Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holwell, William

by Edwin Cannan

HOLWELL, WILLIAM, M.D. (1726–1798), divine, eldest son of William Holwell, esq., of Exeter, and Ann Blackall, daughter of Ofspring Blackall [q. v.], was born in 1726, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in December 1741, and graduated B.A. in 1745, M.A. in 1748, and B.D. in 1760. He was tutor to Lord Beauchamp (afterwards second Marquis of Hertford), and was elected proctor for 1758. He was presented to the vicarage of Thornbury in Gloucestershire by Christ Church in January 1762, was appointed prebendary of Exeter in 1776, and was at one time chaplain to George III. He died 13 Feb. 1798.

He wrote:

1. 'Selecti Dionysii Halicarnensis de priscis scriptoribus Tractatus græcè et latinè,' 1766.
2. 'The Beauties of Homer, selected from the Iliad,' 1775.
3. 'Extracts from Mr. Pope's translation, corresponding with the Beauties of Homer,' 1776.
4. 'A Mythological, Etymological, and Historical Dictionary, extracted from the Analysis of Ancient Mythology' (by Jacob Bryant [q. v.]), 1793.

[Information from Winslow Jones, esq.; Gent. Mag. 1798, lxviii. 259; Exeter Cathedral Register; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Oxford Catalogue of Graduates, and Honours Register; Horace Walpole's Letters, vi. 107; Hardy's Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.; Gloucester Dioc. Reg.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 743, confuses this William Holwell with a nephew, William Holwell Carr, q.v.]

E. C-n.