Author: Leggett, William Martin
Biography:
LEGGETT, William Martin (1813-78: Vening)
"The Bard of New Brunswick," he was born in New York City, one of the three sons of the schoolteachers Mary (Martin) and Joseph Regan Leggett. His parents were the founders of a celebrated school, Lansdale Cottage in Sussex Vale, New Brunswick. Both published poetry in the local newspapers, as did William Martin, the middle son. He was licensed to teach at the age of 15 and taught for a living for most of his life. In 1835, however, he gave up his school following a religious conversion to become a Methodist minister and missionary. He published a volume of Sacred Poetry in 1840. His wife Mary Anne Stevens, whom he married in 1839, accompanied him on missionary work in the West Indies but remained in New Brunswick after their return; she was buried there in 1886. They had three children, only one of whom survived infancy. Until recently, it was believed that Leggett had renounced Methodism, become an Anglican priest, and left Canada to pursue a literary career in England. New research into correspondence and newspaper archives, however, has revealed that Leggett adopted a new identity; settled in New South Wales in Australia, where he continued to teach school and contribute to newspapers but also worked as a sheep station manager, gold prospector, and police spy; contracted a bigamous marriage with Charlotte Crawford in 1851; and had a second family, including at least two sons who joined him in schoolteaching. He established a farm called Lordsland, where he died in 1878. In the last ten years of his life he had been making extravagant false claims about his ancestry and achievements: his death certificate records his father as George IV and his mother as Lady Mary Campbell. (Koral LaVorgna, "William M. Leggett," New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia online 8 Nov. 2019; Chris Vening, "William Martin Leggett . . . in Australia," Script & Print 40 [2016]: 199-221, online 8 Nov. 2019) HJ