Cowper, William, 1731-1800 › Texts

William Cowper was born at Berkhampstead, Herts, in 1731. He studied at Westminster School, and in 1754 was called to the bar. Not devoting himself with much interest to his profession, his influential friends procured for him various clerkships; but these he was obliged to relinquish through excessive nervous weakness. He was induced to write verses as a relief to his habitual melancholy. In 1767, he went to reside at Olney, on the invitation of the Rev. John Newton, then Curate there. It was during his life here that with Newton he composed the "Olney Hymns," though from an attack of insanity he contributed less than had been expected of him. In this collection sixty-eight hymns are by Cowper, and two hundred and eighty by Newton. His health for ten years--1770 to 1780--was very poor, and it was not until 1780, when he was nearly fifty years of age, that he began to write his poems. From that time until his death in 1800, he published many works which have given him a high place among British poets. His burial place is in S. Nicholas' Church, East Dereham.

--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.