Author: Spierin, George Heartwell
Biography:
SPIERIN, George Heartwell (1787-1804: Poems)
Much of the information about this young poet, who died in Charleston SC suddenly but of unspecified causes at the age of sixteen years and eight months, comes from the preface to his posthumous volume of verse. But the preface needs to be supplemented by newspaper announcements and other primary sources. Spierin was born in Newburgh NY on 26 Dec. 1787, only a month after his parents arrived in New York as immigrants from Ireland. His mother's name may have been Margaret; his father, also George Heartwell Spierin, was a clergyman with an AM from Trinity College Dublin. There were other children, including a son born in Charleston about 1793 (d 1813). The Rev. George H. Spierin combined pastoral appointments with schoolteaching, moving from Newburgh to Poughkeepsie NY, then to Georgetown SC, and finally to Charleston. The younger Spierin had all his education from his father. In the last months of his life he was studying law, perhaps with a member of the profession in Charleston. After he died in Aug. 1804 his father withdrew to Sullivan's Island SC, where he died on 12 Sept. of yellow fever. (Poems; New-York Packet 9 Nov. 1790; Daily Advertiser [New York] 10 Nov. 1792; Poulson's American Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia] 29 Sept. 1804)