HENRY

See also:

• JAMES
• JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
• JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
• JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
• JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
• JAMES, EPISTLE OF
• JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
• JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
• JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
• JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)

JAMES

See also:

• HENRY JAMES PYE (1745-1813)

PYE (1745-1813)  , English poet laureate, was born in London on the loth of February 1745, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford . His father, a Berkshire land-owner, died in 1766, leaving him a legacy of debt amounting to £5o,000, and the burning of his home at Great Faringdon further increased his difficulties . In 1784 he was elected M.P. for Berkshire . He was obliged to sell the paternal estate, and, retiring from Parliament in 1790, became a police magistrate for Westminster . Although he had no command of language and was destitute of poetic feeling, his ambition was to obtain recognition as a poet, and he publi§hed many volumes of verse . Of all he wrote his prose Summary of the Duties of a Justice of the Peace out of Sessions (1808) is most worthy of record . He was made poet laureate in 1790, perhaps as a reward for his faithful support of Pitt in the House of Commons . The appointment was looked on as ridiculous, and his birthday odes were a continual source of contempt . His most elaborate poem was an epic, Alfred ("Sol) . He was the first poet laureate to receive a fixed salary of £27 instead of the historic tierce of Canary wine . He died at Pinner, Middlesex, on the If th of August 1813 .