Francis Fawkes

Francis Fawkes (1720–1777) was an English poet and translator. Fawkes translated Anacreon, Sappho, and other classics, modernised parts of the poems of Gavin Douglas, and was the author of the well-known song, The Brown Jug, and of two poems, Bramham Park and Partridge Shooting. His translation of the Argonautica in rhymed couplets appeared in 1780.

Life

Fawkes was born near Doncaster, the son of Jeremiah Fawkes, for twenty-eight years rector of Warmsworth, Doncaster, and was baptised at Warmsworth 4 April 1720. He was educated at Bury Grammar School[1] under the Rev. John Lister. On 16 March 1738 he was admitted as a sizar to Jesus College, Cambridge, where his tutor was the Rev. Richard Oakley. He took his degree of B.A in 1742, and proceeded M.A. in 1745.[2]

He was ordained in the Church of England, and took the curacy of Bramham in Yorkshire. Fawkes later held the curacy of Croydon, where he came to the notice of Archbishop Thomas Herring; he became vicar of Orpington, Kent. Fawkes remained at Orpington until April 1774, when, by the favour of Charles Plumptree, rector of Orpington and patron of the adjacent rectory of Hayes, he was appointed to Hayes with the curacy of Downe. The other piece of clerical patronage which he received was a chaplaincy to the Princess Dowager of Wales.

He died on 26 August 1777, when his widow, formerly a Miss Purrier of Leeds, whom he married about 1760, was left with scanty resources. His library was sold in 1778.

Works

He was a sort of chaplain to George Fox-Lane, and his first production in literature is said to have been an anonymous poem describing the beauties of his house Bramham Park, published in 1745. An elegy 'Aurelius' for Herring was printed in 1761 with the 'Original Poems and Translations' of Fawkes; and reprinted in 1763 in the volume of 'Seven Sermons by Archbishop Herring'.

Fawkes was considered by his contemporaries the best translator since the days of Alexander Pope, and Samuel Johnson approved of his translation of Anacreon.

His works were:

Fawkes's volume of original poems was embodied in the collection by Chalmers (vol. xvi.), some of them were included in John Nichols's collection, viii. 88–93, and several of his translations, chiefly from 'Menander,' were reprinted in part i. of the 'Comicorum Græcorum Fragmenta' selected by James Bailey (1840).

Lord Mahon, later Earl of Stanhope, married Lady Hester Pitt, daughter of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whose seat was situated in Fawkes's parish of Hayes, on 19 December 1774, and some lines addressed to the bridegroom by Fawkes on this occasion are printed in the Chatham Correspondence, iv. 373. Great popularity attended his song of The Brown Jug, which began with the words

Dear Tom, this brown jug that now foams with mild ale
Was once Toby Fillpott.

It was introduced by John O'Keeffe into his comic opera The Poor Soldier, which was played at Covent Garden Theatre for the first time on 4 November 1783. It was sung then by John Henry Johnstone, and it was later a favourite piece of Charles Incledon. During the debates on Catholic emancipation the opening lines were quoted in the House of Commons by George Canning to ridicule John Copley: the punning imputation was that a speech by Copley was from a pamphlet of Henry Phillpotts.

References

  1. ↑ Fallows, I.B. "Bury Grammar School A History c.1570 to 1976" The estate Governors of the Bury Grammar Schools, Bury, 2001
  2. ↑ "Fawkes, Francis (FWKS737F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Fawkes, Francis". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 

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