Author: Drew, Samuel
Biography:
DREW, Samuel (1765-1833: ODNB)
The son of Joseph Drew, a Cornish tin streamer and farmer, and his second wife Thomasin Osborne, he was born on 6 Mar. 1765 near St. Austell, Cornwall, and baptised on 24 Mar. His father was a Methodist. He was taught to read by his mother but became a field worker at the age of seven. After his mother’s death in Oct. 1774 and his father’s remarriage, he was apprenticed to a cordwainer, Thomas Baker, in St. Austell in 1775. Drew ran away from his master but was recaptured at Liskeard and returned to his father. Eventually he became a journeyman cordwainer and, later, a master with his own apprentices. He joined the Methodists in 1785 and, despite some controversy over an allegation of heresy, he preached for the rest of his life. On 17 Apr. 1791 he married Honour Halls (1771-1828); of their seven children, six survived their father. Drew wrote poetry and developed an interest in politics. His first publication was Remarks Upon the First Part of a Book, Written by Thomas Paine (1799). The elegy included in this database was written in Mar. 1800 to commemorate a neighbour who had drowned. Also in 1800 he published Observations (in Behalf of the Methodists) on a Pamphlet Lately Published by the Rev. R. Polwhele; it was followed in 1802 by Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul which went to multiple editions and was positively reviewed by Polwhele (q.v.). Drew was a friend of the prominent Methodist, Thomas Coke, and assisted him in writing some of his books; after Coke’s death he published The Life of the Rev. Thomas Coke (1817). Other works followed and in 1819 Drew was invited to move to Liverpool as editor of the Imperial Magazine. When a fire forced the relocation of the business to London, Drew followed. In 1824 the University of Aberdeen awarded him the degree of MA. On 19 Aug. 1828 Honour Drew died at Helstone during a visit to Cornwall when they were staying with a daughter. This proved a blow from which Drew never recovered; he returned to live in Cornwall and died at Helstone on 29 Mar. 1833. He was buried in St. Michael’s churchyard, Helstone. His son, Jacob Halls Drew, published a biography of his father. (ODNB 5 Aug. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 5 Aug. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 5 Aug. 2024; J. H. Drew, The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, A.M. [1834]) SR