John Dalton (poet)

John Dalton (1709–1763) was an English cleric and poet. He is now remembered as a librettist.

The son of the Rev. John Dalton, rector of Dean, Cumberland, he was born there; Richard Dalton was his brother. He received his school education at Lowther, Westmorland, and when sixteen years old was sent to The Queen's College, Oxford, entering the college as batler 12 October 1725, being elected taberdar 2 November 1730, and taking the degree of B.A. on 20 November 1730. Shortly afterwards he was selected as tutor to Lord Beauchamp, the only son of the Earl of Hertford, later Duke of Somerset.

Ill-health prevented Dalton from accompanying Lord Beauchamp on travels through Europe, ending in his death at Bologna in 1744. Dalton proceeded to his degree of M.A. on 9 May 1734, and on 21 April in the next year was allowed to accept a living from Queen's; his election to a fellowship there followed on 28 June 1741. For some time he was an assistant preacher under Thomas Secker, at St. James's, Westminster. Through the Duke of Somerset's influence he was appointed canon of the fifth stall in Worcester Cathedral in 1748, and about the same time obtained the rectory of St. Mary-at-Hill in the City of London.

Dalton took the degrees of B.D. and D.D. on 4 July 1750. He died at Worcester on 22 July 1763, and was buried at the west end of the south aisle of Worcester Cathedral, where a monumental inscription was placed to his memory. Horace Walpole asserted in correspondence that both Henrietta Knight, Lady Luxborough and her friend Frances Seymour, then countess of Hertford, had had affairs with Dalton. When Dalton was a tutor to the Hertfords, Lady Luxborough's husband Robert Knight, Baron Luxborough did find love letters from Henrietta to Dalton, accused her of becoming pregnant by him, and arranged a separation.

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