John Gilpin

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For the dancer John Gilpin, see John Gilpin (dancer).

John Gilpin (18th century) was a real-life character whose exploits became legendary and featured in a well-known comic ballad by William Cowper of 1782, entitled, The Diverting History of John Gilpin. Cowper had heard the story from a friend.

John Gilpin was a wealthy draper from Cheapside in London, who owned land at Olney in Buckinghamshire, near where Cowper lived. The poem tells how Gilpin and his wife and children became separated during a journey to the Bell Inn, Edmonton after Gilpin loses control of his horse, and is carried ten miles further to the town of Ware.

For John Gilpin the 20th-century ballet dancer, see John Gilpin (dancer).