HUGHES, William (1745-1813), a carpenter and master builder who was reputed to have played a role in the design of The Round Church, a significant architectural landmark in Halifax, Nova Scotia, built 1798-1800. It was Hughes, together with John Merrick and John H. Fleiger, who were said to have served on a Committee and collaborated on plans for the church for their client, Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent. Hughes was born in England in 1745 and employed in the naval yard at Deptford, London, and was sent to Nova Scotia in 1780. He held a position in the Halifax Naval Yard, and in 1794 he met the Duke of Kent who appointed him as purveyor (or seller or provider) of goods for the Duke's household. During the next decade, Hughes was involved in developing architectural designs for several projects for the Duke (see list below), and it was the skill of Hughes at preparing drawings which attracted the attention of the Duke to help him fulfill his vision for a variety of works in Halifax.
Hughes seems to have been particularly well-versed in Georgian and Palladian architecture; his masterpiece in Halifax is the The Rotunda (or Prince's Lodge), a large circular residence with a hemispherical dome and elegant colonnade surrounding the entire structure, built 1796 and still standing today. After the departure of the Duke for England in 1800, Hughes remained in Halifax and later died there in 1813 (biog. M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary, 1994, 43)
(works in Halifax and area)
PRINCE'S LODGE, The Rotunda or Music Room, on the Bedford Highway, overlooking Bedford Basin, between Rockingham and Bedford, on lands now called Hemlock Ravine Park, 1796; still standing in 2022 (Founded Upon A Rock- Historic Buildings in Halifax, 1973, 110-111, illus. & descrip.)
THE ROUND CHURCH, also called St. George's Anglican Church, Brunswick Street, 1800-04; burned 1994; rebuilt 1996-98 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 18 July 1927, 16, historical article on the church); Founded Upon A Rock- Historic Buildings in Halifax, 1973, 114-15, illus. & descrip.; Nathalie Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 70, illus. & descrip.; Hal Kalman, History of Canadian Architecture, 1994, 138, illus. & descrip.) .
(with William Fenwick) GARRSION TOWN CLOCK, at The Citadel, Brunswick Street at Rainnie Drive, 1800-02; still standing in 2022 (Founded Upon A Rock- Historic Buildings in Halifax, 1973, 16-17, illus. & descrip.) Nathalie Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 97, illus. & descrip.)