CHATTERTON, THOMAS. This astonishing young man was born on the 20th of November 1750. His father was originally a writing usher to a school in tol ; afterwards a singer in the cathedral ; and lastly ter of a free school in the same city. He died three months before his son was born. Young Chatterton was slow in attaining the first rudiments of learning; and it was not till he had been delighted with the illuminated capitals of an old manuscript, that he took to learning his letters. This circumstance, and his being taught from an old black-letter Bible, no doubt contributed to his future fondness for antiquities. At eight he was removed to a charity-school, where he was taught reading, ing, and arithmetic. About his tenth year he began to display a fondness for reading ; and before he was 12, had gone through about 70 volumes, chiefly on history and divinity. Fle had also begun to versify at that age ; and before leaving school, had picked up some ledge of music, drawing, and arithmetic. Already the grave and melancholic turn of his mind had displayed its prematurity. At 12 years of age he was confirmed by the bishop, and appeared to feel all the solemnity and importance of the occasion. In his 15th year he left school, and was articled to one Lambert, a scrivener in Bristol, in the lowest form of apprenticeship. Here he had much confinement, but little actual occupation ; and he employed the curious activity of his mind in studying heraldry, and transcribing old English glossaries. The first opportunity which he tried of practising on the public credulity was in 1768, when the new bridge of Bristol was opened. A paper appeared in Farley's journal of that city, entitled a description of the friars first passing the old bridge, taken from an ancient script. It was traced to Chatterton, who, it appears, was examined with little ceremony, and even with threats upon the subject. Wino were the brutal characters who could hold out menaces to a child oil such an occasion, we arc not lammed ; but Chattcrton tinswered them while he pretended to give satisfactory plahations to those who treated him with more mildness. Those explanations, it is true, were contradictory ; but he at last (14.cl:wed that he had found the paper in a crest from Redclilfe church. These manuscripts of Redciilie church formed doe great pretext of Chatte•to I's sequent forgi_ Tics. In the mommient of the church of St .Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, founded or rebuilt by W.
Canynge, a merchant of the 15th century, six or seven chests had been deposited, one of which was called Canynge's coffer. In 1727, the keys of this coffer hav ing been lost, it was broken open by authority, and some title deeds were taken away ; but a number of manu scripts were left to casual depredation. The father of Chatterton had removed baskets full of those parch ments, using them afterwards as covers to books. Among
those parchments young Chatterton, whose mind was now labouring with a plan of deceiving the public, pre tended to have discovered the poetry of Rowley, a priest of the 15th century. He communicated some of his pretended treasures to a Mr Catcot, a pewterer of Bris tol, and to Barret, a surgeon, both ignorant and credulous judges, who in return supplied the youth with some books and money, and introduced him into better com pany than he had been accustomed to keep. At his request, Mr Barret lent him also some medical books, and gave him a few instructions in surgery. The course of his studies was now enlarged, and he employed his pen, both in prose and verse, for the Town and Country Magazine.
Encouraged by this partial success in his native city, he addressed (in 1769) a letter to the Hon. Horace Walpole, offering to furnish him with a history of a series of eminent ancient painters at Bristol, and enclos ing specimens of the Rowleian poetry. Walpole sent him a polite answer, requesting farther information. In the mean time, he shewed the specimens of poetry to capable judges, who pronounced them forgeries ; so that when Chatterton wrote to him again, relating the cir cumstances of his life, and soliciting his patronage, Walpole replied in a cold monitory epistle, which he intended to close their correspondence. He set out to Paris, however, neglecting to return the manuscripts, which occasioned two successive letters from Chatterton, in the latter of which he demanded back the writings, in terms which Walpole chose to consider offensive and insolent ; so that he inclosed the papers to Chatterton, without deigning to write to him. This is the whole story of their connection. Undoubtedly, Walpole might have been more courteous towards a youth whose cir cumstances would have appeared interesting to a liberal mind ; and after neglecting to restore the papers before going abroad, he ought, on his return, to have made an apology. But though his conduct was cold, it cannot be pronounced criminally negligent ; for Chatterton came to him in a questionable shape. The odium against Walpole, which occasioned his published Vindication of his Conduct respecting Chatterton, was carried to a most unjustifiable violence. After this event, the stirrings of Chatterton's mind vented themselves in froward com munications to the Magazine, consisting of personal and political satire, to which he added some Saxon poems in the manner of Ossian, from his pretended Rowley. A. change at this early period of life took place in his religious belief; he became a deist, and connecting infidelity with despair, he avowed his determination of terminating a miserable life by self-destruction. On perusing this threat, which he left in a last will or tes tament, his master, the attorney, dismissed him from his office and house, after he had continued there two years and nine months.