Author: Fitchett, John
Biography:
FITCHETT, John (1776-1838: ODNB)
He was born in Liverpool on 21 Sept 1776 and baptised at St. Peter's church on 8 Dec. His parents, James Fitchett and Mary Wollams, had been married at the same church on 1 May 1775. James Fitchett, a wine merchant, died on 29 Jan. 1785 at the age of 39 and his orphaned son was removed to Warrington by his guardian, an attorney named Kerfoot, who sent him to the Warrington grammar school. (In 1822 Fitchett arranged for an inscription in memory of his father at Winwick church in Warrington.) In due course he was apprenticed to his guardian, qualified as an attorney, and became a successful partner in the firm. In 1805 he himself took an apprentice, Robert Roscoe (q.v.), who became his clerk. Fitchett never married. His first poem, published by subscription in 1796, was Bewsey, a country-house poem. Some later occasional poems were printed in 1836 for circulation to friends as Minor Poems. Fitchett loved literature and amassed a fine library. The great project of his life was an epic about Alfred the Great, five quarto volumes of which were printed at Warrington (but not published) between 1808 and 1834; they were perhaps printed as working copies for revision. The first volume--the only one that appears to have been in circulation--was dedicated, by permission, to George III. At over 131,000 lines of which Fitchett himself composed 128,565, Alfred has been described as "the longest poem in the English language, perhaps in any language" (Pierpoint), but it remained unfinished when he died at Warrington on 20 Oct. 1838. He was buried at Winwick, Lancashire, on 25 Oct., leaving an estate of $8000. Roscoe inherited his friend's manuscript together with a bequest for printing costs. He wrote a final Book, the 48th, to complete it, changed the title to King Alfred, and had it published in six volumes by Pickering in 1841. Reviews were scathing. (ODNB 2 Sept. 2021; findmypast.com 2 Sept. 2021; ancestry.com 2 Sept. 2021; Robert Pierpoint, "'King Alfred' . . .a Long Poem," N&Q 9th ser. 5 [10 Feb. 1900] 101; Palatine Notebook 2 [1882] 168-70; contributions by AA)