Author: Moffatt, John Marks
Biography:
MOFFATT, John Marks (1777-1849: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 14 Nov. 1777 at Avening, Goucestershire, the son of the non-conformist minister John Marks Moffatt (c. 1750-1802, q.v.) and his wife Susannah Payne (Paine) (1753-1837), who had married at Stroud in 1776. He trained as a surgeon and general medical practitioner but seems to have abandoned medicine early to further his literary ambitions. He completed and edited his father’s History of the Town of Malmesbury (1805). After his volume of poems Christina’s Revenge (1821), he embarked on an ambitious project of producing a General Biographical Dictionary but managed only a supplement to John Gorton’s work of that name (1830). His Book of Science (1832) for children went through several editions but probably generated little income. Other hack work included A Descriptive Account of the Curiosities of the British Museum ((1833), The New British Atlas (1833), and whatever periodical work he could get. None of these projects was successful and he sometimes eked out a living teaching Latin and French. Illness further reduced his ability to work and he applied to the RLF for assistance in 1824-6 and was made three awards totalling £35. He later received two further awards of £15 (1837) and £25 (1847). According to the Great London Marriage Index he married Susan(nah) Murphy (1800-27) on 2 Oct. 1824 at Kensington--although they proclaimed the banns in June the previous year at St. Marylebone, so either there is an error in transcription or there was a delay. They had several children, all of whom predeceased him. She died in May 1827 probably due to childbirth complications (a daughter was buried aged five months in October). He died at his home, 65 Pratt Street, Camden, aged 71, and was buried on 11 May 1849 at St. Pancras parish chapel. (ancestry.co.uk 8 June 2023; findmypast.co.uk 8 June 2023; RLF, 1/461; ODNB [father] 8 June 2023) AA
Other Names:
- J. M. Moffatt