Author: Fitzgerald, Thomas
Biography:
FITZGERALD, Thomas (1694/5-1752: ESTC)
Fitzgerald is a "prior" author, his one collection of verses, Poems on Several Occasions, having appeared in two editions in 1733 and 1736. But in 1781 his grandson, the Rev. Thomas Wintour, brought out a third edition by subscription, with "a few" previously unpublished poems added from ms. The subscription list is impressively long and includes many of the great and good of the two universities, the Church, and the aristocracy. (Fitzgerald had been chaplain to the Duke of Dorset and his grandson was the chaplain of Lord Onslow and Cranley.) Southey (q.v.) included a small selection of Fitzgerald's poems in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 2: 184-5. No record has been found for his parentage or place of birth: his father's name may have been Gerald. He attended Westminster School in London, then Trinity College, Cambridge (entered 1714, BA 1718, MA 1721), and took orders. For over twenty years he taught at Westminster while also serving as Lecturer at St. John the Evangelist, Westminster. He published editions of Terence (1736) and Martial (1740) for use at the school. He married twice. His first wife was Anne Playford, whom he married on 2 Jan. 1727/8 at St. Margaret's, Westminster; she died in childbirth at the age of 44 and was buried on 18 Jan. 1739/40, with her newborn daughter following on 5 Apr. 1740. A few weeks earlier, in Dec. 1739, Fitzgerald had been presented with the living of Wotton in Surrey by Sir John Evelyn, Bart. (1682-1763). In June 1743 Sir John added the living of Abinger, and on 25 Aug. 1743 Fitzgerald married Frances Weston, of Hanover Square, London, at St. John the Evangelist, Westminster. It is not clear how many children from both marriages survived but at least one daughter did: Anne, b 1729, married Forth Winter (later Wintour) of London at Wotton in 1751. Her father Thomas died at his rectory and was buried at Wotton on 21 Aug. 1752. (findmypast.com 11 Sept. 2021; Spenserians; Alumni Oxonienses; The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster [1876] 353-4) HJ