While researching family history in the 1980s, I made the interesting
discovery that Samuel Roberts, often referred to merely as ‘Sam’,
Cowper’s lackey or factotum, was a direct ancestor of mine. His son
John James Roberts, a carpenter, married Elizabeth Robinson, from a
local Baptist family; their son William Robinson Roberts, who moved
from Olney to Ampthill, was my great-great-grandfather. I traced Sam’s
will and saw that his date of death corresponded to that given in Thomas
Wright’s biography of Cowper; Wright also notes that Sam was buried
near the tower and porch of Weston Underwood church1. The stone,
which once bore an inscription reading ‘for many years a faithfull
attendant of the poet Cowper’2, has either been removed or has become
illegible. Based on Sam’s age at his death I found a suitable baptism in
the Weston register for 1754: son of Edward Roberts, a parish clerk.
Sam’s mother was Susan(na), née Scriggington, probably his father’s
second wife (married in Olney 1749). I also found Sam’s marriage in
17813 to Ann Wheeler, referred to by Cowper as ‘Nanny’. The Wheelers
were a Roman Catholic family of Weston Underwood and Ann was
christened at the Throckmortons’ chapel in 17584.
In view of the fact that Sam appeared to have originated from Weston,
I found it surprising that, according to many of Cowper’s biographers,
he had supposedly been brought by the poet from Dr Cotton’s asylum
in St Alban’s, where he had already been working as a servant. Thomas
Wright seems to have been the first biographer (1892) to develop this
story in detail, namely that Sam Roberts had attended to Cowper at the
asylum and was taken from there to Huntingdon together with the boy
Dick Coleman5. While in Huntingdon, Cowper certainly kept a servant as
well as maintaining Coleman6, but there is no proof from his own words
that the servant in question was Sam. Wright assumes that Cowper is
referring to Sam in a number of early letters and in the autobiographical
memoir about his early life, but Sam is not named by the poet himself as
his lackey until much later; and when he is mentioned by name, Cowper
never says that Sam was the servant from St Alban’s. Wright was writing
23
almost a century after Cowper’s death and his assumption about Sam’s
origin has since been reiterated in a significant number of works. Curry’s
recent biography is no exception; he writes that when Cowper left the
asylum ‘[h]e took with him as his personal valet one of Dr Cotton’s
servants, Sam Roberts, who had been attending to him’7.
However, nearly all nineteenth-century biographies of Cowper do not
make the same assumption about Sam, who is not mentioned as having
been brought from St Alban’s by Corry in his 1803 Life, by Taylor in
his 1833 biography, or by Southey in his seminal work of 1835-7. More
importantly, no such indication is given by those writers who would
have known Sam personally: John Johnson, neither in his ‘Sketch’ of
Cowper’s life (in Poems, volume 3, 1815) nor in his volumes of Letters
(1817 etc.); William Hayley, neither in his Life and Posthumous Writings
of Cowper (1803 etc.), nor in his own writings8; or Rev. S. Greatheed in
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Cowper (1814). It is true, however,
that a later edition of Hayley’s Works of William Cowper, edited by Rev.
Grimshawe and published in 1835 (after Sam’s death) does give such
an indication. Under the passage from Cowper’s memoir of his early
life (written shortly after moving in with the Unwins in Huntingdon in
November 1765) reading ‘the man, whom I have ever since retained in
my service, expressed great joy on the occasion’, referring to a servant
who had witnessed his recovery at the asylum, Grimshawe inserted the
footnote ‘Samuel Roberts’9. He may have been misinformed about the
servant’s identity or, being known for his incompetence, perhaps merely
jumped to a conclusion10. Southey does not include such a footnote
in connection with the same passage11. Later in that autobiographical
memoir, writing about his move to Cambridge, Cowper mentions the
servant again, saying that ‘[h]e had maintained such an affectionate
watchfulness over me … that I could not bear to leave him behind,
though it was with some difficulty that the doctor was prevailed on to
part with him’12. The man had only recently entered into Dr Cotton’s
service ‘just time enough to be appointed to attend me’, and Cowper
adds ‘I have strong grounds to hope that God will make me of use as an
instrument in His hands of bringing him to the knowledge of Jesus’ (a
conversion to which he later refers). The same man is mentioned once
more in a letter from Huntingdon to Joseph Hill (24 June 1765): ‘I am
24
not quite alone, having brought a Servant with me from St Albans, who
is the very Mirrour of Fidelity and Affection for his Master. … Men
do not usually bestow these Encomiums upon their Lacqueys, nor do
they usually deserve them, but I have had Experience of mine both in
Sickness and Health and never saw his Fellow’. In a subsequent letter
to Hill from Huntingdon (12 November 1766), Cowper writes about the
boy Dick Coleman as follows: ‘He will be about Nine Years of Age when
my Man leaves me, at which time I think of taking him into my Service
… This though not so cheap a way as keeping no Servant, will yet be a
considerable Saving to me, for I shall have but one to maintain instead
of two’. One further reference by Cowper to the servant in question,
again without naming him, can be found in a letter written shortly after
his arrival in Olney: ‘The Man Servant you may remember is the same
that attended me at St Albans’13.
