Francis Grose

This article is about the writer. For his son, the Governor of New South Wales, see Francis Grose (Lieutenant-Governor).

Captain Francis Grose in his younger, thinner, years.

Francis Grose (1730/1731-12 June 1791), born at Greenford in Middlesex, antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer, of Swiss extraction.

Grose's father, also Francis Grose, was a wealthy Swiss jeweller), was Richmond Herald from 1755 to 1763. Probably the eldest son, Francis served in the Army, retiring at the rank of captain. He became Paymaster and Adjutant of the Surrey Militia, a position that led to his financial ruin as he kept no books and gave no receipts, the deficits costing him all his inherited wealth.

Robert Burns met him while he was staying with Robert Riddell at the Friar's Carse in Scotland collecting material for his Scottish work. Burns became firm friends with this by now this fat, and suggested to him that he should include Alloway Kirk in his Scottish work. Grose agreed on condition that Burns provided a witch tale to go with his drawing. In June 1790, Burns sent Grose a prose tale with a variant in a letter to Grose, following it up with a rhymed version, 'Tam o' Shanter'.

Gross's Antiquities of England and Wales (1773–87), which was well received, and thereafter, in 1789, set out on an antiquarian tour through Scotland, the fruit of which was Antiquity of Scotland (1789–91). He afterwards undertook a similar expedition to Ireland, but died suddenly in Dublin after an apoplectical stroke. Edward Ludwich, who had already published a book on Irish antiquities, completed the final volume of Grose's Antiquities of Ireland in 1791. In addition to the works above mentioned, he wrote A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), A Provincial Glossary (1787) and Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons. He was an accomplished draughtsman, and illustrated his own works.

Additionally, it is noted that he is the author of Advice to the Officers of the British Army: With the addition of some Hints to the Drummer and Private Soldier, which was published in 1783 as a mocking look backwards on the conduct of the war against the American Colonies. Every instance of corruption, disregard and vice are suggested for every rank of the army. Tongue in cheek, but obviously rooted in truth, it is a great companion to Vulgar Tongue.

Two parodies by Thomas Bridges, A Travestie of Homer and The Battle of the Genii, were once attributed to Francis Grose.

External links

• Works by Francis Grose at Project Gutenberg
• fromoldbooks.org version with one page per entry, links to examples and another canting (thieving) dictionary.

Notes

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.