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Author: Brockhurst, Joseph Sumner

Biography:

BROCKHURST, Joseph Sumner (1805-75: ancestry.co.uk)

He was born on 24 May 1805 in Bloomsbury, the son of Joseph Sumner Brockhurst (1779-1843), a sailmaker in Wapping, and his wife Charlotte Maria Lydia Ann Finch (1782-1858), who had married the previous year at St. Alfrege’s, Greenwich. He attended Charterhouse and won the English verse prize in 1824 with his poem "Carthage" (unpublished). He proceeded to St. John’s, Cambridge (BA 1832, MA 1835), where he won the Chancellor’s Medal with his Venice (1826) and was runner-up to Christopher Wordsworth the following year with The Druids (1827, printed in the Cambrian Quarterly 3 [1831] 280-83). He entered the established church and was appointed curate at Queen Charlton, Bath, in 1832, but does not appear to have spent much time there. He married Margaret Penwarne Hardy (1802-1839) on 8 July 1830 at St. Nicholas, Brighton. They had two sons. His wife died in Camberwell in 1839 and he then married Letitia Mary Beeston (1799-1884) on 21 Dec. 1840, again in Brighton. There does not appear to have been any issue from this marriage. In 1841 he was appointed master of Camberwell Collegiate School, Camberwell Grove. However, in March 1844 he spent three weeks in Mr. Bell’s asylum in Chiswick before being transferred to Bethlem where a combination of "pecuniary embarrassment," religious ardour, and a violent temper had made him a danger to himself and others. Thereafter his behaviour became increasingly erratic and he appears to have separated from his wife. In 1858 his son Frederick James was killed at Lucknow and his mental health deteriorated further. In 1861 he horsewhipped the Rev. Edward Dodd at a College dinner for omitting a section of Grace and was suspended. The following year he was imprisoned for debt and in 1863 underwent bankruptcy proceedings. From the 1850s he lived at various hotels and addresses in London, Cambridge, and Norfolk. He died in obscurity at 11 Upper Cumming Street, Pentonville, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery on 18 Mar. 1875. His final poem, Who is on the Lord’s Side? (1861) is a 192-page argument against Jews holding legislative office in England,  a response to the Jews Relief Act (1858) allowing admission to office.(findmypast.co.uk 19 Dec. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 19 Dec. 2020; Bury and Norwich Post 21 Jul 1830; Cambridge Chronicle 2 Jan. 1841; Cambridge Independent Press 11 Jul. 1863; Warwickshire Record Office: Family Bible [birth record], Charlotte Sumner Brockhurst [declaration of marriage], CR 1709/447) AA

 

Books written (2):

4th edn. London/ Cambridge/ Oxford: T. and J. Allman/ Deighton and Sons, T. Barrett, R. Newby, and T. Stevenson/ J. Parker, H. Slatter, and J. Vincent, 1828