It can be presumed that the servant from the asylum subsequently
left Cowper’s service – as foreseen in the letter to Hill – and that Dick
Coleman, who lived at Orchard Side, was one of those who served the
poet in Olney. In his 1803 biography Corry wrote that at Olney Cowper
and Mrs Unwin ‘kept only one maid servant, a gardener, and a footman’14,
perhaps in addition to Coleman. Cowper mentioned a number of
successive servants in his letters, not all by name: for example, in 1782,
he referred to a former servant who was then living at Northampton15.
Whilst he clearly appreciated some of those who worked for him, he
could be rather demanding. He dismissed a maid shortly after arriving in
Olney and had difficulty finding a suitable one locally; her replacement
sent by Mrs Madan was not satisfactory either16. In 1771 he complained
to Hill about a ‘blundering Servant’ who had packaged the wrong piece
of venison17. Cowper also dismissed, ‘for manifold good Causes’,
a gardener called Darlin, who was replaced by William Kitchener
(‘Kitch’), described as an Olney pauper who would cost one fourth of
Darlin’s wage18. Writing to Newton in that connection, Cowper laments
‘… for Man Servant in future we are resolved to have none, having
found those Gentry in Every Instance Expensive, and for the most part,
worse than Useless’. Kitchener, although berated by Cowper for his
lack of intelligence19, worked for the poet until at least 1792, performing
various tasks such as carrying messages to Weston from Olney, where he
25
apparently continued to live20. While at Weston, Cowper was unhappy
with an unnamed incompetent labourer – presumably not ‘Kitch’ – who
had been employed to transplant some laurels21.
It is thus submitted that Sam Roberts did not enter Cowper’s service
until after the move to The Lodge at Weston Underwood in November
1786. This would mean that Grimshawe – in his footnote – then Wright,
and many subsequent twentieth-century biographers, have been wrong
about Sam’s background. It is not until a letter of 4 September 1787 to
Lady Hesketh, from Weston, that we find the first mention of Sam by
Cowper himself. It reads: ‘Sam our lacquey, and Molly [Peers] our Cook
are never heard but when they answer a question. Sam’s Wife, by the
way, has long been engaged to officiate in the Scullery while you shall
be with us, and she is the very counterpart of her husband for quietness
and sobriety’. A subsequent letter of 7 February 1788 records that ‘our
lacquey’ is the ‘clerk of the parish’ (of Weston Underwood), while an
earlier letter of 11 December 1786, also to Lady Hesketh, had stated
‘the clerk of the parish has made a new pair of straps to my buckles’.
Wright, and later King and Ryskamp, in their corresponding footnotes,
assume that this earlier ‘clerk’ already refers to Sam; by describing him
merely as ‘clerk’, shortly after his arrival at Weston, Cowper implies
that he had only recently begun to employ the man who was to become
his new servant. If Sam had been in Cowper’s service since St Alban’s
it would also be rather strange for him to be described in this manner to
Lady Hesketh.
There is little doubt that Sam Roberts was a local man and St Alban’s
was far enough away from Weston to make his service there, at a very
early age, rather implausible. In 1764/5 Sam would have been aged only
about 10 or 11, so hardly a ‘man’ at that time. Moreover, it would have
been a coincidence for Cowper to have taken him back to his place of
origin (without even a mention in the letters). In fact Sam had already
married in Weston and his first three children had been christened
there while Cowper was still in Olney. Sam had witnessed a number
of marriages in the Weston register, presumably as parish clerk, going
back to 1776. It is possible that Cowper came into contact with Sam
through the Throckmortons, his wife’s family being Roman Catholic.
Samuel Teedon indicates that Sam’s mother also served the Cowper26
Unwin household in Weston; in his diary for 8 April 1792 he writes: ‘Mrs
Roberts came with an invitation for me to dine with Madam tomorrow.
