Author: Hurdis, James
Biography:
HURDIS, James (1763-1801: ODNB)
Born to James and Jane (Artlett) Hurdis in Bishopstone, Sussex, he was the only boy in a family of six children. After the death of their father in 1769, James was educated at Chichester and Oxford with the support of members of the extended family. He in turn contributed to the education of his sisters and supported them and their mother from his own income. Hurdis was ordained deacon in 1785; his first living, from 1796, was the curacy at Burwash, Sussex, where three of his sisters came to live with him. In 1791 he added the Bishopstone parish, but after the death of his sister Catherine at Burwash he returned to Oxford as Dean of Arts at Magdalen College and Professor of Poetry. In 1797 he graduated DD, still hoping for preferment in the church. At Bishopstone he set up a press where he printed some of his poems, lectures, and sermons, besides a polemical work that no-one else would take, A Few Words in Vindication of ... Magdalen College (1796). He became so intemperate in certain causes that according to ODNB, his behaviour "verged on the deranged." In 1799 he married Harriet Taylor; they were to have two children, the second born after the death of the father. Hurdis was eventually rewarded with the living of Buckland in Berkshire, but he died at the vicarage a few days after his installation. He was buried in the family vault at Bishopstone. (ODNB 11 May 2019)
Other Names:
- J. Hurdis