Author: Usher, William Rufus
Biography:
USHER, William Rufus (1807-85: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 14 July 1807 at Bloxon and Milton Unitarian, Oxfordshire, the son of the Rev. Peter Usher (1775-1852) and his wife Rebecca Ward. His father had been educated at Homerton dissenting academy and became minister at Banbury 1796-1814. William Rufus married Elizabeth Malsbury (1811-1892) at Eydon, Northants, on 12 Nov. 1828. They had at least eight children. He was originally a rhubarb farmer at Overthorpe but gradually expanded to farming over 100 acres employing several men at Bodicote. He published Cottage Life (1834) and The Twin Foundlings (1837). His son Henry Malsbury Usher’s copy of both works is in the Bodleian. Cottage Life (1834) probably deserves a place in that cluster of agricultural poems by minor poets (Messing, Hurn, Adcock (qq.v.) and others) generally noted in connection with John Clare (q.v.). It also contains "Written during the Prevalence of Cholera Morbus." He died on 27 May 1885 at Bodicote. (ancestry.co.uk 5 Oct. 2020; findmypast.co.uk 5 Oct 2020; Oxford University and City Herald 3 May 1834; Oxford Journal 30 May 1885) AA