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Author: Lipscomb, William

Biography:

LIPSCOMB, William (1754-1842: ancestry.co.uk)

He was born on 19 June 1754 and baptised 9 July at St. Thomas, Winchester, the son of Thomas Lipscomb, a surgeon, and his wife Sarah Earde. He went to Winchester and proceeded to Corpus Christi, Oxford (matric. 1770, BA 1774, MA 1784). He won the prize for English verse in 1772 for his eight-page Beneficial Effects of Inoculation (1772, repr. 1784, 1793, 1807, 1810). He subsequently entered the Established Church and married Margaret Cooke, daughter of Francis Cooke, a cashier in the navy, on 19 Aug. 1780 at St. Alphege, Greenwich. They went on to have ten children. He was first minister at Staindrop, Durham, and chaplain to the Earl of Darlington at Raby Castle. In 1789, he was appointed rector of Welbury, near Northallerton, Yorkshire, a post he held until 1832 when he passed it on to his son Francis. He died on 25 May 1842 at Brompton, Kensington, London, and was buried at Holy Trinity. His translations of Italian sonnets and his three-volume modern version of Chaucer published in 1795 probably reflect the influence of the Warton circle’s interest in literary history at Oxford. He also contributed to the GM. Three poems by his son Christopher Lipscomb (1781-1843), who won the prize for Latin verse at New College, Oxford, in 1802, are also noteworthy and were printed in 1862: "On the Death of Dr. Warton," "Ode to Faction," "Sonnet during the Irish rebellion." (ODNB 14 Apr. 2021; ancestry.co.uk; CCEd; GM Jul. 1842, 100-1 and Aug. 1862, 158-61; PGM) AA

 

Books written (3):

Oxford/ London/ York: J. Walter [London], 1784
London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1830