Author: Churchill, W.
Biography:
CHURCHILL, William (1744-1804: Westminster School Archives)
Although The Temple of Corruption was published without the author’s name on the title page, contemporary newspaper advertisements identified it as by “W. Churchill, Brother to the late Charles Churchill.” William was born on 19 June 1744, the youngest of four surviving children of Charles Churchill and his wife Anne. (His eldest brother, the poet Charles Churchill, lived from 1734 to 1768.) He was baptised on 4 July 1744 at St. John’s, Smith Square, London, where his father was the curate. Like his father and his elder brothers, he was educated at Westminster School where his name appears in the school lists for 1750-52. He does not seem to have attended university and no record has been found for his ordination but he became vicar of St. Edith’s church at Orton on the Hill, Leicestershire, on 23 Oct. 1789 and held the post until his death on 30 Jan. 1804. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Edith’s on 3 Feb. 1804. No record of a marriage has been located. (Westminster School Archives 18 Dec. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 18 Dec. 2023; MR 42 [1770], 144; ODNB [for Charles Churchill] 18 Dec. 2023; CCEd 18 Dec. 2023; Cambridge Chronicle 17 Feb. 1770; Sun 13 Feb. 1804) SR