Author: SABINE, John Richard Churchill
Biography:
SABINE, John Richard Churchill (1764-1834: ancestry.com)
The dedication in Poems. In Two Volumes by J. Churchill is signed “I. R. C. S.” These are the initials of John Richard Churchill Sabine. Baptized at Bradford Peverell, Dorset, on 23 Sept. 1764, he was the eldest of the four children of John Sabine (1718-1802) and his wife, Agnes Williams (1730-1806). In June 1781, he was apprenticed to attorney Thomas Poole of Bridgewater. It is not known if he completed his apprenticeship. In any case, he matriculated at St Alban Hall, Oxford, on 4 Dec. 1792 but took no degree. Finally settling into a military career, he was commissioned ensign in the Dorsetshire Militia in 1795 and in Aug. 1798, captain. Almost 300 persons subscribed to his Poems, including many officers from the three services. Well-connected professionally and socially, he was the owner of estates in West Compton, Muckleford, and Broom Hill worth £550 per year. Except for the record of their 22 Sept. 1785 marriage, there is no trace of his first wife, Susanah Newland. Ten years later, his first illegitimate child was born “at the Red Lion in Putney” to a woman named Elizabeth. His Feb. 1814 application for a captaincy in the 5th Regiment of Fort appears to have precipitated his second marriage, in Nov., to Jane Norris (1783-1867), the mother of his second and third illegitimate children. Speculatively, he was a bigamist: his marriage to Jane was declared null and void, so they married a second time, on 6 July 1818, when he was described as “widower.” Certainly, the coincidence of dates suggests scandal: in 1814 he temporarily lost his commission; in Mar. 1815, now married, he was again commissioned, at a reduced rank, ensign, in the Dorset Militia; he was promoted lieutenant in Feb. 1816. In the year of his second marriage to Jane, he again resigned his commission. He reentered service in 1821 as regimental paymaster at the rank of lieutenant. He died at Muckleford on 29 May 1834 and was buried at Bradford Peverell on 5 June 1834. By a stipulation in his father’s will, in his own will, of his nine surviving children he gave precedence to the four who were deemed legitimate. (ancestry.com 28 Jan. 2024; Bath Chronicle 121 Oct. 1798; Kentish Weekley Post, 9 Nov. 1798; Inverness Courier, 12 Nov. 1818; Sherborne Mercury, 9 June 1834) JC
Other Names:
- J. Churchill