Whitehead, PAUL, 'a small poet' in Johnson's phrase, was born a tailor's son in Holborn, February 6, 1710, was apprenticed to a mercer, married a short-lived imbecile with a fortune of £10,000, lay some years in the Fleet for the non-payment of a sum for which he had stood security, became active in politics and as a poetical satirist, was one of the infamous monks of Medmenham Abbey (q.v.), became deputy-treasurer of the Chamber, and died 30th December 1774. The only satires of his that need be named are State Dunces (1733), inscribed to Pope, and Manners (1739), for which Doddsley was brought before the House of Lords. 'Whitehead, who,' says Johnson, 'hung loose upon society, skulked and escaped.' His writings were collected by Captain E. Thomson in 1777, but Churchill's couplet best preserves his name:
May I (can worse disgrace of manhood fall?)
Be born a Whitehead and baptised a Paul.