Author: Summers, Mr.
Biography:
SUMMERS, Mr. (fl 1772)
Although Poems on Various Subjects was issued anonymously, two poems in the collection indicate that the author’s surname was Summers. One of these, “A Character,” is by the author and another, by “Philander,” was sent to the author by a friend before the book was published. “A Character” gives some information about the author: he was educated at Colerne school in Wiltshire, his father died when he was fifteen, and he seems to have been apprenticed to an attorney. On his master’s death Summers was elected to take over the practice. Nothing else is known and it has not been possible to identify the author through public records. However, one of the poems, “The Essex Journey,” establishes that he was connected to the Summers in Sible Hedingham in Essex. He may have been Henry Summers, son of John Summers and his wife Elizabeth Bakewell, who was baptised at Sible Hedingham on 15 Mar. 1737. That birth date would fit with some details from his book, including a first visit to Vauxhall, London, in 1755. Two of his poems are addressed to John Collett; that is not the poet included in this database but the painter whose dates are 1725-80. (ancestry.co.uk 19 June 2025; findmypast.co.uk 19 June 2025) SR