Richard McDonald Caunter

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Richard McDonald Caunter
CAUNTER Richard McDonald 1798-1879.jpg
Born(1798-03-22)22 March 1798
Prince of Wales Island, British India
Died10 March 1879(1879-03-10) (aged 80)
Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
SpouseAnn Harrison

Richard McDonald Caunter (22 March 1798 – 10 March 1879), was an English clergyman and the author of a play, Attila (1832). Following a brief career as an ensign in the army, Caunter took holy orders and was a parish priest of various parishes in southern England.

Life[]

Richard McDonald was born at Government House on Prince of Wales Island (today Penang, Malaysia), where his father George Caunter was chief magistrate and, at various times, acting superintendent in the absence of superintendent Forbes Ross MacDonald.[1][2] Richard's father came from the South Devon village of Staverton and his mother, Harriett Georgina, née Hutchings, from Dittisham, also in South Devon. She died giving birth to Richard and his twin sister, Sarah Sparke Caunter.[3]

When about four years old, the two children were sent to live with their uncle, the Reverend Robert Sparke Hutchings of Dittisham Rectory. In 1811 their father died at sea.[4][5] At age 16 Richard became an ensign in the 16th Lancers and was sent to India. He eventually sold out his commission and in 1820 obtained a scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, studying civil law and obtaining a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1829.[6] He was ordained a deacon and priest in London in 1824 and in the same year was Curate at Bradwell-on-Sea.[7] He spent 1824 to 1829 as Chaplain to the Governor of Mauritius, Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole (from 1828 Sir Charles Colville),[8] and also spent time in Cape Town.[9][10]

In 1831 Caunter was morning preacher at St George's, Hanover Square in London and also preached in St Paul's Cathedral.[11] At different times he held the curacy of the parishes of Forest Row, Frant and Pulborough in Sussex and Tunbridge Wells in Kent.[12] In 1840, the year he became Curate of Amberley in Sussex, he married Ann Harrison, which is commemorated in a stained-glass window in the parish church.[13] Caunter was subsequently Curate at Highclere, Hampshire (c. 1841-52), Hanwell, Oxfordshire and Drayton, Oxfordshire (1861-1871).[14][15] He died in Patcham in the city of Brighton, his last place of residence, and was buried there.[16][17]

Caunter was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.[18]

Works[]

In 1832 Caunter published a volume combining a play and a collection of poetry, Attila, a Tragedy; and Other Poems (London, T. and W. Boone).[19] Although the book does not mention the author, he was advertised as its author shortly afterwards.[20] The play, written in iambic pentameter, describes an episode from the life of Attila, King of the Huns, as he prepares to lay siege to Constantinople. Caunter makes Bleda, Attila's brother, one of the king's principal foes. The poetry section includes several longer poems, among them a poem about Cupid and Psyche after Apuleius, and works written in India and aboard ship off the Cape of Good Hope. The poem about Cupid and Psyche had, however, appeared in an earlier version in The Cadet (1814), an anonymously published poetry collection by Richard's brother John Hobart Caunter.[21]

In reviewing the volume, The Metropolitan wrote: "There is a want of force to aid lofty flights and passionate outbreakings visible throughout; and yet, in the gentle and descriptive, there is beauty and pure poetry. The taste of the day is unfortunately against every thing that does not astonish".[22] The Weekly Visitor considered that "The Author of Attila is a man who has seen much, and has brought to aid him, in writing the above, talents of a high character, much observation, and keen insight into the characters of men, and vigorous powers of imagination."[23] The Monthly Review stated: "we do not think the powers of the poet before us adequate to the very serious demands which the concoction of a tragic drama, out of the incidents of Attila's life, prefers. The minor poems possess some merit".[24]

In the analysis of The Athenæum, Caunter lacked "the rough, passionate energy necessary for such [dramatic] compositions. He has a readier talent for humbler themes. Of the smaller poems we think more favourably than of the tragic portion of the volume; and though some of the songs, amid the liquid flow of their lines, can pretend to no originality of thought, it is otherwise with the little poem on 'Cities,' in which there is a spirit of observation and satire [...] This is the age of prose; and we are afraid that the author of 'Attila' is not poet enough to call back the public feeling to the allurements of the Muse. The days of steam-engines and spinning-jennies are come: there is a windmill for the manufacture of tapes and bobbins on Parnassus; and Helicon drives machinery which makes calico at three halfpence a yard."[25]

A number of Caunter's sermons were published, including two sermons he preached during the passage from Mauritius to England in 1829[26] and a sermon preached on the opening of Trinity Chapel, Forest Row (London, T. and W. Boone, 1836).[27] He also wrote Bazaar ballad : Air "Povera nanna pensierosa." (1835), held in the British Library.[28]

Family[]

Caunter's wife Ann Harrison was born in Masham, Yorkshire in 1813 and died in Warwick, Warwickshire in 1883. The couple had nine children. Their eldest son, Richard Hanley Caunter (1841-1922), was Keeper in the Printed Books Department at the British Museum and an expert in Spanish.[29][30] Their granddaughter Rachel Estelle Berridge, the Lady Clonmell (1871-1952), married Rupert Charles Scott, 7th Earl of Clonmell and was a stage actress before her marriage.[31][32]

Two older brothers of Richard McDonald Caunter were active in the London cultural scene in and around the 1830s. George Henry Caunter (1791-1843) was a music critic; John Hobart Caunter (c.1793-1851) was a clergyman and a writer of both fiction and non-fiction.

