Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carr, John (1732-1807)

1381620Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09 — Carr, John (1732-1807)1887Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh

CARR, JOHN (1732–1807), translator of Lucian, was born at Muggleswick, Durham, in 1732. His father was a farmer and small landowner or statesman. He was educated at the village school, and then privately by the curate of the parish, the Rev. Daniel Watson. Subsequently he was sent to St. Paul's School. He became an usher in Hertford grammar school under Dr. Hurst, and succeeded him in the head-mastership, which he held until about 1792, with a good reputation. He is said to have been a candidate for the head-mastership of St. Paul's, but to have failed from the lack of a university degree. In 1773 he published the first volume of his translations from ‘Lucian,’ which reached a second edition in the following year. He published a second volume in 1779, followed by three more between that year and 1798. The reputation of this work, which on the whole is executed with accuracy and spirit, obtained for him the degree of LL.D. from the Marischal College of Aberdeen, at the instance of Dr. Beattie. He seems to have felt that his literary pursuits had been too trifling, and he takes pains in the preface to the second volume of Lucian to assure the world that it was the work only of evening hours when graver duties were over; and that it was undertaken to put out of his thoughts the annoyances of the day, an excuse which schoolmasters will understand. Besides his Lucian he wrote:

  1. ‘A Third Volume of Tristram Shandy,’ in imitation of Sterne, 1760.
  2. ‘Filial Piety,’ a mock-heroic poem, 1763.
  3. ‘Extract of a Private Letter to a Critic,’ 1764.
  4. ‘Epponina,’ a dramatic essay addressed to ladies, 1765, the plot of which is founded on the account of Epponina, wife of Julius Sabinus, given in Tacitus (H. 4, 67), and Dio Cassius (66, 3, and 16).

From 1805 till death he was prebendary of Lincoln. He died 6 June 1807, and was buried in St. John's Church, Hertford.

[Gent. Mag. lxxxii. 602; Nichols's Anecdotes, iii. 168; Baker's Biog. Dram.]

E. S. S.