SUCKLING, Alfred Inigo

1796 - 1856

Alfred Inigo Fox, (Suckling from 1820), was born at Norwich on 31 January 1796, the only son of Alexander Fox (c1760-1848) of Norwich and his wife, Anna Maria Suckling (1765-1848), daughter of Robert Suckling of Woodton, Norfolk, and his wife, Susannah Webb, who married at St. Clement, Norwich on 21 July 1791. The Suckling family, which included the poet Sir John Suckling and Nelson's uncle Maurice Suckling, had owned the Woodton-cum-Langhall estate since the fourteenth century and another estate at Barsham, Suffolk since 1627. Alfred Inigo Fox matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in May 1814 and graduated LL. B in 1824. On 31 January 1816, he married Lucia Clementina Clarke (1794-1876), eldest daughter of Samuel Clarke of Bergh Apton, Norfolk, they had eleven children. When Fox's father-in-law Robert Suckling's son, Maurice William died without issue on 1 December 1820, Alfred Inigo Fox took the surname and arms of Suckling on succeeding to the estates. Alfred was ordained at Norwich on 15 October 1820, but was unbeneficed until on 10 July 1839 he took the family living of Barsham, Suffolk which he held it until his death. Suckling's antiquarian pursuits took him around East Anglia and into France, but apart from publishing selections from his famous poet forebear, with a biography in 1836, he devoted his energies to Suffolk and Essex topography. A competent topographical artist, as the originals in his manuscripts show, he drew most of the illustrations for his books, and many of his drawings were engraved on steel by Orlando Jewitt (1799-1869). His 'Memorials of… Essex' first appeared, edited by the London publisher John Weale, in the latter's Quarterly Papers on Architecture for 1845. Suckling's monumental 'History and Antiquities of Suffolk' began with a volume treating the hundreds of Wangford, and Lothingland and Mutford in 1846, over which he fell out with Weale. The second (1848), and last, took readers no further than Leiston in Blything which was published by the author for subscribers. Alfred Inigo Suckling died at 40 Belmont Road, St Helier, Jersey on 3 May 1856, aged 60, and buried in Jersey.

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Works by This Artist