Author: Phillips, John
Biography:
PHILLIPS, John (1777-1853: findmypast.com)
He was baptised at Stithians, Cornwall, on 7 Sept. 1777, the son of Ann (Martin) and Hugh Phillips, who had been married on 28 Jul. 1768. In a preface to his last book he mentions in passing that he had never “received the benefit of a liberal education.” He lived in Cornwall all his life, employed as a Customs officer mainly at Portreath, with his home in a village less than two miles away at Illogan, where on 24 Mar. 1804 he married Catharine Trevarthen, with whom he had at least four children, all baptised at the same parish church. After her death in 1815 he married for a second time, also at Illogan, Alice Rule, on 31 Dec. 1823; with her he had at least seven more children. In 1822 he published his verse paraphrase of the “history of a reprobate” from Henry Brooke via John Wesley (qq.v.), with an impressive list of subscribers, almost all Cornish. Encouraged by the response to his first publication, he brought out a second collection, mainly paraphrases of texts from the Old Testament but with some interesting miscellaneous poems such as “To Karnbre” (about a walk to Carn Brea) and “The Beauties of the Dying Dolphin.” In that volume he included a prospectus for another collection of forty or more poems with the title “Wild Rock Flowers,” which would be a luxury production at 3/6 and for which he solicited orders. That work seems never to have been published, although he advertised it again in The Fox Outwitted (1827) with a list of the proposed contents, claiming to have amassed already almost 200 names. His final publication was the product of a trip to Hull, Yorkshire, undertaken as part of his work with HM Customs. He died on 22 Nov. 1853 and was buried at Illogan on 27 Nov., “much respected by all who knew him.” (findmypast.com 4 Oct. 2023; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, 2: 480-1; Cornish Telegraph 30 Nov. 1853)