Author: May, Thomas
Biography:
MAY, Thomas (1749-1820: ancestry.com)
He was born into a Quaker family in Witney, Oxfordshire, on 25 Feb. 1749, and baptised at Witney on 25 Dec.; he was later baptised also in the Church of England at Kencot on 10 Oct. 1751. He had a classical education, though the details of his schooling are not certain. (He was given to keeping track of his age at the time of composition of a poem, and some translations from Latin were done “while a Lad at School.”) He began writing verses as a child, not only as school exercises. His first published volume consists of two longish locodescriptive poems written when he was 19 and 23 respectively. King Asa, on a biblical theme, was published by subscription, with many local Oxfordshire families represented, mostly at Henley, and a few further afield. William Darton of London, Quaker and bookseller, took 25 copies. On 25 Oct. 1774 May married Hannah Ashby at Warborough; there do not appear to have been children from the marriage, and she died at Warborough in 1803. He was an ironmonger by trade and also a schoolmaster. He died at Henley on 20 Mar. 1820 and was buried in the Quaker burial ground there on 26 Mar. (ancestry.com 27 Apr. 2023; findmypast.com 27 Apr. 2023; Watkins, 230)
Other Names:
- T. May