Author: Rich, Edward Charles
Biography:
RICH, Edward Charles (1803-69: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 22 Sept. 1803 and baptised on 16 Oct. at St. James’s, Pentonville, London, the son of Cabibel Rich (1771-1822), textile merchant and sometime stationer, and Clarissa Sarah Weeks (1770-1857), who had married at St. George’s, Hanover Square, Westminster, on 22 June 1799. Nothing is known of his education and he may have been put to trade. In the preface to his only known work, Josceline and Julia, and Other Poems (1826), a fifty-page romantic tale, he noted that he lacked “a good and classical education” and the leisure for literary pursuits. The occasional poems have little merit, with many amorous addresses to young women, notably “Jessy.” He married Sarah Hore on 2 July 1834 at St. John’s, Clerkenwell, London. They had at least one son. He was in business as a wine merchant with his brother, Henry William Rich. From around 1834 to at least 1851 they traded from 33 Great St. Helen’s in the City of London although by 1836 he was living at Trinity Square, Newington, Lambeth, south London. By 1851 he had been widowed and was listed at Markham Street, Chelsea, south-west London, probably the home of his widowed mother. In the 1861 census, he had returned to Lambeth and was recorded as a wine merchant at 7 Wandsworth Road. He died at 7 Lark Hall Lane, Kennington, south London, on 6 June 1869. (ancestry.co.uk 15 Oct. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 15 Oct. 2023; Post Office Directory 1848; GRO death cert.) AA