A Man of Mystery
Byrom did not lead an ordinary provincial life. He was a member of the Royal Society while Sir Isaac Newton was president, and moved in some very influential social and intellectual circles in the capital and elsewhere. Modern research has revealed him to be something of a man of mystery. In the first place there is the question of his political views. It was once thought that he was a closet Jacobite, but it is now suggested that he may have acted as a double agent, the 'Queen's Chameleon'. When the Young Pretender briefly occupied Manchester in 1745, he certainly did his best to lie low. His views might be summed up in the verse that he composed, in the form of a toast.
- God bless the King! (I mean our faith's defender!)
- God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender.
- But who Pretender is, and who is King,
- God bless us all! That's quite another thing!
Byrom died in 1763 and is buried in the Jesus Chapel, Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, England. His papers, though preserved for some time after his death, were mysteriously destroyed in the nineteenth century. A few surviving items have suggested that he may have belonged to an early proto-masonic society, similar to the Gentleman's Club of Spalding, and pursued occult interests. His library of books and manuscripts was donated to Chetham's Library by his descendant Eleanora Atherton in 1870.
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