Author: Hersee, William
Biography:
HERSEE, William (1786-1854: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 12 Feb. 1786 at Coldwaltham, near Petworth, Sussex, the second of at least eight children of Richard Hersey (sic), wheelwright and small farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Ede, who had married in 1783 in Charlwood, Surrey. In the Preface to Poems(1808) he described himself as “born in a humble cottage and bred to the plough, unblest by the smiles of Fortune, debarred from every advantage of education, and instructed only by the village Matron.” About 1798 he found work in Reigate and then East Horsley, Surrey, where he married Mary Nye on 13 July 1806. They had at least seven children. They moved to Portsea where he published his first volume, Poems (1808), by subscription. Dedicated to William Hayley (q.v.), its publication seems to have secured him the patronage of Hayley’s friend, William Huskisson, then Secretary to the Treasury, and he was appointed a Clerk in the Excise Office in 1809. He moved to London where he published an expanded edition, Poems, Rural and Domestic (1810), dedicated to Huskisson’s wife, Elizabeth. He remained there for over twenty years and continued to publish in journals and newspapers. He also began a business as a printer and small publisher which was never financially successful. Hayley continued to help him and offered to correct his work and write a preface for Poems (1822), but died before he could do so. This volume added more poems but his early poems are fresher than the later ones. Perhaps signs of his hoping for further patronage, his celebrations of Wellington in the Peninsula war are unremarkable: The Fall of Badajoz (1812), The Battle of Vittoria (1813). The early poems on his life are still of interest: “The Village Schoolmistress,” “Ode Written by Moonlight in the City of Chichester,” “Lines Written on the Platform at Portsmouth.” He retired from the Excise Office in 1826 and received an annuity. From 1831 to 1852 he was editor of the Warwick Advertiser, sometimes publishing his own work. He died on 6 Aug. 1854 at Stand Street, Warwick. His wife, three unmarried daughters, and two sons survived him. She later lived with her daughter Sarah who kept a boarding-house in Leamington, and died there in 1866. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Feb., 2022; findmypast.co.uk 10 Feb. 2022; “Huskisson, William,” ODNB 10 Feb. 2022; Sussex County Magazine Oct. 1927; Coldwaltham Baptisms [Sussex Family History Society Transcriptions]; GM Apr. 1855, 434; Leamington Advertiser 10 Aug. 1854, 5 Apr. 1866) AA
Other Names:
- W. Hersee