Poet, Satirist. He was educated at Westminster School, London, before entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1749. He was then made curate of South Cadbury, Somerset, before succeeding his father as curate of Rainham, Essex, in 1756. In 1758 he was elected to the curacy and lectureship of St. John’s, Westminster, and also took a teaching position at a girl’s school. It was at this time that he began a life of drunkeness with his friend Robert Lloyd, and only escaped imprisonment for dept with the help of Lloyd’s father. In 1761 he produced his first published work, the satirical poem “The Rosciad”, which criticised the famous actors of the day. He soon followed this with “An Apology Addressed to the Critical Reviewers”, which repeated his attack on the theatrical profession. In 1763 his reckless private life led his parishioners to call for his resignation as curate, but sales of “The Rosciad”, which he published himself, allowed him to support himself and pay off his creditors. His next poem, “The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral” was published in John Wilkes’ weekly newspaper “The North Briton”. When Wilkes was arrested in 1763 he wrote “Epistle to William Hogarth”, a response to a caricature of Wilkes drawn by Hogarth at his trial. Hogarth responded with a caricature depicting Churchill as bear dressed as a curate and holding a pot of porter. In 1765 he wrote “The Duelist”, a satire on Wilkes’ opponents in the House of Lords. His other poems include “The Ghost”, which attacked Samuel Johnson, “Gotham”, about the duties of a king, and “The Candidate”, a satire on the Earl of Sandwich. In 1764 he moved to Boulogne, France, to be with Wilkes, but contracted a fever and died soon afterwards. He was buried in St, Martin’s burial ground, Dover, Kent, but his bones and gravestone were later transferred to Charlton Cemetery to make way for the construction of a bypass. A collection of his work, “The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill” was published in 1957. (bio by: js)