Australian Dictionary of Biography

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Henry Judge Hose (1826–1883)

by K. J. Cable

This article was published:

Henry Judge Hose (1826-1883), Church of England clergyman, was born on 24 September 1826 in London, son of John Christian Hose. In 1837-45 he attended the City of London School, a new institution with a liberal educational policy, and became first president of its Old Boys' Club in 1851. With the school's Beaufoy mathematical scholarship he entered Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1849; M.A., 1854). He became mathematical master at Westminster School and in 1853 published parts of The Elements of Euclid, claiming that it was clearer and simpler than Simson's edition on which it was based. In that year Hose was made deacon and in 1855 ordained priest. In 1850 he had married Ann Hornby in London.

In 1856 Hose was chosen warden of St Paul's College within the University of Sydney. He arrived with his family in Sydney on 11 December and began with non-resident students until the college buildings were ready late in 1857. The college was restricted by statute to providing tutorial and religious facilities for resident undergraduates, but did not train ordination candidates and could not command the full support of the Church of England. In an underpopulated university and under these conditions, students were not easy to attract. The warden's policy was to infuse as much as possible of the corporate life of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges into St Paul's. He was a vigorous tutor and preacher and his regular choral services were of high standard. He also taught mathematics at the university and examined in Church schools. In the college chapel he delivered sermons on the life and ministry of Elijah, which were printed in 1861 at the request of the congregation of local residents that he had built up.

By 1860 St Paul's was declining. The warden had lost the right to examine the religious attainments of Anglican candidates for degrees, and a parliamentary select committee had condemned the college as superfluous. Student numbers dwindled and financial difficulties increased. The college council, especially its leading member, Chief Justice (Sir) Alfred Stephen, laid much of the responsibility on Hose. In May 1861 they investigated charges that Hose's public conduct had brought discredit upon the college. He contested the legality of the inquiry but the main charge was upheld. Probably he was partly to blame. His mercurial temperament reacted to setback or success; an admirer later recalled 'a certain geniality and freeness of manner which judged by the severe standard of the world's conventionality, sometimes amounted to a fault'. The tact of Bishop Frederic Barker prevented a public breach.

In May 1862 Hose left for England where he taught at Dulwich College and his brother's private school at Hampstead. In 1867 he was mathematical master at the Derby School and assistant curate at St Peter's Church. He became principal of the new Anglican Training College of St Mary, Conway, in 1874. The position proved uncongenial, and after a curacy at Ellingham, Norfolk (1876-79), Hose ended his teaching career at Bishop's Stortford Grammar School. He corresponded with friends in New South Wales and ministered privately to Australians in England. He died at Bishop's Stortford on 16 June 1883, survived by several children.

Select Bibliography

  • B. Tacchella (ed), The Derby School Register, 1570-1901 (Lond, 1902)
  • A. E. Douglas-Smith, The City of London School (Oxford, 1965): Votes and Proceedings (Legislative Assembly, New South Wales), 1859-60, 4, 165
  • Australian Churchman (Sydney), 23 Aug 1883
  • K. J. Cable, ‘The University of Sydney and Its Affiliated colleges, 1850-1880’, Australian University, vol 2, no 3, Nov 1964, pp 183-214
  • St Paul's College Council minute books, 1856-62 (University of Sydney Archives).

Citation details

K. J. Cable, 'Hose, Henry Judge (1826–1883)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hose-henry-judge-3801/text6023, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 3 December 2024.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, (Melbourne University Press), 1972

View the front pages for Volume 4

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024

Life Summary [details]

Birth

24 September, 1826
London, Middlesex, England

Death

16 June, 1883 (aged 56)
Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England

Cultural Heritage

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Religious Influence

Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.

Occupation or Descriptor