John Cranch was born in a small Devonshire town in the same year that Gray's Elegy was published and he might so easily have been a "flower born to blush unseen."
Taught to read and write but little else, only his own personality and talent allowed him to break free to become a respected lawyer, scholar and artist. But his story would be a dry one if talked of only in terms like 'social mobility' because even across two centuries his strivings, disappointments and successes have an intensely human quality. Importantly, significant amounts of his own writing and letters have survived and the numerous quotations in this biography allow his own 'voice' to speak to us. This took on greater historical significance when he was corresponding with relatives and acquaintances caught up in the events surrounding the birth of the independent United States of America. But John Cranch was a witty fellow and there is also much to amuse in this account of a worthwhile and memorable life.
