Author: English, Robert
Biography:
ENGLISH, Robert (c. 1722-84: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the son of Thomas English, Master of Ipswich school in Suffolk. His exact date of birth and baptism, mother’s maiden name and date and place of parents’ marriage are not known. He probably attended his father’s school. He then proceeded to Emmanuel College Cambridge (matric. 1739, BA 1743, MA 1754) and was ordained deacon (1745) and priest (1753) in the established church. He was sometime a master at Bungay school and usher at Ipswich school. He was Town Lecturer in Ipswich 1743-63. In the late 1750s he served as chaplain to Edward, Lord Hawke, Admiral of the Fleet, on HMS The Royal George, and to the 24th and 12th Regiments of Foot. The poems listed here document his naval experiences. He was vicar of St. Andrew’s, Ilketshall, Suffolk (1754-84); vicar then rector of Horsford, Norfolk (1770-84); and perpetual curate of Horsham Saint Faith, Norfolk (1781-84)--the last two being livings in the gift of Philip Stephens, Secretary to the Admiralty. He died at a Mrs Townsend’s, Chapel Field, Norwich, on 10 May 1784 and was buried at Horsford. He married Susannah Garwood on 12 July 1769 at St. Andrew’s, Ilketshall. She died in Dec. 1772. No issue were mentioned in his will but he left a number of small bequests to relatives and his servant; he left his books and prints to his assistant, Rev. Thomas Reeve (1745-1824), of Bungay. (ancestry.co.uk 8 Mar. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 8 Mar. 2024; CCEd 8 Mar. 2024; Irvine Egerton Grey, Ipswich School 1400-1950 [1950], 164; Ipswich Journal 28 Aug. 1773, 15 May 1784; GM May 1784, 397; Norfolk Record Office, will, MF 449/139) AA