Augustus J. C. Hare

Augustus John Cuthbert Hare (13 March 1834 – 22 January 1903) was an English man of letters and painter.

Early life

He was born in Rome, the youngest son of Francis George Hare, and his wife Anne Frances Paul, daughter of Sir John Dean Paul, 1st Baronet. He was adopted by his aunt Maria Hare née Leycester, daughter of the Rev. Oswald Leycester, rector of Stoke on Tern, and widow of Augustus William Hare. Julius Hare was his uncle.

A sequence of family events led up to the adoption. Augustus Hare's great-uncle Robert Hare, rector of Herstmonceux, had died in 1832. Augustus William Hare, vicar of Alton Barnes, refused the living, which was in the gift of the Hare family, represented by Francis George Hare who held the advowson. Julius Hare then accepted the living, first making a journey to Italy. Augustus William Hare travelled to Italy for his health, and died at Rome in February 1834; his widow Maria returned to England. Julius Hare took up the post of rector of Herstmonceux and moved into Buckwell Place.

Maria went, firstly, to Alton Barnes to settle her husband's affairs. She then went to the Herstmonceux rectory, at Julius's invitation, and from there arranged for the care of the infant Augustus to be transferred to her. This matter was handled by an English nurse going to Italy. Two months after Augustus arrived with his nurse in Herstmonceux, Maria rented Lime House, near Buckwell Place, as her family home.

Hare circle

John Sterling, a student of Julius Hare at Cambridge, became a curate at Herstmonceux in 1834; while he stayed not much longer than a year, he became a close friend of Maria Hare, who had long conversations with him. He had been an associate a few years earlier of F. D. Maurice, on the Athenaeum, and through him the Hares encountered the Maurice family. He had married in 1830 Susannah Barton; Maurice's first wife was her sister Anna. In 1844 Julius Hare married Esther Maurice, sister of F. D. Maurice.