Mickle, William Julius

(1735-1788)

   Born at Langholm, Dumfriesshire, the son of the parish minister. He moved to London to concentrate on literature, having had his breakthrough when his poems "Knowledge, an Ode" and "A Night Piece" were published in The Evergreen, Being a Collection of Scots Poems, published by Alex Donaldson in 1761. He worked briefly as a corrector to the Clarendon Press, Oxford, from 1765, then left to concentrate on his translations. In need of funds, he took several different jobs, finishing as purser of HMS Brilliant (Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, 1739-1807), for which he was paid a handsome pension for life. He then married and settled at Wheatley, near Oxford, and died at his former home in Forest Hill, Oxford, where he is buried. Some of his poetry publications: Providence, 1762. The Siege of Marseilles, 1771. The Lusiad, 1776 (original author, the Portuguese poet, Luis de Camoëns, 1524-1580). Poetical Works, 1806. Some of his other poems: "Almada Hill: An Epistle from Lisbon," "Cumnor Hall," "The Spirit of the Cape," "There's Nae Luck about the House," "The Concubine," "The Sailor's Wife."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. English Poetry: Author Search (http://www. lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. Francis Turner Palgrave, ed. Oxford University Press (1964, Sixth edition, updated by John Press, 1994). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Poems of South African History A.D. 1497-1910. A. Petrie, ed. Oxford University Press. 1918. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Ballads. James Kinsley, ed. Oxford University Press, 1969. The Oxford Book of Travel Verse. Kevin Crossley-Holland, ed. Oxford University Press, 1986. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). List of the Principal Collections of English and Scottish Ballads and Songs (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/chbib.htm).