LANGHORNE, John, an English poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Kirkby-Steven, Westmoreland, in March 1735. He received the rudiments of his education, first at Winton, and afterwards at Appleby, where he early distinguished himself by his assiduity and proficiency. He left school in his eighteenth year, and, having no means of defraying the expense of an university education, engaged himself as private tutor to a family near Ripon. His next occupation was that of assistant in the free school of Wakefield, then superintended by Mr Clarke. Whilst in this situation he took deacon’s orders, and, it is said, became a popular preacher. In the year 1759, Mr Clarke recommended him as preceptor to [7:13:59]the sons of Mr Robert Cracroft of Hackthorn, near Lincoln, who were no fewer than nine in number. During his residence at Hackthorn, he published a volume of poems, which attracted but little notice; and he also wrote some critical pieces, which were rather more fortunate. In 1760, he entered his name at Clare-Hall, Cambridge, in order to take the degree of bachelor of divinity: but as his name does not appear in the list of the Cambridge graduates, it is more than probable that he did not succeed in his object. About this time he became enamoured of one of Mr Cracroft’s daughters, and having met with a refusal from the young lady, immediately left his situation. In 1761, he officiated as curate at Dagenham, where he produced a great variety of pieces, some of which he published. His Letters on Religious Retirement were dedicated to Warburton, who returned him a complimentary acknowledgment, in which he advised Langhorne to make some attempt in the cause of religion. In 1764, having obtained the curacy and lectureship of St John’s, Clerkenwell, he was enabled to reside in London, the great and ready mart for literary talents. About this time he engaged with Mr Griffiths as a writer in the Monthly Peview, in which situation he continued until about the year 1769, when his connection with the Review is supposed to have ceased, in consequence of some dispute with the editor. His employment as a critic procured him the acquaintance of many literary men, whilst the vein of ridicule, which he occasionally indulged with more freedom than discretion, made him many enemies, amongst whom were Churchill, Kelly, and Kenrick, libellers by profession. In 1765, he produced a number of pieces, besides publishing an edition of the poems of Collins, with a memoir and critical notes. He replied to Churchill’s Prophecy of Famine, a libel against the Scottish nation, in a poem entitled Genius and Valour, which obtained the approbation of Dr Robertson the historian, and procured for him the degree of doctor in divinity, which was conferred on him by the university of Edinburgh. In 1767, Dr Langhorne married Miss Cracroft, the lady to whom he had so long been attached, and with whom he had never ceased to correspond. But his happiness was of short duration, as Mrs Langhorne died in childbirth, on the 4th of March 1768. Not long after his wife’s death, he went to reside at Folkestone, in Kent, where his brother officiated as perpetual curate. During his residence at this place, the brothers occupied themselves in preparing a new translation of Plutarch’s Lives, which appeared in 1770, and soon became a very popular book. In the year 1772, Dr Langhorne paid a visit to his native country, where he married a second wife, the daughter of a magistrate near Brough, and then set out on a tour through part of France and the Netherlands, the scenery of which afforded new themes for his industrious muse. In 1776 he lost his second wife, who, like the former, died in childbed, leaving him a daughter. In 1777, at the request of the Beuverie family, by whom he was much respected, he was presented by the bishop, Dr Moss, with a prebend in the cathedral of Wells. But his career was now approaching its close. He died on the 1st of April 1779, in the forty-fifth year of his age. In 1804, his son published an edition of his poems in two vols. 12mo, with a memoir of the author, to which we beg to refer our readers for more ample details. Dr Langhorne was a man of an amiable disposition and inoffensive manners, social in his habits, and possessed of a considerable fund of wit, which he never abused or misapplied. The leading characteristics of bis poetry are ease, fluency, and a considerable share of tenderness, without much invention or originality. His prose writings are sufficiently varied to satisfy us that he was a laborious and indefatigable writer. (a.)