Author: SHIMIN, Edward
Biography:
SHIMIN, Edward (1774-1839? ancestry.co.uk)
The Isle of Man scholar, librarian, and bibliographer William Cubbon was unable to discover anything about Edward Shimin but believed he was a Manxman (Shimin/Shimmin is a well-known name on the island) and had located his volume, listed here, in the Liverpool Free Public Library (since transferred to the University of Liverpool). The volume was printed by G. F. Harris’s widow and brothers, of Water Street, Liverpool, but contains little of interest save perhaps “The Deliverance of Ariel,” “The Spirit of Chaucer,” and two sonnets, “Let Other Poets Value Fame” and “Written on the Centenary of the Birth of Gray.” He may possibly have been the Edward Shimin, gentleman, who died at Chapel Place, Brunswick Road, Liverpool, on 25 Nov. 1839, aged 65, from erysipelas, leaving an estate of £200 to his widow, Susanna (Bell) Shimin. They appear to have married at St. James’s, Piccadilly, London, on 29 Oct. 1799. There is, however, nothing as yet to corroborate that he is the poet Edward Shimin. William Cubbon printed what appears to be a love poem, “Mary Lee” in A Book of Manx Poetry (1913) but there is no record of a marriage. (ancestry.co.uk 14 Jan. 2025; findmypast.co.uk 14 Jan. 2025; Catalogue of the Liverpool Free Public Library [1881], 591; Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool, SPEC. Y81.3.645; Cubbon 2: 876; Liverpool Mercury 6 Dec. 1839; GRO death cert.) AA