Norfolk Annals, Vol. 2: A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth CenturyMackie, Charles
History
Norfolk Annals, Vol. 2: A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century
Mackie, Charles
Norfolk (England) -- History
9.—Died at Keswick, near Norwich, in his 90th year, Mr. Hudson Gurney.
He was the eldest son of Mr. Richard Gurney, who died at Keswick in 1811.
Educated by Dr. Thomas Young, of scientific celebrity, he became
connected early in life with the great banking firm of the Gurneys, of
which he was for many years senior partner, as well as with the noted
London brewery of Barclay and Co., his mother being the daughter and
heiress of Mr. David Barclay, of Youngbury, Herts. In 1809 he married
Margaret, daughter of Robert Barclay, of Ury, descended from the
celebrated Barclay, the Apologist for the Quakers. Mrs. Gurney died at
Keswick on December 16th, 1855. In politics Mr. Gurney was, in many
respects, decidedly Conservative, though on some points he held opinions
more in accordance with the most advanced Liberalism, and, as a perfectly
independent member, allied himself to no party in particular. His
Parliamentary career commenced in 1812, when he was elected for
Shaftesbury; from the year 1816 he represented Newport, Hants., in six
successive Parliaments. In 1835 he served the office of High Sheriff for
the county of Norfolk. He was a man of high literary attainments, and
was vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Royal
and Linnæan Societies, vice-president of the Norwich Museum, the Literary
Institute, and of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society. As an
author his chief production was probably the beautiful poem in English
verse under the title of “Cupid and Psyche,” a mythological tale from the
“Golden Ass” of Apuleius; in 1801 it had reached a third edition, and was
afterwards reprinted in Mr. Davenport’s “Poetical Register.” He also
published, for private distribution, in 1843, a translation into English
verse of the “Orlando Furioso” of Ludovico Ariosto; and in 1847, in a
letter to Mr. Dawson Turner, “Proofs that Norwich, and not Caistor, was
the Venta Icenorum.” In his latter years, confined almost entirely to
his own residence, “he reversed in his hours the usual custom, amusing
himself with his books and writings till four or five o’clock in the
morning, and, of course, rising comparatively late in the day.” His
estate, real and personal included, was valued at £1,200,000.
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