Charles Churchill

Clare Bucknell (University of Oxford)
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Charles Churchill (1732-1764) was the most important British verse satirist of the mid-eighteenth century. A close friend of the politician and journalist John Wilkes, he collaborated with Wilkes on the anti-ministerial paper

The North Briton

and devoted several of his satires to fighting Wilkes’s political causes. After his early death, Churchill’s poetry was much admired by William Cowper, William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, among others, but during the Victorian period his reputation suffered a downturn.

Churchill was born in February 1732 in Vine Street, Westminster. The son of a rector, he was one of twelve children, only four of whom survived to adulthood. When he turned nine in 1741, he was sent to Westminster School where his father had also been a pupil. At Westminster,

2680 words

Citation: Bucknell, Clare. "Charles Churchill". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 December 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=879, accessed 29 March 2024.]

879 Charles Churchill 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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