Author: Chalklen, Charles William
Biography:
CHALKLEN, Charles William (1803-46: Semiramis)
He was born in June 1803, the youngest child of William Chalklen of Deptford, Kent, draper or slopseller, and his wife Ann[a] Keen, who had married in Canterbury in 1788. His mother died on 15 June 1803 a few days after his birth. His father remarried in 1811. He was initially given a classical education by Rev. Oliver Lodge of Barking and then went to St. Paul’s and was taught by Dr. John Sleath, High Master. He won the poetry prize with the poem listed here and then went up to Clare College, Cambridge, in 1822 but soon migrated to Trinity (matric. 1822, BA 1826, MA 1830). He then entered the Established Church in 1826 and held a number of curacies: Higham Ferrers, Ringstead (both Northamptonshire); Blechingley, Surrey; Louth, Lincolnshire; and finally Northborough, Northants. from 1834 until his death. He married Elizabeth Leman on 6 Feb. 1831 at Royston, Hertfordshire. They do not seem to have had any children. In the winter of 1846 he went up to London for surgery on a head tumour which initially went well but his condition deteriorated and he died on 28 Jan. 1846 and was buried on 1 February, at St. Mary, Islington. Although he published no more volumes of poetry, he contributed articles on a variety of topics to Blackwoods, Christian’s Monthly Magazine, and the Westminster Review. In 1826 he wrote to William Blackwood seeking to have his novel, The Hebrew, published; it was eventually issued in 1828 with a poem, "The Dream of Saint Keyna," padding out the volume. (One of his letters to Blackwood indicates that the book was written by Chalklen's sister but it was almost certainly by Chalklen himself.) After his death, a friend edited his works in two volumes and supplied a brief Memoir. (Semiramsis an Historical Morality and Other Poems, [2 vols.1847], 1: [i]-[iv]; ancestry.co.uk 15 May 2022; http://www.british-fiction.cf.ac.uk; EN2; Kentish Weekly 21 June 1803, 9 July 1811; Bury and Norwich Post 16 Feb. 1831; GM Feb. 1831, 174, Mar. 1846, 328; contributions from SR) AA
Other Names:
- C. W. Chalklen