Author: Ouseley, Thomas John
Biography:
OUSELEY, Thomas John (1805-74: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 17 Jan. 1805 (RLF) and baptised at the parsonage at Apsley Guise, Bedfordshire, on 20 Jan. 1805, the son of Sir Ralph Ouseley (1772-1842) and his wife Elizabeth Sophia Rowntree (1780-1868). His father served with distinction in the Peninsula War and was later a major-general in the Portuguese army. Nothing is known of his education or early life. He may have married Mary Anne Pruett on 12 Oct. 1823 at St. Clement Danes, Westminster, London, and had three children with her (the first two named after his parents), but there must be some doubt since he declared himself a bachelor when he married Mary Cooper (1804-64) on 28 Jan. 1832 at St. Helen’s, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. They had three daughters. She died on 21 Oct. 1864 and he then married her younger sister Frances Cooper (1813-72) on 29 Jan. 1866 at Braddan, Isle of Man. There was no issue. She died, aged 59, on 13 Mar. 1872 and he then married Sarah Anna Hildyard (1828-84) on 2 Jan. 1873 at St. Alfrege, Greenwich. There was no issue. He died at 6 Mona Terrace, Bucks Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, on 7 May 1874. For over forty years he was a journalist and variously editor and sometime proprietor and printer of the Leicester Conservative Standard, Shrewsbury Conservative, Liverpool Herald, Mona’s Standard, and Manx’s Punch, none of which were particularly successful. He was also a leader writer on the Isle of Man Times. In addition to the work listed here (which went through two further editions with additions), he published English Melodies(1841), Poems (1849), Mona’s Isle (1853) which he dedicated to Benjamin Disraeli, and a collected Poems (1870) dedicated to Charles Dickens. He appealed to the RLF in Oct. 1873 and was awarded £15. Disraeli supported his application and awarded him a civil pension weeks before his death. His widow applied to the RLF and received £25. She also appealed publicly for help in 1878. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Nov. 2024; RLF 1/1925; ODNB [father] 10 Nov. 2024; Leicester Journal 21 Oct. 1864, 16 Feb. 1866; Isle of Man Times 30 Mar. 1872, 16 May 1874; Eddowe’s Shrewsbury Journal 20 May 1874, 16 Oct. 1878; Cubbon, 870-1, 971, 1212, 1379) AA