Eustace, an ingenious writer, was the son of Gilbert Budgell, D.D., and was born at St Thomas, near Exeter, in 1685. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he removed to the Inner Temple, London; but instead of studying the law, he devoted his whole attention to polite literature. He contracted a friendship with Addison, who was first cousin to his mother, and who, on being appointed secretary to Lord Wharton, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, took Budgell with him as one of the clerks of his office. Budgell, who was then about twenty years of age, and had read the classics and the works of the best English, French, and Italian authors, now united with Sir Richard Steele and Addison in writing the Tatler. He soon afterwards contributed to the Spectator, where all his papers are marked with an X. To the Guardian, also, he contributed those papers which are marked with an asterisk. He was subsequently made under-secretary to Addison, chief secretary to the lords justices of Ireland, deputy clerk of the council, and soon afterwards was chosen a member of the Irish parliament. In 1717, when Addison became principal secretary of state in England, he procured for Budgell the place of accountant and comptroller-general of the revenue in Ireland. But the next year, the Duke of Bolton being appointed lord-lieutenant, Budgell wrote a lampoon against Mr Webster, his secretary, in which his Grace himself was not spared. This indiscretion became the primary cause of his ruin; for the Duke of Bolton, in support of his secretary, got Budgell removed from his post of accountant-general; upon which he returned to England, and, contrary to the advice of Addison, published his case in a pamphlet. In the year 1720 he lost L20,000 by the South Sea scheme, and afterwards spent L5,000 more in unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament. This completed his ruin. He at length employed himself in writing pamphlets against the ministry, and published many papers in the Craftsman. In 1733 he began a weekly periodical called the Bee, which he continued for above a hundred numbers, and which is printed in eight volumes 8vo. During the progress of this work occurred the death of Dr Tindal, by whose will Budgell received a legacy of L2000; and the world being surprised at such a gift from a man entirely unrelated to him, to the exclusion of the next heir, a nephew, and the continuator of Rapin's history of England, immediately imputed it to his having made the will himself. Hence the satirist:

Let Budgell charge low Grub-street on my quill, And write what'er he please except my will.

It was thought that he had some hand in publishing Dr Tindal's Christianity as old as the Creation; for he often talked of an additional volume on the subject, but never published it. After the cessation of the Bee, he became so involved in lawsuits that he was reduced to very distressing straits. He was called to the bar, and attended for some time in the courts of law; but being unable to make any progress, and finding his prospects utterly ruined, he determined to put an end to his life. Accordingly, in 1736, he took a boat at Somerset-stairs, after filling his pockets with stones; ordered the waterman to shoot the bridge; and while the boat was passing under it he threw himself into the river. On his bureau was found a slip of paper with these words:

What Cato did, and Addison approved, Cannot be wrong.

Besides the above works, he wrote a Translation of the Characters of Theophrastus. He never married, but left one natural daughter, who afterwards assumed his name, and became an actress at Drury-lane.