Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Schomberg, Alexander Crowcher
SCHOMBERG, ALEXANDER CROWCHER (1756–1792), poet and writer on jurisprudence, son of Raphael or Ralph Schomberg [q. v.] of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, was born there on 6 July 1756, and from Southampton School was admitted a scholar of Winchester in 1770 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 265). In his fourteenth year he wrote a tragedy in collaboration with Herbert (afterwards the Rev. Sir Herbert) Croft (1751–1816) [q. v.] He was matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, on 9 May 1775, was elected a demy of Magdalen College in that university in 1776, graduated B.A. on 20 Jan. 1779, and commenced M.A. on 9 Nov. 1781. He became a probationer fellow of Magdalen College in 1782, and senior dean of arts in 1791. The myrtle wreath of Lady Miller often crowned his poetical productions, to which her volumes were indebted for some of their principal ornaments [see Miller, Anna, Lady]. He was likewise a contributor to the periodical ‘Olla Podrida,’ edited by Thomas Monro, (1788). Subsequently he studied political economy (Gent. Mag. 1792, i. 389). In the midst of his studies he was attacked by a painful disease. Robert Southey, then a youth, often sat by his bedside when he was vainly seeking relief at Bath (Early Life of Southey, p. 36). He died at Bath on 6 April 1792, and was buried in the abbey. He was the earliest patron of William Crotch [q. v.] the composer.
His works are: 1. ‘Bagley; a descriptive Poem; with the Annotations of Scriblerus Secundus: To which are prefixed, by the same, Prolegomena on the Poetry of the present age,’ Oxford, 1777, 4to. The authorship has been erroneously ascribed to Dr. Thomas Burgess (Halkett and Laing, Dict. of Anonymous Literature, i. 210). 2. ‘Ode on the present state of English Poetry … By Cornelius Scriblerus Nothus,’ with ‘a translation of a fragment of Simonides,’ Greek and English, Oxford, 1779, 4to. 3. ‘An historical and chronological View of Roman Law. With Notes and Illustrations,’ Oxford, 1785 8vo; 2nd edit. Oxford, 1857, 8vo; translated into French by A. M. H. Boulard, 2nd edit. Paris, 1808, 12mo. 4. ‘A Treatise on the Maritime Laws of Rhodes,’ Oxford, 1786, 8vo. 5. ‘Historical and Political Remarks on the Tariff of the Commercial Treaty with France,’ 1787. 6. ‘Present State of Trade and Manufactures in France’ (partly printed but never completed or published).
[Bloxam's Magdalen Coll. Reg. vii. 51, 77; Gent. Mag. 1792 i. 389, 1854 i. 114; MacCulloch's Lit. of Pol. Econ. pp. 123, 124; Nichols's Illustr. Lit. v. 278; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. v. 288, vii. 54; Turner's Sepulchral Reminiscences, p. 75.]