A multitude of errors have been perpetrated about Dr. Tennyson and family.
We are told that Bayons Manor was his native place,[19] and that he was
"rector of Somersby and vicar of Bennington and Grimsby."[20] One writer
uncritically imagines him a doctor of divinity.[21] According to some
questionable authorities, he died "about 1830;"[22] "in 1830;"[23] "about
1831;"[24] "on the 18th of March, 1831;"[25] and in 1832.[26] Mrs.
Tennyson is said to have died "in her eighty-first year;"[27] also "in her
eighty-fourth year."[28]
The number of sons and daughters in the Tennyson household is rarely given
correctly. Alfred is called, in a hit-or-miss fashion, one of three, four,
six, seven and eight brothers. His sisters are variously reckoned as one,
three, four and five.
The Rev. George Clayton Tennyson was born at Market Rasen, December 10,
1778. He graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1801; he received
the degree of M. A. in 1805, and of LL.D. in 1813. He married (August 6,
1805) Miss Elizabeth Fytche of Louth. He moved to Somersby in 1808, where
he was rector till his death. If the inscription on his tomb is to be
trusted, Dr. Tennyson was rector of two neighboring parishes--Benniworth
and Bag Enderby--and was vicar of Great Grimsby;[29] and died March 16,
1831. The poet's mother died February 21, 1865, in her eighty-fifth year.
Alfred Tennyson was the fourth of eight sons--George (who died in
infancy), Frederick, Charles, Alfred, Edward, Arthur, Septimus, and
Horatio. The sisters were Mary, Emily, Matilda, and Cecilia. Excepting
George and Frederick, all of the children were born at Somersby.