William Clubbe

William Clubbe (or Clubb) (1745–1814) was an English clergyman and poetical writer.

Life

He was seventh son of John Clubbe, rector of Whatfield in Suffolk, baptised at Whatfield on 16 April 1745. He was educated at Newcome's School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1762 and graduated LL.B. in 1769.^[1] In the same year he was instituted to the rectory of Flowton, and in the following year to the vicarage of Brandeston, both in Suffolk.^[2] He took an antiquarian interest in brasses and other materials removed on the restoration work in Letheringham church, a modernisation pushed through by Thomas Rede, attorney at Beccles.^[3][4]

Clubbe lived at Brandeston until 1808, when, having lost his wife, he moved to the house of his youngest brother, Nathaniel, an attorney at Framlingham. There he died on 16 October 1814. His wife was Mary, daughter of the Rev. William Henchman; they had no issue.^[2] His biography appeared in vol. 6 of Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century by John Nichols, where he was called second son of John Clubbe.^[5]

Works

His works include:^[2]

• The Emigrants, a Pastoral, Ipswich, 1793.
• Six Satires of Horace; in a style between free imitation and literal version, Ipswich, 1795. Modernisations included William Herschel as Lynceus.^[6]
• The Epistle of Horace to the Pisos on the Art of Poetry; translated into English verse, Ipswich, 1797.
• The Omnium; containing the Journal of a late Three Days Tour in France; curious and extraordinary anecdotes, critical remarks, and other miscellaneous pieces, in prose and verse, Ipswich, 1798.
• Ver: de Agricola Puero, Anglo Poemate celeberrimo excerptum, et in morem Latini Georgici redditum, Ipswich, 1801, and 1804. A translation into Latin of part of Robert Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy.
• Three Lyric Odes, on late Celebrated Occasions, Ipswich, 1806.
• Parallel between the Characters and Conduct of Oliver Cromwell and Bonaparte (1812). As "A British Officer".^[7]
• A Plain Discourse on the Subject of National Education (1812).^[8]
• A Plain Discourse [on Prov. iv. 11] on the … Establishment of a Sunday School (1812).^[8] Anonymous.^[9]
• Miscellaneous poems, in manuscript (British Library Addit. MS. 19201, f. 81 seq).

An anonymous pamphlet of 1805, accusing Methodist labourers of seditious intentions, was published at Ipswich as A Letter to a Country Gentleman, on the Subject of Methodism;^[10] It is attributed to Clubbe.^[11] John Spencer Curwen found amusing in it the complaint about Methodist labourers singing hymns at home after work.^[12] Clubbe also published anonymously an Address to the lower classes of his parishioners on the subject of Methodism (1806).^[13]

Notes

1. "Clubbe or Clubb, William (CLB762W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2.  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Clubbe, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
3. Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College 1349-1897. CUP Archive. pp. 80–1. GGKEY:48YU87FG5WE. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
4. Samuel Wilton Rix (1849). The Fauconberge Memorial: an Account of Henry Fauconberge, LL.D. of Beccles: And of the Endowment Provided by His Will to Encourage Learning and the Instruction of Youth. Self-published. pp. 31–2. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
5. Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century: Consisting of Authentic Memoirs and Original Letters of Eminent Persons; and Intended as a Sequel to the Literary Anecdotes. author. 1831. pp. 462–3. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
6. Horace (12 January 2012). Horace: Satires. Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-521-45220-5. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
7. William Cushing, Initials and Pseudonyms. A dictionary of literary disguises vol. 2 (c. 1885), p. 20; archive.org.
8. Mills, Rebecca. "Clubbe, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5722. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
9. Dicitonary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature. Ardent Media. p. 353. GGKEY:5SY12CPT9ZP. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
10. Edward Palmer Thompson (1963). The Making of the English Working Class... IICA. p. 397 note 2. GGKEY:W8XC2FBP0LR. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
11. William Clubbe (1805). A Letter to a Country Gentleman, on the Subject of Methodism: Confined Chiefly to Its Causes, Progress and Consequences, in His Own Neighbourhood. John Raw; Sold also by Mess. Rivingtons, St. Paul's Church-Yard, and Hatchard, Piccadilly, London. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
12. John Spencer Curwen, Studies in Worship Music, first series: chiefly as regards congregational singing (1901) p. 63; archive.org.
13. Samuel Halkett (1971). Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature. Ardent Media. p. 30. GGKEY:ZYRNHEAF7A7. Retrieved 15 May 2013.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Clubbe, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.