The fifth son ofWilliam Roscoe, he was born inToxteth Park, Liverpool in 1791, and educated by Dr. W. Shepherd and by Mr. Lloyd, a private tutor.[1]
Soon after his father's financial troubles in 1816, which led to bankruptcy, Roscoe began to write in local magazines and journals, and he continued to follow literature as a profession. He died at age 80, on 24 September 1871, at Acacia Road,St. John's Wood, London.[1]
Owain Goch: a Tale of the Revolution [anon.], 1827, 3 vols.
The Tourist in Switzerland and Italy, 1830; the first volume of theLandscape Annual, followed for eight years by similar volumes on Italy, France, and Spain.
Roscoe editedThe Juvenile Keepsake, 1828–30;The Novelists' Library, with Biographical and Critical Notices, 1831–3, 17 vols.; the works ofHenry Fielding,Tobias Smollett, andJonathan Swift (1840–9, 3 vols.), and new issues of his father'sLorenzo de' Medici andLeo the Tenth.[1]
Roscoe married, or cohabited with, Elizabeth Edwards, and had seven children, including Jane Elizabeth St John, writer and wife ofHorace Stebbing Roscoe St John.[1][3]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Roscoe, Thomas".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.