Author: Blacket, Joseph
Biography:
BLACKET, Joseph (1785-1810: ODNB)
The eleventh of twelve children born to John Blacket and his wife Rebecca Pratt, he was born at Tunstall, Yorkshire, and baptised on 13 Mar. 1785. His father was a day-labourer for Sir John Lawson. He was educated in the village school and by a schoolmaster until the age of eleven when he moved to London to be apprenticed to his brother, John Blacket, a shoemaker. By Blacket’s own account, his brother insisted that he continue reading and writing in his spare time; he was particularly inspired by seeing a performance of Richard III at Drury Lane theatre. John had married Elizabeth Cannon on 11 May 1797 but she died of tuberculosis before Joseph Blacket married Elizabeth’s sister, Mary Cannon, on 8 Jan. 1805. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Mary, who was baptised at St. Anne’s, Soho, on 18 June 1806. Mary died, also of tuberculosis, and was buried on 25 Nov. 1807. (ODNB gives incorrect information about the name and identity of Blacket’s wife; it also states incorrectly that his daughter died in 1810.) Blacket records in Specimens that a friend in Deptford took charge of the infant girl. Blacket was patronised by the printer William Marchant who gave his manuscripts to Samuel Jackson Pratt (q.v.). Pratt recognised his talent, comparing him to Robert Bloomfield (q.v.), and wrote an introduction to Specimens. However, Blacket was already ill with tuberculosis and he was sent away from London to his brother-in-law, gamekeeper for Sir Ralph Milbanke at Seaham, County Durham. Despite attentive care, he died on 23 Aug. 1810 and was buried in the churchyard at Seaham. Pratt edited The Remains (1811) which was published by subscription and generously supported by the Milbankes and others; the proceeds, after the expenses of Blacket’s funeral, were to support his daughter. An application was made to the RLF on her behalf and £10 granted, to be administered by William Boscawen (q.v.); Boscawen’s daughter was the girl’s godmother. Byron wrote a rather cruel poem about the shoemaker poet, “Epitaph for Joseph Blackett”, in 1811. (ODNB 9 June 2023; ancestry.co.uk 9 June 2023; Specimens of the Poetry [1809]; S. J. Pratt, ed., The Remains of Joseph Blacket…and a Memoir of his Life [1811]; Goodridge; RLF file 258) SR