Thomas Seward

Thomas Seward (1708-1790). Engraving by Cromell after Joseph Wright of Derby. 1811. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Rev. Thomas Seward (1708 - 4 March 1790) was an English poet and an Anglican clergyman, the father of poet Anna Seward.

Life

Youth and education

Seward was born in 1708, the youngest of 7 sons of Mary (1669-1740) and John Seward (1667-1737).

He was admitted a foundation scholar of Westminster School in 1723. He was elected by the school to scholarships at Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1727.

Upon his rejection by both universities he became a pensioner of St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a B.A. in 1730 and M.A. in 1734.

Career

Seward became travelling tutor to Lord Charles Fitzroy, 3rd son of the Duke of Grafton, who died while on the tour in Italy in 1739 (cf. Walpole, Letters, ed. Cunningham, viii. 415). The duke of Grafton subsequently promised some preferment for Seward.

On 27 October 1741, Seward married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Hunter (headmaster of Lichfield grammar school, and the schoolmaster of both Samuel Johnson and David Garrick.) Of the couple's surviving children, Anna was born on 12 December 1742 and Sarah in 1744.

Seward wrote the preface to and edited, in conjunction with Sympson, the Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, 10 vols. London, 1750, 8vo. It was a poor performance; Coleridge exclaimed in his Lectures on Shakespeare (p. 146): "Mr. Seward! Mr. Seward! you may be, and I trust you are, an angel, but you were an ass!"

He became rector of Eyam, Derbyshire, and Kingsley, Staffordshire. He also obtained the prebend of Bubbenhall in the church of Lichfield, though the date of his admission does not appear, and on 30 April 1755 he was collated to the prebend of Pipa Parva in the same church. He was installed in the prebend of Lyme and Halstock in the church of Salisbury on 5 June 1755.

He resided in the Bishop's Palace at Lichfield from 1754, and was acquainted with Dr. Johnson, whom he used to entertain on his visits to Lichfield. Boswell describes him as a great valetudinarian, and "a genteel, well-bred, dignified clergyman, who had lived much in the great world."

Elizabeth Seward died on 4 July 1780 and soon after Thomas suffered the earliest of a series of debilitating strokes. He died at the bishop's palace, Lichfield, on 4 March 1790.

Writing

His progressive ideas on female education, as expressed in his poem "The Female Right to Literature" (1748), facilitated his daughter's career.

Seward also published: 1. ‘The Conformity between Popery and Paganism,’ London, 1746, 8vo [cf. Middleton, Conyers]; 2. A curious sermon, preached at Lichfield in 1756, entitled The late dreadful Earthquakes no proof of God's particular Wrath against the Portuguese.

Recognition

"The Female Right to Literature" and 4 other poems by Seward were printed in Dodsley's '‘Collection of Poems in Six Volumes; by several hands, ii. 296–308 (cf. Gentleman's Magazine 1780, 123).

Anna Seward had a monument erected to her parents in Lichfield Cathedral. The monument was executed by Bacon, and the verses which form part of the epitaph were composed by Sir Walter Scott.

Seward's portrait, painted by Joseph Wright of Derby, was engraved by Cromell for Anna Seward's Letters, vol. ii.

In popular culture

In 1779 he was portrayed as the canon in the novel Columella by Richard Graves.

Publications

Non-fiction

• The Conformity between Popery and Paganism. London: J. & R. Tonson / S. Draper, 1746.
• The Folly, Danger and Wickedness of Disaffection to the Government: An assize sermon. London: J. & R. Tonson / S. Draper, 1750.
• The Late Dreadful Earthquakes No Proof of God's Particular Wrath against the Portuguese: A sermon. London: J. & R. Tonson / S. Draper, 1756.
• A Charge to the Clergy of the Peculiars Belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. London: T. Longman, 1775.

Edited

• Beaumont and Fletcher, Works (edited by Seward & Sympson. (10 volumes), London: J. & R. Tonson / S. Draper, 1750.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

• Barnard, Teresa (2004). "Anna Seward and the Battle for Authorship". Corvey Women Writers on the Web 1796–1834 (1 Summer). https://www2.shu.ac.uk/corvey/CW3journal/Issue%20one/barnard.html. Retrieved 28 February 2015. 
•  Cooper, Thompson (1897) "Seward, Thomas" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 51 London: Smith, Elder, p. 252  Wikisource, Web, Mar. 9, 2021.
• Letter from Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 1748, regarding Seward and the Dodsley collection

External links

Poems

• Rev. Thomas Seward (1708-1790) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 (info & poem, "Ode on a Lady's Illness after the Death of her Child")
• Thomas Seward at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (5 poems)

Books

• Thomas Seward at Amazon.com

About

• SEWARD Family in Lichfield - Thomas (1708-1790) and Anna (1742-1809) at the Badsey Society

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Seward, Thomas