Rev. John Hoadly (8 October 1711 - 16 March 1776) was an English poet, playwright, and cleric.
John Hoadly (1711-1776). Portrait by Francis Hayman (1708-1776) (detail). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Hoadly was born in Broad Street, London, on 8 October 1711, the youngest son of Benjamin Hoadly (1676–1761), bishop of Winchester, by his wife Sarah (Curtis).[1]
He attended Dr. Newcome's school at Hackney, where he distinguished himself by his performance of the part of Phocyas in J. Hughes's Siege of Damascus.[1]
He was sent in 1730 to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and at about the same time was entered at the Middle Temple in order to qualify himself for the bar.[1]
Hoadly assisted his brother Benjamin (1706–1757) in writing The Contrast; or, a tragical comical rehearsal of two modern Plays, and the Tragedy of Epaminondas,’ which was brought out at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 30 April 1731, and performed 3 times without success. It ridiculed living poets, especially James Thomson. At the desire of Bishop Hoadly it was suppressed, and the copy was restored to the authors (Baker, Biog. Dram. ed. Reed and Jones, ii. 125–6).[1]
Career[]
Having graduated LL.B. in 1735 Hoadly decided to become a clergyman, that he might avail himself of the rich patronage at his father's disposal. On 29 November 1735 he was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, and was ordained deacon by his father on the following 7 December, and priest 21 December. He was immediately received into the Prince of Wales's household as his chaplain, as he afterwards was in that of the princess dowager, on 6 May 1751.[1]
He obtained the rectory of Mitchelmersh, Hampshire, on 8 March 1737, that of Wroughton, Wiltshire, on 8 Sept., and that of Alresford, Hampshire, and the 8th prebendal stall in Winchester Cathedral on 29 November of the same year. On 9 June 1743 he was instituted to the rectory of St. Mary, near Southampton, and on 16 December 1746 to the vicarage of Overton, Hampshire. On 4 January 1748 Herring, archbishop of Canterbury, conferred on him the degree of LL.D. (Gentleman's Magazine 3rd ser. xvi. 637). In May 1760 he was appointed to the mastership of St. Cross, Winchester. All these preferments he retained until his death (16 March 1776), except the rectory of Wroughton and the prebend of Winchester, which he resigned in June 1760 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 40).[1]
Such was his fondness for theatrical exhibitions that no visitors were ever long in his house before they were solicited to accept a part in some interlude. He himself, along with David Garrick, who was a great friend and correspondent of Hoadly's, and Hogarth, once enacted a vulgar parody on the ghost scene in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (play)Julius Caesar]][1]
Writing[]
Besides his share in The Contrast, which was never printed, he wrote:
- Love's Revenge: a dramatic pastoral (anon.), 1734 ([1737] and 1745); set to music by Maurice Greene.
- Jephtha, an oratorio (anon.), 1737; music by Greene.
- Phoebe, a pastoral opera (anon.), 1748; music by Greene.
- The Force of Truth, an oratorio (anon.), 1764.[1]
He composed the 5th act of J. Miller's tragedy of Mahomet, 1744, and completed and revised G. Lillo's Arden of Feversham, 1762. He is said to have assisted his brother Benjamin in the composition of The Suspicious Husband. He left several dramas in manuscript; among others ‘The Housekeeper, a farce,’ on the plan of J. Townley's ‘High Life below Stairs,’ in favour of which piece it was rejected by Garrick, and a tragedy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex. Some of his poems are in Dodsley's ‘Collection;’ the best is a translation of Edward Holdsworth's ‘Muscipula’ in vol. v.[1]
He also edited his father's works in 3 folio volumes in 1773, to which he prefixed a short life originally contributed to the Biographia Britannica.[1]
Recognition[]
13 of his poems were included in Dodsley's Collection of Poems in Six Volumes; by several hands;[2] the best is a translation of Edward Holdsworth's Muscipula in vol. v.[1]
See also[]
References[]
Goodwin, Gordon (1891) "Hoadly, John (1711-1776)" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 27 London: Smith, Elder, p. 22 Wikisource, Web, July 5, 2020.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Hoadly, John (1711-1776)
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