Hughes was born on 22 August 1766 in Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire, Wales, the son of Richard Hughes.[1][2] Ezekiel had a small amount of education at Shrewsbury.[1] When he was 20, he was apprenticed to the clockmaker John Tibbott of Newtown, Wales, of the noted Tibbott family.[1] Hughes founded his own clockmaking shop in 1789 at Machynlleth, where he became an acquaintance of the Welsh radical William Jones.[1][3]
In July 1795, Hughes, his cousin Edward Bebb, George Roberts, and others left Llanbrynmair and walked to Bristol. On 6 August, they set sail for Philadelphia.[1] On the way to America, they ran into problems with press gangs and storms.[4] They made landfall at Philadelphia on 25 October 1795 and stayed the winter.[1] The next spring, Hughes visited Washington, D.C.[2] In summer 1796, Hughes, Bebb, and William Gwilym set off for the Northwest Territory on foot.[2] They spent a few weeks at Beula, Pennsylvania, a small town founded by Welshman Morgan John Rhys.[2][5] They then travelled down the Ohio River in a flatboat before eventually making it to Cincinnati.[1][2] They squatted on the east bank of the Miami River, a tributary of the Ohio, while they waited for the government to survey the west bank of the river.[2] In 1801, the land on the west side was finally put up for sale.[2] Hughes bought sections 15 and 16 in present-day Whitewater Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, while Bebb bought a half section in present-day Morgan Township, Butler County, Ohio.[2] They were the first Welsh settlers in Ohio.[2][6] Historian Daniel Jenkins Williams said that Hughes and Bebb "were responsible for the first definite step westward on the part of Welsh emigrants."[6] Hughes built a cabin and started farming with Bebb.[1] Bebb's son, William Bebb, later became the governor of Ohio.[7]
In September 1802, Hughes returned to Wales and married Margaret Bebb in May 1803.[1] He then returned to Ohio but Margaret died within a year.[1] She was buried in the first grave at Berea, Ohio.[1] In 1805, Hughes was put in charge of planning a road from Miami River to Hamilton, Ohio.[1] In 1808, he married Mary Ewing, a native of Pennsylvania, and had nine children.[2][1] Hughes was the first justice of the peace in his district as well.[1] He acquired a large amount of land, which he rented out.[1] He built a chapel in 1822.[1]
Hughes died on 2 September 1849.[2] According to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, he was a "great personal friend" of William Henry Harrison.[1] They went to the same church.[1]
