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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    OBITUARY.

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    Untitled Article

    William Gmtord , Esq . On the 31 st of December last , at Ms bouse , in James Street , Buckingham Gate , in the 71 st year of his age , William Gifford , Esq .,, author of Baviad and Maeviad , translator of Juvenal and Persius , Editor of the Quarterly Review , &c . Mr . Gifford was a native of Ashburton , in Devonshire where he was horn in

    April , 1756 . His paternal ancestors had been persons of property and respectability , but the family had fallen into in * cgigent circumstances through the wild and extravagant conduct of his rather and grandfather . His father settled as a plumber and glazier at South Molton , and hte mother was the daughter of a . carpeafcer & Asbmirton . A foolish

    attempt to < creates disturbance in a Metbodistchapel conaspeiled his father t& go to sea ; and after his return * at the end : Of eight years , habits of dissipation kept bin * in poverty , and brought Mm to a premature grave . His mother followed shortly afterwards , leaving himself , at the age of thirteen , and a brother , only two years old , in destitute circumstances , " without a relation or friend in the

    world ; " Hi » little brother was sent by his godfather , on whom the charge of them had now devolved , to the almsbouse ,, and he was himself sent to a farmer to drive the plough ,. an employment for which his constitutional weakness unfitted him , and which he quitted m disgust after one day ' s triaL His mother had given him some instruction in spelling and reading , and lie had now picked ! up a little knowledge of writing * and arithmetic . These attainments were

    thought to qualify him for a situation in a store at Newfoundland , which his godfather hoped to procure for him , but failed to . obtain . This kind protector then sent him to sea , and put him on board a Aidali coasting ; vessel at Brinham . Here He continued for ftwvtara months , enduring all the hardships incident to guch % caadftmn . Whilst in thisr

    employment he nearly lost hia life by drown - ing . He was . now eager to acjd to his tcanty stock of knowledge ; but having n *> books on bttuft his : master ' s vessel , b& wa * in the habit of reporting to other hips m hopes of obtaining the loan of ftome . In attempting to get ©» board another vessel , with this view , ftfs toot slipped , and he fell into the sea . He was

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    taken up in a state of insensibility , and with difficulty recovered . The remonstrances of persons to whom Mr . Gifford ' s fatally had been known , prevailed on hi * godfather to take him from his degrading employment , and $ end him to school to qualify him for something better . Young

    Gifford had been but a dull learner hitherto , but his proficiency was at this time more rapid . His favourite study was arithmetic , and with such &mces& did he prosecute it , that he was soon able to assist his master in teaching the other children . He bow formed the idea of devotifrg hia future life to the htfsinesff of

    schoolkeeping , and indulged the hope of suedeeding a schoolmaster of the place , who was grown old and infirm . But his godfather treated his scheme wfoh contempt , and , to young Gifford ' s great mortification , apprenticed him to a shoemaker for the term of seven years . His master was a rigid Presbyterian , whose only reading extended to the tracts published on one side of the Exeter Controversy ,

    and on these he was a very pertinacious controversialist . At the time of his apprenticeship Mr . Gifford had read nothing but the romance of Parismus and Parismenus , a few loose magazines of his mother ' s , his BiWe , and the Imitation of Thomas a Kempis . He hated his new profession , and therefore made no progress in it . He still

    indulged his favourite idea of becoming a schoolmaster , and to qualify himself applied every leisure hour he could command' to the prosecution af his studies . At this time he ' had but one book , a ; Treatise on Algebra , which had been given him by a young woman , into whose hands it had accidentally fallen . But as ft supposed a knowledge of simple equations , it was to him an useless treasure . One of his master ' s sons , who was

    intended for a schoolmaster , had purchased Fenning ' s Introduction . Of thjis he obfamed possession for a short period , and he made such good use of his time as completely to master its contents , and to qualify himself to enter on his own book . Difficulties , however , still opposed themselves . He had no pens , ink or paper ; as a substitute for these , he beaj out smoothly some pieces of leather , and on these worked his problems with a blunted awl .

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    Obituary.

    OBITUARY .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 222, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/62/