1825        7 June. Born at Longworth Rectory, Berkshire
4 October Mother Anne Bassett died of typhus in the Rectory. Her twin sister Harriett Mercy died there on 19 September

1826        July. Family move to Bushey, Herts. RDB and brother stay in S Wales.

1831        1 November. Father marries Charlotte Platt in Bushey

1832       December. Family move to King's Nympton, Devon

1833       Attends Hugh Squier's School, South Molton

1833       Attends King's School, Bruton, until 1837

1835       March. Family move to Culmstock, Devon.

1837       16 August. Joins Blundell's School, Tiverton

1841       Family move to Tor Mohun, Devon

1843       7 November. Matriculates at Exeter College, Oxford

1844        Awarded the Gifford Scholarship

1845       April. Family move to Ashford, Devon

1847       2 December. Awarded Classics (Second Class) BA at Oxford

1849       27 January. Joins Middle Temple, London, to study for the Bar

1852       7 June. Called to the Bar. Practises as a conveyancer until ca. 1857

1853       8 November. Secretly marries Lucy Maguire in Holy Trinity, Holborn

1854       Publishes anonymously his first verse, Poems by Melanter and Epullia

1855       Teaches classics at Wellesley House School, Twickenham (until 1858)

1856       Moves to live at Lower Teddington Road, Hampton Wick

1857       Receives substantial inheritance from uncle Revd Henry Hey Knight

1858       Father died while visiting family in Newton Nottage, Glamorgan.

1860 ca.        Moves into his newly built home and fruit gardens at Gomer House, Field Lane, Teddington. Takes up the life of horticulturist and novelist

1862       Publishes his translations of the first two of Virgil's Georgics anonymously

1864       Publishes first novel Clara Vaughan anonymously (but written ca 1853)

m id-1860s        Opposes the building of the railway and station, which came very close to his property. Loses 5 acres of his land to the railway.

1866         Publishes Cradock Nowell

1869         Publishes Lorna Doone

1872       Publishes Maid of Sker (from first draft of late 1840s)
His nieces Eva and Dolly Pinto Leite visit him and Lucy with increasing regularity

1875       His older brother Henry dies at Yeovil in suspicious circumstances. Brings public law suit against Maggs the chemist: settles out of court the following year

1875       Publishes Alice Lorraine

1876       Publishes Cripps, the Carrier

1877       Publishes Erema, or My Father's Sin

1878        Death of his beloved aunt Mary Frances Gordon. Publishes a short poem in her memory, "Dominus Illuminatio Mea"

1880        Publishes Mary Anerley

1882        Publishes Christowell

1884        Publishes The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore

1887        Publishes Springhaven

1888         31 January. Lucy dies of pneumonia in Teddington

1890         Publishes Kit and Kitty

1894        Publishes Perlycross

1895        Publishes Fringilla (poems with illustrations)

1895        Publishes four short stories, Slain by the Doones (US title) and Tales of the Telling House (British title)

1897        Publishes his last novel, Dariel

1900       20 January. Dies after a long illness in Teddington, and buried in the Cemetery with his wife


Last updated 13 April 2006