Charles Churchill

Clare Bucknell (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

Born Feb 1731
Died 4 Nov 1764
Activity 1751-1764

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Churchill's Works

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Charles Churchill (1732-1764) was the most important British verse satirist of the mid-eighteenth century. A close friend of the politician and journalist John Wilkes, he collaborated with Wilkes on the anti-ministerial paper

The North Briton

and devoted several of his satires to fighting Wilkes’s political causes. After his early death, Churchill’s poetry was much admired by William Cowper, William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, among others, but during the Victorian period his reputation suffered a downturn.

Churchill was born in February 1732 in Vine Street, Westminster. The son of a rector, he was one of twelve children, only four of whom survived to adulthood. When he turned nine in 1741, he was sent to Westminster School where his father had also been a pupil. At Westminster,

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2680 words

Citation: Bucknell, Clare. "Charles Churchill". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 December 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=879, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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