Topic summary
Richard Harris Barham
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Richard Barham.
Life
Richard Harris Barham was born in Canterbury. He was the illegitimate son of a local alderman, also called Richard Harris Barham and a woman named Elizabeth Ffox. When he was seven years old his father died, leaving him a small estate, part of which was the manor of Tappington, in Denton, Kent, mentioned frequently in his later work The Ingoldsby Legends. At nine he was sent to St Paul's School, but his studies were interrupted by an accident that partly crippled his arm for life. Deprived of vigorous bodily activity, he became a great reader and diligent student.