George Crabbe: Notebooks, catalogue of his library and literary compositions

George Crabbe (1754-1832), poet, was born at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on 24 December 1754, and was mostly self-taught. He was employed in a warehouse on the quay at Slaughden until 1768, before working as a servant for country doctors, 1768-1775. Crabbe published verses between 1772 and 1775, and studied botany and surgery, practising the latter at Aldeburgh. He was ordained deacon in 1781, and became curate of Aldeburgh in that year. He was chaplain to the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir, 1782-1785, and was presented to small livings in Dorset in 1783. In 1783 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred Crabbe with the degree of LL.B. He was appointed curate at Stathern, Leicestershire, in 1785, and subsequently became rector of Muston, Leicestershire, and, in 1789, the non-resident vicar of Allington, Lincolnshire. He was resident as vicar of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 1814-1832, and the non-resident vicar of Croxton, Leicestershire. Crabbe died on 3 February 1832. His collected works were published in 1834.

Presented by the Syndics of Cambridge University Press, 1907.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, George Crabbe: Notebooks, catalogue of his library and literary compositions, MS Add.4422-4426

For further information about MSS.Add.4422-4425 see Sir Adolphus Ward, ed., Poems (Cambridge University Press, 1905-1907), Vol. III, pp. vi-x.

Cambridge University Library also holds notebooks of Crabbe, MSS.Add.4190-4192 and 4194.

Microfilm available