Author: Edmeston, James
Biography:
EDMESTON, James (1791-1867: findmypast.co.uk)
He was born on 10 Sept. 1791 and baptised on 3 Oct. at Stepney Independent, Bull Lane, the son of James Edmeston, flour factor (manufacturer and merchant), and his wife Hannah Brewer, who had married in 1789. He became an architect and surveyor. He married Anna Priscilla Robson (1799-1850) on 9 May 1823 at Herne, Kent. They had at least fourteen children. She died at Margate on 3 Oct. 1850. Although most of his poetry is religious (he is said to have composed 2000 hymns for the London Orphan Asylum), he was well aware of romantic trends and subject matter. His first publication, The Search (1817) engages the theme of the Romantic search after happiness but concludes that the refuge in religion is the only answer. An ode on the death of Princess Charlotte (1818) is too short to be included in this bibliography. His Sacred Lyrics (1820-21) were quite widely admired. He also wrote religious prose fiction such as Anston Hall (1821) and The World of Spirits (1822). He contributed to the Evangelical Magazine, Annuals, New Annual Register, and various journals and newspapers. Later collections of verse include Sonnets, chiefly Sacred (1844?), Sacred Poetry (1848), and Infant Breathings (1862). Despite strong dissenting influences, he conformed to the Church of England. He lived in Homerton from about 1820 but had an office at Salvador House, Bishopsgate. As architect he designed St. Paul’s, Onslow Square, Brompton (1860). He died on 7 Jan. 1867 at 15 Brooksby’s Walk, Homerton, and was buried at St. Thomas Square, Mare Street, Hackney (Non-Conformist), on 12 Jan. He left an estate of under £3000. (findmypast.co.uk 8 Aug. 2021; SJC 10 May 1823; LES 7 Oct. 1850; The Christian Witness and Congregational Magazine 3 [1867] 143; Spenserians; Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 [1978] 281-2; Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology) AA
Other Names:
- J. Edmeston