23 Facts About Samuel Rogers

Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron.

Samuel Rogers made his money as a banker and was a discriminating art collector.

Samuel Rogers's father, Thomas Rogers, a banker and briefly MP for Coventry, was the son of a Stourbridge glass manufacturer, who was a merchant in Cheapside.

On his mother's side Samuel Rogers was connected with the well-known Welsh Dissenting clergymen Philip Henry and his son Matthew, was brought up in Nonconformist circles, and became a long-standing member of the Unitarian congregation at Newington Green, then led by the remarkable Dr Richard Price.

Samuel Rogers wished to enter the Presbyterian ministry, but his father persuaded him to join the banking business in Cornhill.

Samuel Rogers learned Gray's poems by heart, and his family wealth allowed him the leisure to try writing poetry himself.

Samuel Rogers began with contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine, and in 1786 he published a volume containing some imitations of Goldsmith and an "Ode to Superstition" in the style of Gray.

Samuel Rogers left Newington Green and established himself in chambers in the Temple.

Samuel Rogers made the acquaintance of Charles James Fox, with whom he visited the galleries in Paris in 1802, and whose friendship introduced him to Holland House.

Flaxman and Charles Alfred Stothard had a share in the decoration of the house, which Samuel Rogers virtually rebuilt, and proceeded to fill with works of art.

Samuel Rogers hosted social breakfasts with guests such as Thomas Macaulay, Henry Hallam, Sydney Smith, George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle, Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, Nassau Senior, Charles Greville, Henry Hart Milman, Anthony Panizzi, George Cornewall Lewis, Sylvain Van de Weyer, Charles Babbage and Catharine Sedgwick An invitation to one of Samuel Rogers's breakfasts was a formal entry into literary society, and his dinners were even more select.

Samuel Rogers helped the poet Robert Bloomfield, he reconciled Thomas Moore with Francis Jeffrey and with Byron, and he relieved Sheridan's difficulties in the last days of his life.

Samuel Rogers procured a pension for HF Cary, the translator of Dante, and obtained Wordsworth his sinecure as distributor of stamps.

Samuel Rogers made his reputation by The Pleasures of Memory when William Cowper's fame was still in the making.

Samuel Rogers became the friend of Wordsworth, Walter Scott and Byron, and lived long enough to give an opinion as to the fitness of Alfred Tennyson for the post of Poet Laureate.

Alexander Dyce, from the time of his first introduction to Samuel Rogers, was in the habit of writing down the anecdotes with which his conversation abounded.

Samuel Rogers held various honorary positions: he was one of the trustees of the National Gallery; and he served on a commission to inquire into the management of the British Museum, and on another for the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament.

In 1814 Samuel Rogers made a tour on the Continent with his sister Sarah.

Samuel Rogers travelled through Switzerland to Italy, keeping a full diary of events and impressions, and had made his way to Naples when the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba obliged him to hurry home.

The book then proved a great success, and Samuel Rogers followed it up with an equally sumptuous edition of his Poems.

In 1850, on Wordsworth's death, Samuel Rogers was asked to succeed him as poet laureate, but declined the honour on account of his age.

Samuel Rogers died in London at 92, a remarkable age for the time, and is buried in the family tomb in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Hornsey High Street, Haringey.

One of the best accounts of Samuel Rogers, containing many examples of his caustic wit, is by Abraham Hayward in the Edinburgh Review for July 1856.