Memoirs of the life, character, opinions, and writings, of that learned and eccentric man, the late John Fransham, of Norwich

Norwich: Printed by C. Berry, Jun., [1811]. viii, 158pp. With a half-title. Uncut in original publisher's drab paper boards, printed paper lettering-piece. Extremities rubbed and marked, some chipping to lettering-piece. Recent bookplate of R. C. Fiske to FEP, internally clean and crisp. The sole edition of a biography of East Anglian scholar, freethinker, and eccentric John Fransham (bap. 1730, d. 1810). Except for one brief period, Fransham lived continuously in or near Norwich, and spent much of his life in a state of extreme penury. He began acting as a preliminary tutor for the universities about 1750. Though he possessed little formal education he had an enquiring mind and devoted much of his time to intellectual pursuits. In philosophy he idolized David Hume, but developed strong Platonic leanings. He was critical of religion, instead taking a psychological interest in the earliest myths and legends which led to champion a polytheistic world- view. He published little, his Essay on the Oestrum, or, Enthusiasm of Orpheus (Norwich, 1760) being the only work of note in which his philosophy is conveyed. He would have little influence of his contemporaries despite his originality as a scholar. His reputation as an eccentric appears to have been the product of his obsessional neurosis. The author, William Saint, a former pupil of Fransham's, taught mathematics at the Royal Military Academy between 1807 and 1810. His biography of Fransham is gentle and affectionate, though overly anecdotal; it is however, but for a number of obituary notices and an article in the Monthly Magazine, the only source for Fransham's life. . First edition. 8vo.