In September 1857, Blackmore's uncle, the Rev. Theirs was described by Blackmore's sister as a 'happy marriage.' As well as helping with their education, the Blackmores seem to have adopted Eva when she was 7. They were both fond of her sister Agnes' four children and often had them to stay. She was 26, a Roman Catholic and somewhat delicate, which is assumed to be the reason that they never had any children.

Marriage īlackmore was married on 8 November 1853 at Trinity Church, Holborn to Lucy Maguire. 25 Lower Teddington Road, Hampton Wick – where he lived until he moved to his new home in Teddington. Soon after accepting this position, he moved from London to No. In later years this became the Metropolitan and City of London Police Orphanage and then Fortescue House School. Ill-health, however, prevented him from continuing legal work as a full-time occupation and in 1854, he took the post of classics master at Wellesley House Grammar School, Hampton Road, Twickenham. He entered the Middle Temple in 1849 and was called to the Bar in 1852. Īfter leaving Oxford and spending some time as a private tutor, Blackmore decided on a career in law. This was the beginning of The Maid of Sker – not, in fact, completed until many years later, and eventually published in 1872 - which he himself would come to consider his finest novel. ĭuring a university vacation he made his first attempt at writing a novel. He excelled in classical studies, and later won a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1847.

In 1837, Blackmore entered Blundell's School in Tiverton. Having spent much of his childhood in the lush and pastoral 'Doone Country' of Exmoor, and along the Badgworthy Water (where there is now a memorial stone in Blackmore's honour), Blackmore came to love the very countryside he immortalised in Lorna Doone. His father married again in 1831, whereupon Richard returned to live with him. Richard Gordon, moved with her to Elsfield rectory, near Oxford. Richard, however, was taken by his aunt, Mary Frances Knight, and after her marriage to the Rev.

After this loss John Blackmore moved to Bushey, Herts, then to his native Devon, first to Kings Nympton, then Culmstock, Tor Mohun and later to Ashford, in the same county. His mother died a few months after his birth – the victim of an outbreak of typhus which had occurred in the village. Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born on 7 June 1825 at Longworth in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), one year after his elder brother Henry (1824–1875), where his father, John Blackmore, was Curate-in-charge of the parish.

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