Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coulton, David Trevena
COULTON, DAVID TREVENA (1810–1857), journalist and miscellaneous writer, a grandson of the Rev. J. Coulton, was born at Devizes, Wiltshire, in 1810. His father died during his early childhood. Owing to delicate health he was educated under a private tutor. At an early age he began to contribute both poetry and prose to the periodicals, and in 1839 he founded the ‘Britannia’ newspaper, the aim of which was to extend and popularise the principles of conservatism, and to uphold national protestantism as embodied in the institutions of the realm. As a journalist, while a close reasoner, he possessed considerable skill in the popular exposition of complex questions. In 1847 he withdrew from active journalism, and having in 1850 sold the ‘Britannia’ he settled at Goudhurst, Kent, where he took to farming, occasionally contributing to the ‘Quarterly Review.’ He published an ‘Inquiry into the Authorship of the Letters of Junius,’ and in 1853 a novel entitled ‘Fortune, a story of London Life.’ Yielding to the solicitation of friends, he undertook in 1854 to edit the ‘Press.’ His recreation was mechanics, and he planned an atmospheric railway. He died of bronchitis at Brighton 8 May 1857.
[Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. ii. 742; Art Journal, new ser. 1857, iii. 228.]