THE LIVERPOOL HOMES OF MRS. HEMANS. By G. T. Shaw. (Read 3rd December, 1896.) IT must ever be regretted that the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire did not undertake, at the commencement of its work in 1848, the identification of those houses in Liverpool and the immediate neighbourhood, which have been either the birthplaces or residences of distinguished people. To me it is inexplicable that no organized action was taken until 1892, when, on the suggestion of Mr. Baron L. Benas, the Council of the Society appointed a committee to inquire into the matter. Much may even now be done, but half-a-century is too great a delay, particularly in a town where property changes so rapidly as in Liverpool. During the fifty years that have passed since the formation of this Society, the property in our town has been completely changed, the tremendous development of trade rendering necessary the alteration of what were once residences into business premises. Where, in the process of alteration, the houses have not been entirely swept away, the transformation in many cases has been so great as to render identification almost impossible. Of the houses with which gossip associates the names of distinguished persons it is extremely difficult to discover anything to confirm the statements; and it is certainly irritating to realize that information which in 1848 was probably considered too common to be worth recording, is unobtainable in 1896. An admirable instance of this will be found in the case of Mrs. Hemans, the poetess. A laudable desire on the part of some Liverpool gentlemen to mark in some way the house in Duke Street in which Mrs. Hemans was born, and also the cottage in Wavertree in which, for a short period, she resided, prompted me to take the matter up, and to make the identification of the Liverpool homes of Mrs. Hemans the first work of the committee referred to above. In the long correspondence which passed through the columns of the Liverpool Daily Post' relative to Mrs. Hemans, information was sought on the following three points in her history: (1) The date of her birth. (2) In which house in Duke Street was she born? (3) In which house in Wavertree Village did she reside? A suggestion was made that if the registers of baptisms in our local churches were searched, probably the answer to the first question might be obtained, and also a clue to the answer to the second. I carefully examined the registers of baptisms in St. Thomas's, St. George's, St. Peter's, and St. Nicholas's churches, but without finding the desired entry. As these were the only churches existing in the neighbourhood in the years 1793-4, the information required had to be sought elsewhere. In the absence of the registry of baptism, the authorities for the date of the poetess's birth are March, April, and May, 1896. as follow:-(1) Mrs. Hughes (sister to Mrs. Hemans), who, in the memoir at the beginning of the 1839 edition of the works, gives the date September 25th, 1793. (2) The memorial tablet in the Cathedral of St. Asaph, whereon it is stated that "Felicia Hemans died May 16th, 1835: "aged 41"; a statement which, of course, corroborates the date given by Mrs. Hughes. (3) H. F. Chorley, who, in his memorials of Mrs. Hemans, gives September 25th, 1794. (4) Poems by Felicia D. Browne, quarto, Liverpool, 1808. Many of the poems in this volume have affixed to them the age of the authoress at the time when they were written. To the "Stanzas addressed to the Viscountess Kirkwall," with which the volume begins, is affixed not only the signature and age, "F. D. B., aged "thirteen," but also the date, "Gwrych, Ist October, 1807." All authorities agree that the birthday was September 25th, and if Miss Browne was aged thirteen on October 1st, 1807, it follows that 1794 must have been the year of her birth. Personally I accept this date, because in 1807 it was much easier to fix the exact date than in the years 1835-6-9, when the earlier date was given. Moreover, her father and mother were alive in 1807, and all were living together at Gwrych, in North Wales. Her age must have been at that time continually referred to, and, in fact, was the main reason for the publication of the volume of her poetry in 1808. If it be proved that this poetess was born on September 25th, 1793, then those who were responsible for the publication of this volume of her poems, in the preface of which it is stated that "the following pieces are the genuine pro"ductions of a young lady, written between the "age of eight and thirteen years," were guilty of something more than an error. BIRTHPLACE. I have now to consider question No. 2, viz., In which house in Duke Street was Mrs. Hemans born? I suppose it must be taken for granted that Mrs. Hemans was born in Duke Street. All those who should know, viz., Mrs. Hughes (sister to the poetess), H. Fothergil! Chorley (friend and biographer of Mrs. Hemans), and Mrs. Charles Lawrence (friend of Mrs. Hemans) say that she was born in Duke Street. I only raise the doubt because, so far as the Liverpool Directories are a guide, George Browne, the father of the poetess, was not residing in Duke Street in 1794, but in Bold Street. This, of course, could be explained if we knew the date of Mr. Browne's removal to Bold Street, and when the Directory for 1794 was published. The compilation of a Directory in 1794 would not take a very long time; it is, therefore, quite possible that between September 25th and December 31st, 1794, Mr. Browne may have removed to Bold Street and the Directory for that year have been published. Even if Mr. Browne had removed between the making of the survey and the publication of the Directory, a letter to the publishers would have caused the insertion of the new address. While, however, it is well to note this discrepancy, I do not think that I should be justified in disregarding the emphatic statement of people so qualified to speak as the three above-named. The authorities for the identification of the house in Duke Street occupied by Mr. George Browne are as follows:-(1) Picton's Memorials of Liverpool. (2) The writer of the obituary notice of Mrs. Hemans which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1835, the year of her death. (3) The Liverpool Directories for 1790. 2 H. F. Chorley. |