Robert Jephson
Robert Jephson(1736 – 31 May 1803) was an Irishdramatistand politician.
Life
[edit]He was born inIreland,a younger son of John Jephson,Archdeacon of Cloyne.[1]He enteredTrinity College, Dublinin 1751, but left without a degree. He then joined the British Army, with a commission in the73rd Regiment of Foot (1758),and served in the Caribbean. He left, for health reasons.[2]
Jephson then lived inEngland,atHampton Court,withWilliam Gerard Hamilton.[2]There he was the friend ofDavid Garrick,Joshua Reynolds,Oliver Goldsmith,Samuel Johnson,Edmund Burke,Charles BurneyandCharles Townshend.His appointment as master of the horse to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland took him back toDublin.[3]
He published, in theMercurynewspaper, a series of articles in defence of the lord-lieutenant's administration which were afterwards collected and issued in book form under the title ofThe Bachelor, or Speculations of Jeoffry Wagstaffe.A pension of £300, later doubled, was granted him, and he held his appointment under twelve succeedingviceroys.[3]
Jephson entered theIrish House of Commonsin 1773 and sat forSt Johnstown (County Longford)until 1776. Between 1777 and 1783, he served asMember of Parliament(MP) forOld Leighlinand subsequently representedGranardfrom 1783 to 1790. He died at Blackrock, near Dublin.[3]
Works
[edit]From 1775 Jephson took up writing plays. Among others, histragedyBraganzawas successfully performed atDrury Lanein 1775,The Conspiracyin 1796,Juliain 1797,The Law of Lombardyin 1779, andThe Count of NarbonneatCovent Gardenin 1781, adapted fromHorace Walpole'sThe Castle of OtrantoandThe Campaignat theSmock Alley Theatrein 1784.[4]In 1794 he published an heroic poemRoman Portraits,andThe Confessions of Jacques Baptiste Couteau,a satire on the excesses of theFrench Revolution.[3]
References
[edit]- ^Jephson, Maurice Denham (1964).An Anglo-Irish Miscellany: Some Records of the Jephsons of Mallow.A. Figgis. p. 301.
- ^abBaines, Paul. "Jephson, Paul".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14768.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^abcdChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 321–322.
- ^The Count of Narbonne: A Tragedy, in Five Acts by Robert Jephson and Horace Walpole.
Further reading
[edit]- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Jephson, Robert".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 321–322.
External links
[edit]
- 1736 births
- 1803 deaths
- 18th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
- 18th-century Irish male writers
- 19th-century Irish people
- Irish male dramatists and playwrights
- Irish MPs 1769–1776
- Irish MPs 1776–1783
- Irish MPs 1783–1790
- Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Carlow constituencies
- Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Longford constituencies