Author: Fosbrooke, Thomas Dudley
Biography:
FOSBROOKE, Thomas Dudley (1770-1842: ODNB)
He was born on 27 May 1770 and baptised 20 June at St. John the Baptist, Clerkenwell, the only son of the Rev. William Fosbrooke (1734-1775), Vicar of Diddlebury and Rector of Acton Scott, and his second wife, Hester Lashbroke (1746-1832). (In 1820 he changed the spelling of his name to the older form of Fosbroke.) He was educated at St. Paul’s and Pembroke, Oxford (BA 1789, MA 1792). He was ordained in 1792 and became Curate of Horsley, Gloucestershire. He married Mary Howell on 11 Apr. 1796 and they went on to have at least ten children. From 1810 he was Curate of Walford, Herefordshire where he died, impoverished, on 1 January 1842. The Gentleman’s Magazine obituary and the entries in (O)DNB (which referenced ms material) understate his poetical contributions. He began with imitations of Shenstone in 1786 and the "Four Select Poems" of 1817 were also imitations (of Spenser, Gray, Gray and Collins, the German Manner). He was also a dedicated antiquarian who produced still-valued works on the history of the city and county of Gloucester. His picturesque travel guide The Wye Tour (1818) was frequently reprinted and contained autobiographical and genealogical material, as did his Encyclopedia of Antiquities (1824). He also contributed many articles to the Gentleman’s Magazine and its editor, John Bowyer Nichols, added a memoir to the posthumous edition of British Monachism (1843). Southey (q.v.) thought his poetical sensibility was employed on false doctrines. (ODNB 6 Oct. 2020; CCEd; Spenserians 6 Oct. 2020 ; British Monachism [1843]; GM Feb. 1842, 214-16; Memorial in St. Michael and All Angels, Walford; Robert Southey, QR Jan. 1827, 200) AA
Other Names:
- T. D. Fosbrooke
- Thomas Dudley Fosbroke