Author: Roxby, Robert
Biography:
ROXBY, Robert (1767-1846: findmypast.co.uk)
He was born in 1768 at a farm, Needless Hall, Redesdale, Northumberland, the natural son of Robert Roxby and Elizabeth Rotherford. Following his father’s death in Jan. 1771, he was baptised on 31 Jul. 1771 at Elsdon. He was then brought up in the family of a nearby farmer, Gabriel Goulburn, where he remained until 1792 when Goulburn’s financial difficulties led to the loss of the money left in trust for him. In 1798 he began work as a clerk, first at the bank of Sir William Loraine & Co., before moving to Sir Matthew White Ridley & Co. in Newcastle, where he rose to the position of chief clerk. In addition to The Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel (1809) he and Thomas Doubleday (q.v.) (with whom he used to fish) produced and contributed to many of the annual issues of Fisher’s Garland (1821-1852) which were later collected by Joseph Crawhall and published as A Collection of Right Merrie Garlands for North Country Anglers (1864). Doubleday had earlier reprinted many songs and poems together with an account of their collaborations in The Coquet-Dale Fishing Songs(1852). Roxby died on 30 Jul. 1846 at his home in Elswick Villas, Westgate Hill, Newcastle, and was buried at St. Paul’s. A memorial stone was later erected in the Cathedral in 1895 with a eulogy by Thomas Doubleday. (findmypast.co.uk 28 Jun. 2021; Crawhall [1864)] 309-10; Richard Welford, Men of Mark ‘Twixt Tyne and Tweed [1895] 3: 335-8; Robert Spence Watson, Lecture 6, Lectures delivered to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne [1898]; Newcastle Guardian 1 Aug. 1846; Newcastle Daily Chronicle 29 June 1895) AA