Francis Hodgson was a reforming Provost of Eton, educator, cleric, writer of verse, and friend of Byron.
Background
Hodgson was born on 16 November 1781, son of Review James Hodgson, Headmaster of Whitgift School, whose father James Hodgson had moved from Hawkshead, Cumbria, to be rector of Humber, Herefordshire. Francis and one of his half-sisters were the only two of his father"s seven children to live beyond the age of 15.
Education
He was educated first at Whitgift School, before proceeding to Eton College as a King"s Scholar, and then as a Scholar to King"s College, Cambridge.
Career
In 1806 he was appointed assistant master at Eton, a post which he resigned after a year to become a resident tutor and Fellow at King"s College, Cambridge. Their friendship is recorded in the many letters between them that have been published in biographies of Byron. In 1813 Francis Hodgson wished to marry Susanna Tayler (sister-in-law of Henry Drury, master at Harrow School).
In March 1840 Hodgson returned to Eton, having been nominated to be Provost by the Queen on the advice of Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.
The Fellows of Eton, however, rejected his nomination on the basis that Hodgson was not a Doctor of Divinity, a qualification that had always previously been required for the post. They instead elected John Lonsdale, but when Lonsdale became aware of the situation, he stood down in favour of Hodgson.
As he drove over Fifteen Architecture Bridge (the approach to Eton from the north) to begin his tenure as Provost, Hodgson was reported to have said, "Please God, if I live, I will do something for those poor boys." While he was Provost, which was until the end of his life, Hodgson "quite disappointed the best wishes of his enemies, and proved one of the best friends that Eton ever had."
Hodgson made many reforms to the college, intended to lessen the harshness of conditions for pupils. Together with the headmaster Hawtrey he abolished Long Chamber (the space in which Collegers (King"s Scholars) lived, of which it was said in 1834, "wherever the fame of Eton had spread, the name of Long Chamber was both a proverb and a reproach."), ceased the custom of Montem, and closed the old Christopher Inn.
"Few of our benefactors have done more "for those poor boys.""
He died on 30 December 1852 in the Provost"s Lodge at Eton, and was buried in College Chapel.
His portrait hangs in College Hall. Among other works, he made a translation of Juvenal (1808), and wrote Lady Jane Grey, with Miscellaneous Poems in English and Latin (1809). And Sir Edgar, a Tale, in two Cantos (1810).
In October 2009, fifteen letters to Hodgson from Byron sold for £277,350, a world record for a series of letters or a manuscript by a British romantic poet.