Author: Jennings, James
Biography:
JENNINGS, James (1772-1833: ODNB)
He was born at Huntspill, Somerset, the son of John Jennings (1736-1805), shopkeeper, and his wife Elizabeth Fear (1739?-1806). He was apprenticed to an apothecary in Bristol in 1786. During his time in Bristol, he began to contribute to the European Magazine and also became acquainted with rising literary figures such as Coleridge and Southey (qq.v.). He was a life-long admirer of Southey who admired his moral character but nicknamed him “the traumatic poet.” He married Charlotte Sawier on 2 Dec. 1795 at St. Augustine the Less, Bristol. They moved to London after marriage but returned to Huntspill and the family business in 1801. She died in Apr. 1807 leaving him with four children. He wrote an account of her good works and character for the Monthly Magazine, to which he became a regular contributor. He married Sarah Rouquet, the daughter of a clergyman, on 1 Dec. 1807 at Westharptree, Somerset. He helped to establish a village school run under the Lancaster system. With the post-war economic depression, he abandoned the shop in 1817 and moved to London. Thereafter he eked out a precarious living from his various literary efforts. Works included the Family Cyclopedia (1821) (his most successful work), Observations on Some of the Dialects of the West of England (1825), Ornithologia (1828), and An Inquiry concerning the Nature and Operations of the Human Mind (1828). He was also editor of the short-lived Metropolitan Literary Magazine in 1824. He gave one of the final lectures at the Surrey Institution, “A Lecture on the History and Utility of Literary Institutions,” delivered on 1 Nov. 1823 and again at the Russell Institution, on 20 Dec. 1823.When the Surrey closed he helped found the Metropolitan Literary Institution in 1823 but it also closed. He died on 14 Oct. 1833 at Greenwich. His library was catalogued and sold off but the proceeds “were barely sufficient to discharge arrears of Rent for his lodgings and the expences of his funeral” (Sarah Jennings, RLF 1/783) and his wife was forced to apply to the RLF in March 1834 for assistance; she was awarded £20. (ODNB 19 Oct. 2022; Watkins, 179; Public Characters [1823] 2: 430-1; Bath Chronicle 10 Dec. 1807; Morning Post 7 Nov. 1833; GM Nov. 1833, 476; RLF 1/783; Catalogue of . . . the late J. Jennings [1834], BL. S.C. 832. [5]) AA