begetter

A procreator; one who begets.

Our fond Begetters, who would never die, Love but themselves in their posteritie.

It was a mirror now, And in it a long perspective I could trace Of my begetters, dwindling backward each past each All with the family look, Whose names had since been inked down in their place On the recorder’s book, Generation and generation of my mien, and build, and brow.

An originator; a creator.

To the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets Mr. W. H. all happinesse and that eternitie promised by our ever-living poet wisheth the well-wishing adventurer in setting forth.

He was neither a wit nor a croquet champion, a hypnotic force nor a begetter of amateur theatricals.