John Carne

[2] He was admitted in 1826 to deacon's orders by Dr Matthew Henry Thornhill Luscombe, the chaplain of the British embassy at Paris, and a bishop of the Episcopal church of Scotland; but, except during a few months' residence at Vevey in Switzerland, he did not officiate as a clergyman.

However, as a younger man, living in West Cornwall and from a committed Methodist family, he had frequently preached with other local preachers at chapels in Penzance and Newlyn.

On coming back to England he commenced writing for the New Monthly Magazine an account of his travels, under the title of Letters from the East, receiving from Henry Colburn twenty guineas for each article.

The publication of this work and his talents for society brought him into familiar intercourse with Walter Scott, Southey, Campbell, Lockhart, Jerdan, and other distinguished men of letters.

Among those who knew him his fame as a story-teller far exceeded his renown as a writer, and social company often gathered round him to be spellbound by some exciting or pathetic narration.

While preparing to set out for the shores of the Mediterranean he was attacked with a sudden illness and died at Penzance on 19 April 1844, when his remains were buried in Gulval churchyard.