Irving William was an American poet, merchant. He was a United States Representative from New York, a brother of diplomat and author Washington Irving and author Peter Irving.
Background
William was born on August 15, 1766 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the eldest surviving son of William and Sarah (Sanders) Irving of New York, and the brother of Washington Irving, to whose career he was affectionately devoted, as was his son Pierre Munro Irving. William Irving evinced an interest in politics, but his avocation, like that of Peter Irving, another brother, was literature.
Education
William completed preparatory studies.
Career
Irving early declaimed "a piece from Pope, " for example, at the meetings of the "Calliopean Society, " and in 1792 was one of its vice-presidents.
After a brief experiment in business on the frontier he was engaged for some years in trade at 208 Broadway, where his prosperity and that of his brother Ebenezer enabled them to express their love of the youngest brother, Washington, by sending him abroad for two years. Annoyed by Washington's dilettante escapades on his journey, William Irving nevertheless continued to be guide to the younger brother, who on one occasion spoke of him as "the man I loved most on earth. "
At the time of Washington Irving's return from this first journey to Europe (1806), William Irving was forty years old. He joined at once in the mirth and wit of "The Lads of Kilkenny" in which the Irvings, Paulding, Henry Brevoort, Gouverneur Kemble, and others were moving spirits, at the old mansion, "Cockloft Hall, " on the Passaic, and he became in 1807 an important contributor to the genial and satirical booklets called Salmagundi; or The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. and Others. To this "dish of real American cookery" William Irving's contribution was light verse, in which he pilloried the foibles of the age, notably those of Thomas Green Fessenden, the Yankee magazinist.
He was active in the preparations for the great naval dinner on December 29, 1812, and he spoke at the enormous Democratic gathering in 1813. He suffered great losses in the collapse of the family business in the post-war depression but remained a prominent citizen and patriot, serving in Congress from 1814 to 1819.
When he died in 1821 his brother Washington Irving, then engaged in the preparation of Bracebridge Hall, remembered the long fraternal affection, the courageous career in behalf of the Irving family, and the merry verses from "the mill of Pindar Cockloft, " and lamented his passing as "one of the dismallest blows that I ever experienced. "
Politics
Irving was indeed an active Democrat, supporting the war, and on December 28, 1813, in the election for Egbert Benson's successor to Congress, he outstripped the Federalist, Peter Augustus Jay, by a majority of 376 votes.
He supported the war of 1812.
Personality
Affected at times by fits of shyness, his was nevertheless a forceful personality.
William Irving was "a man, " said James K. Paulding, his brother-in-law, "of great wit, genius, and originality. "