Henry Roughton Hogg (9 February 1846 – 30 November 1923) was a British amateur arachnologist and businessman who lived in both Australia and Britain.
Hogg emigrated to Australia in December 1873 and co-founded a mercantile and shipping agency in Melbourne, becoming a prominent member of the business community. He joined the Field Naturalists' Club and the Royal Society of Victoria and acquired a specialist knowledge of the spiders of Australia and New Zealand. Hogg was given access to specimens of spiders collected by the 1894 Horn scientific expedition to central Australia and contributed the section on spiders in the published results of the expedition.
Hogg and his wife returned to England in August 1900. He continued to study spiders and contributed regular articles to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London and other publications and scientific journals, often providing the first descriptions of new species. His earlier papers dealt with the spiders of Australasia, but he also authored descriptions of spiders from other regions of the world.
Biography
Early life
Henry Roughton Hogg was born in Stockwell, county Surrey, on 9 February 1846, the son of Francis Henry Hogg and Frances (née Robinson).Family records, Ancestry.com. He attended Uppingham School in the period 1859 to 1862. Hogg studied at Christ's College at Cambridge University and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in 1868 (after completing the Mathematical Tripos) and a Masters of Arts in 1873.Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 42; accessed 13 July 2024. After graduating he commenced his commercial career in the family firm of Hogg and Robinson, merchant insurance agents.Mr. W. E. Hogg, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 December 1921, page 9.
Australia
Hogg visited Australia from about mid-1871 to February 1872. During that period he travelled extensively between the colonies of south-east Australia. He visited Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Launceston, travelling by intercolonial steamers.Shipping Intelligence, The Argus (Melbourne), 17 October 1871, page 4; Shipping Intelligence, The Argus, 27 November 1871, page 4; Shipping Intelligence, The Argus, 7 December 1871, page 4; Shipping News, The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide), 22 January 1872, page 2; Shipping Intelligence, Cornwall Advertiser (Launceston), 9 February 1872, page 2; Shipping Intelligence, The Argus (Melbourne), 14 February 1872, page 4. Hogg returned to England aboard the R.M.S. Baroda which departed from Sydney on 26 February 1872.Clearances. - February 26, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 1872, page 4.
Henry R. Hogg returned to Australia on a more permanent basis in mid-December 1873, arriving at Melbourne from Bombay aboard the passenger steamer R.M.S.S. Nubia.Shipping Intelligence, The Argus (Melbourne), 15 December 1873, page 6. By March 1874 he and Augustus Frederick Robinson had formed the firm of Hogg, Robinson and Co. Pty. Ltd., mercantile and shipping agents, in Melbourne.Humane Society's President, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 August 1921, page 8.Shipping, The Age (Melbourne), 2 March 1874, page 2; This Day, Ex George Thompson, The Argus (Melbourne), 26 June 1874, page 2. The company acted as an agent for the Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Co. Ltd. of London.John Barnes (2005), pages 158-160. By May 1874 Hogg had been appointed as a director of the Adelaide Marine and Fire Assurance Company, based in Melbourne.Adelaide Marine and Fire Assurance Company, The Argus (Melbourne), 5 May 1874, page 1.
Hogg was a keen sportsman and was involved in cricket in Melbourne. Soon after his arrival in Melbourne he became a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club and later served as an honorary auditor for the club.The Melbourne Cricket Club, The Age (Melbourne), 6 September 1875, page 3; Melbourne Cricket Club, Weekly Times (Melbourne), 11 September 1880, page 5. Hogg played for the Bohemian Cricket Club, which was formed in 1875.Cricket: B.U.C.C. v. Melbourne Bohemians, Bendigo Advertiser, 24 November 1875, page 2; Turf Gossip, Leader (Melbourne), 22 January 1876, page 10.
In March 1881 Hogg left Melbourne aboard the R.M.S. Brindisi travelling to London, though he departed from the vessel at Venice.Shipping, Weekly Times (Melbourne), 19 March 1881, page 23. On 7 September 1881 Hogg was married to Adelaide Lashbrooke Elder at Kensington in London.Marriages, The Australasian (Melbourne), 22 October 1881, page 8. Adelaide was a member of the wealthy Elder family, with business ties to Australia. Henry and Adelaide Hogg arrived in Melbourne in June 1882 aboard the R.M.S. Sutlej.Shipping, Weekly Times (Melbourne), 1 July 1882, page 15. The couple had no children but by 1891 they had adopted a daughter named Shirley (born in about 1885).Shipping Intelligence, The Argus (Melbourne), 6 April 1891, page 4.
In April 1883 Hogg made a submission to the Tariff Commission in Melbourne which was considering "the question of duties on wines". He stated that "he considered the Australian climate superior to that of any of the European countries for wine growing". Hogg represented himself as one who had "studied the wine trade in England, France, Spain and Portugal"; he advocated a reduction of the duty and expressed a wish to see Australia become a wine drinking country, "because drunkenness never existed where wine was the beverage".The Tariff Commission, The Age (Melbourne), 18 April 1883, page 6.
In June 1883 Henry and Adelaide Hogg (and a maid servant) travelled for a visit to London, aboard the R.M.S. Rome.Latest Shipping, The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide), 21 June 1883, page 2.
