Author: Lamb, John
Biography:
LAMB, John (c. 1725-1799: ODNB)
He is known to history as the father of Mary and Charles Lamb (qq.v.); some of the details of his life are recorded in their headnotes. He was born in Lincolnshire about 1725; his father is said to have been a cobbler, but no birth record has been found and his parentage is obscure. At some point the family moved from the countryside to the cathedral town of Lincoln, where Lamb had his early education. He was employed first as a footman in Bath Spa. By 1746 he had moved to London, where he was engaged as a domestic servant by Samuel Salt (d 1792) of the Inner Temple, and as a waiter for the barristers there; in 1772 he was made First Waiter, a post he held to the end of his life. On 29 Mar. 1761 he married Elizabeth Field at St. Dunstan’s in the West, Fleet St.; their three surviving children grew up in one of Salt’s apartments in Crown Office Row. Poetical Pieces, published anonymously, celebrates the author’s recent status as the fiftieth member of a Friendly Society for the benefit of (the members’ own) Widows. It was at meetings of the Society at the Devil Tavern that Lamb had first read some of his poems in public and was encouraged to put together a collection. Salt’s death in 1792 meant that the family had to find other lodgings. Elizabeth Lamb was stabbed to death by her daughter Mary in a fit of insanity in 1796. Her husband lived in Clerkenwell and continued in his post at the Inner Temple until his death in 1799. He was buried at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, on 13 Apr. 1799. (“Lamb, Charles,” ODNB 23 May 2024; ancestry.com 23 May 2024; findmypast.com 23 May 2024; Winifred F. Courtney, Young Charles Lamb [1982], 4-5; Edwin W. Marrs, Jr., ed., The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb [1975], 1: xxvi-xxvii; contributions by AA) HJ