Henry Purdon

Life
1729-1767; b. Co. Limerick, son of a clergyman and namesake; ed. TCD, Goldsmith’s friend; dissipated fortune and enlisted; London scribbler in the newspapers and book-seller’s hack, translating Voltaire’s The Henriade, which appeared in British Ladies’ Mag., for Ralph Griffins [who first employed Goldsmith]; shared in Goldsmith’s Life of Voltaire; had to apologise for letter to Garrick attacking Mossop and others; Goldsmith’s epitaph in Wednesday Club preserved his memory. ODNB PI.

 

References
Dictionary of National Biography calls him a ‘bookseller’s hack, remembered for Goldsmith’s epitaph on him for the Wednesday Club.’

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