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William Cowper was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the son of the Reverend John Cowper and Ann, daughter of Roger Donne of Ludham Hall, Norfolk.
On leaving school, Cowper was articled to a solicitor and at the age of 23 was called to the Bar. As a result of severe depression, he had to abandon his profession. His gradual recovery coincided with the beginning of his conversion to Christian evangelicism.
Cowper found lodging in Huntingdon, with the Reverend Morley Unwin, his wife Mary and his family. After the Reverend Unwin was killed in a riding accident in 1767, Cowper continued to board with Mary and her family.
In 1768, Cowper and the Unwin ladies moved to Olney in Buckinghamshire to be under the ministry of the Reverend John Newton, who was the evangelical curate there. In 1786 Cowper and Mary Unwin moved to the nearby village of Weston Underwood.
Despite periods of severe depression (melancholia), Cowper's eighteen years in Olney and eight at Weston Underwood were marked by his great literary achievements as poet, hymn-writer, letter-writer and translator.
