David Coulton

David Trevena Coulton (3 October 1810 – 8 May 1857) was an English author, newspaper proprietor and editor.

Early life

David Trevena Coulton was born on 3 October 1810 in Devizes, Wiltshire, the son of the bookseller and author James Trevena Coulton and his wife Sophia Pain, daughter of a tripe dealer.[1] He was tutored at home.[2]

In May 1823, when Coulton was 12, his father died in Kensington.[3] He was the son of Walter Trevena Coulton, a master at Bristol Grammar School, and grandson of the Rev. James Coulton, ordained in 1770;[3][4][5] and had published a theological work.[6]

Founder of The Britannia newspaper

Coulton founded The Britannia newspaper, first published on 20 April 1839; the aim of which was to "extend and popularise the principles of conservatism as embodied in the institutions of the realm".[2] Samuel Carter Hall, who worked as general manager on the Britannia, wrote that it was backed by capital from "an eminent distiller". He commented that at this point Coulton was "undistinguished in letters", but later developed as a political writer and critic.[7] Thomas Finlayson Henderson in the Dictionary of National Biography considered that Coulton, as a journalist, "while a close reasoner, ... possessed considerable skill in the popular exposition of complex questions."[2]

Hall commented, further, that George Croly was a leader writer for Britannia, but much of it was his own work.[7] It was a weekly; from vol. 4 (1843) the paper's title was The Britannia and Conservative Journal.[8] In 1855/6 it was merged with John Bull, in a disputed deal between George Edward Biber, the printer John Mortimer, and Charles Gipps Prowett.[9]

Coulton's professional address during the 1840s was 12 New Inn, Strand, London.[10][11] In 1847 he ceased to be an active journalist of the weekly.[2]

In 1846 Coulton was living at 1 Claremont Place, Brixton, when his friend Benjamin Robert Haydon, living on London's Edgware Road, involved him in his suicide, by sending his wife Mary to fetch him with a business matter as pretext.[12][13] They were social acquaintances, and after Coulton dined with Haydon in 1845, Haydon in his diary called him a "very clever fellow".[14] Coulton's mother died at Brixton in 1848.[15] In 1850 he married, sold The Britannia, and settled at Goudhurst, Kent, where he farmed.[2]

The Press

Quite soon after Benjamin Disraeli founded in 1853 The Press, a Tory weekly, Coulton was brought in as its editor, replacing the journalist Samuel Lucas. He took over the writing of the leading articles, which up to this point had mostly fallen to Disraeli.[16] T. E. Kebbel, who wrote for the Press from 1855, in his 1888 biography of Disraeli called Coulton Disraeli's "most confidential servant", and related that, when Parliament was sitting, Disraeli used to give Coulton, on Friday nights, "all the newest arguments and information";[17][18] and for the Dictionary of National Biography Kebbel wrote that Disraeli visited Coulton at home on Thursdays.[19] Most of Disraeli's letters to Coulton, however, may not have survived.[20] Contributors to the Press also included Disraeli's old friends George Smythe and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.[21]

Coulton moved to 22 Park Prospect, Great Queen Street, Westminster.[22] He became a figure of the literary world, and Robert Bell recruited him in 1856 to help buttress the Royal Literary Fund, under attack from Charles Dickens.[23]

Last year and death

On 17 April 1857, Coulton's brother Edwin Trevena Coulton died in Macclesfield.[24] Having travelled to Macclesfield, Coulton developed bronchitis.[25] At this point Coulton was already seriously ill, and in his place Daniel Owen Madden consulted Disraeli on 21 April about the political line the Press should take.[26]

David Trevena Coulton died on 8 May 1857 in Brighton, leaving a widow and two children.[25] He was interred in a family vault at Norwood.[27] He was succeeded as editor of the Press by Frederick Wordsworth Haydon, second son of Benjamin Haydon, associated in the 1850s with the New Quarterly Review. The following editor was Robert Hogarth Patterson, to whom in 1858 Disraeli sold his stake in the Press.[28][29][30] George Herbert Townsend then edited it, and ultimately the Press was taken over by the English Churchman in 1884.[31]

Works

In 1853 Coulton's three-volume novel Fortune - A Romance of Life, later titled: Fortune, A Story of London Life (in the nineteenth century), was published.[32] It had been written much earlier in his life.[27]

Coulton contributed regularly to the Quarterly Review.[33] In 1851, he published there an Inquiry into the authorship of the Letters of Junius, proposing as author Thomas Lyttelton, 2nd Baron Lyttelton.[34] In an 1852 review "California versus Free Trade", of Conservative Principles and Conservative Policy by Edward William Cox, and a speech by Charles Newdigate Newdegate, he advocated for tariffs on imports, limited to goods also produced in the United Kingdom.[33] Later that year, he published "Gold Discoveries", also in the Quarterly Review.[35]

An incomplete manuscript "The Threshold of Life, or Friendly Counsels to Youth In a series of Familiar Letters" was left by Coulton.[27] A version is in the archives of the John Murray publishing house.[36][37]

Family

Coulton married on 23 April 1850, at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street in London, Sarah Boniface.[38]

Their daughter Irene Sophie Coulton, born 1856, married in 1905, in Brussels, Clément François Joseph Boulmont.[39][40]

Family finances

The deaths of Edwin and David Coulton in 1857 left two widows and children without support. A Royal Literary Fund dinner that year raised a subscription.[41] Edwin's widow Mrs Sophia Coulton began lobbying Disraeli in May 1857. In 1861 William Synge approached Disraeli for help, in particular for Edwin's son Ambrose. He asked for introductions to William Schaw Lindsay and Brenton Halliburton.[42]

