6 THE POETICAL WORKS OF JAMES MONTGOMERY. INCLUDING SEVERAL POEMS NOW FIRST COLLECTED; WITH A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOLUME I. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY LEONARD C. BOWLES. J. H. A. Frost, Printer. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JAMES MONTGOMERY. MONTGOMERY, the Author of the Wanderer of Switzerland, &c. and the subject of this short biographical sketch, was born in Scotland, at Irvine, in Ayrshire, November 4, 1771; his father was a Moravian minister. In the fifth year of his age his parents removed with him to Grace-hill, in the county of Antrim, Ireland. In the following year he was separated from them for ever, and placed in the seminary of the United Moravian Brethren, at Fulneck, near Leeds, in Yorkshire. His parents were, afterwards, sent as missionaries to the West-Indies, to preach, to the poor negro slave, the consoling doctrine of another and a better world; "where the wretched hear not the voice of the oppressor," and where "the servant is free from his master:" in this service both died. In the Fulneck academy, amongst a people remarkable for their ardour in religion, and their industry in the pursuit of useful learning, James Montgomery received his education. |