Rev. Thomas Maurice

The son of a schoolmaster, Thomas Maurice was educated at the Wesleyan seminary at Bristol before entering University College Oxford in 1774, aged 19 (B.A. 1778, M.A. 1808); he was chaplain to the 87th regiment (about 1784), Vicar of Wormleighton, Warwickshire (1798-1824) and Cudham, Kent (1804-24). Maurice was a noted oriental scholar and historian, and assistant-keeper of MSS at the British Museum (1798-24).

TEXT RECORDS:

1775The School-Boy, a Poem.
1777A Monody, sacred to the Memory of Elizabeth, Dutchess of Northumberland.
1778The Oxonian. A Poem.
1779Hinda; an Eastern Elegy.
1784Westminster Abbey: an Elegiac Poem.
1795An Elegiac and Historical Poem, sacred to the Memory and Virtues of the Honourable Sir William Jones.
1806Verses, being a Apology for the Errors and Eccentricities of Genius.

PUBLICATIONS:

The school-boy, a poem. In imitation of Mr. Phillips's Splendid Shilling. 1775.
Hagley. A descriptive poem. 1776.
Netherby: a poem. 1776.
A monody addressed to the memory of Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland. 1777.
The Oxonian. A poem. 1778.
Poems and miscellaneous pieces. 1779.
Westminster Abbey: an elegiac poem. 1784.
Panthea; or, the Captive bride, a tragedy; founded upon a story in Xenophon. 1789.
A letter addressed to the ... directors of the East India Company. 1790.
An elegiac poem, sacred to the memory and virtues of the Honorable Sir William Jones. 1795.
Indian antiquities. 7 vols, 1793-1800.
History of Hindustan. 2 vols, 1795-98; 3 vols, 1820.
The crisis, or the British Muse to the British minister and nation. 1798.
Sanscreet fragments, or interesting fragments from the sacred books of the Brahmins. 1798.
Grove hill: a descriptive poem; with an ode to nature. 1799.
A dissertation on the oriental trinities. 1800.
Poems, epistolary, lyric, and elegiacal. 1800.
The modern history of Hindostan. 2 vols, 1802-10.
Select poems. 1803.
Elegy on the late Right Honourable William Pitt. 1806.
The fall of the Mogul, a tragedy. With other occasional poems. 1806.
Richmond Hill: a descriptive and historical poem. 1807.
Elegiac lines, sacred to the memory of Henry Hope. 1811.
Brahminical fraud detected. 1812.
Westminster Abbey, with other occasional poems. 1813.
Observations connected with astronomy and ancient history. 1816.
Observations on the ruins of Babylon. 1816.
Observations on the remains of ancient Egyptian grandeur and superstition. 1818.
Memoirs of the author of Indian antiquities, etc. 3 vols, 1819-22.
A free translation of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. 1822.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

University College Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts

clergyman
historian
translator
poet

Gentleman's Magazine
The Monthly Review
British Critic
The Monthly Magazine
The Oracle
The Morning Post

Rev. William Beloe
George Dyer
Leigh Hunt
Sir William Jones
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Parr
Bp. Thomas Percy
Horace Smith
John Taylor Esq.
Rev. Thomas Warton

REFERENCE:

DNB; not NCBEL.

Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Thomas Maurice" Weekly Magazine [Philadelphia] 4 (20 April 1799) 51-52 [from Rivers]; "The Author of Indian Antiquities" Monthly Mirror 8 (November 1799) 259-67 [portrait]; "Thomas Maurice" European Magazine 38 (December 1800) 403-04 [portrait]; Poetical Register for 1801 (1802), 1803 (1804), 1804 (1805), 1805 (1807), 1806-07 (1811), 1810-11 (1814); Biographica Dramatica (1812); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); Maurice, Memoirs, 3 vols (1819-22); "Memoir of the Rev. T. Maurice" Weekly Entertainer [Sherborne] NS 2 (24 July 1830) 61-63; obituary in Literary Chronicle 6 (17 April 1824) 251-52; obituary in Monthly Magazine 57 (May 1824) 371; obituary in New Monthly Magazine NS 12 (June 1824) 283; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 94 (May 1824) 467-73; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Annual Register for 1825 (1825) 217; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Nangle, Index to Monthly Review (1955).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. Thomas Maurice:

1.	1795  Alexander Geddes, Review of Maurice, An Elegiac Poem, sacred to the Memory of Sir William Jones; The Monthly Review NS 17 (June 1795) 194-96.
2.	1797  George Dyer, in The Poet's Fate, a Poetical Dialogue (1797) 16 &n.
3.	1798  Thomas James Mathias, in Pursuits of Literature (1798) 361 & n.
4.	1801  Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 29-30.
5.	1805  Anonymous, in Review of Maurice, Modern History of Hindostan; Edinburgh Review 5 (January 1805) 300-01.
6.	1807  Lady Anne Hamilton, in Epics of the Ton (1807) 272-73 & n.
7.	1809  Lord Byron, in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1898-1904) 1:329 & n.
8.	1824  Anonymous, "To the Memory of Rev. Thos. Maurice, A.M." Gentleman's Magazine 94 (April 1824) 359.
9.	1824  Anonymous, in "Thomas Maurice" The Literary Chronicle 6 (17 April 1824) 252.
10.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries (1828) 385-87.
11.	1832  John Taylor Esq., in Records of my Life (1832) 1:228-30.
12.	1898  Ernest Hartley Coleridge in Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1898-1904) 1:330.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. Thomas Maurice:

1.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
2.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:34-36.
3.	1812  Stephen Jones, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1812) 1:500-01.
4.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 229.
5.	1824  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 94 (May 1824) 467-73.
6.	1824  Anonymous, Obituary in New Monthly Magazine NS 12 (June 1824) 283.
7.	1824  Anonymous, Obituary in Monthly Magazine 57 (May 1824) 371.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1776  William Shenstone:   Thomas Maurice, in Hagley, a Descriptive Poem (1776); Poems (1800) 181.
2.	1779  Samuel Johnson:   Thomas Maurice, "To Samuel Johnson, LL.D." Poems (1779) 1-4.
3.	1779  Sir William Jones:   Thomas Maurice, "To the Author of Poems and Translations from the Asiatic Languages" Maurice, Poems (1779) 9-10.
4.	1779  Bp. Thomas Percy:   Thomas Maurice, "To the Reverend Thomas Percy, D.D." Maurice, Poems (1779) 5-8.
5.	1787  Bp. Beilby Porteus:   Thomas Maurice, in "To the Right Reverend Beilby Lord Bishop of London, on his Translation to that See, in 1787," Poems (1800) 106.
6.	1795  Sir William Jones:   Thomas Maurice, in "An Elegiac and Historical Poem, sacred to the Memory and Virtues of the Honourable Sir William Jones" (1795); Maurice, Select Poems (1803) 30.
7.	1800  Richard Westall:   Thomas Maurice, "To Richard Westall, Esq. on his beautiful Paintings in this Year's Exhibition" Gentleman's Magazine 70 (September 1800) 873.
8.	1820  Rev. Samuel Dennis:   Thomas Maurice, in Memoirs of the Author of Indian Antiquities (1819-22) 2:3.