Author: Durnford, William Spry
Biography:
DURNFORD, William Spry (1761-1832: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 18 Apr. 1761 at Stoke Damerel, Devon, the son of Thomas Durnford and Jane Smith, who had married on 12 May 1760. Nothing is known of his education. He married Elizabeth Sing on 28 Nov. 1785 at Stoke Damerel, and their first two children, Jane Elizabeth Spry and Cordelia, were also baptised there. For reasons unknown (possibly connected to the war effort and the navy), they moved to Dover, Kent, where a further five children were baptised between 1803 and 1805 at Saint Mary the Virgin. The Battle of Trafalgar, a Poem (1807) was printed at Dover. At some point the family moved to Rugby (Warwickshire), Banbury (Oxfordshire), and finally Leamington (Warwickshire). The third edition of The Battle of Trafalgar, and other Poems (1823) was printed at Rugby and distributed in London, Warwick, Birmingham, Coventry, and Banbury. The British Library copy (1507/874) contains other manuscript poems including an epitaph for a son, John, who died at Rugby on 14 Jan. 1823. There are no baptism or school records for this son so there remain unanswered questions about the connection to Rugby. Another son, also named William Spry Durnford, was a boot and shoemaker and had premises at 28 Regent Street, Leamington, where his father died on 28 Sept. 1832, aged 72, and was buried at All Saints on 2 Oct. The first and third editions (no copy of the second edition has been located) give the author as W. Durnford but he signed himself as W. S. Durnford in the manuscript additions to the third edition, which has enabled identification. (ancestry.co.uk 5 Aug. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 5 Aug. 2023; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser 29 Sept. 1832) AA
Other Names:
- W. Durnford