J C PRINCE

JOHN CRITCHLEY PRINCE.

We turn our attention to an author, who, although he was possessed of great natural gifts, was cursed by having a pronounced weakness of character that aided misfortune in making shipwreck of his life. Genius is an ineradicable bent and is entirely distinct from, and independent of character.

The life of John Critchley Prince provides ample proof of the truth of this axiom. Prince was born at Wigan, June 21st, 1808, his father being a reed maker. Poverty and intemperance were the father's principal characteristics, but the mother was endowed with a strong maternal feeling, high principles and sound common sense. Prince's education was confined to attendance at a Sunday School where he learnt to read and write imperfectly. His thirst for knowledge was such, however, that he embraced every opportunity for study that presented itself.

After a childhood marked by poverty and privation he was apprenticed to reed-making, working often from fourteen to sixteen hours per day. His father did much to discourage his studious habits, but when the family had retired for the night he would creep downstairs and by the dim light of a stacked fire would read. When thirteen years old he left Wigan for Manchester in company with his father in search for work, which both obtained at Messrs. Sharp and Roberts, the engineers.

To this period belongs the lad's first introduction to Byron, Thomson, and Goldsmith. A removal to Hyde, the increasing intemperance of the father, and the marriage of the son at the early age of nineteen next followed. Young Prince found that marriage with an empty cupboard was not calculated to be satisfactory in its results, and in 1830, hearing that reed makers were wanted in France, he set out for that country in July of that year.

Leaving Calais he travelled to St. Quentin, where he hoped to obtain employment, but after staying there two months without satisfactory result, he made his way through Paris to Mulhausen. Failure still dogged him, and with ten sous in his pocket he set out on his return to Hyde.

On foot he journeyed along the banks of the Rhine, through Strasburg, Nancy, Rheims, Cherlous and on to Calais, where he obtained from the British Consul his return passage money. Penniless and hungry he tramped to London. Failing to obtain work, he begged and sang his way back to Hyde, only to find that his wife and family had been sent to the workhouse at Wigan. Hurrying to that town Prince brought his family out of the workhouse and on to Manchester

He took a miserable garret in one of the dingy courts off Long Millgate, and without food or furniture the family were re-united. For months they lay on straw and starved on the result of occasional work that the wife obtained; Prince still failing in his search. Death removed one of his three children, and the poet was heart broken at the misfortunes that seemed to pursue him.

Removing to Hyde he obtained employment with his father, and whilst there he made a number of friendships which resulted in the formation of a little circle known as, The Literary Twelve. In 1841, amidst more cheering conditions, he published his first volume, Hours with the Muses, which in all ran through six editions. About the same time Prince had returned to Long Millgate, where he took a small shop nearly opposite to the Sun Inn. By selling stationery, periodicals, song books, etc., he sought to support his family.

In the meantime his volume had spread his fame as a poet, but money remained a scarcity with him. He made the acquaintance of the literary coterie who met at the Sun Inn, Prince acting as Secretary. In 1843 Prince removed to Blackburn, and later to Ashton-under-Lyne. For some time he had shown a tendency to over indulgence in drink, which increased as he became older. His misfortunes, together with his abilities, aroused the sympathy of a number of admirers, who formed a committee to assist him financially, and in the publishing of his second volume, Dreams and Realities.

In 1850 he published The Poetic Rosary, and in 1856 Autumn Leaves. Two years later his wife died, and it was long before he recovered from the shock occasioned by the loss. He still suffered from want, and for this or some other reason appears for some years, at least, to have mastered the craving to drink.

In 1862 he married again, his wife being a careful thrifty woman, who was content to help him in his poverty by means of her earnings. A few weeks afterwards Prince was taken with an apoplectic seizure, as a result of which he fell downstairs and was taken up for dead. Misfortune still accompanied him, and on January 12th, 1866 he wrote to George Falkner: I am very ill; incapable of either mental or physical exertion, and still without employment.

On May 5th he died, and five days afterwards his remains were laid at rest at St. George's Church, Hyde. Thus there passed away one of the gentlest of men, one of the most unfortunate of workers, and the most gifted poet ever associated with Long Millgate. The shop in which he strove to eke out an existence has disappeared, and the spot is marked by some portion of the site of the Grammar School buildings.

Erected by a few admirers

To the memory of
John Critchley Prince.
Author of
"Hours with the Muses"
Born 21st June 1808
Died 5th May 1866.