Pattison, William

(1706-1727)

   Born at Peasemarsh, near Rye, Sussex, he was the son of a small farmer on the estate of the Earl of Thanet, who saw him through his education at a local free school. He was encouraged in his study of the classics by a neighboring clergyman and schoolmaster of Kirkby Stephen. He was admitted to Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1724 and left two years later, preferring to work as a writer in London. In spite of verbal support from some distinguished figures, his collection of poems did not materialize and he was reduced to poverty and having to pass the nights on a bench in St. James's Park. H. Curll, a bookseller, gave him shelter in his house. He died of smallpox in Curll's house and was buried in the churchyard of St. Clement Danes, Westminster, London. Some of his poems: "A Divine Poem," "A Session of the Cambridge Poets," "Ad Coelum," "An Epistle to Laura," "Orpheus and Eurydice," "The Cambridge Beauties," "The Hour-Glass," "The Nightingale and Shepherd," "Wrote in a Lady's Pocket-Book."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Poetical Works of Mr. William Pattison: Vol. I and II. H. Curll, 1728.