Author: MYERS, James
Biography:
MYERS, James (1807-29: Remains)
He was born at Yarm, Yorkshire, on 9 April 1807, the son of Thomas Myers, an excise officer, and his wife Ann. He went to the grammar school in Whitby where the master, John Routh, a Quaker, was impressed by his abilities as were his contemporaries and later fellow legal clerks, John Buchannan (q.v.) and John Watkins. He had initially wanted to be an engraver but his mother, aware of his frail constitution, persuaded him to do law. He was then articled to the solicitor James Walker in 1823 whom he remained with for five years. He went to London in Oct. 1827 to gain further experience but he was ill-suited to law which he found “productive of narrow, and illiberal sentiments, and tedious, trivial cavils” (Remains xx). Living in Holborn, he preferred to study plays and go to the theatre, where he saw Kean. In Dec. 1828 he returned to Yorkshire where he intended to open an office in Stokesley, but the onset of consumption forced a return to Whitby and his widowed father’s house where he died on 18 Aug. 1829. John Watkins, his old school friend, edited his Remains (1830) which included his verse, correspondence, and a religious journal he wrote in his final months; Watkins later added Memoirs (1839). (John Watkins, ed., Remains [1830]; John Watkins, Memoirs of the Talents, Virtues, and Misfortunes of James Myers [1839]; Whitby Authors 56-7; findmypast.co.uk 14 Apr. 2021) AA