DICTIONARY

OF

NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

BlCHENO BOTTISHAM

DICTIONARY

OF

NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

EDITED P,Y

LESLIE STEPHEN

VOL. V.

BlCHENO BOTTISHAM

MACMILLAN AND CO,

LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO.
1886

.^ VL 1 . .

18

v.S

LIST OF WBITEES

IN THE FIFTH VOLUME.

A. J. A. .

T. A. A. . .

J. A

W. E. A. A.
G. F. E. B.

R. B

G. T. B.
A. S. B-L. .
W. G-. B. . .
G-. C. B.
H. B-R. . . ,

H. B

R. H. B. . ,
A. R. B. . ,
A. H. B. .
H. M. C. . .
A. M. C. . ,

T. C

C. H. C. . .
W. P. C. . ,
M. C. . . . .

A. D

R. K. D. . .
T. F. T. D.,
J. W. E. .

F. E. . . .
L. F. . . .
C. H. F. .
F. J. F. .
J. G. . . .
R. CK . . .
J. W.-G. .
J. T. G.

SIR ALEXANDER JOHN ARBUTHNOT,

K.C.S.I.
T. A. ARCHER.
JOHN ASHTON.
W, E. A. AXON.
G. F. RUSSELL BARKER.
THE REV. RONALD BAYNE.
G. T. BETTANY.

A. S. BlCKNELL.

THE REV. PROFESSOR BLAIKIE, D.D.
G. C. BOASE.

HORATIUS BONAR.

HENRY BRADLEY.

R. H. BRODIE.

THE REV. A. R. BUCKLAND.

A. H. BULLEN.

H. MANNERS CHICHESTER.

Miss A. M. CLERKE.

THOMPSON COOPER, F.S.A..

C. H. COOTE.

W. P. COURTNEY.

THE REV. PROFESSOR CREIGHTON.

AUSTIN DOBSON.

PROFESSOR R. K. DOUGLAS.

THE REV. T. F. THISELTON DYER.

THE REV. J. W. EBSWORTH,

F.S.A.

FRANCIS ESPINASSE.
Louis FAG AN.
C. H. FIRTH.
F. J. FURNIVALL, PH.D.
JAMES GAIRDNER.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
JOHN WESTBY-GIBSON, LL.D.
J. T. GILBERT, F.S.A.

A. G-T. .
G. G. . .
A. G. . .
E. G. . .
A. H. G.
R. E. G.
A. B. G.
N. G. . .

A. E. H.
J. A. H.
R. H. . .
T. F. H.
W. H-H.
J. H. . '.
R. H-T. .
W. H. . .

B. D. J.
A. J. . .

C. K. . .
J. K. . .
J. K. L.
S. L. L.
G. P. M.
M. M. .
W. D. M.
C. T. M.
J. M. . .
A. M. . .
C. M. . .
N. M. . . ,
J. H. 0.
J. F. P. ,
R. L. P.
S. L.-P. .
E. R. .

. MRS. ANNE GILCHRIST.
, . GORDON GOODWIN.

. THE REV. ALEXANDER GORDON.

. EDMUND GOSSE.

. A. H. GRANT.

. R. E. GRAVES.

. THE REV. A. B. GROSART, LL.D.

. NEWCOMEN GROVES.

. A. EGMONT HAKE.

. J. A. HAMILTON.

. ROBERT HARRISON.

. T. F. HENDERSON.

. WALTER HEPWORTH.

. Miss JENNETT HUMPHREYS.

. ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S.

. THE REV. WILLIAM HUNT.

. B. D. JACKSON.*

. THE REV. AUGUSTUS JESSOPP, D.D.

. CHARLES KENT.

. JOSEPH KNIGHT.

. PROFESSOR J. K. LAUGHTON.

. S. L. LEE.

. G. P. MACDONELL.

. -3SNEAS MACKAY.
, . THE REV. W. D. MACRAY, F.S.A.

. C. TRICE MARTIN.

. JAMES MEW.

. ARTHUR MILLER.

. COSMO MONKHOUSK

. NORMAN MOORE, M.D.

. THE REV. CANON OVERTON.
. J. F. PAYNE, M.D.

. R. L. POOLE.

. STANLEY LANEPOOLE.

. ERNEST RADFORD.

VI

List of Writers.

J. M. E. . . J. M. RIGG.

C. J. R. . . THE REV. C. J. ROBINSON.

J. H. R. . . J. H. ROUND.

W. R WALTER RYE.

E. S. S. . . E. S. SHUCKBURGH.
B. C. S. . . . B. C. SKOTTOWE.
G. B. S. . . G. BAENETT SMITH.
W. B. S. . . W. BARCLAY SQUIRE.

L. S LESLIE STEPHEN.

H. M. S. . . H. MOESE STEPHENS.

W. R. W. S. THE REV. CANON STEPHENS.

C. W. S. . . C. W. BUTTON.

E. M. T. . . E. MATJNDE THOMPSON.

J. H. T. . . J. H. THORPE.

T. F. T. . . PROFESSOR T. F. TOUT.

W. H. T. . . W. H. TREGELLAS.

E. V THE REV. CANON VENABLES.

J. V JOHN VENN.

F. W-T. . . . FRANCIS WATT.

T. W-R. . . . THOMAS WHITTAKER.
H. T. W. . . H. TRUEMAN WOOD.
W. W. . . WARWICK WROTH.

DICTIONARY

OF

NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Bicheno

Bicheno

BICHENO, JAMES EBENEZER (1785-

1851), colonial secretary in Van Diemen's
Land, and a writer on economic and scientific
subjects, was the son of the Rev. James
Bicheno, a dissenting minister and school-
master at Newbury, Berkshire, who died
9 April 1831, and was the author of ' Friendly
Address to the Jews ' (1787) ; ' Signs of the
Times ' (1 792-4) ; < A Word in Season ' (1795) ;
and other politico-theological works. James
Ebenezer was born in 1785. He spent the
first part of his life at Newbury, and there
wrote i An Inquiry into the Nature of Be-
nevolence, chiefly with a view to elucidate
the Principles of the Poor Laws ' (London,
1817 ; republished in an extended form,
and under the title of ' An Inquiry into the
Poor Laws/ London, 1824). This was an
attack on the system of poor-law admini-
stration then prevailing in England. The
relief afforded by it, he said, ' multiplied in-
stead of mitigating distress.' He gave an
historical sketch of poor-law legislation, and
argued in favour of a gradual change to a
method of dealing with pauperism such as is
now in force. He married a Miss Lloyd in
1821, but lost his wife within a year. He
was called to the bar by the Middle Temple
17 May 1822.

Whilst still a student he published a work
on the ' Philosophy of Criminal Jurispru-
dence ' (London, 1819), in which, after point-
ing out that to defend society and improve
the wretched are ' the only proper ends of
punishment which reason and virtue sanction/
he urged that the penalties of the then cri-
minal code were too severe. He proposed
that the punishment of death should be re-
stricted to a few cases, that whipping should
be abolished, and that we should not ' burden
the colonies with the refuse of our prisons.'

Although Bicheno, after his call to the bar,

VOL, v.

joined the Oxford circuit, he did not engage
seriously in the practice of his profession, but
devoted himself to economic and scientific
studies. He could the more easily do this,
as his father was a man of some property, and
he was his only surviving son and heir. He
was a member of the chief English learned
societies, and in 1824 he was appointed
secretary to the Linnean Society. He con-
tributed to their Transactions as well as to
those of other societies, and assisted in the
publication of several works, of which Jardine
and Selby's ' Illustrations of Ornithology '
(Edinburgh, 1830 ?) may be mentioned.

Bicheno engaged for some time in mining
speculations in Wales, and the better to ma-
nage them he resided at Tymaen, near Pyle,
in Glamorganshire, and here he filled several
local offices. He was obliged finally to with-
draw, with some loss, from this undertaking.
In 1829 he made, in company with Mr. Fre-
derick Page, a deputy-lieutenant of Berkshire
and bencher of the Middle Temple, a very
extensive tour through Ireland. This re-
sulted in the publication of ' Ireland and
its Economy ' (London, 1830), in which he
records his impressions of 'this land of strange
anomalies/ as he calls it. The work is valu-
able as a fair account of the state of Ireland
at the time.

In 1833 a commission, under the chairman-
ship of Archbishop Whately, was appointed to
investigate the condition of the poor in Ire-
land. Bicheno was afterwards nominated a
member, and he signed its second and third
reports. To the last of these, presented in
1836, he appended some remarks of his
own, in which he discussed the social condi-
tion of Ireland at considerable length. In
his opinion, after all that could be done for
that country, ' her real improvement must
spring from herself, her own inhabitants, and

B

Bickerstaff

Bickerstaffe

her own indigenous institutions, irrespective
of legislation and of English interference/

In September 1842 he was appointed colo-
nial secretary in Van Diemen's Land, and
shortly after proceeded to that country, where j
he fulfilled the duties of his office to the satis-
faction alike of the colonists and of the home
government. He was one of the founders, i
a vice-president, and member of council of ;
the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,
and a contributor to its papers. He died at
Hobart Town, after a short illness, 25 Feb. i
1851.

Bicheno's scientific writings took usually [
the form of papers contributed to the publi-
cations of the various learned bodies with
which he was connected. He was elected
fellow of the Linnean Society 7 April 1812,
and was secretary from 1825 to 1832. His
herbarium is in the public museum at Swan- |
sea. His papers were : ' Observations on the j
Orchis militaris of Linnaeus' (Linn. Soc.
Trans, xii., 1818) ; ' Observations on the Lin-
nean Genus Juncus ' (Linn. Soc. Trans, xii.,
1818) ; < On Systems and Methods in Natural j
History ' (Linn. Soc. Trans, xv., 1827 ; ' Philo-
sophical Mag.' iii., 1828) ; < On the Plant in- ,
tended by the Shamrock of Ireland ' (Royal \
Inst. Journ. i., 1831) ; ' On the Potato in :
connexion with Distress in Ireland ' (Van
Diemen's Land Royal Soc. Papers, i., 1851) ;
and (to the same volume) ' On a Specimen
of Pristis cirrhatus.'

[G-ent. Mag. vol. xxxvi., new series ; Annual Re-
gister for 1851 ; Nicholls's History of the Irish
Poor Law (London, 1856) ; Report of the Royal |
Society of Van Diemen's Land for 1851 (Hobart
Town, 1852).] F. W-T.

BICKERSTAFF, WILLIAM (1728- j
1789), antiquary, was born at Leicester j
17 July 1728, where he was appointed under- j
master of the Lower Free Grammar School j
30 Jan. 1749-50. He took orders in December |
1770, being successively curate at most of J
the churches at Leicester, and also at Great
"Wigston and Ayleston, two villages in the
neighbourhood. He died suddenly at his
lodgings in Leicester on 26 Jan. 1789. He
possessed good classical attainments, and had
a wide knowledge of antiquarian and histori-
cal subjects, being a frequent contributor to
the ' Gentleman's Magazine.' From a corre-
spondence published in that periodical after
his death it appears that he was in straitened
circumstances throughout the greater part of
his career, receiving a salary of only 19/. 16s.
for his services at the Leicester grammar
school. At fifty-eight years of age he speaks
of himself as ' a poor curate, unsupported by
private property.' Among his antiquarian re-

searches may be noticed several valuable com-
munications, which Mr. Nichols embodied in
his ' History of Leicester.'

[Gent. Mag. 1789, lix. 181,203-5; Bibliotheca
Topographica Britannica, 1790, viii. 1371.]

T. F. T. D.

BICKERSTAFFE, ISAAC (d. 1812?),
dramatic writer, was born in Ireland about
1735. At the age of eleven he was ap-
pointed one of the pages to Lord Chester-
field, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. His
earliest production was ' Leucothoe,' a tragic
opera, printed in 1756, but never acted. In
1762 his comic opera, ( Love in a Village,'
was acted with great applause at Covent
Garden. For the plot the author was in-
debted to Charles Johnson's l Village Opera,'
Wycherley's ' Gentleman Dancing-Master,'
and Marivaux's ' Jeu de 1' Amour et du Hazard.'
The piece was printed in 1763, and has been
included in Bell's * British Theatre ' and other
collections. In 1765 was published the
1 Maid of the Mill,' founded on Richardson's
'* Pamela.' It met with much success, and
as an after-piece continued to be acted with
applause for many years. Between 1760
and 1771 BickerstaiFe produced a score of
pieces for the stage. Mrs. Inchbald con-
sidered him second only to Gay as a farce
writer. His songs are written with some
gusto, and the dialogue is often sparkling.
While he was engaged in writing for the
stage, Bickerstaffe enjoyed the society of the
most famous men of his time. On 16 Oct.
1769, as recorded by Boswell, he was one of
a company that dined in Boswell's rooms in
Old Bond Street. The others were Dr.
Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Goldsmith,
Garrick, and Murphy. From an honourable
position he afterwards sank into the deepest
ignominy. He had been an officer in the
marines, but was dismissed from the service
under discreditable circumstances. In 1772,
being suspected of a capital crime, he fled
abroad. For a time he was living at St.
Malo under an assumed name ; and from
that place he wrote in French a piteous
letter to Garrick, dated 24 June 1772, in
which he says : * Ayant perdu mes amis, mes
esp6rances, tomb6, exile et livre au desespoir
comme je suis, la vie est un fardeau presque
insupportable; j'etois loin de soupconner
que la derniere ibis que j'entrais dans votre
librairie, serait la derniere fois quej'yentrerais
de ma vie, et que je ne reverrais plus le
maitre.' The letter is endorsed by Garrick,
'From that poor wretch Bickerstaffe. I
could not answer it.' In 1805 the author of
the ' Thespian Dictionary ' speaks of Bicker-
staffe as then living abroad ; and in 1812, if

Bickersteth

Bickersteth

the statement of Stephen Jones in the ' Bio-
graphia Dramatica ' is to be trusted, he was
still dragging out his life (after forty years'
exile), ' poor and despised of all orders of
people.' What became of him afterwards is !
unknown. In 1812 he was an old man of j
seventy-seven years. Shortly after his flight j
in 1772 the malignant Dr. Kenrick published '
anonymously a venomous satire, ' Love in |
the Suds, a Town Eclogue ; being the lamen- I
tation of Roscius for the loss of his Nyky/
fol., in which he did not scruple to -make the
grossest charges against Garrick. Doubtless !
Garrick had rejected some play offered by
Kenrick, and the latter avenged himself by
penning his abominable libel. A full account
of Bickerstaffe's dramatic productions is given j
in 'Biographia Dramatica,' 1812. A copy,
preserved in the British Museum, of a tract j
entitled ' The Life and Strange Unparallel'd
and Unheard-of Voyages and Adventures of j
Ambrose Gwinet. . . . Written by Himself,'
8vo, 1770, has the following manuscript note
by a former owner : ' Dr. Percy told me that
he had heard that this pamphlet was a mere
fiction, written by Mr. Bickerstaffe, the dra-
matic poet.'

[Thespian Dictionary, 1805 ; Biographia Dra-
matica, ed. Stephen Jones, 1812; Private Cor-
respondence of David Garrick, 1831, i. 266-7,
273-5, 277, 417-18 ; Preface to the Maid of the
Mill, invol.viii. of Bell's British Theatre, 1797.]

A. H. B.

BICKERSTETH, EDWARD (1786-
1850), evangelical divine, was the fourth son
of Henry Bickersteth, surgeon, of Kirkby
Lonsdale, Westmoreland, author of * Medical
Hints for the Use of Clergymen ' (London,
1829), and Elizabeth, daughter of John Batty.
His third eldest brother was Henry, Lord
Langdale [see BICKEKSTETH, HENKY], master
of the rolls. After a few years at Kirkby
Lonsdale grammar school he received at the
age of fourteen an appointment in the General
Post Office, and left his father's house to live
in London. In 1803 he joined the Blooms-
bury Volunteer Association. Becomingweary
of the monotonous nature of his employment
and the slender prospect of advancement, he j
engaged himself in 1806 to work in a solicitor s
office, after his regular work for the day was
done. His employer, Mr. Bleasdale, was struck
by his industry, and the next year took him j
as an articled clerk on advantageous terms. [
In 1805 he was under strong religious impres-
sions. He laid down exact rules for his con- |
duct, and kept a weekly diary in which he I
noted any failure in his observance of them.
These impressions increased in strength, and
in 1808 his correspondence was almost wholly

on spiritual matters, and his diary was filled
with religious meditations. At the same time
he was diligent at the office, working from

9 a.m. till 9 p.m., and doing, his employer said,
' the work of three or four clerks.' With this
work, however, he now combined an active
part in the administration of the Widows'
Friend and the Spitalfields Benevolent So-
cieties. In 1812 he left Mr. Bleasdale's
office, married Sarah, the daughter of Thomas
Bignold, and entered into partnership with
his brother-in-law, a solicitor at Norwich.
During his residence at Norwich he took
an active part in religious matters. At
this time also he wrote his ' Help to Study-
ing the Scriptures,' which passed through
twenty-one editions. In 1815 he gave up
the practice of law, was ordained deacon

10 Dec., and as he engaged himself to go out
to Africa at once in the service of the Church
Missionary Society, he received priest's orders
21 Dec. The object of his mission was to
inspect and report on the work of the society
in Africa, and on certain disputes between the
missionaries. Leaving Portsmouth 24 Jan.
1816, he arrived at Sierra Leone on 7 March.
He returned home by Barbadoes, and arrived
in England 17 Aug. An account of his work
in Africa will be found in the Church Mis-
sionary Society's sixteenth annual report.
Immediately on his return he was engaged
as one of the society's secretaries. During
the next fourteen years he constantly travelled
from place to place as a Church Missionary
Society's ' deputation,' and on the few Sun-
days when he was at home acted as assistant
minister of Wheler Episcopal Chapel, Spital-
fields. Up to 1820 he lived in the Church
Missionary Society's house in Salisbury
Square, and in that year moved to another
house belonging to the society in Barnsbury
Park, Islington. In spite of his constant jour-
neys he wrote several religious books which
had a large sale. In 1827 he was sent to Basel
to inspect the working of the missionary insti-
tution there which was in connection with the
English Church Missionary Society. Find-
ing that his constant absence from home
hindered him from paying sufficient atten-
tion to his family, to the congregation of
Wheler Chapel, and even to his committee
work, he pressed the society not to give him
more than six Sundays' travelling in the year.
His request was refused ; he therefore gladly
accepted the rectory of Watton, Hertford-
shire, offered him by Mr. Abel Smith, and
moved thither in November 1830.

Although Bickersteth resigned his secre-
taryship on accepting the living of Watton,
he continued all through his life to travel
for the Church Missionary Society. He also

Bickersteth

Bickersteth

frequently acted as ' a deputation ' for the
Society for the Conversion of the Jews, and
for other religious associations. In 1832 he I
was much engaged in editing the ' Christian's i
Family Library,' a series of republications of }
various theological works. He was a strong ]
protestant and ' Millenarian.' He opposed j
the action of the Bible Society in admitting j
Unitarian ministers to a share in its manage- i
ment. While, however, he upheld the Trini- i
tarian Bible Society which was established
at this crisis, he did not separate himself
from the older association. About this time
Bickersteth compiled his ' Christian Psalm- .
ody,' a collection of over 700 hymns, to which !
he subsequently added about 200 more. This
collection met with great popularity, and in !
about seven years after its first appearance j
reached its fifty-ninth edition. It long con- ;
tinued the most popular hymn-book of the j
evangelical party, and forms the basis of a |
collection compiled by Bickersteth's son, the
Rev. E. H. Bickersteth, entitled the 'Hymnal
Companion to the Book of Common Prayer.' i
In order to counteract the tendency of the i
' Tracts for the Times,' Bickersteth, in 1836, |
edited the ' Testimony of the Reformers/ j
In the introduction to this work, afterwards '
republished in a separate form under the title
of the ' Progress of Popery,' he made some \
strictures on the character of the publications j
of the Society for the Propagation of Christian !
Knowledge, which led some of the evangelical
party to withdraw their support from the
society, and caused considerable discussion in
the religious world. With the same object
he took part in 1840 in the formation of the
Parker Society for republishing the works
of the English reformers. An attack of pa-
ralysis in the next year incapacitated him
for some months. He was active in promot-
ing the ' Protest against Tractarianism ' of
1843, and in forwarding the formation of the !
Evangelical Alliance. In October 1845 he
took a prominent part in the meeting held at
Liverpool to settle the basis of the Alliance,
and the next year answered the attack made
on the meeting by the ' Christian Observer.'
A severe accident befell him in February
1846. While on his way to an Alliance
meeting, he was thrown out of his carriage
and run over, the cart which passed over
him, oddly enough, being engaged in hauling
materials for the erection of a Roman catholic i
church. For a while his life was despaired |
of, and for two months he was unable to leave i
his room. The Maynooth grant strongly ex-
cited his indignation, and in 1847 he inte-
rested himself in the 'Special Appeal for
Ireland' which the next year led to the
establishment of the Irish Church Missions

Society. He took part in the foundation of
this society, and visited Ireland in order to
promote it. Early in 1850 Bickersteth again
suffered from paralysis, and died on 28 Feb.
He left one son, Rev. E. H. Bickersteth, at
present (1885) vicar of Christ Church, Hamp-
stead (the author of ' Yesterday, To-day, and
Forever,' a poem, and other works), and five
daughters, of whom the eldest married Rev.
T. R. Birks [q. v.], the author, among other
books, of the life of his father-in-law. Bicker-
steth's works are numerous. A collective
edition of the more important of them was
published (London, 1853) in 16 vols. 8vo,
including ' A Scripture Help,' 21st edition ;
'A Treatise on Prayer,' 18th edition; 'A
Treatise on the Lord's Supper,' 13th edition ;
' The Christian Hearer/ 5th edition ; ' The
Christian Student,' 2 vols., 5th edition; 'The
Chief Concerns of Man/ a volume of sermons - r
1 A Guide to the Prophecies, embodying Prac-
tical Remarks 011 Prophecy/ also published
separately, 8th edition; 'Christian Truth/
4th edition ; ' On Baptism/ 3rd edition ; ' Re-
storation of the Jews/ 3rd edition ; ' Family
Prayers/ 18th thousand ; ' The Promised
Glory of the Church/ 3rd edition ; ' Divine
Warning/ 5th edition; ' Family Expositions, 1 "
2nd edition ; ' Signs of the Times in the
East/ 2nd edition. To these must be added
the 'Christian Psalmody/ 1833 ; a 'Harmony
of the Gospels/ 1833; 'Domestic Portraiture/
1833; 'The Testimony of the Reformers/
including the ' Progress of Popery/ also pub-
lished separately, 1836 ; ' Letters on Christian
Union/ 1845 ; ' Destruction of Babylon/ &c.,
1848 ; ' Defence of Baptismal Services/ 1850 ;
together with much editorial work, prefaces,
and introductions, as well as a large number
of small publications, sermons, tracts, &c.

[Birks's Memoir of Rev. E. Bickersteth, 2 vols.
8vo; Memoir by Sir C. E. Eardley, Bart., 16mo,
reprinted from Evangelical Christendom ; Record
newspaper, 1845-50; Christian Observer, 1846 T

W.H.

BICKERSTETH, HENRY, BAKON LANG-
DALE (1783-1851), master of the rolls, was
born at Kirkby Lonsdale on 18 June 1783,
and was the third son of Henry Bicker-
steth, and brother of Edward Bickersteth
[q. v.] After receiving an education at the
grammar school of his native place, he was;
apprenticed to his father in 1797, and in
the following year was sent up to London
further to qualify himself for the medical
profession under the guidance of his mater-
nal uncle, Dr. Robert Batty [q. v.] By the
advice of this uncle, in Octdbe'r 1801, he went
to Edinburgh to pursue his medical studies,
and in the following year was called home-

Bickersteth

Bickersteth

to take his father's practice in his temporary
absence. Disliking the idea of settling down
in the country as a general practitioner,
young Bickersteth determined to become a
London physician. With a view to obtaining
.a medical degree, on 22 June 1802 his name !
was entered in the books of Caius College,
Cambridge, and, on 27 Oct. in the same year,
he was elected a scholar on the Hewitt
foundation. Owing to his intense applica-
tion to work, his health broke down after his
first term. A change of scene being deemed
necessary to insure his recovery, he obtained,
through Dr. Batty, the post of medical at-
tendant to Edward, fifth earl of Oxford, who
was then on a tour in Italy. After his return
from the continent he continued with the
Earl of Oxford until 1805, when he returned
to Cambridge. At this time he had a great
wish to enter the army, but gave it up in
deference to his parents' disapproval.

After three years of indefatigable industry
he became the senior wrangler, and senior '
Smith's mathematical prizeman of his year
(1808), Miles Bland, the mathematical writer, '
Blomfield, bishop of London, and Adam j
Sedgwick, the geologist, being amongst his :
most distinguished competitors. Having j
taken his degree, he was immediately elected |
-a fellow of his college, and thereupon made
up his mind to enter the profession of the |
law. On 8 April 1808 he was admitted to
the Inner Temple as a student, and, in the
beginning of 1810, became a pupil of John
Bell [q. v.], an eminent chancery counsel.
He was called to the bar on 22 Nov. 1811,
and in the same year took his degree of M.A.

At first his professional progress was so
slow that he seems to have doubted whether
he ought to have occasioned his father any
further expense by continuing at the bar.
In 1819 he was offered a seat in parliament,
through the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, but this
he refused, and he never sat in the House of
Commons. His business and reputation so
much advanced, however, that, in August
1824, he was examined before the commission
appointed to inquire into the procedure of
the court of chancery. His examination
lasted four days, and the evidence which he
gave showed the thorough grasp which he
had of the subject, and the necessity of the
reforms which he advocated. In May 1827
he was appointed a king's counsel, and thence-
forth confined his practice wholly to the
court of Sir John Leach, master of the rolls,
where he shared the lead of the court with
Mr. Pemberton Leigh for many years. He
was called to the bench of his inn on 22 June
1827. In 1831 he declined the newly created
office of chief judge in bankruptcy, in Febru- i

ary 1834 that of baron of the exchequer, and
in September of the same year the post of soli-
citor-general. On 16 Jan. 1836 he was sworn
a member of the privy council, and on the
19th of that month was appointed master of
the rolls in the place of Pepys, who had been
made lord chancellor. By letters patent,
dated 23 Jan. 1836, he was created Baron
Langdale of Langdale in the county of
"Westmoreland. It was not without a con-
siderable struggle that he consented to take
a peerage, and at length only withdrew his
objections on the conditions that he might
have entire political independence and be
allowed to devote himself to law reform.
During the fifteen years that he held the
post of master of the rolls his judicial cha-
racter stood deservedly high. Eminently
patient in listening to argument, and pains-
taking in getting hold of the whole facts of
the case, he has rarely been surpassed on the
bench in impartiality, sound reasoning, or
clearness of language. The appeals against
his decisions were few and rarely successful.
The reports of his more important judgments
in the rolls court will be found in Beavan,
vols. i. to xiii. The earliest of his decisions is
the case of ' Tullett v. Armstrong,' so familiar
to lawyers as a leading case on the law of
married women's property, a subject about
which he was always especially vigilant. By
far the best known of his judgments, however,
is that which he drew up and delivered in
* Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter/ which came
before the judicial committee of the privy
council on appeal from the dean of arches.
As keeper of the rolls he gained the name of
the ' father of record reform.' It was through
his unremitting perseverance that the go-
vernment at last consented to provide an
adequate repository for the national records.
In the House of Lords he abstained from
party controversy as being inconsistent with
his judicial office, and devoted his time there
to the prosecution of legal reforms. He con-
ducted the act for the amendment of wills
through the house, and was the principal
author of the acts for abolishing the six
clerks' office and for amending the law in
relation to attorneys and solicitors. His
speech on the second reading of the bill for
the better administration of justice in the
High Court of Chancery, which he delivered
on 13 June 1836, was published as a pam-
phlet. His labours, however, as a reformer
of the court of chancery fell far short of his
intentions, for his time was fully occupied by
his judicial and other numerous duties. He
also gave unremitting attention to his duties
as trustee of the British Museum and as head
of the registration and conveyancing commis-

Bickersteth

Bickerton

sion which was issued 18 Feb. 1847. During
the illness of Lord Cottenham in 1850 he
undertook the duties of speaker of the House
of Lords. Under the strain of this incessant
labour his health gave way, and, in May 1850,
when he was offered the post of lord chan-
cellor by Lord John Russell, he felt obliged
to decline it. He, however, consented to
act as the head of a commission until a lord
chancellor was appointed and the seal was
delivered to him, Sir Lancelot Shadwell, the
vice-chancellor of England, and Baron Rolfe,
on 19 June 1850. This additional work over-
taxed his failing health, and on 28 March
1851 he resigned the office of master of the
rolls. Three weeks afterwards, on 18 April,
he died at Tunbridge AVells, whither he had
been ordered by the doctors, and on the 24th
was buried in the Temple Church, close to the
last resting-place of Sir William Follett.

He was a man of most admirable character,
both in private and public life, of high prin-
ciple, great integrity, and of wonderful in-
dustry. In politics he was throughout his
life devoted to the cause of liberal opinions,
and in his early life was the friend of Sir
Francis Burdett and Jeremy Bentham, a
circumstance which somewhat retarded his
career at the bar. He married Lady Jane
Elizabeth Harley, the eldest daughter of his
friend and patron the Earl of Oxford, on
17 Aug. 1835, and by her had an only
daughter, Jane Frances, who married Alex-
ander, Count Teleki, and died on 3 May
1870. In default of male issue the barony
became extinct on Lord Langdale's death.
His wife survived him, and upon the death
of her brother Alfred, the sixth and last earl
of Oxford, resumed her maiden name as the
heiress of the Oxford family. She died on
1 Sept. 1872.

[Hardy's Memoirs of Lord Langdale (1852);
Foss's Judges (1864), ix. 136-46 ; Annual Ee-
gister, 1851, appendix, pp. 280-1; Gent. Mag.
1851, xxxv. N.S. 661-3; Law Magazine, xlv.
O.S. 283-93 ; Law Eeview, xiv. 434-6 ; Legal
Observer, xlii. 436-7 ; Law Times, xvii. 59, 60 ;
Campbell's Lord Chancellors, viii. passim ; Edin-
burgh Review, Ixxxv. 476-90 ; Quarterly Eeview,
xci. 461-503.] G. F. E. B.

BICKERSTETH,ROBERT(1816-1884),
bishop of Ripon, the fourth son of the Rev.
John Bickersteth, rector of Sapcote, Leices-
tershire, and Henrietta, daughter of Mr. G.
Lang, was born at Acton, Suffolk. His father
was brother of Edward Bickersteth [q. v.l
After some medical training, he entered
Queens' College, Cambridge, and graduated
as a junior optime in 1841. He was ordained
the same year to the curacy of Sapcote, where
he remained until 1843. The next year he

was appointed curate of St. Giles's, Reading,
and the year after of Holy Trinity, Clapham.
In 1845 he was appointed to the incumbency
of St. John's, Clapham, which he held for six
years. During this period he attained conside-
rable popularity as an evangelical preacher.
In 1846 he married Elizabeth, daughter of
Mr. J. Garde of Cork. On the death of his
uncle, the Rev. Edward Bickersteth of Wat-
ton [q. v.], in 1850, he took up his work as
an hon. secretary of the Irish Church Mis-
sions. He left Clapham for the living of St.
Giles's-in-the-Fields, where he had a large
congregation. In 1854 he was appointed
canon residentiary and treasurer of the cathe-
dral church of Salisbury. On the translation
of Bishop Longley to the see of Durham in
1856 Bickersteth succeeded to the bishopric
of Ripon, and was consecrated 18 June 1857.
The bishop was a liberal in politics. He occa-
sionally took part in the debates in the House
of Lords. He opposed the disestablishment
of the Irish church, and on 17 June 1869
spoke with considerable ability against the
bill. He strongly advocated the legalisa-
tion of marriage with a deceased wife's sis-
ter. As long as his health allowed he was
active in the discharge of his official duties.
During his episcopate he consecrated 155
churches. The restoration of his cathedral
church was begun in June 1862, and carried
out at the cost of 40,0007. He preached con-
stantly in different parts of his diocese, some-
times as often as three times in a single Sun-
day. Although he was not a total abstainer,
he was zealous in promoting temperance. He
was regarded as one of the leaders of the
evangelical school, and was strongly opposed
to the introduction of any ceremonies or doc-
trines not strictly in accord with the opinions
of his party. At the same time his long epi-
scopate seems to have been free from all ac-
tions at law on matters of ritual. During the
last two years of his life he was disabled by
sickness from active work, and some news-
paper attacks were made on him for not re-
signing his see. As, however, eminent phy-
sicians assured him that he might hope to be
restored to health, he did not see fit to resign.
He died at his palace at Ripon 15 April 1884,
leaving four sons and one daughter. Bishop
Bickersteth published his speech on the Irish
Church Disestablishment Bill, London, 1869,
and several charges, sermons, lectures, tracts,
and prefaces to books.

[Record, 18 April 1884; Leeds Mercury,
16 April 1884; Guardian, May 1883; private
information.] W. H.

BICKERTOlSr, SIR RICHARD (1727-
1792), vice-admiral, son of a captain in the

Bickerton

Bickerton

4th dragoon guards, entered the navy in 1739,
on the outbreak of the war with Spain. In
the following year he was appointed to the
Suffolk, of 70 guns, with Captain Davers,
and sailed in her to the West Indies, to form
part of the expedition against Cartagena in
the spring of 1741. After more than two
years in the Suffolk he was for a few months
in the Stirling Castle in the Mediterranean;
he was then appointed to the Channel station,
with Sir Charles Hardy or Sir John Norris, in
the St. George, Duke, and Victory. Fortu-
nately for himself [see BALCHEN, Sir JOHN],
he was early in 1744 appointed from the Vic-
tory to the Cornwall, of 80 guns, bearing the
flag of his old captain, now Vice-admiral
Davers, who was going out as commander-
in-chief to the West Indies. Admiral Davers
promoted him to a lieutenancy on 8 Feb.
1745-6, and he continued on the same
station, in the Worcester, till the peace of
1748. In 1759 he commanded the ^Etna
fireship in the Mediterranean with Boscawen,
by whom he was advanced to post rank on
21 Aug. after the destruction of M. de la
Clue's squadron at Lagos. He was then ap-
pointed to the Glasgow frigate in the West
Indies, and in 1761 to the Lively in the
Channel. In 1767 he commanded the Re-
nown in the West Indies ; on the dispute about
the Falkland Islands in 1770 he was ap-
pointed to the Marlborough, which he com-
manded for three years, and at the naval re-
view, June 1773, steered the king's barge and
received the honour of knighthood. For the
next four years he commanded the Augusta
yacht, and, when war with France was immi-
nent in the spring of 1778, was appointed to
the Terrible, of 74 guns, which he commanded
in the battle of Ushant, 27 July. During the
shameful summer of 1779, while the com-
bined fleets of France and Spain swept the
Channel, the Terrible was one of the fleet at
Spit head under Sir Charles Hardy. In 1780
Bickerton commanded the Fortitude, of 74
guns, still in the Channel, under Admirals
Geary and Darby, and assisted in the second
relief of Gibraltar, April 1781. He was
shortly afterwards appointed to the Gibraltar,
80, as commodore of the first class ; and with
six other ships of the line and two frigates
under his orders, he sailed for the East Indies
on 6 Feb. 1782. The squadron did not j
arrive on the station till the beginning of the
following year, with many men sick of
scurvy. They were, however, able to take
part in the indecisive action oft' Cuddalore,
20 June 1783. Sir Richard returned to Eng-
land in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed
commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands,
with his broad pennant on board the Jupiter,

from which he was superseded on his promo-
tion to flag rank 24 Sept 1787. During the
Spanish armament of 1790 he held a command
in the fleet under Lord Howe, and hoisted
his flag in the Impregnable, of 90 guns. He
became a vice-admiral on 21 September, and
the dispute with Spain being happily arranged,
he was appointed port-admiral at Plymouth,
with his flag in the St. George. He was
still holding that office when he died, of an
apoplectic fit, 25 Feb. 1792.

He was created a baronet 29 May 1778,
on the occasion of the king's visit to Ports-
mouth. At the time of his death he was
member of parliament for Rochester. He
married, in 1758, Mary Anne, daughter of
Thomas Hussey, Esq., of Wrexham, and had
issue two sons and two daughters.

[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 349 ; Beatson's
Naval and Military Memoirs (under date) ;
Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies.]

J. K. L.

BICKERTON, SIK RICHARD HUS-
SEY (1759-1832), admiral, son of Vice-admi-
ral Sir Richard Bickerton [q. v.], entered the
navy in December 1771, on board the Marl-
borough, then commanded by his father. In
the Marlborough, and afterwards in the Au-
gusta yacht, he continued with his father till
1774, when he was appointed to the Med-
way,of 60 guns, flagship in the Mediterranean.
Two years later he was transferred to the En-
terprise frigate, and afterwards to the Invin-
cible with Captain Hyde Parker. On 16 Dec.
1777 he was made lieutenant in the Prince
George, commanded by Captain Middleton,
afterwards Lord Barham. He followed Mid-
dleton to the Jupiter, of 50 guns, where he
remained as first lieutenant with Captain Rey-
nolds, who afterwards succeeded to the com-
mand. On 20 Oct. 1778 the Jupiter, in com-
pany with the Medea frigate, fell in with the
French 64-gun ship Triton on the coast of
Portugal. A brisk action followed (BEATSON,
Nav. and Mil. Memoirs, iv. 441), in which
both ships suffered severely ; and though no
particular advantage was gained on either
side, the odds against the Jupiter were con-
sidered so great as to render her equal en-
gagement equivalent to a victory. Her
first lieutenant was accordingly promoted
20 March 1779, and appointed to the command
of the Swallow sloop. After nearly two
years' service in the Channel the Swallow
was sent out to join Sir George Rodney in
the West Indies ; and on 8 Feb. 1781 Bicker-
ton was posted into the Gibraltar. In the
action between Hood and De Grasse off
Martinique, 29 April 1781, he commanded
the Invincible, and was soon afterwards sent

Bickerton

8

Bickley

home in command of the Amazon frigate.
From 1787 to 1790 he commanded the Sibylle
frigate in the West Indies. By the death of i
his father in 1792 he succeeded to the baro-
netcy, and in 1793 commissioned the Ruby,
64, for service in the Channel. Towards the
end of 1794 he was transferred to the Ramil-
lies, in which he went to the West Indies
and Newfoundland, returning in the end of
1795 to form part of the North Sea fleet, in
1796, under Admiral Duncan, and of the
Channel fleet in 1797 under Lord Bridport.
In 1798 he commanded the Terrible, still in |
the Channel fleet, and attained the rank of j
rear-admiral 14 Feb. 1799. In the autumn |
of the same year he hoisted his flag at Ports-
mouth as assistant to the port-admiral ; in
May 1800 he was sent out to the Mediterra-
nean, and, with his flag on board the Swift-
sure, had the immediate command of the
blockade of Cadiz until joined by Lord Keith
in October. During the following year, with '
his flag in the Kent, he was employed on the
coast of Egypt, conducting the blockade in
the absence of the commander-in-chief, and
afterwards superintending the embarkation
of the French army. For his services at this
time he was rewarded by the sultan with
the order of the Crescent, \vith the insignia
of which he was ceremoniously invested by
the capitan pasha 8 Oct. 1801. During the
short peace he remained in the Mediterranean
as commander-in-chief, and, on the renewal
of the war, as second in command under
Lord Nelson, with whom he served, during
1804 and the early months of 1805, in the
blockade of Toulon. In May, when Nelson
sailed for the West Indies, Bickerton, with
his flag in the Royal Sovereign, was left in
command (Nelson Despatches, vi. 421), but
was soon afterwards called home to take
office at the admiralty, where he continued
till 1812, when he was appointed commander-
in-chief at Portsmouth. His active service
ended shortly after the grand review in 1814,
at which he commanded in the second post
under the Duke of Clarence. He attained
the rank of vice-admiral 9 Nov. 1805, of ad-
miral 31 July 1810, was made K.C.B. 2 Jan.
1815, lieutenant-general of marines 5 Jan.
1818, and succeeded William IV as general
of marines in June 1830. In 1823 he assumed,
by royal permission, the name of Hussey
before that of Bickerton. He married, in
1788, Anne, daughter of Dr. James Athill,
of Antigua, but had no children, and on his
death, 9 Feb. 1832, the baronetcy became
extinct.

[Marshall's Eoy. Nav. Biog. i. 125; Ealfe's
Naval Biog. ii. 277 ; Gent. Mag. cii. i. 175.1

J. K. L.

BICKHAM, GEORGE, the elder (d.
1769), writing-master and engraver, was born
about the end of the seventeenth century.
He was the most celebrated penman of his
time, and published in 1743 a folio volume
entitled ' The Universal Penman . . . ex-
emplified in all the useful and ornamental
branches of modern Penmanship, &c. ; the
whole embellished with 200 beautiful decora-
tions for the amusement of the curious.' He
also practised engraving, but his productions
in this department had little merit. He
engraved Rubens's ' Peace and War ' and
* Golden and Silver Ages ; ' ' Philosophy,' a
large plate from his own design ; a few por-
traits, including those of Sir Isaac Newton,
Bishop Blackall, Stephen Duck the poet, and
George Shelly, John Clark, and Robert More,
writing-masters ; the plates to ' British Mo-
narchy, or a new ChorogTaphical Description
of all the Dominions subject to the King of
Great Britain,' 1748; and those to 'The
Beauties of Stow,' 1753. Bickham was a
member of "the Free Society of Artists, and
exhibited with them from 1761 to 1765. His
stock-in-trade, plates, &c., were sold by auc-
tion in May 1767, and he died at Richmond
in 1769.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (Wornum),
p. 969 ; Strutt's Biog. Diet, of Engravers (1785) ;
Brian's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers
(ed. Graves), 1885 ; Redgrave's Dictionary of
Artists (1878); MS. notes in British Museum.]

L. R

BICKHAM, GEORGE, the younger (d.
1758), engraver, son of George Bickham (d.
1769), [q. v.], was one of the earliest political
caricaturists, and executed many of the hu-
morous designs published by Messrs. Bowles.
He engraved ' A View and Representation
of the Battle of Zenta, fought 11 Sept. 1696,'
and ' The Description of the Loss of his
Majesty's Ship the Northumberland, taken
by the French, 8 May 1744 ; ' also many
head-pieces for songs, portraits of himself
and his father, and that of Serjeant Thomas
Barnardiston [q. v.] The younger Bickham
was the author of ' An Introductive Essay
on Drawing, with the Nature and Beauty of
Light and Shadows,' &c., 1747. He died in
1758.

[Strutt's Biog. Diet, of Engravers (1785);
Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878); MS.
notes in British Museum.] L. F.

BICKLEY, THOMAS,D.D. (1518-1596),
bishop of Chichester, was born at Stow, in
Buckinghamshire, and began his education
as a chorister in the free school of Magdalen
College, Oxford. He afterwards became
demy, and in 1541 was elected a fellow of the

Bickley

Bicknell

college. He acquired considerable reputa-
tion as a reformer and preacher of reformed
doctrine, and soon after the accession of Ed-
ward VI was appointed one of the king's
chaplains at Windsor. It is hard, however,
to believe a story told by Fuller ( Worthies,
j). 131), that, to show his contempt for the
doctrine of transubstantiation, he on one oc-
casion broke the Host in pieces in the col-
lege chapel at evening prayers and trampled
it under his feet. Anyhow, he was too
notable a man to stay with safety in the
country during the reign of Mary, and ac-
cordingly he retired to France, where he
spent most of his time in study at Paris and
Orleans. Returning to England after the
accession of Elizabeth, he enjoyed rapid pro-
motion, being made, within ten years, chaplain
to Archbishop Parker, rector of Biddenden
in Kent, of Sutton Waldron in Dorsetshire,
archdeacon of Stafford, chancellor in Lich-
field Cathedral, and warden of Merton Col-
lege, Oxford.

He was made bishop of Chichester in 1585,
consecrated at Lambeth on 30 Jan., and
enthroned by proxy on 3 March. He was
diligent in discharging the duties of his
office, and was much respected and beloved
in the diocese. Some of the returns to
articles of inquiry made at his visitations
have been preserved amongst the episcopal
records, and supply curious information re-
specting the condition of the church at that
time. The altars had, as a rule, been moved
out from the east end, and complaints are \
numerous that ' the floor was not paved
where the altar had stode.' The walls of all ;
churches were required to be ' whyted and
beautyfied with sentences from Holy Scrip-
ture.' A quarterly sermon from the parish
parson was considered a sufficient allowance ;
but even this was not always regularly given, |
and in some parishes it is stated that there j
had not been any sermon for a year or more.
Bishop Bickley died in 1596, and was buried |
in the cathedral on 26 May, when 'his body
was accompanied to the earthe with dyverse
woorshipfull persons' (note in Heralds' Office;
KENNETT). He bequeathed 40/. to Magda-
len College, to be expended on ceiling and
paving the school, and 100/. to Merton for
the purchase of land, the revenue of which
was bestowed annually on one of the fellows
who preached a sermon to the university on
May day in the college chapel.

A tablet to Bickley 's memory is attached
to the north wall of the lady chapel in
Chichester Cathedral. The inscription (in
Latin) states that he administered his diocese
* piously and religiously, with sobriety and
sincerity, the highest justice and singular

prudence.' The tablet is surmounted by a
small kneeling effigy of the bishop, * which
shows him,' says Wood, Ho have been a
comely and handsome man.' If so, ideas of
manly beauty must have changed very much
since Wood's time.

[Fuller's Worthies, p. 131 ; Wood's Athenae
Oxon. ii. 839 ; Bickley's Eegister in Chichester
Cathedral ; Lansd. MSS. 982, f. 238.1

W. R. W. S.

BICKNELL, ALEXANDER (d. 1796),
author, was an industrious litterateur of the
last quarter of the eighteenth century, whose
writings received their due meed of ridicule
or faint praise in the ' Monthly Review,' and
are now forgotten. He died 22 Aug. 1796 in
St. Thomas's Hospital, London.

He published the following books and
pamphlets: 1. ' History of Edward Prince of
Wales, commonly termed the Black Prince,'
8vo, 1777. 2. ' Life of Alfred the Great, King
of the Anglo-Saxons,' 8vo, 1777. 3. ' The
Putrid Soul, a Poetical Epistle to Joseph
Priestley, LL.D.,' 4to, 1780. 4. < The Patriot
King, or Alfred and Elvida, an Historical
Tragedy,' 8vo, 1788. 5. < History of Lady
Anne Neville.' 6. ( Isabella, or the Rewards
of Good Nature.' 7. * The Benevolent Man,
a Novel.' 8. * Prince Arthur, an Allegorical
Romance.' 9. * Doncaster Races, or the His-
tory of Miss Maitland, a True Tale, in a series
of letters,' 2 vols. 12mo, 1790. 10. < A His-
tory of England and the British Empire,'
12mo, 1791. 11. < The Grammatical Wreath,
or a Complete System of English Grammar,'
12mo, 1790. 12. ' Instances of the Mutabi-
lity of Fortune, selected from Ancient and
Modern History,' 8vo, 1792. 13. ' Philoso-
phical Disquisitions on the Christian Religion,
addressed to Soame Jenyns, Esq., and Dr.
Kenrick.' It is stated on the title-page of
No. 9 that Bicknell edited Captain J. Car-
ver's < Travels through the Interior Parts of
North America,' 8vo, 1778, and Mrs. George
Anne Bellamy's 'Apology for her Life,' 6 vols.
12mo, 1785.

[Monthly Review, vols. Ivii. Iviii. Ixiii. Ixxviii.,
New Series, ii. iv. v. ix. ; Gent. Mag. ; Watt's
Bibl. Brit.] C. W. S.

BICKNELL, ELHANAN (1788-1861),
patron of art, was born 21 Dec. 1788, in
Blackman Street, London, being the son of
William Bicknell, serge manufacturer there,
and of Elizabeth Bicknell, previously a Miss
Randall, of Sevenoaks, Kent. Elhanan Bick-
nell's father had been partly educated at
Wesley's school at Kingswood, Bristol, and
always entertained John Wesley in Black-
man Street when he came to preach at Snow's

Bicknell

10

Bicknell

Fields. Another divine among the most
cherished friends of Elhanan's parents at this
time, after whom he was named, was Elhanan
Winchester, author of Universal Restora-
tion ' ( Christian Reformer, xviii. 56) . William
Bicknell bought the copyright of this work
in the year of his son Elhanan s birth, and
on finding that his bargain was profitable,
he generously surrendered it to the author
in 1789, with a characteristic letter (ibid.}
Elhanan Bicknell was educated by his father,
who, having established a school at Ponder's
End in 1789, when Elhanan was an infant,
removed it to Tooting Common in 1804 ;
and there, among Elhanan's schoolfellows,
was Thomas Wilde, afterwards Lord Chan-
cellor Truro. In 1808 Elhanan was sent
to Cause, near Shrewsbury, to learn farm^-
ing ; but at the end of a year this project
was abandoned. He returned to London and
joined a firm at Newington Butts, engaged
in the sperm whale fishery, into which, for
over half a century, he threw all his active
energies and financial aptitude. About 1835
he foresaw how the repeal of the navigation
laws, then in agitation, would injure his indi-
vidual trade, yet he magnanimously supported
the movement, together with the abolition
of all protection ; and when the inevitable
crippling of his undertakings and his income
came, he cheerfully accepted it. In 1838,
having occupied his residence at Herne Hill,
Surrey, since 1819, Bicknell commenced
there his magnificent collection of pictures,
all of the modern British school. In the
course of twelve years, 1838-50, he be-
came the possessor of masterpieces of Gains-
borough, Turner, Roberts, Landseer, Stan-
field, Webster, Collins, Etty, Callcott, &c.
(WAAGEtf, Treasures of Art, ii. 359 ; Art
Journal, 1862, p. 45) ; and, in default of
a gallery, these splendid works, with many
pieces of sculpture, such as Baily's ' Eve,' en-
riched all the principal apartments of his
house, and were always hospitably open to
the inspection of art connoisseurs. Bicknell,
moreover, became acquainted with artists
themselves, as well as with their works ; he
was munificent in his payments, and gene-
rously entertained them. Bicknell had bought
many of Turner's best works before Mr. Rus-
kin's ad vocacy had made their beauties knoAvn.
He had a strong desire to leave his collec-
tion to the nation ; but for family reasons
his pictures, which numbered 122 at his
death, were eventually sold at Christie's
auction rooms, realising a sum little short
of 80,000/. (Times, 27 April 1863). The
Marquis of Hertford bought about one-third
for his own gallery.

In politics and in theology Elhanan Bick-

nell was an ardent and advanced liberal.
He supported unitarianism consistently and
warmly, was a principal contributor to the
building of the Unitarian chapel at Brixton,
and gave 1,000/. to the British and Foreign
Unitarian Association (Inquirer, 7 Dec. 1861,
p. 895). His remarkable business powers,
which were recognised on all sides, led to
his being invited to become a partner in the
great firm of Maudslay, the eminent engineer,
but this offer was declined. In 1859 his
health began to fail, and he retired from
business. He passed the rest of his time at
Herne Hill, where he died 27 Nov. 1861, aged
72 (Inquirer, 30 Nov. 1861). He was buried
at Norwood.

In 1829 Bicknell married Lucinda Browne,
a sister of Hablot Knight Browne (' Phiz ').
He left a large family by this and a previous
marriage, and several of his sons (one of whom
married the only child of David Roberts,
R.A.), in succeeding to his fortune, have
made names for themselves in the various
departments of art patronage, travel, and re-
form, in which he himself took such constant
delight.

[Waagen's Treasures of Art in Great Britain,
i. 36, ii. 349 ; Christian Eeformer. xviii. 55
et seq. ; Inquirer, 1861, p. 895; Art Journal,
1862, p. 45 ; Athenaeum, 7 Dec. 1861 ; Times,
27 April 1863 ; private information.] J. H.

BICKNELL, HERMAN (1830-1875),
author, orientalist, and traveller, third son of
Elhanan Bicknell [q. v.], born at Herne Hill
2 April 1830, received his education at Paris,
Hanover, University College, and St. Bartho-
lomew's Hospital. After taking his degree at
the College of Surgeons in 1854, and passing
the military medical examination, he joined
the 59th regiment at Hong Kong in 1855 as
assistant surgeon, whence he was transferred,
in 1856, to the 81st regiment at Mianmir,
Lahore. Whilst serving four years in India,
throughout the period of the great mutiny,
he assiduously studied oriental dialects, at
intervals exploring portions of Java, Thibet,
and the Himalayas. On returning to Eng-
land, by the Indus and Palestine, he ex-
changed into the 84th regiment, and was soon
placed on the staff at Aldershot, but speedily
resigned his commission, that he might devote
himself entirely to travel and languages.
From this period he undertook many journeys
of various duration and difficulty, extending
from the Arctic regions to the Andes of Ecua-
dor, and from America to the far East, more
especially with the object of improving him-
self in ethnology, botany, and general science.
In 1862 he started from London in the as-
sumed character of an English Mohammedan

Bicknell

Bicknor

gentleman, and, without holding intercourse
with Europeans, proceeded to Cairo, where he
lived for a considerable period in the native
quarter of the city. By this time so inti-
mately acquainted had he become with the
habits and manners of Islam, that in the
spring of the same year he boldly joined the
annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Moham-
med at Mecca, and successfully accomplished
a dangerous exploit which no. other English-
man had achieved without disguise of person
or of nationality. In 1868 he passed by Aleppo
and the Euphrates to Shiraz, w r here he resided
some months in 1869, employed in making him-
self thoroughly acquainted with the scenes
and life of Persia, in order to carry out more
efficiently the great work of his life, a metri-
cal and literal translation of the chief poems
of Hafiz, which, during fifteen, years, had been
under revision. But on 14 March 1875, before
the manuscripts had received their final cor-
rections, his life was abruptly terminated by
disease, induced or hastened by the wear of
constant change of climate, exposure in moun-
tain exploration, and by an accident in an at-
tempt to ascend the Matterhorn. He died
in London, and was buried at Ramsgate. As
a traveller he had great powers of endurance,
he was a fair draughtsman, and as a linguist
of unsurpassed ability ; his varied accomplish-
ments being also united with the happiest
power of lucidly explaining the most abstruse
theories of metaphysics and etymology, which
his extensive reading had mastered. Besides
the translation of Hafiz (posthumously issued)
he published a few pamphlets.

[Bicknell's Hafiz of Shiraz, 4to, 1875 ; Times,
25 Aug. 1862; reviews in periodical literature,
December 1875 to September 1876; private in-
formation.] A. S. B-L.

BICKNELL, M (1695 P-1723), actress,
was sister of Mrs. Younger, an actress, who
survived her some years. Mrs. Younger in-
formed Mrs. Saunders, a well-known actress
who had for some years quitted the stage,
that her father and mother, James and Mar-
garet Younger, were born in Scotland ; that
the former rode in the third troop of the
Guards, and served several years in Flanders
under King "William, and that the latter was
a Keith, ' nearly related to the late earl
marshall.' The letter giving these facts is
written from Watford to the author of the
' History of the English Stage,' obviously in
response to a request for information, and is
dated 22 June 1736. It does not appear
whether the name of Bicknell, which is
frequently written Bignell, was taken for
the purpose of distinguishing the bearer from
her sister, or whether it is that of a husband.

On 7 Nov. 1706 we first hear of Mrs. Bick-
nell playing, at the Haymarket, ' Edging, a
Chambermaid,' in * The Careless Husband' of
Gibber, her associates including Wilks, Gibber,
Mrs. Oldfield, and Mrs. Barry. Subsequent
years saw her appear as Miss Prue in Con-
greve's ' Love for Love/ Miss Hoyden in the
' Relapse ' of Vanbrugh, Melantha (the great
role of Mrs. Mountfort) in i Marriage a la
Mode,' and other characters of which sauci-
ness and coquetry are the chief features.
Her name appears to a petition signed by
Barton Booth and other actors of Drury
Lane Theatre, presented apparently about
1710 to Queen Anne, complaining of the re-
strictions upon the performances of the peti-
tioners imposed by the lord chamberlain.
She remained at Drury Lane from 1708 to
1721, on 14 Feb. of which year she ' created r
the character of Lady Wrangle in Gibber's
comedy, the ' Refusal.' Her last recorded ap-
pearance was on 2 April 1723. The ' Daily
Journal' of 25 May following announces her
death from consumption. Steele had a high
opinion of her. In the < Tatler ' for5 May 1709
he calls her pretty Mrs. Bignell, and in that for
16 April previous he says that in the l Country
Wife ' she ' did her part very happily, and had
a certain grace in her rusticity, which gave
us hopes of seeing her a very skilful player,
and in some parts supply our loss of Mrs.
Verbruggen.' In the ' Spectator ' for Mon-
day, 5 May 1712, he talks of her ' agreeable
girlish person,' and her ' capacity of imita-
tion,' and in the ' Guardian ' for 8 May 1713
he calls her his friend, and gives a singularly
pleasant picture of her winning ways. Her
signature to the petition mentioned above is
M. Bicknell, suggesting that her name might
be Margaret, like her mother.

[Genest's English Stage ; History of the Eng-
lish Stage (Curll), 1741 ; Davies's Dramatic
Miscellanies; Chalmers's British Essayists, vols.
i., xi., 16.] J. K.

