Laurence Eusden

• Name — Laurence Eusden • Office — Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom • Monarch — George I • Term Start — 10 December 1718 • Term End — 27 September 1730 • Predecessor — Nicholas Rowe • Successor — Colley Cibber • Born — 1688 (baptized 6 September) • Birthplace — Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England • Died — 27 September 1730 (aged 41-42) • Place of death — Coningsby, England

Laurence Eusden was born in Spofforth in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1688 (date unknown) to the Rev. Laurence Eusden, rector of Spofforth, Yorkshire. Eusden was baptized on 6 September 1688. He received his education at St Peter's School, York, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a minor fellow of his college in 1711, and in the next year was admitted to a full fellowship. Early on, Eusden had decided upon building a career through influence. For someone like him, well-educated, with a fellowship at Trinity, but without family money and without well-placed relations, there was no other way to advance in the world. He began to write, with the intention of using his ability to attract notice to himself. With a flattering poem on the Duke of Newcastle's marriage he succeeded – he was made Poet Laureate in 1718 by Newcastle, the Lord Chamberlain. Eusden, who was 30 years old at the time of his appointment, was also the youngest Poet Laureate. Eusden secured this post due to the death of the previous Poet Laureate, Nicholas Rowe, and the recommendation of Joseph Addison. Upon his appointment, Eusden produced Birthday and New Year Odes for 12 years. The last few years of his life were unhappy. He was ordained as a cleric in the 1720s, and assumed the office of rector of Coningsby, Lincolnshire, but his elevation to Poet Laureate brought him derision from his social and literary peers. Eusden died at Coningsby on 27 September 1730. He was buried at his church, St Michael and All Angels, in Coningsby.