Talk:William Hazlitt (Unitarian minister)

A fact from William Hazlitt (Unitarian minister) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 7 December 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that William Hazlitt was an influential Irish Unitarian minister who defended American prisoners of war from abuse at the hands of their British captors?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/William Hazlitt (Unitarian minister).

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Hazlitt's seven children

For potential future reference, here is a list of Hazlitt's children with references. I'd quite like to put this information into the infobox, but unfortunately cannot discover dates of birth and death for all of his offspring. I don't suppose if any of the biographies of Hazlitt (b. 1778) have a family tree with dates? NotFromUtrecht (talk) 11:59, 2 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

John, 1767-1837 (DNB)
Loftus: second child, 'died in infancy' (DNB)
Margaret 1770–1841 (DNB)
William 1778-1830 (DNB)
Thomas: born in Ireland, died after a few weeks (DNB of Hazlitt jnr)
Harriet: born in Ireland, died 25 June 1783 (Moyne 1961, 297)
Esther: born in Philadelphia [i.e. in 1783], died 12 September 1783 (Moyne 1961, 297)

I've just checked six biographies of Hazlitt Jr. and unfortunately I find nothing precise enough. From Wardle, which I have added to the References, it looks like Thomas was probably born by the end of 1780 and Harriet probably in 1781, but I can't be sure. --Alan W (talk) 03:26, 4 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that – their dates of birth and death are not of essential importance, and I'm fairly sure that I've got the order of names correct in the infobox, which is the main thing. Also, as illustrated above, I've pieced the list of names together from several different publications – if there is a single source which mentions all of them, then feel free to remove the duplicate citations, since citing three items just to compile a list of seven names seems a bit excessive. NotFromUtrecht (talk) 19:31, 4 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, looks like you've added more good things. I'll read it all shortly. That portrait is a great addition! As for the children who died young, hmmm.... I may be able to add something, and perhaps remove a citation or two, as you suggest. I'll see what I can do. I might add that consulting the biographies is easy for me. As a Hazlitt fanatic, I own copies of them all. :-) No need for me to run out to libraries. --Alan W (talk) 00:13, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You asked for it, you've got it. I also added a bit more in the body of the article about the births and deaths of the unfortunate four children who died young. --Alan W (talk) 04:59, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To fill out the dates of the seven children, I've figured out, by putting things together that are mentioned in the Wardle and Wu biographies of Hazlitt Jr., the only ones with substantial information about these children, that Loftus must have been born in 1768 and died in 1770. Thomas was born and died in 1780. Harriet was born (I wish I could pin this down to the day) in very late 1781 or very early 1782. And Esther was born 1 August 1783. I mention all this to add to what you found and recorded above, NotFromUtrecht. Not sure if it is desirable to get into that much detail in this article.

Anyway, whatever we decide to do ultimately, that gives us:

John, 1767–1837
Loftus, 1768–1770
Margaret, 1770–1841
William, 1778–1830
Thomas, 1780–1780
Harriet, 1781/1782 – 25 June 1783
Esther, 1 August 1783 – 12 September 1783

--Alan W (talk) 05:15, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent – thanks very much for that. I was initially intending to put the dates of birth and death into the infobox, as I did in this article, since the fact that four of Hazlitt's children died in infancy is an interesting example of child mortality at the time. But now that I've added two pictures to the infobox, I think it would be fairly cluttered if we added all this information. Thanks again, also, for reviewing my edits to the article. I've updated/expanded some of the article's meta-data today (I just couldn't resist), but as I said on my talk page I'm going to take a break from editing the article for a week or so now. NotFromUtrecht (talk) 12:52, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

While you take that break you may sit back and feel satisfied that you have done some fine work here. Helping you with this was a labor of love. (Of course I'm also happy to see Hazlitt Sr. finally getting his due here.) Enjoy your break! --Alan W (talk) 23:39, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]