Francis Hindes Groome (30 August 1851 – 24 January 1902) was a writer and foremost commentator of his time on the Romani people, their language, life, history, customs, beliefs, and lore.
Groome was born at his father's rectory in Monk Soham, Suffolk, on 30 August 1851. He was educated at Ipswich School, where his lifelong interest in Romanies was sparked, and continued at Oxford University. He left Oxford without taking a degree, spent some time at the University of Göttingen, in Germany, and then for six years lived with Romani at home and abroad. He married a woman of Romani blood, Esmeralda Locke, in 1876 and settled down to regular literary work in Edinburgh.[1]
His article on 'Gipsies', in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, made him known to the world as a "gypsyologist".[1] In 1899 he published his most significant book for folklorists, Gypsy Folk-Tales. These well-annotated collections are a significant addition to the comparative study of the world's folktales. He also co-edited the first three volumes of Gypsy Lore Society's Journal, and wrote nineteen brief articles and collections of folktales for it.[2]
He wrote a number of books including a novel of Romani life, an English–Scottish border history, a sketch of his father and Fitzgerald, and an autobiographical account of his time living with the Romani.
A singularly alert, swift, and eager intellect, he was unwearied in research, impatient of anything less than precision, a frank and fearless critic; thoroughly at home in wide fields of historical and philological research, and in some of them a master.[1] He was nicknamed the “Tarno Rye”.[4]
Death
Groome died on 24 January 1902, aged 50, in London. He was buried at Monk Soham, Suffolk.[1]
Legacy
In October 1901, Groome's library of books, letters, and manuscripts bearing upon the study of the Romani was purchased by the Boston Athenæum. The collection comprises over one hundred volumes, some which are rare, and others contain rare tracts and magazine articles. There are also Groome's own books with his marginal additions, over thirty volumes of manuscript notes, lectures, and his correspondence with M. Paul Bataillard, the eminent French student of the Romani, covering the years 1872 to 1880.[5][6]
Works
Books and articles written on the Romani People:
The Gipsies: Reminiscences and Social Life of this Extraordinary Race (1881) Google Books
^ abJones, Michael Owen (1967). "Francis Hindes Groome: Scholar Gypsy and Gypsy Scholar". The Journal of American Folklore. 80 (315): 71–80. doi:10.2307/538418. JSTOR538418.
