John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)

Abstract

Frere was born in London on May 21, 1769, incidentally in the same year that Napoleon and Wellington were born. Was it only mere chance that they were brought together in a short but dramatic period in the swiftly revolving cycle of History? Frere was the eldest son of John Frere (1740-1807) and of Joanna Hookham. The father was an eminent antiquary who doted on his son whom he sent to the aristocratic college of Eton for his education. There young Frere became a great friend of George Canning, a future Prime Minister, and later his literary collaborator. From Eton he proceeded to his father's old college, Caius, at Cambridge University, of which he became a Fellow from 1793 to 1816.