George Cornelius Gorham: Verses in Boyhood

George Cornelius Gorham (1787-1857), Church of England clergyman and evangelical controversialist, was born in St Neots, Huntingdonshire, and was admitted as a Pensioner at Queens' College, Cambridge, on 30 April 1805. Whilst at Cambridge he was awarded the Norrisian prize for an essay on public worship. He graduated B.A. in 1808 as third wrangler and Smith's prizeman (M.A. 1812, B.D. 1821), was elected a fellow of his college in 1810, and was ordained priest in 1812. In 1820 he published 'The History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and St. Neots in Huntingdonshire'. From 1814 onwards he held a number of cuarcies, until in 1846 he was presented to the living of St Just, Penwith, Cornwall. His attempt to transfer to the incumbency of Brampford Speke the following year gave rise to the legal dispute with Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, known as the 'Gorham Controversy'. He died in at Brampford Speke vicarage in 1857.

Poems composed by Gorham at various dates between October 1802 and September 1804. Octavo volume bound in calf with spine labels 'POEMS MSS' and 'I'. The title, 'Verses in Boyhood', occurs in pencil on an early leaf. The poems, many of which have footnotes or indications of places of writing (principally Cheam, where Gorham was at school, and Long Sutton), include translations into English from classical authors and into Latin from the Psalms, and (on pages 75-91) 'Rural Simplicity, or, Reflections on the Place of my Nativity', concerning St Neots. With an index of poem titles.

Purchased from John Hart, Doe Barn, Front Street, Binham, Norfolk, NR21 0AL (Catalogue 93, no. 19), September 2011.

In English, Latin and Greek

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, George Cornelius Gorham: Verses in Boyhood, MS Add.9951

Two pieces, 'Lamentations of the Israelites' (pages 110-111) and 'Imitation of Horace. Book 1. Ode 22' (pages 179-81) are reported to have been published in 'The Theological and Biblical Magazine' in 1804, over the pseudonym 'Adolescens'.

Catalogue record created by John Wells of the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, April 2012.