"[Epitaph on Sir William Williams]"

• Archive Work ID: poems.epww
• Uniform Title: "[Epitaph on Sir William Williams]" [e-text]
• First Line: Here, foremost in the dangerous paths of fame,
• Language: English
• First Published: 1775
• References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 104-105; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 238-240
• Summary: Written between May and August 1761 at the request of one of the executors of Sir William Williams, a politician and soldier Gray briefly met early in October 1760, who died 27 April 1761 on an expedition against Belle Ile. First published, as "Epitaph II. On Sir William Williams", in Mason's Poems (1775), 62.

1 Manuscript:

• • Archive MS ID: mss.0058 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: [untitled]
  • Date: [17??]
  • Physical Description: [1?] page, 250 mm x 200 mm; transcript in the hand of James Beattie
  • Language: English
  • Location: MS 30/44 ("Copies of the poems of Thomas Gray"), Historic Collections, Special Libraries and Archives, King's College, University of Aberdeen Library, Aberdeen, UK <https://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/>
  • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 83; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414; Ellner, June, "Re: MS 30/44, James Beattie papers". E-mail to the editor, 20 December 2006
  • Contents: Transcript in the hand of James Beattie, annotated in his hand "Sir William Williams (on whose death these lines were written at the request of his friend Mr Frederick Montagu) was killed in the last war. They were meant to be inscribed on a monument at Bellisle; but from some difficulties attending the execution of it, this design was not executed."