Author: Schomberg, Ralph
Biography:
SCHOMBERG, Ralph (1714-92: ODNB)
Raphael (later Ralph) and his twin brother Isaac (d 1780) were born into a Jewish family in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on 14 Aug. 1714. Both became physicians like their father Meyer Löw Schomberg (1690-1761), who brought them to England in 1721 and, intending that they should be assimilated, sent them to the Merchant Taylors’ School in London (1726-31). Unlike Isaac, who was widely admired and respected in his profession, Ralph had an irregular career and was in various ways disreputable. He overspent his allowance and did not complete his medical course in Germany; fell out with his partner in business as a notary; and had to leave his position as a tutor in Barbados when he attempted to force his father to pay off his debts. Returning to England, he married Elizabeth Crowcher (1718-1807), the daughter and heir of a wealthy rope maker, at St. Olave’s, Southwark, London, on 8 Apr. 1742. They had ten children, several of whom died young; Alexander Crowcher Schomberg (q.v.) was one of the survivors. In 1744 he was awarded an MD by correspondence from the Marischal College, Aberdeen, Scotland. He established a medical practice in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and began producing writings of various kinds: medical works, some in Latin; light fare for the stage; a “critical dissertation” on Pindar and Horace that turned out to be a plagiarism from the French; and the poems in this bibliography. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1752. In 1761 he moved to Bath, where his full-length portrait was painted by Lawrence in 1772. Though wealthy by most standards—he is estimated to have left £40,000-50,000 at his death—he was so notoriously avaricious that he was held to public ridicule and left Bath first for Pangbourne and then for Reading, where he died on 29 June 1792. He was buried at St. Mary’s, Reading, on 3 Jul. 1792 but his remains were later moved to be interred with those of his wife Elizabeth at St. George-in-the-East, Stepney, London. (ODNB 22 Sept. 2024; ancestry.com 22 Sept. 2024; findmypast.com 22 Sept. 2024; WBIS; Reading Mercury 2 July 1792) HJ