Hugh Owen

Hugh Owen (1761–23 December 1827) was an English churchman and topographer, Archdeacon of Salop from 1821.

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 Shrewsbury School, then at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1783, and M.A. in 1807.

Owen took holy orders in the Church of England, being ordained deacon in 1784 and priest in 1785 by the Bishop of Lichfield. 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 literary 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.