John Pilkington

John Carteret Pilkington (1730–1763) was an Irish singer and writer who left lively memoirs of his early life and collaborated on the memoirs of his mother Laetitia Pilkington.

Origins Known as Jack, the younger surviving son of the art historian Matthew Pilkington and the poet Laetitia Pilkington, he was christened by the rites of the Church of Ireland in Dublin on 1 May 1730. His godparents were the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount Carteret later 2nd Earl Granville, for whom Dr Patrick Delany was proxy, a churchman, Robert Clayton later Bishop of Killala, and two women writers, Constantia Grierson and Mary Barber.

Life When his parents divorced and his mother left for London in 1738, he remained in the care of his father in Dublin.

Family On 7 July 1753, at St. Peter's Church, Aungier Street, Dublin, he married Ann Smith and they had three children, including Georgiana Caroline Pitt Pilkington (1757–1838), known as Caroline, who was named after her godmother Georgiana Clavering-Cowper, Countess Cowper, the daughter of Earl Granville. Caroline married or lived with several men, including two Americans, the New Jersey loyalist Joseph Smyth and the Massachusetts artist James Earl. With Smyth, she had the scientist Admiral William Henry Smyth, and with Earl she had two artists, Phoebe Earle, who married fellow-painter Denis Dighton, and Augustus Earle.

Works

The Real Story of John Carteret Pilkington, Written by Himself. [London, 1760] The Life of John Carteret Pilkington Vol. II. To which are added, Letters Between Lord K ---gsb-----h (Kingsborough), and Mrs. Laetitla Pilkington, Also Poems, &c. by the Rev. Mr. Matthew Pilkington Revised and Corrected by the late Dean Swift. [London, 1761]