Hugh Owen (topographer)

Life

Owen was the only son of Pryce Owen, M.D., a physician of Shrewsbury, by his wife Bridget, only daughter of John Whitfield. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1783, and M.A. in 1807.

In 1791 Owen was presented by Charles Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville to the vicarage of St. Julian, Shrewsbury; in 1803 he was collated by Bishop John Douglas to the prebend of Gillingham Minor in Salisbury Cathedral; and in 1819 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Exeter Cathedral to a portion of the vicarage of Bampton, Oxfordshire. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and filled the office of Mayor of Shrewsbury in 1819.

Owen was collated by Bishop James Cornwallis on 27 December 1821 to the archdeaconry of Salop, and on 30 March 1822 to the prebend of Bishopshill in Lichfield Cathedral. On the death of his friend John Brickdale Blakeway in 1826, he succeeded him as minister of the royal peculiar of St Mary's Church, 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 December 1827. His only son was Edward Pryce Owen.

Works

Owen's major work, with John Brickdale Blakeway, was A History of Shrewsbury (2 vols., London, 1825). He had already published, anonymously, Some Account of the ancient and present State of Shrewsbury (Shrewsbury, 1808 and 1810). To John Britton's Architectural Antiquities (vol. iv.) he contributed, with Blakeway, descriptions of Wenlock Abbey, Ludlow Castle and Stokesay Castle.