Henry Hogg was a council member of the Australian Wine Association of Victoria, formed in October 1885.A special general meeting..., The Australasian (Melbourne), 10 October 1885, page 27.
Hogg's younger brother William Edward Hogg arrived in Australia in 1885 and joined the firm of Hogg, Robinson, and Co. in Melbourne. The Sydney branch of the firm was opened in 1885 under the management of Augustus Robinson and the company was appointed as the Sydney agents of Lloyd's of London.
Hogg was a member of council of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce. He served as vice-president of the body in 1887 and 1898. He was one of the commissioners representing Victoria at the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition in South Australia, which ran for six months commencing in June 1887.Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition, The Age (Melbourne), 5 April 1887, page 5.Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition, The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide), 14 June 1887, page 6.
Hogg was a member of the exclusive Melbourne Club. In 1891 he purchased a cottage for £2,750 in Club Lane, adjoining land owned by the Melbourne Club, and sold it to the club at no profit. The cottage was converted to sleeping quarters for servants employed at the club. That permitted the removal of partitions where the sleeping quarters had previously been established in the club's racquets court, restoring it for the use of racquets players.Ronald McNicoll (1988), Number 36 Collins Street, Melbourne Club 1838-1988, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, page 118.
Hogg had begun to acquire a specialist knowledge of the spiders of Australia and New Zealand. He joined the Victorian Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria in May 1888. One of the exhibits at the February 1889 meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club were "specimens of poisonous spider from Riverina", presented by H. R. Hogg.
Hogg was elected as a member of the Royal Society of Victoria in July 1890 and in 1893 served as a member of council of that body.At the ordinary meeting of the members..., Leader (Melbourne), 19 July 1890, page 14; Royal Society of Victoria, The Age (Melbourne), 10 March 1893, page 7. He was appointed a fellow of the Society and served as honorary treasurer.
In August 1890 the Henry and Adelaide Hogg met Henry Hyde Champion on a social occasion in Melbourne. Champion was a prominent British socialist on a visit to Australia; he had an upper-middle-class background but was actively involved in labour movement politics. Adelaide Hogg and Henry Champion engaged in a secret love affair that lasted for a number of years. In early April 1891 Adelaide Hogg and her adopted child left Melbourne to travel to London aboard the R.M.S. Ormuz. In London Adelaide was involved in nursing her sister Annie, who died in 1892. During her stay she rekindled her relationship with Henry Champion (who had returned to England a month before Adelaide left Melbourne).John Barnes (2005), page 170.Mr. Champion and the Late Australian Strike, The Age (Melbourne), 13 April 1891, page 5.
Henry Champion arrived back in Australia in April 1894, this time on a permanent basis.Shipping Intelligence, The Age (Melbourne), 6 April 1894, page 4. His political ambitions in Britain had been thwarted after being excluded from the leadership of the newly-formed Independent Labour Party. He was in debt and out of favour with many in the labour movement in both Britain and Australia, but he had expectations of resuming his relationship with Adelaide Hogg.John Barnes (2005), pages 206-207. Champion was employed as a leader writer for The Age newspaper and resided at Beaconsfield, south-east of Melbourne, where Adelaide may have stayed for a time. In August 1894 Adelaide returned to her husband, though Champion later claimed that Henry Hogg was party to an agreement that Adelaide "should see me openly when and where she liked so long as no scandal was created".John Barnes (2005), pages 208-209. To what extent, the affair continued after August 1894 is a matter of conjecture, but Champion's private letters reveal only occasional and sometimes fractious meetings. By August 1897 the relationship had come to an end.John Barnes (2005), pages 240-242, 245.
In August 1895 Henry Hogg read a short paper at the meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria on 'Certain Spiders from Central Australia'. The spiders had been obtained by the Horn scientific expedition to central Australia and Hogg had been given the opportunity to examine and classify them. One hundred and fifty specimens had been secured, "mostly of the Queensland type, a few only being common to New Zealand and Fiji".Royal Society of Victoria, The Age (Melbourne), 9 August 1895, page 3. Hogg contributed the section on spiders in the second volume of the four volume publication detailing the results of the Horn scientific expedition, published in February 1896.Central Australian Zoology, South Australian Register (Adelaide), 26 February 1896, page 5.
From 1896 Hogg was a member of the council of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society in Melbourne. He was appointed president of the Society in 1897.The Zoological Society, The Age (Melbourne), 20 May 1896, page 6; The Zoological Society, The Argus (Melbourne), 16 February 1897, page 7.
By 1897 Henry and Adelaide Hogg were members of the Theosophical Society in Melbourne, a branch known as the Ibis Lodge. They were described as "two of the finest characters and most useful members in our Society".H. S. Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, The Theosophist, Vol. 27, No. 4, January 1906, page 246; the article relates to a visit to Melbourne by the author in 1897.Theosophical Society, The Prahan Telegraph, 11 April 1896, page 5. The Hoggs took a leading role in one of the activities of the Society, a scheme for children to holiday at Mount Macedon.John Barnes (2005), page 218. They continued their association with the Theosophical Society after returning to London in 1900.
Return to England
Henry and Adelaide Hogg returned to England in August 1900 aboard the R.M.S. Australia. The couple settled in the London district of Kensington. Hogg's younger brother William took over management of the Melbourne branch of Hogg, Robinson, and Co.