She drank tea with us. Sam’s mother not his wife’22. Lady Hesketh also
refers in 1799 to some money she owes to Sam’s ‘mother and aunt’23,
who would have been elderly by that time. While still in Olney Cowper
refers to a Susan Roberts, who could be Sam’s mother, as being very ill
but recovering24.
There are various references to Sam Roberts in Cowper’s letters during
the Weston years, portraying him as a man of some intelligence and a true
factotum, rendering diverse services to his master. The Roberts family
apparently continued to live in their own house rather than moving into
The Lodge. Cowper writes on 4 September 1787: ‘Our Servant sleeps
always at his own house’. Teedon mentions that his cousins visited Sam’s
house in Weston and informed him who was preaching that evening in
Olney25. The maid Molly Peers and her daughter also lived in Sam’s
house at one point26. Cowper’s letters tell us much about his day-today
life and a number of anecdotal accounts concern Sam, sometimes
just incidentally, such as when he ushered in visitors, for example, a
parish clerk from Northampton27. On one occasion Sam tried to prevent
a Quaker preacher from seeing Cowper, having instructions not to admit
anybody28. Teedon seems to have appreciated Sam, who would visit him
in Olney and take his letters to Cowper; however, on one occasion the
schoolmaster was upset to find that his letter had not been delivered29.
Sam also delivered some of the poet’s letters to Teedon.
An insight into Sam’s role is provided by the writings of John Johnson,
whose first meeting with Cowper in 1790 was described in a poem
written 40 years later entitled ‘Recollections of Cowper’30. The day
after Johnson arrived in Olney, Cowper sent Sam to conduct him to the
Lodge31. Sam is portrayed in the account as the poet’s valet, engaged in
menial tasks such as bringing his master’s walking shoes and closing the
shutters as dinner was served, Cowper being ‘careful not to tantalise the
eye of his necessitous neighbours’. Johnson also describes the Sunday
evening service at Weston church, where Sam, as parish clerk, ‘pitched
the psalm’.
In some of Cowper’s anecdotes Sam plays a prominent and sometimes
amusing role: in 1789 he was sent to Gayhurst to bring back Cowper’s
27
spaniel Beau32, and in 1791 to Woburn to enquire about the shortcomings
of one of Lady Hesketh’s servants33. When the innkeeper there found
out that he was Cowper’s servant, Sam was given a free breakfast! In
several letters of 1792-3 Cowper mentions that Sam has been helping
to carry or support Mrs Unwin after her second stroke34. In a letter
to Hayley of 20 January 1793 Cowper relates how ‘Samuel with his
cheerful countenance appear’d at the study-door, and with a voice as
cheerful as his looks, exclaim’d – Mr. Hayley is come, Madam!’. It was
a disappointment, to Mrs Unwin in particular, to discover that he was
announcing the delivery of Hayley’s portrait, not the arrival of the man
himself. In 179335 Sam and a carpenter, putting their ‘foolish noddle[s]’
together, built Cowper a ‘shed’ (or arbour) in the ‘shrubbery’ at Weston
and it turned out to be more elaborate than the basic structure Cowper
had foreseen, ‘a thing fit for Stow-gardens’, thus prompting Cowper’s
proposed inscription (in the place of another verse he had ‘designed for
a hermitage’36):
Beware of building. I intended
Rough logs and thatch, and thus it ended.
Mrs Unwin persuaded Cowper not to ‘break Sam’s heart’ by his reproach,
however poetical. Shortly afterwards, during an after-dinner walk with
Mrs Unwin37, Cowper discovered a sundial ‘mounted on a smart stone
pedestal’. Cowper had suspected Sam ‘this Fac Totum of mine’ of being
responsible for placing it there, having often heard his master deplore
the absence of one, but Sam was then forced to tell him that it was a
surprise gift from John Johnson.
Nanny (Ann) Roberts is described in 179238 as ‘Cook and Housekeeper’,
replacing Molly Peers due to ill-health39. ‘Sam’s wife shall be
paid’ writes Cowper on 21 July 1792. Cowper refers to a visit by Sam
and his wife to an ‘uncle from whom they have expectations’ in Stowe40.
Nanny is complimented by the poet for bringing Mrs Unwin her shoes
but reproached for breaking a bottle of ‘good liquor’41! The Roberts
children are also mentioned a couple of times in Cowper’s letters: he
reports that Sam’s ‘eldest boy’ died of the smallpox in 178742, with two
other children suffering from the disease; and some time later that one of
Sam’s sons ‘bow’d’ in front of Abbott’s portrait of the poet43.
