Eustace Budgell
Eustace Budgell was an English writer and political figure born on August 19, 1686, near Exeter, England. He was the eldest son of a clergyman and had familial connections to the Church of England, which shaped his early life. Budgell attended Trinity College at Oxford and became known for his contributions to the influential publication The Spectator, founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, where he wrote thirty-seven papers. His career included significant roles such as the comptroller general of revenue for Ireland, although he faced professional setbacks, including a dismissal after a dispute with the Duke of Bolton.
Budgell also published various political writings and founded a weekly newspaper called The Bee in 1733. His personal life experienced turmoil, marked by financial loss in the South Sea Bubble and family controversies, particularly regarding his daughter's mother. Budgell's later years were plagued by mental health issues, and he was embroiled in literary rivalries, notably with poet Alexander Pope. Ultimately, Budgell's life ended tragically when he drowned in the Thames on May 4, 1737, amidst scandal and accusations of forgery related to a will. He remains remembered for his literary contributions and his reflections on friendship, which resonate in various collections of quotations.
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Eustace Budgell
Writer
- Born: August 19, 1686
- Birthplace: St. Thomas, near Exeter, England
- Died: May 4, 1737
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
The details of the life of Eustace Budgell are unclear because of contradictory and incomplete statements by contemporary sources. He was born August 19, 1686, perhaps near St. Thomas, which is close to Exeter, England. He was the eldest son of Gilbert Budgell, a doctor of divinity, and his first wife, Anne Gulston Budgell, daughter of a bishop of the Church of England. Bishop Gulston arranged the marriage of his fifteen-year-old to the forty-year-old clergyman. Budgell’s father was rector of Uplyme, in Devon, from 1690 until his death in 1710.
Budgell entered the Oxford University’s Trinity College, where his father had once been a tutor, in 1705. By 1710, Budgell was clerk to the politician and essayist Joseph Addison, his mother’s cousin, and secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland. After Addison and Richard Steele founded The Spectator in 1711, Budgell became an important contributor; thirty-seven papers are attributed to him. He also published a translation of The Moral Characters of Theophrastus in 1714. Through his political connections, Budgell became comptroller general of the revenue for Ireland in 1717. When the Duke of Bolton became lord lieutenant in 1718, Budgell quarreled with him and was dismissed. Budgell contributed political writings to such publications as The Englishman and The Guardian, attacked Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister, in The Craftsman, and founded a weekly, The Bee, in 1733. Budgell’s views on Walpole also appeared in A Short History of Prime Ministers. Budgell’s daughter, Ann Eustace, was born in 1725; her mother may have been his maid, Mary Harris. Theatrical records indicate that Ann Eustace played several important roles on the London stage in the 1740’s. Budgell lost a fortune in the South Sea Bubble, the 1720 collapse of the South Sea Company. Controversy surrounding the will of Matthew Tindal, which Budgell may have forged to make himself the beneficiary, led to his suicide; he drowned in the Thames on May 4, 1737. Budgell, who suffered from bouts of insanity, had many literary and political enemies and is most famous for being attacked by Alexander Pope in Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot and The Dunciad. Pope was reportedly seeking revenge for Budgell’s calling him “a little envious animal.” Pope may also have written an anonymous letter to The Grub-Street Journal accusing Budgell of poisoning Tindal. Budgell’s words, such as his definition of friendship, appear occasionally in collections of quotations: “Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another. “