Author: Michell, Richard
Biography:
MICHELL, Richard (1725?-75: findmypast.com)
Reverend Richard Michell, “Rector of Shaftsbury [sic], Dorset; and Master of the Grammar-School in that Place,” according to a title-page of c. 1770, had been ordained deacon in 1767and priest in 1768 by the Bishop of Winchester, John Thomas, to whom he dedicated The Widow’s Complaint. He was not, however, qualified by virtue of a university degree—the conventional route into the church—and is not to be confused with Rev. Richard Michell, MA (1737-90), who was also a writer but not of verse. It seems most likely that he was first a schoolmaster and only belatedly a clergyman. His earliest known poem, Hackwood Park (1765) is dated from Portsmouth and dedicated to a Vice-Admiral; in the dedication he describes himself as “a young poet.” Honesty; a Poem(1769), like Michell’s Poems of 1771, was published in London and dedicated to social satire. He might have been a native of Dorset and therefore one of two children of his name baptised at Thornford on 5 May 1718 (son of John and Elizabeth Michell) or on 28 Feb. 1725 (son of Mary and Martin Michell), but corroboration is wanting. No record of marriage has been found. He died in 1775 and was buried at Holy Trinity, Shaftesbury, on 1 Sept. (findmypast.com 7 June 2023; ancestry.com 7 June 2023; CCEd 7 June 2023) HJ