John Oakman

John Oakman (c.1748–1793) was an English engraver and writer.

Life

Oakman was born in Hendon about 1748, and was educated at a grammar school. He was apprenticed to the map-engraver Emanuel Bowen, but left before completing his indenture, in consequence of an affair with his daughter, whom he afterwards married.[1][2]

He kept a shop in partnership with Matthias Darly for the sale of caricatures and similar prints,[1] "but the love of pleasure and good company got so much the better of his judgment that he was soon put to other contrivances to obtain a living."[3] Having some literary facility, he made money by writing several disreputable novels, such as The Life and Adventures of Benjamin Brass (1765), partly based on his early life, The History of Sir Edward Haunch, and others. His book The Adventures of William Williams, an African Prince, whom Oakman met in Liverpool prison, had some success through its attack on slavery as an institution.[1] "He wrote for two guineas a set of two volumes; and such was his rapidity, that he could produce one work a week."[3]

Oakman had a gift for song-writing, and wrote many popular songs for Vauxhall Gardens, Bermondsey Spa and elsewhere; he also wrote burlettas for the performances at Astley's Amphitheatre. He engraved on wood illustrations for children's books and cheap literature. After a somewhat vagrant life, Oakman died destitute at his sister's house in Westminster in October 1793,[1] and was buried at Holy Trinity Minories.[2]

gollark: If it became possible to grow babies externally or conveniently move them, that might be an acceptable solution too.
gollark: To rethingy: I think that, regardless of whose body or creation or whatever it is, the person who is actually carrying it and bears the associated issues of having it glued to their circulatory system and such should get to decide whether to keep doing that.
gollark: A fetus contains some of your genes but ~all of its materials come from what the mother eats/processes, so that isn't relevant either.
gollark: I'll rephrase a bit or something.
gollark: You were saying that it was "half another person's body" earlier.

References
  1. Cust, Lionel Henry (1895). "Oakman, John" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 292.
  2. "Oakman, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20433. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Page 335 The Monthly Magazine, volume 10. 1800.

Attribution

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