Author: Lake, William
Biography:
Lake, William (1787-1805: WBIS)
All the available biographical information about him comes from the memoir attached to his posthumous collection of poems. The copyright-holder and author of the memoir was a personal friend, Harry Croswell (1778-1858), who had known hardship himself but eventually became a crusading journalist and a clergyman. Lake's father Joseph, Eton-educated, had emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled as a farmer in Kingston, where William was born. (The name of his mother is not recorded.) Lake left home at fifteen, however, after a quarrel over an unsuitable attachment. He found work as a clerk in a store in Philadelphia and later travelled on behalf of the business in the US and Europe. He died in Philadelphia, bequeathing his MSS to Croswell.