Author: Hipkins, James
Biography:
HIPKINS, James (1800-82: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 9 Mar. 1800 at Hingham, Norfolk, and privately baptised on 13 March, the fifth of six children of James Hipkin (sic) and his wife Eve Claxton, who had married at Scarning, Norfolk, in 1784. Nothing is known of his early life. It seems likely that he moved to London for its musical life and opportunities. He married Jane Mary Grant (1803-65) on 28 Aug. 1825 at St. John the Evangelist, Westminster. They had two children. (The son, Alfred James Hipkins [1826-1903] became a noted musician and musicologist.) The 1841 and 1851 Censuses listed him as a Piano-Forte Maker and journeyman musician and the 1871 Census had him as a retired Professor of Music. His wife Jane also taught music. For most of their lives they lived in Smith Square, Westminster, but after Jane’s death in 1865, he seems to have moved south of the river to Lambeth where he was listed as a lodger in 1871 and 1881. He died on 25 Apr. 1882 at 74 York Road, Waterloo, leaving an estate of £190 and his son as executor. The volume listed here, his only known publication, contains interesting longer poems--“The Grecian Wanderer,” “Return to my Native Village,” “Houghton Vale, Norfolk”--and short poems on well-worn subjects such as “The Convict,” “On the Death of Henry Kirke White,” and “The Negro Boy.” (ancestry.co.uk 13 May 2022; findmypast.co.uk 13 May 2022; “Hipkins, Alfred James,” ODNB 13 May 2022; GRO death cert.) AA