Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Canning, Richard
CANNING, RICHARD (1708–1775), topographer, born on 30 Sept. 1708, was the son of Richard Canning, a post-captain in the navy, who went to reside at Ipswich in 1712. He was elected a king's scholar at Westminster school in 1723, but went to Cambridge without a school scholarship. He proceeded B.A. 1728, and M.A. 1735, at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge; became perpetual curate of St. Lawrence, Ipswich, in 1734; rector of Harkstead, Suffolk, in 1738; and rector of Freston and vicar of Rushmere St. Andrew, both in the same county, in 1755. He resigned his benefice at Rushmere in 1756, and handed over that at Harkstead to his son Richard (B.A. Emmanuel College, 1763) in 1769. He died on 8 June 1775, and was buried in St. Helen's Church, Ipswich, where there is a mural tablet to his memory. Canning was an earnest student of the history of Suffolk, and is best known by the edition of ‘The Suffolk Traveller.’ This book, first published by John Kirby between 1732 and 1734, was thoroughly revised by Canning and a few friends, and issued, ‘with many alterations and large additions,’ in 1764. A third edition appeared in 1835 under the title of ‘The History of the County of Suffolk.’ Canning issued in 1754 a translation of the Ipswich charters, and in 1747 an account of the charitable bequests made to the town. Both these tracts appeared anonymously. Several of Canning's sermons were published at Ipswich. He printed two pamphlets (1740 and 1749) against the dissenters. The younger Richard Canning died on 17 Jan. 1789.
[Nichols's Lit. Illustrations, vi. 538–45; Gough's British Topography, ii. 248.]