BUDGELL, EUSTACE (1686-1737), English man of let ters, the son of Dr. Gilbert Budgell, was born on Aug. 19 1686 at St. Thomas, near Exeter. He matriculated in 1705 at Trinity college, Oxford, and afterwards joined the Inner Temple, London. Addison, who was first cousin to his mother, befriended him, and, on being appointed secretary to Lord Wharton, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, in 171o, took Budgell with him as one of the clerks of his office. Budgell took part with Steele and Addison in writing the Tatler. He was also a contributor to the Spectator and the Guardian—his papers being marked with an "X" in the Spectator and with an asterisk in the Guardian. He was subsequently made under-secretary to Addison, chief secretary to the lords justices of Ireland, and deputy-clerk of the council, and became a member of the Irish parliament. In 1717 he became accountant and con troller-general of the revenue in Ireland, but was removed from his post of accountant-general on account of a libellous pamphlet. In the year 1720 he lost £20,000 by the South Sea scheme, and afterwards spent £5,000 more in unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament. He began to write pamphlets against the ministry, and published many papers in the Craftsman. In he started a weekly periodical called the Bee, which he continued for more than 10o numbers. By the will of Matthew Tindal, the deist, who died in a legacy of 2,000 guineas was left to Budgell ; but the bequest (which had, it was alleged, been inserted in the will by Budgell himself) was successfully disputed by Tin dal's nephew and nearest heir, Nicholas Tindal. Hence Pope's lines in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot: Let Budgell charge low Grub Street on his quill, And write whate'er he pleased—except his will.
The scandal ruined him. On May 4 1 73 7, of ter filling his pockets with stones, he took a boat at Somerset-stairs, and while the boat was passing under the bridge threw himself into the river.
On his desk was found a slip of paper with the words : "What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong." Besides the works mentioned above, he wrote a translation (1714) of the Characters of Theophrastus. He never married, but left a natural daughter, Anne Eustace, who became an actress at Drury Lane. See Gibber's Lives of the Poets, vol. v.