Thomas Ingoldsby *

a.k.a. Rev. Richard Harris Barham

Author Code: ETIX

Educated at St. Paul's School, Barham produced his first verses for Gentleman's Magazine while still at school. He then attended Brasenose College, Oxford, taking a BA degree in divinity in 1813. He was appointed curator of Ashford in Kent, and subsequently Westwell where he remained until 1820. He published his first novel, Baldwin, in 1817. In 1821, he took a position at St. Paul's in London and, in 1824, became a priest at His Majesty's Chapel Royal. He published The Ghost, A Canterbury Tale, in 1825. He was one of the original members of the Garrick Club from 1831. Barham was a regular contributor to Blackwood's Magazine and Bentley's Miscellany where the pseudonym of Thomas Ingoldsby was first used. He was appointed President of Sion College in 1842. The Ingoldsby Legends, or Mirth and Marvels were published in Bentley's and, subsequently, Colburn's New Monthly Magazine in three series during 1840, 1842 and, after his death, in 1847.