Author: Roscoe, Thomas
Biography:
ROSCOE, Thomas (1791-1871: ODNB)
Born at Toxteth Park, Liverpool, on 23 June 1791, the poet was a son of the banker, MP, and historian William Roscoe (q.v.) and his wife, Jane Griffies. Four of his nine siblings were published poets, William Stanley Roscoe, Robert Roscoe, Jane Elizabeth Roscoe, and Mary Anne Jevons (qq.v.). With his partner Elizabeth Edwards (there is no known documentation of a marriage), he had seven children. He was a professional author and translator who specialized in travel literature and in the history, art, and literature of Italy and Spain. In addition to contributions to the Monthly Magazine, the New Monthly Magazine, the Monthly Review, the Foreign Quarterly Review, Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, and various annuals, he published almost two dozen books. His income having proved inadequate to support of himself and his children (all seven continued to live with him as late as 1861), in Nov. 1839 he submitted the first of several applications to the Royal Literary Fund. The Fund was more than usually generous; by 1869 its conductors had granted him more than £300. From 1862, he received a civil list pension of £50 per annum. The poet died on 24 Sept. 1871 at his residence, 43 Acacia Road, St John’s Wood, London. His estate at probate was valued under £800. (ODNB 15 May 2024; RLF file 975) JC