Francis Coventry (1725–1759) was an English cleric and novelist, best known for ''The History of Pompey the Little''.

Life

A native of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, he was educated at

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, where he proceeded B.A. 1748 and M.A. 1752. He was appointed by his kinsman the

Earl of Coventry Earl of Coventry is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation for the Villiers family was created in 1623 and took its name from the city of Coventry. It became extinct in 1687. A decade later, the second ...

to the

perpetual curacy Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

, and died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

at Whitchurch.

Works

Coventry was the author of: *''Penshurst, a poem, inscribed to William Perry, esq., and the Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Perry'', 1750, reprinted in vol. iv. of ''Dodsley's Miscellanies''; *the fifteenth number of the ''World'', 12 April 1753, containing ''Strictures on the Absurd Novelties introduced in Gardening''; *the satirical romance and ''

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...

'', ''Pompey the Little, or the Adventures of a Lapdog'', 1751 (5th ed. 1773), which

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English aristocrat, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served a ...

preferred to ''

Peregrine Pickle Peregrine, Latin ''Peregrinus'', is a name originally meaning "one from abroad", that is, a foreigner, traveller, or pilgrim. It may refer to: * Peregrine falcon, a bird of prey People Peregrine * Peregrine (martyr) (died 182 AD), Roman Catholic ...

''. Several characters in were intended for ladies well known in contemporary society.

Notes

;Attribution *

External links

Francis Coventry
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
* * 1725 births 1759 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests 18th-century English male writers 18th-century English novelists English male novelists {{England-novelist-stub