Author: Dyer, George
Biography:
DYER, George (1755-1841: ODNB)
There are conflicting accounts of Dyer’s origins but it is now accepted that he was born in Bridewell, London, on 15 Mar. 1755. His father, John, was a shipwright and records from the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights show that he became “free by servitude” on 31 July 1753. George Dyer was baptised in St. Sepulchre, Holborn, on 26 Mar. 1755. The record gives his mother’s name as Margaret. On 1 July 1762 he became a pupil at Christ’s Hospital where he was encouraged academically and became a Grecian or senior student of classics. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1774 (BA 1778) and in 1778 he began teaching at Dedham grammar school in Essex. From 1782 to 1785 he taught at John Collett Ryland’s school in Northampton before returning to Cambridge as a tutor in the family of Robert Robinson. Dyer and Robinson became Unitarians and Dyer published An Inquiry into the Nature of Subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles in 1789. In 1792 he moved to London where, in 1795, he settled at Clifford’s Inn, his home for the rest of his life. Dyer was older than his many literary friends—Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, Southey, and Wordsworth (qq.v.)—and considered eccentric, but he seems to have inspired affection and loyalty. He became known especially for his political writings. A member of the Constitutional Society, he took every opportunity to urge the cause of reform by publishing such works as his Complaints of the Poor People of England (1793). After 1795 he turned more to journalism and scholarship and he published, among other works, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Robert Robinson (1796) and histories of Cambridge University. He edited the 141 volumes of Abraham John Valpy’s collection of the classics (1819-30)—a feat of scholarly endurance that contributed to his blindness. On 3 May 1824 at St. Dunstan in the West he married Honour (Gosling) Mather, a widow; the marriage led to evident improvements in his appearance and happiness. Dyer died at home on 2 Mar. 1841 and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery on 9 Mar. Dyer received relief from the RLF in 1801, 1816, and 1833; his widow was granted £30 in 1856. She died in 1861. (ODNB 19 Aug. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 19 Aug. 2024; RLF file 100; Records of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights [1946]; GM 1841) SR
Other Names:
- G. Dyer