HUGHES, JOHN (1825-1885), grocer, property developer and Catholic benefactor, was born on 24 June 1825 at Drumshambo, Leitrim, Ireland, eldest son of six children of Thomas Hughes, grocer, and his wife Maria, née Cogan. The family arrived in Sydney as bounty immigrants in the Crusader on 15 January 1840. Educated from July to December that year at Sydney College under W. T. Cape, John was apprenticed to John Stirling, a grocer. After working for T. & R. Coveny, of Market Street, he obtained a position with Samuel Peek in George Street before going into business on his own about 1851 on the corner of Market and George streets. Prospering, he married Irish-born Susan Sharkey at St Mary's Catholic Cathedral on 2 July 1856. They were to have eight children.

Selling out his retail grocery in 1862 Hughes began as a wholesale merchant and importer, first in Clarence, later in York ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography