Huddesford, George

(1749-1809)

   The youngest son of George Huddesford, doctor of divinity, president of Trinity College, Oxford, he was educated at Winchester College and graduated M.A. from New College, Oxford, in 1780. A pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he had exhibited three pictures at the Academy. He took holy orders and had two livings: Loxley in Warwickshire (1803), and Sir George Wheler's Chapel, Spital Square, London, where he died. He contributed several articles to Gentleman's Magazine in 1771 and 1806. His known publications: Warley: A Satire, 1778. The Second Part of Warley, A Satire, 1778. The poems of George Huddesford, 1801. The Scum uppermost when the Middlesex Porridge-Pot Boils Over! 1802. Bonaparte, an Heroic Ballad, 1803. Wiccamical Chaplet, 1804 (a collection of poems written by his contemporaries at Winchester). Wood and stone, or a dialogue between a wooden duke and a stone lion, 1804. Les champignons du diable, or, Imperial mushrooms, 1805 (a mock-heroic poem, in five cantos). Some of his poems: "Another Ode to Stella," "Bubble and Squeak," "Crambe Repetita," "Salmagundi," "The Plagiarism of the Poet-Laureate Detected," "Topsy-Turvy."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry, Second Edition Bibliography (http://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/html/ep2/bibliography/g.htm). Gentleman's Magazine (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/journals/srchgm.htm). Stanford University libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk).