Author: Lacey, James Murray
Biography:
LACEY, James Murray (1782-1841: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 9 June 1782 at St. Clement Danes, Strand, London, the son of James Lacey and his wife Deborah Murray who had married in 1777. Nothing is known of his education but for most of his life he was a coal-merchant living at 20 Carey Street near Lincoln’s Inn. He married Ann Beaurain on 30 Aug. 1821 at St. Giles, Camberwell. They had at least two children. Her mother had subscribed to The Farm-House (1809). He contributed many poems to Lady’s Monthly Museum and later the New Monthly Belle Assemblée and two poems to the Forget-Me-Not annual in 1824 and 1825. His poetry is mostly unremarkable, consisting of the usual sonnets, pastorals and miscellaneous poems but with a series of "Poems to Jane" (145-73) which remain unexplained. Only the poem "A Summer Evening By the Sea-Side" was reprinted in reviews and newspapers. His wife died in Feb. 1832. He died, unnoticed, at his house in Carey Street, and was buried on 8 June 1841, aged 59, at St. Clement Danes, leaving his small estate (including his books) to his children. (ancestry.co.uk 9 Aug. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 9 Aug. 2021; Boyle; britannualsinfo.com [index] 9 Aug. 2021; Edward W. R. Pitcher,The Lady’s Monthly Museum 1798-1806: An Annotated Index [2000] 141-4) AA