Author: Rickards, Samuel
Biography:
RICKARDS, Samuel (1796-1865: ODNB)
He was the youngest of six children of Thomas Rickards (1765-1804), hosier and liquor merchant, of Leicester, and Mary Nutt (1768-96). They had married at St. Mary’s, Islington, London, on 12 Feb. 1785, with the consent of her father. They baptised their first five children in Leicester but Samuel’s baptism has not been located. Nothing is known of his early education. He went to Oriel College Oxford (matric. 1813, BA 1817, MA 1820, Fellow 1819-22) and was ordained deacon (1820) and priest (1821). He won the Newdigate prize for English verse in 1815 with “The Temple of Theseus” and the English essay prize in 1819 with “The Characteristic Differences of Greek and Latin Poetry.” At Oriel he was contemporary with John Henry Newman and John Keble (qq.v.). Newman wrote his poem “Nature and Art” while on a visit to him in 1826 and Keble’s The Christian Year (1827) was printed from the manuscript he possessed. He was sympathetic to the Oxford Movement’s aim of regenerating the church but opposed the importing of Roman Catholic doctrine, particularly on divorce. He published Hymns for Private Devotion (1825); The Christian Householder, or, Guide to Family Prayer (1830); and several sermons. A Selection from the Sermons (1866) appeared posthumously as did Poems (1870) which collects his secular and sacred verse but not his hymns. He was curate at Ulcombe, Kent, from 1821 until he was presented to the living of Stowlangtoft, Suffolk, first as stipendiary curate in 1830 and then as rector from 1832 to 1865. He married Lucy Maria Wilmot (1797-1883), the daughter of Sir Robert Wilmot, on 6 Oct. 1821 at Chaddesdon, Derbyshire. They had one daughter, Lucy Maria (1823-63), who cut, painted and installed the glass windows of his church. He died on 24 Aug. 1865 at Stowlangtoft rectory, leaving an estate of under £7000. (ODNB 23 Apr. 2023; Copsey, 1: 408; CCEd 23 Apr. 2023; T. Mozley, Reminiscences chiefly of Oriel College and the Oxford Movement[1882], 2: 83-91; OUCH 20 Oct. 1821; BNP 11 Jan. 1832; Suffolk Chronicle 2 Sept. 1865; GM Nov. 1865, 650-1) AA