was delivered with elegance and address; his manner was graceful and better than his matter; his person was pleasing, and his voice clear and harmonious; his invectives were good, and he possessed much spirit; in personality he was better than in argument; he was a brave man but a bad reasoner, and was always ready to back what he said with his sword.’
[For biographical details we are indebted to Mr. Joseph Foster, the genealogist; for Corry's career during the debates on the union see Life and Times of Grattan, Sir Jonah Barrington's Memoirs, and Coote's History of the Union. Gent. Mag. 1813, pt. i. 591, gives date of death only.]
CORRY, JOHN (fl. 1825), topographer and miscellaneous writer, was a native of the north of Ireland and a self-taught man. On reaching manhood he went to Dublin, where he followed the profession of a journalist. About 1792 he fixed his residence in London, and there found constant employment for his versatile pen. Most of his works were published anonymously. Besides editing a periodical, he furnished the letterpress for the ‘History of Liverpool,’ 4to, Liverpool, 1810, published by Thomas Troughton; wrote vol. i. of the ‘History of Bristol,’ 2 vols. 4to, Bristol, 1816, the second volume being supplied by the Rev. John Evans; and the next year published a ‘History of Macclesfield,’ 8vo, London, Manchester [printed], 1817. A more ambitious undertaking was the ‘History of Lancashire,’ 2 vols. 4to, London, 1825, with a dedication to George IV dated 22 Sept. of that year. After this nothing is known of Corry's personal history. He was also the author of: 1. ‘Poems,’ 12mo [Dublin?], 17—. 2. ‘The Adventures of Felix and Rosarito,’ 12mo, London, 1782. 3. ‘The Life of George Washington,’ 12mo, London, 1800. 4. ‘The Detector of Quackery,’ 12mo, London, 1801 (new edition under the title of ‘Quack Doctors dissected,’ 12mo, London, Gloucester [printed 1810]). 5. ‘A Satirical View of London,’ 8vo, London, 1801, which came to a fourth edition in 1809. 6. ‘Edwy and Bertha,’ 12mo, London, 1802. 7. ‘Memoirs of Alfred Berkeley,’ 12mo, London, 1802. 8. ‘Tales for the Amusement of Young Persons,’ 12mo, London, 1802. 9. ‘The Life of William Cowper,’ 12mo, London, 1803. 10. ‘The Life of Joseph Priestley,’ 12mo, Birmingham, 1804 (another edition appeared in the same year). 11. ‘Sebastian and Zeila,’ 12mo, London [1805?]. 12. ‘The Suicide; or, the Progress of Error,’ 12mo, London [1805?]. 13. ‘The Mysterious Gentleman Farmer,’ 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1808. 14. ‘Strictures on the expedience of the Addingtonian Extinguisher’ [i.e. Lord Sidmouth's Protestant Dissenting Bill], 12mo, Macclesfield, 1811. 15. ‘The Elopement … Third edition (the History of Eliza, &c.),’ 12mo, London [1810?]. 16. ‘The English Metropolis; or, London in the year 1820,’ 8vo, London, 1820. 17. ‘Memoir of John Collier’ (‘Tim Bobbin’), prefixed to an edition of his ‘Works,’ 8vo [Manchester? 1820?], and also to the quarto edition published at Manchester in 1862.
[Dict. of Living Authors (1816), p. 76; Fishwick's Lancashire Library, pp. 53–4; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
CORSER, THOMAS (1793–1876), editor of ‘Collectanea Anglo-Poetica,’ third son of George Corser of Whitchurch, Shropshire, banker, and his wife Martha, daughter of Randall Phythian of the Higher Hall, Edge, Cheshire, was born at Whitchurch in 1793. From Whitchurch school he was removed in 1808 to the Manchester grammar school, whence in May 1812 he was admitted a commoner of Balliol College, Oxford, taking with him one of the school exhibitions. He graduated B.A. in 1815, and M.A. in 1818. It was during his residence at Oxford, and through his intimacy with Dr. Henry Cotton [q. v.], sub-librarian of the Bodleian, that his love of early English poetry and Elizabethan literature was formed and his bibliographical tastes encouraged. In the early part of 1816 he was ordained to the curacy of Condover, near Shrewsbury, and in the following year received priest's orders, holding also the chaplaincy of Atcham Union at Berrington. From 1819 to 1821 he served as curate of the extensive parish of Stone, Staffordshire, and for the next year and a half was curate of Monmouth. Here, while meditating the acceptance of the English chaplaincy at Antwerp, he accepted the offer of the curacy of Prestwich, near Manchester, which proved the turning-point of his life. In 1826, while curate of Prestwich, he obtained the incumbency of All Saints' Church, Stand, Manchester, where he was admitted on 8 Sept. and continued for nearly fifty years. By his care and exertions the parish was early supplied with large and flourishing schools. In 1828 he succeeded to the vicarage of Norton-by-Daventry in Northamptonshire, but there being no residence he continued to remain at Stand. He was one of the founders of the Chetham Society in 1843. Of the four works edited by Corser for the society—‘Chester's Triumph’ (1844), ‘Iter Lancastrense’ (1845), Robinson's ‘Golden Mirrour,’ and ‘Collectanea Anglo-Poetica’—the most important are the ‘Iter’ and the ‘Collectanea.’ The first is
