Author: WESTON, Joseph
Biography:
WESTON, Joseph (1754-1806: GM)
Joseph Weston of Solihull, Warwickshire, was most probably the son of Mary and Thomas Weston who was baptised on 28 Apr. 1754 at Butlers Marston, Warwickshire. Nothing is known of his education but he was employed in 1773 as the organist of the medieval church of St. Alphege at Solihull; in 1804 another organist was appointed to that position. He might be the man of that name who at an uncertain date married Elizabeth Luckett at Marston Sicca, both partners being registered at that parish. No baptisms to follow have been discovered. Weston contributed occasional poems and articles to periodicals. His translation of a Latin poem by his friend John Morfitt (q.v.), a barrister in Birmingham, to which Weston added an essay on the superiority of the versification of Dryden to that of Pope (qq.v.) and “the Moderns,” embroiled him in public debate with Anna Seward (q.v.) in the pages of GM in 1789-91. He and Morfitt collaborated again in support of the blind poet Priscilla (Pointon) Pickering (q.v.) in a subscription edition of her poems in 1794. He died on 23 Nov. 1806 at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, where according to the GM obituary he had for some time been confined with “derangement of mind.” The obituarist sums him up as “a man of lively but misapplied talents, implacable resentment, and strong passions,” and mentions his having been discharged from his position as organist on account of his irritable temper. (GM [Dec. 1806], 1171; ancestry.com 29 Apr. 2025; findmypast.com 29 Apr. 2025; information from David Radcliffe) HJ