Author: Osborne, James
Biography:
OSBORNE, James (fl 1821)
Osborne published two books in 1821, both mournful but pious, The Lament, and Soliloquy . . . to Departed Worth (containing only seven pages of verse) and The Sorrows of Herbert, a much longer and more ambitious work combining prose narrative, essays on relevant subjects, and about forty pages of poetry. They were printed locally, in the villages of Halesworth and Frostenden, but signed from Stratford St. Andrew, Suffolk. He does not appear ever to have published again. According to Copsey, whose account is based on a ms note by the Suffolk antiquarian David Elisha Davey (1769-1851) dated 1830 in a copy of The Lament (BL 11641.f.45), he was the son of William Osborne, “a farmer at Stratford St. Andrew, Frostenden and Henstead in Suffolk,” but no confirmation has been found in public records, the ms note does not identify the father by name, and no date of birth can be established. (There was a William Osborne who married Sarah Blomfield at St. Andrew on 27 Jul 1794 but no baptismal record has been found for a son named James.) Copsey adds, following his source, that James Osborne was for a time about 1823 a schoolmaster at Wrentham but gave that up to join the army, from which he deserted and was later (ms note says 1828) imprisoned at Durham, County Durham, for desertion and other offenses. Both he and his father had such common names that it is not as yet possible to provide reliable dates for birth, marriage, or death. (Copsey 1, 373; findmypast.com 28 Mar. 2024; ancestry.com 28 Mar. 2024; contributions by AA) HJ