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

by Gordon Goodwin

LIPSCOMB, WILLIAM (1754–1842), miscellaneous writer, baptised on 9 July 1754, was the son of Thomas Lipscomb, surgeon, of Winchester. He entered Winchester College in 1765 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 260), whence he matriculated at Oxford as a scholar of Corpus Christi College on 6 July 1770 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, iii. 855). In 1772 he won the prize for English verse, the subject being the ‘Beneficial Effects of Inoculation.’ It was printed in 1793, and in the ‘Oxford Prize Poems’ in 1807 and 1810. He graduated B.A. in 1774, and M.A. in 1784. For some years he was private tutor and subsequently chaplain to the Duke of Cleveland at Raby Castle, Durham. In 1789 he was presented to the rectory of Welbury in the North Riding of Yorkshire, which he was allowed to hand over to his son Francis in 1832. He was also master of St. John's Hospital, Barnard Castle, Durham. He died at Brompton, London, on 25 May 1842. By his marriage in 1780 with Margaret, second daughter of Francis Cooke, cashier of the navy, he had a large family. His eldest son, Christopher (1781–1843), was appointed in 1824 the first bishop of Jamaica (Gent. Mag. new ser. xx. 210–2; Kirby, p. 285).

Lipscomb wrote:

1. ‘Poems. … To which are added Translations of select Italian Sonnets,’ &c., 4to, Oxford, 1784.
2. ‘The Pardoner's Tale from Chaucer,’ modernised, 8vo, London, 1792.
3. ‘The Case of the War considered in a Letter to Henry Duncombe, Esq.,’ 8vo, London, 1794.
4. ‘A Second Letter to Henry Duncombe, Esq.’ 8vo, London, 1795.
5. ‘The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer completed in a Modern Version,’ 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1795. George Lipscomb, M.D. [q. v.], was his cousin.

[Gent. Mag. 1842, pt. ii. pp. 100–1.]

G. G.