Author: Roby, John
Biography:
ROBY, John (1793-1850: WBIS)
The son of Nehemiah Roby, a schoolmaster, and his second wife Mary Aspull, he was born in Wigan, Lancs., and baptised in the Independent Chapel there. He was educated mainly at home. A gifted musician, even as a youth he played the organ for services. As an author, he started with anonymous parodies of Scott but then turned to verse romances of his own; he also wrote a novel, The Three Sisters, that appeared in 1854 after his death. But his best-known work was in local history and antiquities, particularly with his Traditions of Lancashire series (1829, 1831) which contains a few poems by way of illustration or epigraphs but is not included in this bibliography. In 1816 he married Ann Bealey; the couple had nine children, three of whom died in infancy. In 1819 he became one of the partners in a bank in Rochdale. The family worshipped at the Providence Independent Chapel there, and Roby played the organ. Ill health obliged him to retire from the bank in 1847, but he gradually regained his strength and after the death of his wife in 1848 he was married for a second time, to Elizabeth Ryland, in 1849. He was drowned when the steamer Orion sank en route to Glasgow. His wife and a daughter who were travelling with him survived, however, and Elizabeth Roby edited his Legendary and Poetical Remains in 1854, with a memoir. He was buried in the family grave at the Providence Independent Chapel. (ODNB 4 Aug. 2020; ancestry.com 4 Aug. 2020) HJ
Other Names:
- J. Roby