Robert Bloomfield was born in Honington, Suffolk, in early December, 1766. He was the son of George Bloomfield, a village tailor who died when his son was less than a year old, and Elizabeth Manby Bloomfield, a schoolmistress who taught her six children to read and write. At the age of six Bloomfield was sent to school for several months in Ixford under the care of a man named Rodwell, before his mother remarried and had another family. Bloomfield’s brother George later recalled that Robert had been able to read even before this, and that early reading matter available to him included the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, The Deserted Village, and Isaac Watts’ Hymns. At eleven, Bloomfield was apprenticed to William Austin, a farmer in Sapiston, who subsequently informed his...
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Citation: Van-Hagen, Stephen. "Robert Bloomfield". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2006; last revised 08 March 2022. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=452, accessed 13 November 2026.]
