Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

William Wordsworth was born in the town of Cockermouth, Cumberland, on 7 April 1770, the second of five children. His father, John Wordsworth, was a lawyer and agent for Sir James Lowther, later the first Earl of Lonsdale; his mother, Ann Wordsworth, was a daughter of the Cookson/Crackenthorpe family of Penrith; his siblings were Richard (1768–1816), Dorothy (1771–1855), John (1772–1805), and Christopher (1774–1846). The Wordsworth children received their earliest education at Ann Birkett's dame-school in Penrith, where they lived with their grandparents. But this arrangement ended in 1778 when their mother died, and her death, coupled with their father's increased responsibilities on behalf of the Lowther interest, broke the family apart. In 1779, the two eldest boys, Richard and William, were enrolled at the Hawkshead Grammar School in north Lancashire, later to be joined by John and Christopher. Their sister Dorothy was sent to live with relatives in Halifax, and did not see her brothers again for almost a decade. The choice of Hawkshead Grammar School was fortuitous. Under the headmastership of James Peake, Hawkshead had established itself as the leading grammar school in the north of England, strong in mathematics and with close ties to Cambridge University, where its best graduates regularly enrolled. At Hawkshead, Wordsworth benefited from a progressive curriculum in Classics ... log in or subscribe to read full text