BICKNOR or BYKENORE, ALEX-
ANDER (d. 1349), archbishop of Dublin, was
prebendary of Maynooth and treasurer of Ire-
land, when in 1310 he was elected to the arch-
bishopric by the two cathedral chapters of
Dublin on the resignation of Ferings. His
election, however, was set aside by Edward II
in favour of Lech. On the death of Lech in
1313 Walter Thombury was elected, but died
before consecration ; and on 29 Jan. 1314
Bicknor received a letter from the king to
Clement V asking that his election might
be confirmed, and stating that he was well
spoken of by Richard de Burgh, earl of
Ulster, and other nobles of Ireland (Fcedera,
ii. 468). Being employed on the king's

Bicknor

12

Bidder

business, he was for some time unable to j
go to Rome ; nor was it until 22 July
1317 that he was consecrated by Nicolas of
Prato, cardinal of Ostium. The next year
he was made lord justice of Ireland, and, '
After receiving this appointment, visited
Dublin and was enthroned. He received a
summons to the English parliament, though
by what right does not appear (First Report
on the Peerage, 276) ; and on 24 Sept. of l
the same year joined the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester
in publishing the excommunication of Robert l
Bruce in a consistorial court held at St.
Paul's (Ann. Paul. 283). That he had \
some care for the welfare of his province is
evident from his foundation of a college in
St. Patrick's church in 1320. This founda- j
tion was confirmed by John XXII, but the
scheme fell through for lack of students |
(WAKE ; D' ALTON). About the same time
he made the church of Inisboyne a prebend
of St. Patrick's. In 1323 he was sent on an
embassy to France, in company with Ed-
mund, earl of Kent, the king's brother.
Their mission was unsuccessful (Ypodigma
Neustrice, 258). Again the next year he
went with the earl to negotiate peace with
France, and to treat for the marriage of the
Prince of Wales with a daughter of the
King of Aragon (Fcedera, iii. 45 ; Ann.
Paul. 307). On his return the king accused
him of causing the surrender of La Rozelle
in Aquitaine. It was probably during his
stay in France that he was persuaded to
join the plan that was formed there for the
overthrow of the Despensers, for in May
1325 the king wrote to Pope John setting
forth his causes of complaint against him,
declaring that he was an enemy of his
minister, the younger Despenser, and that
he had wasted the revenues of Ireland, and
praying the pope to remove him (by trans-
lation) from the kingdom (Fcedera, iii. 152).
When Queen Isabella returned to England
in 1326, Bicknor joined her party, and united
with other prelates and barons in declaring
the Prince of Wales guardian of the king-
dom in an assembly held at Bristol in
October. In January he took the oath
administered in the Guildhall to maintain
the cause of the queen. The next year the
see of Dublin was in the king's hands, the
revenues being seized probably in order to
insure a settlement of the accounts of Bick-
nor's financial administration. In 1330 the
archbishop was appointed papal collector.
About this time he sheltered certain persons
who were prosecuted as heretics by Richard,
bishop of Ossory. The bishop complained
to the king ; but Edward, instead of taking

his part, kept him in exile for nine years.
During his absence, the archbishop, in 1335,
held a visitation in Ossory, and seized the
revenues of the see, until the pope suspended
his metropolitical power over the diocese.
On 13 July 1338 he was present at the
consecration of Richard Brintworth to the
see of London. He is said to have preached
a sermon in Christ Church, Dublin, against
the swarms of beggars who infested the
city, which stirred up the mayor to take
measures to put down the evil. He built
the bishop's house at Taulaght. In 1348 he
presided at a synod held at Dublin, in which
several important decrees were made con-
cerning ecclesiastical discipline and govern-
ment. During the last years of his life he
was engaged in a dispute with Ralph, arch-
bishop of Armagh, concerning the right to
the primacy of Ireland. He died in 1349.

[D' Alton's Archbishops of Dublin ; Sir James
Ware's Antiquities of Ireland ; Bymer's Fcedera,
ed. 1704; Annales Paulini ap. Materials for
the Hist, of Edw. I and Edw. H, ed. Stubbs
(Rolls Ser.) ; Stubbs's Constitutional History, ii.
360.] W. H.

BIDDER,, GEORGE PARKER (1806-
1878), the rapid calculator and engineer, was
born at Moreton Hampstead, a village on the
borders of Dartmoor, where his father was a
stonemason. As a child he showed a most
extraordinary power of mental calculation, a
power in which he was equalled by few and
perhaps surpassed by none who have ever
lived. He was about six years of age when
he first commenced the study of figures, by
learning to count up to ten. His instructor
was an elder brother, and the instruction
ceased when he could count up to one
hundred. The gradual steps by which he
acquired his powers of calculation, and the
system on which he worked, are fully given
in a paper read by him in 1856 before
the Institution of Civil Engineers. In this
paper, without disclaiming for himself special
powers, he went so far as to assert that
mental arithmetic could be taught as easily
as ordinary arithmetic, and that its practice
required no extraordinary powers of memory.
From the account he gave it appeared that
his own powers were only limited by the
power of registering the various steps of a
calculation as he proceeded, but that this
ability of registration was carried to a point
very far beyond the limits of an ordinary
mind. It may probably be assumed without
much question that he possessed in a great
degree the faculty of ' visualising ' numbers,
first recognised by Mr. Francis Galton, and
that this faculty gave him his wonderful

Bidder

Biddle

command over figures. His son and his
grandchildren possess this visualising power,
and they also inherit considerable calculating |
abilities. A study of Bidder's system, partly I
natural and partly elaborated, cannot fail to j
be of value to all who wish to improve their |
calculating powers; but the power with
which he used it will not readily be rivalled.
The lad's peculiar talents, evinced by the
rapidity with which he answered arithmetical
questions requiring the performance of intri- j
cate calculations, soon drew public attention
to him, and his father found it more profitable
to carry him about the country and exhibit
him as the ' calculating phenomenon ' than to
leave him at school. Fortunately for him his
powers attracted the attention of several emv-
iient men, by whom he was placed at school,
first at Camberwell, and afterwards at Edin-
burgh. His education was completed at the
university of Edinburgh, where, in 1822, he .
obtained the prize given for the study of the
higher mathematics by the magistrates of ;
Edinburgh. It is pleasant to note that many !
years afterwards, in 1846, Bidder founded a }
bursary or scholarship for poor students of ',
401. a year, which he named the ' Jardine j
Bursary/ in joint recognition of the univer-
sity where he had obtained his education, and
of the eminent man by whose influence he had
been sent thither. After a brief employment
in the Ordnance Survey and a still briefer trial
of a clerkship in the office of a life assurance
company, he took regularly to engineering.
He was employed on several works of more
or less importance, and became associated
with Robert Stephenson in 1834m the London
and Birmingham railway. A year or so later
this brought him into parliamentary work,
and here he soon found full scope for his mar-
vellous powers of calculation. He could work
out on the instant, and in his head, calcula-
tions which would take most men a conside-
rable time and require the use of paper and
pencil. He was never disconcerted, and he
was always minutely accurate. So great did
his reputation soon become that on one oc-
casion an opposing counsel asked that he
should not be allowed to remain in the com-
mittee-room, on the ground that ' nature had
endowed him with qualities that did not
place his opponents on a fair footing/ Nu-
merous stories are still extant, attesting the
skill with which he would detect a flaw in
some elaborate set of calculations, thereby up-
setting an opponent's case, or would support
his own conclusions by an argument based
on mathematical data, possibly only then put
before him. Probably nowhere else could he
have found so suitable a field for the exercise
of his peculiar talents as in a parliamentary

committee-room, nor is it easy to conceive
a man better adapted to this special sort of
work.

But, besides his parliamentary practice,
Bidder was also much employed in the actual
practice of his profession, and as engineer
constructed numerous railways and other
works at home and abroad. The Victoria
Docks (London) are considered one of his
chief constructive works, and, after railway
matters, hydraulic engineering principally en-
gaged his attention. But he was more or less
interested in a large proportion of the subjects
coming within the wide range of engineering
science. He was the originator of the railway
swing bridge, the first of which was designed
and erected by him at Reedham on the Nor-
wich and Lowestoft Railway ; he was one of
the founders of the Electric Telegraph Com-
pany (the first company formed to provide
telegraphic communication), and he was as-
sociated, either as adviser or constructor, in
many of the great engineering works carried
out during the time covered by his professional
career. He died at Dartmouth on 20 Sept.
1878, and was buried in the churchyard of
Stoke Fleming, an adjacent village.

[A very full life is given in the Proc. Inst.
C.E. Ivii. 294 ; other interesting details will be
found in the paper on Mental Calculation, ibid.
xv. 251.] H. T. W.

BIDDLE, JOHN (1615-1662), unita-
rian, was son of a tailor of Wotton-under-
! Edge, Gloucestershire, where he was baptised
on 14 Jan. 1615. He early showed himself
. a youth of great promise. He was fortunate
enough to come under the notice of George,
j eighth Lord Berkeley, who allowed him,
I with other scholars, an annual exhibition of
ten pounds, though he was not yet ten
years old. ' He was educated/ says Wood,
' in grammar-learning in the free school, by
John Rugg and John Turner, successive
| teachers.' Under the latter he ' outran his
! instructors, and became tutor to himself/
! While still a schoolboy he ' english'd '
' Virgil's Bucolics and the two first Satyrs of
Juvenal/ These were printed in 1634, and
dedicated to ' John Smith, Esq., of Nibley/
Gloucestershire, and the 'Mecsenas of the
Wottonian muses/ He likewise 'compos'd
and recited before a full auditory/ in the begin-
| ning of 1634, ' an elaborate oration in Latin
I for the funeral of an honourable school-
i fellow/ He was a dutiful son to his mother
i who was left a widow in straitened circum-
I stances at this period.

He proceeded in 1634 to Oxford, and was
| entered a student of Magdalen Hall. ' And
j for a time/ says Anthony a Wood, ' if I

Biddle

Biddle

mistake not, was put under the tuition of
John Oxenbridge, a person noted to be of
no good principles.' In his college, an early
biographer informs us, 'he did so philosophize,
as it might be observed, he was determined
more by reason than authority : however,
in divine things he did not much dissent
from the common doctrine, as may be col-
lected from a little tract he wrote against
dancing/

On 23 June 1638 he passed B.A., and then
became an eminent tutor in his college. On
20 May 1641 he proceeded M.A. Before this
date he had been ' invited to take upon him
the care of teaching the school wherein he had
been educated \Athence Oxon.) Soon after the
magistrates of Gloucester, ' upon ample recom-
mendations from the principal persons in the j
university,' chose him ' master of the free school
in the parish of St. Mary le Crypt in that j
city.' He accepted this appointment, and i
* he was much esteemed for his diligence in j
his profession, serenity of manners, and sane- |
tity of life/ < At length,' says Wood, < the
nation being brought into confusion by the
restless presbyterians, the said city garrison'd ;
for the use of the parliament, and every one j
vented his or their opinions as they pleased,
he began to be free of his discourses of what j
he studied there at leisure hours concerning I
the Trinity, from the Holy Scriptures, having j
not then, as he pretended, convers'd with i
Socinian books. . . . But the presbyterian
party, then prevalent, having notice of these |
matters, and knowing well what mischief he
might do among his disciples, the magistrate
summon'd him to appear before him ; and
after several interrogatories, a form of con- j
fession under three heads was proposed to
him. to make, which he accordingly did
2 May 1644, but not altogether in the words j
proposed. Which matter giving them no
satisfaction, he made another confession in !
the same month, more evident than the j
former, to avoid the danger of imprisonment
which was to follow if he did deny it/

The matter seemed to have blown over, and I
Biddle quietly pursued his study in Holy |
Scripture. His manuscript which ultimately
he meant to print and publish containing a
statement of his religious opinions, was trea-
cherously obtained by a supposed friend.
The parliamentary commissioners were then
sitting in Gloucester, and were put in posses-
sion of his manuscript on 2 Dec. 1645. The j
commissioners read his ' Arguments,'and forth-
with committed their author to the common
gaol till opportunity should offer of bringing
his case before the House of Commons. A
local gentleman interposing on his behalf, and
becoming bail for him, he was allowed out

' on condition of his appearing before parlia-
ment when required, to answer any charges
which might be brought against him/

In June 1646 Archbishop Ussher, passing-
through Gloucester on his way to London,
held a conference with the bailed prisoner of
state, but could not convince him of his errors.
The great prelate ' spoke to and used him
with all fairness and pity, as well as strength
of argument/ and it must be added with
all respect ; ' for the truth is/ observes An-
thony a Wood, ' except his opinions there
was little or nothing blameworthy in him/

About six months after he had been libe-
rated on bail, he was cited to Westminster
to make his defence. The parliament ap-
p^ointed a committee to examine him. He
admitted that he did not believe in the
Divinity of the Holy Ghost, and expressed
his readiness to discuss the subject with
any theologian whom they might appoint.
There was delay, and Biddle desired Sir
Henry Vane of the committee to see that his
cause might be heard or he be set at liberty.
Vane proposed this on the floor of the house,
and otherwise showed a friendliness to Biddle
which did not improve his prospects. Biddle
therefore boldly published < Twelve Questions
or Arguments drawn out of Scripture, where-
in the commonly received Opinion touching
the Deity of the Holy Spirit is clearly and
fully refuted/ 1647. Prefixed is a letter to
Vane, and at the end ' An Exposition of five
principal Passages of the Scripture alledged
by the Adversaries to prove the Deity of the
Holy Ghost/ Called to the bar of the house,
he owned the book, and was remanded to
prison, and on 6 Sept. 1647 the * Twelve
Arguments ' was ordered to be burnt by the
hangman as being blasphemous.

The ' Twelve Arguments ' attracted great
attention, and was reprinted in the same year.
It was answered by Matthew Poole in his
1 Plea for the Godhead of the Holy Ghost/
subsequently enlarged. The letter to Vane
is able and dignified. Nicholas Estwick,
B.D., and others, exposed mistakes of fact in
the book, but Biddle, who read all, would
not admit that he was confuted.

On 2 May 1648 an ordinance was passed
that inflicted the penalty of death upon those
who denied the doctrine of the Trinity.
None the less Biddle published in the same
year his < Confession of Faith touching the
Holy Trinity according to Scripture/ and in
quick succession 'The Testimonies of Ire-
naeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Novatianus,
Theophilus, Origen (who lived in the first
two centuries after Christ was born or there-
abouts), as also of Arnobius, Lactantius, &c,,
concerning that One God and the Persons ot

Biddle

Biddle

the Trinity, with observations on the same.
Upon the publication of the * Testimonies '
the assembly of divines sitting at Westminster
made their appeal to the parliament that he
might suffer death. The divines had given
him up as hopelessly unconvertible. Dr. Peter
Gunning, indeed, visited him still, but with
no success. But parliament did not confirm
the divines' appeal. He never was brought to j
trial, and at length personal friends united, :
and one of their number once more procured j
his liberation l by becoming surety for his
appearance whenever he might be called
upon.' He went down with a friend to \
Staffordshire, and not only became his chap- |
lain, but also a preacher in a church there.
Tidings of these things having been conveyed
to the lord president Bradshaw, Biddle was
once more apprehended and closely confined.
Almost contemporaneously his Staffordshire
benefactor died, and left him a small legacy.
This was ' soon devoured by the payment of
prison fees,' and he was left in utter indi-
gence. His chief support, it is pathetically
recorded, consisted of ' a draught of milk from
the cow every morning and evening.'

Relief came unexpectedly. A learned man,
who knew his competency, recommended him
as a corrector of the press to Roger Daniel,
printer, who was about to publish an edition
of the Septuagint. This and other like lite-
rary employment enabled him, while it lasted,
to procure a comfortable subsistence. Thomas
Firmin dared to deliver also at this time
to Cromwell a petition for his release from
Newgate. Bishop Kennet thus reports the
Protector's answer : * You curl-pate boy, do
you think I'll show any favour to a man who
denies his Saviour, and disturbs the govern-
ment P ' (Register and Chronicle, p. 761).

On 10 Feb. 1652, by the will of Oliver,
the parliament passed a general act of ob-
livion. This restored Biddle and many others
to their full liberty. The first use which
he made of his recovered freedom was l to
meet each Lord's day those friends whom
he had gained in London, and expound the
Scriptures to them.' He is also alleged to
have translated and published at home and
in Holland a number of Socinian books. It
is very uncertain which were really trans-
lated by him. He further organised a con-
venticle, and conducted public worship.

In 1654 he again laid himself open to
legal penalties. He published now 'A Two-
fold Catechism, the one simply called A
Scripture Catechism, the other A Brief
Scripture Catechism for Children.' Com-
plaint was made of these catechisms in parlia-
ment. Early in December 1654 the author
was placed at the bar of parliament and

asked whether he wrote the books. He
replied by asking whether it seemed reason-
able that one brought before a judgment-seat
as a criminal should accuse himself. After
debate and resolutions, he was on 13 Dec.
' committed a close prisoner to the Gatehouse
and forbidden the use of pen, ink, and paper,
or the access of any visitant ; and all the
copies of his books which could be found were
ordered to be burnt.'

This resolution was earned out on the
following day, and a bill afterwards ordered
to be brought in for punishing him. But after
about six months' imprisonment he obtained
his liberty at the court of the Upper or King's
Bench, 28 May 1655. He was only out a month
when he was entangled in a disputation with
one John Griffin, pastor of a baptist church.
Griffin was illiterate, and could not possibly
have held his own against Biddle. But instead
of mere disputation the law was invoked, an
information was lodged against Biddle, and
he was apprehended, and put first into the
Poultry Compter and then into Newgate.
At the next sessions he was indicted a't the
Old Bailey under the obsolete and abrogated
ordinance called the 'Draconick ordinance,'
which had been passed on 2 May 1648, but had
never acquired the force of law. At first the
aid of counsel was denied him, but after a
time, on putting in a bill of exceptions, his
request was complied with, and the trial
was fixed for the next day. But Cromwell
interposed his authority and put a stop to
the proceedings. A miserable tangle ensued.
The upshot of the whole was that, as the
lesser of two evils, he was ' banished to the
Scilly Islands 5 Oct. 1655, to remain in
close custody in the castle of St. Mary's
during his life.' On the day previous (4 Oct.)
there came out ' Two Letters of Mr. John
Biddle, late Prisoner in Newgate, but now
hurried away to some remote Island. One
to the Lord Protector, the other to the Lord
President LaAvrence, 1655.' He expressly
separates himself from Socinus as to the per-
sonality of the Holy Spirit.

The Protector allowed him 100 crowns
per annum. He remained in prison until
1658. In the interval many means were
taken to obtain his release. "Calamy inter-
ceded. Baptist ministers interceded. He
himself wrote with pathos and power. At
length, through the intercession of manv
friends, he was conveyed from St. Marys
Castle by habeas corpus to the Upper Bench
at Westminster, and, no accuser appearing,
he was discharged by Lord Chief Justice
Glynn.

Hereupon with alacrity he re-founded a
1 society on congregational principles, and

Biddlecombe

16

Biddlecombe

, it is believed, the lord chief
was a prudent step, though he

resumed his long suspended classes among
his friends.' Thus he continued until Crom-
well's death on 3 Sept. following. Before
the parliament summoned by Richard Crom-
well met, he was advised to retire into the
country by
justice. It

was reluctant to assent. A committee was
appointed by the house to examine into the
state of religion, and one of its first acts was
to institute an inquiry into his liberation.
The matter subsided. He ventured back to
London. But on 1 June 1662 he was seized in
his lodging ' with a few of his friends who
were assembled for divine worship, and
carried before a justice of the peace, Sir
Eichard Brown.' They were ' all sent to prison
without bail.' The trial lingered. At last
he was brought in guilty and fined ' one
hundred pounds, and to lie in prison till
paid ; and each of his hearers in the sum of
twenty pounds.' In less than five weeks
after the sentence, the closeness of his im-
prisonment and the foulness of the air brought
on a disease which terminated fatally. Sir
Richard Brown refused any mitigation of the
prison rules in his favour ; but the sheriff',
whose name was Meynell, granted permission
for him to be removed ' into a situation more
favourable to his recovery.' The indulgence
came too late. In less than two days he
died l between the hours of five and six on
the morning of 22 Sept. 1662, in the forty-
seventh year of his age.'

[Johannis Biddelii (Angli) Acad. Oxon. quon-
dam A. M. celeb. Vita, 1682 ; Short Account of
the Life of John Biddle, M.A., 1691 ; Wood's Ath.
Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 593-603 ; Biog.Brit.; Toul-
min's Review of the Life. Character, and Writ-
ings, 1791 ; Edwards's Gangrsena, iii. 87 ; White-
locke's Mem. pp. 270-1, 500, 591 ; Kushworth,
vi. 259, 261 ; Crosby's Hist, of Baptists, i. 206-
16; Life of Thomas Firmin, 1698, p. 10;
Wallace's Anti-Trinitarian Biography ; Biddle's
Works.] A. B. G.

BIDDLECOMBE, SIB GEORGE (1807-
1878), captain and author, born at Portsea on
5 Nov. 1807, was the son of Thomas Biddle-
combe of Sheerness Dockyard, who died on
12 Sept. 1844. He was educated at a school
kept by Dr. Neave at Portsea, and joined the
ship Ocean of Whitby as a midshipman in
1823. After some years he left the mercan-
tile marine, and, passing as a second master in
the royal navy in May 1828, was soon after
employed in surveying in the JEtna and the
Blonde until 1833. He was in active service
in various ships from this date until 1854,
being specially noted for the great skill which
he displayed in conducting naval surveys in

many parts of the world. Whilst in the Ac-
| tseon, in 1836, he surveyed a group of islands
! discovered by her in the Pacific. When at-
tached to the Talbot, 1838-42, he surveyed
numerous anchorages on the Ionian station,
! in the Archipelago, and up the Dardanelles
i and Bosphorus ; examined the south shore of
the Black Sea as far as Trebizond, as well as
the port of Varna, and prepared a survey,
published by the admiralty, of the bays and
banks of Acre. He also displayed much skill
and perseverance in surveying the Sherki
shoals, where he discovered many unknown
patches. A plan which he proposed for a
' hauling-up slip ' was approved of by the au-
thorities, and money was voted for its con-
struction. For his survey of Port Royal
and Kingston he received the thanks of the
common council of Kingston, and on 20 Aug.
1843, on the occurrence of a destructive fire-
in that town, the services rendered by Biddle-
combe at imminent risk to himself obtained
for him a letter of acknowledgment from the
merchants and other inhabitants. Few officers
saw more active service. As master of the
Baltic fleet, 14 March 1854, he reconnoitered
the southern parts of the Aland islands,
Hango Bay, Baro Sund, and the anchorage
of Sweaborg, preparatory to taking the fleet
to those places. He conducted the allied
fleets to Cronstadt, and taking charge in Led
Sund of the Prince steamer, with upwards
of 2,000 French troops on board, he carried
that ship to Bomarsund, and was afterwards
present at the fall of that fortress. He was
employed as assistant master attendant at
Keyham Yard, Devonport, 1855-64, and from
the latter date to January 1868 as master
attendant of Woolwich Yard. He was made
a C.B. 13 March 1867, but the highest rank
he obtained in the navy was that of staff
captain, 1 July in the same year. He was
knighted by the queen at Windsor, 26 June
1873, and received a Greenwich Hospital
pension soon afterwards. His death took
place at Lewisham, 22 July 1878. He had
been twice married, first in 1842 to Emma
Louisa, third daughter of Thomas Kent, who
died 13 Aug. 1865, and secondly, in the fol-
lowing year, to Emma Sarah, daughter of
William Middleton, who died 6 May 1878,

~\ Af\ *

aged 49.

Sir George Biddlecombe published the fol-
lowing works : 1. * A Treatise on the Art of
Rigging,' 1848. 2. ' Remarks on the English
Channel,' 1850; sixth edition, 1863. 3. 'Naval
Tactics and Trials of Sailing,' 1850. 4. < Steam
Fleet Tactics,' 1857. This list does not in-
clude the accounts of the surveys made by
him in various parts of the world, and which
were published by order of the admiralty.

Biddulph

Biddulph

[The Autobiography of Sir George Buldle- j
combe (1878) ; O'Byrne's Naval Biographical
Dictionary (1861 edition), pp. 80-2.]

G. C. B.

BIDDULPH, SIR THOMAS MYDDLE-

TON (1809-1878), general, born 29 July :
1809, was the second son of Robert Bid- '
dulph, Esq., of Ledbury; his mother was
Charlotte, the daughter of Richard Myddle-
ton, Esq., M.P., of Chirk Castle, of the old
Welsh family of Myddleton of Gwaynenog.
He became a cornet in the 1st life guards
7 Oct. 1826, lieutenant 23 Feb. 1829, captain
16 May 1834, and brevet-major 9 Nov. 1846.
( )n 31 Oct. 1851 he was major in the 7th light
dragoons, and lieutenant-colonel unattached.
He had been gazetted 16 July 1851 as master
of her majesty's household, for which office
he had been selected by Baron Stockmar
(MARTIN, Life of the Prince Consort, ii.
382-3). On 16 July 1854 he was appointed
an extra equerry to her majesty, and became
colonel 28 Nov. 1854. Colonel Biddulph mar-
ried, 16 Feb. 1857, Mary Frederica, only
daughter of Mr. Frederick Charles "W. Sey- ,
mour, who was at one time maid of honour,
and afterwards honorary bedchamber woman
to the queen. He was created, 27 March 1863,
a knight commander of the order of the Bath
for his civil services, and was appointed,
3 March 1866, one of the joint keepers of her \
majesty's privy purse, in succession to the !
Hon. Sir C. B. Phipps, and in conjunction
with General the Hon. Charles Grey. On
Grey's appointment to be private secretary
to her majesty, 30 April 1867, Sir Thomas Bid-
dulph became sole keeper of the privy purse.
He became major-general 31 May 1865, and
lieutenant-general 29 Dec. 1873, and he was
gazetted, 1 Oct. 1877, to the brevet rank of
general, as one of a large number of officers
who obtained promotion under the provisions
of article 137 of the royal warrant of 13 Aug.
1877. Later in the same year he was sworn
a member of the privy council. The official
duties of Sir Thomas Biddulph involved a
very close attendance upon the queen. He
died at Abergeldie Mains, near Balmoral,
after a short illness, during which he was
daily visited by her majesty, 28 Sept. 1878,
and was buried at Clewer. Sir Theodore
Martin says of Sir Thomas Biddulph that ' he
was the last survivor of the three very able
men Sir Charles Phipps and General Grey
being the other two who had been inti-
mately associated with the prince from their
position as leading members of her majesty's
household,' and who always served the queen
with generous devotion {Life of the Prince
Consort, iv. 12).
VOL. v.

[Aberdeen Free Press, 30 Sept. 1878 ; Times,
30 Sept. and 3 and 8 Oct. 1878; Army List;
London Gazette; Illustrated London News,
5 Oct. 1878; Martin's Life of the Prince Consort,
1875-80; Queen Victoria's More Leaves from the
Journal of a Life in the Highlands, 1884.]

A. H. G.

BIDDULPH, THOMAS TREGENNA

(1763-1838), evangelical divine, was the
only son of the Rev. Thomas Biddulph by
his first wife, -Martha, daughter and coheir
of Rev. John Tregenna, rector of Mawgan
in Cornwall. He was born at Claines,
Worcestershire, 5 July 1763, but his father
became in 1770 the vicar of Padstow in
Cornwall, and the younger Biddulph was
educated at the grammar school of Truro in
that county. In his eighteenth year he ma-
triculated at Queen's College, Oxford (23 Nov.
1780), and took his degree of B.A. and M.A.
in 1784 and 1787 respectively. He was or-
dained deacon by Bishop Ross of Exeter,
26 Sept. 1785, being licensed to the curacy
of Padstow, and preaching his first sermon
in its church, and after holding many cura-
cies became the incumbent of Bengeworth
near Evesham in 1793. Though he retained
this small benefice for ten years, he resided
for the greater part of his time at Bristol, "
and it was as the incumbent from 1799 to
1838 of St. James's, Bristol, that his reputa-
tion as a preacher and a parish priest was
acquired. His doctrines were at first un-
popular among the citizens of Bristol, but in
the course of years his services were rewarded
by the respect and affection of his fellow-
townsmen. He died at St. James's Square,
Bristol, 19 May 1838, and was buried 29 May.
His wife, Rachel, daughter of Zachariah
Shrapnel, whom he married at Bradford,
Wiltshire, 19 Feb. 1789, died at St. James's
Square, Bristol, 10 Aug. 1828. Portraits
by Opie of the Rev. Thomas Tregenna Bid-
dulph and of his father and mother are in the
possession of Mr. W. P. Punchard of Taun-
ton. The catalogue of the writings of Mr.
Biddulph occupies more than six pages of the
'' Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.' All his works
were of a theological character, and were
written in support of evangelical doctrines.
On their behalf he engaged in controversy
with the Rev. John Hey, the Rev. Richard
Warner, and the Rev. Richard (afterwards
bishop) Mant. A periodical called at first
1 Zion's Trumpet,' but afterwards known for
many years under the title of ' The Christian
Guardian,' was established by him in 1798.

[Gent. Mag. x. 331-34 (1838); Bibl. Cornub.
i. and iii. ; May's Evesham, 148 ; Rogers's Opie,
74-5- Christian Guardian, 1838, pp. 257-63.]

W. P. C.

Bidgood

18

Bidwill

BIDGOOD, JOHN, M.D. (1624-1690), the
son of Humphrey Bidgood, an apothecary of
Exeter, was born in that city 13 March 1623-4.
His father was poisoned in 1641 by his ser-
: vant, Peter Moore, a crime for which the
offender was tried at the Exeter assizes, and
executed on * the Magdalen gibbet belonging
to the city,' his dying confession being printed
and preserved in the British Museum. The
son was sent to Exeter College about 1640,
and admitted a Petreian fellow 1 July 1642.
On 1 Feb. 1647-8 he became a bachelor
of physic at Oxford, but in the following
June was ejected from his fellowship by the
parliamentarian visitors. After this loss of
nis income he withdrew to Padua, then a
noted school of medicine, and became M.D.
. of that university. With this diploma he re-
turned to England, and, after a few years'
practice at Chard, settled in his native city,
where he remained until his death. On the
restoration in 1660, Bidgood resumed his fel-
lowship, and in the same year (20 Sept. 1660)
was incorporated M.D. at Oxford. Two years
later he resigned his fellowship, possibly be-
cause a kinsman, who had matriculated in
1661, was then qualified to hold it. His skill
in medicine was shown by his admission, in
December 1664, to the College of Physicians
in London as honorary fellow an honour
which he acknowledged by the gift of 100/.
towards the erection of their new college in
Warwick Lane and by his subsequent elec-
tion in 1686 as an ordinary fellow. Some
years before his death he retired to his coun-
try house of Rockbeare. near Exeter, but he
died in the Close, Exeter, 13 Jan. 1690-1,
and was buried in the lady chapel in the
cathedral. A flat stone, with an English in-
scription, in the pavement indicated the place
of his burial, and a marble monument with a
Latin inscription to his memory was fixed in
the wall of the same chapel by his nephew
and heir. An extensive practice brought
Dr. Bidgood a large fortune, but his good
qualities were marred by a morose disposition
and by a satirical vein of humour. He left
the sum of 600J. to St. John's Hospital at
Exeter.

[Prince's Worthies; Munk's College of Phy-
sicians (ed. 1878), i. 348 ; Boase's Exeter Coll.
67, 212, 229 ; Davidson's Bibliotheca Devon. 138 ;
Izacke's Exeter (ed. 1731), p. 189; Eegister of
Visitors of Oxford Univ. (Gamden Soc. 1881), pp.
13,60,93,138.] W. P. C.

BIDLAKE, JOHN (1755-1814), divine
and poet, was the son of a jeweller at Ply-
mouth, and was born in that town in 1755.
His education was begun at the grammar
school of that town, and he proceeded thence

to Christ Church, Oxford, being entered on
its books as a servitor 10 March 1774, where
he took his degree of B.A. in: 1778, and those
of M.A. and D.D. in 1808. He was for many
years master of the Plymouth grammar
school, and minister of the chapel of ease at
Stonehouse. Neither of these posts brought
much gain to their holder, nor were his pe-
cuniary troubles lightened by his obtaining
the offices of chaplain to the prince regent
and the Duke of Clarence. He was appointed
Bampton lecturer in 1811, but during the de-
livery of the third discourse he was attacked
with cerebral affection, which terminated in
blindness. In consequence of this crushing
misfortune he was forced to resign his curacy
at Stonehouse, and as he was totally without
the means of support, an appeal to the chari-
table was made on his behalf in June 1813.
On 17 Feb. in the following year he died at
Plymouth.

Bidlake's works were very numerous, both
in divinity and poetry. He published sepa-
. rately at least seven sermons, in addition to
| three volumes of collected discourses on
' various subjects (1795, 1799, and 1808).
! His earliest poem was an anonymous l Elegy
written on the author's revisiting the place
of his former residence' (1788). It was
followed by < The Sea ' (1796), < The Country
Parson' (1797), 'Summer's Eve' (1800),
i ' Virginia or the Fall of the Decemvirs, a
tragedy' (1800), < Youth' (1802), and < The
Year ' (1813). Three volumes of his poeti-
cal works were issued in 1794, 1804, and

1814 respectively. In 1799 he composed
a moral tale entitled 'Eugenic, or the
Precepts of Prudentius,' and in 1808 he is-
sued an ' Introduction to the Study of Geo-
graphy.' His Bampton lectures were entitled
* The Truth and Consistency of Divine Reve-
lation ' (1811). Three numbers of a periodi-
cal called ' The Selector ' were published by
him at Plymouth in 1809, but with the third
number it expired. Bidlake was a man of
varied talents and considerable acquirements,
but his poetry was imitative, and the interest
of his theological works was ephemeral.

[Watt's Bibl. Brit,; Gent. Mag. 1813, pt. i.
560, 1814, pt. i. 410; Worth's Plymouth (2nded.)
p. 322 ; Worth's Three Towns Bibliotheca (Trans.
Plymouth Instit. vol. iv.] W. P. C.

BIDWILL, JOHN CAENE (1815-
1853), botanist and traveller, was born in

1815 at Exeter, his father being a well-
known citizen of that place. At an early age
he went out to New South Wales, and entered
into business as a merchant at Sydney. In
February 1839 he started upon an exploring
expedition in New Zealand. From Tawranga

Biffin

he made his way into hitherto unknown
regions. So savage were the native tribes
,at that period that, shortly before the travel- :
ler's arrival at Tawranga, a band from Koturoa
had seized a number of people and cooked
them absolutely in sight of the inhabitants
of the surrounding villages. Bidwill ex-
plored the shores of Lake Taupo ; amongst j
other discoveries made, he found in the vici- j
nity of Koturoa a species of eugenia, identi-
fied as the Earina mucronata. In the moun-
tains of the Arrohaw he met with the
gigantic tree fern, the Mummuke. He next
investigated the great plain of the Thames
or Wai ho.

Bidwill fell a victim to the spirit of inves-
tigation. While engaged in marking out a
new road he was accidentally separated from
his party, and lost himself, without his com-
pass, in the bush. He struggled to extricate '
himself, remaining on one occasion eight
days without food. In cutting his way with
.a pocket-hook through the scrub, he brought
on internal inflammation, of which he even-
tually died. Bidwill was an ardent botanist.
He contributed to the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' |
many interesting papers upon horticultural
subjects, but more especially on hybridising,
in which he was an adept. f To him,' says
Professor Lindley, ' we owe the discovery of |
the famous Bunya-Bunya tree, subsequently j
named after him Araucaria Bidwilli, and of j
the Nymphcea giyantea, that Australian rival '
of the Victoria. By his friends, of whom he
had more than most men, his loss will be
found to be irreparable, and the colony in
which he died could ill afford to lose him.'
Bidwill, who died at Tinana, Maryborough,
in March 1853, was commissioner of crown
lands and chairman of the bench of magis-
trates for the district of Wide Bay, New
South Wales.

[Bidwill's Rambles in New Zealand, 1841 ;
'Gardener's Chronicle, March 1853 ; Gent. Mag.
1853.] G. B. S.

BIFFIN or BEFFIN, SARAH (1784-
1850), miniature painter, was born at East
>Quantoxhead, near Bridgwater, Somerset,
in 1784. Her parents were apparently of
very humble station. She was born without
-arms, hands, or legs (Handbill in British Mu-
seum, 1881 a 2, where her name is printed
Benin). Her height never exceeded thirty-
seven inches ; but by indomitable perseverance
she contrived, by means of her mouth, to use
the pen, the pencil, and paint-brush, and even
the scissors and needle. Her first instructor
was a Mr. Dukes (Gent. Mag. xxxiv. new
series, 668), to whom she bound herself, and
with whom she stayed sixteen years. In

1812 she was carried round the country to
exhibit her powers and ingenuity, and was
at Swaffham in October, the race week
(Sandbilf). A commodious booth was hired
there for her : the pit seats were Is., the
gallery seats Qd. Miss Biffin wrote her auto-
graph for her visitors, drew landscapes before
them, and painted miniatures (the charge for
which, on ivory, was three guineas) ; and
her ' conductor^' probably Mr. Dukes, pro-
mised to give a thousand guineas if she were
not found to produce all he described. It is
complained that Miss Biffin received only 51.
per annum from Mr. Dukes (Gent. Mag.}
The Earl of Morton, becoming acquainted
with Miss Biffin's talents, had further in-
struction given to her in painting by Mr.
Craig, then popular for his portraits and
'Keepsake' illustrations (REDGRAVE, Dic-
tionary of Artists). The poor little artist was
patronised by the royal family, and she ma-
naged to support herself by her art, receiving
a medal from the Society of Artists in 1821.
She finally retired to Liverpool. There age
overtook her, exertions of her extraordinary
kind grew very painful, and she fell into
poverty, which was only lightened by the
benevolence of Mr. Richard Rathbone, who
organised a subscription for her benefit. She
died 2 Oct. 1850, aged sixty-six years.

[Chambers's Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 404 ;
Redgrave's Diet of Artists of British School ;
Handbill to the Nobility, Ladies, and Gentle-
men, No. 1881 a 2, Brit. Mus. ; Gent. Mag. vol.
xxxiv. new series, 1850, p. 668.] J. H.

BIFIELD, NICHOLAS. [See BYFIELD.]

BIGG, JOHN STANYAN (1828-1865),
poet and journalist, was born at Ulverston
14 July 1828. He was educated at the old
Town Bank School in that town, and at an
early age began to exhibit strong literary
predilections. It is said that the ' Arabian
Nights' Entertainments ' first fired him with
imaginative ardour. He would recite the
oriental stories to his companions, and as
the latter recompensed him for so doing,
young Bigg was able to indulge the love of
books, and became possessed of the works of
the best English poets. At thirteen he was
sent by his father to a boarding school in
Warwickshire. On his return to his native
town, he assisted his father in the conduct of
his business. Soon afterwards the family re-
moved to the beautiful vicinity of Penny
Bridge. His poetical enthusiasm was here
stirred into action, and he penned many
attractive lyrics.

Returning to Ulverston, he published in
1848 his first work, ' The Sea King,' a metri-

c 2

Bigg

20

Bigland

cal romance in six cantos, with very copious
historical and illustrative notes. The ro-
mance arose out of a study of Sharon Tur-
ner's 'History of the Anglo-Saxons.' In
conception it has something in common with
Fouq ue's l Undine/ though Bigg states that
book to have been unknown to him at the time
of the composition of his own work. The
* Sea King ' interested several men of letters,
including Lord Lytton and James Mont-
gomery. Bigg was now appointed editor
of the ' Ulverston Advertiser/ a post which
he occupied for several years. He subse-
quently went to Ireland, and edited for some
years the ' Downshire Protestant/ the pro-
prietor of which was Mr. W. Johnston, of
Ballykilbeg House, the author of ' Night-
shade/ and other works. At Downpatrick
Bigg married Miss R. A. H. Pridham. In

1859 the Burns centenary was celebrated,
and his ode competing for the Crystal Palace
prize was selected by the three judges as
one of the six best.

Previous to his Irish experiences, Bigg
had written his most important poem, t Night
and the Soul.' It appeared in 1854. Bigg
belonged to that class of poets which acquired
the name of the l Spasmodic School/ a school
severely travestied by Professor Ay toun in his
spasmodic tragedy of l Firmilian.'

In 1860 Bigg left Ireland and returned to
Ulverston, where he became both editor and
proprietor of the f Advertiser/ which position
he continued to occupy until his death. In !

1860 he also published a novel in one volume, :
entitled ' Alfred Staunton/ which met with a
favourable reception. In 1862 appeared his
last work, ( Shifting Scenes, and other Poems.'
In the course of his brief career Bigg was
a contributor to the ' Critic/ { Literary Ga-
zette/ ' London Quarterly Review/ l Eclectic
Review/ 'Church of England Review/ 'Scot-
tish Quarterly Review/ ' Dublin University
Magazine/ and ' Hogg's Instructor.' In all
the private relations of life he was most
estimable, and his premature death was
widely lamented. He died 19 May 1865, in
his thirty-seventh year.

[Works of Bigg; Gent. Mag. 1865; Gilfillan's
Literary Portraits ; Athenfeum, 1854 and 1862 ;
Ulverston Advertiser, 25 May 1865.] a. B. S.

BIGG, WILLIAM REDMORE (1755-
1828), painter, was a pupil of Edward Penny,
R.A., and by choice of his subjects at least a
faithful follower of his master. In 1778 he
entered the Academy schools. Bigg de-
lighted in depicting florid children. The
first of many engaging works of this class
was exhibited in 1778, 'Schoolboys giving
Charity to a Blind Man.' It was followed

a year later by one similar, ' A Lady and
her Children relieving a Distressed Cot-
tager.' Besides these his ' Palemon and
Lavinia/ the ' Shipwrecked Sailor Boy/ and
' Youths relieving a Blind Man ' were highly
popular works, and were all engraved. Two-
good pictures from his easel are preserved in
the Cottonian Museum at Plymouth. He
had not the naive rusticity of Wheatley, nor
the rough and ready naturalism of Morland,
though by choice of subjects and general man-
ner of treatment he would rightly be classed
with those painters. He was highly popular
in his day, and the best engravers were em-
ployed upon his work. In 1787 he became
A.R.A., and was elected academician in 1814.
He sat to C. R. Leslie for the knight in ' Sir
Roger de Coverley.' The younger painter
spoke eloquently of his fine presence and ge-
nial nature. He died in Great Russell Street
on 6 Feb. 1828.

[G-ent. Mag. vol. xcviii. pt. i. p. 376 ; Red-
grave's Diet, of Artists of the Eng. School.]

E. R.

BIGLAND, JOHN (1750-1832), school-
master and author, was born of poor parents
at Skirlaugh, or Skirlaw, in Holderness in
Yorkshire, and died, at the age of eighty-
two, at Aldbrough (PouLSON, History of Hoi'
derness, ii. 19) or, according to other authori-
ties, at Finningley near Doncaster. He began
life as a village schoolmaster. At the age-
of fifty (1803) he published his first work,
' Reflections on the Resurrection and Ascen-
sion of Christ/ occasioned, as he tells us him-
self, by his religious scepticism. Having
removed his own doubts, he ventured to
place the reasons for his convictions in print.
His work was a success, and the encourage-
ment he received in consequence determined
him to follow a literary career. He soon
developed into a professional author, and pub-
lished in rapid succession a series of popular
books, chiefly connected with geography and
history. Towards the end of his life he re-
sided at Finningley, and used to spend a
portion of his time in his garden rearing
flowers and vegetables. His long scholastic
life has given to the majority of his books a
distinctly practical turn.

He was the author of sundry articles in
the magazines ; of a continuation to April
1808 of Lord Lyttletons 'History of Eng-
land in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman
to his Son ; ' and of an addition of the whole
period of the third George to Dr. Goldsmith's
' History of England.' His other works are :
1. ' Reflections on the Resurrection and As-
cension of Christ/ 1803. 2. ' Letters on the
Study and Use of Ancient and Modern His-

Bigland

21

Bigod

tory,' 1804. 3. 'Letters on the Modern
History and Political Aspect of Europe/
1804. 4. ' Essays on Various Subjects/ 2
vols. 1805. 5. ' Letters on Natural History/
1806. 6. 'A Geographical and Historical
View of the World, exhibiting a complete
Delineation of the Natural and Artificial Fea-
tures of each Country/ &c., 5 vols. 1810.
7. 'A History of Spain from the Earliest
Period to the close of the year 1809 ' (trans-
lated and continued by Le Comte Mathieu
Dumas to the epoch of the Restoration, 1814),
2 vols. 1810. 8. A Sketch of the History
of Europe from the year 1783 to the Present
Time/ in a later edition continued to 1814
{translated, and augmented in the military
part, and continued to 1819 by J. MacCarthy,
Paris, 1819), 2 vols. 1811. 9. /The Philo-
sophical AVanderers, or the History of the
Roman Tribune and the Priestess of Minerva,
exhibiting the vicissitudes that diversify the
fortunes of nations and individuals/ 1811.

10. 'Yorkshire/ being the 16th volume of
the * Beauties of England and Wales,' 1812.

11. ' A History of England from the Earliest
Period to the Close of the War, 1814,' 2 vols.

1815. 12. l A System of Geography for the
Use of Schools and Private Students/ 1816.
13. ' An Historical Display of the Effects of
Physical and Moral Causes on the Character
and Circumstances of Nations, including a
Comparison of the Ancients and Moderns in
regard to their Intellectual and Social State/

1816. 14. ' Letters on English History for
the Use of Schools/ 1817. 15. 'Letters on
French History for the Use of Schools/
1818. 16. ' A Compendious History of the
Jews/ 1820.

[Watt's Bibl. Brit. ; Rhodes's Yorkshire Rce-
nery ; Gent. Mag. 1832; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Poul-
son's History of Holderness, ii. 19; Annual Bio-
graphy.] J. M.

BIGLAND, RALPH (1711-1784), Gar-
ter king-of-arms, was born at Kendal in
Westmoreland in 1711, his father being
Richard Bigland, the descendant of an old
family originally from Bigland in Lancashire.
He was appointed head of the College of Arms
in 1780, after passing through all the minor
offices. He had been elected Bluemantle in
1757, Somerset and registrar 17(53, Norroy
Idng-of-arms May 1773, Clarenceux August
1774 ; but he enjoyed his elevation as Garter
Idng-of-arms only a few years, dying 27 March
1784 at the age of seventy-three", in St. James's
Street , Bedford Row. He married at Frocester,
13 June 1737, Ann, daughter of John Wil-
kins of that town, by whom he had one son,
born on 3 April 1738 /and who died at the early
age of twenty-two on 1 Dec. 1738. Bigland

afterwards married Ann, daughter of Robert
Weir ; this marriage also being of short du-
ration, for she died 5 April 17<K>, leaving no
issue. The collections which he had made
during his lifetime for a history of Glouces-
tershire were intended to have been arranged
and presented by him to the public. After his
death they were partly published by his son,
Richard Bigland of Frocester, Gloucester-
shire, under the title of ' Historical, Monu-
mental, and Genealogical Collections relative
to the County of Gloucester' (fol. 1791-2)^ 1 -
Among some of his other literary labours may
be mentioned his 'Account of the Parish of
Fairford, co. Gloucester, with a description
of the celebrated windows and monuments.'
In 1764 he also published a small work en-
titled l Observations on Marriages, Baptisms,
and Burials, as preserved in Parochial Regis-
ters/ in which he pointed out the necessity of
these documents being accurately kept '"for
the benefit of society.' An interesting cor-
respondence between him and Mr. G. Allan
on various subjects was published in Nichols's
' Literary Anecdotes.'

[Noble's History of the College of Arms, 1804,
417-18; Lowndes's Bibliographers' Manual, 1864,
i. 203 ; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, 1814, viii.
713-18 ; Gent. Mag. 1788, Iviii. 344 ; 1791, Ixi.
345, 725 ; 1793, Ixiii. 655.] T. F. T. D.

BIGNELL, HENRY (1611-1660?), di-#/
vine, the son of Foulk Bignell of Souldern, * c<
Oxfordshire, was born in the parish of St. ^ 3<
Mary, Oxford, in July 1611. In 1629 he
became a servitor of Brasenose College, and
subsequently entered at St. Mary's IlalL
After taking the degree of B.A. he was or-
dAined and set up as a schoolmaster. In
1645 he was made rector of St. Peter-le-
Bayly, Oxford, but was ejected from his
benefice for scandalous conduct. Shortly
before the Restoration he went out to the
W T est Indies, where he seems to have died.
According to Wood he published, in 1640, a
book ' for the education of youth in know-
ledge/ called ' The Son's Portion/ and was
the author of some other ' trivial things not
worth mentioning.'

[Wood's Athense, iii. 406, and Fasti, i. 465.1

A. R. B.

BIGNELL, MRS. [See BICKNELL,
M .]

BIGOD or BYGOD, SIR FRANCIS

(1508-1537), rebel, of Settrington and Mul-
grave Castle in Yorkshire, was descended from
John, brother and heir of Roger Bigod, sixth
earl of Norfolk. His grandfather, Sir Ralph
Bigod, died in 1515, leaving Francis, then
aged seven, his heir (Inq. p.m. 7 Hen. VIII,

Bigod

22

Bigod

Nos. 139, 144) ; for his father, John Bigod,
had fallen in the Scotch wars. He had
livery of lands by patent, 21 Dec. 1529
(Pat. 21 Hen. VIII, p. i., m. 28), and was
soon afterwards knighted. He spent some
time at Oxford, but took no degree, though
his letters show that he was a scholar. In
1527 and the following years he was in the
service of Cardinal Wolsey, and under Crom-
well, Wolsey's successor in the favour of
Henry VIII, was engaged in advancing in
Yorkshire the king's reforms in church mat-
ters. Nevertheless in 1536 we find him
implicated (though unwillingly) in the Pil-
grimage for Grace, an insurrection produced
by these reforms. In January 1537 he
headed an unsuccessful rising at Beverley,
and for this was hanged at Tyburn on 2 June
1537. By his wife Katharine, daughter of
William, Lord Conyers, he left a son, Ralph,
who was restored in blood by act of parlia-
ment, 3 Edward VI, but died without issue,
and a daughter, Dorothy, through whom the
estates passed to the family of KadclyiFe.
Rastell (the chronicler) in a letter to Crom-
well, 17 Aug. [1534] (Cal. of State Papers
Hen. FZZJ, vol. vii. no. 1070), calls Bigod wise
and well learned ; and Bale describes him as
' homo naturalium splendore nobilis ac doctus
et evangelicse veritatis amator.' His letters
to Cromwell, many of which are preserved
in the Public Record Office, show him to
have been deeply in debt, He wrote a trea-
tise on ' Impropriations,' against the impro-
priation of parsonages by the monasteries
(London, by Tho. Godfray cum privileyio re-
ffali, small 8vo). It appears to have been
written after the birth of Elizabeth aud
before Anne Boleyn's disgrace, i.e. betwe&n
September 1533 and April 1536. Copies are
in the British Museum and in Lambeth li-
brary, and the preface is reprinted at the
end of Sir Henry Spelman's ' Larger work of
Tithes ' (1647 edition). Bigod also translated
some Latin works, and, during the insurrec-
tion, wrote against the royal supremacy.

[Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII, vols.
iv. and onwards; Tanner's Bibliotheca ; Bale;
Fuller's Worthies, ii. 209 ; Wood's Athen. Oxon.
i. 101 ; Wriothesley's Chronicle, i. 64; Blome-
field's Norfolk, v. 228.] E. H. B.

BIGOD, HUGH, first EARL OF NORFOLK
(d. 1176 or 1177), was the second son of
Roger Bigod, the founder of the house in Eng-
land after the Conquest. The origin of the
name is quite uncertain. The French called
the Normans ' bigoz e draschiers ' (Pom. de
Ron, iii. 4780) in contempt. The second word
is said to mean beer-drinkers ; the other has j
been explained as a nickname derived from i

the oath ' bi got ' commonly used by the early
Normans. But whether the family name
Bigod had any connection with this term
or not, it is evident that in England in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was
punned upon in words of profane swearing
(WRIGHT'S Political Songs, pp. 67, 68 j HEM-
IITGBTJRGH'S Chronicle, ii. 121).

The first person who, bearing the name of
Bigod or Bigot, appears in history is Robert
le Bigod, a poor knight, who gained the
favour of William, duke of Normandy, by
discovering to him the intended treachery of
William, count of Mortain. This Robert
may have been the father of Roger, and one or
the other, or both, may have been present at
the battle of Hastings. In the ' Roman de
Rou,' iii. 8571-82, the ancestor of Hugh Bigod
(perhaps the above Robert) is named as
holding lands at Malitot, Loges, and Chanon
in Normandy, and as serving the duke in his
household as one of his seneschals. He was
small of body, but brave and bold, and as-
saulted the English gallantly. Roger Bigod
is not traced in English records before 1079,
but by this time he may have been endowed
with the forfeited estates of Ralph de Guader,
earl of Norfolk, whose downfall took place
in 1074. In Domesday he appears as hold-
ing six lordships in Essex, and 117 in Suffolk.
From Henry I he received the gift of Fram-
lingham, which became the principal strong-
hold of him and his descendants. He like-
wise held the office of king's dapifer, or
steward, under William Rufus and Henry I.
He died in 1107, and was succeeded by his
eldest son, William, who, however (26 Nov.
1120), was drowned in the wreck of the
White Ship. Roger's second son, Hugh, thus
entered into possession of the estates.

At the time of his father's death, whom
he survived some seventy years, Hugh must
have been quite a young child. Little, is
heard of him at first, no doubt on account of
his youth, but he appears as king's dapifer in.
1123, and before that date he was constable
of Norwich Castle and governor of the city
down to 1122, when it obtained a charter
from the crown. Passing the best years of
his manhood in the distractions of the civil
wars of Stephen and Matilda, when men's
oaths of fealty sat lightly on their con-
sciences, he appears to have surpassed his
fellows in acts of desertion and treachery,
and to have been never more in his element
than when in rebellion. His first prominent
action in history was on the death of Henry I
in 1135, when he is said to have hastened to
England, and to have sworn to Archbishop
William Corbois that the dying king, on
some quarrel with his daughter Matilda, had

Bigod s

disinherited her, and named Stephen of Blois
his successor. Stephen's prompt arrival in
England settled the matter, and the waver-
ing prelate placed the crown on his head.
Hugh's reward was the earldom of Norfolk.
The new king's energy at first kept his fol-
lowers together, but before Whitsuntide in
the next year Stephen was stricken with
sickness, a lethargy fastened on him, and the
report of his death was quickly spread abroad/
A rising of the turbulent barons necessarily j
followed, and Bigod was the first to take up j
arms. He seized and held Norwich ; but j
Stephen, quickly recovering, laid siege to the j
city, and Hugh was compelled to surrender. I
Acting with unusual clemency, Stephen |
spared the traitor, who for a short time re- !
mained faithful. But in 1140 he is said to
have declared for the empress, and to have j
stood a siege in his castle of Bungay ; yet I
in the next year he is in the ranks of
Stephen's army which fought the disastrous
battle of Lincoln. In the few years which j
followed, while the war dragged on, and
Stephen's time was fully occupied in subdu-
ing the so-called adherents of the empress,
who were really fighting for their own hand,
the Earl of Norfolk probably remained within !
his own domains, consolidating his power, |
and fortifying his castles, although in 1143-4 j
he is reported to have been concerned in the j
rising of Geoffrey de Mandeville. The quar-
rel between the king and Archbishop Theo-
bald in 1148 gave the next occasion for
Hugh to come forward ; he this time sided
with the archbishop, and received him in
his castle of Framlingham, but joined with
others in effecting a reconciliation. Five
years later, in 1153, when Henry of Anjou j
landed to assert his claim to the throne, Bi-
god threw in his lot with the rising power, |
and held out in Ipswich against Stephen's '
forces, while Henry, on the other side, laid
siege to Stamford. Both places fell, but in '
the critical state of his fortunes Stephen was ,
in no position to punish the rebel. Nego-
tiations were also going on between the two
parties, and Hugh again escaped.

On Henry's accession in December 1154,
Bigod at once received a confirmation of his
earldom and stewardship by charter issued
apparently in January of the next year. The
first years of the new reign were spent in
restoring order to the shattered kingdom,
and in breaking the power of the independent
barons. It was scarcely to be expected that
Hugh should rest quiet. He showed signs
of resistance, but was at once put down. In
1 157 Henry marched into the eastern coun-
ties and received the earl's submission. After
this Hugh appears but little in the chronicles

5 Bigod

for some time ; only in 1169 he is named
among those who had been excommunicated
by Becket. This, however, was in conse-
quence of his retention of lands belonging to
the monastery of Pentney in Norfolk. In
1173 the revolt of the young crowned prince
Henry against his father, and the league of
the English barons with the kings of France
and Scotland in his favour, gave the Earl of
Norfolk another opportunity for rebellion.
He at once became a moving spirit in the'
cause, eager to revive the feudal power
which Henry had curtailed. The honour of
Eye and the custody of Norwich Castle were
promised by the young prince as his reward.
But the king's energy and good fortune were
equal to the occasion. While he held in
check his rebel vassals in France, the loyal
barons in England defeated his enemies here.'
Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester (d.
1190) fq. v.], landing at Walton, in Suffolk,
on 29 Sept. 1173, had marched to Framling-
ham and joined forces with Hugh. Together
they besieged and took, 13 Oct., the castle of
Ha genet in Suffolk, held by Randal de Broc
for the crown. But Leicester, setting out
from Framlingham, was defeated and taken
prisoner at Fornham St. Genevieve, near
Bury, by the justiciar, Richard de Lucy, and
other barons, who then turned their arms
against Earl Hugh. Not strong enough to
fight, he opened negotiations with his as-
sailants, and, it is said, bought them off, at
the same time securing for the Flemings in
his service a safe passage home. In the next
year, however, he was again in the field, with
the aid of the troops of Philip of Flanders,
and laid siege to Norwich, which he took by
assault and burned. But Henry returned to
England in the summer, and straightway
marched into the eastern counties ; and when
Hugh heard that the king had already de-
stroyed his castle of Walton, and was ap-
proachingFramlingham, he hastened to make
his submission at Laleham on 25 July, sur-
! rendering his castles, which were afterwards
; dismantled, and paying a fine. After these
! events Hugh Bigod ceases to appear in his-
1 tory. His death is briefly recorded under
the year 1177, and is generally mentioned as
i occurring in the Holy Land, whither he had
accompanied Philip of Flanders on a pil-
grimage. It is to be observed, however,
that on 1 March of that year his son Roger
appealed to the king on a dispute with his
i stepmother, Hugh being then dead, and that
' the date of his death is fixed ' ante caput
! jejunii,' i.e. before 9 March. If, then, he
I died in Palestine, his death must have taken
i place in the preceding year, 1176, to allow
time for the arrival of the news in England.

