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, 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