Author: Foot, James
Biography:
FOOT, James (1717-76: findmypast.com)
"The Rev. James Foot" as he identifies himself on the title-page of Penseroso has been hitherto a surprisingly obscure figure, only tentatively dated as connected with Bradford, Wilts., and d. 1776 by a poem to the memory of "the Rev. James Foote" in the Bath Chronicle. But he was born and buried at the village of Berwick St. John, Wilts., and the reason for the lack of official records must be that he was a non-conformist. His parents were Henry and Hannah (Baxter) Foot. Nothing is known of his early career but he married Ann Pyke of Coombe in Somerset by licence on 18 Aug. 1755; they had at least two children. By 1763 he could be described as "Mr. James Foot of Chard" in Somerset, a follower or pupil of the renowned Presbyterian minister Philip Doddridge (q.v.); at that time he took charge of the congregation of the Independent Chapel at Morgan's Hill (endowed by John Pitman of Bradford-on-Avon), where he remained until his death in 1776. He was buried at St. John the Baptist, Berwick St. John, on 22 Mar. 1777. His poem was given summary treatment by the Monthly Review, which remarked, "He means very well, but he writes unhappily." (findmypast.com 27 Sept. 2021; ancestry.com 27 Sept. 2021; Monthly Review 44 [1771] 417; Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 5 [1859] 253; Spenserians) HJ