28
Sam’s sister-in-law, Susan(na) Wheeler (b. 1776), also known as
‘Sukey’, was another servant of Cowper. A piece of lace made by her
is on display in the Cowper and Newton Museum, and the handwritten
inscription states that she (‘Cowper’s servant who lived with him at
Weston’) was ‘Susan’ the ‘chambermaid’ who inadvertently shut up
Cowper’s cat in a drawer, as related in the poem ‘The Retired Cat’44.
In 1792 Cowper and Mrs Unwin, accompanied by John Johnson,
visited Hayley in Eartham, Sussex, and decided to take Sam and Nanny
with them. When planning the trip, Cowper reassured Hayley that
only one bed would be necessary for the couple, ‘being one flesh’, and
justified Sam’s presence by his usefulness45. Nanny was supposed to ‘jog
thither in the stage’ with Johnson, rather than travelling with Cowper,
Mrs Unwin and Sam, who would be ‘more useful by the way’46 than
Johnny. However, a subsequent letter from Johnson47 reported that all
five of them (plus Beau, the dog) had, in the end, ridden to Eartham in
the same coach, with Sam on the ‘Box’. According to Johnson, Cowper
was later to regret taking the servants to Eartham. In a letter to his sister48
describing the journey home, Johnson complained that they had doubled
the cost of the trip for Cowper, adding: ‘He is however resolved to take
them no more, as he found them only an incumbrance – and I am glad
his eyes are open on that subject’. Johnson also remarked that the couple
had felt ‘starved’ in Eartham in comparison with Weston where they
were ‘used to stuff their guts with every thing that they could wish’49!
Johnson was beginning to express a concern that Sam and Nanny were
too expensive for Cowper and were perhaps taking advantage of his
generosity; the poet, however, never complained in his letters that they
had not served him well.
A few years later neither Cowper nor Johnson appeared to question
the idea of taking Sam and Nanny on the next trip, this time to Norfolk,
and Nanny’s sister Sukey joined them. According to his ‘Memoir of
Cowper’50, Johnson himself had the sudden idea of taking Cowper and
Mrs Unwin to a ‘Summer’s residence by the sea-side’ and when he
mentioned it to Lady Hesketh she was of the same opinion51. There is
little doubt, however, that Lady Hesketh was the driving force behind the
move and saw it as a more permanent solution for Cowper52, although it
was not presented as such to the poet53. John Johnson speaks as follows
29
about the arrangements foreseen for the servants in Norfolk, in a letter
to his sister of 10 July 179554:
In your room will sleep the old Lady [Mrs Unwin], because of the fire place
– and upon a bed in one corner of it, our Sally and Sukey Wheeler must sleep
… In the ligh Closet will be Nanny Roberts. Our dear Cousin will be in my
room, and upon a small bed in the same room will be Samuel Roberts, who is
quite a treasure for his excellent behaviour to our dear Cousin.
Ultimately they all left Weston (Sukey travelled separately55) on 28 July
1795, stopping the first night at Eaton and the second at Barton Mills. In
Norfolk they stayed first at the Vicarage at North Tuddenham.
Sam Roberts thus continued to serve Cowper in Norfolk56 and his
presence was clearly appreciated by John Johnson, at least initially.
Johnson records in his diary that he spent part of the journey from
Weston talking ‘incessantly’ to Sam, who was in the same Post Chaise
with Cowper and himself, in order to ‘divert [Cowper’s] thoughts as
much as possible’57. It must also have been comforting for the poet to
maintain the connection with Weston through the presence of Sam,
Nanny and Sukey, who remained with him during his stay in Mundesley
from 19 August until early October 1795. Sam reassured Cowper that he
would visit his ‘beloved’ Weston again58, but of course he never did. Sam
notably accompanied his master and Johnson on a visit to Happisburgh
(31 August), going up the lighthouse with Johnson and reporting back
to Cowper what he had seen. In September, when Johnson had found
a house for Cowper and Mrs Unwin, Dunham Lodge, he discussed the
subject of the servants with Lady Hesketh, who felt it was best to send ‘all
the Wheeler crew away’59, for financial reasons (she had been concerned
for some time about the expense of ‘ye swarms who lived in [Cowper’s]
kitchen’60) but also because in her view they had too much influence
in the household. Lady Hesketh’s harshest criticism can be found in a
letter of 13 September 1795 to John Johnson61; she describes the Weston
servants, and ‘the female ones particularly’, as ‘non-descripts’, but with
the ‘Reins of Government’ in their hands. She did not categorically
reject Sam, however, remarking:
He is certainly capable of being an excellent Servant and this one cannot say
of every body – he is also doubtless a very usefull one on many ocasions
30
– and daily gains ground in the favour and opinion of his poor Master, but
whether he will be brought to be just the servant he ought to be after all the
Indulgence he has receiv’d is impossible for me to say at this distance.
