Author: RENDALL, Sophia
Biography:
RENDALL, Sophia, formerly Smith (b c. 1770, d aft. 1815 bef. 1841: ancestry.com)
Elements of the poet’s biography are recorded in parish and administrative records. She is referenced in the will of Mary Ford of Upper Brook Street, London, a subscriber to her 1808 volume, Village Minstrel, or, Simple Lays. (Dated 16 July 1808, the will was probated 6 Feb. 1815.) Ford left legacies of fifty pounds to “Sophia Rendall wife of John Rendall of Brompton … and to her Mother the widow of Jno Smith now residing at Brighthelmstone [Brighton] Sussex.” On 19 May 1791 at the church St George, Hanover Square, Westminster, Sophia Smith married John Rendall of Marylebone parish, both of whom were age 21 or older. Their only child, Rose Sophia, born 27 Apr. 1802, was baptized 10 June 1802 at St Nicholas’ Church, Brighton. A witness to Sophia and John’s marriage, “D. Smith,” may be her brother. David Smith of London was born in 1773 to John Smith and his wife, Maria; they were also the parents of Patience Smith, born 1775. The poet certainly had a family connection to a subscriber to her book, the Rev. John Smith (1768-1851) of Aldercar Park, Derbyshire. Many of her relatives, friends, and supporters were elite members of Whig society in Brighton and Derbyshire. There are several readily recognizable names among her subscribers: Lady Elizabeth Foster, a close friend of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (q.v.); Lord Byron’s paramour the irrepressible Caroline Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (q.v.); Lady Ann Ashley Cowper, the sister and wife of Whig prime minsters; and the Whig classicist John Herman Merivale’s friend, the Rev. Robert Bland (qq.v.). Several members of the Michell family of Brighton also subscribed, including a childhood teacher of the Duke of Wellington, the Rev. Henry Michell. That connection perhaps explains the subscription of Wellington’s elder brother, William Wellesley Pole, Earl Mornington. (ancestry.com 17 Jan. 2024; CCEd 17 Jan. 2024) JC