School

1770 - 1787: Childhood and early education

His mother died in 1778 (8). In the same year he and his elder brother Richard were sent as boarders to Hawkshead Grammar School. His sister, Dorothy, who later became his constant companion, was separated from her brothers (at the tender age of seven) and sent to live with Elizabeth 'Aunt' Threlkeld, her mother's cousin, in Halifax, Yorkshire, some 100 miles away.

His father died in 1783 (13), at which point Sir James Lowther owed him about £4000 (around £200,000 in today's terms), representing some fifty per cent of the total estate, but he refused to honour the debt, which was not paid until 'wicked Jimmy' himself died 20 years later.

Responsibility for William and his siblings, and for the administration of their estate, passed to his uncles, John Wordsworth of Whitehaven (his father's brother) and Christopher Cookson of Penrith (his mother's brother).

When at school the boys boarded with Ann Tyson of Colthouse near Hawkshead, who gave them a great deal of freedom to roam far and wide. During the holidays they stayed with one or other of their uncles, an arrangement which gave rise to significant tensions, particularly with the Cooksons, whom the siblings found unsympathetic. Dorothy later writes to Jane Pollard: each day we do receive fresh insults (Letter, Penrith, summer 1787), insults centring around their being impoverished and dependent on the 'charity' of their grandfather.

Hawkshead School, under the headship of William Taylor, on the other hand, was a progressive and liberally oriented establishment, where reading in mathematics, the sciences and poetry was encouraged. The curriculum prepared him well for Cambridge, and he was awarded a sizar's place at St John's College, which meant that he paid reduced fees, but also that he was marked as an impoverished student by the requirement to wear a distinctive gown. Having already been subjected to insults on account of his impoverished state in the Cookson's household, his sensitivity to similar treatment at college was possibly one of the reasons for the development of his negative opinion of the University.

Whilst at Hawkshead, he composed his first poetry, including, firstly, a poem celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of Hawkshead School, secondly, a Sonnet on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress, published in the European Magazine in 1787. and thirdly the long poem An Evening Walk, which was published in January 1793 by Joseph Johnson.

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