John Gilpin

{{Short description|Subject of a 1782 comic ballad by William Cowper}}

{{about|18th century draper and subject of Cowper's comic ballad|the 20th century dancer|John Gilpin (dancer)|the 1852 clipper|John Gilpin (clipper)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{more citations needed|date=January 2018}}

File:Randolph Caldecott collection-page 0066 crop-balance-cenhance.jpg for The Diverting History of John Gilpin]]

File:JOHN GILPIN (Ship) (c112-01-50).jpg card]]

John Gilpin was featured as the subject in a well-known comic ballad of 1782 by William Cowper, entitled The Diverting History of John Gilpin. Cowper had heard the story from his friend Lady Austen.

Gilpin was said to be a wealthy draper from Cheapside in London, who owned land at Olney, Buckinghamshire, near where Cowper lived. It is likely that he was a Mr Beyer, a linen draper of the Cheapside corner of Paternoster Row.The Poetical Works of William Cowper, p. 212, London: Frederick Warne and Co, 1892 The poem tells how Gilpin and his wife and children became separated during a journey to the Bell Inn, Edmonton, after Gilpin loses control of his horse which bolts and carries him ten miles further to the town of Ware.

File:John Gilpin1.JPG in Fore Street, Edmonton]]

A number of sites commemorate the exploits of John Gilpin, most notably Gilpin's Gallop, a street in the village of Stanstead St Margarets. This was said to have been on the original route taken by the horse and his unfortunate rider.

John Gilpin's Ghost was a ballad (1795) by John Thelwall. The John Gilpin clipper of 1852 was also named after him. A former public house in Cambridge was named John Gilpin.{{cite news|title= The Fenstanton Brewery Plant|newspaper= Cambridge Chronicle and Journal - Friday 21 September 1894|page= 6}} A sculpture by Angela Godfrey, which was inspired by Cowper's poem about Gilpin now sits in Fore Street, Edmonton, London.{{Cite web |title=Gilpin's Bell |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/gilpins-bell-313407 |access-date=2024-01-18 |website=Art UK |language=en}}