THE

LIFE OF CHARLES CHURCHILL.

BY

R. A. DAVENPORT, Esq.

CHARLES CHURCHILL was born, some time in the month of February, 1731, in Vine Street, in the parish of St. John's, Westminster, of which parish his father, who was also rector of Rainham, in Essex, was for many years the curate and evening lecturer. When he was about eight years of age he was placed at Westminster School, which was then under the direction of Dr. Nichols and Dr. Pierson Lloyd; and, in his hours of absence from the seminary, he enjoyed the benefit of tuition from his father, who was fully competent to the task of instructing him. It appears, however, that his progress, though not inconsiderable, was less rapid than might have been expected from the advantages which he possessed. With parts which were allowed to be good, he seems to have been deficient in steadiness and attention.

At the age of fifteen he was admitted upon the foundation. Soon after this event a circumstance occurred which gave him a favourable opportunity of showing that he had talents which, on an emergency, might be roused into honourable action. Having (says his biographer, Mr. Tooke) by some trifling misdemeanor incurred the displeasure of his masters,

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he was by them enjoined to compose a poetical declamation, and speak it publicly in the school room, by way of apology for his misbehaviour. This task he acquitted himself of in so proper yet spirited a manner as to obtain the unqualified approbation of his masters, without forfeiting the esteem of his schoolfellows by any undue concessions.'

When he entered in his nineteenth year, he quitted Westminster, and applied to be matriculated at the University of Oxford. His application was a fruitless one. For his failure two very different causes are assigned. It is said by some, that he was rejected on account of his deficiency in the learned languages. But this it is difficult to believe; for, however negligent he may occasionally have been, it is improbable that he could have remained eleven years at Westminster without acquiring perfectly the learned languages, or that his father, a competent judge, would have suffered him to incur the disgrace of proceeding to Oxford in an unqualified state. By Churchill himself it was affirmed, that he was fully competent to pass the ordeal of being examined; but that despising the abilities of the examiner, and the trivial questions which were asked, he replied in a contemptuous and satirical manner, which, either mistakenly or revengefully, was construed into a proof of his ignorance. This story may, perhaps, safely be credited. It is not unlikely that, even in his youth, he had a keen perception of the ridiculous, and a propensity to satire; and we know that college examinations have often afforded a subject of laughter to sarcastic wits. It must, nevertheless, be owned that, though we may vindicate the learning of Churchill, little can, in this instance, be said in favour of his prudence and regard to decorum. That he was not really deficient in the former, seems to be proved by the fact of his having, shortly after his rejection at Oxford, been admitted as a member of

Trinity College, Cambridge. He, however, derived no benefit from his nominal connexion with Cambridge; for, as soon as he had gone through the ceremony of admission, he returned to London, and appears thenceforth to have cherished a rooted dislike and contempt of the universities.

At this early period of his existence an event occurred which had a powerful influence over his future destiny. While he was at Westminster School, and not more than seventeen, he became attached to the daughter of a tradesman in the neighbourhood. As the lovers were convinced that the sanction of their parents was not to be hoped for, they now, with all the thoughtless impatience of youth, contracted a clandestine marriage at the Fleet. Though severely pained by this rash step, the father of Churchill forgave the offending pair, and received them into his house, where they resided for twelve months, during which time the conduct of his son was of the most exemplary kind.

Family reasons, but of what nature is not known, are said to have induced Churchill to retire, in 1751, to Sunderland, in the county of Durham; where, for a while, he devoted himself to poetical amusements. Either his own good sense, however, or the advice of his friends, at length awakened him to the necessity of acquiring that theological knowledge without which he could not properly discharge the duties of the sacred profession for which he was intended. He, therefore, gave up the charms of poetry, and pursued, with indefatigable ardour, the study of divinity, till, in his twenty-second year, he returned to the metropolis, for the purpose of receiving a small fortune in right of his wife.

In London, Churchill steadily continued in the course which he had begun, and at the usual age he was ordained deacon, by Dr. Willes, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Immediately after this he removed

to Cadbury', in Somersetshire, where he acted as curate, and gained the respect of his flock by his assiduous performance of the clerical functions. So high did his character stand for piety and learning, that, although he had not studied at an university, or taken a degree, he was, in 1756, ordained priest on his father's curacy of Rainham, by Dr. Sherlock, the Bishop of London. On this event taking place, he went to reside at Rainham; and, as his salary was but small, and his family was increasing, he endeavoured to add to his means by establishing a school. Hard necessity alone could have driven him to this resource, for he had confessedly an antipathy to the business of tuition.

The death of his worthy and amiable father, in 1758, once more called Churchill to the metropolis. His deceased parent was so much beloved, and his own conduct had been so exemplary, that the parishioners of St. John's testified their esteem by unanimously electing him to the vacant curacy and lectureship. As the emolument arising from these did not reach a hundred pounds, he was again compelled to apply his leisure hours to teaching. He, however, now avoided the fatigue and responsibility of keeping an academy, by attending a female boarding school, where he taught English, and by giving to young gentlemen the finishing lessons of education.

For a while he lived with the esteem of his parishioners as a clergyman, and of his employers as a tutor. But, at length, circumstances arose which clouded his prospects and blemished his reputation. The regularity and decorum which had hitherto

1 Soon after the death of Churchill, it was asserted, that his first church living was a curacy of 30l. a year in Wales, and that, to eke out his income, he became a cider merchant, which speculation ended in a bankruptcy. This story appears not to have the slightest foundation in truth, and was probably invented by some enemy of the poet

marked his conduct, gave place to negligence and convivial folly. He renewed his acquaintance with Robert Lloyd, the son of Dr. Pierson Lloyd, and with other thoughtless men of gaiety and wit, and their time was constantly passed together, at the theatre, the tavern, and a variety of scenes of dissipated pleasure.

Domestic infelicity is said to have been the cause of this lamentable change in the habits of Churchill; and a cause more adequate to the production of such an effect cannot possibly be assigned. It is in the power of a wife to make the home of her husband, especially if he be devoted to literary pursuits, either a paradise or a place of torment. In that exulting language which the occasion was well suited to inspire, Burke used to declare, that, however he might be harassed abroad by political and other vexations, they never crossed his threshold, for they were banished by the smiles and the tenderness of his wife. Insensible or base must be the man who does not, with unvarying fondness, cherish such a mate, as the best blessing of Heaven, his consolation and his pride. But it is not every one who is thus happily mated; and severe is the destiny of him who is not. Even should his partner forbear to sting his heart with the worst of matrimonial injuries, she may poison his existence, and palsy the exercise of his talents, by alternate sullenness and violence, by cavils, taunts, and groundless reproaches, by breaking in upon his hours of study, and disturbing with clamour the current of his thoughts, and by all those thousand other arts which her perversity can so dexterously and incessantly employ. At what point Mrs. Churchill stopped in her misconduct, it is too late to ascertain. We are told by Dr. Kippis, who wrote at a period when information on the subject was more accessible than it now is, that it was always understood in Westminster that Mrs. Chur