Thomas Jefferson Hogg - Legal Career and Scholarship

Legal Career and Scholarship

Hogg continued studying Greek literature and was able to publish some of his opinions about the Greeks in the radical Westminster Review. He used the opportunity to criticise the treatment of the Greeks in the Tory publication Quarterly Review. This article caused some controversy among Hogg's conservative legal colleagues.

Because the advancement of his legal career had been hindered by his marriage to Jane, Hogg hoped to receive a legal appointment from a politically connected acquaintance. This was not an immediate option because the Whig party was in opposition, but in the summer of 1827 Henry Brougham promised Hogg a future position as a professor of civil law at the newly created University College London. Hogg embarked on a course of study in preparation, but the professorship was not established owing to a lack of funds. This setback upset Hogg greatly, and he became very bitter about it. A lecture that he had intended to give at his inauguration was published in 1831.

Hogg had also hoped that his friend Thomas Love Peacock, who worked for the East India Company, would recommend him for a position there. To Hogg's dismay Peacock would not help him, although several years later Peacock did help Hogg's stepson gain employment with the company.

Hogg published Shelley at Oxford, an account of his memories of Shelley in The New Monthly Magazine in 1833. The article was heavily edited after its submission, which irritated him greatly. The editing was effective however, and many reviewers were very impressed by the finished product. He also contributed articles to the Edinburgh Review. One notable article was a review of the first volume of Barthold Georg Niebuhr's Römische Geschichte. The editor of the Edinburgh Review, Macvey Napier, chose another writer to review the second volume, which infuriated Hogg.

Henry Brougham became Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom after a Whig election victory. In 1833 he appointed Hogg to a lucrative position on the royal commission to examine the municipal corporations. Hogg became a fierce critic of the Municipal Corporations Act; he preferred a more deliberate and less ideological approach than most of his fellow commission members, and was considered by many to be an unusually conservative Whig. His commission work required him to be away from home for an extended period, which proved to be very difficult for Jane. She knew that Hogg was free to abandon her at any time because they were not legally married. After receiving his appointment, Hogg finally visited Norton House after a seven year absence, but his family had not altered their opinion of his relationship with Jane.

After his service on the commission ended, Hogg resumed practising law in Northern England, where his brother John had also recently begun to practice. John soon became offended by his brother, objecting to his attempt to use family connections to advance his career.

Hogg gained the position of revising barrister for Northumberland and Berwick in 1838. This required him to travel to Northern England twice a year. Jane often complained about these trips, but Hogg enjoyed visiting the north. He hoped that his legal service would earn him an appointment as a judge, but he was to be disappointed.

In 1841 Hogg wrote Some Recollections of Childhood, a historical novel set in London at the time of the Norman Conquest. He published its chapters in instalments in Edward Bulwer's Monthly Chronicle. The book was not well received by critics, who complained of its discursive nature and poor character development; William Makepeace Thackeray published a particularly scathing review. Hogg had gained a reputation as a Greek scholar however, and contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica; he was the author of the "Alphabet" and "Antiquities" entries in the seventh edition.