Author: Grover, Henry Montague
Biography:
GROVER, Henry Montague (1791-1866: ODNB)
He was baptised on 14 Dec. 1791 at St. Mary’s, Watford, Hertfordshire, the eldest son of Harry Grover, solicitor, of Hemel Hempstead, and Sybilla Ehret, who had married in 1787. He was educated at St. Albans Grammar School and then articled to his father in 1809. He set up in practice in Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, London, by 1816. He appears to have abandoned law by 1824 when he entered Peterhouse College Cambridge (matric. 1824, LLB 1830) and then entered the church. He was curate at St. Mary’s, Nottingham, from 1828 and was rector at Hitcham, near Maidenhead, Buckinghamshire, 1833-66. He married Elizabeth Emma Dufton or Dafton on 23 Sept. 1837, at St. John’s, Margate. Unusually, she gave her occupation as “Lady” rather than “Gentlewoman” and, for reasons unknown, they would not give information on their parents and “declined to answer questions just at this point.” They had one son, John William Grover, baptised at Hitcham on 18 Dec. 1838. Family trees on Ancestry give her death as 29 Dec. 1838 without supporting documentation and there are no GRO records for her death or the boy’s baptism. A further complication is a legal “sentence of separation” in Nov. 1838 for Mr. Henry Montague Grover and his wife Elizabeth, on the grounds of adultery. After that he devoted himself to biblical or antiquarian studies and scientific inquiries. He published The History of the Resurrection Authenticated (1841), Analogy and Prophecy (1846), and A Catechism for Sophs (1848), together with contributions to the Journal of Sacred Literature. A Voice from Stonehenge(1847) examines the early colonisation of Britain and the Druids. His scientific interests included Changes of the Poles and the Equator Considered (1848), Soundings of Antiquity (1862), a new method for calculating sines and cosines, a paper on tides, and the sun’s orbit. He also wrote a political pamphlet (as Cincinnatus), Corn and Cattle against Cotton and Calico (1844). In later life he suffered from ill health and lived in seclusion. He died at Hitcham on 20 Aug. 1866 and was buried at St. Mary’s, where there is still a grave. He left an estate of £2000 with his son as beneficiary and executor. (ODNB [father and son] 28 Oct. 2023; DNB; CCEd 28 Oct. 2023; MH 17 Nov. 1838; Morning Post 17 Nov. 1838; GM Oct. 1866, 553; MA 24 Aug. 1866) AA