Born at Dodding Green, Kendal, Westmorland on 25 March 1786,[1] he began his early education at Crook Hall, near Consett on 29 August 1796.

Hogarth received the tonsure and the four minor orders from Bishop William Gibson on 19 March 1807.

[4] Following his ordination as a priest, it had been intended for Hogarth to serve the mission in Blackburn, but he was too useful to Ushaw and was made one of the professors, and became General Prefect.

[2] He was appointed the Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District of England and Titular Bishop of Samosata on 28 July 1848.

[5] On the restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Wales on 29 September 1850,[6] the Northern District was elevated to the Diocese of Hexham, with William Hogarth as its first bishop.