STEPNEY, GEORGE (1663-1707)

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 889 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SOU-STE

STEPNEY, GEORGE (1663-1707) , English poet and diplomatist, son of George Stepney, groom of the chamber to Charles II., was born at Westminster in 1663. He was admitted on the foundation of Westminster School in 1676, and in 1682 became a scholar of Trinity College,

Cambridge

, becoming a fellow of his college in 1687. Through his friend Charles Montagu, after-wards

earl

EARL

Halifax

, he entered the diplomatic service, and in 1692 was sent as

envoy

ENVOY (Fr. envoye, " sent ")

to Brandenburg. He represented William III. at various other German courts, and in 1702 was sent to Vienna, where he had already acted as

envoy

ENVOY (Fr. envoye, " sent ")

in 1693. In 1705 Prince

Eugene

EUGENE

desired his withdrawal on the ground of his alleged partiality to the Hungarian insurgents, but the demand was taken back at the request of Marlborough, who had great confidence in Stepney. He was, nevertheless, removed ~n 1706 to the Hague. In the next year he returned to England in the hope of recovering from a severe illness, but died in Chelsea, London, on the 15th of September 1707, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Stepney had a very full and accurate knowledge of German affairs, and was an excellent

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

-writer. Among his correspondents was Baron Leibnitz, with whom he was on the friendliest terms. Much of his official and other correspondence is preserved in the letters and papers of Sir John Ellis (Brit. 14Ius. Add. MSS. 28875-28947), purchased from the

earl

EARL

Macclesfield

in 1872, and others are available in the record office. He contributed a version of the eighth satire of Juvenal to the translation (1693) of the satires " by Mr Dryden and several other eminent hands." Dr Johnson, who included him in his Lives of the Poets, called him a " very licentious translator," and remarked that he did not " recompense his neglect of the author by beauties of his own."
His poems appear in Chalmers's English Poets, vol. viii., and other collections of the kind. Some of his correspondence is printed by J. M. Kemble in State Papers and Correspondence . from the Revolution to the Accession of the

House

of Hanover (1857). A

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
LIST, FRIEDRICH (1789-1846)

of the

Macclesfield

letters is to be found in the Report of the
Hist. MSS. Commission, No. i., app. pp. 34-40. For an account of Stepney's family and circumstances, see R. Harrison, Some Notices of the Stepney Family (187o), pp. 22-28.

End of Article: STEPNEY, GEORGE (1663-1707)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/SOU_STE/STEPNEY_GEORGE_1663_1707_.html">
STEPNEY, GEORGE (1663-1707)
</a>

(Previous)
STEPNEY

(Next)
STEPNIAK, SERGIUS (1852-1895)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email