Author: MITFORD, John
Biography:
MITFORD, John (1781-1859: ODNB)
The eldest son of John Mitford (d 1806), a commander in the China trade of the EIC, and his second wife Mary Allen (d 1784), he was born on 13 Aug. 1781 at Richmond, Surrey, and baptised on 22 Sept. at St. Mary Magdalen church. John Mitford (1782-1831, q.v.) was a distant cousin and he was related to John Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, who mentored him. He was educated at Tonbridge grammar school and tutored at Winchester by the Rev. John Baynes before matriculating at Oriel College, Oxford, on 6 Mar. 1801 (BA 1804). He was ordained in 1805 and appointed curate at Kelsale, Suffolk, before being made vicar at Benhall, Suffolk, in 1810. On 21 Oct. 1814 he married Augusta Boodle (b 1784) at her parish of St. George’s, Hanover Square, London. She was a niece of John Mitford senior’s first wife, Sarah Boodle, and came from a prosperous family with a home in Brook Street, Mayfair. A son, Robert Henry, was born in 1815, but the marriage was unhappy and the couple mostly lived separately. Almost certainly John Mitford had already fathered a son, John Mitford Ling (1810-85), whose mother was Louisa Ling. She never married but appears in the 1841 and 1851 census records as a female servant in Mitford’s Benhall parsonage. In 1815 Mitford became chaplain to Lord Redesdale and was appointed rector of two parishes, Weston and Stratford St. Andrew, both in Suffolk. He retained these until his death and alternated living in London and at the parsonage in Benhall. Mitford had little interest in being a clergyman but he had many literary friendships—particularly with Samuel Rogers (q.v.)—and from 1834 to 1850 he was the editor of GM. Beginning with Thomas Gray (q.v.), he also edited the works of other poets. His The Works of Milton in Verse and Prose was issued in eight volumes in 18521 and includes Mitford’s memoir of Milton. Mitford was a collector who built up a fine library which was auctioned after his death. He suffered a stroke in a London street in 1859 and died at the Benhall parsonage on 26 Apr.; he was buried at Stratford St. Andrew. Augusta died at the home of their son in Hampstead on 25 Dec. 1886. (ODNB 11 Mar. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 11 Mar. 2024; Alumni Oxonienses; CCEd 11 Mar. 2024) SR