Thomas Hughes was born on October 20, 1822, near Uffington in southern England, the second of Margaret Wilkinson Hughes and John Hughes's eight children. The Hughes family were members of the rural squirearchy, a loose confederation of landed proprietors that provided traditional leadership in the community.

John Hughes spent most of his life as a well-connected literary dilettante who enjoyed the traditional social and sports activities of the countryside.

Hughes had a conventional upbringing for his social class, beginning his education at home, attending Rugby, a "public school" (the British equivalent of an American private school), and eventually entering Oxford University at age twenty.

At Rugby, Hughes came under the influence of Dr. Thomas Arnold, father of the poet Matthew Arnold. Believing that his students would be the future leaders of the British Empire, Dr. Arnold hoped to transform the purposes and practices of boarding schools...