John Gifford (1758 – 6 March 1818) was an English political writer. He was born John Richards Green until changing his name at the age of 23.
Gifford wrote a ''History of England'' (two volumes, 1790), ''History of France'' (four volumes, 1791-3), and ''The Reign of Louis XVI: a Complete History of the French Revolution'' (1794). A staunch supporter of
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
's government, Gifford wrote loyalist pamphlets such as ''A Plain Address to the Common Sense of the People of England'' with an annex titled ‘An abstract of Thomas Paine's life and writings’ (1792). His 1798 ''Short Address to Members of Loyal Associations'' was said to have sold 100,000 copies. Gifford also translated a few French émigré royalist pamphlets. He founded the ''
Anti-Jacobin Review'' in 1798 after the demise of ''
The Anti-Jacobin''. It published until 1821. His ''Short Address'' included a scenario of Jacobin Britain:
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
,
John Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician, and philologist. Associated with radical proponents of parl ...
,
John Thelwall
John Thelwall (27 July 1764 – 17 February 1834) was a radical British orator, writer, political reformer, journalist, poet, elocutionist and speech therapist. ,
Thomas Hardy and
Thomas Muir would be members of
Directories
Directory may refer to:
* Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files
* Directory (OpenVMS command)
* Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's ...
for England, Scotland and Ireland, with policies such as disbanding the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
to be given away to France, Holland and Spain with England, Scotland and Ireland having token ships.
[Emma Vincent Macleod, ''A War of Ideas. British Attitudes to the Wars Against Revolutionary France. 1792-1802'' (Ashgate, 1998), p. 86.]
Gifford died in
Bromley, Kent, aged about 60.
Notes
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gifford, John
1758 births
1818 deaths
18th-century English historians
English male non-fiction writers