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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), August 1821, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag

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    • Biographical Sketches of some of his Contemporaries, by Mr. John Fox.
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      Mr . JOHN SOWTER . REMEMBER this gentleman when I I was a school-boy , but had no acquaintance with him till I went to live with Mr . Gil ling , at Newton

      Abbot . I can give no account of his parentage , or the place of his birth ; all I know is , that he served an apprenticeship in London to the late Sir George Mertin ' father , who was a jeweller ; that he afterwards married Mr . Mertin ' s daughter ; that by some means or other lie was at the Court of

      Sweden , in some capacity , in the time of Charles XI ., and conversed often with the Queen and our then embassador Dr . Robinson ; that after his return he settled in a place called

      Mitcham , m Surrey , where he had a line house and garden , and lived in great splendour ; and that at length he came down to Ashburton , on a prospect of getting an estate out of a tin

      mine , where he laid out a house and garden suitable to hi 3 own taste , in which he continued till he died . I remember to have seen him more than once at my father ' s while I was a boy

      at school ; but I had never an acquaintance with him , as before observed , till I lived at Newton , where he was used to visit , Mr . Gilling ' s brother of Harp , ford , having married his own sister , 1 can give no account haw from a

      common acquaintance we became so extremely intimate , and I have often wondered how such an intimacy should subsist so long , between two persons so vastly different in their ages as we

      were ; for I always conversed with him as freely as I could have done with one 1 had known , or been bred with , all my lite , and I never perceived that he atiected that superiority , which age generally claims / but was as conversable .

      communicative , easy and pleasant as a companion D need be . His greatest foi-* e , with regard to his acquaintance , was a natural captiousoess , wMch , upon umes made him very troublesome . I t « JT \ no & *** & ^ the world * o wuom he gave njbt , sooner or later ,

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      some taste of this part of his temper What makes this the inore remarkable , is , that he always fell out about trifles , and would write long expostuiatory letters , and full of resentment , about a thing which , a wise man would forget in an hour . I remember he fell out

      with me about his writing to London for some hedge-yews to plant my garden , and because I made some reply to his letter , he sent me word that he would never receive any more letters from me . And thus he would use

      every body in their turn , and for a little while be very troublesome , but by taking no notice of him he would recover his temper , and renew his correspondence as if nothing had happened . He was likewise subject to

      very violent and sudden starts of passiori , which generally broke upon his domestics or dependants , from whom he would never bear a remonstrance , much less any act of contradiction , or which in the least tended to the

      diminution of his author ity . He had a faculty of affecting to be esteemed something more than he really was , and I fancy it was this principle which put him on writing a treatise , which he entitled , " The Way to be Wise and Wealthy , " and of dedicating it to Chief Justice King , who , I suppose , never read the one , or ever took any aotice of the other . He loved to be known

      or taken notice of b y gentlemen above him , and it was really diverting to observe what arts he would use sometimes to put himself in the way of a compliment or an invitation , and how elated he would be if the project took And these were the principal

      inftrmities I could ever observe in him - I y a # d am satisfied they were born with him , and not bred by the troubles he Had in his family , though they were considerable . 1 hough his wife was of a srao 4

      family , aud brought him a good fortune , yet she was not an agreeable companion , for she was sulleij , reserve ** and covetous , and he has c ^ en ccijnplained of it to me ; but ha always behaved to her decently . He haeUture ?)

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      No . CLXXXVIII . ] AUGUST , 1821 . [ Vol . XVI .

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      THE

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      ""** vi . 3 M

      Biographical Sketches Of Some Of His Contemporaries, By Mr. John Fox.

      Biographical Sketches of some of his Contemporaries , by Mr . John Fox .

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/1/