Author: Willoughby, Richard
Biography:
WILLOUGHBY, Richard (c. 1779-1846: ancestry.co.uk)
It is not known where he was born or who his parents were. His birth date is based on his burial record and death certificate. Nothing is known of his education. As a “widower” he married Jemima Sale (1789-1841) on 27 Sept. 1811 at Saint Luke’s, Chelsea, London, but his first marriage cannot yet be established with any certainty. With Jemima he went on to have at least two sons and two daughters. They moved to Derby where he ran a school and had printed first Carmina Sacra (1815) and then The Plaintive Muse (1820) with nearly four hundred almost exclusively local subscribers from Derbyshire and the surrounding counties of Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire--although he dedicated it to Rev. William Bengo Collyer, vice president of the London Philosophical Society. It consists of dreary sacred verse, some of it written to be publicly recited by pupils. Perhaps only the long poem “The Deserted Christian” is worth another look. There do not appear to be any family members in the list of subscribers; nor do any surnames occur which match any of the half-dozen or so candidates for his first marriage. The Preface records the failure of his school and indicates that he is “now engaged in Private Tuition.” He must have recovered sufficiently from this setback because he was later recorded running a classical and mathematical academy at 45, Friar Gate, Derby, from the 1820s until the early 1840s, and later at Bridge Street. He died from a “worn out constitution” on 24 May 1846 at Bridge Street, St. Werburgh, Derby, with his death certificate recording his occupation as schoolmaster. His wife, Jemima, had predeceased him on 11 Apr. 1841. (ancestry.co.uk 20 June 2024; findmypast.co.uk 20 June 2024; Pigot’s Directory [1828] 126; Stephen Glover, History and Directory of the Borough of Derby [1843], 105; Derby Mercury 14 Apr. 1841, 27 May 1846; GRO death cert.) AA
Other Names:
- R. Willoughby