Author: Nation, William
Biography:
NATION, William (1763-1789: ancestry.co.uk)
He was probably either the William Nation baptised on 14 Apr. 1763 at the Mint Chapel (Presbyterian), Exeter, Devonshire, son of William Nation and Catherine (maiden name unknown), or the William Nation born on 24 Aug. 1763 and baptised on 18 Sept. in the same chapel, son of William Nation, with no mother recorded. Nothing is known of his education. He became a clerk in the Plymouth Bank. The dedication (to the Monthly, Critical, and English Reviewers) of Dramatic Pieces and Poetry (1789) is dated “Plymouth, April 1789.” He married Philippa Bellman (1765-1826), the daughter of John Bellman, a leading Plymouth builder and plasterer, on 6 Oct. 1789 at St. Andrew’s, Plymouth. (She may also have used the name Anna Matilda. The initial newspaper report of the marriage uses that name and several love poems in his volume are addressed to Matilda.) On the day of the marriage or the morning after he became delirious and “was seized with a violent frenzy” (GM). He died on the evening of 11 Oct. 1789 and was buried in the same church on 16 Oct. His widow, Philippa, remarried in Exeter in 1796. (ancestry.co.uk 15 Aug. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 15 Aug. 2023; Bath Chronicle 15 and 22 Oct. 1789; GM Oct. 1789, 954) AA
Other Names:
- William Nation, Jr.