Richard Polwhele
Encyclopedia
Richard Polwhele was a Cornish
clergyman, poet
and topographer
.
, Cornwall
, Polwhele met literary luminaries Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More
at an early age. He was educated at Truro Grammar School, where he precociously published The Fate of Llewellyn. He went on to Christ Church, Oxford
, continuing to write poetry, but left without taking a degree. In 1782 he was ordained a curate, married Loveday Warren, and moved to a curacy at Kenton, Devon
. On his wife's death in 1793, Polwhele was left with three children. Later that year he married Mary Tyrrell, briefly taking up a curacy at Exmouth
before being appointed to the small living of Manaccan
in Cornwall in 1794. From 1806, when he took up a curacy at Kenwyn, Truro, he was non-resident at Manaccan: Polwhele angered Manaccan parishioners with his efforts to restore the church and vicarage. He maintained epistolary exchanges with Samuel Badcock
, Macaulay, William Cowper
, Erasmus Darwin
, and Anna Seward
.
When in Devon, Polwhele had edited the two-volume work Poems Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall (1792) for an Exeter literary society. However, Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter (1796) caused a rift between Polwhele and other society members. Polwhele had by this time begun the first of his two major county histories
, the History of Devonshire. This appeared in 3 volumes, 1793-1806, but his coverage was uneven and subscribers deserted. His seven-volume History of Cornwall appeared 1803-1808, with a new edition in 1816.
Polwhele's volumes of poetry included The Art of Eloquence, a didactic poem (1785), The Idylls, Epigrams, and Fragments of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, with the elegies of Tyrtaeus (1786), The English Orator (1796), Influence of Local Attachment (1796), and Poetic Trifles (1796). However, The Unsex'd Females
, a Poem (1798), a defensive reaction to women's literary self-assertion, is today perhaps Polwhele's most notorious poetic production: in the poem Hannah More
is Christ to Mary Wollstonecraft
's Satan.
Polwhele contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine and (1799-1805) to the Anti-Jacobin Review
. He published sermons, theological essays for the Church Union Society, and attacks on Methodism
(although he befriended his main Methodist antagonist Samuel Drew
). At the end of his life, retired to his estate in Polwhele, he worked to produce Traditions and Recollections (2 vols, 1826) and Biographical Sketches (3 vols, 1831). He died at Truro. His name survives in Polwhele House School, an independent preparatory school
just outside Truro.
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
clergyman, poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and topographer
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
.
Biography
Born at TruroTruro
Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, Polwhele met literary luminaries Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
at an early age. He was educated at Truro Grammar School, where he precociously published The Fate of Llewellyn. He went on to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, continuing to write poetry, but left without taking a degree. In 1782 he was ordained a curate, married Loveday Warren, and moved to a curacy at Kenton, Devon
Kenton, Devon
Kenton is a small village located near Exeter, the capital of Devon, England.Kenton is known for its mediæval castle, Powderham Castle, where the Earl of Devon once settled in. Powderham Castle was built between 1390 and 1420 by Sir Philip Courtenay...
. On his wife's death in 1793, Polwhele was left with three children. Later that year he married Mary Tyrrell, briefly taking up a curacy at Exmouth
Exmouth, Devon
Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2001, it had a population of 32,972.-History:...
before being appointed to the small living of Manaccan
Manaccan
Manaccan is a civil parish and village on the Lizard peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles south-southwest of Falmouth....
in Cornwall in 1794. From 1806, when he took up a curacy at Kenwyn, Truro, he was non-resident at Manaccan: Polwhele angered Manaccan parishioners with his efforts to restore the church and vicarage. He maintained epistolary exchanges with Samuel Badcock
Samuel Badcock
Samuel Badcock was an English nonconformist minister, theological writer and literary critic.-Life:He was born at South Molton, Devon on 23 February 1747. His parents were dissenters, and he was educated in a school at Ottery St. Mary, for the sons of those opposed to the Church of England...
, Macaulay, William Cowper
William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry...
, Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
, and Anna Seward
Anna Seward
Anna Seward was an English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield.-Life:Seward was the elder daughter of Thomas Seward , prebendary of Lichfield and Salisbury, and author...
.
When in Devon, Polwhele had edited the two-volume work Poems Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall (1792) for an Exeter literary society. However, Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter (1796) caused a rift between Polwhele and other society members. Polwhele had by this time begun the first of his two major county histories
English county histories
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical works concerned with individual ancient counties of England before their reorganisation, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards...
, the History of Devonshire. This appeared in 3 volumes, 1793-1806, but his coverage was uneven and subscribers deserted. His seven-volume History of Cornwall appeared 1803-1808, with a new edition in 1816.
