Charles Churchill

Biography

English poet and satirist. He went to school with Robert Lloyd and William Cowley at Westminister School. In 1756 he became curate of South Cadbury, but in 1761, following a divorce, he moved to London where he began his literary career. He met John Wilkes whom he joined in writing the critical periodical The North Briton, for which Wilkes was temporarily imprisoned in 1763.

He was a lifelong friend of Robert Lloyd, who, apparently, died following the news of Churchills death. Churchill's sister was engaged to Lloyd, and died soon afterwards.

Churchills poems were published, for the most part, by William Flexney. In one of them, the Ghost, Dr. Johnson features prominently as Pomposo of whom the poem tells us that "He for subscribers baits his hook - and takes your cash, but where's the book?", which was an allusion to Johnson's long overdue edition of Shakespeare. (Link) Johnson on his part said about Churchill (to Boswell and Goldsmith) that "I have a better opinion of him now than I had at first, as he has shown more fertility than I expected. To be sure, he is a tree that cannot produce true fruit. He only bears crabs. But, Sir, a tree that produces a great many crabs is better than one which produces only a few crabs." (LJ010763)

Life with James Boswell

Boswell had seen Churchill a few times (at Lord Eglinton's in November, 1762 and at Westminister School in December, 1762), but apparently was not actually introduced to him until they met him at Bonnell Thornton's on May 24, 1763. Boswell was a frequent reader of The North Briton, and he admired the group of people associated with Wilkes and Churchill (i.e. Thornton, Robert Lloyd and William Cowper). Churchill and Boswell sat next to each other at a theatre performance on June 20, 1763, to Boswell's great joy ("I was vain to be seen talking with that great bard" wrote he in his journal).

Recommended literature

From Amazon.co.uk

• The Nonsense Club: Literature and Popular Culture, 1749-64
• Poetical Works
• Selected Poems of Thomas Gray, Charles Churchill and William Cowper.

It is often possible to find various writings by Charles Churchill at the AbeBooks used books search engine. Among them are The Correspondence of John Wilkes and Charles Churchill and The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill.

Related links

• Charles Churchill (Wikipedia)
• Portraits of Charles Churchill (NPG)

Mentioned in

Charles Churchill is mentioned in:

• London Journal 1762-1763