The year of Tupper's birth is not certain. Although William Michael Rossetti states that he "was born in London in or about 1826" in the "Prefatory Notice" to Poems” by the Late John Lucas Tupper (London: Longmans, 1897), p. viil, Tupper himself tells Hunt in a letter of October 1863 that he is forty years old, and the extracts from his diary published in The Crayon (see bibliographical item No. 7 below) suggest he was born in 1822! To complicate matters further, public records indicate that Tupper was born in 1824. My former student Ms. Sushma Kapoor informs me that, on checking the 1851 census forms, she "found an entry for the family showing J.L.T. age 27, born at Stamford Hill, Middlesex." Since Stamford Hill lies close to the boundaries of three parishes, their registers will have to be searched before one can hope to resolve this problem of his year of birth.
Last modified 1 November 2004