William Budworth

William Budworth (1699 – September 1745) was a schoolmaster at Brewood in Staffordshire, England. He taught several notable pupils, but he is most remembered for not employing Samuel Johnson as an assistant at Brewood Grammar School.[1]

William Budworth
Bornc. 1699
Longford, Derbyshire
DiedSeptember 1745
EducationDerby School, Market Bosworth & Christ's College, Cambridge
OccupationSchoolmaster

Life and career

Budworth was born in about 1699 in Marston on Dove,[2] the son of the Reverend Luke Budworth BA, rector of Cubley and vicar of Longford, Derbyshire, and afterwards rector of the parishes of Tillesham and Wellingham in Norfolk following the recommendation of Thomas Coke.[3][4] He was educated at Derby School and the grammar school at Market Bosworth under Anthony Blackwall, and then at Christ's College, Cambridge (BA 1720, MA 1726).[2][5] Soon after graduating he was appointed master of Rugeley Grammar School in Staffordshire and he became the vicar of Hope in Derbyshire in 1731.[6] In 1733, on the death of Dr. Hillman he became headmaster at Brewood Grammar School.[7]

St. Mary & St. Luke, Shareshill in 2003

He obtained the vicarage of Brewood on the presentation of the Dean of Lichfield,[6] and he was presented to the donative chapel of Shareshill, near Brewood, by Sir Edward Littleton, 3rd Baronet, of Pillaton Hall, who entrusted to him the education of his cousin and heir Edward Littleton, his uncle Fisher's son.[8] In 1736 he would have engaged the celebrated Samuel Johnson as an assistant in the school, but he was apprehensive about the "strange motion of the head" which Johnson suffered from. Budworth thought this might make him an object of ridicule in the school.[9] Johnson is thought to have been known to Budworth as Johnson had served as an usher to the headmaster at Market Bosworth whilst Budworth was still there.[7]

One of Budworth's pupils was Richard Hurd, afterwards Bishop of Worcester,[10] who says "be I possessed every talent of a perfect institutor of youth in a degree which I believe has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quinctilian."[5] Both Richard Hurd and Sir Edward Littleton were on their way to visit him in 1745 when they heard he had died in a "fit of apoplexy". Littleton paid for a memorial at his church in Shareshill.[11]

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References
  1. "Memorial of the parishes of Greensted-Budworth, Chipping Ongar and High Laver, with an account of the families of Cleeve and Budworth". Bearded Dwarf.
  2. "Budworth, William (BDWT716W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. Persons: Budworth, Luke (1692–1739) in "CCEd, the Clergy of the Church of England database" (Accessed online, 2 February 2014)
  4. Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Budworth, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  5. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century By John Nichols, Samuel Bentley, p332, accessed 24 March 2008
  6. Persons: Budworth, William (1723–1737) in "CCEd, the Clergy of the Church of England database" (Accessed online, 2 February 2014)
  7. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iii. 332-55, 759, vi. 469, 470
  8. Synopsis of the Extinct Baronetage of England, by William Courthope, 1835, p. 123 accessed 28 April 2008
  9. Lives Of The English Poets By Henry Francis Cary, p.8, 2004, Kessinger, ISBN 1-4191-3096-X, accessed 25 April 2008
  10. Bishops: Hurd, Richard (Bishop of Worcester) in "CCEd, the Clergy of the Church of England database" (Accessed online, 2 February 2014)
  11. Staffordshire Encyclopedia accessed 28 April 2008
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