Author: Gillet, Thomas
Biography:
GILLET, Thomas (1793-1836: OFHS)
He was baptised on 29 Mar. 1793 at St. Ebbe’s, Oxford, the fourth of five children of William Gillet and his wife Mary Charlotte (sic, surname)who had married in 1786. In the preface to his first volume, The Banks of Isis (1817), he claimed that he had “no education other than what could be acquired in a crowded School during the space of a few months in the twelfth year of his age” and that he had entered a profession which “greatly impaired his constitution” and was deprived of “all literary opportunities other than reading books given to him by friends.” He entertained hopes that publication would better his condition and with just over a hundred subscribers, mostly from Oxford colleges, it was modestly successful. He continued his career as a local writer, not apparently involved with London publishers who shared his name. He dedicated his second volume, Fashion (1819) to the Rev. John George Storie of Magdalen, formerly of Christchurch. Gillet’s occupation is unknown. His third volume The Midland Minstrel (1822) consisted of romantic historical tales, and a final volume The Juvenile Wreath (1832) was clearly aimed at the school-book market although no evidence has been found that he was a schoolmaster. He married Ann Griffin at St. Helen’s, Abingdon, on 10 Mar. 1822. They had four children, only one of whom survived to adulthood. He died at his house in Brewer’s Lane, Oxford, and was buried on 11 Sept. 1836 at St. Ebbe’s, aged 43. After his death a proposal to print by subscription The Poetical Remains was announced but the volume never materialised. (OFHS; OUCH 29 May 1819, 16 Feb. 1822, 23 June 1832, 11 Aug. 1832; Proposal inserted in the Bodleian copy [280.n.293] of Fashion [1819]) AA