Millhouse, Robert

(1788-1839)

   The "weaver poet" of Nottingham earned his living from the age of six and at ten he was working at a stocking loom. It was at Sunday school where he learned to read and write; he also sang in the choir of St. Peter's Church. He obviously learned well, for he was an avid reader of the poets. During the period 1810-1814, his first verses were printed in the Nottingham Review while he was serving with the Nottinghamshire militia. When the regiment was disbanded he returned to the stocking frame, married and raised a family. To earn more money he took up writing again and received a pension from the Royal Literary Fund. He was buried in Nottingham cemetery. His long poem "The Park" tells of a Nottingham long gone and the park built on. Some of his other publications: Vicissitude, 1821 (a poem in four books). Blossoms, 1823 (sonnets). The Song of the Patriot, 1826 (sonnets and songs, with a brief memoir of the author). Sherwood Forest, and Other Poems, 1827. The Destinies of Man, 1832.

   Sources: Books by Robert Millhouse. Forget Me Not: A Hypertextual Archive (http://www.orgs.muohio.edu/anthologies/FMN/Author_List.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Nineteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets (3 volumes). John Goodridge, ed. Pickering and Chatto, 2005 (http://www.pickeringchatto.com/labouringpoets19.htm\#Publication). Robert Millhouse-St Peter's Church, Nottingham, England on-line (http://www.stpetersnottingham.org/history/millhouse.html). The Poets and the Poetry of the Nineteenth Century. G. Routledge, 1906.