Bigod

Bigod

Henry took advantage of Roger's appeal to
seize upon the late earl's treasure. Besides
the vast estates which he inherited, Hugh
Bigod was in receipt of the third penny
levied in the county of Norfolk. He was
twice married, his first wife being Juliana,
sister of Alberic de Vere, earl of Oxford, by j
whom he had a son, Roger, d. 1221 [q. v. J, j
his successor ; and his second, Gundreda,
who after his death was married to Roger
de Glaiiville.

[Chronicles of Henry of Huntingdon, Rog. de |
Hoveden, Had. de Diceto, Benedict of Peter- j
borough, Gervase of Canterbury (Rolls Series, j
passim) ; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 132 ; Blom-
tield's Hist, of Norfolk, iii. 24 seq. ; Stubbs's j
Constitutional History and Early PJantagenets ;
Eyton's Itinerary of Henry II ; Additional MS.
31939 (Eyton's Pedigrees), f. 129.] E. M. T.

BIGOD, HUGH (d. 1266), the justiciar, i
was the younger son of Hugh Bigod, third !
earl of Norfolk. Nothing is known of his '
early life. In 39 Henry III he was made
chief ranger of Farndale Forest, Yorkshire,
in consideration of a payment of 500 marks, ;
and in the next year became governor of the !
castle of Pickering. In 1257 he accompanied
Henry in his expedition into Wales. In 1258,
on the formation of the government under
the Provisions of Oxford, of which his brother,
Roger, d. 1270 [q. v.], earl of Norfolk and mar-
shal of England, was a member, Bigod was
named chief justiciar, and in that capacity had
the custody of the Tower of London. He was
likewise made governor of Dover Castle, but
resigned that place in 1261. He must at this
period have been very wealthy, for he paid
3,000/. for the wardship of William de Kime,
of Lincolnshire. His character as a judge has
been placed high by Matthew Paris : t legum
terrae peritum, qui officium justiciaries strenue
peragens nullatenus permittat jus regni va-
cillare.' In 1259-60 he went with two of
the principal judges on a circuit to adminis-
ter justice throughout the kingdom. Soon
after he became governor of Scarborough, and
about the end of 1260 he resigned his office
of justiciar, probably from dissatisfaction
with the conduct of the barons. He after-
wards, in 1263, joined the royal party, and
was present on the king's side at the "battle
of Lewes on 14 May 1264, but fled from the
field. He was afterwards reappointed to the
government of Pickering Castle. He died
about November 1266, leaving a son, Roger,
who became in 1270 the fifth earl of Norfolk
[q. v.] Bigod was twice married : first to
Joanna, daughter of Robert Burnet : and
secondly to Joanna, daughter of Nicholas de
Stuteville and widow of Hugh Wake.

[Chronicles of Matthew Paris and Gervase of
Canterbury (Rolls Ser.) ; Dugdale's Baronage-, i.
135 ; Foss's Judges of England, ii. 239 ; Stubbs's
Constitutional History.] E. M. T.

BIGOD, ROGER (d. 1221), second EARL
OF NORFOLK, was son of Hugh, first earl [q. v. ]
On the death of his father in 1176, he and his
stepmother, Gundreda, appealed to the king-
on a dispute touching the inheritance, the
countess pressing the claims of her own son.
Henry thereupon seized the treasures of Earl
Hugh into his own hands, and it seems that
during the remainder of this reign Roger had
small power, even if his succession was al-
lowed. His position, however, was not en-
tirely overlooked. He appears as a witness
to Henry's award between the kings of
Navarre and Castile on 16 March 1177, and
in 1186 he did his feudal service as steward
in the court held at Guildford.

On Richard's succession to the throne,
3 Sept. 1189, Bigod was taken into favour.
By charter of 27 Nov. the new king con-
firmed him in all his honours, in the earldom
of Norfolk, and in the stewardship of the
royal household, as freely as Roger, his
grandfather, and Hugh, his father, had held
it. He was next appointed one of the ambas-
sadors to Philip of France to arrange for the
crusade, and during Richard's absence from
England on that expedition he supported
the king's authority against the designs of
Prince John. On the pacification of the

guarrel between the prince and the chancel-
)r, William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, oil
28 July 1191, Bigod was put into possession
of the castle of Hereford, one of the strong-
holds surrendered by John, and was one of
the chancellor's sureties in the agreement.
In April 1193 he was summoned with cer-
tain other barons and prelates to attend the
chancellor into Germany, where negotiations
were being carried on to effect Richard's re-
lease from captivity ; and in 1194, after the
surrender of Nottingham to the king, he was
present in that city at the great council held
on 30 March. At Richard's re-coronation,
17 April, he assisted in bearing the canopy.
In July or August of the same year he ap-
pears as one of the commissioners sent to
York to settle a quarrel between the arch-
bishop and the canons.

After Richard's return home, Bigod's name
is found on the records as a justiciar, fines
being levied before him in the fifth year of
that king's reign, and from the seventh on-
wards. He also appears as a justice itinerant
in Norfolk. After Richard's death, Bigod suc-
ceeded in gaining John's favour, and in the
first years of his reign continued to act as a
judge. In October 1200 he was one of the

Bigod

Bigod

envoys sent to summon William of Scotland
to do homage at Lincoln, and was a witness
.at the ceremony on '22 Nov. following ; but
at a later period he appears to have fallen
into disgrace, and was imprisoned in 1213.
In the course of the same year, however, he j
was released and apparently restored to fa-
vour, as he accompanied the king to Poitou
in February 1214, and about the same time
compounded by a fine of 2,000 marks for the
service of 120 knights and all arrears of
scutages. Next year he joined the confede-
rate barons in the movement which resulted
in the grant of Magna Charta on 15 June
1215, and was one of the twenty-five execu-
tors, or trustees, of its provisions. He was
consequently included in the sentence of ex-
communication which Innocent III soon
afterwards declared against the king's oppo-
nents, and his lands were cruelly harried by
John's troops in their incursions into the
eastern counties.

After the accession of Henry III, Bigod
returned to his allegiance, and his hereditary
right to the stewardship of the royal house-
hold was finally recognised at the council of
Oxford on 1 May 1221. But before the fol-
lowing August he died. He was succeeded
by his eldest son, Hugh, as third earl, who, i
liowever, survived him only four years.

[Chronicles of K. de Hoveden, Boned, of Peter-
borough, and Matthew Paris (Kolls Ser.); Dug-
dale's Baronage, i. 132; Foss's Judges of England,
ii. 40 ; Stubbs's Constitutional History ; Eyton's
Itinerary of Henry II.] E. M. T.

BIGOD, ROGER, fourth EARL OF NORFOLK
(d. 1270), marshal of England, was grandson
of Roger, second earl [q. v.], and son of Hugh,
third earl, by his wife Matilda, daughter of
William Marshal, earl of Pembroke. Being
A minor at the time of his father's death,
early in 1225, his wardship was granted to
William de Longespee, earl of Salisbury, but
was transferred to Alexander, king of Scot-
land, on the marriage of Roger with Isabella,
the king's sister. In 1233, when he probably
came of age, he was knighted by Henry III
at Gloucester, and in the same year received
livery of the castle of Framlingham. He was
head of the commission of justices itinerant
into Essex and Hertfordshire, issued 1 Aug.
1234. In 1237 he greatly distinguished him-
.self by his prowess at the tournament at
Blythe, Nottinghamshire, in which the rival
barons of the north and south had a serious
encounter. A serious illness, as late as 1257,
was attributed to the exertions he went
through on that occasion. He took part in
Henry's costly expedition to France in 1242,

and displayed great bravery in the skirmish
at Saintes, 22 July ; but soon after he and
other nobles asked leave to retire and re-
turned to England. In the parliament or
assembly of the magnates in 1244 Roger
Bigod was appointed one of the twelve re-
presentatives of the two estates present, lay
and clerical, to obtain measures of reform
from the king in return for a money grant,
and in the next year he was one of the envoys
sent to the council of Lyons to protest against
papal exactions. Redress was refused, and
the embassy retired, threatening and pro-
testing ; and in the parliament which met on
18 March 1246, Bigod took part in drawing
up a list of grievances and addressing a letter
of remonstrance to the pope.

In 1246 also Roger Bigod was invested
with the office of earl marshal in right of
his mother, eldest daughter of William, earl
of Pembroke, on whom it devolved on failure
of the male line. Matthew Paris, the chroni-
cler, has narrated two anecdotes of Roger
which illustrate his resolute character. In
1249, when the Count of Guines was passing
through England, Roger ordered his arrest,
in retaliation for a road tax which he had
been forced to pay when traversing the count's
territories on his embassy to Lyons. And
in 1255, when, by speaking in favour of
Robert de Ros who was in disgrace, he in-
curred the king's anger, he openly defied
Henry, and did not hesitate to give him the
lie when the latter called him traitor.

In 1253 Roger was present at the solemn
confirmation of the charters, when sentence
of excommunication was formally passed
against all who violated them. He was with
the king in France in the same year ; but in
January 1254 was sent to England to obtain
money from parliament. Soon after he with
othe/nobles retired in disgust from the army
in Gascony. In 1257 he was member of an
abortive embassy to France to demand certain
rights. The next year he played an important
part in the reforms introduced under the title
of the Provisions of Oxford, being one of
the twelve chosen to represent the barons,
and subsequently being also a member of the
council formed to advise the king. In 1258
he was one of the ambassadors to attend the
conference at Cambray between the repre-
! sentatives of England, France, and Germany.
The dissensions which sprang up among the
! barons in the course of 1 259 eventually sent
; Roger Bigod, together with others, over to
the king's side in opposition to Simon de
Montfort. It is in reference to the events of
this period that he is invoked in the political
poem preserved by liishanger (WRIGHT'S
Polit. Sonys, 121):"

Bigod

Bigod

O tu comes le Bigot, pactum serva sanum ;

Cum sis miles strenuus, nunc exerce manum.
But the award of the French king, who was
appealed to to arbitrate, and who now set
aside the Provisions of Oxford, probably
ranged Bigod again on the popular side.
After the decisive battle of Lewes he is found
holding the castle of Oxford for De Mont-
fort's party, and he was one of the five earls
who were summoned to the parliament of
1265. Nothing further is known of him to
the time of his death in 1270. He was buried
at Thetford, and, dying without issue, was
succeeded in his honours by his nephew
Roger [q. v.l He had put away his wife
Isabella of Scotland on the pretext of con-
sanguinity, but took her again in 1253.

[Matthew Paris (Rolls Ser.) ; Dugdale's Ba-
ronage, i. 133 ; Foss's Judges of England, ii. 241 ;
Htubbs's Constitutional History.] E. M. T.

BIGOD, KOGER, fifth EAEL OF NOKFOLK
(1245-1306), marshal of England, was born in
1245, and was the son of Hugh Bigod [q. v.],
the justiciar, and nephew of Roger, fourth
earl [q. v.], whom he succeeded in 1270. The
period of his life as a baron being nearly
synchronous with the reign of Edward I, his
career is closely identified with the constitu-
tional struggle with the crown in which the
baronage played so large a part. He was
present in the Welsh campaign of 1282, and
had the custody of the castles of Bristol and
Nottingham, which, however, he afterwards
surrendered. In 1288 he was found prepar-
ing to levy private war, but was repressed
by Edmund of Cornwall, regent during the
king's absence in Gascony. Edward's reforms
had alarmed the barons, who foresaw the
curtailment of their power under a strong
and well-ordered government. In 1289 the
spirit of opposition was manifested in the
refusal of a subsidy. Then the wars with
France, Wales, and Scotland, which are the
principal events in the history of 1294-6,
forced Edward to resort to measures of
arbitrary taxation ; and when, on 24 Feb.
1297, he summoned the baronage to meet at
Salisbury with the view of making an effort
for the invasion of France, the barons re-
belled. Roger Bigod and Humphrey Bohun,
earl of Hereford, were at the head of the
opposition. When Edward called upon them
to serve in Gascony while he took command
in Flanders, they refused to go, on the plea
that their tenure obliged them only to serve
beyond seas in company with the king.
Turning to Bigod Edward tried persuasion.
' With you, king,' Bigod answered, l I will
gladly go ; as belongs to me by hereditary-
right, I will go in the front of the host before

your face.' ,' But without me,' Edward urged,
1 you will go with the rest.' ' Without you,
king/ was the answer, ' I am not bound
to go, and go I will not.' Edward lost. his
temper, ' By God, earl, you shall either go or
hang.' 'By God/ said Roger, <O king, I
will neither go nor hang ' (HEMINGBTJKGH'S
Chronicle, ii. 121 ; STUBBS'S Const. Hist. ii.
144). The council broke up, and Bigod and
Bohun were joined by more than thirty of
the great vassals and assembled a force, but
were content with preventing the. levy of
money or seizure of wool and other com-
modities on their own domains. In answer
to a general levy of the military strength
of the kingdom, on 7 July, the two earls re-
fused to serve their offices of marshal and
constable, and were therefore deprived. The
barons then drew up a list of grievances, in
which they were joined by Archbishop Win-,
chelsey, the clergy having also been taxed
with undue severity. Edward, however,
managed to effect a reconciliation with the
archbishop, and promised to confirm the
charters on condition of receiving a grant.
The archbishop undertook to consult the
clergy, and the king persuaded the chief men
of the commons who had attended the mili-
tary levy to grant him an aid. But the two
earls still kept aloof. Finally, however, they
presented their list of grievances. But Ed-
ward was now at the end of his patience.
On 20 Aug. he laid a tax on the clergy, and
two days after embarked for Flanders, leaving
Prince Edward regent during his absence.
The earls did not fail to use their opportunity.
They protested against the exactions on wool,
and "prevented the collection of an aid until
the charters should be confirmed. In these
proceedings they were supported by the
citizens of London. An assembly of the mag-
nates and knights of the shires was sum-
moned early in October. Bigod and Bohun
appeared in arms and with an armed force,
and the charters, with additional articles
whereby the king was to renounce the right
of taxation without national consent, were
submitted to the regent for confirmation. By
the advice of his counsellors the prince
yielded, and the charters were confirmed
on 10 Oct. Early in the following month
this confirmation was ratified by Edward at
Ghent.

The king returned to England in March
1298, and, having concluded a peace with
France, proceeded in the summer to the in-
vasion of Scotland. As the price of their
attendance the earls demanded a confirmation
of the charters by the king in person. The
question of the limits and jurisdiction of the
forests was the principal cause of contention.

Bigsby

and Edward hesitated long. At last, at the
parliament of Lincoln, the charters were fully
confirmed, 14 Feb. 1301.

Throughout these events Roger Bigod had
been a prominent figure ; but no sooner had
the object of the struggle been attained than
his power appears to have collapsed. Hum-
phrey Bohun had died in 1298, and the loss
of his support to Bigod no doubt made it
easier for the king to deal summarily with j
the survivor. In 1301 the Earl of Norfolk i
made the king his heir, and gave up the j
marshal's rod ; and on 12 April 1302 he sur- j
rendered his lands and title, receiving them
back in tail on 12 July following. Seeking
for a cause for this surrender, the chronicler
Hemingburgh has ascribed it, not satisfac-
torily, to a quarrel between Roger and his j
brother John. Roger Bigod died on 11 Dec.
1 806, without issue, and, in consequence of his
.surrender, his dignities vested in the crown.
He married twice : first, Alina, daughter and
coheir of Philip Basset, chief justiciar of
England in 1261, and widow of Hugh le De-
spencer, chief justiciar of the barons ; and,
secondly, Alice, daughter of John II d'Avesne, j
count of Hainault.

[Chronicles of Rishanger and Hemingburgh ;
Dugdale's Baronage, i. 135; Foss's Judges of
England, ii. 221 ; Anselme's Histoire Grenealo-
gique, ii. 783 ; Stubbs's Constitutional History
and Early Plantagenets.] E. M. T.

BIGSBY, JOHN JEREMIAH (1792-
1881), geologist, born at Nottingham 14 Aug.
1792, was the son of Dr. John Bigsby. He
studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he
took the degree of M.D. in 1814, and pub-
lished a ( Disputatio de vi arsenic! vitiosa.'
Soon afterwards he joined the army as a
medical officer, and served at the Cape in
1817. In the following year he was sent to
Canada, where he chiefly developed his inte-
rest in geology. In 1819 he was commissioned
to report on the geology of Upper Canada.
In 1822 he became British secretary and
medical officer of the Canadian boundary
commission. Five years later he returned to
England, and practised medicine at Newark,
Nottinghamshire. There he remained until
1846, when he permanently settled in Lon-
don. He was elected a fellow of the Geolo-
gical Society in 1823, and of the Royal Society
in 1869. In 1874 the former society presented
him with the Murchison medal. In 1877 he
presented to the Geological Society a sum of
money to provide for a gold medal to be called
after him, and to be awarded biennially to
students of American geology under forty-
five years of age. He died at Gloucester
Place, London, 10 Feb. 1881.

r Bigsby

Bigsby was the author of: 1. ' A Lecture
on Mendicity,' Worksop, 1836. 2. ' Seaside
Manual of Invalids and Bathers,' 1841.
3. * The Shoe and Canoe,' 1850 ; a narrative
of travel in Canada. 4. ' Thesaurus Silu-
ricus : the flora and fauna of the Silurian pe-
riod, with addenda from recent acquisitions ; r
a very laborious compilation, published with
the aid of a Royal Society grant in 1868.
5. 'Thesaurus Devonico-Carboniferus: the
flora and fauna of the Devonian and Carbo-
niferous periods,' 1878. Bigsby had nearly
completed a 'Permian Thesaurus' at the time
of his death. The Royal Society's ' Cata-
logue of Scientific Papers ' (1800-73) gives
the names of twenty-seven by Bigsby, almost
all treating of American geology. His ear-
liest paper, 'Remarks on the Environs of
Carthage Bridge, near the mouth of the Ge-
nesee River,' appeared in Silliman's 'American
Journal ' for 1820. His later papers were con-
tributed to the l Geological Society's Trans-
actions,' to the ' Philosophical Magazine,' and
to the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural
History.'

[Memoir by Mr. Robert Etheridge, F.R.S.,
in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,
xxxvii. 41 ; Cat. of Scientific Papers, vols. i. vii. ;
Brit. Mus. Cat.]

BIGSBY, ROBERT, LLD. (1806-1873),

of thirty-one years. ' He had the honour/
according to his son, ' to be a frequent guest
of the illustrious Washington while visiting
America in 1787.' His son was born at
Nottingham in 1806, and was educated at
Repton school. Disappointed in the legal
prospects to which he had been brought up,
he turned his attention to the study of an-
tiquities, and began to collect materials for
a history of Repton. He was then residing 1
at Wilfrid Cottage, Ashby-de-la-Zouche,
having left Repton, where he had stayed for
eleven years. The greater part of his life was
spent in the accumulation and reproduction
of archseologic material. He died 27 Sept.
1873 at 4 Beaufort Terrace, Peckham Rye,
aged 67.

Bigsby distinguished himself as a virtuoso
or collector of curiosities, ' relics and memo-
rials,' as he calls them, of ' illustrious cha-
racters.' Amongst his most cherished pos-
sessions was Drake's astrolabe. This astro-
labe, constructed for Captain (afterwards Sir
Francis) Drake, prior to his first expedition
to the West Indies in 1570, and subse-
quently preserved in a cabinet of antiques
belonging to the Stanhope family, was pre-

Bigsby

sented in 1783 by Philip, earl of Chesterfield,
on quitting England as ambassador to the
court of Spain, to Bigsby's uncle, Rev.
Thomas Bigsby, A.M., of Stanton Manor,
Derbyshire, who had, in the preceding year,
married the Hon. Frances Stanhope, widow,
the earl's stepmother. In 1812 Thomas
Bigsby gave it to Bigsby's father, who left it
to his son. In 1831 Bigsby presented it to
William IV, who, in his turn gave it to
Greenwich Hospital. Other relics of a like
interesting character were bestowed by Bigsby \
on the British Museum. Some, however, he !
retained in his own possession, and of these ;
was Sir F. Drake's tobacco-box, constructed,
he tells us, of the horn of a ' foreign animal,'
and bearing the celebrated navigator's arms i
and name. He also kept a chain to which
Drake suspended his compass and other j
nautical instruments. This chain, about
twenty feet long, was worn by Drake round
his neck in the manner of a cordon, passed,
however, thrice round the body. A fine
original portrait of William Burton [q. v.], the
antiquary, aet. 29 (the brother of the author
of the ' Anatomy '), painted in 1604, was pre-
sented in 1837 by Bigsby to the Society of
Antiquaries.

Bigsby describes himself in his works as J
LL.D., F.S.A., F.R.S., and as member of a |
great number of foreign societies. The full
titles of his books in the order of their
publication are : 1. * The Triumph of Drake, i
or the Dawn of England's Naval Power, a
Poem,' London, 1839. 2. ' Miscellaneous i
Poems and Essays,' London, 1842. 3. ' Vi- \
sions of the Times of Old, or the Antiqua- j
rian Enthusiast,' 3 vols., London, 1848. |
4. ' Boldon Delaval, a Love Story;' also ' My
Cousin's Story; The Man on the Grey j
Horse ; ' Derby and London, 1850. 7. ' Dr. j
Bigsby and the Evangelicals, a Vindication !
of Boldon Delaval,' 12mo, Derby, 1850. 8. 'A j
Supplement to the Rev. Jos. Jones's Appen- j
dix to the Vindication of Boldon Delaval,' I
12mo, Derby, 1850. 9. ' Old Places revisited,
or the Antiquarian Enthusiast,' 3 vols., Lon-
don, 1851. 10. ' Scraps from my Note-Book,
or Gleanings of Curious Facts connected with

the Family History (sic) of D shire;'

Part I. (1) ' The Lucky Lackey ; ' (2) ' A Tale
of a Cask ; ' (3) ' The Dilemma, London,
1853. 11. 'Ombo, a Dramatic Romance in
twelve acts, with an historical introduction
and notes,' London and Derby, 1853. 12. 'His-
torical and Topographical Description of Rep-
ton, in the County of Derby, comprising an
incidental view of objects of note in its vi-
cinity, with seventy illustrations on copper,
stone, and wood,' London and Derby, 1854.
13. ' Remarks on the Expediency of founding

J Bill

a National Institution in honour of Litera-
ture.' 14. ' Irminsula, or the Great Pillar, a
mythological research,' 1864. 15. 'A Tribute
to the Memory of Scanderbeg the Great,'
1866. 16. ' National Honours and their No-
blest Claimants.' London, 1867. 17. 'Me-
moir of the Orders of St. John of Jerusalem
from the Capitulation of Malta till 1798,'
1869. He edited the ' History and Antiqui-
ties of the Parish Church of St. Matthew,
Morley, in the County of Derby, by the late
Rev. Samuel Fox, M.A., rector, with seven-
teen illustrations from original drawings by
George Bailey,' London and Derby, 1872. He
also contributed largely to various magazines
and reviews.

[Times, 2 Oct. 1 873 ; Men of the Time, 8th ed. ;
New Quarterly Review, July 1853 ; Brit, Mus.
Catal.; the Freemason, 18 Oct. 1873.] J. M.

BILFRITH (f. 750), anchorite of Lin-
disfarne, is referred to by Simeon of Durham
as skilled in goldsmith's work, and as having,
on that account, been employed by ^Ethel-
wold, bishop of Lindisfarne (724-40), to
adorn with gold and gems the famous manu-
script of the Gospels known as the 'Durham
Book,' now in the Cottonian Library (Nero
D. iv.) The entry made in the manuscript
itself by the glossator Aldred in the tenth
century, and recording the names of those
who worked in its production, mentions Bil-
frith the anchorite as the one who * wrought
in smith's work the ornaments that are on
the outside, and adorned it with gold and
gems,' &c. Bilfrith's name also appears
among the * nomina anchoritarum ' in the
'Liber Vitse' of the church of Durham
(Cotton MS. Domitian A. vii.) His bones
were removed to Durham, together with those
of other saints, in the eleventh century.

[Simeon of Durham's Hist. Dunelm. Eccl., ed.
Arnold (Rolls Series), vol. i. 1882, pp. 68, 88;
Liber Vita? Dunelm. (Snrtees Soc.), 1841, p. 6,
col. 2 ; Skeat, Gospel ace. to St. John in A.-Saxon
and Northumbrian versions, 1878, p. viii ; Cat.
of Anct. MSS. in the Br. Museum, pt. ii. 1884,
pp. 16, 82.] E. M. T.

BILL, ROBERT (1754-1827), an inge-
nious mechanician and inventor, was de-
scended from an old Staffordshire family, the
Bills of Farley Hall, and was born in 1754.
His father and uncle had married coheiresses,
Dorothy and Mary, the daughters of Hall
Walton, a near relative of Izaak Walton, from
whom they inherited the freehold estate of
Stanhope in Staffordshire. Bill was designed
for the army, and therefore did not enter
the university; but instead of following
the military profession he occupied himself
with literary pursuits and experiments in

Bill

Bill

natural science. His ingenuity was first j
manifested in the invention of minor im-
provements in the details of domestic con-
struction : he built his garden-walls on a
plan fitted to increase the capability of the
walls for retaining heat ; he devised a new ,
method of warming hothouses by means of ;
iron cylinders ; and introduced an ingenious
contrivance for the heating of dwelling-
houses. In a pamphlet ' On the Danger of a
Paper Currency,' printed for private circula-
tion in 1795, he incidentally and somewhat
irrelevantly recommended the use of iron
tanks for preserving water on shipboard, a
plan which was afterwards followed with
great benefit in the navy. On the intro- <
auction of gas for lighting houses and streets
he joined one of the London companies, to j
whom he gave the advantage of his chemi- :
cal and mechanical knowledge in erecting
the apparatus and regulating its use ; but
he afterwards retired from the concern on
account of some disagreement among the
proprietors. He expended much time and
money in promoting the introduction of
Massey's logs for measuring a ship's way at
sea, printing and circulating on this subject
in 1806 f A. short Account of Massey's Patent
Log and Sounding Machine, with the opinions
of certain captains in the navy, merchant
service, and pilots who have made practical
use or experimental trials with them.' He
also exerted himself to promote the adop-
tion of elastic springs in pianofortes, so as to
keep them in tune for an indefinite time. In
1820 he took out a patent for making ship's
masts of iron, but on trial they were not
considered sufficiently strong, a defect he
attributed to the fact that his instructions
were not properly carried out. In his later
years he was engaged in experiments for
rendering inferior timber such as elm, ash,
beech, and poplar harder and more durable
than any other species of wood. He ob-
tained permission from government to carry
his experiment into practical effect in the
construction of a ship at Deptford dockyard,
but did not live to witness the result. He
died on 23 Sept. 1827. By his marriage to
Sarah Perks, the daughter of a solicitor, he
left three daughters.

[Gent. Mag. xcvii. pt. ii. 466-8 ; Burke's His-
tory of the Landed Gentry, i. 128.] T. F. H.

BILL, WILLIAM (d. 1561), dean of
Westminster, son of John Bill of Ashwell,
Hertfordshire, and brother of Thomas Bill,
M.I)., of the same place, and of St. Bartho-
lomew's, London, physician to Henry VIII
and Edward VI, was educated at St. John's
College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A.

in 1532-3, was elected fellow 7 Nov. 1535,
took the degree of M. A. in 1536, that of B.D.
in 1544, and that of D.I), in 1547, having
(10 March 1546-7) been admitted master of
the college. While an undergraduate he was
a pupil of both Cheke and Smith, from whom
he learned a more accurate mode of pro-
nouncing Greek than that which was then in
vogue. Strype {Life of Cheke, p. 8) says
that it was only through the influence of
Cheke and Parker, then (1535) one of the
queen's chaplains, that Bill was able to raise
sufficient funds to qualify himself for election
to a fellowship by discharging his debts to
the college. By an act passed in the year pre-
ceding Bill's election (26 Hen. VIII, cap. 3) the
first year's income of a fellowship was payable
to the crown as ' first-fruits ; ' but (s. 23) in
the case of fellowships of the annual value of
not more than eight marks not until the fourth
year from election, security being given in the
meantime. Bill's fellowship was only of the
annual value of five marks, and John Bill of
Ashwell, presumably his father, gave security
for the payment of the first-fruits. Probably
the amount was never paid, as an act (27
Hen. VIII, cap. 42) exempting the universities
from the tax, which appears to have been re-
trospective, was passed in 1535-6. As fellow
of St. John's, Bill was a contemporary of As-
cham, in whose letters he is sometimes men-
tioned. At the date of his election to the
mastership he held the Linacre lectureship
in physic, which he retained for two years
after. One of his first acts after his election
was to give away two of the college leases,
one to Cheke in consideration of his services
to the college, the other to one Thomas Bill,
doubtless his brother the physician, as a pure
gratuity. In 1548-9, a year marked by the
visit of a royal commission, he held the office
of vice-chancellor. In November 1551 he re-
| signed the mastership of St. John's to be
j elected master of Trinity, and in the follow-
j ing December he was appointed one of the
j king's itinerary chaplains, whose duty it was
! l to preach sound doctrine in all the remotest
j parts of the kingdom for the instruction of
the ignorant in right religion to God and obe-
I dience to the king.' For this service he seems
to have received 40/. per annum. Next year
(2 Oct.) he was placed on the committee to
| which the articles of religion were referred
i for consideration. Soon after her accession
Queen Mary thought fit to deprive Bill of the
i mastership of Trinity. Her commands ap-
pear to have been executed in a rather brutal
fashion, the master being forcibly removed
from his stall in the chapel by two of the
fellows, Boys and Gray. It is curious that
we find him mentioned as chief almoner

Bill

Billing

under date 1 Jan. 1553-4. It seems likelyth.it !
he held that office under Edward VI, but it
is -urprising that Mary should not have dis- |
missed him immediately upon her accession, j
Probably she did so shortly afterwards, for i
he spent the greater part of her brief reign
in retirement at Sandy, in Bedfordshire, of '.
which one of his kinsmen, Burgoyne, was
rector. On 20 Nov. 1558, the Sunday after
the proclamation of Elizabeth as queen, he
preached at St. Paul's Cross, striving to allay i
the popular excitement which was manifesting .
itself in brutal outrages upon the catholics. |
The same year he was appointed to assist j
Parker in revising the liturgy of Edward VI, !
.and was reinstated in the office of chief al-
moner and in the mastership of Trinity. In
Lent of the following year he preached before
the queen, and (20 June) was appointed, with
Sir W. Cecil, Parker, and others, visitor of
Eton College and of the university of Cam-
bridge, and on 5 July following was appointed
provost of Eton College, having been elected
fellow on 20 June. On 20 Sept. of the same
year he instituted himself to the prebend of
Milton Ecclesia, in the county of Oxford and
church of Lincoln, the advowson of which
had been devised to him by his brother
Thomas, who died in 1551-2. He again
preached before the queen on 6 March 1559-
00, and in the same year was placed on a
commission, of which Parker and the bishop
of London were also members, for the revision
of the prayer-book. On 30 June he was in-
stalled dean of Westminster. On his appoint-
ment he framed a set of statutes for the regu-
lation of the collegiate church, which were
adopted by his successor, Gabriel Goodman.
In this year one of the hostages given by the
cots for the due fulfilment of their part of
the treaty of Berwick (April 1560), Archi-
bald, son of Lord Ruthven, was placed under
his care. The boy was still with him at his
death, which took place 15 July of the fol-
lowing year. He was buried on the 20th in
the chapel of St. Benedict in Westminster
Abbey, to which, as also to Trinity College,
Cambridge, he was a donor by his will. Five
couplets of Latin elegiac verse of no particular
merit are still legible beneath his effigy in the
-abbey, and may also be read by the curious
in Cooper's 'Athense Cantabrigienses ' (i. 210),
-where also will be found an abstract of his will.

[Cussans's Hertfordshire, Hd. of Odsey, i. 28,
30; Neale and Brayley's Westminster, "i. 109,
116 ; Dart's Westm. i. 101 ; Keepe's Westm. 53,
226 ; Strype's Cheke (8vo), 18 ; Strype's Smith,
cap. ii. ad fin., cap. vii. ad init. ; Strype's Grindal
(fol.), 7, 24, 39 ; Strype's Cranmer (fol.), 273,
301 ; Strype's Parker (fol.), i. 43, 79 ; Strype's
Whitgift, App. bk. i. No. vii.; Strype's Mem.

(fol.), ii. pt. i. 297, pt. ii. 523, 529 ; Strype's
Ann. (fol.), i. pt. i. 167, 199, 270, ii. pt. ii. 490,
App. bk. ii. No. x. iv., Suppl. No. ix. ; Rymer's
Fcedera (2nd ed.), xv. 494, 590 ; Machyn's
Diary (Camd. Soc.), 264 ; Harwood's Alumni
Eton. 9, 59 ; Ascham's Epist. 75, 87, 203, 311 ;
Welch's Alumni Westmon. (1852), 4; 3IS.
Baker, xx. 151 ; T. Baker's Hist, of St. John's
(Mayor), 127, 129, 146; Cal. State Papers,
Dom. (1547-80), 56; Scotland, i. 138; Burnet's
Reform. (Pocock), ii. 294, 600, ii. 59, 502;
Froude, vii. 18.] J. M. R.

BILLING, ARCHIBALD (1791-1881),
physician and writer on art, was the son
of Theodore Billing of Cromlyn, in the
county of Dublin, and was born there on
10 Jan. 1791. He entered Trinity College,

' Dublin, in 1807, graduated A.B. 1811, M.B.
1814, M.D. 1818, and was incorporated M.D.
at Oxford on his Dublin degree on 22 Oct.
1818. He says himself that he spent seven
years in clinical study at Irish, British, and
continental hospitals before he sought a fee,
but about 1815 must have settled in Lon-
don, was admitted candidate (member) of
the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1818,
and fellow on 22 Dec. 1819. He was cen-

! sor of the college in 1823, and councillor
1852-5. Billing was long connected with
the London Hospital, to which foundation,
after having been engaged in teaching there
since 1817, he was elected physician on 2 July
1822. In 1823 he began a course of clinical
lectures, the first course of that kind, com-

i bined with regular bedside teaching, given
in London. He ceased to lecture in 1836,
and resigned the post of physician on 4 June

; 1845. On the foundation of the university
of London in 1836, Billing was invited to
become a member of the senate, and occu-
pied an influential position on that body for
many years. He was also for a considerable
time examiner in medicine. He was fellow
of the Royal Society, and an active member
of many other scientific and medical societies.
After a long and distinguished professional
career, he retired from practice many years
before his death, which occurred on 2 Sept.
1881 at his house in Park Lane.

Billing was a physician of high general
culture, and possessed of many accomplish-
ments not professional. His acute and logi-
cal intellect served him well in embodying
his large experience in a well-known manual,
' The First Principles of Medicine/ which,
in its first issue in 1831 hardly more than a
pamphlet, grew to a bulky text-book. It
was at one time very popular, and ran to six
editions, though now almost forgotten. He
gave special attention to diseases of the
chest, and was among the earliest medical

Billing

Billing

teachers in London to make auscultation, as
introduced by Laennec, a part of regular in-
struction. His original views respecting the
cause of the sounds of the heart, which have
only. partially been accepted, were first put
forth in 1832. He restated them in the
> London Medical Gazette ' (1840, xxvi. 64),
and also in his ' Practical Observations 011
Diseases of the Lungs and Heart,' a work
much less successful than the ' Principles of
Medicine.' In all Billing's writings his
avowed aim was to base medicine on patho-
logy ; their most striking feature is clearness
of thought, and a striving after logical accu-
racy which sometimes appears overstrained.
Beginning as an innovator, he came in the
end to be conservative, and was much op-
posed to what he regarded as the teachings
of the German school.' He took great in-
terest in art, was himself a fair amateur
artist, and a keen connoisseur in engraved
gems, coins, and similar objects. On this
subject he published an elaborate text-book,
illustrated with photographs, which has
reached a second edition. Billing was a man
of great physical as well as mental activity,
and was perhaps the last London physician
who occasionally visited his patients on
horseback. No portrait of him appears to
have been published, except a very poor
woodcut in the ' Medical Circular,' 1852.

He wrote (all published at London in 8vo):
1. 'First Principles of Medicine,' 1st ed.
1831 ; 6th ed. 1868. 2. < On the Treatment
of Asiatic Cholera,' 1st ed. 1848. 3. ' Prac-
tical Observations on Diseases of the Lungs
and Heart,' 1852. 4. ' The Science of Gems,
Jewels, Coins, and Medals, Ancient and
Modern,' 1867. Also ' Clinical Lectures,'
published in the ' Lancet,' 1831, and several
papers, &c., in the medical journals.

[Medical Circular, 1852, i. 243; Medical
Times and Gazette, 1881, ii. 373 ; Proceedings
Royal Med. and Chirurg. Soc. 1882, ix. 129;
Medical Directory, 1881 ; Munk's Coll. of Phys.
1878, iii. 203 ; Calendar of London Hospital.]

J. F. P.

BILLING, SIB THOMAS (d. 1481 ?),
chief justice, is said by Fuller ( Worthies, ii.
166) to have been a native of Northampton-
shire, where two villages near Northampton
bear his name, and to have afterwards lived in
state at Ash well in that county. Lord Camp-
bell (Lives of the Chief Justices, i. 145) says
he was an attorney's clerk ; but this seems
doubtful. He was, at any rate, a member of
Gray's Inn. Writing to one Ledam, Billing
says : ' I would ye should do well, because
ye 'are a fellow of Gray's Inn, where I was
fellow ' (Paston Letters, i. 43, 53), and, ac-

cording to a Gray's Inn manuscript, he was
a reader there. His social position was suffi-
cient to enable him to be on terms of intimacv
with the families of Paston and of Lord Grey
de Ruthin. In 1448 he was member of par-
liament for London, and was recorder in 1451.
Along with seven others he received the coif
as serjeant-at-law 2 Jan. 1453-4, and in the
Hilary term of that year is first mentioned as
arguing at the bar. "Thenceforward his name
is frequent in the reports. Lord-chancellor
j Waynflete appointed him king's Serjeant
I 21 April 1458, and Lord Campbell, citing
I an otherwise unknown pamphlet of Billing
in favour of the Lancastrian cause, says that
with the attorney-general and solicitor-gene-
ral he argued the cause of King Henry VI
at the bar of the House of Lords. The entry
in the Parliamentary Rolls, however (v. 376),
indicates that the judges and king's Serjeants
excused themselves from giving an opinion in
the matter. About the same time Billing
appears to have been knighted, and on the ac-
! cession of Edward IV his patent of king's
Serjeant was renewed, and in the first parlia-
ment of this reign he was named, along with
Serjeants Lyttelton and Laken, a referee in
a cause between the Bishop of Winchester
and some of his tenants. He is said by Lord
Campbell to have exerted himself actively
against King Henry, Queen Margaret, and the
Lancastrians, and to have helped to frame the
act of attainder of Sir John Fortescue, chief
i justice of the king's bench, for being engaged
in the battle of Towton, and to have advised
the grant of a pardon, on condition that the
opinions of the treatise * De Laudibus ' should
be retracted (see Eot. Parl vi. 2629). At
any rate, in 1464 (9 Aug.), Billing was added
| to the three judges of the king's bench, but
I by the king's writ only : and the question be-
ing thereupon raised, it was decided that a
i commission in addition to the writ was re-
quired for the appointment of a justice of as-
size. Baker in his l Chronology,' and Hale
! in his * Pleas of the Crown,' says that on the
: trial of Walter Walker for treason in 1460, for
| having said to his son, ' Tom, if thou behavest
thyself well, I will make thee heir to the
Crown ' i.e. of the Crown Inn, of which he
was landlord Billing ruled a conviction, and
Lord Campbell accepts the story. But it
would seem from the report of the judgment
of Chief-justice Bromley in the trial of Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton, 17 April 1554, that
I the judge at that trial was John Markham
[q.v.], afterwards chief justice next before
Billing, and that he directed an acquittal
1 (see STOW, 415; FABYAN, 633).

Billing succeeded Markham as chief justice
| of the king's bench 23 Jan. 1468-9 (DuGDALE

Billingham

Billings

and Foss, arts. ' Billing 1 ' and ' Markham ') , hav-
ing precedence over Yelverton and Bingham,
justices of the king's bench ; and this office
he retained in spite of political changes. For
when Henry VI for a few months regained
the throne new patents were at once issued,
9 Oct. 1470; and when Edward IV overthrew
him, 17 June 1471 (DUGDALE, wrongly, 1472,
and so CAMPBELL), he, along with almost
all the other judges, was confirmed in his seat.
It is suggested that he may have owed this
less to his legal talents than to the support
of the Earl of Warwick. In 1477 (not as
Campbell, 1470 ; see HUME, iii. 261) Billing
tried Burdet of Arrow, in Warwickshire, a
dependent of the Duke of Clarence, for trea-
son, committed in 1474, in saying of a stag,
' I wish that the buck, horns and all, were in
the king's belly,' for which he was executed
(1 State Trials, 275). Billing is also said to
have been concerned in the trial of the Duke
of Clarence himself (Hot. Parl vi. 193). He
continued to sit in court until 5 May 1481
(1482, CAMPBELL), when he died and was
buried in Bittlesden Abbey. His tombstone
is now in Wappenham Church, Northamp-
tonshire. His successor was Sir JohnHussey
or Husee. He was twice married, first to
Katerina, who died 8 March 1479, second to
Mary, daughter and heir of Robert Wesenham
of Conington in Huntingdonshire, who had
previously been married to Thomas Lang, and
then to William Cotton of Redware, Stafford-
shire. She died in 1499, and was buried in
St. Margaret's, Westminster, which she and
Sir Thomas Billing had rebuilt. By his first
wife he had issue four daughters and five sons,
one of whom, Thomas, his heir, died in 1500
without male issue, and was buried with his
father and mother.

[Foss's Lives of the Judges ; Campbell's Lives
of the Lord Chief Justices ; Dugclale's Origines
Juridiciales ; Coke's Institutes, preface; Graird-
ner's Paston Letters, i. 302 ; Close Roll, 13
Edw. IV, m. 5.1 J. A. H.

BILLINGHAM or BULLINGHAM
RICHARD (fi. 1350), a schoolman, whose
name appears on the rolls of Merton College,
Oxford, between 1344 and 1356 (TANNEK,
Bibl Brit. p. 100), is mentioned by Wood
(Antiquities of Oxford, i. 447 seqq.) as having
been concerned in a riot arising about an
election to the chancellorship of the univer-
sity in 1349. Tanner states that he became
a priest of Sion, but as that religious house
was not founded until 1414 we must suppose
that he has confounded two different persons.
Billingham's works, all of a theological and
scholastic character, are enumerated by Bale,
'Script. Brit. Cat.'vi. 8. Among the nume-

rous ways in which the name is spelled, the
only one that calls for special notice is Gil-
lingham, and this is easily accounted for as
a paliBOgraphical blunder.

[Authorities cited above.] R. L. P.

BILLINGS, JOSEPH (.1758 ?), explorer,
j captain in the Russian navy, in 1776 entered
on board the Discovery, one of the two shipa
| that sailed under the command of Captain
Gook on his last fatal voyage. He was rated
as A.B., and in September 1779, after Cook's
death, was transferred with the same rating'
to the Resolution. He is described in the
pay-book of the Resolution as a native of
Turnham Green, and at that time aged twenty-
one. Some time after the return of the ex-
pedition to England Billings being at St.
Petersburg, whither he had probably gone
as mate of a merchant ship, was induced to
enter into the Russian navy with the rank
of lieutenant ; and when, in 1784, the empress
determined to send out an expedition to ex-
plore the extreme north-eastern parts of
Asia, Billings, known by repute as the ' com-
panion ' of Cook, was judged a fitting man
to command it. He was definitely appointed
in August 1785, the objects of the expedition,
as laid down in his instructions, being ' the
exact determination of the latitude and lon-
gitude of the mouth of the river Kovima,
and the situation of the great promontory of
the Tchukchees as far as the East Cape ; the
forming an exact chart of the islands in the
Eastern Ocean extending to the coast of
America ; and, in short, the bringing to per-
fection the knowledge of the seas lying be-
tween the continent of Siberia and the oppo-
site coast of America.' He received at the
same time the rank of captain-lieutenant,
and was instructed, on arriving at certain
definite points, to take the further rank of
captain of the second class and captain of the
first class. Early in September an officer,
with a competent staff, was sent on to
Ochotsk to make arrangements for construct-
ing two ships ; and the expedition, in several
detachments, proceeded to Irkutsk, where it
assembled in February 1786.

A very full account of the expedition was
published by the secretary, Mr. Sauer. In
the course of nine years it carried out the
objects prescribed for it with such exact-
ness as was then attainable. Of Billings
personally we have no information beyond
what is contained in Mr. Sauer's book. Mr.
Sauer did not love his captain, and im-
plies that he was greedy, selfish, ignorant,
and tyrannical, but makes no definite charge.
We can only say that Billings successfully
commanded the expedition during the whole

Billings

33

Billingsley

time, and that by it were made many large
additions to our knowledge of the geography
of those inclement regions. Of his further
life, or the date and manner of his death, we
know nothing.

[An Account of a Geographical and Astrono-
mical Expedition to the Northern Parts of
Eussia . . . performed ... by Commodore
Joseph Billings in the years 1785-1794, narrated
from the original papers by Martin Sauer, Secre-
tary to the Expedition, 1802, 4to; Beloe's Sexa-
genarian, ii. 10.] J. K. L.

BILLINGS, EGBERT WILLIAM

(1813-1874), architect and author, was born
in London in 1813, and became, at the age
of thirteen, a pupil of John Britton, the emi-
nent topographical draughtsman. During the
seven years of his articles Billings imbibed
a taste for similar pursuits, which he after-
wards exemplified in a series of beautiful
works, published at brief intervals for the
space of fifteen years. In 1837 he was em-
ployed in illustrating, for Mr. George God-
win, a ' History and Description of St. Paul's
Cathedral,' and two years later, with Frede-
rick Mackenzie, the ' Churches of London,'
in two volumes, of which the plates were
chiefly engraved by John le Keux. He also
assisted Sir Jeffery Wyatville on drawings
of Windsor Castle, and prepared numerous
views of the ruins of the old Houses of Par-
liament after the disastrous fire.

Among the works he undertook on his own
account may be mentioned ' Illustrations of
the Temple Church, London,' 1838 ; l Gothic
Panelling in Brancepeth Church, Durham,'
1841 ; ' Kettering Church, Northampton-
shire,' 1843. Still greater efforts were the
important works on Carlisle and Durham
Cathedrals, published in 1840 and 1843, as
also an excellent work of the Britton school,
called ' Illustrations of the Architectural
Antiquities of the County of Durham,'
which appeared in 1846. But his greatest
achievement in this style, and the one with
which his name is chiefly associated, was the
' Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of
Scotland,' 4 vols. 1845-52, a noble collection
of 240 illustrations, with ample explanatory
letterpress. His other works deal almost ex- |
clusively with the technicalities of his art, j
and are : ' An Attempt to define the Geo- !
metric Proportions of Gothic Architecture,
as illustrated by the Cathedrals of Carlisle
and Worcester,' 1840 ; ' Illustrations of Geo-

Powerof Form applied to Geometric Tracery,'

VOL. v.

After giving up authorship, Billings de-
voted himself entirely to his practice, which
soon grew very considerable. He was em-
ployed upon the restoration of the chapel of
Edinburgh Castle (a government commis-
sion), the Douglas Room in Stirling Castle,
Gosford House, Haddingtonshire, for the
Earl of Wemyss ; the restoration of Han-
bury Hall, Worcestershire ; Crosby-upon-
Eden Church, Cumberland ; Kemble House,
Wiltshire ; and additions to Castle Wemyss,
Renfrewshire, for Mr. John Burns, upon
which he was engaged at the time of his
death, having built the castle itself many
years before. After 1865 Billings lived at
Putney, where he purchased an old English
residence, the Moulinere, which had once
been occupied by the famous Duchess of
Marlborough. He died there 14 Nov. 1874.

\ During the latter years of his life, at intervals

S of leisure, he had again occupied himself
upon one of his old and favourite themes a
view from the dome of the interior of St.

i Paul's Cathedral. In this drawing his en-
deavour was to modify the rendering of out-
lying portions according to strict rules, so as

I to bring them within the range of possible
and undistorted vision. The drawing, which
is on a very large scale, and was unfortu-
nately left unfinished, has been lately (1884)
deposited in the library of the dean and

: chapter.

[Information from Mr. J. Drayton Wyatt ;
Builder for 1874, xxxii. 982, 1035.] G. G.

BILLINGSLEY, SIB HENRY (d. 16QO),

lord mayor of London, and first translator of
Euclid into English, was the son of Roger
Billingsley of Canterbury. He was admitted
a Lad v Margaret scholar of St. John's College,
Cambridge, in 1551. He is said to have also
studied for several years at Oxford, although
he never took a degree at either university.
At Oxford he developed, according to Wood,
a taste for mathematics under the tuition of
'an eminent mathematician called Whyte-
head/ at one time ' a fryar of the order of St.
Augustine.' Billingsley was afterwards ap-
prenticed to a London haberdasher, and ra-
pidly became a wealthy merchant. He was
chosen sheriff of London in 1584, and alder-
man of Tower ward on 16 Nov. 1585. He
removed to Candlewick ward in 1592, and on
31 Dec. 1596 was elected lord mayor on the
death, during his year of office, of Sir Thomas
Skinner. He was apparently knighted during
1597. In 1594 he had been appointed presi-
dent of St. Thomas's Hospital, and was from
1589 one of the queen's four ' customers/ or
farmers of the customs, at the port of London.
He sat as member for London in the parlia-

D

Billingsley

34

Billingsley

ment that met on 19 March 1603-4. He died i Queen Anne in 1613 at his house at Listen,
92 Nov 1606, and was buried in the church Gloucestershire, which his father had pur-

- 1 ' ' * 1598 ~

of St. Catharine Coleman. To the poor of
that parish he bequeathed 200J. In 1591 he
had already founded three scholarships at
St. John's College, Cambridge, for poor stu-
dents, and had given to the college for their
maintenance two messuages and tenements
in Tower Street and in Mark Lane, Allhal-
lows Barking (BAKER, St. John's College,
ed. Mayor, i. 434).

Billingsley published in 1570 the first
translation of Euclid's ' Elements of Geome-
try ' that had appeared in English. His ori-

chased in 1598 (NICHOLS, Progresses of
James I, i. 192, ii. 647, 666).

[Cooper's Athense Cantab, ii. 442; Wood's
Athen. Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 762 ; Chalmers's Biog.
Diet, : Cal. Dom. State Papers from 1 590 to 1 606.1

S. L. L.

BILLINGSLEY, JOHN, the elder
(1625-1684), divine, was born at Chatham,
Kent, on 14 Sept. 1625. Wood says 'he
Avas educated mostly in St. John's College,
Cambridge, but, coming with the rout to

ginal was the Latin version attributed to Cam- Oxon to obtain preferment on the visita-
panus, which had been first printed in 1482, tion made by the parliament in 1648, he was
and again in 1509. A lengthy essay on ma- fortunate to be supplied with a Kentish
thematical science from the pen of Dr. John j fellowship of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Dee prefaced the volume, and De Morgan has (as having been born in that county).' In
suggested that Dee, and not Billingsley, was I i <Q v, Q c. < i- n * n . Q i-a. ' "R A Q v,^ -wia^norl
the actual author of the translation. Dee,

incorporate ' B. A., and ordained
on 26 Sept. of that year in the church of St.

however, in his autobiographical tracts, dis- Andrew Undershaft, London,
tinctly states that, besides the introduction, While in residence at Oxford he used to act
he only contributed ' divers and many Anno- j as an evangelist in the neighbourhood, preach-
tations and Inventions Mathematicall added t ing with uncommon force. ' At length '
in sundry places of the foresaid English j (Calamy and Palmer tell us) ' he had a call

into one of the remote and dark corners of the

letters from Billingsley to Lord Burghley
matters connected with the London custoi

Euclide after the tenth booke of the same '
(Miscellanies of Chetham Soc. i. 73). Wood
asserts that Whytehead, Billingsley's Oxford
tutor, who lived during his old age in Bil-
lingsley's house, bequeathed to his old pupil
a valuable collection of manuscripts, which
Billingsley utilised in his ' Elements of Geo-
metric.' In his prefatory address Billingsley
makes no mention of assistance, but pro-
mises to translate, if his first effort is well
received, ' other good authors both pertaining
to religion (as partly I have already done),
and also pertaining to Mathematicall Artes.'
But this promise was never fulfilled. Two

on

customs

are among the Lansdowne MSS. (62 No. 19,
67 No. 88), and several documents at the
Record Office dealing with his official duties
between 1590 and the date of his death bear
his signature. One of these papers, dated
11 Nov. 1604, consists of observations on the
danger of decay in shipping, and in the ex-
portation of English cloth (Cal. State Papers,
1603-10, p. 166). Billingsley was a member
of the Society of Antiquaries founded by
Archbishop Parker in 1572 (Archceologia,
i. 20).

1 Billingsley was twice married, (1) in 1572
to Elizabeth Boorne, who died in 1577, aged
-35, and (2) to Bridget, second daughter of
Sir Christopher Draper, who was lord mayor
in 1566. By his first wife he had a large
family. His eldest son, Henry, was knighted
by James I on 28 June 1603, and entertained

kingdom to preach the gospel.' This he did
1 very assiduously, viz. at Addinghamin Cum-
berland.' He instituted catechising, and
joined a county association for revival of the
scriptural discipline of particular churches.'
Thence he removed to Chesterfield in Derby-
shire, which Anthony a Wood thought to
be his first charge. He had many disputa-
tions with the disciples of George Fox. He
published ' Strong Comforts for Weak Chris-
tians, with due Cautions against Presumption.
Being the substance of several lectures lately
preached at Chest erfield in Derbyshire, 1656 ; '
' The grand Quaker prov'd a gross Liar ; or a
Short Reply to a little Pamphlet entitled
A Dispute between James Naylor and the
Parish Teacher of Chesterfield by a Chal-
lenge against him,' &c., printed with 'Strong
Comforts.' George Fox himself replied to
Billingsley in 'The great Mystery of the
great Whore unfolded, and Anti-Christ's
Kingdom revealed with Destruction,' 1659.
As his reputation grew, he 'had great
temptations from (increased) secular advan-
tages and the importunity of friends to have
quitted' Chesterfield; but 'he would not
yield to a thought of lea ving that people, who
were dear to him as his own soul, and it was
in his heart to live and die with them.' He
was one of the two thousand deprived in
1662. He continued to labour among his
parishioners in private, as he found oppor-
tunity. He was silenced by the act of
1664 against conventicles. He retired to

Billingsley

35

Billingsley

Mansfield, which ' was to him and several
others a little Zoar.' He went once a fort-
night to Chesterfield, preached twice on each
visit, ' and often expounded and catechised/
.and visited the sick. Having to travel fre-
'quently at night, his health was greatly
weakened. Though he was an avowed non-
conformist, he lived ' in hearty love and con-
cord with the worthy minister of the parish' at
Mansfield, who, with reference to Billingsley,
said that he ' counted it no schism to endeavour
to help his people in their way to heaven.'

At the Restoration he was a zealous royalist.
Bishop Hacket earnestly entreated him to
conform, but in vain. ' He knew not,' were
his words, ' how to mollify oaths by forced
interpretations, or stretch his conscience to
'Comply with human will, in cases wherein
if he should happen to be in the wrong (as
he strongly suspected he should be in this)
he knew human power could not defend
him.' He died 30 May 1684. < Out of his
great modesty' (PALMER'S Nonconf. Mem.
i. 401) ' he left an express order in his will
that there was to be no sermon preached
at his funeral; but a suitable consolatory
discourse was addressed to the family on the
Lord's day folio wing by [Matthew] Sylvester'
,on Romans xii. 12. Posthumously appeared
* The Believer's Daily Exercise, or the Scrip-
ture Precept of being in the Fear of the
Lord examined and urged in Four Sermons,'
1690. He had two sons who became well
known as nonconformist ministers at Hull
and London [see BILLINGSLEY, JOHN, jun.]

[Wood's Athense, ed. Bliss, iv. 611-2 ; Palmer's
Nonconf. Mem. i. 400-2 ; Calamy's Account ;
.Billingsley's own writings.] A. B. Gr.

BILLINGSLEY, JOHN, the younger
.(1657-1722), nonconformist divine, son of
John Billingsley [q. v.], was born at Chester-
field, Derbyshire, in 1657. First trained by his
father, he proceeded to the university of Cam-
bridge, being entered of Trinity College.
Wilson (History of Dissenting Churches,
i. 77) says : ' When neither his inclination
.nor circumstances allowed his longer continu-
ance at the university, he was placed under
the care of the famous Mr. Edward Baynes,
of Lincoln.' On leaving Lincoln he com-
pleted his theological and classical prepara-
tions under his father, and under an uncle
Whitlock of Nottingham. He was after-
wards duly ordained.

