John Hughes (New South Wales politician)

John Francis Hughes (11 May 1857 – 18 December 1912) was an Australian politician.

He was born in Sydney to merchant John Hughes and Susan Sharkey. He was the brother of Sir Thomas Hughes. From 1870 he was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, and in 1876 he graduated from the University of London. He returned to Sydney and worked as a solicitor's clerk before his admission as a practising solicitor in 1884. On 2 July 1884 he married Mary Rose Gillhooley, with whom he had nine children. From 1887 he partnered with his brother, and he was also a landowner. From 1891 to 1894 he was a Sydney City alderman; he was also created Knight Commander of St Gregory by Pope Leo XIII in 1894. In 1895 he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council. He briefly served as Minister for Justice from July to September 1899 under Premier George Reid; he was also Vice-President of the Executive Council and the Government's representative in the Legislative Council from November 1898 to September 1899 and again from August 1904 to October 1910. Hughes died in North Sydney in 1912.[1]

He was the father of rugby union players James Hughes (1886–1943) and Bryan Desmond Hughes (1888–1918; killed in the First World War).[2]