Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Stone-cutter, of Dublin. John Hughes, whose origins are not known, was born circa 1778. His marriage to Eleanor Nowlan, daughter of William Nowlan, tallow chandler, on 16 September 1810 is recorded in the registers of St Mary's Catholic parish. Eleanor Nowlan inherited the tallow business from her widowed mother in about 1825 and ran it under her husband's name, so that John Hughes appears in the directories both as a stonecutter and tallow chandler at a variety of addresses. For over twenty-five years his stone-cutting premises were in Mecklenburgh Street; he moved them in 1840 to Talbot Street, and at the same time took one of his sons into partnership. In the 1844 Post Office Directory, the business is described as 'J. Hughes & Sons, marble masons, chimney-piece and monument manufacturers'. Soon afterwards he seems to have handed over the business to his son JAMES JOSEPH HUGHES  JAMES JOSEPH HUGHES and to have retired to the premises of the tallow business at 115 Great Britain Street. He died on 27 August 1853 aged seventy-five and was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery.(2) By his marriage to Eleanor Nowlan, he had five daughters and four sons, including James Joseph Hughes and WILLIAM HUGHES WILLIAM HUGHES . He is probably the 'I. Hughes' who executed the monument to Sir Henry Wilkinson in the Church of Ireland church in Cloghran, Co. Dublin, in 1822.(3)

Addresses:(4) 47 South King Street, 1811; 34 Mecklenburgh Street, 1814-1825; 35 Mecklenburgh Street, 1829-1831; 24 and 35 Mecklenburgh Street, 1835; 7 Mecklenburgh Street, 1839; 7 & 8 Mecklenburgh Street Lower, 1840; 100 Talbot Street, 1841; 97 Talbot Street, 1844; 115 Great Britain Street.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for was supplied by Paul Byrne, great-great-great grandson of John Hughes, in letter to A.M. Rowan, 10 Mar 2002.

(1) The William Nowlan who was a witness at her wedding may have been William Nowlan, tallow chandler of 8 Lower Gardiner Street; later (in 1814) an Ann Nowlan, tallow chandler, was working from 100 Great Britain Street.
(2) His will is listed in the Index to Prerogative Inventories, 1853.
(3) B.W. Adames, Santry & Cloghran (1883), 54-9.
(4) From Wilson's, Pettigrew & Oulton's, and Post Office directories.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for HUGHES, JOHN [1]*


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, CLOGHRAN, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1822
Nature: Monument to Sir Henry Wilkinson (signed 'I. Hughes').
Refs: B.W. Adames, Santry & Cloghran (1883), 54-9.