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Author: Skurray, Francis

Biography:

SKURRAY, Francis (1774-48: GM 1848)

He was born on 20 Sept. 1774 at Beckington, Somerset, the son of Francis Skurray and his wife Mary Hales. He attended Bath Grammar School and then Merton College, Oxford (matric. 1792, BA 1796, MA 1798). He later became a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford (BD 1808). In 1806 he was appointed perpetual curate of Horningsham, Wiltshire, where he lived until his death. In 1823 he was also made rector of Winterbourne Abbas, Dorset. He died on 10 Mar. 1848 at Horningsham. He never married and left his estate, which consisted of a fine art collection, to his nieces and nephews, with special provision for his unmarried niece Emma George. His major work, a long topographical poem, Bidcombe Hill (1808), contained an admired passage on the mysteries of Stonehenge. In 1824, he added a long "Essay on Local Poetry" to the second edition. His Sonnets, Composed on Various Subjects and Occasions (1845) consisted of 350 items and is somewhat neglected. A manuscript album amicorum for his niece, Emma George, which he began on 8 Oct. 1840, also contained sonnets, and was sold at auction (Myers & Kirk) in 2020. A fine painting by John Sergeant of him and another niece, Kitty George, reading at Horningsham surrounded by his collection of Dutch and Italian paintings, is in the V&A but not currently on display. (GM Dec. 1845, 613-14 and May 1848, 552-3; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 18 Mar. 1848; ancestry.co.uk 25 Apr. 2021; CCEd 25 Apr. 2021; collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O131932) AA

 

Books written (4):