He first preached at Chesterfield. On the
-death of his father for whose monument
he composed an elegant and pathetic Latin
inscription (given by Calamy) he appears to
.have served with the celebrated Rev. Edward
Prime, of Sheffield. For seven years he was

settled at Selston with l a plain but serious
auditory.' From this he removed to Kingston-
upon-Hull, where he ministered for about ten
years. About 1706 he was chosen colleague
of Dr. William Harris at Crutched Friars, and
accepting the call was thus placed practically
in the foremost place among protestant dis-
senters. He was associated with Dr. Harris
for fifteen years. ' I ever esteemed him,'
i says Dr. Harris, l a great blessing to the con-
j gregation, and I believe he was thought so
[ by every one in it. We lived together through
that course of time in a most perfect uninter-
| rupted friendship and endearment ; his labours
i and his memory will be always precious in
! my account.'

Besides his work at Crutched Friars, he
I spent Sunday evening during the winter ' in
I a catechetical exercise to a numerous con-
i gregation at Old Jewry.' His text-book was
I ' The Larger and Shorter Catechisms ' of the
: assembly of divines. He also went over the
main points in the popish controversy.

When the unhappy controversy concern-
ing the Trinity agitated England at the
commencement of the eighteenth century,
the protestant dissenters convened a synod
at Salters' Hall in 1719. They split upon
the rock of subscription. Billingsley sided
with those who opposed subscription. This
was the more honourable to him, as per-
sonally he was rigidly orthodox. He declined
to approve of subscription on the broad prin-
ciple of opposition to all tests in matters of
religion. He died 22 May 1722, in his sixty-
fifth year, and was buried in Bunhill Fields.
He does not appear to have published any-
thing. A son John, originally a dissenting
minister at Dover, married a sister of Sir
Philip Yorke, afterwards Lord-chancellor
Hardwicke, conformed and accepted a good
living in the national church with a prebend
in Bristol Cathedral. It is to his honour
that, notwithstanding his conformity, he re-
mained 'moderate, and maintained friendly
intercourse with the dissenters to the last.'

[Wilson's Hist, of Dissenting Churches, i. 77-
82 ; Palmer's Nonconf. Mem. i. 402 ; Harris's
Funeral Sermon for Billingsley ; Le Neve's Fasti ;
and authorities on his father.] A. B. Gf.

BILLINGSLEY, MARTIN (J. 1618-
1637), writing-master, was born in 1591, as
an inscription round his portrait, prefixed to
his ' Pens Excellencie,' shows ; but where he
was born, or of whom, there is no evidence.
He was residing in London, in Bush Lane,
near London Stone, on 22 Dec. 1618, when
he dedicated his first dainty little work, The
Pens Excellencie, or the Secretarys Delight,'
to Prince Charles. He would appear to have

1)2

Billingsley

Billingsley

been the prince's writing master from a sen-
tence in his dedication : ' This humble worke
. . . first devoted to y r highness gratious
regard and now . . . putt forth into the
world,' and from another sentence in the
preface, ' This little booke hath found gracious
acceptation at the hands of him to whom it
was first privately intended.' Copies set out
in the book itself give ample testimony to
Billingsley's skill. His portrait proves him
to have been of good appearance, and repre-
sents him in huge pleated ruff and ornamented
doublet. In 1623, there was another issue
of the l Pens Excellencie, both issues being
notable as early productions of the rolling-
press (MASSBY, Origin of Letters, part ii.
p. 24). In 1637, Billingsley published 'A
Coppie Booke, containing Varieties of Ex-
amples of all the most curious Hands written.'
This was printed and sold at the Globe and
Compasses, at the west end of St. Paul's,
towards Ludgate. It pronounces itself to
be the second edition. In its few pages of
directions it refers to a previous work, ' The
Pens Transcendency,' ' wherein are directions
for every particular letter.' On the back of
the last page there is a list of works (includ-
ing ' The Pens Transcendency ') ' The Pens
Celerity,' 'The Pens Triumph,' 'The Pens
Paradise,' and 'The Pens Facility 'all of
which were probably Billingsley's, and pub-
lished between 1618 and 1637. An edition of
' The Pens Excellencie ' seems to have been
issued in 1641, 4to (WATT, Bibl. Brit.} No
later fact concerning Billingsley is to be found.
Billingsley, like his immediate predecessor
in his art, Peter Bales [q. v.], throws very in-
teresting light on penmen and penmanship.
1 Let not your breast lie on the desk you write
on, nor your nose on the paper, but sit in as
majestical a posture as you can,' he says (A
Coppie Book, 1637). He speaks also ( The Pens
Excellencie, 1618) of London, ' this famous
citie,' swarming with ' lame pen-men,' with 'a
worlde of squirting teachers . . . botchers,'
whose ' worke is such weake stuffe as he
would rather imagine it to bee the scratching
of a hen than the worke of a profest pen-
man,' who yet ' clap bills upon every post . . .
and make curriculer progresse over all places
in this kingdom,' with ' audatious brags and
lying promises . . . professing to teach any
one a sufficient hand in a month, and some
of them doe say in a fortnight.' The num-
ber of hands set out by Billingsley with
examples was six, with some additional
subdivisions. The six were the Secretary,
' the usuall hand of England ' (yet getting
its name from secret, he said) ; the Bastard
Secretary, or Text : the Roman ; the Italian,
' meere botching and detestable ; ' the Court

(because used in the courts of King s Bench
and Common Pleas) ; and the Chancery.
The Roman hand, Billingsley said, was the
hand ' usually taught to women, because they
are phantasticall and humorsome.' He dis-
agreed with those that ' affirme writing to
be altogether unnecessarie for women,' and
was of opinion that ' no woman surviving her
husband, and who hath an estate left her,,
ought to be without the use thereof.'

[Billingsley's own Works ; Massey's Origin-
and Progress of Letters, part ii. p. 24 ; Watt's-
Bibl. Brit.] J. H.

BILLINGSLEY, NICHOLAS (1633-
1709), poet and divine, was a native of Fa-
versham, Kent. He was probably son of
Nicholas Billingsley, one of the masters of
Faversham School and rector of Belshanger
from 23 Nov. 1644 till 4 July 1651. The
parish register of Faversham has, under bap-
tisms, the entry, '1633, 1 November, Nicholas,
son of Nicholas and Letitia Billingsley.' It
has been stated that in 1658, when he pro-
ceeded B.D. [?B.A.], he was in his sixteenth
year ; but this is a mistake caused by a mis-
interpretation of certain allusions in his
poems. In his epistle before his 'Infancy
of the World ' to Francis Rous of Eton,,
he writes : ' It is now [1656] six years coin-
pleat since I was through your favour re-
moved from my late reverend father's side
and placed in that famous and flourish-
ing school of Eaton ; from whence, after
some continuance there, having not the hap-
pinesse (nor was I alone) to be transplanted
elsewhere in a college of the same founda-
tion, whatever want of learning or somewhat
else, of much (what if I say more ?) looked
upon by many now-a-days, or both, were im-
pediments, I shall not now stand to deter-
mine ; ' and then he adds that his poetry
was ' as good as the third lustrum of his age
was then able to produce.' This epistle is
dated from Canterbury, 29 Dec. 1656. But
the mentioning of ' third lustrum ' implies
not that in 1656 he was about fifteen, but
that he was so when the poetry first pub-
lished in 1656 was composed or produced.
Similarly one John Swan, among the pre-
fixed commendatory poems, addresses him 'in
his fifteenth year.'

In his ' Brachy-Martyrology ' the young
author styles himself of 'Merton College,
Oxford.' But his academic attendances must
have been interrupted by sickness, for he
tells us that he composed ' Brachy-Martyro-
logy ' at his father's house when ' dispensed
from college by illness.' The second part of"
' Brachy-Martyrology ' is dated from Wick
ham-Brook, 5 June 1657.

JBillingsley

37

Billington

He was deprived of the living of Weobley
in Herefordshire on the passing of the Act of
Uniformity in 1662. He was then married
to a daughter of Richard Hawes of Lantmar-
tine (Herefordshire), who was ejected, and
took up his residence with his son-in-law at
Abergavenny. There Billingsley kept school
until, ; by the good offices of Sir Edward
Haiiey, he was settled at Blakeney in the
parish of Awre in Gloucestershire.' The
maintenance of this small living (50/. per
.annum) depended upon an impropriation,
which, '' by the generosity of a gentleman, had
been annexed to a chapel of ease' in the vil-
lage. He was simultaneously offered the
vicarage, but the principle and conscience
which had made him give up Weobley con-
.strained him to decline it. While Dr. Nichol-
son (d. 1670-1) was bishop (of Gloucester)
.and a Mr. Jordan, a moderate and pious man,
was vicar of the parish, he was left in peace.
But the vicar died in 1668, and two suc-
cessive high-church vicars did all in their
power to molest and ruin him. After the
death of Bishop Pritchet in 1680-1, the
succeeding bishop (Frampton) and the chan-
cellor (Parsons) were his bitter opponents.
The chancellor after hearing Billingsley
preach a visitation-sermon, in which he re-
proved the vices of the clergy, so far forgot him-
.self as in the open street to pluck the preacher
by the hair, with these words : ' Sirrah, you are
.a rogue, and I'll bind you to your good be-
haviour.' After this disreputable incident Bil-
lingsley had many suspensions and pains and
penalties for ' want of that conformity to
which his place did not oblige him.' He com-
plied so far as ' to read more or less of the Com-
mon Prayer, and to wear the surplice, after the
bishop had given it under his hand that it
was not required to be worn upon the ac-
count of any supposed holiness in the gar-
ment, but only for decency and comeliness.'
Afterwards Frampton's chancellor satisfied
Ms own long-nursed wrath by again suspend-
ing Billingsley. On this, in the anonymous
4 Life of Frampton,' published for the first
time so recently as 1876 (edited by T. Simp-
son Evans, M.A., pp. 174-7), the truculent
writer denounces Billingsley (though he knew
so little of him as to misname him Ben-
jamin) as ' always of an anti-monarchical arid
rebellious temper, and if against the king no
wonder against the bishop ' (p. 174). When,
however, Dr. Fowler succeeded as bishop,
he blamed the chancellor and took steps to
induce Billingsley to return, and kept the
place open for a whole year. But, worn out
by his many persecutions and sufferings, Bil-
lingsley respectfully declined to reconsider
Qiis decision finally to leave Awre. Thence-

forward he exercised his ministry among the
nonconformists in different places in Glou-
cestershire. He at length became very feeble,
and died at Bristol in December 1709.

Anthony u Wood ignored his ministerial
offices, whilst both Calamy and Palmer kne\v
nothing of his poems. Richard Baxter had
in his possession a manuscript of his entitled
* Theological Reflections on God's admirable
Master-piece,' and he wrote on the fly-leaf
as follows : < The poetry of this book lleave
to the judgment and relish of the reader ;
the philosophical and theological matter, as
far as I had leisure to peruse it, is such as is
agreeable to the authors that are most com-
monly esteemed.' Billingsley, in his ' Treasury
of Divine Raptures,' dubs himself ' a pri-
vate chaplain to the muse.' His books are :
1 . ' Brachy-Martyrologia ; or a Breviary of all
| the greatest Persecutions which have befallen
the Saints and People of God from the Crea-
tion to our Present Times : Paraphras'd by
Nicholas Billingsley of Mert. Coll. Oxon.,. ?
1657. 2. ' Koo-/io/3pe(ta, or the Infancy of the
World ; with an Appendix of God's Resting,
Eden's Garden, Man's Happiness before,
Misery after, his Fall. W T hereunto is added,
the Praise of Nothing: Divine Ejaculations;
the Four Ages of the World ; the Birth of
Christ ; also a Century of Historical Applica-
tions ; with a Taste of Poetical Fictions.
Written some years since by N. B., then of
Eaton School, and now published at the re-
quest of his Friends,' 1658. 3. ' Thesauro-
Phulakion, a Treasury of Divine Raptures,
consisting of Serious Observations, Pious
Ejaculations, Select Epigrams, alphabetically
rank'd and fill'd by a Private Chaplain to the
illustrious and renowned Lady Urania, the
Divine and Heavenly Muse,' 1667. Various
sub-title-pages are introduced an$ many
dedications. He left two sons : Richard, who
died minister of Whit church, Hampshire,
father of the Rev. Samuel Billingsley (PAL-
MER'S Nonconf. Mem. i. 402), and Nicholas,
minister of Ashwick, Somersetshire (ib. ii.
298).

[Wood's Fasti (Bliss), ii. 213; Calamy and
Palmer, ii. 297-8. 477 ; Hunter's MS. Chorus
Vatum in Brit. Mus. ; Life of Eobert Frampton,
Bishop of Gloucester, deprived as a non-jurist
(an interesting but partisan book, 1876.) ; local
researches by Mr. Charles Smith, Faversham,
Kent,] A. B. G.

BILLINGTON, ELIZABETH (1768-
1818), the greatest singer England has ever
produced, was probably born about 1768 in
Litchfield Street, Soho. She was the daugh-
ter (according to the author of the scurrilous
' Memoirs ' published in 1792, the illegitimate
daughter) of Carl Weichsel, a native of Frei-

Billington

Billington

berg, in Saxony, principal oboist at the King's
Theatre. Her mother, an English vocalist of
some distinction, was a pupil of John Chris-
tian Bach, and sang at Vauxhall with success
between 1765 and 1775. Elizabeth Weichsel
received her earliest musical instruction, in
company with her brother Charles (who after-
wards was known as a violinist) from her
father, under whom she studied the pianoforte
with such assiduity that on 10 March 1774 she
played at a concert at the Haymarket for her
mother's benefit. In addition to her father's !
instruction she studied under Schroeter, I
and before she was twelve years old pub- I
lished two sets of pianoforte sonatas. She |
now began to turn her attention to the cul-
tivation of her voice, and at the early age of
fourteen appeared at a public concert in Ox-
ford. On 13 Oct. 1783 she was secretly married
(under the assumed name of ' Elizabeth Wier- j
man ') at Lambeth Church to James Billing-
ton, a double-bass player in the Drury Lane
orchestra, from whom she had had lessons in |
singing. Immediately after their marriage
the Billingtons went to Dublin, where she
made her first appearance on the stage in the
part of Eurydice. After singing at Water-
ford and other towns in Ireland she returned j
to London in 1786, and was offered an en-
gagement at Covent Garden for three nights j
only, but she insisted on being engaged for
twelve nights, at a salary of 12Z. a week. |
On these terms she was announced to appear
on 14 Feb. 1786, but the renown she had
already won in Dublin had preceded her, and
' by command of their majesties ' she ap-
peared on the 13th as Rosetta in Arne's
* Love in a Village.' Her performance seems
to have struck the public by its originality,
and her success was enormous. At the end
of the twelve nights she was engaged for
the rest of the season at a salary of 1,000/.
A contemporary account of her at this period
says that her voice was of great sweetness,
compass, and power, and that she possessed
' a great deal of genuine beauty and very
unaffected and charming manners ; ' but the
secret of her great success was the unremit-
ting zeal with which she studied her art.
Her brother-in-law, Thomas Billington [q.v.],
says that she had originally 'a very in-
different voice and manner,' which she com-
pletely changed by the industry with which,
throughout her public career, she pursued
her studies. At the end of her first season
she went to Paris, and had lessons from the
veteran Sacchini, whose last pupil she was,
and at different periods of her career she
also studied with Morelli, Paer, and Himmel.
She returned to London for the season of
1786-7, and continued to sing there, at

Covent Garden, the Concerts of Ancient Mu-
sic, the so-called Oratorios, and the Handel
Commemorations, until the end of 1793.
Shield wrote his operas of ' Marian ' and ' The
Prophet ' for her, and in 1789 she appeared as
Yarico in Dr. Arnold's long-popular compila-
tion, 'Inkle and Yarico.' Others of her fa-
vourite parts were Mandane (in 'Artaxerxes '),
and the heroines in * Polly,' the ' Duenna,' the
' Castle of Andalusia/ ' Corali/ ' Clara/ the
' Flitch of Bacon/ &c.

Mrs. Billington was not happy in her mar-
riage, and even before she had appeared on the
London stage rumour had been busy Avith her
fair fame. In 1792 there appeared an anony-
mous publication, which professed to con-
tain her private correspondence with her
mother. This work was of so disgraceful
and scurrilous a description that Mrs. Bil-
lington was forced to take legal proceedings
against the publishers. An answer to the
' Memoirs ' appeared in due course ; but it
seems probable that the scandal induced:
Mrs. Billington to abandon her profession
and retire to the Continent. Accompanied
by her brother and her husband, she left
England early in 1794, and travelled by way
of Germany to Italy. At Naples she was
induced by Sir William Hamilton, the Eng-
lish ambassador, to sing in private before the
royal family. This led to her singing at the-
San Carlo, where she appeared in a new
1 opera, ( Inez di Castro/ written expressly for
| her by Bianchi, on 30 May 1794. Her sing-
j ing created an extraordinary impression, but
] her triumph was cut short by the sudden
death of her husband, which took place the-
| day after her first appearance, as he was pre-
paring to accompany his wife to the theatre,.
i after dining with the Bishop of Winchester.
Her enemies did not hesitate to accuse Mrs.
' Billington of causing her husband's death ;
but frail as she undoubtedly was, there was
no reason to lay such a crime to her charge.
She stayed at Naples sixteen months, and
then sang at Florence, Leghorn, Milan,.
Venice, and Trieste. In 1797, when singing
at Venice, she was prostrated with a severe
illness for six weeks. On her recovery the
opera house was illuminated for three nights.
At Milan she was received with much favour
by the Empress Josephine, and here she met
a young Frenchman, M. Felissent, to whom
she was married in 1799. After her second
marriage she went to live at St. Artien, an
estate she had bought between Venice and
Treviso ; but her life was rendered so insup-
portable by the ill-treatment she received from
her husband that in 1801 she left him and
returned to England. Felissent, who, it was
said, had been publicly flogged as an impostor

Billington

39

Billington

at Milan, followed her to London, but lie was \ ments in good taste and judicious, but that
arrested and expelled the country as an alien, j she lacked feeling, and was no actress. Miss
Mrs. Billington's return to London caused i Seward writes of her : ( She has too much
a great stir in the musical world, and the i sense to gambol like Mara in the sacred
managers both of Covent Garden (Harris) and ' songs;' but George III, who was no mean
Drury Lane (Sheridan) were eager to secure judge by suggesting in a written memo-
her services. After some negotiation it was random (Egerton MS. 2159), that Lord Car-
arranged that she should appear alternately marthen ' if he can get her to sing pathetick
at both houses, the terms she was to receive
being 3,000 guineas for the season, together

with a benefit guaranteed to amount to

500/., and 500/. to her brother for leading

the orchestra on the nights she appeared.

Her reappearance took place at Covent

Garden on 3 Oct. 1801, in Arne's ' Artaxerxes,'

in which she sang the part of Mandane, | fingers,' and quite late in life she played a

Incledon singing that of Arbaces. During in public with J. B. Cramer. In person

songs, and not to over-grace them, will be
doing an essential service to the court ' seems
to imply that she had the great fault of the
singers of that day, viz. the excessive and in-
discriminate use of vocal embellishments. She
was all through her life a finished pianist.
Salomon used to say that ' she sang with her

a duet
Mrs.

1801 she made from 10,000/. to 15,000/., and at ! Billington was very handsome, though in-
one time her fortune is said to have amounted ' clined to stoutness. Her portrait was painted

to 65,000/. In 1802 Mrs. Billington appeared ; by Sir Joshua Reynolds as Saint Cecilia, and

has been engraved by James Ward, Pastorini,
and Cardon. The exhibition of old masters
at Burlington House in 1885 contained a
small portrait by Reynolds, said to be of Mrs.

Billington in her youth, a statement which is
probably inaccurate. Two miniatures of her

in Italian opera at the King's Theatre, on the
occasion of the farewell of Banti, when both
these great artists sang in Nasolini's * Merope.'
A similar performance took place on 3 June
of the same year, when she was induced to
sing a duet with Mara, at the farewell con-
cert of her great rival. From this time until ; were painted, one by Daniel, and there are en-
her retirement in 1811 she continued to sing gravings of her by T. Burke after De Koster,
in Italian opera. Winter wrote his l Ca- as Mandane by Heath after Stothard, by
lypso ' (1803) expressly for her, and in 1806 Bartolozzi after Cosway, by Dunkarton after
she distinguished herself by producing, for Downman, and by Assen. A portrait of
her benefit, ' La Clemenza di Tito,' the first Clara in the ' Duenna,' painted and engraved
opera by Mozart performed in this country, by J. R. Smith in 1797, probably represents
During 1809-10 she suffered much from ill- Mrs. Billington.

health, and at length she retired from the pro- j [Genfc> Mag< lxiv> 671 > ] XX n i ii. 69 ; Georgian
fession, her last appearance being announced . Era (1832), iv. 291 ; Egerton MRS. 2159, if. 57,

at her brother's benefit concert on 3 May 1811.
She appeared, however, once more at White-

Earl of Mount, Edgcumbe's Musical Re-
miniscences (2nd ed. 1827), vi. ; Busby's Con-

hall Chapel in 1814, at a concert in aid of the cert Room Anecdotes, i. 151, 212, 217, ii. 4;

sufferers by the German war. After her re- Eaton's Musical Criticism (1872), 172 ; Seward's

tirement she lived in princely style at a villa Letters (1811), i. 153 ; Harmonicon for 1830, 93 ;

at Fulham, where she was rejoined in 1817 by Public Characters (1802-3), 394 ; H. Bromley's

M.Felissent, who induced her to return with Cat. of Engraved Portraits, 431; Memoirs of

him to St. Artien in the following year. Here Mrs. Bilhngton (1792); An Answer to the Me

i T T ^~ i -i m n . Tnoirs of Mrs Kimnfrton (17921! (rrovft s Diet

she died on 25 Aug. 1818, owing, it is some-
times said, to the effects of a blow she received
from her worthless husband. Her child by
her first husband had died in infancy ; but it
was believed that an adopted child, whom she
had placed in a convent at Brussels, was her
own daughter.

Contemporary opinions as to the merits of
Mrs. Billington as a singer differ to a singular
degree. It was always her misfortune to be

moirs of Mrs. Billington (1792) ; Grove's Diet,
of Music, i. 242a; Cat. of Library of Sacred
Harmonic Society; Musical "World, viii. 109;
Parke's Musical Memoirs (1830); Fetis's Bio-
graphie des Musiciens, ii. 195 ; Thos. Billington's
at. George and the Dragon ; Quarterly Musical
Magazine, i. 175; Registers of Lambeth; Thes-
pian Dictionary (1805).] W. B. S.

BILLINGTON, THOMAS (d. 1832), a

__ _, j native of Exeter, was a well-known harpsi-

forced into a position of rivalry with some j chord and singing master towards the close
other great artist, and thus partisanship often of the eighteenth century. On 6 April 1777
guided the judgments of her critics. As to he was elected a member of the Royal Society
the perfect finish of her singing all are ! of Musicians. His brother James (the hus-
agreed. The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe says , band of Mrs. Billington [q. v.]) was elected
that her voice was sweet and flexible, her ; a member of the same society on 6 Jan. 1782.
execution neat and precise, her embellish- ( A third brother, Horace, was an artist, and

Billington

Bilney

died at Glasshouse Street on 17 Nov. 1812.
Billington was an industrious composer and
compiler. His most remarkable productions
are his settings of poems like Gray's * Elegy,
Pope's ' Eloisa,' and parts of Young's ' Night
Thoughts' to heterogeneous collections of
his own and other composers' music. In one ;
of these curious compilations he arranged
Handel's Dead March in ' Saul ' as a four-
part glee, while Jomelli's ' Chaconne ' figures
as a song. Besides these works, Billington
published several sets of instrumental trios,
quartetts, and sonatas ; and canzonets and
ballads for one and more voices. During the
greater part, of his life he lived at 24 Char-
lotte Street, but towards 1825 he removed to
Sunbury, Middlesex. He died at Tunis in
1832.

[Brit. Mus. Cat. ; Kecords of Royal Society of
Musicians; Gent. Mag. Ixxxii. pt. ii. 501, cii.
382.] W. B. S.

BILLINGTON, WILLIAM (1827-
1884), dialect writer, was born at the Yew
Trees, Samlesbury, near Blackburn and was
one of the three sons of a contractor for road-
making. The father died when the boy was
between seven and eight years of age, and
in consequence he had little or no schooling,
but as soon as possible entered upon factory
life as a 'doffer.' In 1839 the family re-
moved to Blackburn, and Billington passed
through various stages of employment in the
cotton mills, from ' doffer ' to weaver and
* taper.' He was also for some time a publi-
can. His intimate knowledge of the ways
of thought and speech of Lancashire work-
ing people was turned to account in the
period of the Lancashire cotton famine, when
his homelv rhymes were circulated in thou-
sands of broadsides. Of the ballad of * Th'
Shurat Weyvur' 14,000 copies were sold in
that time of distress. Another popular rhyme,
' Th' Tay and Rum Ditty,' usually attributed
to him, was written by l Adam Chester,' the
pseudonym of Charles Rothwell. The most
important of his sketches, in prose and verse,
have been collected in two works, 'Sheen
and Shade,' which appeared in 1861, and
t Lancashire Poems with other Sketches,' pub-
lished in 1883, some copies of which have a
photographic portrait. High literary merit
cannot be claimed for Billington, but he is a
faithful painter of the life of the district, and
a certain philological value attaches to his
representation of the East Lancashire dia-
. lect. He was twice married, and died on
.1 Jan. 1884.

[Sutton's List of Lancashire Authors ; Biblio-
. graphical List published by the English Dialect
Society; private information.] W. E. A. A.

BILNEY or BYLNEY, THOMAS (d.
1531), martyr, was a member of a Norfolk
family which took its name from the villages
of the same designation in that county. Local
historians (BLOMEFIELD'S Norfolk, iii. 199,
ix. 461) assert that he was born either at
East Bilney or Norwich ; but these state-
ments seem to rest on probability rather than
definite evidence. The date of his ordination
as priest makes it impossible for him to have
been bom before 1495, and as both his parents
were alive at his death, it is improbable that
he was born much earlier. When still very
young he went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
His ardent religious temperament drew him
from legal studies towards an active clerical
life. In the summer of 1519 he was ordained
priest by Bishop West, at Ely, on the title of
the Priory of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield
(MS. Cole, xxvi. 151, from West's Register ;
MS. Add. 5827). The absence of any refer-
ence to his status in Bishop West's Register
proves that he did not take his degree of
LL.B. or become a fellow of his college until
some subsequent time.

The earlier period of Bilney's manhood seems
to have been passed in a series of spiritual
struggles analogous to those of Luther. He
sought for relief in those mechanical theories
of ' good works ' which the reigning scholas-
ticism inculcated. But fastings and watch-
ings, penances and masses were powerless to
relieve the sense of sin that weighed so
heavily on his sensitive temperament. At
last the fame of the great scholar's Latinity
attracted Bilney to the edition of the New
Testament which Erasmus had published in
1516. That Erasmus's Latin, rather than
the Greek text, should have allured Bilney,
suggests that he, whose early studies had
been in the civil and canon laws, had little
or no knowledge of the latter language.
Like Luther, Bilney found in the teaching
of St. Paul what he had so long sought for
in vain in the arid tenets of the schoolmen.
i Immediately I felt,' he exclaims, * a mar-
vellous comfort and quietness, insomuch as
my bruised bones leapt for joy.' Hencefor-
ward the scriptures were his chief study. A
bible which once belonged to Bilney is still
preserved in the library of Corpus College,
Cambridge. Its frequent annotations and
interlineations show how diligent he had
been in its study. The doctrines of justifi-
cation by faith, of the nothingness of human
efforts without Christ, of the vanity of a
merely external religion of rites and cere-
monies, became for Bilney, as for so many
others of his generation, the starting points
of a new and. brighter existence. Other young
Cambridge men were groping on the same

Bilney

Bilney

path, and these earliest English protestants |
formed a sort of society, of which Bilney !
became one of the leaders. Barnes and Lam-
bert ascribed their conversion to his influ-
ence. Matthew Parker, who, in 1521, had
come up from Norwich to Corpus College, soon \
acquired an enthusiastic affection for one who
was perhaps his fellow-toAviisman. In 1524 ,
Hugh Latimer, then as ardent a conservative i
as he afterwards became a strenuous reformer, !
read for his B.D. thesis a violent philippic
against Melanchthon. Bilney, who had per- ,
haps studied Lutheran books in secret, and j
who had been present at the recital of the |
dissertation, visited Latimer the next day,
and reasoned with him with such convincing
subtlety that Latimer ended by completely
accepting his position. From that day began
a lifelong friendship between Bilney and
Latimer. Henceforth they were constantly
in each other's society, and in their daily
walks on ' Heretic's Hill,' as the people calle*d
their favourite place of exercise, Bilney
quite won over his new friend. ' By his
confession,' said Latimer, ' I learned more
than in twenty years before.' Their position
had this in common, that with a burning
ze&l for righteousness and spiritual religion
their unspeculative intellects were never
seriously troubled with mere doctrinal and
theological difficulties. To the last Bilney
remained orthodox, after mediaeval standards
on the power of the pope, the sacrifice of the
mass, the doctrine of transubstantiatiori and
the powers of the church. Foxe is quite
pitiful on his blindness and grossness on these
points. Bilney remained where Luther started,
and died too early to be influenced, like Lati-
mer, by external changes of a later date.

The little band of Cambridge reformers
were zealous in preaching and in works of cha-
rity, however opposed they were to the formal

* good works ' of the schoolmen. Bilney and
Latimer constantly visited together the foul
lazar-house and equally foul prison of Cam-
bridge. On one occasion they discovered
a woman in- gaol who had been unjustlx
sentenced to death for child-murder, ana
Latimer's influence with the king procured (
her pardon. This must have been at the
very end of Bilney's career.

Though a zealous opponent of the cere-
monial fastings of the church, Bilney set in
his own life a rare example of abstinence and
self-denial. He allowed himself little sleep.
He generally contented himself with one
meal a day, and distributed the rest of his
commons to the prisoners and the poor.

* He could abide,' says Foxe, ' neither sing-
ing nor swearing.' The < dainty singing ' of
the greater churches was to him mere ' mock-

ing against God ; ' and whenever Thirlby, the
future bishop, who had rooms beneath him,
played upon his recorder, Bilney ' would resort
straight to his prayer.' Latimer is always en-
thusiastic upon the simplicity, the unworld-
liness, and the transparent honesty of ' little
Bilney,' as he affectionately calls him. He
was 'meek and charitable, a simple good soul
not fit for this world.'

In the propagation of his teaching, Bilney
gave his small and spare frame no rest. Cam-
bridge and London were not enough for him.
The election of Stephen Gardiner to the
mastership of Trinity Hall in 1 525 may have
made his college a less pleasant place of abode
to him. On 23 July 1525 he obtained from
Bishop West a license to preach throughout
the whole diocese of Ely (Cole MS. as above,
xxvi. 116). He also preached frequently in
Norfolk and Suffolk, but his admission into
so many churches almost proves that his
general teaching seemed orthodox in cha-
racter. But his denunciations of saint and
relic worship, and of pilgrimages to Wal-
singham and Canterbury, his rejection of
the mediation of saints, and of many other
cherished portions of the popular religion,
drew the attention of Wolsey to his case, who,
as legate a latere, then exercised a jurisdic-
tion that transcended both the diocesan and
metropolitical authorities. Wolsey had been
accused of remissness in dealing with heresy.
He began to take a severer line. About
1526 he seems to have had Bilney before him
and to have dismissed him on taking an oath
that he did not hold, and would not dissemi-
nate, the doctrines of Luther (FoxE, iv. 622).
But next year (1527) Bilney, in conjunction
with his Cambridge friend Arthur, fell into
more serious trouble. About Whitsuntide
he preached a series of sermons in and near
London. At St .Magnus's, near London Bridge,
he exclaimed: 'Pray you only to God, and to
noo saynts, rehersing the Litany, and when
he came to Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis, he
said Stay there.' He also said that ' Chris-
ten men ought to worship God only and not
Saynts.' At Willesden, in Middlesex, he
taught the same doctrines in the same Whit-
sun week, and declared that but for the ido-
latry of the Christians the Jews would long-
ago have been converted to the Christian faith.
At Newington, in Surrey, which was also in
the diocese of London, he again denounced
prayer to saints. A sermon at Christ Church,
Ipswich, on 28 May, and a disputation in
that town with Friar Brasiard against image
worship, together with a previous ' most
ghostly sermon' on 7 March, had excited
general suspicion. Tunstal, who had ob-
tained evidence of his Ipswich proceedings

Bilney 4

(Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. iv. I
pt. 2, No. 4396, Denham's confession), caused
Bilney and Arthur to be arrested. They were j
confined in the Tower, where the society of !
a fellow-sufferer for his religion somewhat j
consoled Bilney. On 27 Nov. 1527 Wolsey, !
after solemn mass and sermon in the abbey, !
held a great court in the chapter house at >
Westminster. The Archbishop of Canterbury,
yielding precedence to the legate a later e, the
bishops of London, Norwich, and several other
bishops, with a large number of theologians
and jurists, were present. Bilney and Arthur
were brought before them. Bilney was asked
by the cardinal whether he had not, con- j
trary to his oath, again taught the doctrines
of Luther. He replied l not wittingly,' and j
willingly swore to answer plainly the articles \
brought against him. In the afternoon wit-
nesses were heard. Next day (28 Nov.) the
court met at the house of Richard Nix,
bishop of Norwich, who, with the bishops of
London, Ely, and Rochester, heard the case
as the legate's deputies. On 2 Dec. another
meeting was held at the same place, and
elaborate articles and interrogatories were
laid before the two prisoners. In his answers
Bilney, while assenting altogether to the
majority of the articles, while admitting
that Luther was ' a wicked and detestable
heretic,' and accepting power of the pope,
expressed a desire that at least some part
of the scriptures should be in the vulgar
tongue, and that pardons should be restrained,
and, by his qualified and elaborate answers
to other points, seemed not to be fully in
agreement with his interrogators. Accord-
ingly, when on 4 Dec. the court met again
in the chapter house of Westminster, Tun-
stal, who had now taken the chief place in it,
exhorted Bilney to recant and abjure. He
replied, 'Fiat justitia et judicium in nomine
Domini.' Then the bishop solemnly declared
him convicted of heresy, but deferred sen-
tence to the next day. Tunstal seems to have
acted with much moderation and forbearance
to Bilney, if, indeed, the very unsubstantial
character of his heresies did not almost re-
quire his acquittal. On 5 Dec. Bilney was
again brought up, and again refused to re-
cant. Tunstal exhorted him to retire again
and consult with his friends ; but in the after-
noon Bilney returned with a request that his
witnesses might be heard, and said that if
they could prove that he was guilty he would
willingly yield himself. But the bishops
resolved that it was irregular for him to
renew the trial, and again pressed his abjura-
tion. He refused point-blank, though peti-
tioning again for more time. After some
reluctance Tunstal gave him two days more,

i Bilney

which he employed in consulting with his
friends Farmer and Dancaster. On Saturday,
7 Dec., the court met finally, and in answer
to the stereotyped request to abjure, Bilney
said that by Dancaster's advice he was re-
solved to abjure, and trusted they would deal
lightly with him. He then formally read
and subscribed his abjuration, and the bishop,
after absolving him, imposed as penance that
he should the next day (Sunday) go before
the procession at St. Paul's bareheaded with
a faggot on his shoulder, that he should
stand before the preacher at Paul's Cross all
sermon time, and that he should remain in
a prison appointed by the cardinal as long as
the latter thought fit.

Bilney seems to have been kept in the Tower
for more than a year. In 1529 he was re-
leased, and went back to Cambridge. Per-
haps the influence of Latimer, which had
been actively used to help him all through
the proceedings, may have led to his release.
But freedom brought no relief to Bilney.
His sensitive temperament and scrupulous
conscience were tormented with remorse for
his apostasy. His friends did their best to
console him, but to no purpose.

' The comfortable places of scripture,' says
Latimer, l to bring them unto him, it was as
though a man should run him through the
heart with a sword, for he thought the whole
scriptures sounded to his condemnation/
Into such despondency did he fall, that his
friends were afraid to leave him day or night.
He endured this life of misery for more than
two years. At last he resolved to go out
again and preach the truth which he had
denied. Late one night he took leave of
his friends in Trinity Hall, and said 'that he
would go to Jerusalem/ Forthwith he set
out for Norfolk. At first he taught privately,
but growing bolder he preached publicly in the
fields, for, his license to preach having been
withdrawn, the churches were no longer open
to him. Ultimately he went to Norwich,
where he gave ' the anchoress of Norwich y
u copy of Tyndale's Testament. Soon after
he was apprehended by the officers of the
bishop.

Convocation was now assembled in Lon-
don, and on 3 March it drew up articles
against Bilney, Latimer, and Crome. Court
| favour made it easier for the latter two to
I escape, but Bilney 's case as a relapsed heretic
! was now desperate. He seems to have taken
up a bolder line in the last short period of
j field preaching in Norfolk, and even Latimer
. disavowed any sympathy with hirn if he were
a heretic (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII r
v. 607). Arraigned before Dr. Pellis, chan-
[ cellor of the. bishop, Bilney was degraded

Bilney

43

Bilson

from his orders, and handed over to the se-
cular arm for execution. With great cheer-
fulness and fortitude he prepared for his end.
He wrote a letter of farewell, that still sur-
vives (NASMITH, Cat. MSS. in C. C. C. Cam-
bridge, p. 355), to his father and mother, and
drew up two discourses (printed in TOWNS-
EXD'S Foxe, vol. iv. ap. v. ) that are almost
wholly devotional in their character. He
was constantly assailed by the arguments and
entreaties of the chiefs of the four orders of
friars who had houses in Norwich ; and Dr.
Pellis also pressed him to recant. Bilney's
gentle and simple soul could hardly be un-
moved by these efforts. Differing so little
as he did from the church, it was doubtless a
great consolation to him to hear mass, to con-
fess, to receive the eucharist and absolution.
The clergy and the Norwich townsmen were
glad to see him so penitent. On the morn-
ing of his execution (19 Aug. 1531) he heard
mass in the chapel of the Guildhall where he
was imprisoned, and was exhorted to make
a thorough recantation before the people
at his execution. He was led through the
Bishopsgate into a low valley called the Lol-
lard's Pit under St. Leonard's Hill, which
was thronged with the crowd assembled to
witness his martyrdom. He spoke to the
crowd, admitted his error in preaching against
fasting, exculpated the anchoress and even
the friars, but exhorted the people to believe
in the church and eulogised chastity. Dr.
Pellis then produced a bill, saying, ' Thomas,
here is a bill ; ye know it well enough.' 'Ye
say truly, Mr. Doctor/ answered Bilnev/
He then read the bill, but apparently either
to himself or in an inaudible voice, so/that
none knew what the tenor of the document
was (Appendices to FOXE ; Letters and Papers
of Henry VIII, vol. v. No. 372-3, but cf. 522
and 560. Foxe's account seems the less trust-
worthy).

The flames were then lighted, and Bilney
soon perished. A controversy as to the pre- !
cise nature of his last utterances sprang up !
between Read the mayor and an alderman
Curatt, and their contradictory depositions j
still remain. Sir Thomas More, relying upon
Curatt, asserted in the preface to his pamphlet \
against Tyndale that Bilney recanted all his !
heresies. This the protestants denied. Foxe j
argues with much violence against More, but
More had seen the depositions of which Foxe
was ignorant, and Foxe's main argument
is the denial of Matthew Parker, who was
present at his old teacher's execution. The
truth seems to be that Bilney was so little
of a heretic, that a mere statement of his ;
views would have borne the appearance of a ;
recantation to those who, like More, regarded ,

him as a thorough Lutheran. Had Bilney's
over-scrupulous conscience allowed him to
stay quietly at Cambridge a year or two more,
he would have found all and more than he
contended for accepted by the very men who
hounded him on to death. The execution of
a man so gentle and harmless as Bilney was
peculiarly disgraceful to the government,
even if, as most people then admitted, it was
right to burn heretics and sacramentaries.

[Our main authority for Bilney's life is Foxe's
Acts and Monuments, vol. iv. in Townsend's edi-
tion, which also gives valuable appendices of docu-
ments and state papers, all of which, with the
other documents bearing on the subject, are sum-
marised in Letters and Papers of the Reign of
Henry VIII, vol. v., edited by Mr. Gairdner;
Foxe's account can be verified and checked by
comparison with the extracts from the register
of Tunstal, MS. Baker xxi., and by Cole's tran-
scripts from the register of West, MS. Cole xxvi. ;
Latimer's Sermons ; Blomefield's Norfolk ; Tan-
ner's Bibliographia Britannica; an excellent
modern summary is in Cooper's Athenae Canta-
brigienses, i. 42, a longer one in Dean Hook's
Ecclesiastical Biography.] T. F. T.

BILSON, THOMAS (1546-7-1616),
bishop of Winchester, was eldest son of
Herman Bilson, grandson of Arnold Bilson,
whose wife is said to have been a daughter of
the Duke of Bavaria, ' natural or legitimate/
says Anthony a Wood, ' I know not.' He was
by6rn in the city of Winchester in 1546-7, and
^ent to the school there . Thence he proceeded
/to Oxford and entered New College, where he
passed B.A., 10 Oct. 1566 ; M.A., 25 April
1570 ; B.D., 24 June 1579 ; and D.D., 24 Jan.
1 580-1 . He became ' a most noted preacher ' on
taking holy orders, in l these parts and else-
where,' says Wood. He is also stated by some
(adds the Athena)iQ have been a schoolmaster.
He was installed a prebendary of Winchester
on 12 Jan. 1576, and warden of the college
there. He was consecrated bishop of Wor-
cester on 13 June- 1596, and translated to
Winchester on 13 May 1597. 'He was/
continues Anthony a Wood, 'as reverend
and learned a prelate as England ever afforded,
a deep and profound scholar, exactly read in
ecclesiastical authors and with Dr. Richard
Field of Oxon (as Whitaker of Cambridge)
a principal maintainer of the church of Eng-
land, while Jo. Rainolds and Thomas Sparke
were upholders of puritanism and noncon-
formity. ... In his younger years he was in-
finitely studious and industrious in poetry,
philosophy, and physics,' and also in eccle-
siastical divinity. To the last, 'his geny
chiefly inciting him, he became,' says the
same authority, ' so complete in it, so well
skill'd in languages, so read in the fathers

Bilson

44

Binckes

and schoolmen, so judicious in making use
of his readings, that at length he was found
to be no longer a soldier but a commander-
in-chief of the spiritual warfare, especially
when he became a bishop and carried prela-
ture in his very aspect.' His ' True Dif-
ference between Christian Subjection and
Unchristian Rebellion, where the Princes
lawful power to command and bear the
sword are defended against the Pope's cen-
sure and Jesuits' sophisms in their Apology
and Defence of English Catholics; also a
Demonstration that the Things reformed in
the Church of England by the Laws of the
Realm are truly Catholic against the Catho-
lic Rhemish Testament ' (Oxford, 1585), is a
powerful answer to Dr. William Allen's ( De-
fence of English Catholics/ but otherwise
shows want of judgment. Elizabeth had
given him the task in view of her intended
aid to protestant Holland; and, as was
swiftly perceived by nonconformists, Bilson
(in Wood's words) ' gave strange liberty
in many cases, especially concerning religion,
for subjects to cast off their obedience.' His-
torically, it is unquestionable that whilst
this ( True Difference ' served the queen's pre-
sent purpose, it contributed more than any
other to the humiliation, ruin, and death of
Charles I. The weapons forged to beat back
the king 'of Spain were used against the
Stuart.

His ' Perpetual Government of Christ his
Church ' (1593), and his ' Effect of certain
Sermons concerning the Full Redemption of
Mankind by the Death and Blood of Christ
Jesus ' (1599), are superfluously learned and
unattractive. His magnum opus was also
assigned him by Elizabeth, who commanded
him to answer Henry Jacob. It is entitled
< Survey of Christ's Sufferings and Descent
into Hell,' and is, like Bilson's other works,
halting in its logic and commonplace in its
proofs. ' At length,' concludes Wood, ' after
he had gone through many employments and
had lived in continual drudgery as 'twere,
for the public good, he surrendered up his
pious soul, 18 June 1616,' and on the same
date he was interred in Westminster Abbey.
Curiously enough, John Dunbar (a Scottish
poet) furnishes the only contemporary praise
of him in an epigram Avhich the Oxford his-
torian deigns to allow might have been in-
scribed for his epitaph. It runs thus :
Ad Thomam Bilsonum, episcopum Vintoniensem.
Castaliclum commune decus, dignissime prsesul

Bilsone seternis commemorande moclis :
Quam valide adversus Christi inperterritus hostes

Bella geras, libri sunt monumenta tui.
His Hydne ficlei quotquot capita alta resurgunt,

Tu novus Alcides tot resecare soles.

I Anthony u Wood possessed various manu-

I scripts of his Orationes, Carmina Yaria,

j c., c. Besides 'occasional' sermons, there is

among the Lambeth MSS. Bilson's l Letter on

the Election of Warden of Winchester and

New College ' (943, f. 149). There is also a

j ' Letter to the Lord Treasurer soliciting his

I Interest for the Bishoprick of Worcester ' in

1 Strype's 'Annals of the Reformation,' iv. 227,

and there are letters of Bishop Bilson at

Hatfield. Letters of administration were

! granted to his relict Anne on 25 June 1616.

j The baptism of a grandson on 5 Dec. 1616 is

entered in Westminster Abbey Registers.

[Wood's Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 169-71 ;
Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg. 113; Bodleian
Wood MSS.; Lambeth MSS.; Hatfield MSS.;
Bilson's books.] A. B. G.

BINCKES, WILLIAM (d. 1712), dean of

Lichfield, was educated at St. John's College,
| Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1674,
i was elected to a fellowship at Peterhouse, and
I took the degree of M.A. in 1678. He was
I instituted to the prebend of Nassington, in
| the church of Lincoln, 2 May 1683, and to
I that of Basset Parva, in the church of Lich-
! field, 15 July 1697. In 1699 he took the
I degree of D.D. .On 30 Jan. 1701, being then
proctor of the diocese of Lichfield, he preached
before the lower house of convocation a ser-
mon on the martyrdom of Charles I, in which
he drew a parallel between it and the cruci-
fixion of Jesus Christ, maintaining that having
; regard to the superior dignity of a king of
England in actual possession of his crown as
; compared with one who was merely an un-
crowned king of the Jews, and moreover dis-
I claimed temporal sovereignty, the execution at
| Whitehall was an act of greater enormity than
was committed at Calvary. The sermon having
been printed was brought to the notice of the
House of Lords, and a suggestion was made
that it should be publicly burned. The peers,
however, contented themselves with resolving
that it contained * several expressions that
give just scandal and offence to all Christian
people.' In 1703 he was installed dean of
Lichfield (19 June). In 1705 he Avas ap-
pointed prolocutor to convocation. He died
19 June 1712, and was buried at Learning-ton,
of which place he had been vicar. Dean
Binckes built the existing deanery at Lich-
field. He published his sermons between
1702 and 1710.

[Grad. Cantab.; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i.
564, 600, ii. 193 ; Allibone'sDict. of British and
American Authors ; Parl. Hist. vi. 22, 23 ; Har-
wood's Lichfield, 186; Shaw's Staffordshire i
289.] J. M. R.

Bindley

45

Bindley

BINDLEY, CHARLES, better known
as HARRY HIEOVER (1795-1859), sporting-
writer, was born in 1795. His favourite
topics were limiting and stable management.
His first work of any importance was * Stable
Talk and Table Talk, or Spectacles for Young
Sportsmen,' '2 vols. 8vo, the first published
in 1845 and the second in 1846. His auto-
graph was prefixed to the book under a life-
like portrait of him which formed its frontis-
piece. A rollicking ' Hunting Song,' and ' The
Doctor, a true Tale,' comically rhymed, helped
to enliven his animated prose. His second
venture was ' The Pocket and the Stud, or
Practical Hints for the Management of the
Stable,' 1848, 16mo, pp. 215, the frontispiece
being here again a portrait of Harry Hieover
' on his favourite horse Harlequin.' His next
book was ' The Stud for Practical Purposes
and Practical Men,' 1849, 16mo, pp. 205.
Two admirable illustrations in the volume,
each engraved 'from a painting by the author,'
represented respectively a well-shaped road-
ster, 'A pretty good sort for most pur-
poses,' and a wicked-looking, unsightly hack,
' Rayther a bad sort for any purpose.' Another
book from the same hand, similarly illus-
trated, was ' Practical Horsemanship,' 1850,
16mo, pp. 213, the engravings, again from
paintings by the author, portraying the one
k Going like workmen,' and the other ' Going
like muffs.' In the same year (1850) Harry
Hieover brought out another book called
'The Hunting Field,' 16mo, pp. 221, with
pictures of ' The Right Sort ' and ' The Wrong
Sort.' In 1852 Harry Hieover produced a
new edition, carefully revised and corrected
by him, of Delabere Elaine's e Encyclopaedia
of Rural Sports, or complete account, His-
torical, Practical, and Descriptive, of Hunt-
ing, Shooting-, Fishing. Racing, &c.,' 8vo,
pp. 1246. His next works were: 'Bipeds
and Quadrupeds,' 1853, 16mo, pp. 174 ;
' Sporting Facts and Sporting Fancies/ 1853,
8vo, pp. 452 ; l The World : How to square
it,' 1854, 8vo, pp. 290; and 'Hints to Horse-
men: Shewing how to make Money by
Horses,' 1856, 8vo, pp. 214. Harry Hieover
had long been writing in several of the most
important of the sporting periodicals. Essays
from the ' Field ' on such subjects as ' Bridles,'
'Martingals/ 'Buck-jumpers,' 'Kicking in
Harness/ c., were in 1857 reprinted under
the title of ' Precept and Practice/ 8vo, pp.
267. Another collection from the ' Sport-
ing Magazine' upon 'Red Coats and Silk
Jackets/ ' Nobs and Snobs/ ' Hints on
Coachmanship/ 'Imperturbable Jack/ and
' Dare-devils,' appeared in 1857, entitled
' The Sportsman's Friend in a Frost/ 8vo,
pp. 416. In 1858 appeared 'The Sporting

World/ 8vo, pp. 261, and in 1859 'Things
worth knowing about Horses/ 8vo, pp. 266.
His health had been seriously declining, and
in November 1858, in hopes of improving it r
he left London for Brighton, where he be-
came the guest of his friend, Sir Thomas
Barrett-Lennard, Bart., and died in his friend's
house on 10 Feb. 1859, aged 63. In the
number for that very month of the ' Sporting
Review 'and the 'Sportsman' appeared his
last contribution to the magazine, ' Riding
to Hounds, by Harry Hieover.' He was a
I sporting writer of the old school, and seemed
to write under the same exhilaration of spirits
as he might have felt when going across
country.

[Times, 15 Feb. 1859 ; Field. 19 Feb. 1859. p.
! 137; Era, 20 Feb. 1859, p. 3; Sporting Re-
! view, March 1859, xli. 155.] C. K.

BINDLEY, JAMES (1737-1818), book

i collect or, second son of John Bindley, distiller,

I of St. John Street, Smithfield, was born in

! London on 16 Jan. 1737. He was educated

at the Charterhouse under Dr. Crusius, and

then proceeded to Peterhouse, Cambridge r

where he was elected to a fellowship (B.A.

! 1759, M.A. 1762). In 1765 he succeeded his

1 elder brother John as one of the commission-

! ers of the stamp duties, and in that capacity

| he served the public for upwards of fifty-three

years. He was the senior commissioner from

1781 until his death, which occurred at his

house in Somerset Place on 11 Sept. 1818.

A fine monument to his memory was erected

in the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. At the

time of his decease he was the ' father ' of the

Society of Antiquaries, having been elected a.

| fellow in 1765. Bindley devoted his leisure

to literary pursuits, and formed a valuable

! collection of rare books, engravings, and

medals, which were sold by auction after his

| death. He read every proof-sheet of Nichols's

j ' Literary Anecdotes/ which are dedicated to

I him, and of the subsequent ' Illustrations of

I the Literary History of the Eighteenth Cen-

j tury/ frequently suggesting useful emenda-

! tions or adding explanatory notes. A similar

; service he rendered nearly at the close of his

! life to his friend Mr. Bray, in the publication

! of Evelyn's ' Diary.' The only work he him-

i self published was ' A Collection of the Sta-

I tutes now in force relating to the Stamp

! Duties/ London, 1775, 4to. His portrait is

i prefixed to the fourth volume of Nichols's

I ' Illustrations ' (1822), and that volume is

dedicated to his memory.

[Evans's Catalogue of Engraved Portraits,
12842 ; Gent. Mag. Lxxxviii. (ii.) 280, 293, 631,
Ixxxix. (i.) 579 ; New Monthly Mag. x. 374 ;
Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ; Nichols's Illustrations of

Bindon

4 6

Binghatn

Literature ; Biog. Diet, of Living Authors, 27 ;
Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 119; Cat. of
Printed Books in Brit.Mus. ; Addit. MSS. 15951
if. 3, 5, 12 ; 20081 ff. 19, 26 ; 22,308 ff. 11, 31;
27952 f. 115; Cat. of Dawson Turner's Manu-
script Library, 52, 53, 382.] T. C.

BINDON, FRANCIS (d. 1765), painter
.and architect, was born of a respectable
family of Limerick, towards the close of the
seventeenth century. He travelled on the
continent, and acquired reputation in Ireland
both as an architect and a painter. Bindon
was more than once employed by the Duke
of Dorset, lord lieutenant of Ireland, in 1734
to paint his portrait, and entries of the pay-
ments made to him appear in an unpublished
account-book of that viceroy. In 1735 Bindon
painted a portrait of Swift, who sat for it at [
the request of Lord Howth. This picture is \
of full length, and in it Wood, the patentee for j
the noted halfpence, is represented as writhing
in agony at the feet of the dean. In 1738
Bindon painted for the chapter of St. Patrick's j
Cathedral, Dublin, another full-length por- ,
trait of Swift, The chapter paid 36/. 16s. for ;
this picture, which is preserved at the Deanery
House, St. Patrick's, Dublin. A contempo- j
fary mezzotinto of large size was published j
of it, and it was also engraved by Edward I
Scriven in 1818. In connection with this |
portrait an epistle, in Latin verse, was ad- j
dressed to Bindon by William Dunkin, A.M.,
4 Epistola ad Franciscum Bindonum.' Of this |
An English poetical version was published in
1740, ' An Epistle to Mr. Bindon, occasioned >
by his painting a picture of the Rev. Dr.
Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's/ From Swift's
correspondence it appears that Bindon also I
painted a portrait of him for Mr. Nugent, sub- j
:sequently Lord Clare. In a letter from Bath, |
in 1740, Nugent writes to Mrs. Whiteway : |
* I must beg that you will let Mr. Bindon j
know I would have the picture no more j
than a head, upon a three-quarter cloth, to |
match one which I now have of Mr. Pope.'
A bust-portrait of Swift, ascribed to Bindon,
and formerly in the possession of the Rev.
Edward Berwick, editor of the ' Rawdon I
Papers,' 1819, is now in the National Gal-
lery, Dublin. Bindon executed a full-length j
portrait of Richard Baldwin [q. v.], pro- j
vost of Trinity College, Dublin. Among
the portraits by Bindon, of which con-
temporary engravings appeared, were those
of the following- : Hugh Boulter, primate of
Ireland, 1742 ; Charles Cobbe, archbishop of
Dublin, 1746 ; General Richard St. George, !
1755 ; Henry Singleton, chief justice, Ire-
land ; and Hercules L. Rowley. Bindon's
chief architectural works were three mansions j
one erected in the county of Wicklow for

the Earl of Milltown, and two in Kilkenny for
Lord Bessborough and Sir William Fownes
respectively. Bindon was granted an annual
pension of 100/. on the Irish establishment
in 1750, about which time he retired from
his profession, owing to age and failure of
sight. He died on 2 June 1765, ' suddenly,
as he was taking the air in his chariot,' In
Sir Walter Scott's edition of Swift's works
Bindon's Christian name is erroneously given
as Samuel.

[MSS. of Lionel Cranfield, Duke of Dorset ;
Establishments Ireland 1750, MS. ; Dublin
Journal, 1765 ; Mason's History of St. Patrick's,
Dublin, 1820; Redgrave's Diet, of Artists.l

J. T. J G.

BINGHA.M, GEORGE (1715-1800), di-
vine and antiquary, the sixth son of Richard
Bingham, and Philadelphia, daughter and
heir of John Potinger, by Philadelphia,
daughter of Sir John Ernie, knight, chan-
cellor of the exchequer, was born on 7 Nov.
1715 at Melcombe, Dorsetshire, where the
family had resided for several centuries.
He was brought up under the care of his
maternal grandfather, Mr. Potinger. At
twelve years of age he was sent to West-
minster School, and in 1732 he was elected
from the foundation to a scholarship at Trinity
College, Cambridge, but entered as a com-
moner at Christ Church, Oxford. After
taking his B.A. degree he was elected a fel-
low of All Souls, and there graduated M.A.
in 1739 and B.D. in 1748. At All Souls he
formed lasting friendships with Sir William
Blackstone and Dr. Benjamin Buckler, whom
he assisted in drawing up the ' Stemmata
Chicheliana.' In 1745-6, during the rebel-
lion, he served the office of proctor in the
university, and acted with great spirit. On
the death of the Rev. Christopher Pitt, the
translator of the ' JEneid,' Bingham was in-
stituted, on 23 May 1748, to the rectory of
Pimperne, Dorsetshire. He resigned his fel-
lowship on his marriage ; but his wife, by
whom he had a daughter and two sons,
died in 1756 at the age of thirty-five. He
had just been presented by Sir Gerard Napier
to the living of More Critchell (1755), to
which that of Long Critchell was annexed
in 1774. He was elected proctor for the
diocese of Salisbury in the convocations of
1761, 1768, 1774, and 1780. His eldest son,
the senior scholar at Winchester, was acci-
dentally drowned while bathing in the river
Itchin in 1768. In 1781 Bishop Bagot offered
him the Warburtonian lecture, but he de-
clined to preach it, because he held that the
church of Rome, though corrupt, was not
chargeable, as Warburton meant to prove,

Bingham

47

Bingham

with apostasy. He died at Pimperne on
11. Oct. 1800, aged 85, and was buried in the
chancel of the church, where a marble monu-
ment, with a long inscription in Latin, was
erected to his memory.

