William Atkinson (1757–1846), was an English cleric, academic,

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 writte ...

and pamphleteer.

Life

He was born at

Thorp Arch Thorp Arch is a village and civil parish near Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. It sits in the Wetherby ward of Leeds City Council and Elmet and Rothwell parliamentary constituency. The village is on ...

, in the

ainsty The Ainsty or the Ainsty of York was a historic district of Yorkshire, England, west of the city of York. Originally a wapentake or subdivision of the West Riding of Yorkshire it later had a unique status as a rural area controlled by the corpo ...

of the city of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, in 1757, the son of Christopher Atkinson, rector of Thorp Arch and sometime master of Macclesfield Grammar School, and his wife Jane Johnson; Miles Atkinson was an elder brother. He was admitted a sizar of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

, 29 December 1775, graduating B.A. in 1780. He was elected a Fellow of his college, and proceeded to the degree of M.A. in 1783. Having taken holy orders, Atkinson was appointed lecturer at the parish church of

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, in Yorkshire. Subsequently, in 1792, he was presented by the lord chancellor to the rectory of Warham All Saints, in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. He died at Thorpe Arch 30 September 1846.

Works

Atkinson published a small volume of ''Poetical Essays'', Leeds, 1786, which was sarcastically reviewed by "Trim" ( Edward Baldwyn), in ''A Critique on the Poetical Essays of the Rev. William Atkinson'', London, 1787. Baldwyn, headmaster of

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school g ...

, resented Atkinson's appointment as lecturer. "Trim" published a further pamphlet, descending to personal abuse, ''A Congratulatory Letter to the Rev. William Atkinson, M.A., Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, on his appearance in the character of a printer, with remarks on the several papers that have issued from his press'', London, 1790, replying to some self-published pamphlets by Atkinson. Becoming a controversialist, Atkinson engaged in polemics also with the nonconformist Edward Parsons (1762–1833), in 1801–2. He published 25 pamphlets, and a periodical ''The Looking Glass"

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson, William 1757 births 1846 deaths Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge English male poets People from West Yorkshire People from Warham, Norfolk