Author: Symmons, Charles
Biography:
SYMMONS, Charles (1749-1826: ODNB)
He was Welsh, born probably at Cardigan in 1749, the youngest son of the MP for Cardiganshire, John Symmons (1701-71?), and his wife Maria Phillips (d 1763). He had an unusual academic career. He was admitted to Westminster School in Jan. 1765, to Lincoln’s Inn in Nov. 1765, and to Glasgow University in 1767. At Glasgow he formed a lifelong friendship with the future politician William Windham (1750-1810), to whom he dedicated his anonymously published tragedy, Inez, in 1796. He was ordained deacon at St. David’s in 1773 and priest in 1774. In 1776 he was admitted to Clare College, Cambridge, as a “ten-year man” (BD 1786). Appointed rector of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1778, he was able to add the neighbouring rectory of Lampeter Velfrey in 1794 thanks to Windham’s influence. On 28 Oct. 1779 he married Elizabeth Foley (1759-1830) at Llawhaden, Pembrokeshire. They had seven children together of whom two died young, one of them the child poet Caroline Symmons, q.v. In 1789 Symmons was made a prebendary of St. David’s Cathedral but he continued to seek preferment in the church. When he looked liable to fail in attempt to secure a DD from Cambridge in 1793 he migrated to Jesus College, Oxford, which conferred the degree in 1794. Symmons and his family lived mainly at Chiswick, now part of outer London. His publications were numerous and various: volumes of sermons, poetry, literary biography and editions, and contributions to periodicals. He was for a time the editor of the daily British Press. His life of Milton, published with a collected edition in 1806 and later reprinted, was especially praised. There are references to a “dramatic poem” entitled Constantia, published in 1800, of which no copy has been located. He died in Bath on 27 Apr. 1826 after two months of illness and was buried there on 3 May. The RLF, for which he had served as Registrar 1801-25, granted his widow and family £100 in 1828, describing him as the late “Rector of Chiswick.” (ODNB 18 Dec. 2024; DWB 18 Dec. 2024; findmypast.com 18 Dec. 2024; ACAD; CCEd 18 Dec. 2024; RLF #626) HJ