Author: Caunter, John Hobart
Biography:
CAUNTER, John Hobart (1792-1851: ODNB)
He was born on 21 July 1792 at Dittisham, Devon, the second son of George Caunter, chief magistrate and sometime superintendant of Prince of Wales Island (Penang) and his wife Harriett Georgina Hutchings. He went to India in 1811 as a cadet in the 34th Native Infantry but soon returned home having found “nothing on the continent of Asia to interest him” (ODNB). He recorded his experiences in The Cadet (1814). In 1817 he entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, (BD 1828) and then the Established Church, occupying a number of clerical positions. He married first Matilda Killick (formerly Crowther) (1772-1838) on 13 May 1815 at St. Marylebone. He then married Caroline Bartlett (1820-1902) on 25 July 1845 at Saint Pancras Parish Chapel. As rector of Hailsham in Essex he earned a comfortable £500 a year but resigned when he appears to have made a promise of marriage (although already married) to a young woman named Elizabeth Taylor. whose suit for breach of promise almost ruined him. He applied to the RLF in 1847 and received £50, with a further £20 shortly before his death. His wife appealed for help with burial expenses and received £30. He died at Edward Street, Portman Square, Marylebone, on 14 Nov. 1851, leaving his wife and three children unprovided for; a subscription was subsequently raised on their behalf. In addition to his clerical duties and complicated personal life, he produced an array of literary works with his sermons and illustrations of the Bible proving popular. India continued to occupy him long after he had left. From 1830 to 1838/9 he contributed the letterpress to The Oriental Annual. The Island Bride (1830), a Spenserian poem in six cantos, is set in the East Indies and his prose work, The Romance of History: India (1836), is a striking narrative of Hindu manners and customs, clearly refuting his earlier assertion that he had found nothing interesting there. His The Poetry of the Pentateuch (1839) and the poem The Triumph of Evil (1845) reflect his later religious concerns. He was a frequent guest of William Godwin (q.v.) and adapted his novel St. Leon (1799) for the stage. His younger brother, Richard McDonald Caunter (1800-79) (q.v.) also served in India, went to Cambridge, and entered the church. (ODNB 7 Feb. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 7 Feb. 2021; CCEd; BL, India Office Records, East India Company Enlistment Papers; Saint James’s Chronicle 8 Sept. 1838; Morning Post 28 Jan. 1846; Globe 17 Dec. 1850, 17 Jan. 1851; LES 19 Nov. 1851; The Times 20 Nov. 1851; GM June 1852, 627-628; RLF 1/1179; F. Lyde Caunter, Caunter Family History [1930]; Spenserians; godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk) AA
Other Names:
- J. H. Caunter
- Hobart Caunter