Robert Jephson

Robert Jephson (1736 – 31 May 1803) was an Irish dramatist and politician.

Life He was born in Ireland, a younger son of John Jephson, Archdeacon of Cloyne. He entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1751, but left without a degree. He then joined the British Army, with a commission in the 73rd Regiment of Foot (1758), and served in the Caribbean. He left, for health reasons.

Jephson then lived in England, at Hampton Court, with William Gerard Hamilton.

He published, in the Mercury newspaper, a series of articles in defence of the lord-lieutenant's administration which were afterwards collected and issued in book form under the title of The Bachelor, or Speculations of Jeoffry Wagstaffe. A pension of £300, later doubled, was granted him, and he held his appointment under twelve succeeding viceroys. In 1794 he published an heroic poem Roman Portraits, and The Confessions of Jacques Baptiste Couteau, a satire on the excesses of the French Revolution.