John Wolcot

John Wolcot (baptised 9 May 1738 – 14 January 1819) was an English satirist, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Peter Pindar".¹

Life

Wolcot was baptised at Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge, Devon. In the parish register, his surname was spelled "Woolcot". It is not known where he was born. He was educated by an uncle, and received his MD from Aberdeen University. In 1767 he went as physician to Sir William Trelawny, Governor of Jamaica. He was offered the lucrative living of St. Anne's, where the current parson was seriously ill. Wolcott went back to England and took holy orders in 1769. He returned to Jamaica to find the parson of St. Anne's had recovered and Wolcott was instead offered the less lucrative living of Vere.² Sir William died in 1772; Wolcot came home and, abandoning the Church, resumed his medical career. He settled in practice at Truro, where he discovered the talents of John Opie, and assisted him.³

In 1780 Wolcot went to London and began writing satires. The first objects of his attentions were the members of the Royal Academy.⁴ These attempts being well received, he soon began to fly at higher game, the King and Queen being the most frequent marks for his satirical shafts. Between 1785 and 1796 he published The Lousiad: a Heroi-Comic Poem in five cantos, which took its name from a legend that a louse had once appeared on the King's dinner plate.³ In London Wolcot became an important figure in the art world as patron of both John Opie and later, .