"[citation needed] Hugh's chief teachers were Abbot Ernulf and his brother Reginald; he wrote of both in terms of warm affection later in his life.

[2] On the day of Martin's death, 2 January 1155, Hugh was appointed with eleven other senior monks, all of whom were junior to him, to form a committee for the election of the new abbot.

Hugh wrote a history of Peterborough Abbey, in Medieval Latin, in which he describes its foundation as "Medeshamstede" in the 7th century; its refoundation by Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester in the 10th century, and the subsequent change of name to "Burh", or "Borough", which he gives in the Anglo-Norman form "Burch"; its growth in wealth prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066, as a result of which it is said to have become known as "the golden borough"; and he concludes with the election of Abbot William of Waterville.

"[1] Later, anonymous hands interpolated numerous additions, including references to Hugh's death, and a short account of the deposition of William of Waterville in 1175.

[9] Hugh's Medieval Latin history of Peterborough Abbey was first published in 1723 by Joseph Sparke, in his Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores Variæ, edited from a 14th-century manuscript known as the "Book of Walter of Whittlesey".

"[13][14] However, the earliest surviving version of Hugh's history is in a transcript made in the 17th century, from a manuscript which was lost when part of the Cotton library was destroyed by fire in 1731.