John Fenwick (bef. 1757 - 1823)

Born before 24 Apr 1757 in Southwark, Surrey, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Jaco) Fenwick — married about 1788 in England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 14 Dec 1823 after age 66 in Limehouse St. Anne, Tower Hamlets, London, England

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Biography

John was baptized on April 24, 1757, in the parish church of St. Mary in Newington, Southwark, London. It is the same church where his parents were married a year earlier.

John Fenwick came from a "wealthy and well-connected family".^[1] After several years as an itinerant preacher for John Wesley, John's father had turned successfully to business.

John was a radical and a reformer, and he is regarded as William Godwin's first biographer. His essay on Godwin was published in "Public Characters of 1799-1800", Richard Phillips, London, 1799.^[2] He may have been a member of the Philomaths, the polite conversation club Godwin was also a member of in the 1790s.^[3] He and his wife, Eliza, were close friends of the Godwins and attended at their home during Mary Wollstonecraft's final days.^[4]

John Fenwick was a close friend of the author and essayist Charles Lamb. He was also the editor of the "Albion" newspaper that closed shop in the summer of 1801. He followed this paper with another called the "Plough" and later still was the editor of the "Statesman". John Fenwick is immortalized in Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia "The Two Races Of Man" as Ralph Bigod. John Fenwick was introduced to Lamb by William Godwin. Fenwick also wrote a farce called "The Indian" that was produced and performed at Drury lane in 1800. He translated and published the memoirs of General Duperrier Dumouriez.^[5]

Unfortunately, John was an alcoholic and was regularly required to flee from his creditors. It would ultimately cost him his marriage as well.

John died on December 14, 1823 and was buried in Limehouse, St. Anne, Tower Hamlets, London, England on December 21, 1823.

Sources

1. ↑ The Children's Book Business, Lessons from the Long Eighteenth Century; by Lissa Paul, 2010, pg.115.
2. ↑ The Children's Book Business, pg. 193.
3. ↑ The Diary of William Godwin, entry for John Fenwick.
4. ↑ Memoirs of the Authour of the Vindication of the Rights of Women by William Godwin, 1798.
5. ↑ "The Life Of Charles Lamb" by E.V. Lucas Vol. 1 see pgs. 199-202

• London, England, Births, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812; Southwark - St. Mary, Newington - 1707-1776; pg. 156 of 252.

• Cited in England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970, RG5: Birth Certificates, Protestant Dissenters´ Birth Registry, 1801-1810, Piece 36: Certificate nos: D 1251-1500 (1807 Oct 29-1808 Mar 17), pg. 89 of 257, entry for Orlando Fenwick.

• England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906, St. Ann, Soho, London, England, cited in entry for Orlando Fenwick.

• London, England, Deaths and Burials 1813-1980, Tower Hamlets, Limehouse St. Anne, 1823, pg. 18 of 19.

• Public Characters 1799-1807, for Richard Phillips, London.

• Secresy, a novel by Eliza Fenwick, 2nd edition, 1998, edited by Isobel Grundy, Broadview Press, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

• The Fate of the Fenwicks, Letters to Mary Hays (1798-1828), edited by A.F. Wedd, 1927.

• Memoirs of the Authour of the Vindication of the Rights of Women by William Godwin, 1798.

• The Children's Book Business, Lessons from the Long Eighteenth Century; by Lissa Paul, 2010.

• The Diary of William Godwin, (eds) Victoria Myers, David O'Shaughnessy, and Mark Philp (Oxford: Oxford Digital Library, 2010). http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. entry for John Fenwick.

• Ed Pope History, entry for Thomas James Fenwick.

• Ed Pope History, entry for Priscilla Vaughan.