From the early 1860s, David Coulton's wife, Mrs Sarah Coulton, and his elder sister, Miss Sophia Coulton, applied for assistance to the Royal Literary Fund.[43]

References

  1. ^ Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Coulton, David Trevena" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ^ a b The Gentleman's Magazine. F. Jefferies. 1823. p. 474.
  4. ^ "Coulton, James (CLTN764J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. ^ "Coulton, James (1768–1770)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 52315. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  6. ^ Coulton, James Trevena (1805). The doctrine of the Bible; or Rules of discipline; briefly gathered through ... the Scripture, by way of question and answer. A new edition corrected. Editor.
  7. ^ a b Hall, Samuel C. (1883). Retrospect of a long Life: from 1815 to 1883: I. Rich. Bentley & Son. pp. 325–326.
  8. ^ University of London Library (1956). List of Periodicals. p. 40.
  9. ^ The Jurist. S. Sweet. 1857. p. 415.
  10. ^ 1841 Post Office register
  11. ^ Webster's Royal red book; or, Court and fashionable register. A. Webster & Co. 1847. p. 295.
  12. ^ O'Keeffe, Paul (11 January 2011). A Genius for Failure: The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon. Random House. pp. 496–498. ISBN 978-1-4464-2658-6.
  13. ^ Haydon, Benjamin Robert (1963). The Diary of Benjamin Robert Haydon: 1840-1846. Harvard University Press. p. 555.
  14. ^ Taylor, Tom (1853). Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, historical painter, from his autobiography and journals. Vol. III. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 296.
  15. ^ Burke, John; Burke, Bernard (1848). The Patrician. E. Churton. p. 506.
  16. ^ Monypenny, William Flavelle; Buckle, George Earle (1914). The Life Of Benjamin Disraeli. Vol. iii 1846-1855. London: John Murray. p. 504.
  17. ^ Parry, Jonathan. "Kebbel, Thomas Edward (1826–1917)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93362. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  18. ^ Kebbel, Thomas Edward (1888). Life of Lord Beaconsfield. J.B. Lippincott. p. 87.
  19. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Disraeli, Benjamin" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 15. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  20. ^ Disraeli, Benjamin; Gunn, John Alexander Wilson; Wiebe, Melvin George (1 January 1982). Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1852-1856. University of Toronto Press. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-8020-4137-1.
  21. ^ Braun, Thomas (5 August 2016). Disraeli the Novelist. Routledge. ISBN 9781317208419.
  22. ^ Burke, Edmund (1858). Annual Register. p. 307.
  23. ^ Cross, Nigel (9 June 1988). The Common Writer: Life in Nineteenth-Century Grub Street. CUP Archive. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-521-35721-0.
  24. ^ "Deaths". Press (London). 18 April 1857. p. 21.
  25. ^ a b The Gentleman's Magazine. F. Jefferies. 1857. p. 742.
  26. ^ Disraeli, Benjamin; Gunn, John Alexander Wilson; Wiebe, Melvin George (1 January 1982). Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859. University of Toronto Press. p. 38 note 2. ISBN 978-0-8020-8728-7.
  27. ^ a b c "The Late Mr. David Trevena Coulton". Press (London). 16 May 1857. p. 7.
  28. ^ Sullivan, Alvin (1984). British Literary Magazines: The Victorian and Edwardian Age, 1837-1913. Greenwood Press. pp. 256–257. ISBN 978-0-313-24335-2. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  29. ^ Woof, Robert. "Haydon, Frederick Wordsworth (1827–1886)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12752. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  30. ^ Stearn, Roger T. "Patterson, Robert Hogarth (1821–1886)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21578. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  31. ^ Bateson, Frederick Wilse (1940). The Cambridge bibliography of English literature. Vol. 3. 1800 - 1900. CUP Archive. p. 814.
  32. ^ "Author: David Trevena Coulton". www.victorianresearch.org.
  33. ^ a b Hawkins, Angus; Gaunt, Richard (11 February 2021). Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Conservatism. Routledge. p. 287. ISBN 978-1-351-27067-0.
  34. ^ Quarterly Review Dec. 1851, art. iv
  35. ^ Fetter, Frank Whitson (1958). "The Economic Articles in the Quarterly Review and Their Authors, 1809-52. I". Journal of Political Economy. 66 (1): 63 note 81. ISSN 0022-3808. JSTOR 1826948.
  36. ^ https://digital.nls.uk/jma/index.html: Manuscript: MS.42599. Marked proofs: MS.42600.
  37. ^ "Series results - John Murray Archive catalogue search - National Library of Scotland - References: MSS.42599-42600". digital.nls.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  38. ^ Banerji, Nilanjana. "Coulton, David Trevena (1810–1857)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6440. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  39. ^ Genealogie, Coret. "Marriage Clément François Joseph Boulmont & Irène Sophie Coulton & Siméon Joseph Boulmont & Alexandrine Cheron & David Trevena Coulton & Sarah Boniface & Henriette Amélie Rassart on July 5, 1905 in Brussel (Belgium)". Open Archives.
  40. ^ "Letters to John Murray, publishers, of correspondents with surnames and company names from Boulard to Bouverie., 1814-1927. Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue". manuscripts.nls.uk.
  41. ^ The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine. Houlston and Stonemen. 1857. p. 282.
  42. ^ Disraeli, Benjamin; Wiebe, Melvin George (1 January 1982). Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1860-1864. University of Toronto Press. p. 134 note 1. ISBN 978-0-8020-9949-5.
  43. ^ Cross, Nigel (1980). "A Select Catalogue of Applicants to the Royal Literary Fund" (PDF). discovery.ucl.ac.uk. UCL. pp. 314–343.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.