Bingham enjoyed a considerable reputa-
tion for great abilities and profound learning ;
he was a good Hebrew scholar and an eminent
divine. The only works he published in his
lifetime are : 1. An anonymous essay on the
Millennium, entitled <Ta ^tAia en;,' 1772.
2. 'A Vindication of the Doctrine and Liturgy
of the Church of England, occasioned by the
Apology of the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey,
M.A., on resigning the vicarage of Catterick,
Yorkshire,' Oxford, 1774, 8vo. This was
dedicated to Dr. Newton, bishop of Bristol,
who made favourable mention of it in a
charge to the clergy of his diocese in 1776.
Both these works were reprinted in a col-
lection of his l Dissertations, Essays, and Ser-
mons ' (2 vols., London, 1804), edited, with a
biographical memoir, by his son, Peregrine
Bingham the elder [q. v.], rector of Ed-
mondsham, Dorsetshire. The collection also
includes: 3. * Dissertationes Apocalypticae,' in
three parts. 4. 'Paul at Athens,' an essay.
5. ' Commentary on Solomon's Song.' 6. Four
sermons.

Bingham was an able archaeologist and
rendered valuable assistance to the Rev.
John Hutchins in the compilation of the
' History of Dorsetshire.' His ' Biographical
Anecdotes ' of Hutchins are printed in the
* Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica/ No.
xxxiv., 2nd ed. London, 1813, 4to.

[Memoir by Rev. Peregrine Bingham ; Gent.
Mag. Ixxiii. 1017-20, Ixxiv. 117-120, 1041,
Ixxv. 423, 445, xcvi. (ii.) 91, 92; Hutchins's
Dorsetshire, 2nd edit. i. liii, 177, ii. 492, iii. 107,
19, iv. 200-202; Welch's Alumni Westmon.
(1852), 291, 297, 304, 306 ; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]

T. C.

BINGHAM, SIK GEORGE RIDOUT

-(1777-1833), major-general and colonel-com-
mandant of 2nd battalion rifle brigade, was
the son of Richard Bingham, colonel of the
Dorset militia, by his second wife, Eliza-
beth, daughter of J. Ridout, and was born
on 21 July 1777. He entered the army
in June 1793 as ensign in the 69th foot,
serving with it in Corsica and with one of
the detachments embarked as marines under
Admiral Hotham, in the Gulf of Genoa.
Promoted to a company in the 81st foot in
1796, he served with that regiment at the
Cape, and took part in the Kaffir war of 1800
on the Sundays River. In 1801 he became
major in the 82nd foot, and was with it in
Minorca until that island was finally restored

to Spain at the peace of Amiens. In 1805 he
was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the newly
raised 2nd battalion 53rd foot in Ireland, and,
proceeding with it to Portugal four years
later, fought at its head throughout its dis-
tinguished Peninsular career, beginning with
the expulsion of the French from Oporto in
1809, and ending with the close of the Burgos
retreat in 1812. The battalion being then
reduced to a skeleton, and having no home
battalion to relieve or reinforce it (the 1st
battalion was in India), was sent home, but
four companies were left in Portugal, and
these, with four companies of 2nd Queen's
similarly circumstanced, were formed into a
provisional battalion which, under the com-
mand of Colonel Bingham, performed gallant
service in the subsequent campaigns in Spain
and the south of France, including the vic-
tories at Vittoria, in the Pyrenees, and on the
Nivelle. When it was decided to consign the
Emperor Napoleon to St. Helena, Colonel
(now Sir George) Bingham was senior officer
of the troops sent thither, and continued to
serve in the island with the rank of brigadier-
general, as second in command under Sir
Hudson Lowe, until 1819, when he returned
home on promotion. Some unpublished
letters and memoranda of Bingham relating
to St. Helena are among the British Museum
Additional MSS. Sir George was afterwards
on the Irish staff, and commanded the Cork
district from 1827 to 1832, a most distracted
period, when the discord fomented by the ca-
tholic emancipation debates was aggravated
i by agrarian crime, famine, and latterly by
| pestilence. In Ireland, as at St. Helena, Sir
I George Bingham's fine tact and kindliness of
i disposition appear to have won general esteem.
He is described as having been a thorough
gentleman as well as a brilliant soldier. He
died in London on 3 Jan. 1833.

[Hutchins's Hist, of Dorset (ed. 1815, iv. 203) ;
Cannon's Hist. Eecord 53rd (Shropshire) Regt.
of Foot; Gent. Mag. ciii. (i.) 274; Ann. Biog.
! vol. xviii.] H. M. C.

BINGHAM, JOHN (1607-1689), divine,
was born at Derby, and as he was in his
eighty-second year when he died in 1689, his
birth-date must have been in 1606-7. He was
educated at Repton school. Later he proceeded
to Cambridge, and was entered of St. John's
College. He ran the usual academical course,
and left in his twenty-fourth year (1631-2) for
London, * for the cure of a foot which was
hurt when he was a child.' After two years
under the surgeons he was compelled to
have his leg amputated. The pain caused by
his injured foot had turned his hair white at
twenty-six. He acted as domestic chaplain in

Bingham

4 8

Bingham

one of the county families. About 1640 he
was chosen as what was called middle-master
of the free school at Derby, and afterwards
head-master. The school soon won under
him more than a provincial fame. He had
some scruples as to subscription,'but the Earl
of Devonshire having presented him to the
vicarage of Marston-upon-Dove (Derbyshire),
he was prevailed upon to accept it. He con-
tinued in his cure until his ejection in 1662.
Having an intimacy of long standing with
Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, that pre-
late condescended to write to him with
his own hand to persuade him to conform,
telling him l that he lay so near his heart
that he would help him to any preferment
he desired.' The vicar acknowledged the
personal kindness shown, but reminded the
archbishop t that they two had not been
such strangers but that his grace might
very well know his sentiments on the sub-
ject,' and added l that he would not offer
violence to his conscience for the best pre-
ferment in the world.'

Upon the passing of the Five Mile Act
( 1665) Bingham retired to Bradley Hall. For
three years he was occupied in teaching sons
of the gentry who boarded with him. After-
wards he lived for seven years at Brailsford.
Here he met with much trouble. He was
excommunicated by the church incumbent,
though every one knew that the ejected vicar
was a man of great moderation. He and his
family used to attend their parish church
every Lord's-day morning, but he was wont
of an afternoon to preach at his own house,
but only to the number allowed by the act.
Upon the Indulgence he preached at Holling-
ton, in rotation with other ejected ministers.
The excommunication of Bingham made a
great sensation in Brailsford parish, and there-
fore to avoid further uproar he removed, with
all his household, to Upper Thurneston in the
parish of Sutton.

Bingham was well acquainted not only
with Latin and Greek, but with Hebrew,
Syriac, and Arabic. He helped Walton with
his great polyglot Bible. He was himself a
subscriber to it, and by a wide correspondence
rallied others around the illustrious scholar.
When he was about seventy he broke an
arm by a fall from his horse. The next year
he was taken with a quartan ague, which
afflicted him seven years. He had an im-
pression 'borne in upon him that, old and
frail as he was, he should live to see a very
great change.' He lived to welcome Wil-
liam and Mary, whose coming to the throne
he regarded as the fulfilment of his impres-
sion. He died 3 Feb. 1689. His funeral ser-
mon was preached by Crompton from Psalm

xii. 1. He was interred at Upper Thurneston.
He appears to have published nothing.

[Calamy's Account ; Palmer's Nonconf. Mem.
i. 415-17 ; Simpson's Hist, of Derby and Derby-
shire ; local researches show that so late as 1768
descendants occupied influential positions in
Derby.] A. B. G.

BINGHAM, JOSEPH (1668-1723),
author of the ' Origines Ecclesiasticse,' or
' Antiquities of the Christian Church,' was
born at Wakefield in September 1768, and edu-
cated in his native town until 1684, when he
went to University College, Oxford. Even in
his undergraduate days he devoted himself to
the studies which afterwards made his name
famous. He took his B. A. degree in 1688, and
was elected fellow of University in 1689. In
1691 he was made a college tutor, and in that
capacity developed the talents and directed
the tastes of a fellow-townsman, John Potter,
who had followed him from Wakefield to
University, and afterwards became arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and author of the well-
known works oh ' Church Government ' and
the 'Antiquities of Greece.' In 1695, when
the Trinitarian controversy was at its height,
Bingham preached a perfectly orthodox ser-
mon on the subject at St. Mary's, in which
he gave a most accurate sketch of the opi-
nions of the early fathers on the terms { per-
son' and 'substance.' The Hebdomadal Board,
however, charged him with having ' asserted
doctrines false, impious, and heretical, con-
trary and dissonant to those of the catholic
church.' This severe censure was followed
by other charges in the public press, ac-
cusing him of Arianism, Tritheism, and the-
heresy of Valentinus Gentilis. The result
was that he was obliged to resign his fellow-
ship and withdraw from the university. The
blunder does not appear to have been re-
corded in the books of the university, but
the sad fact remains that Oxford drove from
her walls one of her most distinguished sons,
on charges of which he was perfectly inno-
cent. Bingham was not left quite destitute ;
as soon as he resigned his fellowship he was
presented by the well-known Dr. Radcliffe,
without any solicitation, to the living of
Headbourn- Worthy. It was worth only 100/.
a year, but it had the advantage of being
close to Winchester, where Bingham could
make use of the excellent cathedral library
founded by Bishop Morley. Soon after his
appointment to Worthy, Bingham was in-
vited to preach a visitation sermon in Win-
chester Cathedral, and he chose the same
subjects and expressed the same sentiments
which had given such deep offence at Ox-
ford. The sermon gave so much satisfaction.

Bingham

49

Bingham

that he was invited to preach again on a
similar occasion in the following year, when
he brought to a conclusion what he wished
to say further on the subject of the Trinity.
All the three sermons may be found in his
published works, and every competent per-
son must admit that they are not only a most
orthodox, but also a most valuable contribu-
tion to the literature of this mysterious sub-
ject. In 170:2 Bingham married Dorothy,
daughter of the Rev. R. Pocock, rector of
Elmore, and by her became the father of ten
children. In 1708 the first volume of the
1 Antiquities ' was published, the tenth and
last in 1722, the year before his death, and a
large proportion of these fourteen years was
occupied in the composition of this great
work. In 1712 he was collated by the Bishop
of Winchester to the living of Havant, near
Portsmouth. As Havant was a better living
than Worthy, and his writings began to bring
him in a little money, he was for a time less
straitened by poverty than he had hitherto
been. But he foolishly embarked his money
in the South Sea Bubble, and in 1720 the
bubble burst. His constitution, which was
naturally weak, was still, further enfeebled
by his sedentary habits, and after a long
struggle with delicate health, anxiety, and
poverty, he died 17 Aug. 1723, and was buried
in his old parish of Headbourn-Worthy.

In one respect, at any rate, Bingham was
fortunate, viz. in hitting upon a subject which
wanted dealing with, and for dealing with
which he was admirably adapted. ' He was
the first,' says a German writer, 'that pub-
lished a complete archaeology [of the Chris-
tian church] and one worthy of the name.'
And, we may add, he will probably be the
last. What he did he did so thoroughly and
exhaustively, that he would be a bold man
who should attempt again to go over ground
so completely traversed. His object is thus
stated by himself : l The design which I have
formed to myself is to give such a methodical
account of the antiquities of the Christian
church as others have done of the Greek and
Roman and Jewish antiquities, by reducing
the ancient customs, usages, and practices of
the church under certain proper heads, where-
by the reader may take a view at once of any
particular usage or custom of Christians for four
or five centuries.' Not a name, not an office,
not a usage, not a law is omitted, or, indeed,
left without the very fullest explanation. In
ten substantial volumes, in which not a word
is wasted, he completely exhausts his great
subject, treating it with consummate learn-
ing and admirable impartiality. He is too
full of matter to trouble himself much about
style, but he writes naturally, and with a

VOL. V.

quiet, scholarly simplicity which is very at-
tractive. The work was one not only for the
church of England, but for every Christian
community; it was very fitting, therefore,
that it should be translated into Latin ; the
universal language is the most suitable ve-
| hicle for a work which is of universal interest.
The ' Antiquities ' is, of course, the one
j imperishable monument which Bingham has
raised for himself ; but his lesser works,
though now forgotten, are written in the
same exhaustive fashion. The largest of these
| is entitled 'The French Church's Apology
for the Church of England,' which * contains
I a modest vindication of the doctrine, worship,
government, and discipline of our church
I from the chief objections of dissenters, and
I returns answer to them upon the principles
I of the reformed church of France.' The work
! was a very seasonable one, being written at
I a time when this country was flooded with
French refugees, who were thought likely to
! swell the ranks of nonconformists. Bingham
appeals to the refugees as well as to the Eng-
lish dissenters, urging them that, 'as they
regarded the venerable authority of their own
national synods, and of the avowed prin-
ciples of that church, into which they were
baptised, they should vigorously maintain and
assert the cause of the church of England
against all that set up distinct communions,
&c.' He takes point by point, and works out
each with extraordinary ingenuity and accu-
racy; but the subject "is now quite out of
date. Another of his lesser works is a ' Scho-
lastical History of the Practice of the Church
in reference to Administration of Baptism by
Laymen.' This was at first intended to be
only a single chapter in the ' Antiquities,
but the subject grew upon his hands (partly
through the fact of a Mr. Lawrence taking
up an opposite view, which Bingham felt
bound to controvert), and he published it as
a separate treatise. He contends that in ex-
traordinary cases baptism by a layman in
full communion with the church is valid,
and he brings his inexhaustible store of
learning to bear upon the case. Two long
letters on 'Absolution/ addressed to the
Bishop of Winchester, which are a sort of
appendix to the treatise on lay baptism, and
which finally dispose of Mr. Lawrence, and
an excellent discourse ' On the Mercy of God,'
intended for the use of persons troubled in
mind, complete the list of this great writer's
works. Though the list is not a long one,
Bingham's literary industry must have been
enormous ; the ' Antiquities ' alone is suffi-
cient to prove this. The work bears on the
face of it traces of many years' reading, be-
fore the writing began at all, and the labour

Bingham

Bingham

must have been all the more severe because
lie was sadly cramped for books in spite of
his proximity to Bishop Morleys library.
His family preserved a copy of Pearson
' On the Creed,' in which were eight pages
neatly transcribed in his own hand, because
he could not afford the few shillings requi-
site to purchase a new copy in the place of
his own mutilated one. But never was lite-
rary industry less thrown away. Bingham
has not only written an invaluable work,
but he has secured for the English church
the glory of supplying a serious deficiency in
ecclesiastical literature. Even Komanists
have been forced to confess that the * Anti-
quities ' is a most important addition to theo-
logical libraries, and the fact that it was
translated into Latin by a German protestant
(Professor Grischovius or Grischow) shows
how highly it was appreciated by the reformed
churches abroad. Bingham,'s reward was pos-
thumous. His eldest son, Richard, was pre-
sented to the living of Havant in recognition
of his father's merits, and the Bishop of Lon-
don (Dr. Robert Lowth) bestowed a living on
his grandson, saying: 'I venerate the memory
of your grandfather. He was not rewarded as
he ought to have been. I therefore give you
this living as a small recompense of his great
and inestimable merits.' His biographer tells
us that * his disposition was of the purest and
mildest cast, and was never ruffled by the
common accidents and occurrences of life.' He
had every kind of wisdom but worldly wisdom.
All pecuniary matters were managed by his
wife, who, we are sorry to learn, was left de-
pendent upon charity, for she died in 1755
in Bishop Warner's College for Clergymen's
Widows at Bromley. The only occupation
which diverted him from his studies was
the care of his parish, to which he attended
conscientiously. Within a short time of his
death he was busy collecting materials for a
new work, and revising the l Antiquities/ for
a new edition. His second son, Joseph, was
. educated at the Charterhouse and Corpus
College, Oxford. He was a scholar of great
promise, and died of over-work at the age
of 22.

The order of Bingham's works as published
in his lifetime appears to have been as fol-
lows : 1. ' Three Sermons on the Trinity,'
1695-7. 2. * The French Church's Apology,'
&c., 1706. 3. The < Origines Ecclesiastic^,'
published volume by volume at intervals be-
tween 1708 and 1722. 4. < The Scholastical
History of Lay Baptism,' &c., part i. in 1712,
part ii. 1714, virtually concluded by the
' Dissertation upon the 8th Canon of the
Council of Nice ' (1710 ?). 5. The ' Discourse
concerning the Mercy of God,' &c. ; about 1720.

The first collective edition of his works was
published in 2 vols. folio in 1726. The misfor-
tunes which haunted Bingham during his life
pursued him after death. This edition was not
so perfect as it easily might have been made ;
for, in her poverty, * Mrs. Bingham was in-
duced to sell the copyright of her late hus-
band's writings to the booksellers, who im-
mediately republished the whole of his works
without making any alteration whatever ;
and though the eldest son undertook the
office of correcting the press, he did not in-
sert any of the manuscript additions which
his father had prepared ; he was then so
young that he probably had not the oppor-
tunity of examining his father's books and
papers sufficiently to discover that any such
preparations for a new edition had been
made ' (Memoir^). Bingham also died just
too soon to see the commencement of a work
for which he had long been anxious. In
1724 appeared the first volume of the ' Ori-
gines,' published in Latin by J. H. Grischow
at Halle. The other volumes followed in due
l course, and the whole appeared under the fol-
io wing title : f Josephi Binghami Origines, sive
Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae. Ex Lingua An-
glicana in Latinam vertit J. H. Grischovius.
Accedit Prsefatio J. F. Buddsei. 10 torn. 4to.
Halae, 1724-1729.' Another edition of the
same is dated ' Halae Magdeburgicae, 1751-
1781.' The best edition of Bingham's full
| works, including the sermons on the Trinity,
| &c., was published by Bingham's lineal de-
scendant in 9 vols. 8vo, 1821-9, with a short
de- j but interesting memoir prefixed to vol. i. by
I Bingham's great-grandson, Richard Bingham
the elder [q. v.] Another edition of the above,
with the quotations at length in the original
languages, was published by the Rev. J. R.
Pitman, 1838-40. And another edition of
the same was published by the Clarendon
Press, Oxford, in 10 vols., in 1855. A reprint
of the 'Antiquities,' 2 vols. imp. 8vo, was-
j issued by Bohn in 1845 and 1852. As early
as 1722 'a summary of Christian antiqui-
ties, abridged from Bingham's Antiquities,'
entitled l Ecclesiae Primitives Notitia,' was
published in 2 vols. 8vo by A. Blackamore.

[Article in Biog. Brit. .communicated by his son
Richard; Life in Works (1829), by his great-
grandson, -who was also author of the life in
Chalmers's Biog. Diet.] J. H. 0.

BINGHAM, MARGARET, COUNTESS OF
LUCAN (d. 1814), amateur painter a lady
who, according to Horace Walpole, ' arrived
at copying the most exquisite works of Isaac
and Peter Oliver, Hoskins, and Cooper, with
a genius that almost depreciates those masters
when we consider that they spent their lives

Bingham

Bingham

in attaining perfection ; and who, soaring 1 |
above their modest timidity, has transferred j
the vigour of Raphael to her copies in water j
colours ' was the daughter and coheir of !
James Smyth. In 17(50 she married Sir ;
Charles Bingham, bart. (1735-1799), created j
(1776) Baron Lucan of Castlebar, county !
Mayo, and in 1795 Earl of Lucan. There
are frequent allusions to her in Walpole's
letters, and in the memoirs of Mrs. Delany. !
' Mrs. Delany used to admire and wonder at ''
her talent for painting, and yet her want of
eye for drawing, as she would often totally
mistake the distance between one feature
and another (till i was pointed out to her)
and yet imitate colouring and finish to per- j
fection.' Horace Walpole becomes some- |
what silly upon the subject of her perfec- '.
tions, and is laughed at therefore by Peter
Pindar. In one place he writes : l Lady
Bingham is, I assure you, another miracle ; ' j
in another : ' They are so amazed and charmed
at Paris with Lady Bingham's miniatures,
that the Duke of Orleans has given her a
room at the Palais Royal to copy which of
his pictures she pleases.' She seems, indeed,
to have been a clever amateur, but of little
originality, and not careful, as the above-
quoted criticism would show, to be exact in
her drawing. She spent much time upon
a great work, the embellishment of Shake-
speare's historical plays. Of this monumental
labour an account is preserved in Dibdin's
* yEdes Althorpianae ' (i. 200) : l During six-
teen years this accomplished lady pursued I
the pleasurable toil of illustration, having
commenced in her fiftieth and finished in her
sixty-sixth year. Whatever of taste, beauty,
and judgment in decoration, by means of
portraits, landscapes, houses and tombs,
flowers, birds, insects, heraldic ornaments and
devices, could dress our immortal bard in a
yet more fascinating form, has been accom-
plished by a noble hand which undertook a
Herculean task, and with a truth, delicacy,
and finish of execution which have been very
rarely imitated.' The work was completed
in five volumes. The binding was by Herring,
and was considered his best work. The colo-
phon of the last volume has a portrait of
Lady Lucan, with attendant virtues, drawn
by her daughter, Lady Lavinia Spencer. This
work is preserved in the library of Althorp.
She died on 27 Feb. 1814, leaving five
children : Lavinia, who married the second
Earl Spencer in 1781 ; Eleanor Margaret,
married Thomas Lindsay, Esq. ; Louisa and
Anne, both died unmarried; and Richard,
second Earl Lucan, an only son and heir.

[Walpole's Letters, v., Gen. Index ; Anecdotes
of Painting, i., Introduction, pp. xviii, xix ; Au-

tobiography and Letters of Mrs. Delany, v.,
Gen. Index, vol. vi. ; Lodge's Genealogy of the
Peerage, 1859 ; Redgrave's Diet, of Artists of
English School; Gent. Mag.lxxxiv (i.) 301,lxxxv.
(i.) 280 ; Foster's Peerage, s.v. 'Lucan.'] E. R.

BINGHAM, PEREGRINE, the elder
(1754-182(3), biographer and poet, was son of
George Bingham, B.D., rector of Pimperne,
Dorsetshire [q. v.] He was educated at New
College, Oxford (B.C.L. 1780); became rector
of Edmondsham, Dorset, in 1782, and of Ber-
wick St. John, Wiltshire, in 1817. At one
time he was chaplain of H.M.S. Agincourt.
He died on 28 May 1826, aged 72.

He wrote Memoirs of his father, prefixed
to 'Dissertations, Essays, and Sermons, by
the late George Bingham, B.D.,' 2 vols.,
1804. These Memoirs, which are abridged
in Hutchins's 'Dorset,' new edit. iv. 201,
gave rise to a controversy between the author
and the rector of Critchill (Gent. Mag.
Ixxv. 445). Bingham also wrote * The Pains
of Memory, a poem, in two books,' London,
1811, 12mo, 2nd edit., with vignettes, 1812.

[Biog. Diet, of Living Authors (18 16), 27; Cat.
of Oxford Graduates (1851), 59; Gent. Mag.
xcv. (ii.) 91 ; Burke's Diet, of the Landed Gentry
(1868), 100.] T. C.

BINGHAM, PEREGRINE, the younger
(1788-1864), legal writer, was the eldest son
of Peregrine Bingham the elder [q. v.], by
Amy, daughter of William Bowles. He was
educated at Winchester School and Magdalen
College, Oxford (B.A. 1810), was called to
the bar at the Middle Temple in 1818, and
Avas for many years a legal reporter. He also
took great interest in literature, and was one
of the principal contributors to the ' West-
minster Review,' which was established in
1824. John Stuart Mill in describing the
appearance of the first number says : ' The
literary and artistic department had rested
chiefly on Mr. Bingham, a barrister (subse-
quently a police magistrate), who had been
for some years a frequenter of Bentham,
was a friend of both the Austins, and had
adopted with great ardour Bentham's philo-
sophical opinions. Partly from accident there
were in the first number as many as five
articles by Bingham, and we were extremely
pleased with them.' He edited Bentham's
* Book of Fallacies.'

Bingham became one of the police magis-
trates at Great Marlborough Street, and re-
signed that appointment about four years be-
fore his death, which occurred on 2 Nov. 1864.
His works are : 1. ' The Law and Practice
of Judgments and Executions, including ex-
tents at the suit of the Crown,' London, 1815,
8vo. 2. ' The Law of Infancy and Coverture,

E 2

Bingham

Bingham

London, 181G, 8vo, first American edition,
Exeter, U.S., 1824, 8vo. 3. 'A Digest of
the Law of Landlord and Tenant,' London,
1820, 8vo. 4. ' A System of Shorthand, on
the principle of the Association of Ideas,'
London, 1821, 8vo; a stenographic system
of no practical value. 5. ' Reports of Cases
argued and determined in the Court of Com-
mon Pleas and other Courts,' from Easter
term 1819, to Michaelmas term 1840, 19 vols.,
London, 1821-40, 8vo. The first three volumes
of these reports were compiled jointly with
W. J. Broderip.

[Law Times, 5 Nov. 1864, p. 6; Addit. MS.
29539, f. 126; Burke's Diet, of the Landed
Gentry (1868), 100; Gent. Mag. ccxvii. 806;
Mill's Autobiography, 95, 114; Cat. of Oxford
Graduates (1851), 59 ; Wallace's Reporters, 330 ;
Clarke's Bibl. Legum, 258, 301 ; Marvin's Legal
Bibliography, 109.] T. C.

BINGHAM or BYNGHAM, SIR
RICHARD (1528-1599), governor of Con-
naught, was the third son of Richard Bing-
ham, of Melconibe-Bingham, Dorsetshire, by
his wife Alice, daughter of Thomas Coker.
Born in 1528, he was trained as a soldier
from youth, and apparently took part in the
Protector Somerset's expedition to Scotland
in 1547. He was one of the Englishmen
serving with the Spaniards against the French
at the battle of St. Quentin in 1557, and in
October 1558, just before the death of Queen
Mary, was engaged in a naval expedition
against the ' Out-isles ' of Scotland. In the
early years of Elizabeth's reign he fought
with the Spaniards and Venetians, under
Don John of Austria, against the Turks, and
seems to have token part in the conquest of
Cyprus and the battle of Lepanto (7 Oct.
1572). In 1573 and the following year
Bingham was in the Low Countries, com-
municating to Burghley the details of the
struggle with Spain. In 1576 he accom-
panied Sir Edward Horsey on an abortive
mission to Don John of Austria to effect a
peace between Spain and the States-General
of Holland. On 17 March 1577-8 Elizabeth
granted Bingham an annuity of fifty marks in
recognition of his military and diplomatic
services, and later in 1578 he fought with
exceptional valour as a volunteer under the
Dutch flag against the Spaniards. In 1579
he was sent to Ireland to aid in the repres-
sion of the Desmond insurrection. In Sep-
tember 1580 he was captain of the Swiftsure
in the expedition sent under the command of
Admiral "Winter to dislodge the Spaniards
and Italians from Smerwick, where they had
landed to support the Irish rebels, and Bing-
ham took part in the massacre of the invaders

which followed the attack upon them by sea
and laud. A full account of the action, sent
by Bingham to Walsingham, is now in the
Public Record Office. On 30 Sept. 1583 a
commission was issued to Bingham to ap-
prehend pirates in the narrow seas, and the
queen directed Burghley to instruct Bing-
ham to seize Dutch ships for debts due to
her, under colour of looking for pirates.

In the following year (1584) Bingham
was appointed governor of Connaught, and
knighted at Dublin Castle by Lord-deputy
! Perrot on 12 July. He was from the first re-
j solved to make the Irish conform to English
customs, but he administered the province in
the early days of his government with suffi-
| cient fairness to satisfy most of his subjects
| as well as the home government. But during
j the Connaught rebellion of 1586 Bingham
knew no mercy. At Galway early in 1586 he
! presided at the assizes, when seventy persons
were condemned to death for disloyalty. In
| the same year he laid siege to Cluain-Dub-
I hain or Cloonoon, in Clare, the strongest
! castle in Ireland, and had the owner, a re-
puted rebel (Mahon O'Briain) shot, and the
garrison put to the sword. Later in 1586 the
Bourkes of Mayo broke into open revolt, and
Bingham reduced their castle of Lough Mask
and hanged its occupants. He confiscated
the greater part of the Bourkes' property, and
defeated in August, with terrible slaughter,
by the river Moy, a party of 3,000 High-
landers who had come over to the aid of the
rebels. Sir John Perrot, the lord-deputy,
visited Connaught after the suppression of
the rebellion and was dissatisfied with Bing-
ham's rigorous action. For the ten following
years Perrot and Bingham were repeatedly in
personal conflict, and appeal was frequently
made to Walsingham to settle the various
matters in dispute between them. Bingham
was perpetually complaining to Walsingham
of the smallness of his salary, and asserted
that most of the expenses of government were
defrayed out of his own purse. The lord-
: deputy represented that Bingham was in re-
ceipt of an official income of 1,941/. 12s. 4d.;
\ but Bingham, in a detailed examination of
| his sources of revenue, showed that he never
I received more than 505/. a year. In 1587
Bingham was temporarily recalled from Ire-
land to take part in the war in the Nether-
lands, and Lord Willoughby, who highly
respected Bingham, was anxious that he
should take the command of the army at the
close of 1587, when Leicester was ordered
home (LADY G. BERTIE'S Account of Bertie,
; 132, 138, 143). In 1588 Bingham was fre-
I quently in consultation with Burghley and
I the other ministers as to the defence of the

Bingham

53

Bingham

country against the Spaniards. But before
the close of 1588 he had resumed his post
in Connaught, and in September he issued
orders that all Spanish refugees landing on
the coast of his province should be brought to
Galway and there put to death. He after-
wards claimed to have thus rid his country j
of 1,000 of the enemy. In 1590-1 Bingham >
was engaged in repressing the revolt of Sir
Bryan O'Rourke, of Leitrim, who was
captured, sent to England, and hanged at ,
Tyburn on 28 Oct. 1591. Bingham's account j
of his proceedings against Rourke is printed
in the < Egerton Papers ' (Camden Soc.,
pp. 144-57). In the following year Perrot
formally complained to the queen of Bing-
ham's habitual severity and insubordination,
and in September 1596 Bingham, fearful that
his adversaries would do him serious injury,
hurriedly came to England to appeal (as he
said) for justice. He left Ireland without
leave, and on arriving in London was sent
to the Fleet prison. On 2 Oct. 1596 he ad-
dressed a piteous letter to Burghley, praying
for release. This petition was apparently
granted soon afterwards, but Bingham was
suspended from his office. The outbreak of
O'Neill's rebellion in 1598 induced the au-
thorities to reinstate him. His knowledge of
Irish affairs was judged to be without parallel
in England, and when the Cecils first sug-
gested that Essex should command the expe-
dition against the Irish rebels Bacon strongly
urged Essex to take Bingham's advice (SPED-
DISTG'S Bacon, ii. 95-6). In September 1598
Bingham left England with five thousand
men to assume the office of marshal of Ire-
land, vacated by the death in battle at Black-
water of Sir Henry Bagnall. But Bingham
had scarcely entered on his new duties when
he died at Dublin on 19 Jan. 1598-9.

A cenotaph was erected to 'his memory in
the south aisle of the choir of AVestminster j
Abbey by Sir John Bingley, at one time j
Bingham's servant. On it was inscribed a I
highly laudatory account of his military
achievements. 'Sir Henry Docwra, after-
wards commander of the forces in Ireland, \
drew up a * relation ' of Bingham's early ser-
vices in Connaught, which was published for
the first time by the Celtic Society in 1849.
The manuscript is in the library of Trinity \
College, Dublin. Bingham was described by j
Sir Nicholas Lestrange as * a man eminent
hoth for spiritt and martiall knowledge, but
of a very small stature ' (THOM'S Anecdotes
and Traditions (Camden Society), p. 18).

Sir Richard was aided in his Irish admi-
nistration by two younger brothers, George
and John. Both were assistant commis-
sioners in Connaught. John distinguished

himself in the battle with the Highlanders
by the Moy, and was granted by his brother
Edmund Burke's castle of Castlebarry, near
Castlebar. George \vas for many years sheriff
of Sligo, took a leading part in' the massacre
of the Spaniards in 1588, and was killed by
Ulrick O Bourke in 1595. Bingham's memory
was long execrated by the native Irish, but
Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Henry
Wallop always held him in high esteem.
Sir Richard married Sarah, daughter of
John Heigham, of Gifford's Hall, Wickham-
brook, Suffolk (by banns), 11 Jan. 1587-8.
Lady Bingham survived her husband, and
married after his death Edward W aide-
grave, of Lawford, Essex. She died at Law-
ford, and w r as buried in the church there
9 Sept. 1034, aged 69. Sir Richard left
no male issue, and he w r as succeeded in his
Dorsetshire estates by Henry, the eldest son
of his brother George, who had been killed
in 1595. Henry was created a Nova .Scotian
baronet in 1634. Sir John Bingham, the
fifth in descent from George, was governor
of county Mayo, and contributed to William
Ill's success in Ireland by deserting from
James II at the battle of Aughrim (1691).
He married a grand-niece of Patrick Sarsfield,
earl of Lucan, and died in 1749. His second
son Charles was created baron Lucan of Cas-
tlebar 24 July 1776, and earl of Lucan 6 Oct.
1795 [see BINGHAM, MARGARET].

[Froude's History, x. xi. xii. ; Chamberlain's
Letters, temp. Eliz. (Camel. Soc.), pp. 14, 18, 34 ;
Spedding's Bacon, ii. 95-6, 100; Hutchins's
Dorset, iv. 203 ; Cal. State Papers (Irish series),
1509-73, 1574-85, 1586-8; Notes and Queries,
1st ser. iii. 156; Celtic Soc. Miscellany (1849),
ed. O'Donovan, 187-229 ; O'Flaherty's Corogra-
phical Description of Ireland, ed. Hardiman
(1846), p. 394; Annals of the Four Masters, ed.
Donovan, vol. vi. ; Cal. State Papers (Dom.),
1581-90, 1591-4, 1595-7. Several of Bingham's
letters to Burghley and to Sir Robert Cecil are
at Hatfield.] S. L. L.

BINGHAM, RICHARD, the elder (1765-
1858), divine, was born 1 April 1765. He
was son of the Rev. Isaac Moody Bingham,
rector of Birchanger and Runwell, Essex, and
great-grandson of Joseph Bingham, author of
the ' Origines Ecclesiasticse.' He was edu-
cated successively at Winchester, where he
was on the foundation, and at New College,
Oxford, where he took the degrees respec-
tively of B.A. 19 Oct. 1787 and B.C.L.
18 July 1801 (Oaford Graduates). He was
married at Bristol to Lydia Mary Anne,
eldest daughter of Rear-admiral Sir Charles
Douglas, bart., 10 Nov. 1788, at which time
he was a fellow of his college and in holy
orders (Gent. Mag. November 1788). In

Bingham

54

Bingham

1790, or more probably in 1788 or 1789
(Preface to Proceedings, &c. 8vo, London,
1814, p. vi, and Proceedings, &c., p. 174 &c.),
he was appointed to the perpetual curacy of
Trinity Church, Gosport ; in 1796 he became
vicar of Great Hale, near Sleaford, Lincoln-
shire, and was appointed, 22 July 1807, in
succession to his father, to the prebendal
stall of Bargham in Chichester Cathedral.
In 1813, being then a magistrate for Hamp-
shire of twelve years' standing, he was con-
victed at the Winchester summer assizes of
having illegally obtained a license for a
public-house, when no such public-house was
in existence, and of having stated, in the con-
veyance of such house, a false consideration
of the same, with intent to defraud the
revenue by evading an additional stamp duty
of IOL (Annual Register, 1813). On 10 Nov.
1813 a motion was made in the King's Bench
for a new trial on behalf of the defendant.
He was brought up for judgment on the 26th
of the same month, and in spite of many affi-
davits to his character was sentenced to six
months' imprisonment in the county gaol at |
Winchester. In an appeal to public opinion
dated 23 Dec. 1813, Bingham asserted his
innocence with the most vehement depreca-
tions. The appeal is embodied in the Preface
to l Proceedings in a Trial, The King, on the
Prosecution of James Cooper, against the
Rev. Richard Bingham, and on a Motion for
a new Trial, and on the Defendant's being
brought up for Judgment. Taken in short-
hand by Mr. Gurney. With explanatory
Preface and Notes and an Appendix,' 8vo,
London, 1814. In 1829 Mr. Bingham pub-
lished, by subscription, the third edition of
the ' Origines Ecclesiastics ' of his ancestor.
He reprinted all the contents of the old
octavo and folio editions, introducing into
the notes some further references from the
author's manuscript annotations in a private
copy of his own book, and adding for the
first time an impression of the author's three
' Trinity Sermons,' besides prefixing a * Life
of the Author, by his Great-grandson.' The
bankruptcy of the printer while the work
was passing through the press caused much
delay in its distribution (Prolegomena, &c. i.
p. x). Bingham died at his residence of New-
house on the beach at Gosport, on Sunday,
18 July 1858, and was buried on Tuesday,
the 27th of the same month, in the vaults of
Trinity Church, in the presence of a very
large number of his friends and parishioners.
[Gradual! Cantabrigienses, 4to, Cambridge,
1787 ; Gent. Mag. March 1807, April 1847, and
September 1858 ; Le Neve's Fasti ; Proceedings,
&c. London, 1814; Annual Register, 1813:
Origines Ecclesiastics, London. 1829; Miss

Bingham's Short Poems, Bolton, 1848 ; Hamp-
shire Telegraph, 24 and 31 July 1858.]

BINGHAM, RICHARD, the younger
(1798-1872), divine, was the eldest son of
Richard Bingham the elder [q. v.] He was
born in 1798, and was educated at Magdalen
Hall, Oxford, where he became B.A. 1821,
M.A. 1827. He was ordained deacon in 1821,
and priest in 1822, and became curate to his
father in his incumbency of Holy Trinity
Church, Gosport. Here he remained for over
twenty-two years. He married, 4 May 1824 r
' Frances Campbell, daughter of the late J.
Barton, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, Jamaica '
( Gent. May. June 1824), and took pupils. He
published by subscription two small volumes
of sermons in 1826 and 1827, and in 1829
< The Warning Voice, or an awakening Ques-
tion for all British Protestants in general,
and Members of the Church of England in
particular, at the present Juncture/ He
seceded from the British and Foreign Bible
Society, on account of its readiness to co-
operate with Socinians, in 1831, and soon
after published an account of the circum-
stances. He issued by subscription a volume
of ' Sermons' in 1835, and in 1843 l Imma-
nuel, or God with us, a Series of Lectures on
the Divinity and Humanity of our Lord,' 8vo
, London, 1843. The preface mentions his
desire to bring out a new edition of his an-
cestor's book. Twelve years afterwards Bing-
ham produced, at the expense of the delegates
of the Oxford University Press, the standard
edition of ' The Works of the Rev. Joseph
I Bingham, M.A.,' 10 vols. 8vo, Oxford, 1855.
j In 1844 he was presented by the trustees to
the perpetual curacy of Christ Church, Har-
wood, Bolton-le-Moors, during his incum-
bency of which he lost (28 Feb. 1847) his
eldest daughter, aged 21, and his youngest
j son. Miss Bingham had early published
! ' Hubert, or the Orphans of St. Madelaine, a
I Legend of the persecuted Vaudois/ London,
1845, and at the time of her death left a
I considerable number of pieces, which were
published by her father in 1848 as 'Short
i Poems, religious and sentimental/ and passed
; through two editions. Bingham became in
; 1853 curate at St. Mary's, Marylebone, the
\ rector of which was John Hampden Gurney 7
; to whom he afterwards dedicated a volume
of ' Sermons ' in 1858. In 1856 he be-
came vicar of Queenborough in the isle of
Sheppey. He vacated this preferment in
1870, and took up his residence at Sutton,
' Surrey, where he died on Monday, 22 Jan.
i 1872, at the age of seventy-four. Bingham
i was a fervid advocate of liturgical revision,
and a member of the council of the Praver

Bingley

55

Bingley

Book Revision Society. In 1860 he pub-
lished ' Liturgia Recusa, or Suggestions for
revising and reconstructing the daily and
occasional Services of the United Church of
England and Ireland.' He supplemented
this volume by an elaborate model of a
liturgy, which he dedicated to Lord Ebury,
' Liturgire Recusre Exemplar. The Prayer
Book as it might be, or Formularies old, re-
vised, and new, suggesting a reconstructed
and amplified Liturgy,' 1863. Bingham also ,
published ; The Gospel according to Isaiah, I
in a Course of Lectures/ &c. in 1870 ; and |
' Hymnologia Christiana Latina, or a Century j
of Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs,
by various Authors, from Luther to Heber j
and Keble, translated into Latin Verse, either |
metrical or accentuated Rhyme,' 1871.

[Catalogue of all the Graduates in the Uni-
versity of Oxford, Oxford, 1857; Gent. Mag.
June, 1824; Crockford's Clerical Directory, :
1360-1872 ; Clergy List, 1841-1872 ; Guardian, j
31 Jan. 1872; and various prefaces and intro- j
ductions.] A. H. G.

BINGLEY, LORD. [See BENSON, Ro- !
BERT, 1676-1731.]

BINGLEY, WILLIAM (1774-1823), ;
miscellaneous writer, was born at Doncas-
ter in 1774, and left an orphan at a very
early age. His friends designed him for
the law, but his own inclinations were for
the church. In 1795 he was entered at
St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and took the
degree of B.A. in 1799, and of M.A. in 1803.
Whilst an undergraduate he travelled in
Wales, and 'A Tour round North Wales'
was the subject of his first publication. For
many years after his ordination he served
the curacy of Christ Church in Hampshire,
but in 1816 he was the minister of the pro-
prietary chapel in London known as Fitzroy
Chapel, Charlotte Street, and he was engaged
in its ministry at the time of his death. He
died in Charlotte Street, 11 March t !823.
and was buried in a vault under the middle
aisle of Bloomsbury Church. His life was
devoid of incident ; his days were passed in
compilation. He was a prolific writer, and
several of his works enjoyed great popu-
larity. His ' Tour round North Wales/ the
result of his college vacation of 1798, was
published in 1800 in two volumes. He
visited the same district in 1801, and in 1804
issued 'North Wales . . . delineated from
two excursions.' A second edition appeared
in 1814, and a third, with corrections and
additions by his son, W. R. Bingley, in 1839.
As a companion to these works there ap-
peared a volume entitled ' Sixty of the most
admired Welsh Airs, collected by W. Bing-

ley,' arranged for the pianoforte by W. Rus-
sell, junior, in 1803, and again in 1810. One
of the most popular of his compilations
was ' Animal Biography ' (1802), which was
written with the object of creating a taste
for natural history. The sixth edition ap-
peared in 1824, and the work was translated
into several European languages. A cognate
volume from his pen, ' Memoirs of British
Quadrupeds,' appeared in 1809. Mr. Bingley
was a learned botanist and a fellow of the
Linnean Society. His ' Practical Introduc-
tion to Botany ' was published in 1817, and
republished after the author's death in 1827.
In 1814 he drew up a volume on ' Animated
Nature,' and two years later he compiled a
work 011 ' Useful Knowledge, an account of
the various~"productions"of nature, mineral ,
vegetable, and animal.' The last of these
volumes was frequently reissued, the seventh
edition appearing so recently as 1852. One
set of his works was composed of ' biographi-
cal conversatiqns ' on eminent characters. In
this manner he narrated the lives of British
characters,' ' eminent Toyagers,^ celebrated
travellers/laid t Roman cnaracters7"Another
consisted of condensed accounts ^from modern
writers' of the various continents of the world :
Africa, South America, North America,
South Europe, North Europe, and Asia were
consecutively described by him, the six
volumes appearing separately between_18J^
and 1 822, and "being reproduced with a gene-
raT title-page of ; Modern Travels.' His
dictionary of { Musical Biography' appeared
anonymously in 1814 ; it was reissued with
his name on the title-page, but without any
other alteration, in 1834. Whilst at Christ
Church he published (1805), from the origi-
nals in the possession of a Wiltshire lady,
three volumes of ' Correspondence between
Frances, Countess of Hereford, and the Coun-
tess of Pomfret, 1738-41.' Most of the copies
of the second edition were destroyed by fire,
but a few were saved. He was long engaged
on a history of Hampshire, and in 1817,
when the manuscripts amounted to 6,000
pages, explained in an address to his subscri-
bers the causes which retarded and finally
prevented its completion. Thirty copies of
a small portion of it, however, entitled ' The
Topographical Account of the Hundred of
Bosmere,' were printed for private circula-
tion. In addition to these works, Bingley
was the author of a sermon, the f Economy
of a Christian Life ' (1822), and a handbook
to the Leverian museum.

[Gent, Mag. 1823 ; Biog. Dictionary of 1816 ;
Memoir prefixed to his 'Roman Characters'
(1824).] W. P. C.

Binham

Binney

BINHAM or BYNHAM, SIMON (/*.

1335), chronicler, a monk of the priory of
Binham, Norfolk, one of the cells belonging
to the abbey of St. Albans, upheld his prior,
William Somerton, in resisting the unjust
exactions of Hugh, abbot of St. Albans
(1308-1326). The cause of the Binham
monks was taken up by the gentry of the
neighbourhood, and Sir Robert Walkefare,
the patron of the cell, prevailed on Thomas,
earl of Lancaster, to uphold them. Embol-
dened by this support, the prior and his
monks refused to admit the visitation of the
abbot, and the gentlemen of their party gar-
risoned the priory against him. The abbot,
however, appealed to the king, Edward II,
who ordered the prior's supporters to return
to their homes. Simon and the other rebel-
lious monks were brought to St. Albans
and imprisoned. After a while they were
released and admitted into the brotherhood,
but as a mark of disgrace were sentenced to
walk in fetters in all processipns of the con-
vent. Simon lived to become an influential
member of the house, for in the time of Abbot
Michael (1335-13-49) he was chosen by the
chapter as one of the three receivers or trea-
surers of the collections made for the sup-
port of scholars and needy brethren. In a
notice of the historians of St. Albans, he is
said to have written after Henry Blankfrount
or Blaneforde [q.v.], and before Richard
Savage. The works of Binham and Savage
are lost, or at least are unidentified. It has,
however, been suggested that Binham may
have written some of the fragments pub-
lished in the Rolls edition of the * Chronicle
of Rishanger.'

[Gesta Abbatum Mon. S. Albani, ii. 131, 305,
Kolls ser. ; Job. Amundesham Ann. Introd. Ixvi,
303, Eolls ser. ; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 144."]

W. H.

BINHAM or BYNHAM, WILLIAM

(fl. 1370), theologian, was a native of Bin-
ham in Norfolk, where there was a Benedic-
tine priory dependent on the abbey of St.
Albans. Doubtless through this connection
he entered the monastic profession at the
abbey, and became ultimately prior of Wal-
lingford, which was also a cell belonging to
St. Albans. He had been a student at Ox-
ford, of which university he is described as
doctor of divinity, and had there come into
close intimacy with John Wycliffe. Binham,
however, remained true to the traditions of
the church, and after a while separated him-
self from his friend, with whom at length he
engaged in controversy, and proved, as the
catholic Leland confesses, no match for his
antagonist. His only recorded work was

Avritten on this occasion, ' Contra Positiones
Wiclevi.' It is not known to be extant, but
Wyclif 's reply (' Contra Willelmum Vynham
monachum S. Albani Determinatio ') is pre-
served in a Paris manuscript, Lat. 3184, if.
49-52 (SHIKLEY, Catal. of the original Works
of Wyclif, p. 20). The last notice of Bin-
ham's life occurs in 1396, when he, as prior
of Wallingford, was detained by illness from
attending the election of an abbot of St.
Albans on 9 Oct. (Gesta Abbatum Monasterii
S. Albani, iii. 426, ed. H. T. Riley, 1869).

[Leland's Comm. de Script. Brit, dcxxviii.
p. 381; Bale's Script. Brit. Cat. vi. 5, p. 456;
Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 101.] R. L. P.

BINNEMAN, HENRY. [See BYNNE-
MAN, HENRY.]

BINNEY, EDWARD WILLIAM

(1812-1881), geologist, was born at Morton
in Nottinghamshire in 1812. Little is known
of his early education ; he appears, however,
to have acquired strong scientific tastes,
which continually betrayed themselves during
his apprenticeship to a' solicitor. He became
a resident in Manchester in 1836 ; his legal
knowledge and strong common sense soon
gained for him many clients, and his practice
as a lawyer was favourably established in that
city. The interesting coal-field of Lancashire
soon claimed his attention, and he directed
most of his leisure to the study of the
geological phenomena of the district around
Manchester. Similar tastes soon drew to-
gether a circle of students, many of whom
had been trained in experimental science by
John Dalton, and others in mechanical and
physical research by William Fairbairn. Out
of these, principally by Binney's influence, a
small select band was formed, and in October
1838 they founded the Manchester Geological
Society, Lord Francis Egerton being the first
president, and J. F. Bateman and Binney the
first honorary secretaries.

The second article in the i Transactions ' of
this society, after the president's address,
was a l Sketch of the Geology of Manchester
and its Vicinity,' illustrated by coloured
sections, contributed by Binney. The first
volume of the ' Transactions' affords evidence
of his industry, four papers connected with
the geology of the Lancashire and Cheshire
coal-field having been contributed by him.
Binney was president of the Manchester
Geological Society in 1857-9, and again in
1865-7. In 1853 he was elected a member
of the Geological Society of London, and in
1856 a fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1858 Binney communicated to the local
geological society a paper ' On Sigillaria and

Binney 57

Binney

its Roots/ which was his first contribution
towards the solution of a problem of con-
siderable interest, .connected with the forma-
tion of our coal-beds. It had already been
noticed by Sir William Logan that every
seam of coal rests on a bed of rock usually
known as ( seat-stone and 'underclay;' that
this was devoid of stratification, and fre-
quently full of filaments, running in all direc-
tions, having a root-like appearance. These
vegetable fibres were called l stigmaria.'
Binney discovered, in a railway cutting near
St. Helen's in Lancashire, a number of trunks
of trees standing erect as they grew, with the
roots still attached to them, these being the
so-called * stigmaria.' M. Ad. Brongniart
was disposed to regard these plants as gigan-
tic tree ferns, but Dr. (now Sir J. D.) Hooker
believed that those Sigillaria, as they were
named, were cryptogamous, though more
highly developed than any flowering plants
now living. In May 1861 another paper bear-
ing the above title was communicated by the
author to the Manchester Geological Society,
and we find in the sixth volume of the
' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
of London ' a memoir by him entitled ' Re-
marks on Sigillaria and some Spores found
imbedded in the inside of its roots.' Thus
Binney completed the proof that all coal
seams rest on old soils which are constituted
entirely of vegetable matter; this was the
seat-stone of a seam of coal. The roots
(Stigmaria) show that those soils supported
a luxuriant vegetation (Sigillaria), which,
growing rapidly in vast swamps, under a
moist atmosphere of high temperature, formed
by decomposition the fossil fuel, to which we
owe the extent of our manufacturing indus-
tries.

At this time Binney was actively engaged
in investigating the fossil shells of the lower
coal measures. In April 1860 he read a
paper on the results of his inquiry, asserting
that two groups of the mollusca were occa-
sionally found together in the same coal-bed ; |
but some geologists venture to differ from !
one whom they call ' a keen-eyed observer,' |
expressing their belief that the specimens, j
thought to be obtained from the same bed, i
were derived from two closely adjoining :
layers.

Binney studied with much diligence the
coal measure, Calamites, which he was led |
to consider as divisible into two perfectly ;
distinct but outwardly similar types ; one
of these, Calamodendron, being a gvmno- i
spermous exogen, allied to our fir trees, while
the true calamite is regarded as equiseta-
ceous. In 1866 he read a paper * On the .'
Upper Coal Measures of England and Scot- i

land,' and in 1871 one, being a ' Descrip-
tion and Specimens of Bituminous Shale
from New South Wales.' These are imme-
! diately due to his connection with Mr. James
I Young, whose name is associated with the
paraffin industry of Scotland. Binney's geo-
i logical experience helped Mr. Young to the
! discovery of the Torbane Hill mineral, or
| Boghead cannel, a bituminous shale from
| which have resulted the enormous paraffin
| works at Bathgate. Between the years 1839
and 1872, Binney contributed thirty-three
papers to the Manchester Geological Society,
and some others to the Geological Society of
London. He was also a zealous supporter of
the Philosophical Society of Manchester, and
rendered important aid to the Geological
Survey of the United Kingdom, by furnishing
the surveyors with the results of his long ex-
perience over the coal-fields of Lancashire
and Cheshire.

On 25 October 1881 Binney presided at the
council meeting of the Manchester Geological
Society for the last time. He died in Man-
chester on 19 Dec. in the same year, especially
regretted by his associates, who found that
in him they had lost the man who possessed
the most exact knowledge of the coal-fields
of Lancashire and Cheshire, and of the geology
| of the whole district.

[Transactions of the Geological Society of Man-
chester ; Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society of London ; Ormerod's Classified Index of
Transactions, &c. ; Coal, its History and Use,
edited by Professor Thorpe ; Ly ell's Principles of
G eology ; personal knowledge.] R. H-T.

BINNEY, THOMAS, D.D.,LL.D. (1798-
1874), a distinguished nonconformist divine,
was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the year
1798. After a period of tuition in an ordi-
nary day school, he was apprenticed for seven
years to a bookseller. In giving an account
of his early life Binney stated that his
hours with the Newcastle bookseller were for
two years from seven in the morning until
eight in the evening, and for five years from
seven to seven. He was, however, sometimes
engaged from six a.m. until ten p.m. Not-
withstanding this pressure he found opportu-
nities, especially from his fourteenth to his
twentieth year/ for considerable reading and
much original composition. The elements of
Latin and Greek he acquired by studying on
two evenings in the week with a presbyterian
clergyman. The elder Binney. who was of
Scotch extraction, was an elder of the jpres-
byterian congregation in the Wall Knoll,
and the son took an active part in connection
\vith a religious and intellectual institution
attached to this church. It is not known.

Binney i

how he came to sever himself from the pres-
byterians and to connect himself with the
congregationalists. He was recommended,
however, to the theological seminary at Wy-
mondley, Hertfordshire, an institution which
was afterwards merged in New College, a
well-known training establishment for con-
gregational ministers. He remained here for
three years, and while tradition states that
he was not a very severe student, it appears
that he excited no ordinary expectations.

After leaving college Binney was for
about twelve months minister of the New
Meeting, Bedford, of which John Howard
was one of the founders. In August 1824 he
accepted the pastorate of St. James's Street
Chapel, Newport, Isle of Wight. Here he
became acquainted with Samuel Wilberforce.
Binney's first work, a ' Memoir of Stephen
Morrell,' was published during his residence
at Newport. He also prepared for the press
a volume of sermons on ' The Practical Power
of Faith.' In 1829 he removed to London,
to take charge of the church assembling at
Weigh House. In a short time he acquired
a high reputation as a pulpit orator.

Binney was a strong controversialist, and
he attacked the church of England with
much vehemence. A furious paper war took
place over a phrase which occurred in an ad-
dress delivered by him at the laying of the
foundation-stone of the new Weigh House
Chapel on 16 Oct. 1833. He was affirmed
to have said that ' the church of England
damned more souls than she saved.' Several
bishops, a great number of the clergy, and
the entire religious press mingled in the fierce
discussion which ensued. The actual words
used by Binney were these : * It is with
me a matter of deep serious religious convic-
tion that the established church is a great
national evil ; that it is an obstacle to the
progress of truth and godliness in the land ;
that it destroys more souls than it saves ;
and therefore its end is devoutly to be wished
by every lover of God and man. Right or
wrong, this is my belief.' Binney was a
voluminous writer on polemical subjects.
He published a number of letters under the
signature of ' Fiat Justitia,' which quickly
went through six editions, and in 1834 he
published ' The Ultimate Object of the Evan-
gelical Dissenters,' a sermon preached in the
Weigh House Chapel on the occasion of pe-
titions to parliament for the removal of dis-
senters' grievances. In the following year
he replied, by a discourse entitled ' Dissent
not Schism,' to a charge by the Bishop of
London which had been pronounced intole-
rant in many quarters. In 1841 a Mr. Wil-
liam Baines was imprisoned in Leicester Gaol

5 Binney

for non-payment of church rates, and Bin-
ney, under the pseudonym, of ' A. Balance,
Esq., of the Middle Temple,' wrote a severe
pamphlet dealing with the case and entitled
' Leicester Gaol.' In 1850 he wrote a series
of papers on the ' Aspects of Baptismal Rege-
neration as taught in the Established Church,'
suggested by the famous Gorham case. In
1853 he published a work for young men en-
titled 'Is it possible to make the Best of
both Worlds ? ' The question was answered
warmly in the negative by several writers,
but its original propounder defended his pro-
positions with considerable dialectical skill.
This work was Binney's most successful
venture as an author. For the first twelve
months after its publication it sold at the
rate of one hundred copies per day.

