At the close of the 18th century, Melmoth was a familiar figure in Bath literary society. He died at No. 12 Bladud's Buildings, Bath, on 13 May 1799. There was a Latin epitaph placed on a tablet in Bath Abbey; but Melmoth was buried at Batheaston.[3]
Letters on Several Subjects, 1742, under the pseudonym "Sir Thomas Fitzosborne". Fitzosborne's Letters, vol. 2, appeared in 1747, with a translation of the De Oratoribus of Tacitus.
Letters of Pliny the Younger, 1746, translator; praised by Thomas Birch and Thomas Warton. A second edition was printed in 1747, a third in 1748. In 1791 Jacob Bryant attacked Melmoth for asserting in this work that the persecution under Trajan was due to the principles of the Roman state; Melmoth replied in a pamphlet of 1793.
Memoir of a late eminent Advocate, 1796, on William Melmoth the elder.
Melmoth contributed numerous anonymous essays and much verse to The World. The Travels in Switzerland of William Coxe consists of letters addressed to him in the late 1770s.[3]
Reputation
Samuel Johnson was not impressed with Melmoth, regarding him as no threat. As he told Hester Thrale, he had once "in some small dispute reduced him to whistle". Thomas De Quincey, who was offered a chance to view his manuscripts around 1813, opined that "Melmoth was a fribble in literature". On the other hand, William Coxe praised him as a literary guide.[3]
Family
Melmoth married Dorothy King, daughter of William King, Principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford. After her death, he married Mrs. Ogle, a widow.[3]
