Robert Morton Hughes was born on September 10, 1855, in the house of his mother's adoptive parents, Gov. John B. Floyd and Sally Preston Floyd at Abingdon in southwestern Virginia. Through his parents, Robert W. Hughes and Eliza Johnston Hughes, he was related to many of Western Virginia's prominent families, including the Prestons, Johnstons, Mortons, and Floyds. Hughes lived in Washington, D.C. and Richmond while still a child but spent most of his early life in Abingdon. He was educated there, largely by private tutors. Hughes entered the College of William and Mary in 1870 at the age of 15 and graduated with an A. B. degree in 1873. His association with William and Mary would continue throughout his adult life. Hughes served on the college's Board of Visitors from 1893 to 1918 and was rector from 1905 to 1918. He was also an active fundraiser for the college and was instrumental in the establishment of its Marshall-Wythe School of Government and Citizenship. In 1920 his grateful alma mater awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree while in 1959 the library of the Norfolk branch of William and Mary (now Old Dominion University) was named in his memory. Hughes also attended the University of Virginia where he studied law and earned a M.A. degree in 1877. After being admitted to the bar this same year, Hughes set up practice in Norfolk, Virginia, where he would continue to work until his retirement in 1920. His specialty was admiralty law. Hughes was elected president of the Virginia Bar Association in 1895 and of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association in 1907. In 1926 he was appointed by the Governor to a special commission created to suggest revisions to the Virginia constitution. Hughes was a lifelong Republican, following the lead of his father who had been one of the first prominent Virginians to turn Republican during the Reconstruction period. This affiliation would not prove very rewarding for him. An unsuccessful Republican candidate for congress in 1902 and 1904, Hughes also failed in several attempts to be appointed to federal judgeships, beginning in 1897 when he sought to succeed his father as a judge in the district court at Norfolk, Hughes was a staunch conservative and the last years of his life found him ardently opposing the New Deal in general and Roosevelt's attacks on the Supreme Court in particular. While Hughes never held elective office he served his community in many other ways. Besides his long tenure on the Board of Visitors of William and Mary, he sat on the Board of Directors of the Norfolk Public Library from 1912 to 1938--he was president after 1921--and was a member of the State Board of Education from 1930 until 1935 when he resigned because of failing health. Hughes was also an active member of Christ Church (Episcopal) in Norfolk where he served as a vestryman from 1884 to 1928. Hughes' major avocation, especially in later life, was that of amateur historian. His main interest was Virginia history and, within this field, the roles played by members of his own family. He felt particularly duty bound to defend the reputations of two close relatives: Gov. John B. Floyd (1806-1863), his adoptive maternal grandfather, and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (1807-1891), U.S.A., C.S.A., his maternal great uncle. Johnston had in fact asked Hughes to write his official biography, a work which was published by Appleton in 1893. As a result of his commitment Hughes expended much time and energy writing articles and letters refuting "incorrect" statements by various authors which had directly or indirectly denigrated the careers or questioned the integrity of either man. Robert Morton Hughes died on January 15, 1940. He was survived by his wife - Mattie L. Smith Hughes, a son - Robert M. Hughes, Jr., and two grandchildren -Robert M. Hughes III and Carolyn Wright Hughes. A second son, Sydney Smith Hughes, had died in 1923.

Note written by Janice Halecki