Hugh Fraser Stewart (1863-1948) was the son of Surgeon-General Ludovick Charles Stewart (1819-1888) and his wife Emma (ne Ray). Stewart matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1883, taking the BA degree in 1886. After six years as a schoolmaster at Marlborough, during which time he brought out a much-admired study of Boethius, and four further years as vice-principal of Salisbury Theological College, he returned to Trinity in 1899 as chaplain, and was subsequently dean of St John's College from 1907-1918. Stewart was admitted fellow of Trinity in 1918, and over the next three decades contributed greatly to the establishment of the modern languages tripos in Cambridge, particularly during his twenty-two years as University Reader in French, 1922-1944. By the end of his life he had become internationally acknowledged as a leading authority on Blaise Pascal, publishing extensively on the subject. Stewart was also a Fellow of Eton from 1919 until his death, corresponding with the provost of the College and subsequent provost of King's, M.R. James, and was actively involved in the administration of the Cambridge University Musical Society.
In 1902 Stewart married Jessie Graham Crum (b. 1878), daughter of William Graham Crum (1836-1926) and Jean Mary Campbell Crum (d. 1915). They had five children: Ludovick Drummin Stewart; Jean Margaret Stewart (b. 1903); Katharine Fraser Stewart (b. 1906), known as 'Katten'; Frideswide Stewart, or 'Frida'; and Margaret Campbell Stewart (b. 1912). Stewart's sister Margaret Clifford Stewart Jenkinson (1858-1933), known as 'Daisy', was the second wife of Francis John Henry Jenkinson (1853-1923), Cambridge University Librarian, 1889-1923. Other family members represented in the papers include Jessie Stewart's siblings, Mary Campbell Crum (d. 1911), known as 'May', and Major Frederick Maurice Crum (1877-1955).
From the guide to the Hugh Fraser Stewart and family: Correspondence and Papers, 19th - 20th centuries, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
