William Dunkin

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Dunkin, William, D.D., a friend of Swift and Delany (one of the witnesses to the former's will), was gratuitously educated at Trinity College, to which a relative of his had bequeathed an estate. He was probably of the family of the Rev. Patrick Dunkin, whose metrical Latin translations of some Irish ranns are acknowledged by Archbishop Ussher. He was ordained in 1735 — in which year we find him repaying Swift's friendship and patronage by assisting him in his poetical controversy with Bettesworth. In 1737 Swift endeavoured to obtain for him an English living, writing of him: "He is a gentleman of much wit, and the best English as well as Latin poet in the kingdom. He is a pious man, highly esteemed." This appeal was fruitless; Dunkin was, however, placed by Lord Chesterfield over the Endowed School of Enniskillen. He died about 1746. A collected edition of his poems and epistles appeared in 2 vols. in 1774.

Sources

39. Biographical Dictionary, Imperial: Edited by John F. Waller. 3 vols. London, N.D.

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