Author: RICHARDS, John
Biography:
RICHARDS, John (fl. 1810)
The poet was a member of a Baptist evangelical community in northeast Devon. In the absence of specific evidence, there are too many candidates to state with certainty his life dates, parentage, or occupation. His connection with an eminent lay preacher of Exeter, Henry Tanner (1718-1805), and with two of Tanner’s children is slight evidence that he may have been born at Exeter or that he spent part of his early life there. He almost certainly was related to Mrs. Elizabeth Richards, a subscriber to his 1810 volume, Acrostics Moral and Divine, and to Agness Richards (b 1779) of Tiverton, to whom he addressed one of his poems. He addressed another poem to his niece Mary Richards. He was deeply familiar with the personal lives and religious experience of the 111 “serious Christians” to whom he addressed his poetry. Most of his subjects lived in villages east of Exeter: in Tiverton, Cullompton, Topsham, Honiton, Uffculme, and Kentisbeare. Many of his addressees and their families were related by blood or marriage (though no Richards, unfortunately), the Bakers, Blackmores, Coombes, Frosts, Rabjohns, Radfords, Salters, Serles, Veals, Venns, Matthews, Middletons, Morrishes, Mountstephens, Potters, and Pooks. He addressed two dozen poems to preachers: sixteen to Baptist evangelicals; four to Wesleyans; and four to Church of England evangelical priests, including John Rippon and John Fry (qq.v.). There is little joy in his poetry. To the unsympathetic ear, his voice is rehearsed, presumptuous, and hectoring. When his focus is on suffering, “experimental” religion, and fear of damnation (his habitual themes), his use of acrostic appears frivolous. (ancestry.com 20 Jan. 2024; findmypast.com 30 Jan. 2024; freereg.org; CCEd 31 Jan. 2024; R. Hawker, The Life and Writings of the Late Henry Tanner, of Exeter [1807]; “Memoir of the Late Rev. Humberstone,” Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle [June 1820], 225-29; “Memoir of the Late Rev. James Viney,” Baptist Magazine 31 [1839], 585-89; C. Stell, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in South-west England [1991]) JC