Career
Born in humble circumstances, he was an autodidact scholar who learnt to speak French by frequenting Slaughter"s Coffee House. His inoffensive character procured for him the name of the ‘Lamb.’ but when ‘Hesiod’ Cooke abused his poetry, Lockman retorted, ‘lieutenant may be southern But, thank God! my name is not at full length in the “Dunciad.”’
His poems were chiefly occasional verse intended to be set to music for Vauxhall.
In 1762 he tried, fruitlessly, to get them printed by subscription.
He frequently went to court to present his verses to the royal family, and after he became secretary to the British Herring Fishery he tendered gifts of pickled herrings. Both poems and herrings, he declared, were ‘most graciously accepted.’
He died in Brownlow Street, Long Acre, on 2 February 1771, leaving a widow, Mary.