James Hurdis
James Hurdis was an English clergyman and poet.Life
Born in Bishopstone, East Sussex, Hurdis studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford, and Magdalen College, Oxford, later becoming a Fellow of Magdalen College.
Hurdis was curate for the East Sussex village of Burwash from 1786, and it was there that he wrote The Village Curate, a blank verse poem published anonymously in 1788. In 1793 he was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.
Sussex shepherds at this time used to catch wheatears in small cage traps to sell as songbirds. Hurdis used to free the trapped birds, but would leave coins in their place.
Hurdis died in 1801 and there is a memorial to him in Bishopstone Church. The local town hall in Seaford, East Sussex, is named Hurdis House in his honour.. He was a headmaster of Prebendal School, Chichester. His eldest son James Henry Hurdis was a notable amateur artist.
