William Woty (1731?–1791) was an English law clerk and hack writer, known for
light verse
Light poetry or light verse is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Light poems are usually brief, can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play including puns, adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration. Typically, light ...
.
Life
Among his poems is an elegy on his schoolmaster, who lived near
Alton, Hampshire. He came to London as a clerk or writer to a solicitor. He began speaking in debating societies and contributing short poems to newspapers. He subsisted for some years as a
Grub Street writer.
About 1767 he became companion and legal adviser to
Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, who supported Woty by a charge on his estate in
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
. He died at
Loughborough on 15 March 1791, aged about sixty.
Works
Someone published in 1758, without his consent, in a borrowed name, a small piece of his composition called ''The Spouting-club''. He himself issued in 1760, under the pseudonym of ‘J. Copywell of Lincoln's Inn,’ a volume entitled ''The Shrubs of Parnassus'' consisting of the "poetical essays" he had contributed to newspapers.
Woty's other works included:
* ‘Campanologia: a Poem in praise of Ringing’
non. 1761.
* ‘Muses' Advice addressed to the Poets of the Age,’ 1761.
* ‘The Blossoms of Helicon,’ 1763. It contained, with a hymn to good nature by Dr.
James Solas Dodd
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
, a description by Woty of
White Conduit House. These lines, which made their first appearance in the ''
Gentleman's Magazine'' for 1760, were quoted at length in
George Walter Thornbury's ''Old and New London'';; and in
Warwick William Wroth and Arthur Edgar Wroth's ''The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century'' (1896).
* ‘The Poetical Calendar,’ a supplement to
Robert Dodsley's collection, 1763; twelve volumes, one for each month in that year. They were edited by Woty and
Francis Fawkes.
* ‘Church Langton:’ a poem, n.d.
768? in praise of the charitable projects of the Rev.
William Hanbury.
* ‘The Female Advocate:’ a poem, 1770, 2nd edit. 1771.
* ‘Poetical Works,’ 1770, 2 vols.; dedicated to Earl Ferrers.
* ‘The Stage,’ n.d.
770?
* ‘Particular Providence:’ a poetical essay, 1774.
* ‘The Estate Orators: a Town Eclogue’
non. 1774; a satire on the London auctioneers.
* ‘Poems on several Occasions,’ 1780; this contained reprints of several of his works.
* ‘Fugitive and Original Poems,’ 1786, contains ‘The Country Gentleman: a Drama.’
* ‘Poetical Amusements,’ 1789, dedicated to
Robert Shirley, 6th Earl Ferrers
Robert Shirley, 6th Earl Ferrers (20 July 1723 – 18 April 1787) was a British nobleman.
He was born in 1723 in St James, Westminster, the third son of Laurence Shirley.
On 26 December 1754, he married Catherine Cotton (d. 26 March 1786), by ...
. It contained a Latin version of
Thomas Gray's ''Elegy''; ‘Sunday Schools: a Poetical Dialogue between a Nobleman and his Chaplain;’ and ‘The Ambitious Widow: a Comic Entertainment.’
References
*
External links
William Wotyat the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woty, William
1731 births
1761 deaths
English male poets