Author: Bampfylde, John Codrington Warwick
Biography:
BAMPFYLDE, John Codrington Warwick (1754-97: Poems [1988])
He was born 24 Aug. 1754 at Politmore House near Exeter, the second son of Sir Richard Warwick Bampfylde (1722-76) and his wife Jane Codrington (d 1789). He entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1771 and Lincoln’s Inn the following year. He left Cambridge without taking a degree; nor did he qualify as a lawyer. William Jackson (1730-1803) recalled him living in solitude at a farmhouse at Chudleigh around 1775, writing poetry and music. He moved to London at an unknown date and led a dissipated and debauched life. His mother sat for Joshua Reynolds in 1777 and he was painted in a double portrait with George Huddesford (q.v.). According to Jackson he fell “madly in love” with the niece of Sir Joshua, Mary Palmer. His Sixteen Sonnets (1778) was dedicated to her. On 9 Feb. 1779 he made a marriage allegation and bond, prior to obtaining a license. It is not known what Mary Palmer’s feelings were or if she agreed to this but she must have declined his proposal. On 5 Mar. 1779 he met her at a concert and fell into “a violent Frenzy, in defiance of civil Treatment” (Public Advertiser) and was restrained by constables. He then went to Sir Joshua’s house in Leicester Fields, and on being refused entry, proceeded to break the windows--for which he was removed to Newgate and bound over the following day. Jackson dates his madness from this time. There was a long history of mental illness in the family and on 15 Jan. 1788 John and his sister Jenny underwent separate Inquisitions of Lunacy. He was then living at James Battie’s Mad-House, Wood Close, Islington. He died of consumption in Sloane Street, Chelsea, on 21 Dec. 1797 and was buried at St. Luke’s on Christmas Day as John Bamfield (sic). His sister Jenny was confined for many years at Brook House, Hackney, and died “a lunatic spinster” in 1808. (The Poems of John Bampfylde, ed. R. Lonsdale [1988]; ODNB 22 Feb. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 22 Feb. 2021; Spenserians; Inquisition for Lunacy, National Archives C211/3/B166; Marriage Allegation and Bond, London Metropolitan Archive (LMA), MS 10091/141 and 10091E/92; William Jackson, of Exeter, Musician, "An Autobiography," The Leisure Hour 21 [1882]; English Miscellany 22 [1971] 269-332; Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets [1807] 3:434-7; Southey, Collected Letters, romantic-circles.org, 3 Oct. 1799, 10 May [1807]; Public Advertiser 10 Mar. 1779) AA
Other Names:
- John Bampfylde
- John Codrington Bampfylde