Author: Girdlestone, John Lang
Biography:
GIRDLESTONE, John Lang (1763-1825: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 5 Jan. 1763 and baptised on 2 Apr. at Baconthorpe, Norfolk, where his father was Rector, the seventh of eight children of Rev. Zurishaddai Girdlestone (1719-67) and his wife Sarah Hewitt (1723-95), who had married in 1748. (The ODNB confuses him with a brother of the same name [1756-61]). He was educated at schools at Baconsthorpe and Scanning, both in Norfolk, before proceeding to his father’s old college, Gonville and Caius, Cambridge (matric. 1782, BA 1785, MA 1789, Fellow 1786-89). He entered the established church and was ordained deacon (1785) and priest (1787). He was Rector of Swainsthorpe (1788-1825) and Sheringham (1813-25), both Norfolk parishes. He married Maria Hewitt, a first cousin, on 30 Sept. 1791 at Holt, Norfolk. They had a son and four daughters. He was Master of the classical school at Beccles, Norfolk (1794-1813). He published the first complete English translation of Pindar (q.v.), which he had first announced in Dec. 1808, at Norwich in 1810. In addition to the posthumous collection listed here, he wrote A Sketch of the Foundation of the Christian Church (1817). He died on 22 Jan. 1825 and was buried at All Saints, Sheringham. (ODNB 16 Jun. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 16 Jun. 2022; CCEd 16 Jun. 2022; S. Wilton Rix, The Fauconberge Memorial [1849], 37-43; R. B. Girdlestone, Genealogical Notes [1904]; Watkins; OUCH 10 Dec. 1808, 2 Jun. 1810; Bury and Norwich Post 2 Feb. 1825) AA