Thomas Hughes FSA (1826-1890) was a man after our own hearts as he was the author, in 1856, of The Stranger's Handbook to Chester, a guide to our city which set the style for numerous later publications and which we have frequently resorted to, and quoted from, during the research for our own Chester: a Virtual Stroll Around the Walls.

Born in Chester, he attended The King's School, which was then housed in the old monk's refectory in the Cathedral. Later in life, he became a governor of the school and founder of its old boys' association. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, served as Sheriff of Chester and also as warden of the venerable St. John's Church, which was his place of worship for 30 years. His home was The Mount, a picturesque old house raised upon an embankment which formerly stood in St. Werburgh Street opposite the Cathedral and Music Hall. Just before it was demolished, he commissioned a picture of it from eminent local landscape artist Louise Raynor. (The site is today occupied by St. Werburgh's Row, built in 1935 and designed by Maxwell Ayrton, who was also the architect of the now-demolished Wembley Stadium, with its world-famous twin towers).

In 1856, Hughes wrote of the cemetery's facilities that, "nature and art make them worthy of the dead and pleasant for the living". It was fortunate that he approved for he himself was laid to rest there in 1890, in his 62nd year. His grave is to be found just inside the main gates on the right hand side- but shamefully now almost entirely lost beneath thick undergrowth.