George Duckett

Infobox_Person
name = George Duckett
residence =
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birth_date = birth date|1684|02|19
birth_place = Wiltshire, England
death_date = death date and age|1732|10|06|1684|02|19
death_place = Calne, Wiltshire, England
death_cause =
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occupation = Member of Parliament (MP), attorney
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spouse = Grace Skinner (cir 1690-1755)
partner =
children = Lionel Duckett (1712-1767)
Thomas Duckett (1713-1766)
Grace Duckett (1714-1784)
William Duckett
George Duckett
William Duckett (d.1780)
Skinner Duckett (d.1767)
Martha Duckett
Catherine Duckett
parents = Lionel Duckett (1651-1693) and Martha Ash (b.1651)
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George Duckett (February 19, 1684 – October 6, 1732) was a British Member of Parliament (MP), attorney, and literary combatant of Alexander Pope's. He was the heir of a wealthy Member of Parliament, Lionel Duckett (1511-1587), attended Trinity College, Oxford before being admitted to the Middle Temple and becoming an MP for Calne, Wiltshire in 1705. He was re-elected in 1708 and 1722, and between 1722 and 1732 he was a commissioner of excise. He married Grace Skinner (cir 1690-1755) on 1711-03-23, and the couple had nine children - eight of whom survived to adult life.

Duckett was a Whig who was a friend of Joseph Addison's, and he entertained Addison and some of Addison's "little senate" at his estates in Wiltshire. He was also a close friend of Thomas Burnet, and he and Burnet would collaborate on numerous satirical and political writings. In particular, the two teamed up to oppose Alexander Pope after the latter's disaffection with Addison and dispute with Ambrose Philips.

In 1715, Burnet and Duckett wrote "Homerides, or, a letter to Mr. Pope, occasion'd by his intended translation of Homer; by Sir Iliad Doggerl," and in 1716 they wrote "Homerides, or, Homer's First Book Moderniz'd." Pope accused them of attacking his translation of Homer prior to anything even being written, and with some justice, and Duckett continued the battle with "An Epilogue to a Puppet Show at Bath Concerning the same Iliad" by himself. Edmund Curll, in his battle against Pope, published the "Epilogue". Pope's revenge appeared in "The Dunciad" of 1728, and in particular in the "Dunciad Variorum." Because of their positions in government, Pope did not attack Duckett and Burnet by name in "Dunciad" itself, and he did not directly impugn them until the "Variorum." Duckett and Burnet also funded and contributed to two weekly journals, "The Grumbler" and "Pasquin." He was also the patron of one of Pope's other enemies, John Oldmixon.

In 1717, Duckett published an apolitical, professional work entitled "A Summary of All the Religious Houses in England and Wales." It was an accounting of the values of each of the monasteries and convents at the time of the dissolution and their present value, if they were still available. It was this work that got Duckett made a commissioner of excise.

In 1729, Duckett and John Dennis combined in an anti-Pope booklet called "Pope Alexander's Supremacy and Infallibility Examin'd."

He died at home on his Calne estate in 1732.

References

* Roberts, William, and Freya Johnston. "George Duckett". In Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography." vol. 17, 32-6. London: OUP, 2004.