Lady Hesketh told Johnson that he was right not to suffer the ‘young
Suckers to be transplanted to Dunham Lodge’, as they were ‘idle weeds’
who would ‘certainly take Root’ there! She agreed to let Sam have
five guineas, in addition to his wages, so that one of his sons could be
apprenticed, and also granted him some furniture from Weston Lodge.
This was clearly intended to appease Sam. While Sam had ‘behaved
so well in many respects and in some Instances with such attention to
his dear Master that one would wish to reward him and to give him no
real ground of Complaint’, she foresaw that Sam and his family, having
had ‘such lucrative places’ would be ‘extremely shock’d to lose such
Loaves and such Fishes as they have for many years rejoic’d in’. Lady
Hesketh concluded by instructing Johnson: ‘Pray take great care of this
letter, which if found wou’d let the cat out of the bag at once!’. She did
not want to give the servants the chance to ‘counter-act’ and Johnson
seems to have followed her advice by taking prompt action, even though
he undoubtedly had a certain respect for Sam himself62, in spite of the
difference in their social background.
On 15 September 1795 Sam travelled with Cowper and Johnson
to see Dunham Lodge and all three men spent the night at Dereham.
Miss Barham Johnson speculates that Sam and his wife might have
been reluctant to move to such a big house as Dunham Lodge anyway,
thus saving Johnny the task of ‘dismissing’ them, but it is unlikely that
they would have left Cowper spontaneously for such a reason. After
receiving Lady Hesketh’s letter of 13 September, Johnson clearly put
the dismissal plan into action. In Miss Johnson’s words: ‘One wonders
whether Cowper and Mrs Unwin realised that they would never see Sam
and Nanny Roberts again, and whether there was a sad leave-taking’63.
Certainly none of them would have been aware of the extent of Lady
Hesketh’s hostile attitude towards the servants, without which they
might perhaps have remained in Norfolk. Nanny returned to Weston
first, because Cowper writes to Lady Hesketh from Mundesley on 26
September 1795: ‘Samuel desires me to present his duty to you. His
wife is gone to Weston …’. In the same letter the poet laments ‘I shall
31
never see Weston more’, having probably realised by that time that the
move had become permanent. Johnson had also gone to Weston without
telling Cowper, who writes: ‘Whither he is gone I know not; at least I
know not by information from himself. Samuel tells me that he thinks
his destination is to Weston. But why to Weston is unimaginable to
me’64. Cowper could not understand why Johnson would have returned
there, but it was clearly a necessary visit to deal with the ‘break up’
(Lady Hesketh’s words) at the Lodge and sort out the furniture, some
of which was intended for Sam’s family. Johnson did not record his
visit to Weston in his diary. His whereabouts were perhaps to be kept a
secret from Cowper and Mrs Unwin, so as not to upset them, but Sam
felt obliged to disclose it; the words ‘Samuel tells me that he thinks
…’ reveal a reluctance on Sam’s part to say what he knew. Sam was
perhaps still considering his own position, but Lady Hesketh was no
doubt correct in her letter of 13 September when she suggested that he
would not have wanted to remain in Norfolk without his wife.
According to John Johnson’s diary, it was on 7 October 1795 (when
Cowper and his party left Mundesley) that ‘the Weston Servants, by
Lady Hesketh’s Recommendation, [were] left behind, to return to Weston
Underwood’65. The word ‘Recommendation’ is certainly a euphemism!
Without their servants, Cowper and Mrs Unwin then went to Dereham,
where they stayed temporarily before settling at Dunham Lodge, as
planned, later that month. Wright erroneously implies that Sam remained
with Cowper until around October 1796. A couple (coincidentally)
by the name of Johnson were then engaged as servants66, joining the
Johnsons’ maid Sally and a young man, Sam Dent. On 17 August 1798
Lady Hesketh enquired of John Johnson as to how Dent was getting
on67. He was from Weston68 and had previously attended to Mrs Unwin
before being taken to Norfolk by Johnson as his own servant69. In the
last years of his life, Cowper was nursed by Margaret Perowne, a friend
of John Johnson’s sister, and she received a significant sum of money
(£200) from the poet’s estate70. In April 1798 Lady Hesketh expressed
veiled criticism of the fact that Johnson had sent Sam the poet’s ‘old
wardrobe’ when the clothes could have been given to someone in need
locally71. She appears nevertheless to have continued to pay an annuity
to Sam and his family even after Cowper’s death72.
