Author: Graham, John
Biography:
GRAHAM, John (1812-45: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 15 Dec. 1812 in Bernard Street, Russell Square, and baptised on 16 Feb. 1813 at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, the eldest son and second of nine children of John Smith Graham, clerk, cashier, and finally Paymaster of the Greenwich Out Pensions Office at Tower Hill, and his wife Ann Elliot, who had married in 1810. The family was modestly wealthy. John Smith Graham retired to Brighton where he died in 1864 leaving an estate of around £1500. John Graham was educated at Winchester and Wadham College, Oxford (matric. 1831, BA 1837, New Inn Hall), and entered the established church. At Oxford he failed to win the Newdigate Prize in 1832 with Staffa (Roundell Palmer [q.v.] won it) but succeeded with Granada (1833) listed here and the following year recited an “Ode . . . to the Duke of Wellington” in the Sheldonian Theatre. A Vision of Fair Spirits (1834) was well received. The Parliamentary Chroniclecommented, “For purity of diction, manliness of sentiment, classical elegance, and, above all, deep thought, they [the poems] surpass most productions . . .”. His final verse publication was Geoffrey Rudel: or, The Pilgrim of Love (1836).He was Curate of St. John’s, Hillingdon (not Hoxton or Hackney as stated by several contemporary sources), until his death on 28 Nov. 1845. He does not appear to have married. (ancestry.co.uk 17 Apr. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 17 Apr. 2022; R. B. Gardiner, ed , The Registers of Wadham College. Part II. 1719-1871 [1895], 348; Morning Post 28 June 1810, 13 June 1834; SJC 4 June 1833, 2 Dec. 1845; GM Feb. 1846, 215; Musae Wiccamicae Aug. 1862, 158-63) AA
Other Names:
- John Graham, Wadham College