Fitchett, John

(1776-1838)

   He was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, the son of a wine merchant. His parents having died before he was ten, he was raised by an uncle, a lawyer, in Warrington, Lancashire, and attended the local grammar school. He became a highly successful partner in his uncle's law firm. He died unmarried at Warrington and was buried at Winwick Church. His large and choice library was left to his nephew, John Fitchett Marsh. His first published work, "Bewsey, a Poem" (1796) achieved considerable success; Minor Poems, Composed at Various Times was published in 1836. He labored for over forty years on what is believed to be the longest poem ever composed--in the form of a romantic epic poem, covering the antiquities, physical features, religion, and civil and religious condition of England in the time of King Alfred the Great. It was first published for private circulation between 1808 and 1834. He rewrote part of it but died before completing the revision. His friend Robert Roscoe finished it by adding 2,585 lines, the entire work ran to more than 131,000 lines. The work-King Alfred, a Poem-was published by Pickering in 1841-1842.

   Sources: A copy of King flAlfred is held at the Cornell University Library, New York (http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABR0102-0001229). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997.