References[]

  1. ^ F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 78.
  2. ^ London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 - London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: DL/T/092/010
  3. ^ F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 74.
  4. ^ "I10 Penang: Miscellaneous Letters Page 124 of 335". National Archives of Singapore. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  5. ^ A Late Resident in the East [John Hobart Caunter] (1814). The Cadet; A Poem, In Six Parts: Containing Remarks on British India. To Which Is Added, Egbert and Amelia; In Four Parts: With Other Poems (2 vols.). Robert Jennings.
  6. ^ John Venn and J.A. Venn (eds.) (1940). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 540.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Appointment Record". Clergy of the Church of England Database.
  8. ^ F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 78.
  9. ^ "Christening". South African Commercial Advertiser. Cape Town. 12 November 1828. Retrieved 26 December 2020. In the English Church Cape Town Sunday 9th Nov 1828 by the Rev McDonald CAUNTER SCL: A daughter of Mr. Frederick Samuel Francis ROESCH, baptised Catherine Maria Zeeman.
  10. ^ "Christenings". South African Commercial Advertiser. Cape Town. 31 January 1829. Retrieved 26 December 2020. In ditto [the English Church], Jan 24 by the Rev. Richard McDonald CAUNTER LLB: A son of the Rev. B.C. GOODISON MA, Chaplain to the Forces, baptised William Benjamin.
  11. ^ F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 79.
  12. ^ John Venn and J.A. Venn (eds.) (1940). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 540.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "Virtual Tour of Amberley Church - Stained Glass". St Michael's, Amberley, West Sussex.
  14. ^ John Venn and J.A. Venn (eds.) (1940). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 540.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Mary D. Lobel and Alan Crossley (Eds.) (1969). A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 9, Bloxham Hundred. Victoria County History. pp. 103–112.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  16. ^ John Venn and J.A. Venn (eds.) (1940). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 540.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  17. ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Richard Macdonald Caunter
  18. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1835). Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. III. J. Murray and Parbury, Allen, & Co. pp. lxxxiv. By the Rev. RICHARD Mc DONALD CAUNTER, L.L.B., M.R.A.S. ......... June 16, 1833. Attila, a Tragedy, and other Poems, by the Rev. R. McDonald Caunter. 8vo. London, 1832.
  19. ^ John Venn and J.A. Venn (eds.) (1940). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 540.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  20. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1835). Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. III. J. Murray and Parbury, Allen, & Co. pp. lxxxiv. By the Rev. RICHARD Mc DONALD CAUNTER, L.L.B., M.R.A.S. ......... June 16, 1833. Attila, a Tragedy, and other Poems, by the Rev. R. McDonald Caunter. 8vo. London, 1832.
  21. ^ A Late Resident in the East [John Hobart Caunter] (1814). The Cadet; A Poem, In Six Parts: Containing Remarks on British India. To Which Is Added, Egbert and Amelia; In Four Parts: With Other Poems (2 vols.). Robert Jennings.
  22. ^ "Notices of New Works". The Metropolitan: A Monthly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts. Vol. III. London: James Cochrane and Co. January–April 1832.
  23. ^ From an advertisement in W.F.P. Napier, C.B. (1834). History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, from the Year 1807 to the Year 1814. London: Thomas & William Boone
  24. ^ "Notices". The Monthly Review. From January to April inclusive. 1832. Vol I. London: G. Henderson. 1832.
  25. ^ "Attilla, [sic] a Tragedy ; and other Poems. London, 1832. T. & W. Boone". The Athenæum Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Art. From January to December, 1832. London: J. Francis. 1832.
  26. ^ F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 78.
  27. ^ "Sermon, Preached on the Opening of Trinity Chapel, Forest Row, East Grinstead, Sussex". Google Books. 1836.
  28. ^ Bazaar ballad : Air "Povera nanna pensierosa.". WorldCat. OCLC. OCLC 1082968091.
  29. ^ The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891; Class: RG12; Piece: 458; Folio: 108; Page: 33; GSU roll: 6095568
  30. ^ F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 80.
  31. ^ L. G. Pine (1972). The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms. Heraldry Today. p. 77. She was a daughter of Samuel Berridge and Rachel Alice Caunter.
  32. ^ Peter W. Hammond (1998). The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda. Sutton Publishing. p. 193.
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