John Hughes (archbishop of New York) - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

John Hughes was born in Annaloghan, County Tyrone, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. He was the third of seven children of Patrick and Margaret (née McKenna) Hughes. In reference to the anti-Catholic penal laws of Ireland, he later observed that, prior to his baptism, he had lived the first five days of his life on terms of "social and civil equality with the most favored subjects of the British Empire." He and his family suffered religious persecution in their native land; his late sister was denied a Catholic burial conducted by a priest, and Hughes himself was nearly attacked by a group of Orangemen when he was about fifteen. He was sent with his elder brothers to a day school in Augher, and afterwards attended a grammar school in Aughnacloy.

His father, a poor but respectable tenant farmer, was forced to withdraw Hughes from school and set him to work one of his farms. However, being disinclined to farm life, he was placed as an apprentice to Roger Toland, the gardener at Favour Royal, to study horticulture. In 1816, his father emigrated to the United States in 1816 and settled in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Hughes joined his father in Chambersburg the following year. He made several unsuccessful applications to Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he was eventually hired by Father John Dubois as a gardener. During this time, he befriended Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was favorably impressed by Hughes and persuaded Dubois to reconsider his admission. Hughes was subsequently admitted as a regular student of Mount St. Mary's in September 1820. In addition to his studies, he continued to supervise the garden, and served as a tutor in Latin and mathematics as well as prefect over the other students.