Robert Hope Moncrieff (18461927) was a prolific Scottish author of children's fiction and of Black's Guides.
Early life
Robert Hope Moncrieff was born on 26 February 1846, the lawful son of George Moncrieff (11 May 191716 May 1865), a solicitor and his first wife Angela Birch (19 September 182025 December 1848). The couple had married the previous year in St Brides Church in Liverpool on 2 June 1845. Robert was quickly followed by a brother, John Forbes (5 July 18477 March 1927), and a sister, Angela Mary (27 November 18488 March 1864).
Moncrieff's mother, Angela, died of childbed fever four weeks after the birth of Angela Mary. Moncrieff was under three. His father married a second time on 27 June 1854 to Maria Wilks Williamson Rodgers (183030 March 1859) in Kilkenny, Ireland. The family now lived at No 7, Atholl Crescent in Perth. Maria gave George three more children: George Henry (2 November 185523 February 1947); Francis Edward (24 March 18577 January 1884); and Henrietta (14 June 185830 April 1859), who died in infancy.
Moncrieff's step-mother, Maria, died when he was just 13, and his father married again before he was 15. His third wife was Isabella Roy (29 October 182818 January 1879) whom he married on 16 January 1861 in 2, Atholl Crescent. Perth, Scotland. Her father was not a soldier, but the Captain of a ship trading in Asia with the permission of the East India Company.
Moncrieff and his brother were in boarding school by the time their father married for the third time. The 1861 Census shows both Moncrieff (15) and his brother John (13) boarding at the Circus Place School in Edinburgh. This was a highly regarded school which prepared pupils for the Edinburgh Academy. Moncrieff went on to attend the Edinburgh Academy and then the University of Edinburgh.
Moncrieff's father died in 1865, four years after his third marriage. when Moncrieff was 19. Moncrieff wrote nearly fifty years later that his mother had died before he knew her and that: my father also was taken too soon, leaving me precociously independent. Not one of his father's three marriages lasted five years, all ending prematurely with the death of either wife or husband. Moncrieff himself never married.
Writing
Before he was out of his teens, Moncrieff had written and made money by a real book. While he attended the University of Edinburgh he wrote A book about Dominies (1867), Dominies being a term used for schoolmasters in Scotland. This was taken by a publisher, who published it at his own expense with a promise of profit to the author, which proved rather a mirage in the cold light of publishing accounts. It was published anonymously with no author's name given. The book was well reviewed and went into several editions. Moncrieff followed this up with A Book About Boys, (1868) adopting his pseudonym Ascott R. Hope for the first time. Moncrieff was ashamed of some of his early books and went to some expense to withdraw them from circulation.
Moncrieff says that he had have made awkward attempts at more than one handicraft, with the view of gathering straw for literary bricks. He was said to have taken up teaching briefly more with the purpose of studying schoolboys and their ways than to making it a profession.
Moncrieff travelled extensively. Even his census returns in the UK show how much he bounced around: 1851Living with his widowed father and two siblings in Perth. 5 years old. 1861At the Circus Place School in Edinburgh with his brother John. 1871An assistant master at Christ College, Brecon in Wales. 1881Boarding at 8, Victoria Grove, in Kensington, London. Profession now is Author. 1891Boarding at Hillside Boarding Lodge in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Profession is Author. The 13th edition of Black's Guide to the Isle of Wight, edited by Moncrieff, was published in 1895. 1901Now 55 years old. Moncrieff was no longer boarding, but was at the head of his own establishment at 85 Munster Road in Fulham, London. No relatives in the house, but the house also holds his 60-year-old housekeeper and her adult daughter. The electoral register show that he was still there in 1907. 1911Only occupant of 5 Chandos Road, Cricklewood, London, apart from a 52-year-old housekeeper. 1927On his death at 81 years-of-age he was living at 16a Addison Gardens, Kensington, London.