In 1857 Binney visited Australia. The
Bishop of Adelaide having addressed to him
a letter on the relations of the episcopal
church in the colonies to nonconforming
churches, and the possibility of an inter-
change of ministerial services, a correspon-
dence followed. A memorial was addressed
to the bishop by a number of episcopalian
laymen, including the governor of the colony
and the ministers of the state, requesting
that Binney should be invited to preach in
the cathedral. In the end, however, the
bishop decided that he was not at liberty to
comply with the request. The visitor then
delivered an address from the presidential
chair of the Tasmanian Congregational Union
on ' The Church of the Future/ an address
which was afterwards incorporated in a
volume entitled ' Lights and Shadows of
Australian Life,' published in 1862. The
year just named being the year of the bicen-
tenary commemoration of the ejection of
the two thousand clergymen, Binney, who
had some time before returned to England,
preached and published two sermons entitled
' Farewell Sunday ' and ' St. Bartholomew's
Day.' In 1863 he published a pamphlet with
the title ' Breakers on both Sides : Thoughts
on Creeds, Subscriptions, Trust Deeds, &c.,
in relation to Protestantism and Dissent.'
The rapid spread of the ritualistic movement
in the church of England also led him to
write and publish in 1867 a volume entitled
' Micah, the Priest Maker,' an enlargement
of a course of lectures delivered at the Weigh
House Chapel. Binney edited and pub-
lished an American work on liturgies by the
Rev. Charles' W. Baird, D.D., of New York,
being ' Historical Sketches of the Liturgical
Forms of the Reformed Churches.' The editor
prefixed an introduction and added an ap-
pendix on the question, 'Are Dissenters to
have a Liturgy ? ' expressing a conviction

Binning

59

Binning

that something more was demanded in non-
conformist services than had yet been wit-
nessed. He was himself one of the first
ministers to introduce into nonconformist
churches the chanting of the rhythmical
psalms of the Old Testament according to
the authorised version, and he gave a great
impetus to the movement for improved ser-
vices, which afterwards spread through the
nonconformist churches.

For many years before he died Binney
was regarded as the Nestor of the denomina-
tion to which he belonged, and his influence
spread to the other side of the Atlantic and
also to the colonies. In 1852 he received the
degree of LL.D. from the university of Aber-
deen, and an American university subse-
quently conferred upon him the degree of
D.D. He was twice elected chairman of the
Congregational Union of England and Wales,
and he preached a great number of special
sermons before that body. In 1869 he re-
tired from the pastorate at Weigh House
Chapel after a ministry of forty years in that
place. He subsequently undertook some pro-
fessorial duties in connection with New Col-
lege, and occasionally preached in London
pulpits, his last sermon being delivered in
Westminster Chapel in November 1873.
The closing months of his life saw him
afflicted by a depressing and insidious disease.
Dr. Allon states that he fell into a condition
of great despondency, but it was a failure of
the body rather than of the mind. Before
the end the cloud lifted, and he died on
24 Feb. 1874. Dean Stanley was amongst
the divines who took part in the funeral ser-
vice at Abney Park Cemetery.

Binney was a voluminous writer of verse,
chiefly of a religious character. His poetry,
however, was distinguished rather for its
devotional element than for any imagina-
tive qualities. One of his hymns, * Eternal
Light ! Eternal Light ! ' is widely known.

[Sermons preached in the King's "Weigh House
Chapel, London, 1829-69, by T. Binney, LL.D.,
1st and 2nd series, edited, with a Biographical
and Critical Sketch, by Henry Allon, D.D. ;
Thomas Binney, a Memorial, by the Eev. J.
Stoughton, D.D. ; Thomas Binney, his Mind,
Life, and Opinions, by the Eev. E. Paxton Hood ;
Annual Register, 1874, and the journals of the
time ; the works of Dr. Binney.] G. B. S.

BINNING, LOED. [See HAMILTON,
CHAELES.]

BINNING, HUGH (1627-1653), Scotch
divine, was son of John Binning of Dalvenan,
Ayrshire, by Margaret M'Kell, daughter of
Matthew M'Kell (or M'Kail), the parish
clergyman of Both-well, Lanarkshire, and

sister to Hugh M'Kail, one of the ministers
of Edinburgh, and uncle to one of the youth-
[ ful martyrs of Scotland Hugh M'Kail, who
j was hanged at Edinburgh on 22 Dec. 1666,
for his alleged participation in the rising
at Pentland. Binning was born at Dalvenan
in 1627. His father had a considerable in-
herited landed estate, and Hugh was given
a liberal education. He easily outstripped
his schoolfellows of twice and thrice his years,
and in his thirteenth and fourteenth years his
i gravity and piety were recognised with a kind
| of awe by all. Before his fourteenth year he
I proceeded to the university of Glasgow, en-
I tering himself for philosophy. The profes-
sors were startled by his premature learning
! and philosophical capacity. He took his de-
gree of M.A. 'with much applause.' He
I then commenced the study of divinity, ' with
; a view to serve God in the holy ministry.'
James Dalrymple (afterwards Lord Stair),
who had been his professor of philosophy,
having resigned in 1647, Binning was induced
to become a candidate for the chair. All
members of the universities in the kingdom
who had ' a mind to the profession of philoso-
phy ' were invited to * sist ' themselves before
the Senatusand 'compete for the preferment.'
The principal of the university (Dr. Strang)
had his candidate, and strenuous efforts were
put forth to carry him, mainly on the ground
that the candidate was a 'citizen's son,'
and subsidiarily ' of competent learning,' and
of ' more years.' An extempore disputation
, between the two candidates was suggested ;
l thereupon Binning's rival withdrew, and left
, him to be unanimously elected before he was
I nineteen years of age. He delivered at once
a brilliant course of lectures, and tried to
j rescue philosophy in Scotland from the ' bar-
| barous terms and unintelligible jargon of the
i schoolmen.' He held the post with increas-
| ing influence for about three years. At the
I same time he pursued his theological studies,
! and having obtained license as a minister of
the Gospel, he received a call to the parish
of Govan near Glasgow on 25 Oct. 1649.
On 8 Jan. following he was ordained at Govan,
and resigned his professorship in the follow-
ing year. Soon after he married Mary (some-
times erroneously given as Barbara), daughter
of the Rev. James Simpson, parish minister
of Airth (Stirlingshire), who has been wrongly
described as an Irish minister. He still car-
ried on his philosophical and other studies,
but was duly attentive to his sermons and
pastoral duties. Wherever he was announced
as a preacher, vast crowds assembled. When in
1651 the unhappy division took place in the
church into resolutioners and protesters, he
sided with the latter. He then wrote and

Binning

Binns

published his ' Treatise on Christian Love' as
an Eirenicon. He played a prominent part
in the historical dispute before Cromwell at
Glasgow (April 1651) between the indepen- |
dents and presbyterians. His learning, theo-
logical knowledge, and eloquent fervour bore
down all opposition. The Protector was
astonished, and, finding his party (of the in- j
dependents) nonplussed, is said to have asked J
the name ' of that learned and bold young
man,' and, when told it was Mr. Hugh Bin- j
ning, to have replied, ' He hath bound well |
indeed, but' (putting his hand on his sword) i
1 this will loose all again.' Subsequently he
still more publicly vindicated the church's j
rights as against the invasion of the state,
from Deuteronomy xxxii. 45. He died of
consumption in September 1653, when only in
his twenty-seventh year. Patrick Gillespie
no common judge pronounced him'philo-
logus, philosophus, et theologus eximius.'
James Durham said < There was 110 speaking
after Mr. Binning.' The following are his
chief books : 1. ' The common Principles of
the Christian Religion clearly proved and
singularly improved, or a Practical Cate-
chism wherein some of the most concerning
Foundations of our Faith are solidly laid
down, and that Doctrine which is accord-
ing to Godliness is sweetly yet pungently
pressed home and most satisfyingly handled,'
Glasgow, 1659. 2. ' The Sinner's Sanctuary,
being xl. Sermons upon the Eighth Chapter
of Romans from the first verse to the six-
teenth,' Edinburgh, 1670. 3. 'Fellowship
with God, being xxviii. Sermons on the First
Epistle of John c. i. and ii. vv. 1, 2, 3,' Edin-
burgh, 1671. 4. 'Heart Humiliation, or
Miscellany Sermons, preached upon choice
Texts at several Solemn Occasions,' Edin-
burgh, 1671. 5. ' An Useful Case of Con-
science . . . 1693.' 6. ' A Treatise of Chris-
tian Love on John xiii. 35,' 1651, but only
1743 ed. (Glasgow) now known. 7. * Several
Sermons upon the most important Subjects
of Practical Religion,' Glasgow, 1760. The
best collective edition of the works is that by
Dr. Leishman, a successor at Govan, in one
large volume (imperial 8vo), 3rd ed. 1851.
Various of these books were translated into
Dutch.

Binning's widow was afterwards married
to the Rev. James Gordon, presbyterian
minister of Comber, co. Down, Ireland. She
died at Paisley in 1694. Binning's only son
John inherited the family estate of Dalvenan
on the death of his grandfather ; but having
been engaged in the affair of Bothwell
Bridge in 1679, he was attainted and his pro-
perty forfeited. But in 1690 forfeiture and
fines and attainder were rescinded by parlia-

ment, with little advantage nevertheless to
him, through the roguery of one Mackenzie,
who claimed to have advanced money on the
estate far beyond its value. There are pa-
thetic glimpses of the younger Binning in the
' proceedings ' of the assembly of the church
of Scotland in 1704, when he sued for the as-
sembly's approval of an edition of his father's
works. The assembly recommended ' every
minister within the kingdom to take a
double of the same book, or to subscribe for
the same.' The last application he made for
procuring aid was in 1717.

[Scott's Fasti, ii. 67-8 ; Minutes Univ. Glasg. ;
Wodrow's Analecta; Reid's Presbyterianism of
Ireland, i. ; Edin. Christian Instructor, xxii.;
Acts of Assembly; New Statistical Account, vi. ;
Chalmers's Biogi-. Diet. ; Scots Worthies, i. 205-
10, ed. Macgavin, 1837.] A. B. G.

BINNS, JOHN (1772-1860), journalist
and politician, was the son of an ironmonger
in Dublin, and was born on 22 Dec. 1772.
In his second year he lost his father, who
left behind him a considerable property.
After receiving a good education, first at a
common school, and afterwards at a classi-
cal academy, he was in 1786 apprenticed to
a soapboiler. At the request of his elder
brother, who inherited the estate of his
father, he accompanied him in 1794 to Lon-
don, where for some months he acted as his
assistant in the plumbing business. Shortly
after his arrival in London he became a
member of the London Corresponding Com-
pany, which was afterwards an influential
political association. In 1797 he hired a
large room in the Strand for political debates,
a charge of one shilling being made for ad-
mission. On account of his connection with
the schemes of the United Irishmen, the
grand jury of the county of Warwick found
! a true bill against him, but after trial he was
1 acquitted. On 21 Feb. 1798 he left London
for France, but was arrested at Margate, and
after an examination by the privy council he
was committed to the Tower. At Maidstone
he was tried, along with Arthur O'Connor,
i for high treason, but acquitted. Shortly
afterwards he was arrested and confined in
! Clerkenwell Prison, whence he was trans-
ferred to Gloucester, where he remained till
i March 1801. In July following he embarked
j for America. Proceeding to Northumber-
land, Pennsylvania, he in March 1802 began
| there a newspaper, 'The Republican Argus,'
! by which he acquired great influence among
; the republican party, not only in Northum-
berland but in the neighbouring counties.
In March 1807 he removed to Philadelphia
( to edit the ' Democratic Press,' which soon

Binyon

61

Biondi

became the leading paper in the state. In
December 1822 he was chosen alderman of
the city of Philadelphia, an office which he
held till 1844. He died at Philadelphia on
16 June 1860.

[Recollections of John Binns Twenty-nine
years in Europe and Fifty-three in the United
States written by himself, Philadelphia, 1854.1

T. F. H.

BINYON, EDWARD (1830 P-1876),
landscape painter, born about the year 1830,
was a member of the Society of Friends. He
painted both in oil and in water-colours, and
his works show much power of colouring ;
one of them, ' The Bay of Mentone,' has fre-
quently been reproduced. He contributed
from 1857 to 1876 to the exhibitions of the
Dudley Gallery and the Royal Academy,
among the pictures which he sent to the
latter being, in 1859, < The Arch of Titus ; '
in 1860 < Capri ; ' in 1873 ' Marina di Lacco,
Ischia ; ' in 1875 ' Coral Boat at dawn, Bay
of Naples ; ' and in 1876 ' Hidden Fires, Ve-
suvius from Capodimonte.' He lived many
years in the island of Capri, where he died
in 1876, from the effects of bathing while
overheated.

[Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and En-
gravers, eel. Graves, 1884 ; Royal Academy Ex-
hibition Catalogues, 1859-76.] R. E. G.

BIONDI, SIR GIOVANNI FRAN-
CESCO (1572-1644), historian and romance
writer, was born in 1572 at Lesina, an
island in the Gulf of Venice off Dalmatia.
Entering the service of the Venetian republic,
he was appointed secretary to Senator So-
ranzo, the Venetian ambassador at Paris ; but
he soon afterwards returned to Venice, and
at the suggestion of Sir Henry Wotton, the
English ambassador there, came to England
to seek his fortunes. Arriving in 1609 (Cat.
Dom. State Papers, 1629-31, p. 347), with
an introduction to James I, he was at first
employed in negotiating with the Duke of
Savoy marriages between his children and
Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth, but
the scheme never reached maturity. He was
settled in London in the latter half of 1612,
when Prince Henry's death ended ' all hope
of a Savoyan match,' and was well received
by the king, who granted him a pension.
Fifteen interesting Italian letters, written
between 9 Oct. 1612 and 24 Nov. 1613, by
Biondi in London to Carleton, who was then
the English ambassador at Venice, are extant
among the i State Papers.' ' In one of them,
dated 28 Oct. 1613, Biondi promises to follow
Carleton's advice, and remain permanently in
London j and in the latest of them he an-

nounces his intention of going to Paris with Sir
Henry Wotton, should Wotton be appointed
to the English legation there. He had been
in early life converted to the protestant
faith ; but Archbishop Abbot informed Carle-
ton (30 Nov. 1613) that, although he knew
nothing to Biondi's disadvantage, he was as
suspicious of him as of all ' Italian conver-
, titos.' In 1615 Biondi proceeded to the
! general Calvinist assembly held at Grenoble
as James I's representative, and he assured
the assembly of the English king's protection
and favour (MARSOLLIER, Histoire de Henri,
due de Bouillon, 1719, livre vii. p. 27). On
6 Sept. 1622 Biondi was knighted by James I
' at Windsor, and married about the same time
; Mary, the sister of the king's physician, Sir
Theodore Mayerne, 'a very great lump or
great piece of flesh,' as Chamberlain describes
I her (NICHOLS, Progresses, iii. 777 ; Cal. Dom.
\ State Papers, 1619-23, p. 495). Soon after-
| wards Biondi became a gentleman of the
i king's privy chamber. On 22 Feb. 1625-0
he resigned two small pensions which he had
previously held, and received in behalf of
himself and his wife, during their lives, a
| new pension of 200/. On 13 June 1628 an
exemption from all taxation was granted
I him. On 25 Sept. 1630 he sent to Carleton,
j who had now become Viscount Dorchester and
secretary of state, a statement of his affairs,
and desired it to be laid before the king.
After giving an account of his early life, and of
the loss which he had sustained in the death,
in 1628, of his patron, William Cavendish,
earl of Devonshire, he complained that his
pension had been rarely paid, and prayed for
its increase by 100/. and its regular payment.
The justices of the peace for Middlesex re-
ported (11 May 1636) that Biondi, with
other l persons of quality' residing in Clerken-
well, had refused to contribute 'to the relief
of the infected' of the district.. There is
extant at the Record Office a certificate of
payment of Biondi's pension on 7 May 1638.
Two years later he left England for the house
of his brother-in-law, Mayerne, at Aubonne,
near Lausanne, Switzerland. He died there
in 1644, and the epitaph on his tomb in the
neighbouring church was legible in 1737. An
admirable portrait of Biondi is given in ' Le
Glorie de gli Incogniti,' p. 240, This book,
published at Venice in 1647, is an account
of deceased members of the Venetian ' Ac-
cademia de' Signori Incogniti/ to which
Biondi belonged.

Biondi was the author of three tedious
chivalric romances, which tell a continuous
story, and of a work on English history.
They were all written in Italian, but became
very popular in this country in English

Birch

Birch

translations. They are entitled : 1. * L'Ero-
mena divisa in sei libri,' published at Venice
in 1624, and again in 1628. It was trans-
lated into English as ' Eromena, or Love
and Revenge ' (fol., 1631), by James Hay-
ward, and dedicated to the Duke of Rich-
mond and Lennox. A German translation
appeared in parts at Nuremberg between
1656 and 1659, and was republished in 1667.
2. ' La Donzella desterrada,' published at
Venice in 1627 and at Bologna in 1637, and
dedicated to the Duke of Savoy. The dedi-
cation is dated from London, 4 July 1626,
and in it Biondi mentions a former promise
to undertake for the duke a translation of
Sidney's l Arcadia.' James Hayward trans-
lated the book into English, under the title of
' Donzella desterrada, or the Banish'd Virgin'
(fol.), in 1635. 3. 'II Coralbo; segue la
Donzella desterrada' (Venice, 1635). It was
translated into English by A. G. in 1655, with
a dedication to the (second) Earl of Strafford.
The translator states that Coralbo was re-
garded by Biondi as the most perfect of his
romances. 4. * L' istoria delle guerre civili
d'Inghilterra tra le due case di Lancastre e
di lore,' published in three quarto volumes
at Venice between 1637 and 1644, with a
dedication to Charles I. It was translated
into English, apparently while still in manu-
script, by Henry Gary, earl of Monmouth,
and published in two volumes in London in
1641, under the title of ' An History of the
Civil Warres of England between the two
Houses of Lancaster and Yorke.' It is a
laborious but useless compilation.

[Le Gloriede gli Incogniti (1647), pp. 241-3;
Niceron's Memoires pour servir, xxxvii. 3914;
Cal. Dom. Slate Papers for 1612, 1613, 1622,
1624, 1626, 1628, 1630, 1636, 1638; Granger's
Biographical History, ii. 36 ; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

S. L. L.

BIRCH, JAMES (ft. 1759-1795), here-
siarch, was born in Wales, but the date is un-
known. He became a watch-motion maker
in London, living in Brewer's Yard, Golden
Lane, Old Street Road, afterwards in Little
Moorfields. He was converted to the Mug-
gletonians, his name first appearing in their
records 1 July 1759 ; that of Mrs. Birch is
mentioned 22 July 1759. He wrote in 1771
a rhythmical account of his conversion
('Travels from the sixth to the ninth
hour'), fifteen stanzas of eight lines each,
dated 5 Dec. (unprinted). In 1772 he
rejected two points of Muggletonian ortho-
doxy : viz. the doctrine that believers have
present assurance of salvation (this, Birch
thought, was often withheld till death) ; and
the doctrine that God exercises no immediate

oversight in human affairs, and affords 110
| present inspiration (on these points Birch
j reverted to the original views of John Reeve,
the founder, along with Lodowicke Mug-
gleton, of the sect). So far he only led a
' party within the Muggletonian body, which
has always been liable to eruptions of Reevite
heresy. But in 1778 Birch began to claim
personal inspiration ; this lost him ten fol-
lowers, headed by Martha, wife of Henry
Collier. The Collierites were regarded by Mug-
gletonians as mistaken friends ; the Birch-
ites were known as the Anti-church. Birch
was maintained in independence by his fol-
lowers, his right-hand man being William
Matthews, of Bristol. In 1786 there were
some thirty Birchites in London, and a
larger number in Pembrokeshire. In 1809
they are alluded to in a * divine song ' by
James Frost as ' anti-followers ; ' at this time
and subsequently they had a place of meet-
ing in the Barbican. Whether Birch him-
self was living in 1809 is not known ; the
last occurrence of his name in the Muggle-
tonian archives is in 1795 ; two of his Lon-
don followers were surviving in 1871 in old
age. Birch published, about the end of last
century, ' The Book of Cherubical Reason,
with its Law and Nature ; or of the Law and
Priesthood of Reason,' &c. ; and ' The Book
upon the Gospel and Regeneration,' <&c. They
bear no date, but were sold by T. Herald,
60 Portpool Lane, Gray's Inn Lane. Very
incoherent, they are scarcely intelligible even
to the initiated in the small controversies
from which they sprang. One of Birch's
opinions is curious : * Not one of the seed of
Faith dies in childhood' (Cher. Reas. p. 46).

[MS. Records of the Muggletonian Church ;
Birch's Works (Brit. Mus. 1114 i. 3, 1 and 2);
paper Ancient and Mod. Muggletonians, Trans.
Liverpool Lit. and Phil. Soc. 1870.] A. G-.

BIRCH, JOHN (1616-1691), presby-
terian colonel during the civil war, belonged
to a younger branch of the Birches of Birch,
and was the eldest son of Samuel Birch of
Ardwick, Lancashire, by Mary, daughter of
Ralph Smith of Doblane House, Lancashire
(DFGDALE'S Visit, of Lancas. 1664 in Chet.
Soc. Pub. Ixxxiv. (1872), p. 34). He was
born 7 April 1616, not 1626, the date now in-
scribed on his tombstone (WooD, ed. Bliss,
Life, cxviii). It was the general custom of
his political opponents to refer to him as of
ignoble origin, and the coarseness of his
manners gave a colour of probability to the
insinuation. - In f A more exact and neces-
sary Catalogue of Pensioners than is yet ex-
tant' (SOMEKS'S Tracts, vii. p. 60), he appears
as ' J. B., once a carrier, now a colonel ; ' and

Birch

Birch

Burnet states that when a member of parlia- \
ment he ' retained still, even to affectation, ;
the clownishness of liis manner.' He also
quotes a speech 'of Birch, in which he admits
that he had l been a carrier once.' Similar
insinuations of the lowness of his origin occur
in the traditions as to how he joined the army.
According to the Barrett MSS. in the library
of the Chetharn Society, quoted in note by j
Thomas Heywood to Newcome's ' Diary ' '
(p. 203), being of great stature,' he ' enlisted !
as a private trooper in the parliamentary ,
army, which being known of Colonel Birch
of Birch to be his namesake and countryman,
was by him favoured and preferred in the ;
army from post to post.' According to i
another account, while driving his packhorses j
along the road, he so resolutely resisted the
attempt of some parliamentary soldiers under
Cromwell to rob him, that he attracted the !
notice of that commander, who offered him {
a commission in his troop (TowNSEND, Hist.
of Leominster, p. 109). The pedigree above
quoted sufficiently refutes the tradition of his
ignoble birth, and his letters prove incontes-
tably that he had received more than a j
' clownish education.' That both of the above
statements in regard to his early connection
with the army are totally groundless, is also
evident from his ' Military Memoir,' in which
he makes his first appearance as captain of
volunteers at the siege of Bristol. Either
previously or subsequently he may have acted
as ' a carrier,' and ' driven packhorses/ but
when he joined the army he had a large
business as a merchant in Bristol, and, accord-
ing to the * Visitation of Lancashire ' above
quoted, had married Alice, daughter of
Thomas Deane, and widow of Thomas Selfe
of Bristol, grocer. It is, however, not an im-
probable conjecture that Birch came into the
possession of his business by marrying the
widow of his master, whose goods' he may
previously have been in the habit of deliver-
ing to the customers. In any case, he
inherited a combination of talents certain to
bring him into prominence in troublous times
such as those in which he lived : great per-
sonal strength, remarkable coolness in the
most perplexing surroundings, an inborn
capacity for military command, a rugged elo-
quence which rendered him one of the most
formidable orators of his time, and a keen
business instinct which let slip no oppor-
tunity of advancing his personal interests.
After the surrender of Bristol to the royalists
Birch went to London and levied there a
regiment, with which he served as colonel
under Sir William Waller in his campaigns
in the west. In the assault of Arundel he
was so severely wounded as to be left for

dead ; but the cold stopped the haemorrhage,
and thus accidentally saved his life. After
obtaining medical assistance in London, he
returned to his command, and was present at
the battle of Alresford, the blockade of Ox-
ford, and the prolonged skirmish at Cropredy
Bridge. Waller's troops having deserted him
in the subsequent aimless march towards
London, Birch obtained the command of a
Kentish regiment of newly levied troops, with
which he assisted at the defence of Plymouth.
The institution of the New Model was a
serious blow to his hopes, for his presbyterian
principles were even dearer to him than his
own advancement. On its institution he was
ordered to join the army of Fairfax and Crom-
well near Bridgewater, and was entrusted
with the care of Bath. It was in a great
degree owing to his representations that in
September 1645 it was decided to storm Bris-
tol, and he assisted in its assault with a con-
siderable command of horse and foot, receiving
special commendation in the report of Crom-
well to the parliament (CARLYLE, Cromwell,
letter xxxi.) Notwithstanding this, he re-
mained only a colonel of volunteers with the
joint care of Bath and Bristol, a position with
so few advantages to compensate for its diffi-
culties that he contemplated resigning his
commission, when, goingto London in Novem-
ber 1645 to inform the committee of safety of
his intention, he received a new commission
along with Colonel Morgan, governor of
Gloucester, to ' distress the city of Hereford.'
Only a few months previously the city had suc-
cessfully withstood the assaults of the Scotch
army under Leven ; but Birch, after obtaining
secret information of the strength, disposition,
and habits of the garrison, succeeded in de-
vising a clever stratagem which enabled him
to enter the gates before a proper alarm could
be raised. Such a remarkable stroke of for-
tune was received with general rejoicing in
London, and formed the turning-point in
Birch's career. He received the special thanks
of parliament, who voted 6,000/. for the pay-
ment of his men, was appointed governor of
Hereford, and shortly afterwards was chosen
member for Leominster. With the capture
of Goodrich castle in 1646, his career as a
soldier of the parliament practically closes.
Throughout it, it is not difficult to trace the
predominance of his schemes as a man of
business. It was possibly to secure compen-
sation for the loss of his property in Bristol
that he first became a captain of volunteers.
When forced to suspend his business as a
merchant, he lent his money to the parlia-
ment at the high interest of 8 per cent., and his
governorship of Hereford supplied him with
admirable opportunities for speculating in

Birch

6 4

Birch

church lands, of which he took full advan-
tage, purchasing Whitbourne, a county resi-
dence attached to the see of Hereford, for
l,348/.,and afterwards the palace of Hereford
and various bishop's manors for 2,476/. (Me-
moir, 154-5). These purchases were of course
nullified at the Restoration, and Richard
Baxter mentions that Birch sought to per-
suade him to take the bishopric of Hereford
' because he thought to make a better bargain
with me than with another ' (KENNET, Re-
gister, 303). At the same time Birch made
his worldly interests entirely subservient to
his presbyterian principles. According to his
own statement in the debate of 10 Feb. 1672-
73, he suffered, on account of his opposition
to the extreme measures of the Cromwellian
party, as many as twenty- one imprisonments.
When Charles II appeared in England as the
champion of presbyterianism, Birch's wari-
ness did not prevent him from being seen
riding with Charles in Worcester the day be-
fore the battle. This was remembered against
him when fears arose in 1654 of a rising in
Hereford, and he suffered an imprisonment
in Hereford gaol from March of that year to
November 1655 (TiiuRLOE, iv. 237). He was
returned to the parliament which met in
March 1656, but was excluded, and, along
with eighty others, signed a protest (TiiUK-
LOE, v. 453). He took a prominent part in
the restoration of Charles II, being chosen in
February 1659-60 a member of the new coun-
cil of state, of which General Monk was the
head (KENXET, Register, 66). Notwith-
standing his dubious political action, he had
held during the later years of the protector-
ship an important situation in the excise, and
at the Restoration he was made auditor.
That under the new regime his business in-
stincts were still unimpaired is further shown
by the entries in the State Papers ( Calendar,
Domestic Series (1664-5), pp. 361 and 383) re-
garding his rental, along with James Hamil-
ton, ranger of Hyde Park, of 55 acres of land at
the north-west corner of the park, at an annual
rental of 5s., to be planted with apple-trees for
cider, one half of the apples being for the use
of the king's household. In February 1660-61
he acted as commissioner for disbanding 'the ;
general's regiment of foot,' and in March fol- ;
lowing as commissioner for disbanding the
navy (KENNET, 389). In the convention par-
liament he sat for Leominster, from 1671 to !
1678 for Penrhyn, and during the remainder of
his life for Weobly, the property of Weobly
and also that of Garnstone having been pur-
chased by him. in 1661. His practical busi-
ness talents and his acquaintance with mili-
tary affairs enabled him in the debates to !
make use of his oratorical gifts with remark-

! able effect. His plan for the rebuilding of
\ London after the great fire indicated great
! practical shrewdness, and, had it been fol-
lowed both then and thereafter up to the pre-
; sent time, the question of housing the poor
Avould have been completely solved. He pro-
i posed that the whole land should be sold to
trustees, and resold again by them with
; preference to the old owner, l which,' as Pepys
, justly remarks, ' would certainly have caused
the city to be built where these trustees
pleased' (PEPYS, Diary, iii. 412). Burnetsays
of Birch : < He was the roughest and boldest
speaker in the house, and talked in the lan-
guage and phrases of a carrier, but with a
beauty and eloquence that was always ac-
ceptable. I heard Coventry say he was the
best speaker to carry a popular assembly be-
fore him that he had ever known.' He died
10 May 1691, and was buried at Weobly,
where a monument was erected to his memory,
the inscription of which was defaced by the
Bishop of Hereford. In the new inscription
the year of his birth is wrongly given as 1626
instead of 1616.

[Memoir by Heywood in edition of Newcome's
Diary. Chetham Soc. Pub. xviii. 203-206 ; Mili-
tary Memoir of Colonel John Birch, written by
Koe, his secretary, Camden Soc. Pub. 1873 ;
Townsend's Hist, of Leominster, 109-11 ; Pepys,
Diary ; Burnet's Hist, of Own Time ; Whiteloeke's
Memorials ; .Rennet's Register ; Thurloe's State
Papers.] T. F. H.

BIRCH, JOHN (1745 P-1815), surgeon,
was born in 1745 or 1746, but where cannot
now be traced. He served some years as a
surgeon in the army, and afterwards settled
in London. He was elected on 12 May 1784
surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, and held
office till his death on 3 Feb. 1815. He was
also surgeon extraordinary to the prince re-
gent. Birch was a surgeon of much repute
in his day, both in hospital and private prac-
tice, but was chiefly known for his enthusi-
astic advocacy of electricity as a remedial
agent, and for his equally ardent opposition
to the introduction of vaccination. He served
the cause of medical electricity by founding
an electrical department at St. Thomas's
Hospital, and carrying it on with much
energy. For more than twenty-one years,
he says, he performed the manipulations
himself, since he found it difficult to induce
the students to take much interest in the
subject. The kind of electricity employed
was exclusively the frictional, which is now
known to be of little use, the therapeutical
value of galvanism being not at that time
understood. Nevertheless his writings on
the subject, which were widely circulated
both in this country and abroad, must have

Birch

Birch

done much in keeping alive professional in-
terest in investigations which have turned
out to be remarkably fruitful in practical
results.

Birch published several pamphlets in op- ;
position to the practice of vaccination, and j
in favour of inoculation, for the small-pox. I
He also gave evidence before a committee of j
the House of Commons in the same sense. |
His objections have no longer much scien- |
tific interest, but the point of view from j
which he regarded the subject is probably j
fairly represented in his monumental epi- :
taph, as follows : ' The practice of cow-
poxing, which first became general in his
day, undaunted by the overwhelming influ-
ence of power and prejudice, and by the ;
voice of nations, he uniformly and until !
death perseveringly opposed, conscientiously
believing it to be a public infatuation, fraught
with peril of the most mischievous conse- j
quences to mankind.' Birch was buried in !
the church in Rood Lane, Fenchurch Street, j
where a monument was erected to his me- !
mory by his sister Penelope Birch. The j
epitaph, from which some of the dates given !
above are quoted, is printed in a posthu-
mous edition of his tracts on vaccination.
His portrait, painted by T. Phillips and en-
graved by J. Lewis, is rather commonly met
with.

He wrote : 1. ' Considerations on the Effi-
cacy of Electricity in removing Female j
Obstructions,' London, 1779, 8vo : 4th edi- !
tion 1798 (translated into German). 2. 'A
Letter on Medical Electricity,' published in
George Adams's { Essay on Electricity,' Lon-
don, 1798, 4to (4th edition) ; also separately,
1792, 8vo. 3. ' An Essay on the Medical
Applications of Electricity^' 1802, 8vo (trans-
lated into German, Italian, and Russian).
4. ( Pharmacopoeia Chirurgica in usum noso-
comii Londinensis S. Thomse,' London, 1803.
12mo. 5. t A Letter occasioned by the many
failures of the Cow-pox,' addressed to W. R.
Rogers. Published in the latter writer's
' Examination of Evidence relative to Cow-
pox delivered to the Committee of the House
of Commons by two of the Surgeons of St.
Thomas's Hospital,' 2nd edition, 1805. 6. 'Se-
rious Reasons for objecting to the Practice of
Vaccination. In answer to the Report of j
the Jennerian Society,' 1806, 8vo. 7. ' Copy
of an Answer to the Queries of the London
College of Surgeons and of a Letter to the
College of Physicians respecting the Cow-pox,'
1807, 8vo. The last two were reprinted by
Penelope Birch, with the title ' An Appeal
to the Public on the Hazard and Peril of
"V accination, otherwise Cow-pox,' 1817, 8vo.
8. ' The Fatal Effects of Cow-pox Protection,'

TOL. v.

1808, 12mo (anonymous, but ascribed to
Birch in the ' Diet, of Living Authors,' 1816).
9. < A Report of the True State of the Ex-
periment of Cow-pox/ 1810 (on the same
authority).

[Biog. Diet, of Living Authors (1816) ; Calli-
sen's Meclicinisches Schriftsteller-Lexikon (Co-
penhagen, 1830-45), i. 264, and Appendix; Ar-
chives of St. Thomas's Hospital ; Birch's Works.!

J. F. P.

BIRCH, JONATHAN (1783-1847),
translator of * Faust,' was born in Holborn,.
London, on 4 July 1783. When a lad he had
a strong desire to become a sculptor, but in
October 1798 he was apprenticed to an uncle
in the city. In 1803 he entered the house
of John Argelander, a timber-merchant at
Memel, where he remained until Argelander's
death, in 1812, much of his time being em-
ployed in travelling in Russia, Sweden, and
Denmark. In 1807 the three eldest sons of
Frederick William III of Prussia took refuge
with Argelander for eighteen months, and
became warmly attached to Birch, in whose
company they took delight.

In 1812 Birch returned to England and
turned to literary pursuits. In 1823 he
married Miss Esther Brooke, of Lancaster,
who bore him five children, of whom only two
survived, a boy and a girl. His son, Charles
Bell Birch, A.R.A., became a sculptor.

After many minor essays in literature he
published t Fifty-one Original Fables, with
Morals and Ethical Index. Embellished
with eighty-five original designs by Robert
Cruickshank ; also a translation of Plutarch's
" Banquet of the Seven Sages," revised for
this work,' London, 1833, 8vo. The preface
is signed ' Job Crithannah,' an anagram of
the author's name. The Crown Prince of
Prussia accepted a copy, and renewed the
friendship formed at Memel. Birch next
produced ' Divine Emblems ; embellished
with etchings on copper [by Robert Cruick-
shank], after the fashion of Master Francis
Quarles. Designed and written by Johann
Albricht, A.M.' (another anagram of Jona-
than Birch), London, 1838, 8vo ; Dublin,
1839, 8vo. On sending the crown prince a
copy he received in return a gold medal, of
which only thirty were struck, and given by
the prince to his particular friends. He
now undertook a complete translation of
Goethe's ' Faust,' being the first to attempt
the two parts. The first was published in
1839, and dedicated to the crown prince,
who, on coming to the throne in 1840 as
Frederick William IV, sent him the ' great
gold medal of homage.' In 1841 Birch was
elected ' foreign honorary member of the

P

Birch

66

Literary Society of Berlin,' the only other :
Englishman thus honoured being Thomas ;
Oarlyle. The second part of * Faust ' was j
published in 1843, and dedicated to the King i
of Prussia. Birch also translated, from the i
German of Bishop Eylert, two works upon !
Frederick William III. In 1846 the King j
of Prussia offered him a choice of apartments
in three of his palaces. He chose Bellevue,
near Berlin, mainly for the sake of his son's
artistic studies. At the end of 1846 he settled
in Prussia, and completed his last work, a
translation of the ' Nibelungen Lied,' Berlin,
1 848, 8vo. He was greatly aided by Professor
Carl Lachmaiin, whose text he mainly fol-
lowed, and by the brothers Grimm. While
his work was still in the press he was taken
ill, and died at Bellevue on 8 Sept. 1847.
[Private information.] T. C.

BIRCH, PETER, D.D. (1652 P-1710),
divine, was son of Thomas Birch of the an-
cient family of that name settled at Birch
in Lancashire. He was educated in presby-
terian principles. In 1670 he and his brother
Andrew went to Oxford, where they lived
as sojourners in the house of an apothecary,
became students in the public library, and
had a tutor to instruct them in philosophical
learning, 'but yet did not wear gowns.'
After a time Peter left Oxford and entered
the university of Cambridge, though no entry
of his matriculation can be discovered. Sub-
sequently he returned to Oxford, and, having
declared" his conformity to the established
church, Dr. John Fell procured certain let-
ters from the chancellor of the university in
his behalf. These were read in the convo-
cation held on 6 May 1672, with a request
that Birch might be allowed to take the de-
gree of B.A. after he had performed his
-exercise and to compute his time from his
matriculation at Cambridge. On the 12th
of the same month he w r as matriculated as a
member of Christ Church, and being soon
after admitted B.A. (1673-4) he was made
one of the chaplains or petty canons of that
house by Dr. Fell. He graduated M.A. in
1674, B.D. in 1683, and D.D. in 1688. For
a time he was curate of St. Thomas's parish,
Oxford, then rector of St. Ebbe's church and
, lecturer at Carfax, and subsequently, being
recommended to the service of James, duke
of Ormond, he was appointed by that noble-
man one of his chaplains. He became chap-
lain to the House of Commons and a pre-
bendary of Westminster in 1689. King
William III, just before one of his visits to
Holland, gave the rectory of St. James's,
Westminster, to Dr. Thomas Tenison, and
after the advancement of that divine to the

Birch

see of Lincoln, the Bishop of London, pre-
tending that he had a title to the rectory,
conferred it on Dr. Birch, 11 July 1692.
The queen, being satisfied that the presenta-
tion belonged to the crown, granted the
living to Dr. William Wake. These con-
flicting claims led to litigation between Birch
and Wake in the court of king's. bench, and
eventually the House of Lords decided the
case on appeal, 12 Jan. 1694-5, in favour of
the latter. Shortly afterwards, on 19 March
1694-5, Birch was presented by the dean
and chapter of Westminster to the vicarage
of St. Bride's, Fleet Street. Abel Boyer,
referring to the dispute about the rectory,
states what was probably the real reason of
Birch being ousted from it. He says Birch
'was a great stickler for the High-church
party; and 'tis remarkable, that in King
William's reign, and on the Prince's birth-
day, he preach'd a sermon in St. James's
Church, of which he was then rector, on this
text, "Sufficient to each day is the evil
thereof;" which having given great offence
to the court, he was removed from that
church, and afterwards chosen vicar of St.
Bride's ' (History of Queen Anne, 1711, 421).
In September 1697 l Dr. Birch was married
to the lady Millington, a widdow, worth
20,0007. ' (LuTTKELL, Relation of State Af-
fairs, iv. 284). He died on 2 July 1710.
His will, dated on 27 June in that year, is
printed in the Rev. John Booker's ' History
of the Ancient Chapel of Birch.' By his
wife Sybil, youngest daughter and coheir of
Humphrey Wyrley of Hampstead in Stafford-
shire, he had issue two sons, Humphrey Birch
and John Wyrley Birch.

He published: 1. 'A Sermon before the
House of Commons, 5 Nov.,' London, 1689,
4to. 2. ' A Sermon preached before the
honourable House of Commons at St. Mar-
garet's, Westminster, 30 Jan. 1694,' London,
1694, 4to. Some of the members took offence
at some passages in this discourse, which
elicited two replies, entitled respectively ' A
Birchen Rod for Dr. Birch ; or, some Ani-
madversions upon his Sermon. . . . In a Letter
to Sir T[homas] D[yke] and Mr. H[unger-
ford],' London, 1694, 4to, and < A New- Year's
Gift for Dr. Birch ; or, a Mirror discovering
the different opinions of some Doctors in re-
lation to the present Government,' London,
1696, 4to. 3. ' A Funeral Sermon preach'd
on the decease of Grace Lady Gethin, wife
of Sir Richard Gethin, Baronet, on the 28 day
of March 1700, at West minster- Abby. And
for perpetuating her memory a sermon is to
be preach'd in Westminster- Abby, yearly, on
Ash Wednesday for ever,' London, 1700, 4to.
Reprinted in ' Reliquiae Gethinians6.'

Birch

Birch

[Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 659; Wood's
Fasti, ii. 334, 344, 387, 404 ; Compleat History
of Europe for 1710, Remarkables, p. 34; Le
Neve's Mormmenta Anglicana (1700-15), 209;
Luttrell's Eelation of State Affairs, ii. 45, 520,
iii. 426, 451, iv. 284, v. 251, 298, 627; Mal-
colm's Londinium Eedivivura, i. 161, 358; Atter-
bury's Epistolary Correspondence, i. 211 ; New-
court's Kepertoriura, i. 317, 661, 922 ; Nichols's
Lit. Anecd. ix. 658; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy),
iii. 362 ; Booker's Hist, of the Ancient Chapel of
Birch (Chetham Soc.), 100-104.] T. C.

BIRCH, SIR RICHARD JAMES HOL-
WELL (1803-1875), general, came of a
well-known Anglo-Indian family, and was
the son of Richard Comyns Birch, of the Ben-
gal civil service, and afterwards of Writtle,
Essex, who was a grandson of John Zepha-
niah Holwell, of the Bengal civil service,
author of the famous account of his sufferings
in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Birch was
born in 1803, and received a commission as
an ensign in the Bengal infantry in 1821.
His numerous circle of relations in India
insured his rapid promotion and almost
continuous service on the staff, and after
acting as deputy-judge advocate-general at
Meerut, and as assistant secretary in the mili-
tary department at Calcutta, he was appointed
judge-advocate-general to the forces in Bengal
in 1 841 . In the same capacity he accompanied
the army in the first Sikh war (1845-6), was
mentioned in despatches, and was promoted
lieutenant-colonel for his services. In the
second Sikh war (1849) he was appointed to
the temporary command of a brigade after the
battle of Chillianwallah. He distinguished
himself at the battle of Goojerat, and was
made a C.B. in 1849, and continued to serve
as brigadier-general in Sir Colin Campbell's
campaign in the Kohat pass in 1850. He
then reverted to his appointment at head-
quarters, and in 1852 received the still more
important post of secretary to the Indian
government in the military department. He
was promoted colonel in 1854, major-general
in 1858, and still held the secretaryship when
the Indian mutiny broke out in 1857. His
services at this time were most valuable,
though he never left Calcutta, for his thorough
knowledge of the routine duties of his office
.and his long official experience enabled him
to give valuable advice to Lord Canning, the
governor-general, and to Sir Colin Campbell
when he arrived to take up the command in
chief. These services were recognised by
liis being made aK.C.B. in 1860, and in 1861
he left India, In the following year he was
promoted lieutenant-general and retired on
full pay, and on 25 Feb. 1875 he died at
Yenice, aged 72.

[Hart's Army List; Times, 10 March 1875;
East India Register and Army List.] H. M. S.

BIRCH, SAMUEL (1757-1841), drama-
tist and pastrycook, was born in London
8 Nov. 1757. He was the son of Lucas
Birch, who carried on the business of a pas-
trycook and confectioner at 15 Cornhill. This
; shop, though the upper portion of the house
I had been rebuilt, still (1885) retains its old-
fashioned front, and is probably the oldest
shop of the kind in the city. The business
was established in the reign of George I
i by a Mr. Horton, the immediate predecessor
I of Lucas Birch. Samuel was educated at
a private school kept by Mr. Crawford at
Newington Butts, and upon leaving school
I was apprenticed to his father. P]arly in life,
! in 1778, he married the daughter of Dr. John
| Fordyce, by whom he had a family of thirteen
I children. He was elected one of the common
j council on 21 Dec. 1781, and in 1789 became
i deputy of the Cornhill ward. In May 1807
| he was elected alderman of the Candlewick
| ward in the place of Alderman Hankey.
When young he devoted much of his leisure
time to the cultivation of his mental powers
and the improvement of his literary taste ;
he was a frequent attendant of a debating
| society which met in one of the large rooms
formerly belonging to the King's Arms Tavern,
Cornhill, and there, in the winter of 1778,
he made his first essay in public speaking.
In politics he was a strenuous supporter of
Pitt's administration, though he vigorously
opposed the repeal of the Test and Corpora-
tion Acts. He became a frequent speaker at
the common council meetings. When he first
proposed the formation of volunteer regiments
at the outbreak of the French revolution, not
a single common councilman supported him.
Subsequently, when the measure was adopted,
he became the lieutenant-colonel commandant
of the 1st regiment of Loyal London volun-
teers. The speech which he delivered in the
j Guildhall on 5 March 1805 against the Ro-
man catholic petition was severely criticised
in an article entitled 'Deputy Birch and others
on the Catholic Claims,' which appeared in
the ' Edinburgh Review' (x. 124-36). It
was, however, highly commended by the king,
and the freedom of the city of Dublin was
i twice voted him at the midsummer quarter
assembly of the corporation of that city on
! 19 July 1805 and 18 July 1806, for his advo-
| cacy of the protest ant ascendency in Ireland.
j In 1811 he was appointed one of the sheriffs
| of London, and on 9 Nov. 1814 Birch entered
i on his duties as lord mayor. Tory though
! he was, he opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and
i presided at a meeting of the livery in com-
j mon hall on 23 Feb. 1815, when he made a

F2

Birch

68

Birch

vigorous attack upon the intended prohibition
of the free importation of foreign corn. The
course he took on this occasion is commemo-
rated by a medal struck in his honour, on the
obverse side of which is the bust of the lord
mayor, and on the reverse a representation of
a wheatsheaf, with the legend, { Free Impor-
tation, Peace and Plenty.' During his mayor- i
alty the marble statue of George III by
Chantrey, the inscription on which was writ-
ten by Birch, was placed in the council
chamber of Guildhall. Almost his last act
as lord mayor was to lay the foundation-stone
of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus
(then called the Amphitheatre, Moorfields)
on 4 Nov. 1815. In 1836 Birch, who had for j
many years carried on his father's old business |
in Cornhill, disposed of it to Messrs. Ring & |
Brymer, the present proprietors. He retired j
from the court of aldermen in 1840, and died
at his house, 107 Guildford Street, London,
on 10 Dec. 1841, aged 84. Birch was a man
of considerable literary attainments, and
wrote a number of poems and musical dramas,
of which the t Adopted Child ' was by far the
most successful. His plays were frequently
produced at Drury Lane, Covent Garden,
and Haymarket theatres. His varied ac-
tivity was the subject of a clever skit, in which
a French visitor to London meeting with
' Birch the pastrycook ' in such different ca-
pacities as Guildhall-orator, militia-colonel,
poet, &c., returned to France, believing him
to be the emperor of London ! His portrait,
presented by his granddaughter in 1877, hangs
in the Guildhall library.

He published the following works : 1. 'The
Abbey of Ambresbury,' in two parts, 1788-9,
4to (a poem). 2. ' Consilia, or Thoughts on
several Subjects,' 1785, 12mo. 3. 'The
Adopted Child,' 1795, 8vo (a musical drama,
first produced at Drury Lane 1 May 1795 ;
music by Thomas Attwood). 4. ' The Smug-
glers/ 1796, 8vo (a musical drama, first pro-
duced at Drury Lane 13 April 1796 ; music by
Thomas Attwood [q. v.]). 5. ' Speech in the
Common Council against the Roman Catholic
Petition,' 8yo, 1805. 6. ' Speech in the Com-
mon Council on the Admission of Papists to
hold Commissions in the Army,' March 1807.
He also wrote the following dramatic pieces,
which were never published : 7. ' The Man-
ners/ 1793 (a musical entertainment, first
produced at the opera house in the Hay-
market 10 May 1793). 8. 'The Packet Boat,
or a Peep behind the Veil,' 1794 (a masque,
first produced at Covent Garden 13 May
1794 ; music by Thomas Attwood). 9. ' Fast
Asleep, 1797 (a musical entertainment, pro-
duced at Drury Lane 28 Oct. 1795, and never
acted again). 10. 'Albert and Adelaide, or

the Victim of Romance,' 1798 (a romance first
produced at Covent Garden 11 Dec. 1798).

[Baker's Biographia Dramatica, 1812, i. 41-3 ;
Chambers's Book of Days, 1869, p. 64 ; Thorn-
bury 's Old and New London, 1st ed. i. 412-3, ii.
172 ; Era, 15 Jan. 1881, p. 7 ; Annual Register,
1841, appendix, p. 238.] G. F. R. B.

BIRCH, THOMAS, D.D. (1705-1766;,
historian and biographer, was born of quaker
parents in St. George's Court, Clerkenwell,.
on 23 Nov. 1705. His father, Joseph Birch,
was a coffee-mill maker. The son received
the rudiments of a good education, and when
he left school spent his spare time in study.
He was baptised, 15 Dec. 1730, at St. James's r
Clerkenwell, having been bred as a quaker
(Register of St. James's, Harleian Soc. ii. 191).
He is believed to have assisted a clergyman
called Cox in his parochial duty, and he is
known to have married, in the summer of
1728, Cox's daughter Hannah. His wife's-
strength had been undermined by a decline,
but her death was caused by a puerperal
fever between 31 July and 3 Aug. 1729. A
copy of verses which the widowed husband
wrote on her coffin on the latter day is printed
in the ' Miscellaneous Works of Mrs. Rowe/
ii. 133-7, and in the 'Biographica Britannica.'
Birch was ordained deacon in the church of
England on 17 Jan. 1730, and priest on 21 Dec.
1731. Being a diligent student of English
history and a firm supporter of the whig
doctrines in church and state, he basked in
the patronage of the Hardwicke family, and
passed from one ecclesiastical preferment to-
another. The small rectory of lilting in
Essex was conferred upon him 20 May 1732,
and the sinecure rectory of Llandewi-Velfrey
in Pembroke in May 1743. In January 1744
he was nominated to the rectory of Sidding-
ton, near Cirencester, but he probably never
took possession of its emoluments, as on
24 Feb. in the same year he was instituted
to the rectory of St. Michael, Wood Street,
London. Two years later he became the-
rector of St. Margaret Pattens, London, and
on 25 Feb. 1761 he was appointed to the
rectory of Depden in Suffolk. The last two>
livings he retained until his death. Birch
never received the benefit of a university
education, but in 1753 he was created D.D.
of the Marischal College, Aberdeen, and of
Lambeth. He was elected F.R.S. 20 Feb.
1735, and F.S.A. 11 Dec. 1735. From 1752
to 1765 he discharged the duties of secretary
to the Royal Society. Whilst riding in the
Hampstead Road he fell from his horse, it is
believed in an apoplectic fit, and died on
9 Jan. 1766. He was buried in the chancel
of the church of St. Margaret Pattens.

Birch

6 9

Birch

Horace "Walpole, in a letter to his anti-
quarian friend Cole, makes merry over the
insertion of a life of Dr. Birch in the edition
of the ' Biographica Britannica ' which was
edited by Kippis, and styles the doctor ' a
worthy good-natured soul, full of industry
and activity, and running about like a young
setting-dog in quest of anything new or old,
and with no parts, taste, or judgment.' In
another letter the newswriter of Strawbeny
Hill asks the question, ( Who would give a
rush for Dr. Birch's correspondence ? ' Wai-
pole's censure, though exaggerated, rests on
a basis of truth, but the fact remains that,
in spite of their wearisome minuteness of
detail and their dulness of style, the works
of Dr. Birch are indispensable to the literary
or historical student. His principal books
were: 1. 'Life of the Right Honourable
Robert Boyle,' 1744. 2. 'An Inquiry into
the Share which King Charles I had in the
Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, after-
wards Marquis of Worcester, for bringing
over a body of Irish Rebels to assist that
King,' 1747 and 1756, an anonymous treatise
written in reply to Carte's account of the
same transaction, and answered by Mr. John
Boswell of Taunton, in ' The Case of the
Royal Martyr considered with candour, 1758.'
5. Lives and characters written to accom-
pany i Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great
Britain, engraven by Houbraken and Vertue,'
1747-52, and reprinted in 1756 and 1813.
4. ' Historical View of Negotiations between
the Courts of England, France, and Brussels,
1592-1617,' 1749. 5. 'Life of Archbishop
Tillotson,' 1752 and 1753, a whig memoir
which provoked a thrice-issued pamphlet from
the opposite camp of 'Remarks upon the
Life of Dr. John Tillotson, compiled by
Thomas Birch.' 6. ' Memoirs of reign of
Queen Elizabeth from 1581 till her death
[chiefly from the papers of Anthony Bacon],'
1754, 2 vols. 7. 'History of Royal Society
of London,' 1756-7, 4 vols. 8. 'A Collection
of Yearly Bills of Mortality from 1657 to 1758,'
1759, an anonymous publication. 9. ' Life of
Henry, Prince of Wales,' 1760. 10. 'Let-
ters between Colonel Robert Hammond and
the Committee at Derby House relating to
Charles I while confined in Carisbrooke Castle/
1764, also anonymous. 11. 'Account of Life
of John Ward, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric
in Gresham College,' which was published in
1766, after its author's death. These works,
important and numerous as they are, by no
means exhausted Dr. Birch's contributions to
literature. He assisted, in common with the
other members of the literary circle which
was formed around the Hardwicke family,
in composing the ' Athenian Letters ... of

an agent of the King of Persia residing at
Athens during the Peloponnesian War ; he
edited the ' State Papers of John Thurloe '
| in seven folio volumes, and corrected Murdin's
! ' State Papers of Queen Elizabeth,' 1759.
When Dr. Maty was carrying on the ' Journal
Britannique,' he obtained the aid of Dr. Birch,
and when Cave Avas editing the ' Gentleman's
Magazine ' he sought the assistance of Birch
both in the general articles and in the par-
liamentary debates. Most of the English
' lives in the ' General Dictionary, Historical
| and Critical,' which appeared in ten folio
| volumes (1734-41), were written by him, and
j his communications in the ' Philosophical
I Transactions ' were numerous and valuable.
I His biographies Avere held in such high esti-
i mation that his memoirs of Chillingworth,
j Mrs. Cockburn, Cudworth, Du Fresnoy,
i Greaves, Rev. James Hervey, Milton, and
| Raleigh were prefixed to editions of their
works, which appeared between 1742 and
1753, and his critical aid was sought for the
superintendence of an edition of the works
and letters of Bacon and of Spenser's ' Fairy
Queen.' He bequeathed his books and manu-
i scripts to the British Museum, together with
a sum of about 500Z. for increasing the stipend
of the three assistant librarians. The manu-
scripts are numbered 4101 to 4478 in the
' Additional MSS.,' and are described in the
catalogue of the Rev. Samuel Ayscough
(1782). They relate chiefly to English his-
tory and biography. Among them were a
series of letters transcribed from the originals
at his expense and in course of arrangement
for publication at his death. These were
published in 1849 in four volumes, under the
title of ' The Court and Times of James the
First ' and ' The Court and Times of Charles
the First.' Numerous letters between Dr.
Birch and the principal men of his age are
printed in Nichols's ' Literary Anecdotes '
and ' Literary Illustrations,' the < Biblio-
theca Topographica Britannica,' iii. 398-4 16,
and in Boswell's 'Johnson.' Dr. Johnson
acknowledged that Dr. Birch ' had more anec-
dotes than any man,' and is reported to have
said that ' Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in
conversation, but no sooner does he take a
pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo
to him and numbs all his faculties.' The
justice of this condemnation of his writings
is apparent to every one who consults them.
The high estimation of his good qualities
which was held by the tory and high-church
Johnson in social life is confirmed by those
who agreed with the political and religious
opinions of Dr. Birch.

[Kippis's'Biog. Brit.; Boswell's Johnson (ed.
1848), pp. 48, 351 ; Ayscough's Catalogue, pp.

Birch

Birchensha

v-vi; Weld's Koy. Soc. ii. 561 ; Thomson's Roy.
Soc. p. 14, and App. p. xl ; Edwards's Brit. Mus.
ii. 415 ; Walpole's Letters, i. 384, vii. 326 ; viii.
260; Pink's Clerkenwell, 269-71 ; Morunt's Essex,
ii. 565 ; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 585-637, ii. 507,
iii. 258, v. 40-3, 53, 282-90; Lit. Illust. ir. 241 ;
Gent. Mag. 1766, pp. 43, 47.] W. P. C.

BIRCH, THOMAS LEDLIE (d. 1808),
Irish presbyterian minister, was ordained
minister of Saintfield, co. Down, on 21 May
1776. In 1794 he preached a sermon before
the synod of Ulster, in which he specified
1848 as the date of the fall of the papacy.
He was much opposed to the doctrines and
ways of the seceders, and in 1796 published
a pamphlet in which he tells how, by taking
the bull by the horns, he kept them out of
Saintfield. In 1798 he was mixed up with
the insurrection, and, having 1 been tried by
court martial at Lisburn on 18 and 20 June,
was permitted to emigrate to America, where
he died on 12 April 1808. He published :
1. 'The Obligation upon Christians, and espe-
cially Ministers, to be Exemplary in their
Lives ; particularly at this important period
when the prophecies are seemingly about to
be fulfilled,' &c., Belfast, 1794 (synodical
sermon, Matt. v. 16). 2. 'Physicians lan-
guishing under Disease. An Address to the
Seceding or Associate Synod of Ireland upon
certain tenets and practices/ &c., Belfast,1796.

