Author: Christmas, Henry
Biography:
CHRISTMAS, Henry, later Noel-Fearn (1811-68: ODNB)
He was born in Steward Street in a part of London then known as the Old Artillery Ground, Spitalfields, on 18 Feb. 1811. His parents were Richard Noble Christmas (1782-1859), a silk manufacturer, and his wife Jane Fearn (1782-1869); they had married in Christ Church, Spitalfields, on 29 Aug. 1805. Henry’s birth was registered in the London Quaker records; he was not baptised in the established church until 1837. He was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge, on 5 July 1833 (BA 1837, MA 1840) and ordained deacon in 1837 and priest in 1838. On 25 Apr. 1836 he married Eliza Jane Fox in Bridewell Chapel, London; they had twin sons (one, Walter, died as an infant) and three daughters. In 1840 Christmas was made librarian and secretary at Sion College, London. The appointment, as recorded by Pearse, was a disaster: Christmas neglected the library and left it in the care of untrained boys, failed to produce a catalogue, used college funds to purchase expensive books on numismatics, leased out the president’s house to a milkman, and refused to surrender the keys when requested. He resigned only in 1850 after being found guilty in court of neglecting his duties as college chaplain. Christmas seems to have prospered with other appointments: he served as minster at Verulam chapel in Lambeth (1843-56), lecturer at St. Peter’s of Cornhill (1852-66), and professor of English history and archaeology for the Royal Society of Literature (1854-59). He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1842 and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. His interest in coins led to involvement with the Numismatics Society and he amassed a valuable collection which was later auctioned. Christmas was a subscriber to the RLF and wrote letters in support of many applicants. A prolific writer, he published books and articles on topics including numismatics, history, religion, capital punishment, and the money market. The Voyage seems to be his only book of verse and it was written, the preface states, when he was nineteen. Christmas took the name Noel-Fearn by deed poll in 1866. He suffered a stroke while riding in a London cab in the Haymarket, London, and died on 11 Mar. 1868; he was buried at Norwood. (ODNB 31 Dec. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 31 Dec. 2023; Weekly Dispatch 15 Mar. 1868; E. H. Pearce, Sion College and Library [1913]) SR