Author: Edwards, Bryan
Biography:
Edwards, Bryan (1743-1800: WBIS)
Born in Westbury, Wiltshire, to Bryan and Elizabeth (Bayly) Edwards, he was sent to school in Bristol. When the death of his father in 1756 left the family destitute, he was supported by his mother's brothers, who were wealthy planters in Jamaica, and eventually went to Jamaica to live with one of them. On the death of that uncle in 1769, Edwards inherited extensive plantations and became an important figure in the economic and political life of the colony. He married his Wiltshire sweetheart Martha Phipps in 1774; they had two sons, one of whom lived to inherit the estates. In Britain from 1782 to 1787 and then from 1792 until his death, Edwards became a leading spokesman of the planters who supported reform of the slave trade but opposed abolition. He was elected to parliament for Grampound in Cornwall in 1796 after a few failed attempts to secure a seat. Edwards published major historical studies of the West Indies, notably a History . . . of the British Colonies in the West Indies (1793) and a Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St Domingo (1797) based on first-hand observation. He died at his home near Southampton. It is debatable whether the early printing of Poetical Essays should be included here at all, since technically it was printed but not published. Williamson's close analysis of the possibly unique copy with holograph revisions, together with two similarly marked-up copies of the later Poems, clearly demonstrates that Edwards worked over his poems for much of his adult life. Williamson also speculates that the first printing may have been intended as a groom's gift to Martha Phipps in 1774. The University of Edinburgh maintains a website dedicated to Edwards, bryan-edwards.iash.ed.ac.uk. (ODNB 16 Oct. 2018; Karina Williamson, "The Curious History of Bryan Edwards's Poems, Written Chiefly in the West-Indies," Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society 6 [2011] 74-88)