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Author: Darby, John

Biography:

DARBY, John (1770-1853: ancestry.co.uk)

The 1851 census gives his place of birth as Devon and from 1827 until his death he lived in Exeter, mostly in St. Sidwell’s parish. He may therefore have been the John Darby baptised 1 Oct. 1770 at St. David’s, Exeter, son of Benjamin Darby and Agnes Kemp, who had married the previous year. Both censuses also record his wife, Elizabeth. She may have been the Elizabeth Bradford who married John Darby on 21 July 1803 at St. John’s, Exeter. (There may have been issue as the 1841 edition of Gospel Poems, records it as “Sold by the Author, Son, and Agent, and by no other.”) They possibly worshipped at the Calvinist-Methodist Tabernacle in Coombe street, Exeter. In the 1851 census they were living at Albion Cottage, Tiverton Road, Exeter. He gave his age as 80 and his occupation as “formerly joiner” which is consistent with the 1841 census entry of “Builder”. In 1847, in ill health, he tried to sell his “WRITINGS and WORKS” including “Nineteen hundred copies of a new work printed.” Apart from the three editions of Gospel Poems listed here, his other works consisted of a further edition of Gospel Poems (1841), “three dialogues in one book, first between a banker and countryman, a beggar and a king, Right and Luke soldiers”. He also listed his explanations of the Song of Solomon and the Psalms, Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, and “a few dialogues in poetry.” In all he mentions “about thirty-six excellent dialogues,” mostly on biblical topics. He claims to have sold almost two thousand copies of his various works--which might be true--but most of the dialogues do not appear to be extant or recorded in library catalogues, with the exception of Summer Evenings’ Conversation in the Fields (1832), and A Dialogue between a Watchman and the Traveller bound for Zion (1837). It seems unlikely a sale of his works materialised. He was not listed in Bibliotheca Cornubiensis but in 1887 George Clement Boase listed six works and made a biographical enquiry without success. Darby died on 24 Apr. 1853 at St. Sidwell’s, Exeter, “of natural decay,” aged 82. His wife Elizabeth had died earlier, aged 77, in 1851. (ancestry.co.uk 2 Oct. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 2 Oct. 2023; Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 17 July 1847; George C. Boase, The Western Antiquary 6 [1887], 44; GRO death cert.) AA

 

 

Books written (3):

Exeter: printed for the author by W. C. Pollard, 1827
Exeter: printed by R. Spencer, 1834