Richard Glover (1712 – 25 November 1785) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

and politician.

Life

The son of Richard Glover, a

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

merchant, he was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and educated at

Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. His mother was a sister of Richard West,

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

. The young Richard was said to have been something of a favourite of his uncle. In 1739 he became one of the founding governors for the

Foundling Hospital The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word " hospita ...

, a charity dedicated to saving children from the plight of abandonment. The success of Glover's ''Leonidas'' led him to take an interest in politics, and in 1761 he entered parliament as member for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Glover was one of the reputed authors of the ''

Letters of Junius ''Letters of Junius'' (or Junius: ''Stat nominis umbra'') is a collection of private and open letters critical of the government of King George III from an anonymous polemicist ( Junius) claimed by some to be Philip Francis (although Junius' real ...

''; but his claims, advocated in 1825 by

Richard Duppa Richard Duppa (1770–1831) was an English writer and a draughtsman. Life He was the son of William Duppa of Culmington, Shropshire. He studied art in Rome in his youth, and showed himself a skilful draughtsman. He matriculated at Trinity Coll ...

, are slight.

Works

He wrote in his sixteenth year a poem to the memory of

Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...

, which was prefixed by Henry Pemberton to his ''View of Newton's Philosophy'', published in 1728. In 1737, he published an epic poem in praise of liberty, ''Leonidas'', which was thought to have a special reference to the politics of the time; commended by the

prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rule ...

and his court, it soon passed through several editions. In 1739, Glover published a poem entitled ''London, or the Progress of Commerce''; and in 1740 he published a ballad, '' Admiral Hosier's Ghost'', popular in its day. The ballad's real target was not the Spanish but

Sir Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leade ...

. He was also the author of two tragedies, ''Boadicea'' (1753) and ''Medea'' (1761), written in close imitation of Greek models. The ''Athenaid'', an epic in thirty books, was published in 1787, and his diary, entitled ''Memoirs of a distinguished literary and political Character from 1742 to 1757'', appeared in 1813. In May 1774, shortly after the death of

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel '' The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem '' The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his ...

, Glover published his "Authentic Anecdotes" on the poet in '' The Universal Magazine''.

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...

included the piece in ''

The Annual Register ''The Annual Register'' (originally subtitled "A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year ...") is a long-established reference work, written and published each year, which records and analyses the year's major events, developmen ...

'' for that year, and when

Edmond Malone Edmond Malone (4 October 174125 May 1812) was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first p ...

in 1776 worked on a biographical

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

for ''Poems and Plays by Oliver Goldsmith'' (1777) he based it on Glover's ''Anecdotes'' as well as first-hand information from Dr. Thomas Wilson,

Senior Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

References

Notes

Sources

* * *

External links

Richard Glover
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glover, Richard 1712 births 1785 deaths 18th-century English poets Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies People educated at Cheam School English male poets English male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century British dramatists and playwrights British MPs 1761–1768 18th-century English male writers