Lemprière may have been influenced by another Pembroke man, the lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson, whose famous A Dictionary of the English Language had appeared in 1755.

In 1787, he was invited by Valpy to be assistant headmaster at Reading Grammar School, and in 1789, to the great pride of his father, he preached in St Helier, Jersey.

Lemprière wished "to give the most accurate and satisfactory account of all the proper names which occur in reading the Classics, and by a judicious collection of anecdotes and historical facts to draw a picture of ancient times, not less instructive than entertaining."

[4] On 20 July 1798, the Borough records show that George Knapp (the Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames and a former Abingdon School pupil) headed a committee to confer with Lemprière regarding the Roysse's Ordinances.

On retiring from this school, following a disagreement with the trustees, he received the living of Meeth in Devon, which, together with that of Newton St Petrock, he held until his death from a stroke in the Strand, London.

The character Mr. Scogan expresses his admiration for Lemprière's work as a biographer and lexicographer in Aldous Huxley's novel Crome Yellow (ch.

In Gilbert and Sullivan's first joint operetta Thespis there are several references to Lempriere when the cast are arguing about their rightful positions in ancient Greek mythology.