Author: Fitz Maurice, James
Biography:
FITZ MAURICE, James (1800-53: ancestry.com)
The son of Sarah (Neame) and Thomas Fitzmaurice, he was baptised James Middleton Maurice on 1 Feb. 1800 at St. Mary's church in his birthplace of Alverstoke, Hants. He used the spelling Fitz Maurice on the title-page of his only book, but the more conventional "Fitzmaurice" later. As a young man he claimed to have spent "a protracted stay" in France and to have attended lectures there. His book, which has a French epigraph, is dedicated to a friend in the Welsh Fusiliers. He himself served for a time with the First Regiment of Dragoons and gave the Regiment as his place of residence on his marriage certificate. On 7 Jan. 1822 he advertised his intention of establishing a boarding school at Alverstoke on Jan. 21 but if it ever opened it did not last long. On 15 Jan. 1822 he married Rebecca Hitchens (or Hichen), who had a successful girls' boarding school at Bury Place near Gosport which carried on under her maiden name until she died on 29 Sept. 1823 leaving one child, Mary. Fitz Maurice changed course: he was admitted to St. John's, Cambridge (matric. 1825, BA 1829), and entered the church. On 2 Jul. 1828 he married Mary Sarradine, also of Alverstoke, with whom he had at least eight more children, several of them born in Wales where he was Curate at Hawarden 1842-4. In 1849 he accepted a position as chaplain to the St. Pancras workhouse in London. He died at St. Pancras and was buried at the church of St. James on 29 Jan. 1853. (ancestry.com 3 Sept. 2021; findmypast.com 3 Sept. 2021; CCEd 3 Sept 2021; ACAD; Hampshire Chronicle 23 Jul. 1821, 7 Jan. 1822)