32
Sam Roberts was a resident of Weston in March 1798 as he is listed
on the Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus roll for the village, under the
occupation ‘laceman’73. Later that year a daughter of Sam and Nanny
was christened at Weston. Sam was to live for 32 years after Cowper’s
death and is known to have been a source of information and artefacts.
For example, he helped to retrieve a silhouette of Cowper from a shade74
and verse fragments from a shutter75 at The Lodge. The Cowper and
Newton Museum has some hairs from Cowper’s wig received from Sam
Roberts on 1 April 183176, the year before his death.
The most interesting item relating to Sam Roberts from that later period
is a letter written by Sam himself to John Johnson dated 5 December
180677. He was replying to a letter from Johnson enquiring about the
‘Yardley Oak’ tree, subject of Cowper’s poem first published by Hayley
in 1804, and begins by conveying the relevant information that Sam had
waited for George Courtenay to confirm. Sam had been given Johnson’s
letter by a Mr Wolseley, whom he had taken to visit Weston Lodge. Even
though Sam was the parish clerk, his letter contains numerous spelling and
grammatical mistakes. Reflecting the fact that Johnson had remained a
personal friend, Sam additionally provides information about his two sons,
emphasising how it has caused him financial hardship to help his eldest
son set up in business in London. Johnson was to keep Hayley informed
about his correspondence with Sam, which apparently continued for a
while thereafter. William Hayley, who had described Sam in his work on
Cowper as a ‘very affectionate, worthy domestic, who attended his master
into Sussex’78, wrote in April 1810 to John Johnson: ‘Now let me rejoice
with you on the discovery of the manuscripts found by the good Samuel
Roberts!’ adding ‘I have always intended to send to the said good Samuel
a copy of his master’s life, which he perfectly deserves’; and ‘I hope you
may visit Weston, and exhort the good Samuel Roberts to make yet more
discoveries. Remember me kindly to him.’79 One of the papers found by
Sam – inside an account-book which had belonged to Cowper – was the
fragment of a hymn ‘To Jesus the Crown of my Hope’, apparently given
by Sam to Rev. John Sutcliff and first published in the Baptist Magazine
and Literary Review a few months later (April 1810)80.
After Nanny’s death in 1809, the Northampton Mercury announced
Sam’s second marriage to Elizabeth Filby of Croydon in 1812,
33
describing him as a ‘lace dealer’. In 1815 a Moravian minister (Rev.
Samuel Connor) visited Weston and met Sam’s new wife: ‘… I made
enquiry for Sam Roberts, who had been [Cowper’s] Gardener [sic] &
soon found his place of residence, but only his Wife was at Home, who
was well acquainted with the [Moravian] Brethren, & with the greatest
pleasure showed me her Garden, into which had been transplanted from
Cowper’s garden at Weston a favourite Woodbine’81. Then in 1824
Charles Knight visited Weston and met a few individuals who had been
‘intimately acquainted’ with the poet, one of whom was ‘a favourite and
faithful domestic [who] lived [sic] with Cowper during the whole of his
residence at Weston’. The unnamed servant, most probably Sam, was
then living ‘in a beautiful cottage’ and had built in his garden a summerhouse,
‘in honour of his lamented master’, on which was inscribed the
verse Inscription for a Moss-House in the Shrubbery at Weston82. Sam’s
second wife pre-deceased him. By the end of his life he was a man of
property and in his will left a ‘freehold messuage and outbuildings with
the garden etc. together with the two cottages adjoining’ in Weston, and
also a ‘freehold cottage etc.’ in the parish of Emberton. The Mercury
reported his death in 1832 as follows: ‘At his son’s house, in London, …
in the 78th year of his age, much esteemed and regretted by a numerous
circle of friends, Mr. Samuel Roberts, of Weston Underwood, Bucks, for
many years faithful attendant on the Poet Cowper.’ Whether or not he or
his wife deserved Lady Hesketh’s ire, Sam certainly fulfilled his role as
an efficient valet or factotum and appears to have remained indispensable
to Cowper during the Weston years.
