Bury St Edmunds historian Martyn Taylor looks into how travelling salesman Harry Cockton’s life took in writing, ill-fated business schemes, bankruptcy and consumption

This week, historian and Bury St Edmunds tour guide Martyn Taylor looks into the life of Henry Cockton, an English novelist remembered primarily for The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist.

Henry Cockton was born in George Yard, Shoreditch, London, one of eight children to William and Mary Cockton. His father may have been a weaver.

Not much is known about his early life, but he was sufficiently impressed by another Victorian author, Charles Dickens to try his hand at writing. Valentine Vox was his first novel, 1839-40, written in monthly instalments, as was Dicken’s first novel, Pickwick Papers. Henry’s eponymous hero attends various public meetings and with the aid of his new-found art, projecting his voice away from himself causes mayhem.

It is thought Henry gleaned his knowledge of ventriloquism after seeing a performance in a tavern. The illustrated tome was a success, selling in thousands; however his choice of publisher was not a wise one as Henry did not retain the copyright, which was to have catastrophic consequences for him later on.

Before turning his hand to writing he was a travelling salesman and at different times he stayed at the Seven Stars Inn, at 16 Long Brackland. An 18th century timber-frame hostelry, it was rebuilt during the 19th century.

Abraham Howes had run the Seven Stars Inn until his death in 1820. Subsequently his widow Eleanor ran the inn until 1835, when she went to live next door, renting out the inn. So it was no surprise that in May 1837, Henry Cockton married their daughter, Ann, at St James’ Church.

Henry does not seem to have made much money from novel-writing, as the 1841 census showed him and his family residing in 165 Blackfriars Road, Southwark, where they were lodgers of Maria Dowie, a widowed dressmaker. By 1842 he was bankrupt.

Henry and Ann moved back to Bury, taking on the Seven Stars. Unfortunately he was not a good businessman – this was proven when he heard a rumour the next barley harvest would be poor, plus with a repeal of the malt tax he could make a killing by buying up all available barley and stockpiling it in warehouses.

Speculating with his mother-in-law’s money (he knew nothing of the barley and malt trade), unfortunately for him neither happened and the barley he had amassed in warehouses went mouldy. Unable to sell it, his hare-brained scheme fell flat on its face.

Henry gave up the inn-trade and moved in with his mother-in-law, continuing to write more novels but nowhere near the popularity of Valentine Vox.

On top of the malt storing debacle, he stood as guarantor for his miscreant brother Edward, who then absconded to Australia leaving Henry £200 out of pocket. With his publisher going bankrupt, things couldn’t get worse could they? But they did, as his family rejected him.

Henry died from consumption (TB) on June 26 1853, aged just 46. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Great Churchyard.

His passing was noted in the Bury Post, March 1884: “He possessed the power of portraying human nature in its various phases in a manner which would not have discredited a Dickens or a Scott. But his talents did not realise him a fortune, or even a competency, and he died poor and friendless.”

This followed up the plaque put up in his memory on the Charnel House in The Great Churchyard by his admirers in 1884.

In Long Brackland a stone plaque was also put up to him, one of 12 plaques of 1907 to people who had contributed to the rich heritage and history of the town in support of the pageant of that year.

The Seven Stars eventually closed in 1917, having not been economically viable for some time.