Author: Hart, William
Biography:
HART, William (fl 1801-9)
The preface to Anti-Suicide has this arresting opening: “Having been witness of an act of Suicide, singularly affecting as to its immoral tendency . . . .” But it does not reveal much more about the author. He was clearly well educated but not at Oxford or Cambridge; his title-page is free of the usual indicators of status (Rev., Dr., BA, LLB), lacking even so much as an “Esq.” His goal was to bring home the lesson that suicide is not only harmful but illegal. He chooses poetry for his vehicle—but with as little ornament as possible, to avoid ambiguity—because poetry has sometimes been used to make suicide attractive. His one previous collection, Fugitive Pieces, published by subscription with a list made up mainly of names from in and about Lynn Regis (King’s Lynn), Norfolk, indicates that he was resident there. (The reviewers were not gracious.) The most likely candidate is William Hart (1765-1845), who was born and died in Lynn. In the 1841 Census he was recorded as living with his wife Rose (b 1771, married 1793), along with their daughter (b 1801), son-in-law, and a grandchild at Friar’s Gate, South Gate All Saints, King’s Lynn. There was also a son, William, who married there in 1822. He was buried at All Saints on 7 Feb. 1845. (findmypast.com 27 Feb. 2022; British Critic 17 [May 1801], 538-40)