William Woty

William Woty (1731?–1791) was an English law clerk and hack writer, known for light verse.

Life[]

Among his poems is an elegy on his schoolmaster, who lived near Alton, Hampshire. He came to London as a clerk or writer to a solicitor. He began speaking in debating societies and contributing short poems to newspapers. He subsisted for some years as a Grub Street writer.

About 1767 he became companion and legal adviser to Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, who supported Woty by a charge on his estate in Leicestershire. He died at Loughborough on 15 March 1791, aged about sixty.

Works[]

Someone published in 1758, without his consent, in a borrowed name, a small piece of his composition called The Spouting-club. He himself issued in 1760, under the pseudonym of ‘J. Copywell of Lincoln's Inn,’ a volume entitled The Shrubs of Parnassus consisting of the "poetical essays" he had contributed to newspapers.

Woty's other works included:

• ‘Campanologia: a Poem in praise of Ringing’ [anon.], 1761.
• ‘Muses' Advice addressed to the Poets of the Age,’ 1761.
• ‘The Blossoms of Helicon,’ 1763. It contained, with a hymn to good nature by Dr. , a description by Woty of . These lines, which made their first appearance in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1760, were quoted at length in George Walter Thornbury's Old and New London;; and in Warwick William Wroth and Arthur Edgar Wroth's The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century (1896).
• ‘The Poetical Calendar,’ a supplement to Robert Dodsley's collection, 1763; twelve volumes, one for each month in that year. They were edited by Woty and Francis Fawkes.
• ‘Church Langton:’ a poem, n.d. [1768?], in praise of the charitable projects of the Rev. .
• ‘The Female Advocate:’ a poem, 1770, 2nd edit. 1771.
• ‘Poetical Works,’ 1770, 2 vols.; dedicated to Earl Ferrers.
• ‘The Stage,’ n.d. [1770?].
• ‘Particular Providence:’ a poetical essay, 1774.
• ‘The Estate Orators: a Town Eclogue’ [anon.], 1774; a satire on the London auctioneers.
• ‘Poems on several Occasions,’ 1780; this contained reprints of several of his works.
• ‘Fugitive and Original Poems,’ 1786, contains ‘The Country Gentleman: a Drama.’
• ‘Poetical Amusements,’ 1789, dedicated to Robert Shirley, 6th Earl Ferrers. It contained a Latin version of Thomas Gray's Elegy; ‘Sunday Schools: a Poetical Dialogue between a Nobleman and his Chaplain;’ and ‘The Ambitious Widow: a Comic Entertainment.’

References[]

• "Woty, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

External links[]

• William Woty at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Woty, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.