Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.
Thomas Chatterton was born at Bristol where the office of sexton of St. Mary Redcliffe had long been held the Chatterton family. The poet's father, also named Thomas Chatterton, was a musician, a poet, a numismatist, and a dabbler in t...
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Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.
Thomas Chatterton was born at Bristol where the office of sexton of St. Mary Redcliffe had long been held the Chatterton family. The poet's father, also named Thomas Chatterton, was a musician, a poet, a numismatist, and a dabbler in the occult. He had been a sub-chanter at Bristol Cathedral and master of the Pyle Street free school, near Redcliffe church. He died in 1752.
After Thomas's birth (four months after his father's death), his mother established a girls' school and took in sewing and ornamental needlework. Thomas was admitted to Edward Colston's Charity, a Bristol blue-coat school, in which the curriculum was limited to reading, writing, arithmetic and the catechism.
Thomas, however, was always fascinated with his uncle the sexton and the church of St Mary...
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