Author: Mawe, John Saint
Biography:
MAWE, John Saint (1797-1820: findmypast.co.uk)
His name is sometimes given as St. Mawe in catalogues but the records for his birth and education are clear that Saint was a middle name. Despite some confusion, records are also clear about his birth and baptism. He was the son of John Mawe (1766-1829), a noted mineralogist, and his wife Sarah Brown (1767-1846) and was born on 21 Feb. 1797 and baptised at Saint Luke's, Covent Garden, on 19 Mar. The family lived at 5 Tavistock Street, Bloomsbury, and opened a shop selling minerals in Covent Garden. This was later expanded to minerals and ornaments, specialising in Derbyshire Spar Black Marble and Italian alabaster, with premises at 149 Strand. (His father’s Travels in the Interior of Brazil [1812] is still highly regarded.) He entered St. Paul’s in 1807 and later won the Governors’ Prize for his poem "Prometheus." He proceeded to the Inner Temple (1814) and Trinity College, Cambridge, (matr. 1815, BA 1819). In the spring of 1820, “his looks announced languor and ill-health” which his friends attributed to “too close an application to study.” This was probably consumption. His parents sent him to Matlock in an attempt to restore his health but he died on the way at Northampton on 13 Jul. 1820. After his death, the family made selections from his Commonplace Book. This displayed many affinities to topics treated by major Romantic poets: Prometheus, Jerusalem, the Fall of Lucifer, Plato and Spenser, etc. (findmypast.co.uk 9 Apr. 2021; "Memoir" prefixed to Selections [1821]; "Mawe, John," ODNB 9 Apr. 2021; Morning Post 24 Jul 1820; R. B. Gardiner, The Admissions Registers of St. Paul’s School, from 1748 to 1876 [1884]; ancestry.co.uk 7 Oct. 2025; Records of the Inner Temple; ACAD 7 Oct. 2025; contribution from SR) AA
Other Names:
- John St. Mawe