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
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:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Williams:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)