Author: Mickle, William Julius
Biography:
MICKLE, William Julius (1734/5-88: ODNB)
He was born in Langholm, Dumfriesshire, son of the parish minister Alexander Meikle and his second wife, Julia Henderson. Meikle's father later acquired a brewery in Edinburgh and moved the family there. After attending high school in the city, William Julius joined the brewery; on the death of his father in 1757, he became the owner. But his ambition was to be a writer. In 1763 when the business suffered losses and eventually collapsed, he anglicized the spelling of his surname and moved to London to try to make a living by his pen--and to attract patronage. Attempts to write for the stage were not successful. For a time (1765-72) he supported himself as a corrector for the Clarendon Press in Oxford. The Concubine (1767, later renamed Sir Martyn) saw several early editions, but his most significant work was the translation of Camoens's epic The Lusiad which he published by subscription in 1776. In 1779 he took up an administrative post with the British navy in Lisbon. In 1782, after his return to England, he married Mary Tomkins, with whom he had one child, and settled in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. He died after a short illness. His Poetical Works, with a memoir, appeared in 1799. (ODNB 10 Apr. 2020)
Other Names:
- Mickle