Thomas Ingoldsby

Richard Harris Barham (6 December 1788 – 17 June 1845) was an English cleric of the Church of England, a novelist and a humorous poet. He was known generally by his pseudonym Thomas Ingoldsby and as the author of The Ingoldsby Legends.

Life

Richard Harris Barham was born in Canterbury. He was the illegitimate son of a local alderman, also called Richard Harris Barham and a woman named Elizabeth Ffox. When he was seven years old his father died, leaving him a small estate, part of which was the manor of Tappington, in Denton, Kent, mentioned frequently in his later work The Ingoldsby Legends. At nine he was sent to St Paul's School, but his studies were interrupted by an accident that partly crippled his arm for life. Deprived of vigorous bodily activity, he became a great reader and diligent student.

During 1807 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, intending at first to study for the law, but deciding on a clerical career instead. In 1813 he was ordained and found a country curacy at Snargate in Romney Marsh, marrying Caroline Smart the following year. While there he wrote his first novel Baldwin, published in 1820. He began his second novel, My Cousin Nicholas, though this was not published until 1834.

in 1821 he moved to London (to 51 Great Queen Street), after gaining a minor canonry at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, where he served as a cardinal. Three years later he became one of the priests in ordinary of the King's Chapel Royal, appointed as rector of St Mary Magdalen and St Gregory by St Paul's, living at Amen Corner in St Paul's Churchyard.