Author: Pratt, Samuel Jackson
Biography:
PRATT, Samuel Jackson (1749-1814: ODNB)
pseudonym Courtney Melmoth
There is some mystery about many of the names associated with Pratt. He was born on 25 Dec. 1749 in St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, son of a prosperous brewer who served as county sheriff but whose first name is not recorded and his wife, identified as a niece of Sir Thomas Drury but whose own name is not known. He had some schooling and was ordained as a deacon in the established church on 22 Sept. 1771. In about 1772 he eloped with a young woman from a boarding school whose first name was Charlotte and whose surname might have been Melmoth, since they used Courtney and Charlotte Melmoth as their stage names after he left the church and began a career as an actor. She was more successful than he but at some point after 1781 when they performed together for the last time, they separated amicably--she to tour in the provinces, and he to focus increasingly on authorship. He was a versatile and prolific writer: he published travel books, novels, criticism, essays, drama, and poetry. An unusual theme in many of these works is his concern for the welfare of animals, expressed most influentially in the narrative Liberal Opinions (1775-7) and the poem Sympathy (1788; many editions). He was based mainly in London and on 17 May 1804 he wrote to the RLF soliciting funds to allow him to complete the final volume of his Gleanings in England but he was turned down on the grounds that the application did not fall within the remit of the Fund. He was granted £30 towards an annuity later in 1804. He seems then to have moved to Birmingham where he died on 4 Oct. 1814 as a consequence of injuries suffered in a fall from his horse. In his highly complex will of 1806 he refers to his late wife; she may have died in 1805--although, according to Highfill, she lived on until 1823. (ODNB 6 Jul. 2020; Highfill; ancestry.co.uk 6 Jul. 2020; RLF file 154; National Archives UK PROB 11-1566-15) SR
Other Names:
- Mr. Pratt
- Pratt
- S. J. Pratt