Author: Bloxham, Mark
Biography:
BLOXHAM, Mark (1796-1849: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born in Dublin in Apr. 1796, the eldest son of Esther or Hester (Hart) Bloxham (1767-1854) and Mark Bloxham (1773-1825)—a tallow chandler and captain of the Liberty Rangers that suppressed Robert Emmet’s 1803 rebellion, Alderman, and Lord Mayor of Dublin (1816-17)—who married at St. Luke’s, Dublin, on 18 Jan. 1793. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin (Scholar 1813, BA 1815, MA 1818). He married Caroline Anne Collins (1799-1887) on 4 Jan. 1820 at St. George’s, Dublin. They had at least eleven children, ten of whom were alive at the time of his death. In the 1831 Census he was recorded as living at Glenone Glebe, Portglenone in County Antrim with his wife and seven children. He was ordained on 20 May 1821 at Middleton, Cork. In 1822 he was appointed Chaplain of Molyneux Asylum for Blind Females, Dublin, and from 1826 until his death he was Rector of Tamlaght O’Crilly, Londonderry. He was Chaplain to the Earl of Erroll from 1821. His salary was less than £100 a year and with a large family, money was always a concern. His poem Paradise Regained (1834) was widely ridiculed for hubris although he claimed not to have read Milton’s original. Its dedication to the Whig politician, Henry Brougham (1778-1868), also caused consternation in church circles. His poems "The Bard,” "An Evening in the Bay of Naples" (Dublin University Magazine Dec. 1835, 662-5), and some to his wife "Anna" are worth another look. His last appearance as a poet was a pamphlet, England and Victory (Ballymena, 1840). He first applied to the Royal Literary Fund on 4 June 1842 when he was in “delicate health.” Letters from his wife give more information: he suffered an attack of insanity in about 1838 and between then and his death was confined several times in St. Patrick’s Lunatic Asylum, Dublin. Caroline’s letter of 20 June 1848 describes their suffering from the failure of the potato crop which forced them to sell their only cow. He died on 10 Apr. at Glenone Glebe and was buried at Tamlaght where there is still a grave. Caroline wrote to the Fund on 29 Oct. 1849 and described the family’s desperate circumstances; with seven children still at home, her only income was £30 from the Diocese of Derry. In total the Fund awarded £70, with £30 going to Caroline in 1849. (ancestry.co.uk 2 Nov. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 2 Nov. 2021; oneirishrover.com/mark-bloxham; O’Donoghue; Saunders’s News-Letter 3 Apr. 1821, 3 Sept. 1822; Londonderry Sentinel 24 Jan. 1835; Dublin Evening Mail 13 Apr. 1849; Dublin Daily Express 27 Oct. 1887; RLF #1051; contributions from SR) AA