Polwhele's volumes of poetry included The Art of Eloquence, a didactic poem (1785), The Idylls, Epigrams, and Fragments of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, with the elegies of Tyrtaeus (1786), The English Orator (1796), Influence of Local Attachment (1796), and Poetic Trifles (1796). However, The Unsex'd Females
The Unsex'd Females
The Unsex'd Females, a Poem , by Richard Polwhele, is a polemical intervention into the public debates over the role of women at the end of the 18th century. The poem is primarily concerned with what Polwhele characterizes as the encroachment of radical French political and philosophical ideas into...
, a Poem (1798), a defensive reaction to women's literary self-assertion, is today perhaps Polwhele's most notorious poetic production: in the poem Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
is Christ to Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
's Satan.
Polwhele contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine and (1799-1805) to the Anti-Jacobin Review
Anti-Jacobin Review
The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor , a conservative British political periodical, was founded by John Gifford [pseud. of John Richards Green] after the demise of William Gifford's The Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner...
. He published sermons, theological essays for the Church Union Society, and attacks on Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
(although he befriended his main Methodist antagonist Samuel Drew
Samuel Drew
Samuel Drew was an Cornish Methodist theologian. A native of Cornwall, he was nicknamed the "Cornish metaphysician" for his works on the human soul, the nature of God, and the deity of Christ. He also wrote on historical and biographical themes.-Early life and education:Drew was born in the...
). At the end of his life, retired to his estate in Polwhele, he worked to produce Traditions and Recollections (2 vols, 1826) and Biographical Sketches (3 vols, 1831). He died at Truro. His name survives in Polwhele House School, an independent preparatory school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
just outside Truro.
Works
- Six odes presented to That justly-celebrated Historian, Mrs Catharine Macaulay, on her Birth-day, And publicly read to a polite and brilliant Audience, Assembled April the Second, at Alfred-House, Bath, To congratulate that Lady on the happy Occasion. Bath: Printed and sold by R. Cruttwell ... sold also by E. and C. Dilly [etc.]. (1777)
- The Fate of Lewellyn; or, the Druid's Sacrifice. A Legendary Tale. In Two Parts. To which is added Carnbre', a Poem. Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell, for the Author; and sold by E. and C. Dilly ... and W. Goldsmith [etc.]. (1777)
- The spirit of Frazer, to General Burgoyne. An ode. To which is added, The death of Hilda; an American tale. Inscribed to Mrs. Macaulay. Bath: Printed and Sold by R. Cruttwell; sold also by W. Goldsmith [etc.]. (1778)
- The Art of Eloquence, a didactic poem (1785)
- The Follies of Oxford: Or, Cursory Sketches on a University Education, from an under graduate To his Friend in the Country. London: Printed for Dodsley, Dilly and Kearsley. (1785)
- The Idyllia, Epigrams, and Fragments, of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, with the Elegies of Tyrtæus, Translated from the Greek into English Verse. To which are Added, Dissertations and Notes. Exeter: Printed and Sold by R. Thorn [etc.]. (1786)
- Poems. Namely, The English Orator; An Address to Thomas Pennant ... An Ode on the Susceptibility of the Poetical Character; Twenty Sonnets; An Epistle to a College Friend; and The Lock Transformed. With notes on The English Orator. London: Printed for T. Cadell ... and C. Dilly [etc.]. (1791)
- Poems, Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall (1792)
- Historical Views of Devonshire (1793)
- The History of Devonshire (1793-1806)
- Influence of Local Attachment (1796)
- Poetic Trifles (1796)
- Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter (1796), edited by Polwhele
- The Old English Gentleman (1797)
- The Unsex'd FemalesThe Unsex'd FemalesThe Unsex'd Females, a Poem , by Richard Polwhele, is a polemical intervention into the public debates over the role of women at the end of the 18th century. The poem is primarily concerned with what Polwhele characterizes as the encroachment of radical French political and philosophical ideas into...
(1798) - Grecian Prospects: A Poem, In Two Cantos. Helston: Printed by T. Flindell; For Cadell and Davis ... and Chapple [etc.]. (1799)
- A Sketch of Peter Pindar (1800)
- Anecdotes of Methodism (1800)
- Sir Aaron, or The Flights of Fanaticism (1800)
- History of Cornwall (3 vols., 1803)
- The fair Isabel of Cotehele, a Cornish romance, in six cantos. London: Printed for J. Cawthorn. (1815)
- Traditions and Recollections (2 vols, 1826)
- Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (3 vols, 1831)
- Reminiscences, in Prose and Verse; Consisting of the Epistolary Correspondence of Many Distinguished Characters. With Notes and Illustrations. London: J. B. Nichols and Son ... Sold also by Messrs. Rivington. (3 vols., 1836)
External links
- W. P. Courtney, ‘Polwhele, Richard (1760–1838)’, rev. Grant P. Cerny, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 19 Feb 2007
- Richard Polwhele, The Unsex'd Females: A Poem, Addressed to the Author of the Pursuit of Literature. London: Printed for Cadell and Davies, in the Strand. 1798.
- Anna Seward, Sonnet to the Rev. Richard Polwhele, on his poem upon the influence of local attachment