Author: Tomlins, Frederick Guest
Biography:
TOMLINS, Frederick Guest (1804-67: ODNB)
No birth record has been located for Frederick Guest Tomlins but census records give his place of birth as Blackfriars, London, and his names are consistent with those of the other Tomlinses in this database, his cousins Elizabeth Sophia and Thomas Edlyne (qq.v.). In the family tradition, like his Tomlins grandfather and uncle before him, he took on the role of Clerk of the Painter-Stainers’ Company in the city of London—though not until 1864, after a large gap of years. His parents were not West-Indian traders (pace ODNB) but Alfred John Tomlins and Elizabeth Piper, who married at St. Mary’s, Lambeth, Surrey, on 25 Sept. 1802. He was born at Blackfriars about Aug. 1804. On 3 May 1829 he married Jane Vasey (1805-77) at St. Dunstan in the West; they had two children, but their son died in infancy. Tomlins became a literary journalist and editor, with ventures into theatre, publishing, and bookselling that were less successful than his writing. He was especially interested in Shakespeare and the theatre, having been taken to see Edmund Kean as Shylock in 1814. He founded the Shakespeare Society (1840-52) and served as its secretary. His books on stage history include The Past and Present State of Dramatic Literature (1839) and A Brief View of the English Drama (1841). His tragedy Garcia: or the Noble Error was performed at Sadler’s Wells in Dec. 1849 and published at that time by C. Mitchell but there is an earlier imprint by Clowes and Sons that is speculatively dated 1835 and is therefore included in this bibliography. He died “after a short illness” (MH) at his home in the Painter-Stainers’ Hall, Little Trinity Lane, Queenhithe, London, on 21 Sept. 1867, and was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Croydon, on 27 Sept., leaving an estate valued at under £600. (ODNB 2 Sept. 2024; ancestry.com 2 Sept. 2024; findmypast.com 2 Sept. 2024; MH 24 Sept. 1867) HJ
Other Names:
- F. G. Tomlins