Author: Vint, John
Biography:
VINT, John (1765-1814: findmypast.com)
In the collection of poems dedicated to the Duke of Northumberland in which he celebrates local history and local traditions, Saint Mark’s Day, the author and printer John Vint describes himself as “a native of Alnwick.” He was baptised on 18 Sept. 1765 at Rothbury, Northumberland, near Alnwick, the son of Barbara (Dixon) and Thomas Vint. Little is known of his education but he claims in the preface to have been writing poetry since he was 15 and to have included some of his “juvenile” compositions in the book. In 1794 he moved to London to work with the printer Mary (Beeminster) Say, who had married his relative Edward Vint, a calico-printer, in 1787. For some years he printed John Parry’s Courier; he was also employed as a sub-editor on both the Courier and the Morning Post. In 1799 Vint as printer and George Ross as publisher of the Courier were both sentenced to one month in the King’s Bench prison for a libel on the Emperor of Russia. Parry, as the proprietor of the paper, was fined and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Vint, who does not appear to have married, went back to Northumberland where, in partnership with another printer, he wrote and published a Concise System of Modern Geography in 2 vols. (1800-1). Two “Geordie songs” in dialect are attributed to him, composed perhaps at this time. Then he moved on to Manchester, where he edited the Manchester Mercury and another periodical, the British Volunteer. For reasons unknown, he settled finally in the Isle of Man, where he was employed as the editor of the Weekly Gazette. When he died there suddenly of “a violent fit of coughing” on 13 Mar. 1814, his Manchester colleagues paid tribute to his kind heart as well as to his “talents and industry.” He was buried at Braddon, Isle of Man, on 17 Mar. 1814. (findmypast.com 11 Apr. 2024; “Say, Mary” ODNB 11 Apr. 2024; Hereford Journal 5 June 1799; Manchester Mercury 5 Apr. 1814; Chester Chronicle 15 Apr. 1814; “List of Geordie Songwriters,” Wikipedia 11 Apr. 2024) HJ