[Belfast News-Letter, June 1798 ; Witherow's
Hist, and Lit. Mem. of Presbyterianism in Ire-
land, 2nd series, 1880.] A. G.

BIRCH, WILLIAM (d. 1794?), enamel
painter and engraver, was born in Warwick
about 1760, and practised in London. In
1781 and the following year he exhibited
enamels at the Royal Academy, and in 1785
received a medal from the Society of Arts
for the excellence of his work in this kind,
and the improvements which he had intro-
duced into it. He was a fairly good engraver,
as is shown by his one published work,
' Delices de la Grande Bretagne,' which con-
tains views of some of the principal seats and
chief places of interest in England. There
is one charming etching by Birch, ' The
Porcupine Inn Yard, Rushmore Hill, etched
upon the spot.' This little work is quiet,
natural, balanced, and thoroughly pictu-
resque. Unhappily we have not much more
of this quality. In 1794 he went to America.
He settled in Philadelphia, and painted a
portrait of Washington. On the title of his
work above referred to he describes himself as
' enamel painter, Hampstead Heath.' The
date of his death is uncertain.

[Birch's Delices de la Grande Bretagne, 1791 ;
Redgrave's Diet, of Artists, 1878.] E. R.

BIRCHENSHA, JOHN (ft. 1664-1672),
musician, was probably a member of the-
Burchinshaw, Burchinsha, Byrchinshaw, or
By rchinsha family, the senior branch of which
were settled at Llansannan in Denbighshire,
and the junior branch (in which the name
John was of frequent occurrence) at Ryw,
Dymeirchion, Flintshire, in the first half of
i the seventeenth century. Very little is known
I concerning him. In his early life he resided
! at Dublin in the family of the Earl of Kil-
I dare, but he left Ireland at the time of the
j rebellion, and after the Restoration lived in
\ London, where he taught the viol. Haw-
i kins adds that he was remarkable for his
I ' genteel behaviour and person.' In 1664 he
! published a translation of the { Templum
Musicum ' of Johannes Henricus Alstedius,.
on the title-page of which work he designated
himself as ' Philomath.' He occupied him-
! self largely with the study of the mathema-
I tical basis of music, his theories as to which
i seem to have attracted some attention at that
j time. Bircheiisha's notion, according to a
| letter from John Baynard to Dr. Holder,.
! dated 20 March 1693-4 (Sloane MS. 1388, f.
167 #), was ' That all musical whole-notes are
equall ; and no difference of half-notes from
one another, and that the diversitie of keyes
| is no more than the musical pitch higher or
j lower, or will pass for that without any great
i inconvenience.' A manuscript volume of frag-
mentary calculations, made in all probability
largely by Birchensha in 1666-6, is preserved
in the British Museum (Add. MS. 4388) r
where may also be seen a copy of the pro-
spectus, or 'Animadversion' as he called it,
which he issued in 1672 requesting subscrip-
tions to the amount of 500/. in order to en-
able him to publish the results of his inves-
tigations under the title of ' Syntagma
Musicse.' This work was to be published
before 24 March 1674, and in it Birchensha
promised that he would teach how to make
' airy tunes of all sorts ' by rule, and how to-
compose in two parts ' exquisitely and with
all the elegancies of music' within two
months. The book was apparently never
published, as no copies of it are known to
exist. Birchensha's proposals are alluded to
in a play of Shadwell's (quoted in HAWKINS'S
Hist, of Music (1853), ii. 725), where it is
said that he claimed to be able to ' teach men
to compose that are deaf, dumb, and blind.'
This seems to allude to some intended work,,
the manuscript title-page for which (in the
British Museum manuscript quoted above)
runs as follows : ' Surdus Melopseus, or the
Deafe Composer of Tunes to 4 voices, Cantus ?
Altus, Tenor, Bassus. By helpe whereof a
t deafe man may easily compose good melo-

Birchington

Bird

dies. Gathered by observation.' In 1672 !
Birchensha published Thomas Salmon's * Es-
say to the Advancement of Musick/for which !
he wrote a preface. He also printed a single
sheet of < Rules for Composing in Parts.' Of
his music almost the only specimens extant
are preserved in the Music School Collec-
tion, Oxford, where are some vocal pieces by |
him for treble and bass, with lute accom- i
paniment, and twelve manuscript voluntaries
in the Christ Church collection. John Evelyn
in 1667 (Aug. 3) heard Birchensha play. He
mentions him as ' that rare artist who in-
vented a mathematical way of composure
very extraordinary, true as to the exact rules
of art, but without much harmonie ' (Diary,
ed. Bray, p. 297). The date of his death is
unknown, but one John Birchenshaw, who
may possibly have been the subject of this
notice, was buried in the cloisters of West-
minster Abbey 14 May 1681. *

[Hawkins's Hist, of Music (1853), ii. 716, 725 ;
Burney's Hist, of Music, iii. 472 ; Heraldic Visi-
tations of Wales (ed. Meyrick, 1846), 300, 347 ;
Add. MSS. 4388, 4910; Cat. Music School Col-
lection ; Chester's Registers of Westminster Ab-
bey ; information from the Rev. J. H. Mee.l

W. B. S.

BIRCHINGTON, STEPHEN 0/.1382),
historical writer, probably derived his name
from a village in the isle of Thanet. He
became a monk of Christ Church, Canter-
bury, in 1382, though it is said that he was
closely connected with that house before. For
some time he held the offices of treasurer and
warden of the manors of the monastery. The
year of his death is not recorded. He wrote
t Vitse Archiepiscoporum Cant./ edited by
Wharton in his ' Anglia Sacra,' and, accord-
ing to his editor's belief, another and longer
book on the 'Lives of the Archbishops,' which
has not been preserved. In the same codex
with the manuscript of the ' Vitse ' Wharton
found three other histories, viz. ' De Regibus
Anglorum,' ' De Pontificibus Romanis,' and
* Be Imperatoribus Romanis,' which he also
assigns to Birchington.

[Wharton's Anglia Sacra, Pref. i.] W. H.

BIRCHLEY, WILLIAM. [See AUSTIN,
JOHN.]

BIRCKBEK, SIMON (1584-1656), di-
vine, was born at Hornby in Westmoreland.
At the age of sixteen he became a student
of Queen's College, Oxford, where he was
1 successively a poor serving child, tabarder,
or poor child, and at length fellow, being
then master of arts.' He proceeded B.A. in
1604, and B.D. in 1616. Entering holy

orders about 1607, he became noted as a
preacher and disputant, as well as for his ex-
tensive knowledge of the fathers and school-
men. In 1616 he was admitted to the reading
of the sentences, and the year after was made
vicar of the church of Gilling in Yorkshire,
and also of the chapel of Forcet, near Rich-
mond, in the same county. He received these
preferments l by the favour of his kinsman,
Humphrey Wharton.' During the troubles-
of the civil war he * submitted to the men in
power,' and therefore l kept his benefice with-
out fear of sequestration.' His most im-
portant work is entitled * The Protestant's
Evidence, showing that for 1,500 years after
Christ divers Guides of God's Church have
in sundry Points of Religion taught as the
Church of England now doth,' London, 1634.
The book is thrown into the form of a dia-
logue between a papist and a protestant, and
was valued by Selden. A friend having for-
warded to Birckbek a copy of his book covered
with marginal glosses, which the annotator
entitled 'An Antidote necessary for the
reader thereof,' an elaborate ' Answer to the
Antidotist ' was appended to a second edi-
tion of the 'Evidence' in 1657. The 1657
edition, with this appendix, was published
again in 1849 in the supplement to Gibson's
1 Preservative from Popery,' by the Reforma-
tion Society, the Rev. John Gumming being
the editor. Birckbek also wrote a ' Treatise
of the Last Four Things' (death, judgment,,
hell, and heaven), London, 1655. He died
14 Sept. 1656, and was buried in Forcet
Chapel.

[Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 421, and
Fasti, i. 302, 366 ; B. M. Catalogue.] R. B.

BIRD, CHARLES SMITH (1795-1862),
theological writer, has written his own bio-
graphy. He traces his descent from John Bird
[q.v.], the first protestant bishop of Chester
and prior of the Carmelite monks in the reign
of Henry VIII. The father of Charles Smith
Bird was a West Indian merchant, who was
taken prisoner in one of his voyages during"
the war of American independence. He was
of a highly religious character, objecting, for
instance, to his children reading Shakespeare.
He died in 1814. Charles Smith was the last
but one of six children, born in Union Street,
Liverpool, 28 May 1795. After attending
several private schools, he was articled to a
firm of conveyancing solicitors at Liverpool
in 1812. His leisure time w^as spent at the
Athenaeum reading-room in the study of
theology. He returned to school at Dr.
Davies's, of Macclesfield, in 1815, and thence
went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where
he 'chose no companion unless there was

Bird

Bird

Christianity in him.' He became a scholar
of Trinity in 1818, was third wrangler in
1820, and elected a fellow of his college.
He was then ordained and became curate of
Burghfield, six miles from Reading. He took
;a house at Culverlands, near Burghfield, in
1823. He added to his income by taking
pupils, a practice he continued for twenty
years. One of them was Lord Macaulay.
On 24 June of this year he was married to
Margaret Wrangham, of Bowdon, Cheshire.
He now frequently sent contributions to the
* Christian Observer,' edited by Mr. Cunning-
ham. It was against the Irish educational
measures that he wrote his ' Call to the Pro-
testants of England,' now inserted among his
poems. In 1839 Bird edited a monthly perio-
dical called the ' Reading Church Guardian,'
in the interests of protestant truth. The
publication languished for a year and then
died. In 1840 Bird became a sort of Sunday
curate to a Mr. Briscoe at Sulhamstead.
Having given up his house at Burghfield, he
was glad to accept the curacy of Fawley,
some three miles from Henley-on-Thames.
In 1843 he secured the vicarage of Gains-
borough, to which was attached a prebendal
stall of Lincoln. In this old-fashioned
market town Bell passed many happy years.
His course of life was regular" and tranquil.
Occasionally he lectured at the Gainsborough
Literary and Mechanics' Institute on natural
history, English literature, and other sub-
jects of interest. In the summer of 1844
e went to Scotland, and in the next year
preached before Cambridge university four
sermons on the parable of the sower. About
this time the proposal for the admission of
Jews into parliament aroused Bird's indigna-
tion. His ' Call to Britain to remember the
Fate of Jerusalem,' one of his longer poems,
may be read with interest. In 1849 the
cholera ravaged Gainsborough. Bird assidu-
ously and bravely administered to the wants
of the sufferers. His conduct was marked
by exemplary devotion to the wants of his
parishioners, to his own great and abiding
honour. In 1852 Bird suffered himself a
severe illness. In 1859 he was appointed
chancellor of the cathedral of Lincoln, and
left Gainsborough. He died at the Chancery,
aged 67. The grateful people of Gainsbo-
rough decorated their church with a painted
window in his memory. He was buried in
the country churchyard of Riseholme.

Bird was an ardent entomologist, and had
managed to satisfy himself that insects were
almost, if not entirely, destitute of feeling ; yet
he would not allow any to be killed by his
children until he was convinced of their rarity.
He became a fellow of the Linnean Society

i;

in 1828. There is an excellent article of his
in the ' Entomological Magazine ' for August

| 1833, and the Liverpool feather-horned Tinea,
or Lepidocera Birdella, was honoured by

| Curtis with his name. As a proof of his
conscientiousness we read in his ' Diary ' that

1 when young he embezzled 6d., and spent it
in pegtops and lollipops. His modesty pre-

j vented him from forming many acquaintances.

I Among his friends were Sir Claudius S.

i Hunter, bart., of Mortimer, Berkshire, Rev.

! G. Hutton, rector of Gate-Burton, Alfred
Ollivant, D.D., regius professor of divinity at
Cambridge, and the Rev. J. Jones, of Repton.
Besides sermons he published: 1. 'For
Ever, and other Devotional Poems,' 1833.
2. ' The Oxford Tract System considered with
reference to the principle of Reserve in
Preaching,' 1838. 3. ' Transubstantiation
tried by Scripture and Reason, addressed to
the Protestant inhabitants of Reading, in con-
sequence of the attempts recently made to
introduce Romanism amongst them,' 1839.
4. ' A Plea for the Reformed Church, or Obser-
vations on a plain and most important declara-
tion of theTractarians in the " British Critic "
for July,' 1841. 5. ' The Baptismal Privileges,
the Baptismal Vow, and the Means of Grace,
as they are set forth in the Church Catechism,
considered in six Lent Lectures preached at
Sulhamstead, Berks,' 1841; 2nd ed. 1843.
6. ' A Defence of the Principles of the Eng-
lish Reformation from the Attacks of the
Tractarians ; or a Second Plea for the Re-
formed Church,' 1843. 7. 'The Parable of
the Sower, four Sermons preached before the
University of Cambridge in May 1845.'
8. 'The Dangers attending an immediate
Revival of Convocation detailed in a letter
to the Rev. G. Hutton, rector of Gate-Burton,'
1852. 9. 'The Sacramental and Priestly
System examined ; or Strictures on Arch-
deacon Wilberforce's Works on the Incarna-
tion and Eucharist,' 1854. 10. ' The Eve of
the Crucifixion/ 1858.

[Gent. Mag. (1862), ii. 786 ; Brit. Mus. Catal. ;
Bird's Sketches, &c.] J. M.

BIRD, EDWARD (1772-1819), sub-
ject painter, was born at Wolverhampton,
12 April 1772, and educated himself. His
father bound him apprentice to a maker of
tea-trays in Birmingham. He is said to have
embellished these articles with taste and skill,
so that at the end of his apprenticeship he
had very alluring offers from the 'trade.'
Bird rejected all such offers, and went, with-
out any definite prospect, to Bristol. He
busied himself with painting, and there con-
ducted a drawing school. In 1807 he sent
some pictures to an exhibition at Bath, and

Bird

73

Bird

was fortunate in finding purchasers for them.
1 The Interior of a Volunteer's Cottage ' was
the subject of one ; some * Clowns dancing
in an Alehouse ' that of another. In 1809 he
sent to the Royal Academy a picture called
* Good News/ which at once made known his
name, and established it. This was followed
by other successful works ' Choristers re-
hearsing,' and the ' Will.' In 1812 he was
made an associate of the Academy. Both in
his early development and late departures,
the history of Bird, as an artist, is curiously
like that of Wilkie, and, although the genius
of the latter was incomparably greater, Bird
had yet talent enough to suggest to some in-
terested people that he might be made to
rival the too popular Scotchman. Of this
little intrigue got up against "Wilkie, in which
Bird, it should be said, was innocent of play-
ing a part, an interesting account is preserved
in Haydon's ' Journals ' (i. 142, 1st ed. 1853).
After his election to the honours of the Aca-
demy, and under some delusion as to the
quality of his genius, Bird turned his at-
tention to religious and historical subjects.
He painted successively the ' Surrender of
Calais,' the ' Death of Eli,' and the ' Field of
Chevy Chase.' The last of these is esteemed
his greatest work. It was bought by the Mar-
quis of Stafford for three hundred guineas ;
the original sketch for the same was sold to
Sir Walter Scott. That this was indeed a
powerful picture can be best understood by
those acquainted with the fact that it moved
Allan Cunningham to tears. The Marquis
of Stafford also bought the ' Death of Eli ' for
five hundred guineas. The British Institu-
tion awarded the painter its premium of three
hundred guineas in respect of this picture. In
1815 he was elected a full member of the
Royal Academy. In the following three years
he exhibited the ' Crucifixion,' * Christ led to
be crucified,' the 'Death of Sapphira,' and
the 'Burning of Bishops Ridley andLattimer.'
The < Chevy Chase procured for him the
appointment of court painter to Queen Char-
lotte. His last historical work was the ' Em-
barcation of the French King. ' For the com-
pletion of this painting many contemporary
portraits were required, and, according to
Cunningham's account, the painter's health
was broken by the scant courtesy he received
in his efforts to get them. The death of a son
and daughterincreasedhis trouble. His spirits
forsook him, and he died. He was buried in
the cloisters of Bristol Cathedral November
1819.

He was properly a genre painter, only occa-
sionally and partially successful in other de-
partments of art. Upon such paintings as
the * Good News,' the ' Country Auction,' the

' Gipsy Boy,' and others of this class, his re-
putation depends. ' He showed great skill in
the conception of his higher class pictures,
! but he had not the power suited to their com-
pletion, and his colouring was crude and
tasteless.'

[Gent. Mag. vol. Ixxxix. pt. ii. ; Life of B. R.
! Haydon, 1853; Cunningham's Lives of British
' Painters ; Pilkington's Dictionary of Artists ;
I Redgrave's Diet, of Artists of Eng. School ; Cata-
1 logue of Works of Ed. Bird exhibited the year
after his death at Bristol; Brit. Mns. Gen. Cat.

\ sub cap. ' Bird.'] E. R.

I

BIRD, FRANCIS (1667-1731), sculptor,
was born in Piccadilly. He was sent when
eleven years old to Brussels, and there studied
(WALPOLE) under one Cozins, a sculptor
who had been in England. From Flanders
he found his way, on foot it is said, to Rome,
and worked under Le Gros. At nineteen,
I * scarce remembering his own language,' he
! came home, and studied under Gibbons and
Gibber. Redgrave gives 1716 as the date of
his return, which seems, however, to be a
i mistake. After another short journey to
Rome, performed also on foot, he succeeded to
! Gibber's practice and set up for himself. The
! work which raised his reputation, and which
i alone maintains it now, was the statue of
Dr. Busby for Westminster Abbey. Though
not in itself superexcellent, it is yet a marvel
of art if we compare it only with other
works by the same hand. Bird secured the
favour of Christopher Wren, and was largely
employed upon the decoration of St. Paul's.
He executed the group for the pediment of
the west end, ' The Conversion of St. Paul,'
of which Horace Walpole remarks : ' Any
statuary was good enough for an ornament
at that height, and a great statuary had been
too good.' The same observation applies to
the five figures of apostles which maybe dimly
descried upon the roof of either transept.
For the statue of Queen Anne which con-
fronts Ludgate Hill Bird received 1,130/. A
public statue in London needs to be very bad
to attract to its demerits any special atten-
tion. The fact, therefore, that our public
took peculiar delight in mutilating this
group may be attributed rather to the ad-
vantage of its position than to its undoubted
meanness as a piece of art. It was re-
moved in 1885, and is to be replaced. His
monument of Sir ClowdisleySho veil in West-
minster Abbey is one of the worst works in
the world. It was to this that Pope ap-
plied the epithet ' the bathos of sculpture.'
His work, Nagler says, is barbarous in style
and devoid of any charm. He was, however,
for a long period at the head of his profession

Bird

74

Bird

in England, and produced a vast number of ! elected assistant physician to Guy's, and
statues. Many of these may be seen by the i joint lecturer on materia medica in the medi-

TTTT i All TT _ 1 * J * 1 _ T 1 T T Q/4 ^7 !-,/-. -rrrrt r rtln rf~*O fm 4vM + Vtk

curious in Westminster Abbey.
1731.

He died in j cal school. In 1847 he was chosen for the
triennial appointment of lecturer on materia
medica at the College of Physicians, and

[Gent. Mag. vol. i. ; Walpole's Anecdotes of ] S ' ^J --<-<=<

tinting, ii. 636: Redgrave's Diet, of Artists of \ gave some important lectures on the thera-

Painting, ii. 636 ; Redgrave's Diet, of Artists of
the Eng. School ; Nagler's Allgemeines Kiinstler-
Lexikon.] E. K.

BIRD, GOLDING (1814-1854), physi-
cian, was born on 9 Dec. 1814 at Downham,
Norfolk. He was educated at a private
school, where he occupied himself out of
school hours with the study of chemistry
and botany, and even undertook to give lec-

peutical uses of electricity, and the influ-
ence of researches in organic chemistry on
therapeutics. While thus occupied in medi-
cal practice and teaching, Bird was keenly
interested in the natural sciences, and pub-
lished one or two short papers on natural
history subjects. He belonged to the Lin-
nean and Geological, and was a fellow of
the Royal Society. He was also a corre-

tures on those subjects to his schoolfellows, spending member of several learned societies
These proceedings, however, met with the on the continent.

disapproval of his schoolmaster, and led to | There can be little doubt that Bird did too
his being taken away from the school. In j much. His foible was perhaps ambition,
December 1829 he was apprenticed to Wil- | which led him to overstrain his powers in
liam Pretty, an apothecary, of Burton Cres- ; the twofold effort to obtain a large practice,
cent, London, and remained his pupil till and also to make a name in science. An
October 1833. In 1832 he entered as a stu- ! attack of rheumatism in early life had per-
dent at Guy's Hospital, where his industry ; manently damaged the heart ; and the weak-
and scientific knowledge attracted the notice ness thus induced, combined with overwork,
of his teachers, especially of Dr. Addison | caused a breakdown of his health in 1849.
and Sir Astley Cooper, the latter of whom j Two years later a still more serious warning
availed himself of his pupil's assistance in j compelled him to take rest. He resigned his
the chemical section of his work on diseases ; appointments at Guy's Hospital on 4 Aug.

of the breast. He was also occupied in
giving private tuition to some of his fellow-
students. When barely twenty-one he went
up for examination at Apothecaries' Hall ;
but the court of examiners, in consideration

1853, and in June 1854 retired to Tunbridge
Wells, where he died on 27 Oct. of the same
year. He married in 1842, and left a widow
with five children, one of whom, Mr. Cuth-
bertH. Golding Bird, is now (1885) a lecturer

of the reputation he had already attained, on physiology and assistant-surgeon at his
declined to examine him, and gave him at ; father's hospital.

once the license to practise, with the * honours i Bird was a remarkable instance of intel-
of the court,' on 21 Jan. 1836. i lectual precocity. He was very successful

Bird started in general practice in London, ! in practice, and there are few instances of a
but, not meeting with much encouragement, i London physician having earned as large an
resolved to begin anew as a physician. He | income as he did so early in life. But he
accordingly took the degree of M.D. at j was more especially known for his researches
St. Andrews on 24 April 1838, as was then I in scientific medicine, which, though not
possible without residence, and on 18 April placing him in the first rank of investiga-
1840 that of M.A. He became licentiate of tors, still show considerable originality. He
the College of Physicians of London on carried on the work of Prout in applying
30 Sept. 1840, and was elected a fellow on | chemistry to medical practice, and in study-
9 July 1845. In 1836 he was appointed lee- ing morbid conditions of the urine. Although
turer on natural philosophy at Guy's Hos- ! some of the novelties on which he laid great
pital, and in this capacity delivered the lee- ! stress, especially ' oxaluria,' have not turned
tures which were the basis of his book on out to be so important as he believed, the-
that subject. He afterwards lectured also work on ' Urinary Deposits,' in its five edi-
on medical botany and on urinary patho- tions from 1844 to 1857, had great influence
logy. His course on the latter subject ap- on the development of medical chemistry in
peared in the l London Medical Gazette ' in England. Bird's * Elements of Natural Phi-
1843 as a series of papers, which were twice losophy ' was for many years a very popular
translated into German, and were ultimately text-book, especially with medical students,
incorporated in the author's well-known work for whom its attractive style, and its compara-
on urinary deposits. About the same time he tive freedom from mathematical reasonings,
became physician to the Finsbury Dispensary, alike fitted it ; although, indeed, the writer's
After seven years' hard work he was in 1843 i want of rigorous mathematical training con-

Bird

75

Bird

stituted, from a scientific point of view, its
weakness. It was strengthened on the ma-
thematical side, and otherwise enlarged, by
Mr. Charles Brooke, under whose editorship
the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions appeared.
Bird's shorter papers exhibit considerable
originality and inventive capacity. One of
them (London Medical Gazette,lIDec. 1840)
contains the description of a flexible stetho-
scope, an invention revived of late years.
In another (1839) he suggests a method of
printing figures of natural objects by sun-
light on paper impregnated with the salt
ferridcyanide of potassium, which anticipates
some of the modern photographic processes.
In private life Bird was a man of amiable
disposition and winning manners. His earnest
piety led him to take a deep interest in the
religious welfare of medical students, and
hence to become one of the founders of the
' London Christian Medical Association.' He
wrote : 1. l Urinary Deposits, their Diagnosis,
Pathology, and Therapeutical Indications,'
1st ed. 12mo, London, 1844 ; 5th ed., edited
by Dr. E. L. Birkett, 1857. 2. ' The Ele-
ments of Natural Philosophy,' 1st ed. 12mo,
London, 1839, edited by Charles Brooke;
4th ed. 1854, also 5th ed. 1860, 6th ed. 1867,
American edition, Philadelphia, 1848 (from
the 3rd ed. London). 3. ' Lectures on Elec-
tricity and Galvanism in their Physiological

; The Chemical Nature of Mucous and Puru-
lent Secretions,' ser. i. iii. 35 ; ' Report on
Electricity as a Remedial Agent,' ser. I. vi.
84 ; ' Report on Diseases of Children treated
in Guy's Hospital,' 1843-4, ser. n. iii. 108 ;
and others. 5. 'Lectures on Oxaluria,' 'Lon-
don Medical Gazette/ July 1842, xxx. 637 ;

6. ' The Influence of Researches in Organic
Chemistry upon Therapeutics' (being lec-
tures at Royal Coll. Physicians), 'London
Medical Gazette,' 1848, vols. xli. and xlii.

7. 'The Medico-Chemical History of Milk,'
' London Medical Gazette,' March 1840 (and
in Sir Astley Cooper's work on the 'Anatomy
of the Breast,' 4to, 1840) ; besides very
numerous lectures and papers in medical
journals, some of which are incorporated in
the separately published works.

[Biographical notice by his brother, Dr. Frede-
ric Bird, reprinted from Association Medical
Journal, 5 Jan. 1855; Balfours Biographical
.Sketch, Edinburgh, 1855 ; Lancet, 11 Nov. 1854 ;
Medical Times and Gazette, 11 Nov. 1854; manu-
script communications from family.] J. F. P.

~~BIRD, JAMES (1788-1839), poetical
writer and dramatist, was the son of Samuel

Bird, a farmer of Earl's Stonham, Suffolk,,
where he was born on 10 Nov. 1788. After
receiving a scanty education he was appren-
ticed to a miller, and at the same time began
to study by himself literature and the drama.
The fame of John Kemble, the actor, reached
his native village, and as a youth he made a
romantic journey to London to witness his
performance, returning on foot and penniless.
About 1814 he was in a position to hire two
windmills at Yoxford, but after five years of
j ill success in his trade he abandoned it, and
opened early in 1820 a stationer's shop in
i the same place, which maintained him until
j his death in 1839.

Before Bird was sixteen years old he had
written poetry, and later he contributed some
of his early poems to the ' Suffolk Chronicle,'
whose editor, Thomas Harral, became his-
most intimate friend. In 1819 he published
his first long poem, ' The Vale of Slaughden, y
a story of the invasion of East Anglia by the
Danes. First issued by subscription, its suc-
cess induced a London publisher, three months-
after its appearance, to undertake an edition
for the public. In 1820 Dr. Nathan Drake
in his '"Winter Nights' (ii. 184-244) re-
viewed it at length, and claimed for Bird
the same rank in literature as that attained
by Robert Bloomfield. Bird's second ven-
ture was a mock-heroic poem entitled ' The
White Hats' (1819), in which he humor-
ously attacked the radical reformers. His sub-
sequent narratives in verse were : 1. ' Machin r
or the Discovery of Madeira,' 1821. 2. 'Poeti-
cal Memoirs : the Exile, a tale in verse,' 1823 r
and second edition 1824 ; the first part of'
this volume is a spirited imitation of Byron's
'Don Juan.' 3. 'Dunwich, a Tale of the
Splendid City, in four cantos,' 1828. 4. 'Fram-
lingham, a Narrative of the Castle,' 1831,
5. ' The Emigrant's Tale and Miscellaneous
Poems,' 1833 (cf. the review in Gent. Mag.
ciii. pt. ii. p. 152, and Bird's good-humoured
reply, p. 229). 6. ' Francis Abbott, the Re-
cluse of Niagara [founded on Captain Alex-
ander's ' Transatlantic Sketches, ii. 147-55] :
Metropolitan Sketches/ 1837. Bird alsa
wrote two dramas, the one entitled ' Cosmo,
Duke of Florence, a Tragedy,' published in
1822, and the other ' The Smuggler's Daughter,
a Drama,' published in 1836. The first, it is
stated, was performed several times at small
London theatres, but the managers of the
chief playhouses refused to examine it. The
second was successfully produced at Sadler's
Wells in October 1835. Bird edited ' A Short
Account of Leiston Abbey ' in 1823. Most
of his verse indicates an intimate acquaint-
ance with Dryden and Pope, and the influ-
ence of Byron and Campbell. But Bird has

Bird

76

Bird

.an habitual command of forcible yet melo-
dious language. Late in life he began with
much success the study of Greek.

His portrait was exhibited at the Royal
Academy in 1829. He was the father of
.sixteen children, of whom a son George be-
came a surgeon of London and married a
daughter of the poetical writer Edwin Ather-
stone [q. v.] After Bird's death, his friend
Thomas Harral, in 1840, published with a
memoir selections from his poems.

[Davy's MS. Suffolk Collections, in Addit. MS.
19118 ff. 289 et seq. ; Harral's Selections with
Memoir; Gent. Mag., new series, ii. 550; Brit.
Mus. Cat.] S. L. L.

BIRD, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1558), bishop of
'Chester, is said by Wood to have been pro-
bably descended from the ancient Cheshire
family of his name. He became a Carme-
lite friar, and appears to have studied in the
houses of that order in both the universities
of England. He proceeded B.D. at Oxford
in 1510, and commenced D.D. there in 1513.
Bishop Godwin states that he was D.D. at
^Cambridge, but this may be doubted. * In
1516 he was, at a general chapter held at
Lynn, elected the provincial of his order.
He governed for the usual period of three
years, when he was succeeded by Robert
Lesbury, who held the office till 1522, when
Dr. Bird was again elected thereto at a
general chapter held at York. When the
papal power began to decline in this country,
he became a strenuous supporter of, and
preacher for, the king's supremacy. His
character was that of a temporiser, and he
was engaged in state intrigues. He was one
of the divines sent in 1531 to confer and
argue with Thomas Bilney, the reformer,
in prison; and in 1535 he, with Bishop
Fox, the royal almoner, and Thomas Bedyl
[q. v.], a clerk of the council, were sent by
Henry VIII to his divorced queen, Katharine
of Arragon, to endeavour to persuade her to
forbear the name of queen, ( which never-
theless she would not do' (STRYPE, Eccle-
siastical Memorials, i. 61).

On 24 June 1537 he was consecrated at
Lambeth suffragan to the bishop of Llandaff,
with the title of bishop of Penrith. In the
beginning of the year 1539 we find him and
Wotton on an embassy in Germany; and
Cromwell, writing to him in or about April,
desired him to get ' the picture of the lady,'
meaning Anne of Cleves, whom the king
was induced to marry on seeing her portrait.
In July of the same year he was elected
bishop of Bangor. He was present at the
convocation of 1540, and subscribed the de-
cree in favour of the divorce from Anne of

Cleves, though he had probably been to a
great extent instrumental in bringing about
her marriage. By letters patent, dated Wai-
den, 4 Aug. 1541, he was translated to the
newly created bishopric of Chester, being
also then, or soon afterwards, invested with
archidiaconal powers over the whole dio-
cese. An account by him of the sale and
appropriation of church ornaments, plate,
and jewels within his diocese is preserved in
the Public Record Office (State Papers, Dom.
Edward VI, vol. iii. art. 4). On 16 March
1553-4, when Queen Mary had succeeded to
the throne, he was deprived of his bishopric
by a royal commission on account of his
being married (STETPE, Ecclesiastical Me-
morials, iii. 99). At this time he owed the
crown 1,087/. 18*. Ofd. A < Foxian MS./
quoted by Strype, states that he at once re-
pudiated his wife, whom he had, as he alleged,
married against his will, and ' for bearing with
the time ; ' and in fact he showed such signs
of repentance, that soon afterwards Bonner,
bishop of London, appointed him his suffra-
gan, and on 6 Nov. 1554 presented him to
the vicarage of Great Dunmow in Essex.
The manuscript just cited says : ' This Dr.
Byrd was well stricken in years, having but
one eye ; and though he, to flatter with the
time, had renounced his wife, being made of
a young Protestant an old Catholic ; yet as
Catholick as he was, such devotion he bare
to his man's wife that he had them both
dwelling with him in his own vicarage, she
being both young, fair, and newly married,
that either the voice of the parish lied or
else he loved hr more than enough.' He
died in an obscure condition about the close
of 1558, and was buried in Chester Cathedral
according to Wood, but at Dunmow accord-
ing to Le Neve. Bale, in his ' Exposition
on the Revelations,' makes him one of the
ten horns.

His works, none of which appear to have
been printed, are : 1. i De fide justificante.'

2. l Contra missam papist icam ex doctoribus.'

3. l Homelise eruditse per annum.' 4. ' Lec-
tures on St. Paul.' 5. ' Contra transubstan-
tiationem.' 6. ' Epicedium in quendam Ed-
munduin Berye obdormientem in Calisia.'
7. ' Conciones corain Henrico VIII contra
papse suprematum.'

[Godwin, De Praesulibus Anglise, ed. Richard-
son, 776 ; Bale's Scriptorum Brytannie Cat.
(1559), 724; Wood's Athense Oxon. ed. Bliss,
i. 238, ii. 773; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 102; New-
court's Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, ii. 225 ;
Strype's Eccl. Memorials, ii. 466, 486, iii. 99,
138, 139,206: Strype's Grindal, 308; Strype's
Cranmer, 61, 62, 63, 309, 362, App. 257 ; Brad-
ford's Writings, ed. Townsend, ii. 1 ; Grindal's

Bird

77

Bird

Eemains, introd. i. ; Lo Neve's Fasti Eccl. Anglic,
ed. Hardy ; Cooper's Athense Cantab, i. 190, 551 ;
Calendars of State Papers ; Machyn's Diary, 58,
78, 341 ; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 75, 126, 145.]

T. C.

BIRD, JOHN (1709-1776), mathematical
instrument maker, was a native of the county
of Durham, and by trade a cloth-weaver.
Finding himself one day in a clockmaker's
shop, he was struck with the irregularity of
the divisions on a dial-plate, thought out a
plan for improving them, and for some time
engraved dial-plates for recreation. On the
strength of a certain reputation thus gained he
came to London about 1740, and was engaged
by Sisson to cut the divisions on his instru-
ments. Countenanced and instructed by
Graham, he perfected his methods, and by
1 745 was carrying on business independently.
His well-known premises were situated in
the Strand.

As the mechanical coadjutor of Bradley,
he acquired European fame. An instru-
mental refit for the Royal Observatory was
sanctioned towards the close of 1748. In
February 1749 Bird received an order for a
brass quadrant of 8-feet radius, which in June
1750 was ready for use. The construction of
this instrument, by rendering possible the con-
summate accuracy of Bradley's observations,
marked an epoch in practical astronomy. It
was built with the utmost solidity, weighing
about 8 cwt., and bore a double arc, one
with ninety, the other with ninety-six divi-
sions, accurately cut by Graham's method of
( continual bisections.' Its price of 300/.
was compensated by sixty-two years of valu-
able service, and although replaced in 1812
(by which time it had become eccentric with
use) by Troughton's circle, it is still reve-
rently preserved at Greenwich. A half-size
model was, by order of the commissioners of
longitude, prepared by Bird in 1767, and de-
posited in the British Museum.

No sooner was the Greenwich quadrant
completed than a duplicate was ordered for
the observatory of St. Petersburg, another
reached Cadiz, and a fourth^ was used by
D' Agelet and Lalande at the Ecole Militaire.
With a similar instrument of 3-feet radius,
Tobias Mayer made his lunar observations at
Gottingen. Indeed, most of the chief con-
tinental observatories still possess a Bird's
quadrant, valuable even now as affording a
measure of the probable errors of earlier ob-
servations(MAEDLER, Gesch. d.Himmelskunde,
i. 455). Of their necessarily imperfect kind,
these instruments could scarcely be surpassed.

Bird further supplied Bradley, about 1750,
with a new transit instrument, as well as
with a 40-inch movable quadrant, and put

a fresh set of divisions, in 1753, upon the-
great mural arc constructed by Graham for
Halley. The extraordinary value attached
to his work is evinced by the fact that a sum
of 500/. was paid to him by the commis-
sioners of longitude, on the conditions that
he should during seven years instruct an ap-
prentice in his methods, and deliver in writ-
ing, upon oath, a full and unreserved account
of them. Such was the origin of the two-
treatises entitled respectively 'The Method
of dividing Astronomical Instruments,' Lon-
don, 1767, and ' The Method of constructing
Mural Quadrants exemplified by a Descrip-
tion of the Brass Mural Quadrant in the
Royal Observatory at Greenwich,' London,
1768, both published by order of the com-
missioners, and furnished each with a preface
by the astronomer-royal (Maskelyne), setting
forth the singular circumstances under which
they had been composed. They were bound
together, so as to form one work, were re-
issued in 1785, and supplemented by W. Lud-
lam's ' Introduction and Notes on Mr. Bird's
Method of dividing Astronomical Instru-
ments,' solemnly vouched for as accurate by
Bird in June 1773, and published at the ex-
pense of Alexander Aubert [q. v.] in 1786.

The standard yards of 1758 and 1760,
destroyed in the conflagration of the houses
of parliament, 16 Oct. 1834, were both con-
structed by Bird (see BAILY, Mem. R. A. Soc.
ix. 80-1). He observed the transit of Venus r
6 June 1761, at Greenwich with Bliss and
Green, and the annular eclipse of 1 April
1765, using on both occasions reflectors made
by himself (Phil. Trans, lii. 175-6, liv. 142).
He died, 31 March 1776, aged 67.

[Ludlam's Preface to Introduction and Notes
on Mr. Bird's Method ; Bradley's Miscellaneous
Works, passim ; Poggendorff : s Biog.-Lit. Hand-
worterbuch ; MS. Addit, 5728 ; Gent. Mag. xlvi.
192 ; Bromley's Catalogue of Engraved Portraits,
p. 398.] A. M. C.

BIRD, RICHARD, D.D. (d. 1609), canon
of Canterbury, matriculated at Cambridge
as a sizar of Trinity College in February
1564-5, was elected a scholar of that house
in 1568, and took the degree of B.D. in
1568-9. He was subsequently elected a fel-
low, and in 1572 he commenced M.A. It
appears probable that in 1576 he was serving-
a cure at, or in the neighbourhood of, Saffron
Walden in Essex, where a new sect of dis-
senters, calling themselves 'pure brethren/
had arisen. ' A sort of libertines they were/
who considered that they were not bound to
the observance of the moral law of the ten
commandments, which they held to be bind-
ing only upon Jews ; and we are told that

Bird

Bird

* one Bird ' wrote to Dr. Whitgift soliciting
his advice as to the best mode of answering
certain questions which the sectaries had
propounded (SxRYPE, Annals of the Refor-
mation, ii. 451). Bird proceeded B.D. at
Cambridge in 1580. Subsequently he tra-
velled as tutor with William Cecil, eldest
son of Sir Thomas Cecil, eldest son of Lord
Burghley. In France Cecil embraced the j
Roman catholic faith, and this led to Bird j
being subjected to harsh treatment by Sir j
Edward Stafford, the English ambassador j
at Paris. Bird protested that he had been j

* robbed of the sowle of that young gentle-
man by wicked and treacherous men ' (MS.
Lansd. 46, f. 18).

On 21 March 1588-9 he was collated to
the archdeaconry of Cleveland, and on 29 Sept.
1590 he became a canon of Canterbury. He
resigned his archdeaconry in or before April
1001, was created D.D. in 1608, and, dying
in June 1609, was buried in Canterbury
Cathedral on the 19th of that month.

He is the author of: 1. ' Latin verses on
"Whitaker's translation of Jewel against Har-
ding,' 1578. 2. ' Appeal to Lord Burghley
against the cruel treatment of Sir Edward
Stafford, ambassador in France ' (MS. Lansd.
46, art. 9). 3. i A communication dialogue
wise to be learned of the ignorant,' London,
1595, 8vo. This seems to have been com-
monly known as ' Bird's Catechism.'

[Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 102 ; Strype's Annals of
the Eeformation, i. 207, ii. 433, 451, iii. 189;
Strype's Life of Whitgift, 75 ; Cooper's Athenae
Cantab, ii. 521 ; MS. Baker, xxxiii. 282 ; Ames's
Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, 1305 ; Le Neve's
Fasti Eccl. Anglic, i. 58, iii. 148 ; Hasted's Kent,
xii. 98.] T. C.

BIRD, EGBERT MERTTINS (1788-
1853), a Bengal civil servant, arrived in India
on 9 Nov. 1808, and, commencing his service
-as an assistant to the registrar of the court of
Sadr Diwani Adalat, the company's chief court
of appeal at Calcutta, was subsequently em-
ployed in the provinces in various judicial
posts, from which in 1829 he was transferred
to the appointment of commissioner of reve-
nue and circuit for the Gorakhpur division.
In the discharge of his duties as a judicial
officer Bird acquired a remarkable insight
into the landed tenures of the country and
the effect upon them of the laws then in force,
which ' referred to a state of things wholly
distinct from that which existed among the
people' (Fourth Report from, the Select Com-
mittee on Indian Territories, 1853 Minutes
of Evidence, p. 29). Upon his appointment
as a revenue commissioner, the soundness and
clearness of his views and his remarkable ad-
ministrative capacity speedily stamped him as

the ablest revenue officer in Bengal; and when
it was determined in 1833 to revise the set-
tlement of the land revenue of the north-
western provinces, the governor-general fixed
upon Bird as the fittest man in the service to
undertake that task. In the previous year
he had been appointed a member of the board
of revenue, then newly constituted at Alla-
habad. Retaining his seat as a member of
the board, he took sole charge of the settle-
ment operations, which he brought to a com-
pletion at the close of 1841. The result was
recorded in a report which he laid before go-
vernment early in the following year, and in
which he explained that the work had not
been confined to f such an accurate ascertain-
ment of the resources of the land as would
insure to government its full share of the
rents or produce ; ' but that it ' included the
decision and demarcation of boundaries, the
defining and recording the separate possession,
rights, privileges, and liabilities of the mem-
bers of those communities who hold their land
in several ty ; the framing a record of the
several interests of those who hold their land
in common ; the providing a system of self-
government for the communities ; the rules
framed with their own consent according to
the principles of the constitution of the dif-
ferent tenures ; the preparation of the record
of the fields and of the rights of cultivators
possessing rights ; and the reform of the vil-
lage accounts and completion of a plan of
record by their own established accountants,
and according to their own method, by refer-
ence to which the above points of possession
and right might, under the various changes
to which property is subject, continue to be
ascertained.' A corresponding system of ac-
counts for the offices of the tahsildars, or
native collectors, and for those of the collec-
tors of districts, was also framed. The set-
tlement was the most complete that had yet
been made in India. It embraced an area of
seventy-two thousand square miles, and a
population of twenty-three millions. It is
especially remarkable from the fact that it
was designed and carried out by an officer
whose duties during the greater part of his
service had been judicial. Bird retired from
the service in 1842, and spent the remainder of
his life in England, where he became an ac-
tive member of the committee of the Church
Missionary Society, travelling on deputation
and attending meetings in various parts of
the country on behalf of the society. A few
months before his death, which occurred at
Torquay on 22 Aug. 1853, he gave evidence
before the committee of the House of Com-
mons on the renewal of the East India Com-
pany's charter.

Bird

79

Birdsall

[General Register of the Honourable East
India Company's Civil Servants on the Bengal
Establishment from 1790 to 1842, by the Hon.
H. T. Prinsep, India Office ; Marshman's History
of India (1867), iii. 47, 48 ; Bird's Report on j
the Settlement of the North-West Provinces, I
1859 ; Fourth Report from the Select Committee j
of the House of Commons on Indian Territories, j
1853 ; Minutes of Evidence ; private letters.]

A. J. A.

BIRD, SAMUEL ( /. 1600), divine, j
was a native of Essex, and matriculated j
as a pensioner of Queens' College, Cam- |
bridge, in June 1566. He proceeded B.A.
1569-70, and commenced M.A. 1573. In
November 1573 he was elected a fellow
of Corpus Christ! College, being admitted
30 April 1574. He vacated his fellowship in
or before 1576. He must also have been fel-
low of Benet College, as his earliest title-page
shows : ' A friendlie Communication or Dia-
logue between Paule and Demas, wherein
is disputed how we are to vse the pleasures
of this life. By Samuel Byrd, M.A., and fel-
low not long since of Benet Colledge,' 1580.

It is further known that Bird was minister
of St. Peter's, Ipswich, which was at the time
a, perpetual curacy, very poorly endowed.
Unfortunately the church-books at present
extant date back only to 1667, whilst a list
of the incumbents from the year 1604 com-
mences with his successor. His perpetual
curacy he must have filled for a quarter of a
century say 1580 to 1604. He vacated the
living in 1604. It must have been by ces-
sion or resignation, as in 1604 he was ad-
mitted a student at the Bodleian Library,
Oxford, and on 8 May 1605 was incorporated
M.A. in that university. Nothing is known
of him at a later date.

In Bacon's MSS. belonging to the corpo-
ration of Ipswich, which date 16 July 1595
(38 Elizabeth), is the following entry :

' Exhibition of a poore scholler. Petition
for exhibition for Mr. Bird's sonne at Cam-
bridge. It's ordered the gift of Mr. Barney
shall be considered and what money is laid
out, and thereuppon order shall farther be
made.' Then, on 14 Aug. (same year) : ' It
was ordered by the Great Court that 4 li.
shall be given yearly to Samuel Bird, sonne
of Mr. Bird, minister of St. Peter's, at Cam-
bridge, to his maintenance in learning till
20 li. be laid out.'

Besides 'A Friendlie Communication,' pub-
lished in 1580, Bird issued ' The Principles
of the True Christian Religion briefly selected
out of many good books. By S. B.' 1590 ;
* The Lectvres of Samvel Bird of Ipswidge
vpon the 8 and 9 chapters of the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians,' 1598 ; ' The Lec-

tvres of Samvel Bird of Ipswidge vpon the
11 chapter of the Epistle unto the He-
brewes, and upon the 38 Psalme,' 1598 (an
edition of 1594 is also recorded). The ' He-
brewes ' is dedicated to M. Edward Bacon
of Shrubland Hall. Finally Bird published
' Lectvres ... on the Seventh Chapter of
the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians,' 1598.

[Cooper's Athense Cantabrigienses, ii. 429-30;
Cole MSS. (B. Museum), B. 128; Hunter's MS.
Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. ; Herbert's Ames,
1011, 1357, 1426; Lowncles (Bohn); Masters's
History of C. C. C. C. (Lamb), 326 ; Wood's
Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 307 ; communications from
Rev. Alexander Jeffrey, Ipswich.] A. B. G.

BIRD, WILLIAM, musician. [See
BYRD.]

BIRDSALL, JOHN AUGUSTINE

(1775-1837), president-general of the Bene-
dictines in England, was born at Liverpool
27 June 1775. His father, a well-to-do grocer,
sent him at an early age to the Dominican Col-
lege of Bornhem in Flanders. He entered him-
self among the Benedictines at Lamspringe
in Hanover in October 1795. He was there
admitted to his solemn profession 6 Nov. 1796.
On 30 May 1801 he was ordained priest at
Hildesheim in Westphalia. During September
1802 he was appointed prefect of the students
at Lamspringe, where Peter Baines [q. v.],
afterwards bishop, was one of his pupils. On
the suppression of the abbey of Lamspringe
by the Prussians, 3 Jan. 1803, Father Birdsall
had to return hurriedly to England. After
remaining for a while at St. Lawrence's Col-
lege, Ampleforth, he was sent on the mission
in the south, or, as it was still called, the
Canterbury province of the Benedictine order
in this country. On 30 May 1806 he arrived
at Bath, whither he had been despatched to
assist the incumbent of St. John the Evan-
gelist, where the Benedictines had long been
established. In October 1 809 he left, in order
to establish a new mission at Cheltenham,
and on 3 June 1810 opened the first catholic
chapel known there since the Reformation.
A French refugee, the Abbe Alexandre Caesar,
who had been saying mass on Sundays and
holy days in the back room of a low public
house, died in his eightieth year on 24 Sept.
1811. Many obstacles to the foundation of
the mission were overcome by the untiring
i zeal of Father Birdsall. He remained in ac-
tive charge of the mission for twenty-five
years altogether. Twenty years after his
arrival in Cheltenham he established a new
mission at Broadway, in Worcestershire. On
15 May 1828 he began there the new chapel
of St. Saviour's Retreat. That mission in

Birdsall

Birkbeck

its completed form was publicly inaugurated
in 1830, as an appendage to its founder's prin-
cipal enterprise at Cheltenham. Four years
afterwards, however, when he had at length
succeeded in establishing at Broadway, in
due collegiate organisation, something like his |
old community of Lamspringe, he withdrew
altogether from Cheltenham in 1834, settling
down thenceforth permanently in. his new j
home, which he loved to call by its old Roman
name of Vialta, in Worcestershire, and resided <
there till his death on 2 Aug. 1837, in the
sixty-third year of his age.

Meanwhile he had been steadily advanced
in his order as a Benedictine. In 1814 he
was appointed one of the definitors of the
southern province in England, and in 1822
was elected the provincial of Canterbury.
Re-elected provincial of Canterbury in 1826,
Father Birdsall was promoted in the same
year to the highest office of all within his
reach in this country, that, namely, of presi-
dent-general of the English congregation of
the order of St. Benedict. It proved an anx-
ious and painful pre-eminence. It brought
him into direct conflict with Bishop Baines,
the vicar apostolic of the western district in
England, whom he regarded from the outset
as endeavouring to extend beyond due limits
his episcopal jurisdiction to the prejudice of
the exemptions enjoyed by the religious orders.
The holy see eventually decided the dispute
in favour of the Benedictines. Father Bird-
sall also saved from extinction the thenceforth
flourishing Benedictine college of Ampleforth
in Yorkshire.

Father Birdsall was made cathedral prior
of Winchester in 1826, and in 1830 abbot of
Westminster. His multifarious employments
prevented his giving much attention to lite-
rary pursuits. Besides an unpublished ac-
count of Lamspringe, found among his papers
after his death, the only work he is known
to have produced was ' Christian Reflections
for Every Day in the Year,' 1822, translated
from the ' Pensees Chretiennes,' &c., published
anonymously at Paris in 1718, and attributed
to the Sieur de Saint e-Beuve. Father Birdsall's
mother wit rendered him a delightful as well
as a powerful controversialist. He was one
of the most valued correspondents of William
Cobbett (between 29 Nov. 1824 and 9 July
1827) when the latter was writing his his-
tory of the Protestant Reformation. Father
Birdsall occasionally in his catechetical in-
structions enforced his argument by humorous
illustrations. * We catholics are said to be
idolaters of images,' he once remarked, adding,
as he pointed to two carved angels that
flanked the altar-steps of the chapel at Chel-
tenham : ' Now I gave 4/. 16s. for those two

statues, and if anybody will send me a five-
pound note for the pair I'll let him have them
with pleasure. That's how I worship them ! '

On 6 Nov. 1877 the homely old chapel built
up by Father Birdsall at Cheltenham was re-
placed by the handsome Gothic church of St.
Gregory ; while on 7 Oct. 1850 the last mis-
sion established by him at Broadway was
given up by the outgoing Benedictines to the
Passionists from Woodchester. The tablet
erected in his honour at Cheltenham has been
removed in the transformation of the chapel,
and is no longer discoverable ; while the in-
scription on his tomb at Broadway can only
be here and there deciphered.

[Dr. Oliver's Collections illustrating the His-
tory of the Catholic Religion in the Counties of
Cornwall, &c., 1857, 8vo, pp. 119, 120, and 242;
Snow's Necrology of the English Congregation of
the Order of St. Benedict from 1600 to 1883,
8vo, p. 148.] C. K.

BIRINUS, SAIXT (d. 650), bishop of Dor-
chester, was a Benedictine monk of Rome, who r
receiving a mission from Pope Honorius to
visit Britain, landed in Wessex in 634, having
first received episcopal consecration at the
hands of Asterius, bishop of Genoa. Preach-
ing the gospel to the heathen people he suc-
ceeded in converting them to Christianity,
and in 635 baptised Cynegils, king of Wes-
sex, Oswald, king of Northumbria, standing
sponsor. Then was founded the see of Dor-
chester, Birinus being the first bishop settled
at Dorcic or Dorchester, Oxfordshire, a city
conferred upon him by the two kings. ' After
many churches had been built and conse-
crated and many peoples called to the Lord
by his pious labour ' (BJEDJE, IT. E. iii. 7),
Birinus died and was buried at Dorchester
in the year 650, his body being afterwards
removed to Winchester, and subsequently
enshrined by Bishop ^Ethelwold (963-84).
The influence obtained by Birinus, not only
; in Wessex but also in the neighbouring king-
i dorn of Mercia, is indicated by the references
made in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to the
! baptism by him of different princes.

[Hacldan and Stubbs. Councils, vol. iii. 1871,

I p. 90 (quoting Bseda and the A.-Saxon Chronicle) ;

Rudborne's Hist. Major Winton. in Wharton's

' Anglia Sacra, pt. i. 1691, p. 190: Kennett's

i Parochial Antiquities. Oxford, 1818, i. 36 sqq. ;

see also, for Birinus's Life as a Saint, Hardy's

Catalogue of Materials for English History

(Rolls Series), vol. i. 1862, p. 236.] E. M. T.

BIRKBECK, GEORGE, M.D. (1776-
1841), the founder of mechanics' institutions,
Avas the son of William Birkbeck, a banker
and merchant of Settle. Yorkshire, where he
was born 10 Jan. 1776. He studied medi-

Birkbeck

81

Birkenhead

cine at Edinburgh and London, taking his
degree of M.D. in 1799 at the university of the
former city. Among his friends and fellow-
students at Edinburgh were Brougham and
Jeffrey. Soon afterwards, when only twenty-
three years old, he succeeded Dr. Garnett as
professor of natural philosophy at the Ander-
sonian University (now Anderson's College),
Glasgow, and while holding that post he
commenced his efforts at popular education.
Having had his attention drawn to the diffi-
culties in the way of intelligent artisans who
were anxious to acquire information on scien-
tific matters, he established in 1800 courses of
lectures to which Avorking men were admitted
at a low fee. These lectures were for long a
successful department of the university, but
eventually the ' mechanics' class ' became in
1823 the ' Glasgow Mechanics' Institution,'
apparently the first genuine institution of the
sort. In 1804 he left Glasgow for London,
and here he established himself as a physician,
first in Finsbury Square, then in Cateaton
Street, and afterwards in Old Broad Street.
For some years he seems to have devoted him-
self entirely to the practice of his profession, in
which he attained a considerable reputation,
but the foundation of the Glasgow Institution
above mentioned led to his once more taking
up the cause of popular education. On the
suggestion being made in the ' Mechanics'
Magazine ' that a similar institution should
be provided for London, Dr. Birkbeck at once
assumed the lead in the movement. He lent
3,700/. for the building of a lecture-room,
and, having been elected president, delivered
the opening address 20 Feb. 1824. It was
thus that the London Mechanics' Institution
was founded, which many years afterwards,
in honour of its first president, was called the
* Birkbeck Institution.' In the enterprise he
was associated with Lord Brougham, both of
them being amongst the first trustees. For
some time the new enterprise had but a
fluctuating success ; it was, however, assisted
by the capital as well as the influence of its
founder, and neither the ridicule of its
enemies nor the quarrels of its promoters
sufficed to prevent its eventual establishment.
Dr. Birkbeck took an active interest in the
fortunes of the institution till his death,
1 Dec. 1841. The institution is now (1885)
one of the most successful organisations of ,
its class in existence. These foundations in j
Glasgow and London were soon imitated [
throughout the country, and thus was esta-
blished an organisation which prepared the
way for the existing system of popular scien-
tific instruction, as it is carried out by the
Science and Art Department.

Dr. Birkbeck also took his share in other

VOL. V.

popular educational movements besides the
one in which he was principally interested.
He was a founder and one of the first council
of University College, London (1827) ; he
took a prominent part in the agitation for
the repeal of the tax on newspapers (1835-6);
and he many years before any change was
effected endeavoured (in 1827) to promote
a reform in the patent laws. He was a fre-
quent lecturer, not only at his own institu-
tion, but at the London Institution and else-
where, and was always ready to do his best
to promote whatever he thought a useful
application of science to practical purposes.
[J. a. Godarcl's Life of Dr. Birkbeck, 1884.]

H. T. W.

BIRKENHEAD or BERKENHEAD
SIB JOHN (1616-1679), author of the ' Mer-
curius Aulicus ' and satirical poems, is said by
Anthony a Wood to have been son of Ran-
dall Birkenhead, of Northwich in Cheshire,
saddler, and born there (Athence Oxon. ed.
Bliss, iii. 1203), and T. W. Barlow (Ches.
Biogr. 1852, pp. 20-1) says, 'he was born
on the edge of Rudheath,' which is near
Northwich, and partly in Davenham parish
and partly in the chapelry of Witton, parish of
Great Budworth. In accordance with this,
the Witton register contains a number of
entries of children of Randall Berchenhead
(so spelled) from 1580 to 1631, with his own
death, being then ' parish clarke/ in 1633 ;
among these, under 24 March 1615-6, is
'Johes. fil. Randulphi Birchenhead.' Un-
luckily experts have pronounced this entry to
be a comparatively modern forgery, but it
gives nevertheless the correct date. Ormerod
(under ' Northwich ') states that Birkenhead
1 descended possibly from the antient family
of that name in this county (who first held
property here in 1508), but of low immediate
origin, being the son of a saddler.'

