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Author: Pellatt, Henry

Biography:

PELLATT, Henry (1797-1860: ancestry.com)

His only known published poem, Sprees of the Hall (1823) –with a preface disclaiming any debt to the “beautiful” Tales of the Hall (1819) by George Crabbe, q.v.—is a jeu d’esprit inspired by the hospitality of Richard Pinder, the friend to whom it is dedicated. It is also a tribute to Byron that imitates some of his metrics and echoes his lines. The author was a London solicitor, Henry Pellatt, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Meriton) Pellatt, born in Peckham, Surrey, on 8 Oct. 1797 and baptised at the Independent chapel on Fetter Lane, London, on 6 Dec. In 1815 he was articled to his father and entered on what he later described as “professional bondage,” from an office in Ironmongers’ Hall, Aldersgate St., London. The 1823 title-page of his poem identifies him as the author of four previous works: Recantation, Recapitulation, Individuality, and Ellen Stanmere’s Maid. No trace has been found of any of them and whether verse or prose, they were probably contributions to periodicals and not separate publications. In the same year he announced as "in the press" a Spenserian poem entitled "Ella, the Cottage Minstrel," of which no further trace has been discovered. On 18 Mar. 1831 he married Mary Backler (1813-82), probably a cousin; her mother’s name was Mary Pellatt. She too had been raised as a dissenter but they married at St. Mark’s, Kennington, London. They had three children. Public records show them at various London addresses over the years—Islington, Holborn, Lambeth. Pellatt’s death on 23 Nov. 1860 was registered in the parish of St. Giles, and he was buried on 28 Nov. in the City of London and Tower Hamlets cemetery. His wife remarried on 3 Jan. 1861 and lived to 1882. (ancestry.com 11 Sept. 2023; findmypast.com 11 Sept. 2023)

 

Books written (2):