Author: Sanderson, John
Biography:
SANDERSON, John (fl 1822-28)
He declares himself John Sanderson “of Chalk” on the title-page of his first publication, Original Poems on Various Subjects, which was printed at Carlisle, Cumberland, in 1822. Chalk is now within Carlisle. In his dedicatory address to his subscribers, Sanderson reveals that he treats of “unassuming” subjects in humble life because that is the world he lives in; he never had a “liberal education” or friends in high places. The contents and the subscription list bear out these statements, most if not all of the subscribers having addresses within the county and a few of the Carlisle ones being identified by their trades as butcher, joiner, gardener, grocer, and innkeeper. Three subscribers who might have been siblings or cousins were Sandersons of Skiprigg, Esk (i.e. Ravenglass?), and Carlisle. One of the poems is an imagined petition from the “distressed weavers” of Carlisle to the King in 1819. The others are generally short poems such as acrostics and epitaphs. Sanderson was possibly also the author of a broadside in 1824, A Consolatory Address, to Mrs. Berridge, about a murder in Lincolnshire, and certainly of Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects in 1828. Public records offer several possible candidates but the name is too common to be sure about any of them. Although the 1822 volume had a similar title and the same printer as the much more successful subscription collection of Thomas Sanderson (q.v.) in 1800, the two poets do not appear to have been close relatives. (ancestry.com 16 Sept. 2024; findmypast.com 16 Sept. 2024) HJ