Jeremy Belknap

Wayne Franklin (University of Connecticut)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

Born 4 Jun 1744
Died 20 Jun 1798
Activity 1771-1798

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Clergyman
Historian / Chronicler
Scholar

Other

Humorist
Novelist
Poet

Resources

Belknap's Works

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Born in Boston on June 4, 1744, Jeremiah (usually known as Jeremy) Belknap was the first child of leather-dresser and fur dealer Joseph Belknap and his wife, Sarah Byles, niece of minister and poet Mather Byles. Young Jeremy was given a good education at the Latin school of John Lovell, under whom he read such works as Ovid’s

Metamorphoses

and Caesar’s

Gallic Wars

, before entering Harvard College in the fall of 1758. While there he studied the usual array of subjects, from logic and ethics to rhetoric, elocution, and English composition, keeping notes on his studies and other subjects in copies of Nathaniel Ames’s

Astronomical Almanacs

as well as in a series of commonplace books. Among his entries are reports of the English victories at Louisburg and Fort Duquesne, as well as a…

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1515 words

Citation: Franklin, Wayne. "Jeremy Belknap". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=339, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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