Author: Green, Thomas
Biography:
GREEN, Thomas (1769-1825: ODNB)
He was born at Monmouth, Wales, on 12 Sept. 1769, the only son of Thomas Green of Ipswich, Suffolk (1722-94), a wealthy landowner and the author of political pamphlets, and his wife Frances Martin (1736-1819). He was educated at Ipswich school and tutored privately by Rev. William Jervis (1725-97), a Dissenting minister. Ill-health prevented him from proceeding to Caius College, Cambridge. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1785, and was called to the bar, but in 1794 inherited estates and wealth sufficient to allow him to devote himself to literature and to acquiring an extensive art collection. He travelled widely in Britain and Europe. He also had a rental income of over £1000 per annum. He married Catherine Hartcup (1775-1828), the youngest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel (later General) Thomas Hartcup, on 13 Oct. 1795 at her parish of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, Holborn, London. They had one son, Thomas Green (1811-50). After visiting Florence in late 1824 he returned home in ill health; he died at his mansion in Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, on 6 Jan. 1825 and was buried in the family vault at Wilby. He is best known for his records of his reading experiences, particularly in politics, moral philosophy, and aesthetics, in Extracts from the Diary of A Lover of Literature (1810), with additions printed posthumously in GM Jan. 1834-Mar. 1843, edited by his friend the Rev. John Mitford (q.v., 1781-1859); and for his pamphlet contributions to the political debates of the 1790s which were critical of Paine, Godwin, and the rise of democratic demands. Although a Burkean conservative and Anti-Jacobin, he remained good friends with Sir James Mackintosh and others sympathetic to the French Revolution but noted in his diary in 1806, “It is remarkable that all artists and literati have a tendency, more or less to revolutionary principles” (GM May 1834, 474). Later poems include addresses to Freshwater Cliff on the Isle of Wight (Chaplet 1807, 154) and on the River Gilpin (Suffolk Garland 1818, 43). (James Ford, A Memoir of Thomas Green [1825], with list of works 33-58, and genealogy 59-82; ODNB 12 Mar. 2024; DNB; Copsey, 1: 228-9; OJ 24 Oct. 1795; GM Jan. 1825, 85-6) AA
Other Names:
- Thomas Green, Jr.