Author: Blanchard, Samuel Laman
Biography:
BLANCHARD, Samuel Laman (1803-45: ODNB)
Born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 15 May 1803, he was the only surviving son born to Samuel Blanchard and his wife Mary Laman. His mother was a widow whose first husband’s surname was Cowell. When the family moved to Southwark, London, in 1804 his father worked as a painter and glazier. He studied at Saint Olave school where he established a reputation as a scholar but, despite the school’s offer of funding two years at university, the family could not afford to send him for higher education and he became a clerk in Doctors’ Commons—work that he found boring and uncongenial. Blanchard began writing and he quickly became friends with other writers; his circle eventually included Lamb (to whom he dedicated Lyric Offerings), Ainsworth, Bulwer Lytton, Talfourd, Landon, and Procter (qq.v.) in addition to Douglas Jerrold, Dickens, and John Buckstone (an actor). He published dramatic sketches in The Drama (1823) and, tempted by a theatrical career, briefly joined a theatre company in Margate. On his return to London, penniless, he took up the post of assistant secretary to the Zoological Society and earned a living by writing for and editing a succession of periodicals including the Court Journal, The Courier, London Gazette, and Examiner. In 1823 he married Ann Elizabeth Gates, probably in London (no record has been found); they had one daughter and three sons. He wrote an appreciation of Landon which was published with Life and Literary Remains of L. E. L. in 1841; he also wrote an account of Ainsworth. In Feb. 1844 his wife became ill and paralysed; with her death on 16 Dec. Blanchard became acutely depressed. Despite the support of his many friends who attempted to keep a steady watch over him, he killed himself with a razor on 14 Feb. 1845 at home in Lambeth Road. He was buried in Norwood cemetery. His friends successfully raised money for the support of his children; the total of over £500 included £100 from the RLF—only the second time in its history that the fund had made such a substantial payment. Bulwer Lytton published his prose essays in 1846 and wrote a memoir of Blanchard; it describes him as “a choice and worthy example of the English men of letters of our day.” Two of Blanchard’s sons became writers; subsequently they were both successful applicants to the RLF. (ODNB 6 June 2023; ancestry.co.uk 6 June 2023; RLF files 1109, 1803, 2109; Edward Bulwer Lytton, “Memoir,” in Sketches from Life [1846])
Other Names:
- S. Laman Blanchard