Marriott, John

Author

b Cottesbach, nr Lutterworth, Leicestershire 1780, d St Giles in the Fields, London 1825. Rugby Sch and Christ Church Coll Oxford; BA 1802, a 1st class degree in the first ever public exam for such honours, MA 1806. After ordination (CofE) in 1804; he became a private tutor at Dalkeith to the son of the Duke of Buccleuch, then the Duke’s domestic chaplain. From 1808 to his death he held the nominal post of Rector of Church Lawford, Warwickshire, which he staffed with curates while himself living and ministering in and around Torquay and Exeter, Devon. His Exeter work included the churches of St James and St Lawrence and the nearby village of Broadclyst, owing to his wife’s poor health. He published 2 volumes of sermons but none of his hymns; some were printed without permission and others posthumously. In the opening lines of Marmion: a Tale of Flodden Field (1808), Marriott’s friend Sir Walter Scott dedicated the work to him. No.158.