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Author: Wallace, James

Biography:

WALLACE, James (1766-1829: ancestry.co.uk)

He was baptised on 1 Mar. 1766 at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, London, the eldest son of John Wallace, a wealthy contractor of Golden Square, London, and Sedcop House, Kent, and his wife Elizabeth French, who had married in 1764. They went on to have eleven children. Another son, Albany Wallace (q.v.) was also a poet. James was educated at Harrow and Christ’s College, Cambridge (Pensioner 1784, BA 1789) and then entered the church. He was ordained deacon in London in 1792 and appointed Curate at Danbury, Essex, but does not seem to have practised or pursued a career in the church. He married Mercy Coombes (1781-1863) on 30 July 1818 at St. Marylebone. They had a daughter, Eliza, prior to the marriage; she was born on 8 Aug. 1813 and baptised on 30 Aug. at St. Marylebone. At her baptism, he did not disclose that he was clergy and was listed as “Gentleman.” His wife is sometimes erroneously recorded as Mary (in his will of 1829 and her GRO death certificate): the most probable explanation for this is scribal error but other explanations are possible. He died on 14 Jan. 1829 in York Street, Portman Square, Marylebone, London. He left his considerable wealth to his wife and only daughter. They died in 1863 and 1893 respectively at 7 St. Petersburgh Place, Bayswater, where his brother Albany died in 1875. Shaksperian Sketches (1795), an oddly titled volume since it consists almost entirely of occasional verse, identifies him as the author of Savillon’s Elegies (1795). (ancestry.co.uk 30 Jan. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 30 Jan. 2022; Morning Post 20 Jan. 1829; GM Mar. 1829, 282; Morning Herald 25 Apr. 1863; LES 23 Nov. 1893) AA

 

Other Names:

  • J. Wallace
 

Books written (2):

London: Hookham and Carpenter, 1795
London: [no publisher: printed by Hookham and Carpenter "for the author's private use"], 1795