Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1092

CHU Greek territory. On the assassination of Capo d'Istrias, Sir Richard put himself at the head of a body of troops, and along with the portion of the national assembly seated at Megara, prepared to resist by force the government of the president's brother. But the intervention of the French put an end to the civil war. On the elevation of Otho to the throne of Greece, General Church was created a councillor of state.—J. T.  CHURCH,, a learned English divine, author of several controversial works, born in 1707; died in 1756. "A vindication of the miraculous powers which subsisted in the first three centuries of. the Christian church, in answer to Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry," 1750; and an analysis of Bolingbroke's philosophical works, 1755; are his principal works.  CHURCHILL. See.  CHURCHILL,, a celebrated satirical poet, was the son of the Rev. Charles Churchill, rector of Rainham in Essex, and curate and lecturer of St. John's, Westminster, where the poet was born in February, 1731. He was educated at Westminster school, and entered of Trinity college, Cambridge, which he quitted abruptly, for what reason is unknown, and returning to London, made a clandestine marriage in the Fleet. Mr. Southey, however, is of opinion that Churchill's marriage took place previous to his entering the university, and that he never resided there. He lived for about a year with his wife under his father's roof, and then went for some time to study theology at Sunderland, and having taken orders, officiated first at Cadbury in Somersetshire, and subsequently as curate in his father's living at Rainham. On the death of his father in 1758, he was elected by the parishioners to succeed him in the curacy and lectureship of St. John's. He is said to have carefully discharged the duties of his office at this time, and as the cares of a family were now pressing on him, he endeavoured to eke out his narrow income, by engaging in private tuition. He fell into debt, however, his home became a scene of continual discord, which led to a separation between him and his wife in 1761, and his embarrassments grew so serious, that he was only saved from a jail by the interposition of Dr. Lloyd, one of the masters in Westminster school, who persuaded the poet's creditors to accept of a composition, which he assisted him to pay. It must be stated, to Churchill's credit, that he subsequently discharged all his obligations in full, as soon as his means enabled him to do so. About this period he entered on a literary career. The first of his poems, for which he could find a publisher, was the "Roseiad," a satire upon actors, which appeared at first without his name in 1761, and was received with great favour. This was followed shortly afterwards by his "Apology to the Critical Reviewers," in which he retaliated with great vigour and keenness upon the assailants of his first work. His next publication was a poem called "Night," in which he endeavoured to palliate the convivial excesses in which he now indulged. The best and most successful of his works is a political satire entitled "The Prophecy of Famine." It is directed against the Scottish nation, to gratify the notorious John Wilkes, whose personal political associate he had now become, and is distinguished by its "laughable extravagance." Churchill's other publications, "The Ghost," which was aimed at Dr. Johnson; "The Duellist;" "Gotham Independence," "The Times;" &c., betray unequivocal marks of haste and carelessness, and were avowedly written with the view rather of profiting by the celebrity he had acquired than of increasing his permanent reputation. Meanwhile Churchill had launched into a career of dissipation and extravagance, which drew forth the merited censure of his clerical superiors, and the final complaint of his parishioners. He resigned in consequence his lectureship, plunged deeper and deeper into excesses, and set at defiance both moral principle and public opinion. He became an intimate friend of John Wilkes, equally notorious for his factious and spurious patriotism and his private debauchery, assisted him in the North Britain, and narrowly escaped imprisonment when Wilkes was apprehended under the famous "general warrant." When he threw off the clerical profession, he had explicitly declared that he threw off with it his belief in Christianity. His conduct showed that he had become equally hostile to its morality, for about this time he separated from his wife, and seduced the daughter of a tradesman in Westminster. At the end of a fortnight, the guilty couple seem to have been struck with compunction, and the unhappy woman, at their joint entreaty, was received by her father. But her home was rendered intolerable by the continual reproaches of her sister, and she was driven to throw herself again upon Churchill's protection. His friendship with Wilkes led to a quarrel with Hogarth, who caricatured the satirist in the form of a bear dressed in canonicals, with torn bands and ruffles at his paws, and holding a pot of porter. Churchill revenged himself in a satirical epistle to Hogarth, which, though characterized by great bitterness and ferocity, yet contains a glowing panegyric on the painter's works. Churchill's career came to a sad and premature close. In October, 1764, he paid a visit to his friend Wilkes at Boulogne, where he caught fever, and died on the 4th of November, in his thirty-third year. He was buried at Dover, and some of his loose associates placed over his grave a stone, on which was engraved a line from one of his own poems, as much at variance with truth as with good taste— " Life to the last enjoyed, here Churchill lies." Churchill undoubtedly possessed vigorous original talents, but his writings are characterized rather by great facility of versification, and the boldness and bitterness of personal invective, than by poetical feeling or imagination. Dr. Johnson, who disliked him both as a man and as a writer, spoke contemptuously of Churchill's poetry, and predicted that it would sink into oblivion. "No English poet," says Southey, "has ever enjoyed so excessive and so short-lived a popularity, and indeed, no one seems more thoroughly to have understood his own powers; there is no indication in any of his pieces that he could have done anything better than the thing he did." "Churchill," says Mr. D'Israeli, "was a spendthrift of fame, and enjoyed all his revenue while he lived. Posterity owes him little and pays him nothing." On the other hand, Cowper had a higher opinion of Churchill than of any other contemporary writer; and Campbell says he may be ranked as a satirist immediately after Pope and Dryden, with perhaps a greater share of humour than either.—J. T.  CHURCHILL,, father of the celebrated duke of Marlborough, born in 1620; died in 1688. During the civil war he adhered to the royalist party, and at the restoration was raised to the dignity of knighthood. In 1664, soon after its foundation, he was elected to the Royal Society, and in the following year was appointed to a government office in Ireland. On his return to England he obtained a post at court, which, with a brief interval, he retained till the close of the reign of James II. He published "Divi Britannici, being a Remark upon the lives of all the kings of this Isle from the year of the world 2855, unto the reign of grace 1660."—J. S., G.  CHURCHYARD,, an English poet, born in Shrewsbury about the year 1520; died in 1604. He was of a respectable family according to Wood, and was patronized first by the earl of Surrey, and afterwards by the earl of Leicester. At various times he exercised the profession of arms, serving on the continent, in Ireland, and Scotland, but not with advantage to his fortunes, which were bad at home and worse abroad. His productions are numerous; the most esteemed is his "Legende of Jane Shore."—J. S., G.  CHURRUCA Y ELORZA,, a distinguished Spanish naval officer, was born 27th September, 1761. He was originally intended for the church, but exchanged the clerical for the naval profession, and studied for it at Cadiz and Ferrol. His first service was in the American war, in which he distinguished himself by his bravery and his humanity. He then obtained an appointment in the expedition sent out by the Spanish government to survey the Straits of Magellan, and some time after his return published an interesting diary of the exploration of Tierra del Fuego. In 1791 he was appointed to the command of an expedition sent to survey the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and constructed thirty-four charts of the coasts of Cuba, Hayti, &c., which are regarded as models of hydrography. Churruca was highly esteemed by Napoleon, and was appointed to the command of the San Juan in the combined French and Spanish fleet in 1805, and was killed at the battle of Trafalgar on the 21st of October of that year. The greatest respect was shown to his memory both by friends and foes.—J. T.  CHURTON,, an English divine, born at Bickley in Cheshire, in 1754; died in 1831. He was educated at Oxford, and early obtained preferment in the church, partly through his own merit, and partly through the favour of Dr. Townson. Many of the most estimable churchmen of his time were his intimate friends. He published several sermons, letters, &c. <section end="1092Hnop" />