Periodicals Magazines | Thomas Chatterton

Biographies & Works

Magazines & Newspapers

Containing Chatterton's Works

Published during his lifetime

This Page is being worked on as I live and breath!

By the time Chatterton had caught the Stagecoach to London he had already been published 28 times, in at least 7 different periodicals, but he had written much more besides, which didn't see the light of day until after he died.

This page, like most of the website, is being worked on continuously but in time you will be able to click a magazine cover to see the works published in that periodical. In the meantime, all of Chatterton's works can be accessed via the following link : All Chatterton's Works

The Freeholder's Magazine (1770)

Chatterton age : 17

The Freeholder's Magazine 1770

Chatterton’s Works in The Freeholders Magazine :

Three works appeared in the Magazine, as follows :

The Consuliad : January 1770, p.273 (T.p.436) : View

Resignation. A Poem :

April, May 1770, pp. 105, 162. Lines 1-400. (BLB, f72) : View

T. C. to Lord N—-h [Lord North] : Aug/ 1770, p.293 [WODA*] : View

*WODA = Works of Doubtful Authority (according to Taylor).

The first two works are accepted as genuine, but Donald S. Taylor, one of the foremost authorities on Chatterton, says that the work 'T. C. To Lord North', is not Chatterton’s style of writing. However, he also says it is derivative and is rehashed from earlier publications. While this is a fact, it doesn’t preclude it being knocked up by Chatterton. In my opinion, the signature, and the fact of that the other two works are in the same magazine, at around the same time, confirms this as Chatterton’s ‘hack work.’

Note on difficulties of finding copies of the three works - with thanks to Dr Steven Lomazow :

I had a problem as there were no copies of the magazine to view online via the likes of Archive.org, and certainly nothing for sale - this is because copies of the magazine are as rare as hen’s teeth.

Fortunately, after searching everywhere online, I had a result. I found the American website belonging to Dr. Steven Lomazow. He holds the largest collection of American magazines, which I discovered included a copy of the 1770 issue of the Freeholder’s Magazine.

So I wrote to Dr. Steven and asked for photographs of the relevant pages, which he supplied within days. Thank you indeed Dr. Steven.

Dr Steven Lomazow’s website : https://www.americanmagazinecollection.com/.../18th-century/

See my Facebook post on the above :