Author: Domett, Alfred
Biography:
DOMETT, Alfred (1811-87: ODNB)
Domett is remembered now for being a friend of Robert Browning (q.v.) but he was a minor poet in his own right and an important figure in the history of New Zealand. Like Browning he was born in Camberwell, Surrey. He was the son of Nathaniel Domett, a ship owner and member of the company of salters, and his second wife Elizabeth Curling (d 1817). Domett was born on 20 May 1811 and he was baptised on 4 Nov. 1812 in an Independent chapel in Bermondsey. Although his birth was registered at Dr. Williams’s library the family probably also maintained ties with the established church. He was educated at Stockwell Park House school and admitted to St. John’s, Cambridge, on 9 July 1829. He did not take a degree. From 1833 to 1835 he travelled in North America and the West Indies; the journal of his voyage was edited and first published in 1955. When he returned to England Domett entered the Middle Temple as a law student on 7 Nov. 1835 and he was called to the bar in 1841. His law practice was short-lived: in April 1842 Domett emigrated to New Zealand where he settled in Nelson, contributing to the Nelson Examiner and, in 1846, entering politics. He held various posts including as an elected representative for Nelson, colonial secretary for New Munster (1848-53), magistrate in the Ahuriri district, prime minister (Aug. 1862-Oct. 1863), and legislative councillor (1866-71). On 3 Nov. 1856 he married a widow, Mary George, who already had two sons. She was born in Milnthorpe, Westmoreland, in 1818 and likely travelled to New Zealand with her first husband. After Domett’s retirement in 1871 they returned to England where his long poem, Ranolf and Amohia: A South-Sea Day-Dream, was published in 1872. Domett died at home, 32 St. Charles Square, Kensington, on 2 Sept. 1886, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He left an estate of £4340 to his wife. She died at home in St. Charles Square on 31 July 1896. Domett’s other books of verse include Venice (1839) and Flotsam and Jetsam (1877). (ODNB 16 July 2024; ancestry.co.uk 16 July 2024; ACAD; Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly, Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English [2004]) SR