John Williams

Born in London and educated at Merchant Taylors' School (1771), John Williams ("Anthony Pasquin") was apprenticed to a painter, a trade he early abandoned. He began his literary career in Ireland (ca. 1780), afterwards publishing satires and journalism while a resident of Brighton (1787), Bath, and London. Williams was attacked in William Gifford's Baeviad and Maeviad; losing a suit against the publisher, he emigrated to America where he edited The Federalist in New York (Williams was an anti-Federalist) before dying in poverty in 1818.

TEXT RECORDS:

1789Elegy, written in Soho-Square, on seeing Mrs. Cornely's House in Ruins.
1789Verses to the witty and beautiful Miss Anne Fuller.

PUBLICATIONS:

The children of Thespis, a poem. 1786, 1787, 1788.
The lamentations of Edmund the Martyr: a poem. 1786.
The royal academicians: a farce. 1786.
The tears of Ierne: an elegiac poem upon the Duke of Rutland. 1787.
A poetical epistle from Gabrielle d'Estrees. 1788.
Poems. 2 vols, 1789.
A postscript to the new Bath guide. 1790.
The life and adventures of John Edwin, comedian. 1791.
A treatise on cribbage. 1791.
Authentic memoirs of Warren Hastings. 1793.
The life of the Earl of Barrymore. 1793.
A serio-comic and admonitory epistle to a certain priest. 1793.
A crying epistle from Britannia to Col Mack. 1794.
A liberal critique on the exhibition of the Royal Academy. 1794.
Shrove Tuesday: a satiric rhapsody. 1791.
Legislative biography. 1795.
The curate of Elmwood: a tale. 1795.
An authentic history of the professors of painting, sculpture and architecture. 1796.
A critical guide to the exhibition of the Royal Academy for 1796. 1796.
Memoirs of the Royal Academicians. 1796.
The new Brighton guide. 1796.
The pin-basket, to the children of Thespis: a satire. 1796.
A looking glass for the royal family. 1797.
A touchstone to the present exhibition. 1797.
A critical guide to the present exhibition. 1797.
Satires and biography. 1800.
The Hamiltoniad. 1804.
The life of Alexander Hamilton. 1804.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
American
Anglican

Merchant Taylors' School

poet
painter
journalist
dramatist
editor

The Morning Herald
The Morning Chronicle
European Magazine
Lady's Monthly Museum
Columbian Phenix

John Taylor Esq.

REFERENCE:

DNB; DAB; NCBEL.

"Anecdotes of the Author" European Magazine 16 (December 1789) 419-20; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "John Williams (soi-disant L.L.D.) alias Anthony Pasquin" Scourge and Satirist 1 (June 1811) 442-55; William Gifford, Baeviad and Maeviad (1800); Biographia Dramatica (1812); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine (Supplement to part ii, 1818) 642; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); D. J. O'Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (1912); Roy Benjamin Clark, in William Gifford, Tory Satirist (1930).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Williams:

1.	1786  Theodore, "Epigram on the admired Poem of the Children of Thespis" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (27 March 1786).
2.	1789  Ann Yearsley, "Ann Yearsley versus Anthony Pasquin" The Oracle. Bell's New World (29 November 1789).
3.	1789  W. Whitby, "To Anthony Pasquin, Esq." Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 1:xxi.
4.	1789  William Upton, "Ode to Anthony Pasquin, Esq." Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 1:xxv-xxvi.
5.	1789  Anonymous, Review of Poems, by Anthony Pasquin" Town and Country Magazine 21 (September 1789) 416.
6.	1791  Sly Boots, "An Impromptu. To Anthony Pasquin, Esq." Morning Chronicle (7 March 1791).
7.	1793  Anonymous, "To Anthony Pasquin, Esq. upon his celebrated Life of Lord Barrymore" Walker's Hibernian Magazine (May 1793) 464.
8.	1797  William Gifford, in Baviad and Maeviad (1797) 34-37.
9.	1799  Anonymous, "Anthony Pasquin" The True Briton (2 August 1799).
10.	1814  George Daniel, in The Modern Dunciad (1814; 1815) 69 & n.
11.	1832  John Taylor Esq., in Records of my Life (1832) 1:276-81.
12.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:793n.
13.	1930  Roy Benjamin Clark, in William Gifford, Tory Satirist (1930) 68-69.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Williams:

1.	1789  Anonymous, "Anecdotes of the Author" European Magazine 16 (December 1789) 419-20.
2.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:388-89.
3.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 388-89.
4.	1818  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine (Supplement to part ii, 1818) 642.
5.	1912  D. J. O'Donoghue, in Poets of Ireland (1912) 483.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1788  George Lyttelton:   John Williams ("Anthony Pasquin"), "Verses written at Hagley, on the 4th of December, 1788" Felix Farley's Bristol Journal (20 December 1788).
2.	1788  William Shenstone:   John Williams, "Ode to Simplicity, written at the Leasowes, Dec. 1, 1788" European Magazine 14 (December 1788) 477.
3.	1789  George Colman:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:147-48 &n.
4.	1789  Hannah Cowley:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:160 &n.
5.	1789  Richard Cumberland:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:34-35 &n.
6.	1789  John Cunningham:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:210-11 &n.
7.	1789  William Hayley:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:32 &n.
8.	1789  Hannah More:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:250n.
9.	1789  Anna Seward:   John Williams, "The Delphic Oracle. By Anthony Pasquin, Esq." The Star and Evening Advertiser (6 January 1789).
10.	1789  William Smith of Covent Garden:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:39-40 &n.
11.	1789  Ann Yearsley:   John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:250 &n.
12.	1790  Edmund Burke:   John Williams, "Burke's Pamphlet. An Epigramatic Apology for the evident Tergiversation of political Principal in a certain Character, and his sudden Adoration of the Trappings of Royalty. By Anthony Pasquin" Diary, or Woodfall's Register (16 November 1790).
13.	1796  Edmund Burke:   John Williams ("Anthony Pasquin"), "Epitaph on Don Edmund" Morning Post and Fashionable World (8 June 1796).