JERNINGHAM (Edward, 1737-1812, Poet & Playwright)

Autograph Letter Signed to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Brooke CLARKE, (1757-1833), minister of Quebec Chapel, thanking him "for your present, the only fault of which it is guilty, is that it consists of no more than nineteen pages. It is without flattery a little gem of the first lustre", adding that "To dethrone usurping opinions is doing a public Benefit, and this is what you have effected in the most clear & satisfactory manner", 1 side 4to and conjugate address leaf bearing 'Jerningham' apparently in Clarke's hand, neat collector's label of Ray Rawlins at the top left, no place, no date, watermark 1795, circa

Edward Jerningham was not a great poet or playwright, his plays often running for only a few days, but he was a most welcome guest in society, a thoughtful and witty observer of Parliament and the Theatre. Byron recalled his personal kindness to him, and the Prince of Wales employed him as go-between with Lady Jersey. Jerningham came of the old Roman Catholic gentry of Norfolk. His grandfather had been comptroller to James II, but during his education on the Continent he had imbibed liberal ideas and in the 1790s he became an Anglican.
Quebec Chapel was built in 1787 in (now Old) Quebec Street, as a proprietary Chapel-of-Ease to St Marylebone, on the site of the present Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch. Jerningham lived not far away, at 26 Green Street, Grosvenor Square.
The "present", it appears, is Clarke's The benefits of Christianity contrasted with the pernicious influence of modern philosophy upon civil society being a sermon, on a day of thanksgiving for the providential escape of His Majesty from the late atrocious outrage upon his sacred person. Preached at Quebec chapel, Portman Square, 1796, 24 pp. (price 6d). On 29th October 1795, an unusually large and hostile crowd had assembled as George III set off to open Parliament. Opposite the Ordnance Office an air-gun bullet went through a glass panel. In Palace Yard, a stone shattered a window. On the return, the King stopped at St James's and the crowd demolished every bit of glass and a lot of the woodwork. There was further violence in St James's Park to the King's private coach, but the horse-guards arrived in time to stop the door being forced open. The King remained calm throughout, congratulatory addresses poured in, followed by the Treasonable Attempts bill (November 1795) and special forms of thanksgiving in Church on 22nd November.
Now in 1796, on the 1st February, a group of 12 or so assailed the king's coach in Covent Garden after the theatre. A sharp flint stone broke the window, grazing the Queen's cheek, but this time the government reckoned the culprits were chance individuals. And as the danger from France grew, so did loyalty to the King.

Item Date:  1796

Stock No:  56505      £175

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