Author: Horsley, Henry Sharpe
Biography:
HORSLEY, Henry Sharpe (1793-1836: ancestry.com)
The son of Jane (Hind) and John Horsley, who had married in London on 2 Dec. 1776, he was born at the Holborn Lying-In Hospital on 25 Oct. 1793 and baptised on 12 Dec. His mother was a servant. Nothing is known of his education but he became a schoolmaster and, in his own words, “devoted [himself] to the cultivation of moral and loyal principles in the young mind” (RLF). After he had published his collection of essays and poems in 1824, his financial situation deteriorated and he was no longer able to make ends meet, so he applied to the RLF in 1829 and again in 1831, being granted £5 each time. He mentions a family but no further information has been found. One of the men who wrote supporting letters in 1829 was the Scottish preacher Edward Irving (1792-1834), whose presbyterian church in Hatton Garden Horsley attended at the time. In 1831 Horsley was hoping to secure a license to sell “light fancy goods” as a hawker, but he was also seriously ill with erisypelas. He died in 1836 and was buried on 15 May at St. Bride’s, Fleet St. (ancestry.com 21 May 2023; findmypast.com 21 May 2023; RLF #647; contributions by AA) HJ