Author: Leonard, John
Biography:
LEONARD, John (fl 1784-1808)
Leonard has only one modest publication and some reputation as a regional writer of patriotic and political songs. Very little is known about him, the two primary pieces of evidence being a short biography in the 1891 edition of Allan’s . . . Tyneside Songs and Readings and his articles of apprenticeship of 1784. Internal evidence from his book confirms some details, in the absence of reliable public records. He is believed to have been born in Gateshead, Durham, where the book was published, and indeed one of the poems refers to Gateshead as the “native place” of the poet’s Muse. His father is said to have been George Leonard, a gardener with some property. He was apprenticed to Christopher Shortridge, a carpenter in Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1784—which suggests a birthdate of about 1770. Several of the poems and songs in the collection allude to Newcastle “joiners” and “spouters”; a song written for the birthday of the King in 1808 begins, “Come haste to Newcastle.” So it seems likely that after serving his apprenticeship he worked in or about Newcastle. He appears to have married: in 1792, right when his seven years would have been over, a John Leonard married Sarah Shipley on 18 Dec. at Gateshead. Three children are registered as having been baptised for parents with these names at Newcastle (but none in Gateshead) between 1793 and 1798. Two samples of his work, an extract from “Lines on William Pitt” and a dialect poem, “Winlaton Hoppin’,” were included among Tyneside songs but not until 1891. The short biography accompanying them notes the existence of a holograph manuscript in the Newcastle Central Library of about 400 pages of poetry written while Leonard was serving three months in prison—for what offence is not known. It is possible that he was the John Leonard, born in 1769, who died at Newcastle, aged 45, and was buried at Ballast Hills Cemetery on 26 Dec. 1814. (ancestry.com 5 Jan. 2024; findmypast.com 5 Jan. 2024; Allan’s Illustrated Edition of Tyneside Songs and Readings [1891], 128-30; Goodridge)