William Walsh

William WALSH 1662-1708

William Walsh's bookplate (British Museum Franks Collection *203)

Biographical Note

Born at Abberley, Worcestershire, the estate of his father Joseph Walsh, a member of a long-established gentry family there. Matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, but did not graduate; he was admitted at the Middle Temple in 1679, and spent time travelling in Italy. He inherited the family estates in 1682 and divided his time between Worcestershire and London, where he was popular as a man about town and wit, closely associated with John Dryden's literary circle. He published numerous poems, was MP for Worcestershire from 1698, and was appointed a gentleman of the horse at court in 1702.

Books

Walsh used an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks *203); the extent and disposition of his library is not known (he died intestate, and Abberley was inherited by his sister Ann Bromley.)

Sources

• History of Parliament.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.
• Sambrook, James. "Walsh, William (bap. 1662, d. 1708), poet." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.