Samuel Ogden (1716–1778) to Francis Reynolds M.P. (d. 1773) ...

Samuel Ogden (1716–1778) to Francis Reynolds M.P. (d. 1773) Cambridge letter and manuscript elegy, 1736 An early letter concerning his scholarship and academic ambitions, with an apparently unpublished pastoral elegy on the death of Francis Reynolds's father. Autograph letter signed "Sam: Ogden", St John's College, Cambridge, March 1736, 1 p., with accompanying autograph manuscript poem, "A Pastoral — Thyrsis & Damon", 2 pp., signed "Ogden"; folded for posting with integral address panel to "F. Reynolds Esq:r near Manchester", contemporary docket "Mr Ogden with an Elegy on my Fathers Death March 1736", remnants of red wax seal; old folds, marginal wear and splitting, with extensive old paper repairs and reinforcement, some small losses, but substantially complete and legible. Almost certainly Samuel Ogden (1716–1778), the Cambridge divine, identified by the combination of signature, place, date and unusually specific autobiographical content. Writing from St John's College in March 1736, Ogden gratefully acknowledges Reynolds's patronage, remarking that he cannot "forget the Channels through which that Happiness is convey'd to me", and reports his recent election to a scholarship shortly after his admission to St John's. He discusses his intention to take his bachelor's degree, his preference for "a College-Life" and hopes of eventually securing a fellowship. Accompanying the letter is Ogden's apparently unpublished pastoral elegy on the death of Francis Reynolds's father, casting the deceased as "Amyntor" and mourning him as "the Shepherds Friend": "How loth to blame! how eager to commend! / How bright his Virtues! yet how calm his mind!" The poem concludes by looking towards his successor — "a new Amyntor shall arise, / And wipe the falling Tears from all our Eyes". Samuel Ogden (1716–1778), clergyman, scholar and preacher, was born at Manchester and educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was elected a Fellow in 1740. He subsequently held several ecclesiastical livings and was appointed Woodwardian Professor of Geology in 1764, retaining the chair until his death. He became particularly known for his sermons, which were collected and published during and after his lifetime. (St John's College, Cambridge, The Eagle, vol. XI, 1880, 'Portraits in the College', Samuel Ogden, D.D.)

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