Hugh Pearson

Hugh Nicholas Pearson (1776–1856) was an English cleric, Dean of Salisbury from 1823. He was connected with the Clapham Sect.

Life The son of Hugh Pearson of Lymington, he matriculated at St John's College, Oxford in 1796, and graduated B.A. in 1800. As a student he was introduced to Isaac Crouch of St Edmund Hall, by a recommendation from Thomas Haweis. He then acted as curate to Richard Cecil in Chobham, and to John Venn in Clapham. Henry Venn the younger recorded that he was nearly rejected, having praised a work of William Wilberforce. He obtained his M.A. in 1803. He spent time in Clapham in 1803, and also 1804–7.

Poor health affected Pearson's ability to work, from 1809.

For the years 1817 to 1822 Pearson was in Brighton, at St James's Chapel. Pearson became chaplain to George IV. He received his Bachelor and Doctor of Divinity degrees in 1821. He retired from the deanship to Sonning. He wrote:

On the Propagation of Christianity in Asia, 1808, Buchanan Prize dissertation. Claudius Buchanan, missionary in Bengal, had offered in 1805 a prize of £500 "for the best composition in English Prose on, 1. The Probable Design of the Divine Providence in subjecting so large a portion of Asia to the British Dominions; 2. The Duty, the Means, and the Consequences of translating the Scriptures into the Oriental Tongues, and of Promoting Christian Knowledge in Asia; 3. A Brief Historic View of the Progress of the Gospel in different Nations since its first Promulgation". It was awarded in 1807 to Pearson. Life of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, 1817. Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Reverend Christian Frederick Swartz, 1834, on the missionary Christian Friedrich Schwarz

Family Pearson married Sarah Maria Elliott (1781–1858) of Clapham in 1803. They had four sons and several daughters: Catherine Mary Pearson (d. 1903 in her 88th year), married William Henry Elliott, Bengal Civil Service.

Sarah Maria was daughter of Charles Elliott, of Grove House, Clapham, and Westfield Lodge, Brighton, by his first wife Sarah Anne Sherman; she was half-sister to Charlotte Elliott, Henry Venn Elliott and Edward Bishop Elliott, children of Charles Elliott's second marriage to Eling Venn, daughter of Henry Venn.