APPERLEY, CHARLES JAMES (1779 - 1843), writer on sport, known as ' Nimrod '.
Pseudonym: Nimrod
Date of birth: 1779
Date of death: 1843
Spouse: Winifred Apperley (née Wynn)
Child: William Wynne Apperley
Parent: Thomas Apperley
Gender: Male
Occupation: writer on sport
Area of activity: Literature and Writing; Nature and Agriculture; Sports and Leisure Pursuits
Author: Edward Morgan Humphreys
Born 1779 at Plas Gronow (now demolished), near Wrexham, second son of Thomas Apperley; his mother was a daughter of William Wynn (1709 - 1760), of Maes y Neuadd, Talsarnau, Meironnydd, rector of Llangynhafal. Educated at Rugby (1790), Apperley became in 1798 cornet in Sir Watkin William Wynn's Ancient British Light Dragoons and served in Ireland. He married (1801) Winifred, daughter of William Wynn, of Peniarth, Meironnydd, and from 1813 to 1819 he was agent for his brother-in-law's Caernarvonshire estates, living at Tŷ Gwyn, Llanbeblig, on the outskirts of Caernarvon; in My Life and Times there is a chapter on ' Hunting from Llanbeblig.' Afterwards he lived at various places in England, hunting, farming, and ultimately losing most of his money.
In 1822 he began writing for the Sporting Magazine, using the pen-name ' Nimrod'; his articles attracted immediate attention and increased the circulation of the magazine, but in 1830 he was compelled to flee to Calais to escape his creditors. He returned to England in 1842, and died in Upper Belgrave Place, Pimlico, 19 May 1843. His second son, Major WILLIAM WYNNE APPERLEY, of the Indian Army, died at Morben, near Machynlleth, 25 April 1872.
Apperley's best-known books are The Chace, the Road, and the Turf (1837), Memoirs of the Life of John Mytton (1837), The Life of a Sportsman (1842), and Hunting Reminiscences (1843). While in France he became a member of the staff of the Sporting Review, and, at J. G. Lockhart's request, contributed to the Quarterly Review articles on ' Melton Mowbray,' ' The Road,' and ' The Turf.' In his autobiography he describes the life of the Welsh landed gentry at the end of the 18th and in the early years of the 19th century
Author
- Edward Morgan Humphreys, (1882 - 1955)
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- 'Nimrod,' My Life and Times (1927)
Sources
- Wikipedia Article: Charles James Apperley
Further Reading
- National Portrait Gallery: Charles James Apperley
Images
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/
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