Marriott, John

(1780-1825)

   The son of the rector of Cotesbach Church, Leicestershire, he was educated at Rugby School and graduated B.A. from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1802. From 1804 he was tutor to George Henry, Lord Scott, elder brother of the fifth Duke of Buccleuch, at Dalkeith, Scotland, until his pupil died in 1808. He was ordained priest on 1805, was granted an M.A. in 1806 and was latterly in charge of several churches in Devon. He died in London and was buried in Old St. Pancras Church. Sir Walter Scott addressed to him the second canto of "Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field." Marriott contributed to Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802) three poems: "The Feast of the Spurs," "On a Visit Paid to the Ruins of Melrose Abbey," and "Archie Armstrong's Aith [oath]." His "Marriage is Like a Devonshire Lane" was included in Joanna Baillie's Collection of Poems (1823) (see entry). Some of his hymns and poems: "A Devonshire Sketch," "A Saint! O Would That I Could Claim," "Grant to This Child the Inward Grace," "Let There Be Light," "Thou, Whose Almighty Word," "When Christ Our Human Form Did Bear."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Sir Walter Scott (http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/poetry/minstrelsy.html). Sir Walter Scott's Poem, Marmion. (http://www.cs.rice.edu/Marriott, Johnssiyer/minstrels/poems/495.html). St. Pancras Old Church, History of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_Old_ Church). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm).