George Dyer
George Dyer was an English writer and educator, born in London in 1755 into a family of modest means. Despite his humble beginnings, he received a solid education, attending Christ's Hospital and later Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, where he distinguished himself academically. Dyer became involved in the dissenting movement of the 1780s, influenced by the radical ideas surrounding him, particularly those related to Unitarianism and political liberalism. His notable work, "The Complaints of the Poor People of England," published in 1793, criticized social injustices and called for significant societal reform.
In addition to his political writings, Dyer published several volumes of poetry, though these did not receive widespread acclaim. He is often remembered through the affectionate anecdotes of contemporaries like Charles Lamb, who portrayed him as an endearing, absent-minded figure. Dyer married Honour Mather at the age of fifty-nine, and they shared a happy life together until his later years, which were spent in the company of friends who would read to him. His legacy includes both his contributions to dissenting thought and the fond recollections of those who knew him.
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George Dyer
Writer
- Born: March 15, 1755
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: March 2, 1841
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
George Dyer was born in London in 1755 to a family of limited means. His father John Dyer’s occupation is given variously as watchmaker and shipwright, and there seem to be few if any extant accounts of his mother. His brother John was a bargeman whose daughter probably looked after George during much of his adulthood, but little else of his family life is recorded. Still, he was well educated; he was admitted to Christ’s Hospital, a charity school where such luminaries of the literature of the Romantic Age as Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (of a younger generation than Dyer) were also schooled. An excellent pupil, especially of Latin and Greek, Dyer was admitted to Cambridge University’s Emmanuel College, as a sizar—a student receiving financial assistance on the basis of need and high entrance examination scores. He earned a B.A. in 1778 and worked briefly as an assistantgrammar school master at Dedham and Northampton. He returned to Cambridge to become a tutor for the family of Robert Robinson, a Baptist minister at the center of radical, dissenting thought and activity in Cambridge during the 1780’s. Dissenters wanted to demystify Christianity by reconciling the dictates of reason to theology, and they opposed the creeds and authority of the official Church of England. They were often positively motivated by the democratic fervor in France that resulted in the French Revolution in 1789. Dyer was no exception, and his writing from this period reflected both his religious—he had by mid- decade moved toward Unitarianism—and political liberalism. Indeed, Dyer was at the forefront of contemporary dissenting thought in the 1780’s, and he wrote eloquently about the necessity of fundamental change in an unjust society.
The focus of The Complaints of the Poor People of England, published in 1793, is broad, calling for a fundamental overhaul of society: “In a country where one man possesses three or four magnificent houses . . . while many of the industrious poor can scarcely get the necessaries of life; in such a country, I say, the government must be defective.” Around 1795, Dyer’s political activities subsided, and he drifted toward more literary output, publishing five volumes of poetry which, ill-admired by even his friends, has attracted few contemporary enthusiasts. And, although Wordsworth thought his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Robert Robinson was one of the best biographies in the language, Dyer’s writing, generally speaking, may not strike many contemporary readers as especially indispensable. He is more often remembered through amusing sketches written by younger figures, especially Charles Lamb, who recollected an absent- minded and abstracted, but beloved figure who would mistakenly empty his snuffbox into the teapot while making breakfast and, more alarmingly, wander nearsightedly into the river after taking his leave from company. Dyer was married happily at age fifty- nine to Honour Mather, a widow who would live to be one hundred, and his final years were spent in the company of friends who read to him. William Hazlitt commented, “God never put a kinder heart into flesh of man than George Dyer’s.”