Author: Lake, William
Biography:
LAKE, William (1787-1805: Port Folio)
All the available biographical information about him comes from the memoir attached to his posthumous collection of poems and also published, anonymously, in the Philadelphia periodical The Port Folio. 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 on 20 Sept. 1787. 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 on 15 Dec. 1805, bequeathing his MSS to Croswell. (Parnassian Pilgrim [1807]; Port Folio [Philadelphia] 29 Aug. 1807; information from AA) HJ