, a miscellaneous compiler of various historical works, was born
, a miscellaneous compiler of various historical works, was born in 1713, but
where, or where educated, we have not been able to discover: he styled himself in his numerous title-pages the
Rev. John Entick, M. A. but it does not appear whence, he
derived his orders, or his degree. It is certain that at
one time he studied with a view to the ministry, eilher in
the church or among the dissenters. In the list of writers
who engaged in the controversy with Woolston, we find
his name, as a “student in divinity,
” and the author of a
tract, entitled “The Evidence of Christianity asserted and
proved from facts, as authorised from sacred and profane
history.
” Mr. Entick was at this time about eighteen years
old. In London, or its vicinity at Stepney, he was a
schoolmaster, and spent a considerable part of his life in
writing for the booksellers, who appear to have always employed him when they engaged in such voluminous compilations as were to be published in numbers. In this way
we find his name to a “Naval History,
” folio “A History,
of the (Seven years’) War,
” 5 vols. 8vo “A History of
London,
” 4 vols. 8vo a new edition, enlarged, of Maitland’s History of London, 2 vols. folio, &c. &c. He compiled also a small Latin and English Dictionary, and a
Spelling Dictionary, of both which immense numbers have
been sold. About the year 1738, he proposed publishing
an edition of Chaucer, which never took effect. Soon
after the beginning of the present reign, he commenced
patriot, of the school of Wilkes, wrote for some time in an
anti-ministerial paper called the Monitor, and had at length
the good fortune to be taken up under a general warrant,
for which he prosecuted the messenger, and recovered
300l. damage?. It was after this that he professed to improve and enlarge Maitland’s History of London, without
adding a syllable to the topographical part; but in the historical, he gave a very full account of Wilkes’s proceedings
with the city of London, and of the sufferings of his adherents. In 1760, he married a widow lady of Stepney,
who died the same year; and in May 1773, himself died,
and was buried at the same place. We may add to his
other publications, that he had a considerable share in the
New “Week’s Preparation,
” and a New “Whole Duty of
Man.
”