Author: Hartnoll, John
Biography:
HARTNOLL, John (b 1797: ancestry.com)
He was baptized at St. Andrew, Plymouth, Devon, on 14 Aug. 1797, the son of Elizabeth (Moore) and John Hartnoll, who had married at Hampreston, Dorset, in 1790. John Hooper Hartnoll (1800-70), later editor of the Kentish Mercury, was a slightly younger cousin. The effusive dedication and preface to his only known literary work, Britannia’s Cypress (1820), apologises for his youth, “humble birth and confined education,” but thanks Mr. Hine, the master of a boarding academy at Plymouth, for encouraging him to write. The subscription list starts with 12 copies for the King, includes most of the upper aristocracy, and ends with various Plymouth worthies. After 1820, the trail is confused. There were several John Hartnolls not far away in Barnstaple, including an innkeeper and a builder, but details are not a good match. He may be the John Hartnoll of Barnstaple, “mariner,” who married Anne Ireland of Plymouth at St. Andrew, the same church at which the author had been baptised; and in that case he may be the John Hartnoll with connections in Plymouth who received a navy pension starting in 1859. No record of burial has been found. (ancestry.com 14 Feb. 2022; findmypast.com 14 Feb. 2022) HJ