-1944), was born in London and became an artist. In London he established the Finsbury Square Academy at 3 Christopher Street, which he seems to have run until early 1871. It specialised in preparing boys for public schools, the civil service, and the medical and legal examinations, as the older ethos of combining classical and commercial education gave way to preparation for professions. He retired in 1871 and the family moved to 146 Queen’s Road, Paddington. He then moved back to Suffolk and died at Woodbridge on 16 Oct. 1875, and was buried at St. Peter’s, Yoxford. He published The Siege of Nicosia (1833) under the name of Hugman but by the time of his marriage in 1834 had changed his name to Hughman which he used for The Foil. An Historical Poem (1843) and in all official documents. (ancestry.co.uk 23 Jan. 2022; Copsey 2: 193; Illustrated London News 31 Jul. 1852; Suffolk Chronicle 18 Mar. 1854; London City Press 18 Sept. 1867, 7 Jan. 1871; Post Office Directory [London] 1856; LES 20 Oct. 1875) AA