Author: Edwards, Richard
Biography:
EDWARDS, Richard (b c. 1771: ancestry.co.uk)
A Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors describes Richard Edwards, BA, of Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, as “the author of some tracts which create very strong doubts respecting the sanity of his intellect.” ACAD has an entry for a Richard Edwards who may be the author of A Treatise on English Prosody (1813) and the two books listed in this bibliography. He was the son of Richard Edwards of Northamptonshire, and the most likely candidate is the child who was baptised at St. John’s, Peterborough, on 27 Oct. 1771 and whose mother’s first name was Elizabeth. He was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge, on 4 July 1791 and earned his BA in 1800 only after an unsettled academic career; he left the college and was later readmitted on three occasions. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1799 and appointed curate at Wilton, Wiltshire, with a stipend of £50. There is no further evidence for his clerical career. ACAD gives a likely death date of 1870 but no records have been located. His books were sold at his premises at 9 Great Russell Street. The first sentence of his Treatise claims that there were no poems written in English before those composed by Edwards. (ancestry.co.uk 2 May 2024; ACAD; CCEd 2 May 2024; Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors [1816]; Admissions to the College of St. John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge [1931]; CR [1813]) SR