John Cullen in Bottesford, Leicestershire

I first learned of the existence of the poet John Cullen from the Bottesford Living History Project here. He was born in Newport, County Tipperary, Ireland, and left Trinity College, Dublin, before taking a degree. He had married the German Leontine Dordinger (or Derdinger) before he became curate at Bottesford, Leicestershire, from 1867 to 1869. He would have lived at The Manse on the corner or Rectory Lane and Chapel Street.

From Bottesford he became the vicar of St Mary's parish church, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire in 1874, where he stayed until his death in 1914. He initiated the restoration and enlargement of St Mary's in 1877, which included rebuilding of the tower, whose unusual saddleback roof has been said to be influenced by Leontine to remind her of her native home.

Cullen supported women's suffrage and his poetry was well received in the USA. Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, awarded him a doctorate in Divinity in 1893.

Cullen's son Frederick died in 1872 at the age of six months and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Bottesford.

Cullen died at the vicarage in Radcliffe-on-Trent, although he was buried with his wife (who died in 1906) in Bottesford. He has an entry in the DNB written by Pamela Priestland.

'IN SACRED MEMORY OF
Leontine Eugenie Cullen
WHO DIED ON SEPT. 16 1906,
AGED 66 YEARS.

"Wir seh'n den Himmel offen
Und nicht das Grab allein."

"VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, IF A MAN KEEP MY

SAYING, HE SHALL NEVER SEE DEATH." JOHN 8: 51

"I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED." 2 TIM 1. 12.

ALSO REV. John Cullen, D. D.,
DIED MAY 6TH. 1914, AGED 77 YEARS,
40 YEARS VICAR OF RADCLIFFE-ON-TRENT.'

The full 1893 edition of Cullen's Poems and Idylls is here.

The British Library lists a number of John Cullen's publications, of which these are examples:

Horae Poeticae, New ed., rev. (London: William Macintosh, [1869]

The Life after Death, and the Things to come (London: Hatchards, 1876)

Confirmation: Its nature and obligations (London: Hatchards, 1881)

In What Way Can Romeward Tendencies Be Most Effectually Counteracted and Suppressed? (London: John Kensit, [1888])

Pen Pictures from the Life of Christ (London: R. D. Dickinson, 1889)

Poems and idylls (London: S.W. Partridge, 1893)

Songs of Consolation (London: S. W. Partridge, 1893)

The Fruit of the Spirit, 2nd ed. (London: S. W. Partridge, [1895])

Three Christian Virtues: Faith, Hope, Love, these three (London: Marshall Brothers, [1903]).