Author: Gandy, Edward
Biography:
GANDY, Edward (1792-1859: findmypast.co.uk)
He was born on 17 Feb. and baptised on 19 Apr. 1792 at St. Andrew’s, Plymouth, where his father was vicar, the youngest son and one of perhaps as many as ten children of Rev. John Gandy, MA, (1741-1824), and his wife Margaret Whitelock (1746-1828), who had married at Burlescombe, Devon, in 1771. He was educated at Plymouth Grammar School where he was a contemporary and later lifelong friend of Sir Charles Eastlake, the first Director of the National Gallery. His father and elder brother, Rev. Samuel Whitelocke Gandy (1776-1851) were both educated at Cambridge but he entered government service and worked for almost fifty years in the Admiralty Office at Somerset House, rising to the position of Chief Clerk in the Naval Prize and Wills Department. He married Charity Courtis Ross (1814-81), the daughter of Capt. Daniel Ross RN, on 27 Oct. 1854 at Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. There was no issue. They lived for several years at 48 Baker Street, Portman Square, Marylebone. He died on 14 June 1859 at 28 Hugh Street, Pimlico, London, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, leaving an estate of around £7000 to his widow and sister. His widow retired to St. Leonards-on-Sea and died in 1881, leaving only around £500. Moods and Tenses (1827) and Some Passages (1825) were first correctly attributed to Gandy by Marc Vaulbert de Chantilly, who suggests he may also be a candidate for the Wordsworth parody Benjamin the Waggoner (1819), which has been generally attributed to John Hamilton Reynolds (q.v.) although J. B. Gohn suggests John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854). (findmypast.co.uk 16 Jul. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 16 Jul. 2022; MH 30 Oct. 1854; Morning Chronicle 20 June 1859; GM Dec. 1824, 570, and Jul. 1859, 94; PO Directory various issues; Marc Vaulbert de Chantilly, ed., Edward Gandy, Some Passages in the Life, &c. of Egomet Bonnot, Esq. [2000]; J. B. Gohn, “Who wrote Benjamin the Waggoner?” Wordsworth Circle 8 [1977], 69-74) AA