Author: Norgate, Thomas Starling
Biography:
NORGATE, Thomas Starling (1772-1859: ODNB)
Norgate was a prolific writer of essays and reviews for prominent periodicals, but the work listed here is his only known independent publication. It contains an odd mixture of topics, styles, and genres. There are short poems, translations, prose tales, and essays on such subjects as the character of Elizabeth I and the future prospects of animals and vegetables. What they have in common, the author suggests, is that they are “peaceful subjects” remote from the strife and catastrophic events of the daily press. He was born in Norwich, Norfolk, on 20 Aug. 1772 and baptised on 3 Sept. at St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, the son of Elias and Deborah (Starling) Norgate. His father was a surgeon; the family attended the Unitarian Octagon Chapel in Norwich. From the Norwich Free School he went in 1788 to New College, Hackney, a dissenting academy. He was intended for the law but it did not suit him and after some legal training in London he returned to Norwich. His fellow-townsman William Beloe (q.v.) encouraged him to write for the British Critic; he later contributed—in some cases extensively—to the Analytical Review, Monthly Review, Monthly Magazine, and Annual Review. In Norwich he formed part of the intellectual circle of William Taylor (1765-1836), and some of his work in the 1795 collection bears the mark of Taylor and Enfield’s Speculative Club (disbanded in 1797). In 1795 Norgate inherited an estate at Hethersett, Norfolk, and spent most of the rest of his life there, farming and writing. On 4 Aug. 1797 he married Mary Susan Randall (1774-1857) at her parish church of St. Mary in the Marsh, Norwich; they had 12 children, some of whose births they registered as dissenters at Dr. Williams’ Library, London. At least two of their sons attended university, however, and one became an Anglican clergyman. With another son Norgate edited the weekly East Anglianfrom 1830 to 1833. He was a founder of the Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural Society in 1829 and wrote on agriculture and horticulture for the General History of the County of Norfolk (1829). He died at Hethersett on 7 Jul. 1859 and was buried like his wife before him at the parish church on 12 Jul., leaving an estate valued at under £16,000. (ODNB 5 Mar. 2024; findmypast.com 5 Mar. 2024; Norfolk News 9 July 1859)
Other Names:
- T. S. Norgate