Author: Thornhill, Frederick
Biography:
THORNHILL, Frederick (1784-1832: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 24 Oct. 1784 and baptised on 4 Nov. at St. Magnus the Martyr, City of London, the fourth of six sons of Joseph Thornhill, cutler, and Mary Stockdale, who had married at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, in 1775. Nothing is known of his education other than that he was apprenticed to his father for seven years in 1799 and then also became a cutler and hardwareman. He later served as an alderman on the Common Council of Bridge Ward, City of London. He clearly knew Latin and Greek so his education cannot have been only artisanal. Poems (1814) gives no clues as to his identity. Reviewers noted his amorous propensities and most of the poems were addressed to “Rosa,” “Julia,” “Sylvia,” “Stella,” and various other unnamed women. He dedicated the volume to Thomas Campbell (q.v.) but it is not known if they knew each other. On 16 Aug. 1815, he wrote a learned letter from his residence at Fish Street Hill, near the Monument, to the Gentleman’s Magazine, detailing the Old Dramas” which had been in the collection of John Warburton (1682-1759), the Somerset Herald of Arms and well-known antiquarian, and which had been destroyed by his cook, Betsey Baker, who had used them for lighting fires (“Old Dramas in Mr. Warburton’s Collection,” GM Sept. 1815, 217-22). He married Charlotte Jones on 6 June 1818 at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, and they went on to have five sons and a daughter. He died of cholera on 5 July 1832 at 23 Fish Street Hill and was buried at St. Magnus the Martyr. (ancestry.co.uk 27 May 2024; findmypast.co.uk 27 May 2024; GM July 1832, 94) AA