At the free grammar school of the town
in the churchyard of Witton, John Birken-
head doubtless received his early education
from the worthy schoolmaster, Thomas Far-
mer. In the beginning of 1 632, aged 1 7 (which
harmonises with the forged date in the Wit-
ton register), Wood informs us, he pro-
ceeded to Oxford, being entered at Oriel
College as servitor, and under the tuition of
Humphrey Lloyd, afterwards bishop of Ban-
gor. He remained ' till B. A/ (Athence Oxon.}
He was introduced to Laud and appointed
his amanuensis, and Laud, l taking a liking to
him for his ingenuity, did by his diploma make
him M. A.' in 1639. Nor was this all, for by
his letters commendatory thereupon he was
elected probation-fellow of All Souls College
in 1640.' During the civil war, while the

Birkenhead

Birkenhead

king and court were at Oxford, Birkenhead
was a leading spirit. The thick-coming
events of the time compelled almost daily
publication of news. The parliament had
their l Mercurius Britannicus ' and others, j
The royalists were in need of ajournaltillBir-
kenhead devised, and was appointed to write, !
the ' Mercurii Aulici ' (Athence Oxon.} The j

* Mercurius Aulicus ' communicated ' the in- |
telligence and affairs of the court ' at Ox- !
ford ' to the rest of the kingdom.' No. 1 is !
dated January 1642. It went on without \
break till 1645, and occasionally after, 'weekly
in one sheet ' (a small quarto). The ' Mer- [
curius Aulicus ' has not received that critical j
attention which it deserves. When it is ;
remembered that, with very occasional help
later by Dr. Peter Heylin and others, the ,
burden of carrying on the ' Mercurius Auli- !
cus ' fell on Birkenhead, it must be recognised I
that he proved himself by this achievement '
^ilone a man of intellectual capacity and wit. I
The ' Mercurius Aulicus ' now extremely J
rare complete has never been reprinted or
edited. Its literary quality gives it a far
superior interest to that attaching to the

4 Mercurius Britannicus.'

The t Mercurius Aulicus ' having proved

* very pleasing to the loyal party, his ma- '
jesty recommended him [Birkenhead] to the

electors that they would chuse him for
moral philosophy reader ' (Athence Oxon.") \
His duties were discharged l with little profit,' ;
says Wood ambiguously.

The year 1648 found him in exile with the |
prince (afterwards Charles II). We have
a glimpse of both in a letter from Birkenhead
to John Raymond, worked into the preface
of Raymond's ( Itinerary contayning a Voyage
made through Italy in the Years 1646 and
1647 ' (1648). The letter is dated 'Amiens,
11 July 1648,' and is a characteristic speci-
men of his style.

After the ' parliamentary visitors ' finally
deprived him of his posts and fellowship, he
appears to have gone and come between
France, Holland, and England. Ultimately,
according to Wood, having suffered several
imprisonments, he lived at Oxford 'by his wits
in helping young gentlemen out at dead lifts
in making poems, songs, and epistles to their
respective mistresses, as also in translating
and writing several little things and other
petite employments.' Of his own 'petite
things ' we have in 1647 (though not pub-
lished till 1662-3), 'The Assembly Man,
or the Character of an Assembly Man ;' in
1648, 'News from Pembroke and Mont-
gomery, or Oxford Manchester'd ; ' in 1649,
4 Paul's Churchyard, Libri Theologici, Poli-
tici, Historic!,' enlarged in 1653 as follows :

' Two Centvries of Paul's Churchyard. Una
cum Indice Expurgatorio in Bibliothecam
Parliament!, sive Librorum, qui prostant
venales in vico vulgo vocato Little-Brittain.
Done into English for the Benefit of the
Assembly of Divines, and the two Univer-
sities;' in 1659, 'The Four-legg'd Quaker,
a Ballad to the Tune of the Dog and Elder's
Maid.' There were also 'A Poem on his
staying in London after the Act of the
Banishment for Cavaliers,' and ' The Jolt '
on Cromwell's famous overturn of the coach.
There is much drollery in these productions,
and his language is always nervous and effec-
tive.

The Restoration brought Birkenhead to
the winning side. On 22 Aug. 1649, at
St. Germains, he received a grant of arms,
and probably his knighthood (Harleian MS.
1144, f. 82 b~). On 6 April 1661, on the king's
letters he was created D.C.L. by Oxford, and
as such was one of the eminent civilians con-
sulted by the convocation on the question
' whether bishops ought to be present in capi-
tal cases,' and with the rest on 2 Feb. 1661-2
said ' Yes.' He was returned M.P. for Wil-
ton, was made a member of the Royal So-
ciety, and was appointed one of the masters of
requests. But he failed to win the respect of
even so ultra a royalist partisan as Anthony a
Wood, who says of him : ' A certain anony-
mous (" A Seasonable Argument to persuade
. . . for a New Parliament, 1677 ") says he
was a poor ale-keeper's son, and that he got
by lying and buffoonery at court 3,000/. . . .
The truth is, had he not been given too
much to bantering, which is now taken
up by vain and idle people, he might have
passed for a good wit. And had he also ex-
| pressed himself grateful and respectful to
those that had been his benefactors in the
i time of his necessity, which he did not, but
i rather slighted them (shewing thereby the
baseness of his spirit), he might have passed
i for a friend and a loving companion.'

Except the 'Assembly-Man ' delayed from
1647 he gave to the press nothing of any
extent after the Restoration. He has verses in
the Beaumont and Fletcher folio (1675), and
Latin lines under Fletcher's portrait. Pro-
bably the ' Miscellanies ' of ' Wit and Loyal tv '
received contributions from him, but they re-
main unidentified. He died at Whitehall
4 Dec. 1679, 'leaving behind him a choice
collection of pamphlets, which came into the
hands of his executors, Sir Richard Mason
and Sir Muddford Bramston ' (Ath. Oxon.}
He does not appear to have married.

[Wood's Athenge, iii. 1203; Hunter's MS.
Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. ; letters from Mr.
John Weston, The Heysoms, Hartford, North-

Birkenshaw

Birkhead

wich; Birkenheacl's Works ; the nuncupative will I
of Kandall Birkenhead (in Probate Registry at |
Chester) leaves all his goods to his wife Margaret, j
not mentioning his occupation or children.]

BIRKENSHAW, JOHN, musician, j
[See BIRCHENSHA.]

BIRKHEAD or BIRKET, GEORGE
(A. 1614), archpriest, was a native of the
county of Durham. He entered the English
college at Douay in 1575, and was ordained
priest C April 1577. In January 1578 he set
out from Rheims, accompanied by the Rev.
Richard Haddock and four students, and pro-
ceeded to the English college at Rome, which
liad just been founded by Dr. Allen under the
auspices of Pope Gregory XIII. Returning
to Rheims in 1580 he was sent in the same
year to labour on the English mission, and
we are told that he was < well esteemed by
all parties upon account of his peaceable and
reconciling temper.' In 1583 he took relics
of the Jesuit Father Campion to Rheims. Dr.
Allen, notifying this circumstance to Father j
Alfonso Agazzari, says: 'Nobis egregiampar-
tern cutis, variis aromatibiis ad durabilitatem I
conditam, Campiani nostri detulit ibidem P.
Georgius ' (Records of the English Catholics,
ii. 202). On 22 Jan. 1607-8 Pope Paul V nomi-
nated him archpriest of England, from which
office Dr. George Blackwell [q. v.] had been
deposed in consequence of his acceptance of
the oath of allegiance devised by the govern- ;
ment of King James I. The new archpriest
was admonished to dissuade catholics from
taking the oath and frequenting the protestant
worship (State Papers, Domestic, James I,
vol. xxxi.) Birkhead retained the dignity till
his death in 1614. From his deathbed he ad-
dressed farewell letters (5 April 1614) to his
clergy and to the superior of the Jesuits. At
different times he assumed the names of Hall,
Lambton, and Salvin. He was succeeded as
.archpriest by the Rev. William Harrison.
The catholic church historian of England
states that < Mr. Birket was a person of sin-
gular merit, studious of the reputation of the
clergy, yet not inclinable to lessen that of
others, as it appears from several original let-
ters I have read between him and Father Par-
sons ; wherein some controversies are handled
between the Jesuits and clergy, which he
toucheth with all tenderness and circumspec-
tion that things of that kind require, and with
a due regard to the pretensions and passions
of parties.'

[Dodd's Church Hist. (1737) ii. 377, 483-99;
-also Tierney's edit. iv. 77, App. 157, 159, 161,
v. 8, 12, 13-30, 48, 60, App. 27, 57, 58, 103, 106,

117, 141, 158, 159, 160-4; Berington's Memoirs
of Panzani ; Morris's Troubles of our Catholic
Forefathers, 2nd series, 53, 57, 408 ; Calendar of
State Papers, Dom. James I, 397, 455 ; Bartoli's
Istoria della Compagnia di Giesu, L'Inghilterra,
294 ; Diaries of th> English College, Douay ;
Ullathorne's Hist, of the Restoration of the Cath.
Hierarchy, 9 ; Letters and Memorials of Cardinal
Allen; Butler's Hist, Memoirs (1822), ii. 266.]

T. C.

BIRKHEAD, HENRY (1617?-! 69(5)
Latin poet, was born in the parish of St.
Gregory, near St. Paul's Cathedral. Aubrey
(Tanner MS. 24, f. 159) states that he was
bora in 1617, i at the Paul's Head, which his
father kept/ but Wood fixes the date of his
birth four years earlier. Having been edu-
cated in grammar learning by the most famous
schoolmaster of that time, Thomas Farnabif,
he became a commoner of Trinity College,
Oxford, in Midsummer term 1633, and was
admitted scholar on 28 May 1635. Induced
by the persuasions of a Jesuit, he shortly
afterwards entered the college of St. Omer.
But he soon abandoned Romanism, and in
1638, by the influence of Archbishop Laud,
was elected fellow of All Souls, being then
bachelor of arts, ; and esteemed a good philo-
logist,' After taking his master's degree
(5 June 1641), he devoted himself to the
study of law. In May 1643 he submitted to
the authority of the visitors appointed by
parliament. " In 1653 he was allowed by the
delegates of the university to propose a dis-
pensation in convocation for taking the degree
of doctor of physic by accumulation, provided
that he should perform the necessary exer-
cises ; but it is uncertain whether he took
the degree. He resigned his fellowship in
1657, and at the Restoration became registrar
of the diocese of Norwich, an office which he
continued to hold until 1681. He also had
a chamber in the Middle Temple, where he
frequently resided. In 1645 he issued at
Oxford a quarto volume of ' Poemata,' printed
for private circulation. In 1656 appeared
1 Poematia in Elegiaca, lambica, Polymetra
Antitechnemata et Metaphrases membratim
quadripertita,' Oxonii, 8vo. He joined with
Henry Stubbe, of Christ Church, in publish-
ing another volume of Latin verse in the
same year, < Otium Literatum siye Miscel-
lanea qugedam Poemata ab H. Birchead et
H. Stubbe edita,' Oxon., 16mo. A second
edition of this little volume appeared in 1658.
Birkhead also edited, with a preface, some
philological works of Henry Jacob in 1652 ;
and wrote several Latin elegies, 'scatteredly
printed in various books, under the covert
letters sometimes of H. G.,' to persons who
had suffered for their devotion to Charles I.

Birks

8 4

Birks

An unpublished allegorical play by Birkhead,
' The Female Rebellion,' is preserved among
the Tanner MSS. (40(3) ; it has little merit.
In 1643 there was published at Oxford a
collection of ' Verses on the death of the
right valiant Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight.
Who was slaine by the rebells, on Lans-
downe-hill neare Bath, July 5, 1643,' 4to.
Birkhead was one of the contributors to this
collection, which included elegies by Jasper
Mayne, William Cartwright, Dudley Digges,
and others. Forty-one years afterwards, in
1684, the collection was reprinted, and Henry
Birkhead, the only survivor with one excep-
tion of the thirteen contributors, addressed a
long 'Epistle Dedicatory' to the Earl of
Bath, son of Sir Bevill Grenvill. Wood
vaguely says that after the Restoration he
' lived ... in a retired and scholastical con-
dition,' adding that he ( was always accounted
an excellent Latin poet, a good Grecian, and
well vers'd in all human learning.' He died
on Michaelmas Eve, 1696, and was buried at
St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. The
professorship of poetry at Oxford was founded
in 1708 from funds bequeathed by Birkhead.

[Tanner MS. 24, f. 159; Wood's Afhense
Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, iv. 573-4 ; Wood's Hist,
and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, ed.
Gutch, ii. 434 ; Martin's Archives of All Souls,
381 ; Burrows's Eegister of the Visitors of the
University of Oxford, 1647-58 (Camden Society),
pp. 43, 117 ; Hazlitt's Handbook ; Corser's Col-
lectanea Anglo-Poetica, ii. 285-8.] A. H. B.

BIRKS, THOMAS RAWSON (1810-
1883), theologian and controversialist, was
born on 28 Sept. 1810 at Staveley in Derby-
shire. His father was a tenant farmer under
the Duke of Devonshire. The family being
nonconformists, young Birks was educated
first at Chesterfield and then at the Dissent-
ing College at Mill Hill. Funds were pro-
vided to send him to Cambridge. He won
a sizarship and a scholarship at Trinity, and
in his third year gained the chief English
declamation prize. As the holder of this
prize he delivered the customary oration in
the college hall. The subject chosen was
1 Mathematical and Moral Certainty/ and, in
a letter to Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Whewell spoke
very highly of this oration. In January 1834
Birks came out as second wrangler and second
Smith's prizeman.

Having joined the church of England on
leaving the university, Birks settled at Wat-
ton as tutor and then curate to the Rev. Ed-
ward Bickersteth [q. v.] During his stay there
he devoted much time to the study of the
prophetic scriptures, and took the affirmative
side in the warm controversy which arose on

the subject of the premillennial theory of th&
Lord's return. In 1843-4 Birks won the
Seatonian prize for the best English poem
at Trinity. Some years before he had been
elected a fellow of his college. He ardently
engaged in many religious controversies, and
one of these, on the future of the lost, led ta
the severance of private friendships and reli-
gious connections. In his views on this sub-
ject he was equally opposed to the univer-
salists and the annihilationists. In the year
1844 Birks married Miss Bickersteth, the
daughter of his friend, and accepted the-
living of Kelshall in Hertfordshire.

In 1850 Birks published his edition of
Paley's ' Horse Paulinae/ with notes and a
supplementary treatise entitled ' Horse Apo-
stolicae.' Two years later the work was fol-
lowed by ' Horee Evangelicse/ and in 1853
appeared his ( Modern Rationalism ' and ( The
Inspiration of the Scriptures.' In 1856 Birks
lost his wife, and the severity of the afflic-
tion caused the suspension of his literary
labours for several years.

The year 1861, however, witnessed the
publication of another of his more important
works, ' The Bible and Modern Thought,' at
the request of the committee of the Religious
Tract Society. The author subsequently en-
larged his work by a series of notes on the
evidential school of theology, the limits of
religious thought, the Bible and ancient
Egypt, the human element in Scripture, and
Genesis and geology.

Birks left Kelshall in 1864, and in 1866'
accepted the important charge of Trinity
Church, Cambridge. In the latter year he
married a second time. By his first marriage
he had eight children, one of whom, his
eldest son, also attained distinction, succeed-
ing him as a fellow of Trinity. At the time
of the disestablishment of the Irish church
Birks came forward with a lengthy treatise
on ' Church and State/ which was an elabo-
ration of a treatise written thirty years be-
fore, and now republished as bearing upon
the ecclesiastical change proposed by Mr.
Gladstone and carried into effect by parlia-
ment. Birks was installed honorary canon of
Ely Cathedral in 1871, and in 1872, on the
death of the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice,
he was elected professor of moral philosophy
at Cambridge. This appointment led to a
stormy controversy. It was regarded as a
retrograde step by the large body of liberal
thinkers who sympathised with the views of
Mr. Maurice. While pastor at Cambridge,
Birks laboured assiduously in giving reli-
gious instruction to the undergraduates, to
older members of the university, and also to
the residents in the town. In the year of

Birks

Birmingham

his appointment he published his ' Scripture
Doctrine of Creation ' and ' The Philosophy
of Human Responsibility.' His inaugural
lecture as professor of moral philosophy was
on * The Present Importance of Moral Sci-
-ence.'

In 1873 appeared his ' First Principles of
Moral Science/ being a course of lectures
delivered during his professorship. This
work was followed in 1874 by ' Modern
Utilitarianism/ in which the systems of
Paley, Bentham, and Mill were examined
and compared. In 1876 Birks delivered the
annual address to the Victoria Institute, his
subject being l The Uncertainties of Modern
Physical Science.' Birks published in 1876
his work on ' Modern Physical Fatalism and
the Doctrine of Evolution.' It contained
the substance of a course of lectures devoted
to the examination of the philosophy un-
folded in Mr. Herbert Spencer's ( First Prin-
ciples.' Birks held the views expressed by
Mr. Spencer { to be radically unsound, full
of logical inconsistency and contradiction,
.and flatly opposed to the fundamental doc-
trines of Christianity and even the very ex-
istence of moral science.' To the strictures
upon his ' First Principles ' Mr. Spencer re-
plied at length, and this led to the re-publi-
cation, in 1882, of Birks's treatise, with an
introduction by Dr. Pritchard, F.R.S., Sa-
vilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, in
which Mr. Spencer's rejoinder was dealt with,
and the original arguments of Birks illustrated
and further explained.

Birks resigned the vicarage of Trinity in
1877, and in the same year published a
volume on ' Manuscript Evidence in the
Text of the New Testament/ being an en-
deavour to bring ' mathematical reasoning
to bear on the probable value of the manu-
scripts of different ages, with a general in-
ference in favour of the high value of the
cursive manuscripts as a class.' In the same
year Birks issued his * Supernatural Revela-
tion/ being an answer to a work on ' Super-
natural Religion/ which had given rise to
much criticism. Birks's treatise was repub-
lished at a later period by Professor Pritchard,
with a reply to objections that had been
urged against it.

Early in 1875 Birks suffered from a para-
lytic seizure, and this was followed by a
.second stroke in 1877. He still took a deep
interest in questions of the day, and was
able to dictate various works, pamphlets,
.and letters bearing upon these questions.
In April 1880, while residing in the New
Forest, he was stricken for a third time,
and fatally, with paralysis. He was con-
veyed home to Cambridge, where he lin-

gered for three years, being incapacitated
for intellectual effort. He died on 19 July
1883.

Birks was for twenty-one years honorary
i secretary to the Evangelical Alliance. He
| was an examiner for the theological exami-
| nation at Cambridge in 1867 and 1868, and
I was a member of the board of theological
I studies. He took an active part in all uni-
; versity affairs during his connection with
| Cambridge, was appointed to preach the
| Ramsden sermon in 1867, and was frequently
! a select preacher before the university. In
I addition to the works named in the course
! of this article, Birks was the author of a
j considerable number of treatises on prophecy
i and other subjects connected with the older
j revelation, as well as of a l Memoir of the
' Rev. Edward Bickersteth.'

[The works of Professor Birks ; Record, 27 July
1 1883 ; Men of the Time (llth edition) ; Times,
23 July 1883; Guardian, 25 July 1883.1

G. B. S.

BIRMINGHAM, JOHN (1816-1884),
astronomer, was a country gentleman residing
at Millbrook, near Tuam, Ireland, whose
I attention was directed to astronomy by his
' discovery of a remarkable new star in Corona
I Borealis on 12 May 1866 (Month. Ato.,xxvi.
310). In 1872, at the suggestion of the Rev.
T. W. Webb, he undertook a revision of
Schjellerup's i Catalogue of Red Stars/ and
extended the scope of his task so as to in-
I elude Schmidt's list from the ' Astronomische
1 Nachrichten' (No. 1902), some ninety ruddy
stars found by Webb and himself, with
| others pointed out by the late C. E. Burton
| in all, 658 such objects reobserved with a
I 4^-inch refractor, and a magnifying power of
53. The spectra of several, as described by
! Secchi, D'Arrest, and others, were added.
I This valuable work was presented to the
Royal Irish Academy on 26 June 1876, and
published in their * Transactions ' (xxvi. 249,
1879). Its merit was acknowledged by the
bestowal of the Cunningham medal early in
1884. Birmingham was engaged in revising
and extending it at the time of his death,
which occurred at Millbrook, from an attack
of jaundice, on 7 Sept. 1884. He was unmar-
ried, a pious catholic, liberal, kindly, and
unassuming. He possessed considerable lin-
guistic accomplishments, had travelled in
most parts of Europe, and was in correspon-
dence with several foreign astronomers,
notably with Father Secchi of Rome. He
held for some time the post of inspector
under the board of works.

On 22 May 1881 he discovered a deep red
star in Cygnus, which proved strikingly vari-

Birnie

86

Birnie

able, and became known by his name. The
particulars of his observations on the meteor-
showers of 12-13 Dec. 1866, and 27 Nov. 1872,
on the transit of Venus of 6 Dec. 1882, on
sun-spots and variables, were published in
' Monthly Notices/ t Astronornische Nach-
richten/ and ' Nature.' He communicated to
the British Association in 1857 a paper on
* The Drift of West Galway and the Eastern
Parts of Mayo ' (Report, ii. 64), published in
cxtenso in the ' Journal of the Geological
Society of Dublin ' (viii. 28, 111). The same
volume contains (p. 26) his remarks on the
1 Junction of the Limestone, Sandstone, and
Granite at Oughterard, co. Galway.' His
only separate publication was a small poeti-
cal work of a controversial character entitled
' Anglicania, or England's Mission to the
Celt ' (London, 1863).

[Athenaeum, 20 Sept. 1884 ; Tuam News,
12 Sept. 1884; R. Soc. Cat. Scientific Papers,
i. 388, vii. 178.] A. M. C.

BIRNIE, ALEXANDER (1826-1862),
poet and journalist, was born in the north of
Scotland, it is believed in Morayshire. The
place and exact date of his birth are un-
known ; but he has himself left it on record
that he was born in 1826. His life was
erratic. At an early age he came to Eng-
land, and was at one time a baptist minister
in Preston. He was in that town when it
passed through its great labour strikes, and
he wrote letters to the local journals on the
events of the day. In 1860 he arrived in
Falkirk, foot sore and penniless, having walked
all the way from Lancashire. He obtained
some employment, but, being dismissed from
it, entered the Carron works, Falkirk, as a
painter. He appears to have struck all with
whom he came in contact by his brilliant
powers. Birnie was ultimately dismissed
from the Carron works for intemperance.
While in Carron he began his journalistic
notes under the signature of f Cock of the
Steeple.' He was ultimately taken upon the
regular staff of the f Falkirk Advertiser ; ' but
several weeks before that journal ceased pub-
lication, he began the 'Falkirk Liberal/
which was published at one halfpenny per
copy, and printed in Stirling. Although this
journal was the recognised organ of the
feuars of Falkirk, it speedily began to be
apparent that it could not succeed. The
printers lost by the speculation, and Birnie,
' sorrowing and penitent for his sins, went
to his death, crushed in spirit that he could
only raise 3/. 10*. to pay an account of 27/.'
It is stated that his party promised to sup-
port him, but failed to do so.

Birnie's death was melancholy. One morn-

ing in March 1862, he was found in a straw
stack near Stobhill brick works, Morpeth r
where he had been concealed without food
or drink for a fortnight. His statement to>
this effect was corroborated by a diary which
he had carefully kept for some weeks. He
j was removed to the workhouse hospital ;.
mortification of both feet set in, and he suc-
cumbed at the age of thirty-six years. It
1 appears that Birnie made his way to Edin-
: burgh, hoping to meet with employment
there. In one of the dens of that city he was
robbed of the whole of his little stock of
money, and resolved to commit suicide. He
obtained a large quantity of laudanum, which
he swallowed ; but his stomach being unable
to retain the quantity of poison, which was
far too large, his life was saved. He now
started on foot for Newcastle, and made daily
entries in a little journal which has been
printed. Reaching Morpeth late in the even-
ing, he spent his last penny on a roll. Mis-
taking his road, fatigue overpowered him,
and he crept into a stack, with the intention
of sleeping or starving to death, as the last
entry in his diary testified. He requested
in it that some kind hand might make a se-
lection of his articles and speeches in this
and in another diary at Chester-le-Street,
as well as from the ' Chester-le-Street Libe-
ral/ and ' Falkirk Advertiser and Liberal/ and
publish them on behalf of his widow and
family. A subscription was raised on behalf
of Mrs. Birnie and her children, but it does
not appear that the request for a collection
from the deceased's writings was carried out.

[Gent, Mag. 1862 ; Falkirk Herald. March
1862; Newcastle Chronicle, March 1862; and
other journals of the time.] Gr. B. S.

BIRNIE, SIB RICHARD (1760 P-1832),
police magistrate of Bow Street, London,
was a native of Banff, Scotland, and was
born about 1760. After serving his ap-
prenticeship to a saddler he came to London,
where he obtained a situation in the house of
j Macintosh & Co. in the Haymarket, sad-
i dlers and harness-makers to the royal family.
i Having on one occasion been accidentally
j called upon to attend on the Prince of Wales,
: he did his work so satisfactorily that the
prince on similar occasions was accustomed
to ask that the 'young Scotchman' might
be sent to him. The patronage of the
prince secured his advancement with the
firm, and he was made foreman and eventu-
ally a partner in the establishment. Through
his marriage with the daughter of a wealthy
baker he also obtained a considerable fortune,
including a cottage with adjoining land at
Acton, Middlesex. After his marriage he

Birnie

Birnie

rented a house in St. Martin's parish, and

office except that of watchman and beadle.
In 1805 he was appointed churchwarden
and, along with his colleague and the vicar, ;
he established a number of almshouses for
decayed parishioners in Pratt Street, Camden
Town. He also gave proof of his public .
spirit by enrolling himself in the Royal West-
minster Volunteers, in which he became a i
captain. At the special request of the Duke
of Northumberland he was placed in the |
commission of the peace, and from this time \
he began to frequent the Bow Street police ;
court, in order to obtain a practical acquaint- !
ance with magisterial duties. In the absence
of the stipendiary magistrates he sometimes
presided on the bench, and with such effi-
ciency that he was at length appointed police j
magistrate at Union Hall, from which he \
was a few years afterwards promoted to the j
Bow Street office. In February 1820 he j
headed the police officers in the apprehension
of the Cato-street conspirators. He took the j
responsibility, in the absence of the soldiers, j
who failed, as they had been ordered, to turn !
out at a moment's notice, of proceeding at
once to attempt the capture of the band, be-
fore they were fully prepared and armed.
In this dangerous enterprise he, according
to a contemporary account, ' exposed himself
everywhere, encouraging officers to do their
duty, while the balls were whizzing about
his head.' At the funeral of Queen Caroline
in August 1821 he displayed similar decision
and presence of mind in a like critical emer-
gency, and when Sir Robert Baker, the chief
magistrate, refused to read the riot act, took
upon himself the responsibility of reading it.
Shortly afterwards Baker resigned, and he
was appointed to succeed him, the honour of
knighthood being also conferred on him in Sep-
tember following. During his term of office
he was held in high respect by the ministers
in power, who were accustomed to consult
him on all matters of importance relating to
the metropolis. He also retained throughout
life the special favour of George IV. He
died on 29 April 1832.

[Gent. Mag. cii. pt. i. pp. 470-1 ; Ann. Reg.
Ixxiv. 198-9.] T. F. H.

BIRNIE, WILLIAM(1563-1619),Scotch
divine, was only son of a fabulously ancient
house, William Birnie of ' that ilk.' He was
born at Edinburgh in 1563, entered student in
St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, 3 Dec.
1584, proceeded in his degree of M.A. in 1588,
became a ship-master merchant, but sustain-

ing heavy losses at sea returned to his studies,
and attended divinity three years in Leyden.
He is found in exercise at Edinburgh 25 Jan.
1596, and w r as presented to the vicarage of
Lanark by James VI on 28 Dec. 1597. There
had been internecine feuds in the parish for a
number of years. ]Jut Birnie, a man of com-
manding presence, was able to wield a sword,
and thus is said to have gradually reconciled

rrties. He was constituted by the king,
Aug. 1603, master and economus of the
hospital and almshouse of St. Leonard's, and
appointed dean of the Chapel Royal 20 Sept.
1612. Earlier he had shown sympathy with
the brethren confined in Blackness Castle
previous to their trial in 1606 at Linlithgow.
He appears as a member of the general as-
sembly of the kirk of Scotland in 1602, 1608,
1610. He was nominated * constant mode-
rator of the presbytery ' by the assembly of
1606, and the presbytery were l charged by
the privy council 17 Jan. thereafter, to serve
him as such within twenty-four hours after
notice, under pain of rebellion.' He was
also named on the court of high commission
15 Feb. 1610, and presented to the deanery
of the Chapel Royal of Stirling, which was
1 to be hereafter callit the Chapel Royal of
Scotland,' 20 Sept. 1612. The acceptance of
the f constant moderatorship ' showed episco-
pal leanings. In 1612 he was transferred
from Lanark to Ayr, to l parsonages prima
and secundo, and vicarages of the same, and
to the parsonage and vicarage of Alloway '
the scene of the Tarn o' Shanter of Burns
on 16 June 1614. He was a member again
of the high commission 21 Dec. 1615, and one
of the commissioners for the suppression of
popery agreed to by the assembly in 1616. He
married Elizabeth, daughter of John Lindsay,,
parson of Carstairs. Their issue were three
sons and two daughters. He died on 19 Jan.
1619 in the fifty-sixth year of his age and
twenty-second of his ministry. A kind of
doggerel epitaph runs :

He waited on his charge with care and pains
At Air on little hopes, and smaller gains.

For generations stories were told of him
all over the southern shires of Scotland. One
represents him as so agile that he could make
the salmon's leap ' by stretching himself on
the grass, leaping to his feet, and again
throwing them over his head.' He was the
author of a prose book entitled l The Blame
ofKirk-bvriall, tending to perswade Cemete-
riall Civilitie. First preached, then penned,
and now at last propyned to the Lord's inheri-
tance in the Presbyterie of Lanark by M.
William Birnie, the Lord his minister in that
ilk, as a pledge of his zeale and care of that

Birnston

88

Bischoff

reformation. Edinburgh, printed by Robert
Charteris, printer to the king's most excellent
maiestie, 1606 ' (4to). This was reprinted in
1833, in one hundred copies, by W. B. D.
Turnbull. Birnie here deprecates interment
within the church. There is considerable
learning in the book, but its lack of arrange-
ment and an absurdly alliterative style make
it wearisome reading.

[Scott's Fasti, ii. 86-7, 306 ; Eeid's History
of Presbyterianism in Ireland, i. ; Blair's Auto-
biography ; Stevenson's Hist, of Church of Scot-
land ; Calderwood's History ; Boke of the Kirke,
318; Orig. Letters; Melvill's Autob.; Nisbet's
Heraldry, ii. ; Anderson's Scottish Nation, for
ancestry and descendants.] A. B. (r.

BIRNSTON. [See BTENSTON.]

BIRREL, ROBERT (Ji. 1567-1605), dia-
rist, was a burgess of Edinburgh. His
' Diary, containing Divers passages of Staite,
and Uthers Memorable Accidents. From the
1532 yeir of our Redemption, till ye Begin-
ning of the yeir 1605,' was published in 1798
in * Fragments of Scottish History,' edited by
Sir John Graham Dalyell. Extracts from the
* Diary ' were also published in 1820. There
is not much minuteness in the record of events
till about 1567, when Birrel probably began
to keep a note of them. There is no evidence
in the ' Diary ' regarding the political or re-
ligious views of the writer, facts being simply
recorded as they happened, without comment
or any apparent bias of opinion. There is
some evidence that the work was intended
for publication, the writer having apparently
taken some trouble to collect his facts. A con-
siderable part of it was incorporated by Sir
James Balfour in his ' Annals.' The original
manuscript is in the Advocates' Library.

[Diary as above.] T. F. H.

BISBY or BISBIE, XATHANIEL,D.D.

(1635-1695), divine, son of the Rev. John
Bisbie, of Tipton, Staffordshire, who was
ejected from a prebend in Lichfield Cathedral
about 1644, and of Margaret, daughter of
Anthony Hoo, of Bradely Hall in the same
county, was born 5 June 1635. He was
elected student of Christ Church, Oxford, from
Westminster School, in 1654, proceeded B. A.
1657 and M.A. 1660, and accumulated his
degrees in divinity on 7 June 1668. At the
Restoration he was presented to the rectory
of Long Melford, Sudbury, Suffolk. He was
then, says Anthony a Wood, l esteemed an
excellent preacher and a zealous person for
the church of England.' He married Eliza-
beth, daughter of John Wall, of Radwater
Grange, Essex, in 1672. He published a
number of occasional sermons, entitled ' The

Modern Pharisees,' 1673; * Prosecution no
Persecution, or the Difference between Suf-
fering for Disobedience and Faction and
Suffering for Righteousness and Christ's
sake,' 1682; 'Mischiefs of Anarchy,' 1682;
' Korah and his Company proved to be the
Seminary and Seed-plot of Sedition and Re-
bellion,' 1684 ; i The Bishop visiting,' 1686.
On the accession of William and Mary he re-
fused to take the oath of allegiance, and as
a nonjuror was deprived of his rectory of
Melford in February 1690. His publications
consist nearly wholly of violent invectives
against the nonconformists. He died 14 May
1695, and was buried at Long Melford.

[Wood's Athense (Bliss), iv. 640; Walker's
Sufferings ; Rawlinson MSS., Bodleian Library ;
Fuller's Worthies; Welch's Scholars of West-
minster (1852), 142-3.] A. B. G.

BISCHOFF, JAMES (1776-1845), author
of works on the wool trade, was of a German
family which settled in Leeds in 1718. He
was born at Leeds about 1776,and was brought
up there. His early mercantile pursuits were
connected with the wool and woollen trades,
and he took a lively interest in all measures
likely to affect them. Being convinced that
the restrictive laws relating to wool were bad,
he used his utmost endeavours to bring about
a change. He published some letters on the
subject in 1816 in the 'Leeds Mercury' and
the 'Farmer's Journal.' In 1819 he was ap-
pointed one of the deputies from the manu-
facturing districts to promote a repeal of the
Wool Act, and wrote a pamphlet entitled
'Reasons for the Immediate Repeal of the
Tax on Foreign Wool' (1819, 8vo, pp. 47).
In the following year he published ' Obser-
i vations on the Report of the Earl of Sheffield
to the Meeting at Lewes Wool Fair, July 20,
1820.' In 1825 Huskisson, then president
of the board of trade, invited the counsel of
Bischoff with regard to some proposed altera-
tions in commercial policy, particularly a re-
duction of the duty on foreign manufactured
goods. Bischoff gave his opinion strongly
in the direction of freedom of trade, and the
reasons he advanced had great weight with
the minister in the proposals which he subse-
quently made in parliament. He was examined
in 1828 before the privy council on the subject
of the wool trade, and in the same year pub-
lished ' The Wool Question considered: being
an Examination of the Report of the Select
Committee of the House of Lords appointed
to take into consideration the State of the
British Wool Trade, and an Answer to Earl
Stanhope's Letter to the Owners and Occu-
j piers of Sheep Farms' (8vo, pp. 112). In
| 1832 he issued a ' Sketch of the History of

Biscoe

8 9

Bishop

Van Dieman's Land,' 8vo, and in 1836 an
essay' on ' Marine Insurances, their Impor-
tance, their Rise, Progress, and Decline, and
their Claim to Freedom from Taxation/ 8vo,
pp. 34. BischoiFs most important work has
the following title : ' A comprehensive His-
tory of the Woollen and Worsted Manufac-
tures, and the Natural and Commercial His-
tory of Sheep, from the Earliest Records to
the Present Period ' (Leeds, 1842,2 vols. 8vo).
His last publication was a pamphlet on
' Foreign Tariffs ; their Injurious Effects on
British Manufactures, especially the Woollen
Manufacture ; with proposed remedies. Being
chiefly a series of Articles inserted in the
" Leeds Mercury" from October 1842 to
February 1843 ' (1843, 8vo, pp. 69).

Bischoff, who married in 1802 Peggy,
daughter of Mr. David Stansfeld of Leeds,
carried on business as a merchant and in-
surance broker for many years in London,
and died at his residence, Highbury Terrace,
on 8 Feb. 1845, in his seventieth year.

Mount Bischoff, in the north-west corner
of Tasmania, is said to derive its name from
James Bischoff.

[Gent. Mag., April 1845, p. 443; Preface to
Bischoff's Hist, of the Woollen and Worsted
Manufactures ; Stansfeld pedigree in Foster's
Yorkshire Pedigrees.] C. W. S.

BISCOE, JOHN (rf.1679), puritan divine,
was born at High Wycombe, Buckingham-
shire, and educated at New Inn Hall, Oxford.
In'Athense Oxonienses' (ed. Bliss, iii. 1198)
Wood states that he was born in 1646,
which is probably a literal error for 1606.
From the ' Fasti ' we learn that he took his
bachelor's degree on 1 Feb. 1626-7. He left
the university about two years afterwards,
and became a preacher at Abingdon. Hav-
ing joined the puritan party he was ap-
pointed minister of St. Thomas's, South-
wark. He served as assistant to the com-
missioners of Surrey appointed to eject
' scandalous and insufficient ministers.' At
the Restoration, being ejected from his living,
he preached in conventicles. He died at
High Wycombe, where he was buried on
9 June 1679. Biscoe is the author of:
1. ' Glorious Mystery of God's Mercy, or a
Precious Cordial for Fainting Souls/ 1647,
8vo. 2. 'The Grand Trial of True Conversion,
or Sanctifying Grace appearing and acting
first and chiefly in the Thoughts,' 8vo, 1655.
S. ' Mystery of Free Grace in the Gospel,
and Mystery of the Gospel in the Law,' n.d.

[Wood's Athense Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, iii.
1198; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 426 ; Calamy's
Nonconformist's Memorial, ed. Palmer, i. 135.1

A. H. B.

BISCOE, RICHARD (d. 1748), divine,
was educated at an academy kept by Dr.
Benion at Shrewsbury, and on 19 Dec.^1716
was made a dissenting minister at a meeting-
house in the Old Jewry. In 1727 he con-
formed and was made rector of St. Martin
Outwich, in the city of London. He also
held the living of Northwald, near Epping,
and was a minor canon of St. Paul's and
a chaplain to George II. He died in May
1748. He delivered the Boyle lectures in
1736, 1737, and 1738, and in 1742 published
in two volumes the substance of his prelec-
tions under the title ' History of the Acts of the
Holy Apostles confirmed from other authors ;
and considered as full evidence of the truth
of Christianity, with a prefatory discourse 011
the nature of that evidence.' The work is
highly eulogised by Dr. Doddridge as showing
* in the most convincing manner how incon-
testably the Acts of the Apostles demonstrate
the truth of Christianity.' It was reprinted
in 1829 and 1840. A German translation
w^as published at Magdeburg in 1751. He
was also the author of ' Remarks on a Book
lately published entitled " A Plain Account
of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper," ' 1735.

[London Magazine, xvii . ( 1 ? 48) 284 ; Protestant
Dissenters' Magazine, vi. 306-7 ; Chalmers's
Biog. Diet. v. 298 ; British Museum Catalogue.]

BISHOP, ANN (1814-1884), vocalist, was
the daughter of a drawing-master named
Riviere, and was born in London in 1 814. As a
child she showed talent for the pianoforte, and
studied under Moscheles. On 12 June 1824
she was elected a student at the Royal Aca-
demy of Music, where she soon distinguished
herself by her singing. On leaving the aca-
demy she became (in 1831) the second wife of
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, the composer, and
in the same year appeared at the Philharmonic
Concerts as a singer. Her reputation quickly
increased, and for the next few years she took
a prominent place at Vauxhall, the so-called
1 Oratorios,' and the country festivals. At
first Mrs. Bishop devoted herself to clas-
sical music, but she was induced to turn her
attention to the Italian school by Bochsa, the
harp-player, with whom she went on a pro-
vincial tour in the spring of 1839. On their
return to London she sang at a benefit con-
cert given by Bochsa, at which she achieved
great success, although Grisi, Persiani, and
Viardot were among the performers. A few
days later she left her husband and eloped
with Bochsa to the continent. From Sep-
tember 1839 to May 1843 she visited the
principal towns of Europe, and sang at no
less than 260 concerts. Among other places

Bishop <

she visited St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Odessa,
and Kasan, in which latter town she is said
to have sung in the Tartar language. From
1843 to 1846 she sang in Italy with great
success ; at the San Carlo at Naples she ap-

Cred in twenty operas, her engagement
ing for twenty-seven months. In 1846
she returned to England, together with
Bochsa, and sang at several concerts. In
1847 Mrs. Bishop went to America, where
she sanjy in the United States, Mexico, and
California. In 1855 she went to Australia,
where Bochsa died, and Mrs. Bishop re-
turned to England by way of South America
and New York, where she married a Mr.
Schulz. She sang at the Crystal Palace in

1858, and, after a farewell concert on 17 Aug.

1859, returned to America, and sang with
great success throughout Canada, the United
States, Mexico, and at Havana. In 1865
she left New York and went to California,
whence she sailed for the Sandwich Islands.
In February 1866 the ship in which she
was sailing from Honolulu to China was
wrecked on a coral reef, and Mrs. Bishop
lost all her music, jewels, and wardrobe.
After forty days' privation the shipwrecked
crew reached the Ladrone Islands, whence
the indefatigable singer went to Manilla, and
after singing there and in China arrived in
India in 1867. In May 1868 she was once
more in Australia, and after visiting London
she went to New York, where the remainder
of her life was spent. She died of apoplexy in
March 1884. Mrs., or Madame Anna Bishop,
as she was generally called, possessed a high
soprano voice, and was a brilliant but some-
what unsympathetic singer. She was a mem-
ber of many foreign musical societies, and her
popularity in the United States was great.

[Times, 24 March 1884 ; Moore's Encyclopaedia
of Music ; Cazalet's History of the Eoyal Aca-
demy of Music, p. 138 ; Men of the Time (10th
ed.); Musical World, xii. 11, 179, 235; Add.
MS. 29261.] W.B. S.

BISHOP, GEORGE (1785-1861), astro-
nomer, was born at Leicester 21 Aug. 1785.
At the age of eighteen he entered a British
wine-making business in London, to which
he afterwards, as its proprietor, gave such
extension that the excise returns were said
to exhibit half of all home-made wines as
of his manufacture. His scientific career
may be said to date from his admission to the
Royal Astronomical Society in 1830. The
amount and stability of his fortune by that
time permitted the indulgence of tastes
hitherto in abeyance. He took lessons in
algebra from Professor De Morgan, with a
view to reading the t Mecanique Celeste,' and

>. Bishop

acquired, when near fifty, sufficient mathe-
matical knowledge to enable him to compre-
hend the scope of its methods. In 1836 he
realised a long-cherished desire by erecting
an observatory near his residence at South.
Villa, Regent's Park. No expense was spared
in its equipment, and the excellence of the
equatorial furnished by Dollond (aperture,,
seven inches) confirmed his resolve that some
higher purpose than mere amusement should
be served by the establishment. ' I am de-
termined,' he said when choosing its site,
' that this observatory shall do something/
He attained his aim by securing the best
observers. The Rev. William Dawes con-
| ducted his noted investigations of double
j stars at South Villa 1839-44 ; Mr. John
I Russell Hind began his memorable career
| there in October of the latter year. From
| the time that Hencke's detection of Astnea,
8 Dec. 1845, showed a prospect of success in
I the search for new planets, the resources of
Bishop's observatory were turned in that di-
rection, and with conspicuous results. Be-
tween 1847 and 1854 Mr. Hind discovered
ten small planets, and Mr. Marth one, making
i a total of eleven dating from South Villa.
' The ecliptic charts undertaken by Mr. Hind
| for the purpose of facilitating the search were
' continued, after his appointment in 1853 as
! superintendent of the ' Nautical Almanac,' by
Pogson, Vogel, Marth, and Talmage succes-
sively, under his supervision. They embraced
all stars down to the eleventh magnitude in-
clusive, and extended over a zone of three
degrees on each side of the ecliptic. Seven-
teen of the twenty-four hours were engraved
when the observatory was broken up on the
death of its owner.

A testimonial was awarded to Bishop by
the Astronomical Society, 14 Jan. 1848, 'for
the foundation of an observatory leading to-
various astronomical discoveries,' and pre-
sented, with a warmly commendatory ad-
dress, by Sir John Herschel, 11 Feb. (Month.
Not. R. A. Soc. viii. 105). He acted as se-
cretary to the society 1833-9, as treasurer
1840-57, and was chosen president in two
successive years, 1857 and 1858, although the
state of his health rendered him unable to
i take the chair. After a long period of bodilv
prostration, his mind remaining, however, un-
clouded, he died 14 June 1861, in his seventy-
sixth year. His character, both social and
! commercial, was of the highest, and his dis-
\ criminating patronage of science raised him to-
the front rank of amateurs. He was elected
a fellow of the Royal Society 9 June 1848 r
i was also a fellow of the Society of Arts,
and sat for some years on the council of Uni-
versity College. He published in 1852, in one

Bishop

9 1

quarto volume, * Astronomical Observations
taken at the Observatory, South Villa, Re-
gent's Park, during the years 1839-51,' in-
cluding a catalogue of double stars observed |
by Dawes and Hind, with valuable t historical j
and descriptive notes ' by the latter, observa-
tions of new planets and comets, and of the
temporary star discovered by Hind in Ophiu-
chus 27 April 1848, besides a description of
the observatory, &c. After Bishop's death
the instruments and dome were removed to ;
the residence of George Bishop, jun., at .
Twickenham, where the same system of work j
was pursued.

[Month. Not. E. A. Soc. xxii. 104 ; L'Astro-
nomie Pratique, Andre et Rayet, i. 95 ; Ann. Reg.
ciii. 402.] A. M. C.

BISHOP, SIR HENRY ROWLEY |

(1786-1855), musical composer, was the;
son of a London merchant whose family j
came from Shropshire, and was born in Great !
Portland Street on 18 Nov. 1786. He seems
to have received all his instruction in music
from Francesco Bianchi, an Italian who came
to England in 1793, where he lived for the !
rest of his life, enjoying a great reputation, !
not only as a composer, but also as a teacher
and theoretical musician. Bishop's earliest !
compositions are a set of twelve glees and
several Italian songs, in all of which the in-
fluence of his master an influence w r hich
remained with him throughout his life is !
plainly discernible. In 1804 his first operatic |
work/- Angelina,' was played at the Theatre ;
Royal, Margate. He soon after began to j
write ballet music for the King's Theatre |
and Drury Lane. At the former house the |
success of his l Tamerlan et Bajazet ' (1806) i
led to his permanent engagement, and he
began at once to write the immense mass of
compilations, arrangements, and incidental
music which for thirty years he continued to
produce. In this manner he was more or
less concerned in ' Armide et Renaud ' (15 May
1806), 'Narcisse et les Graces ' (June 1806),
and ' Love in a Tub ' (November 1806). At
Drury Lane he wrote or arranged music for
1 ( 'aractacus,' a pantomime-ballet (22 April
1808), < The Wife of Two Husbands ' (9 May
1808), 'The Mysterious Bride ' (1 June 1808),
' The Siege of St. Quentin ' (10 Nov. 1808),
besides contributing some new music to * The
Cabinet.' Other works of this period are ' The
Corsair, or the Italian Nuptials,' described as
a ' pantomimical drama,' and ' The Travellers
at Spa,' an entertainment of Mrs. Mountain's,
for which Bishop wrote music. At the begin-
ning of 1809 his first important opera, * The
Circassian Bride,' was accepted at Drury
Lane, and was brought out with great suc-

Bishop

cess on 23 Feb., but on the following night
the theatre was burnt down, and the score
of the opera, which Bishop subsequently re-
wrote from memory, perished in the flames.
On 15 June of the same year his ballet,
1 Mora's Love,' was performed at the Kings
Theatre in the Haymarket, which was fol-
lowed at the same house by ' The Vintagers '
on 1 Aug. After the burning of Drury Lane
the company of that house moved to the Ly-
ceum Theatre, and here Bishop produced, on
13 March 1810, ' The Maniac, or Swiss Ban-
ditti/ which was acted twenty-six times. He
was next engaged for three years as composer
and director of the music at Covent Garden
Theatre, where the first work upon which he
was employed was the music to ' The Knight
of Snowdoun,' a musical drama, founded on
Sir Walter Scott's ' Lady of the Lake,' which
was produced on 5 Feb. 1811, and was acted
twenty-three times. This was followed in
rapid succession by 'The Virgin of Sun'
(31 Jan. 1812), ' The ^Ethiop ' (6 Oct. 1812),
new music for ' The Lord of the Manor '
(22 Oct. 1812), 'The Renegade' (2 Dec.
1812), ' Haroun al Raschid,' a new version
of ' The yEthiop,' produced on 11 Jan. 1813,
and withdrawn after one performance, new
music to ' Poor Vulcan ' (8 Feb. 1813), ' The
Brazen Bust ' (29 May 1813), and ' Harry le
Roy,' an 'heroic pastoral burletta' (2 July
1813). On the expiration of his first engage-
ment at Covent Garden he was re-engaged for
five years, during which his most noteworthy
production was the music to the melodrama
' The Miller and his Men,' which was per-
formed for the first time on 21 Oct. 1813,
but received additions in 1814. In 1813, on
the foundation of the Philharmonic Society,
Bishop was one of the original members, but
none of his compositions were performed by
the new society until some years later. In-
deed the whole of his energies at this time
must have been devoted to his duties at
Covent Garden, where he continued to pro-
duce in rapid succession a series of original
compositions and compilations, which, though
often of the slightest quality, must have
kept him too fully occupied to devote him-
self seriously to the cultivation of his un-
doubted talent. ' The Miller and his Men r
was followed on 15 Dec. 1813 by 'For Eng-
land Ho ! ' and this (in collaboration with
Davy, Reeve, and others) by ' The Farmer's
Wife ' (1 Feb. 1814), ' The Wandering Boys r
(24 Feb. 1814), ' Hanover,' a cantata written
for Braham and performed at the oratorios
at Covent Garden in March 1814, 'Sadak
and Kalastrade ' (11 April 1814), fresh music
to ' Lionel and Clarissa ' (3 May 1814), < The
Grand Alliance,' announced as ' an allegorical

Bishop

festival ' (13 June 1814), ' Aurora ' and ' Doc-
tor Sangrado,' both ballets (September 1814),
a compressed version of Arne's ' Artaxerxes,'
with recitatives by Bishop, and ' The Forest
of Bondy ' (both" on 30 Sept. 1814), addi-
tional music in 'The Maid of the Mill'
(18 Oct. 1814), a compilation from Boi'el-
dieu's 'John of Paris' (12 Nov. 1814),
* Brother and Sister,' in collaboration with
Reeve (1 Feb. 1815), 'The Noble Outlaw'
(7 April 1815), ' Telemachus ' (7 June 1815),
4 The Magpie or the Maid ' (15 Sept. 1815),
4 John du Bart' (25 Oct. 1815), additions to
'Cymon' (20 Nov. 1815), ' Comus ' (same
year), and ' Midsummer Night's Dream '
(17 Jan. 1816), ' Guy Mannering,' a collabo-
ration with Attwood. Whittaker, and others,
Bishop's best work in it being the famous

flee 'The Chough and Crow' (12 March
816), ' Who wants a Wife ' (16 April 1816),
a version of 'Kreutzer's ' Lodoiska ' (15 Oct.
1816), 'The Slave' (12 Nov. 1816), ' Royal
Nuptials' (November 1816), 'The Humour-
ous Lieutenant ' (18 Jan. 1817), ' The Heir
of Vironi ' (27 Feb. 1817), ' The Apostate '
(13 May 1817), ' The Libertine,' a very free
adaptation of Mozart's ' Don Juan ' (20 May
1817), ' The Duke of Savoy ' (29 Sept, 1817),
and ' The Father and his Children ' (25 Oct.
1817). In 1816 and 1817, in addition to his
post at Covent Garden, Bishop was director
of the music at the King's Theatre in the
Haymarket, where he wrote music for ' Exit
by Mistake,' a comedy ballet (22 July 1816),
and ' Teasing made Easy ' (30 July 1817).
But Covent Garden remained the chief scene
of his labours, and here during the next few
years he wrote or adapted music for the fol-
lowing plays and operas : ' The Illustrious
Traveller' (3 Feb. 1818), ' Fazio ; (5 Feb.
1818), ' Zuma,' in collaboration with Braham
(21 Feb. 1818), additions to 'The Devil's
Bridge ' (11 April 1818), ' X Y Z ' (13 June
1818), ' The Burgomaster of Saardam '
(23 Sept. 1818), ' The Barber of Seville,' a
version of Rossini's opera (13 Oct. 1818),
4 The Marriage of Figaro,' a free adaptation
from Mozart (6 March 1819), 'Fortunatus
and his Sons ' (12 April 1819), ' The Heart
of Midlothian ' (17 April 1819), 'A Roland
for an Oliver' (29 April 1819), 'Swedish
Patriotism' (19 May 1819), 'The' Gnome
King ' (6 Oct. 1819), ' The Comedy of Errors '
(11 Dec. 1819), 'The Antiquary' (25 Jan.
1820), 'Henri Quatre' (22 April 1820),
4 Montoni ' (3 May 1820), ' Bothwell Brigg '
(22 May 1820), 'Twelfth Night' (8 Nov.
1820), 'Don John.' (20 Feb. 1821), music to
4 Henry IV,' part ii. (25 June 1821), ' Two
Gentlemen of Verona' (29 Nov. 1821),' Mont-
rose' (14 Feb. 1822), 'The Law of Java,'

Bishop

which contains the well-known 'Mynheer
van Dunck ' (11 May 1822), ' Maid Marian '
(3 Dec. 1822), 'The Vision of the Sun'
(31 March 1823), ' Clari ' (8 May 1823), in
which Bishop introduced or composed (for
the origin of the tune is a matter of dispute)
the ever-popular ' Home, sweet Home,' ' The
Beacon of Liberty ' (8 Oct. 1823), ' Cortez '
(5 Nov. 1823), 'The Vespers of Palermo'
(12 Dec. 1823), 'Native Land' (10 Feb.
1824), ' Charles II ' (9 May 1824), and i As
you like it' (10 Dec. 1824). With the
last-named work Bishop's long connection
with Covent Garden terminated. In 1819
he had entered into partnership with the

I management of the theatre in conducting
the so-called ' oratorios,' concerts of the most
I heterogeneous description, which were given
at the opera-houses during Lent, and in 1820
Bishop became the sole manager of these
curious entertainments. His management,
however, ceased after one season. In the
autumn of the same year he went to Dublin,
where he was received with great honour,
the freedom of the city being unanimously
voted and bestowed upon him (2 Aug. 1820).
In 1825 Bishop was engaged by Elliston at
Drury Lane, where he produced on 19 Jan.
1825*' The Fall of Algiers.' This was fol-
lowed by versions of Auber's ' Masaniello '
(17 Feb. 1825), and Rossini's ' Guillaume
Tell' (11 May 1825). In the same year he
brought out a revised version of his early
work, 'Angelina/ and wrote (in collabora-
tion with Cooke and Horn) music to ' Faustus '
(16 May) and the ' Coronation of Charles X '
(5 July). The year 1826 was memorable in
the annals of music in England for the pro-
duction of Weber's ' Oberon ' at Covent Gar-
den, under the composer's own direction.
By way of a counter-attraction, the manage-
ment of Drury Lane commissioned Bishop
to write a grand opera on the subject of
' Aladdin.' He took more than usual pains
over this work, the composition of which oc-
cupied him for at least a year, but the book
was even worse than that of ' Oberon,' and
the music, though written with much care,
was found to be inferior to Bishop's best
compositions, probably because, by attempt-
ing to meet Weber on his own ground, he
had only succeeded in producing a weak imi-
tation of the style of the German master.
1 Aladdin,' which Avas produced on 29 April
1826, shortly after Weber's opera, was fol-
lowed by several unimportant works, 'The
i Knights of the Cross ' (29 May 1826), ' Eng-
! lishmen in India' (27 Jan. 1827), 'Edward
! the Black Prince ' (28 Jan. 1828), and ' Don
i Pedro' (10 Feb. 1828). Bishop's permanent
[connection with Drury Lane ceased about

Bishop

93

Bishop

this time, and his remaining writings for the J
stage were produced as follows : ' The Ren-
contre ' (Haymarket, 12 July 1828), ' Yelva '
(Covent Garden, 5 Feb. 1829), ' Home, sweet
Home' (Covent Garden, 19 March 1829),
' The Night before the Wedding,' a version j
of Boieldieu's ' Les Deux Nuits ' (Covent j
Garden, 17 Nov. 1829). 'Ninetta' (Covent I
Garden, 4 Feb. 1830), ' Hofer ' (Drury Lane, |
1 May 1830), ' Under the Oak ' (Vauxhall, !
25 June 1830), 'Adelaide, or the Royal i
William' (Vauxhall, 23 July 1830), 'the i
Romance of a Day' (1831), 'The Tyrolese
Peasant' (Drury Lane, May 1832), 'The
Election' (Drury Lane, 1832), which was ;
composed by Carter, but scored by Bishop, j
' The Magic Fan ' (Vauxhall, 18 June 1832), i
'The Sedan Chair' (Vauxhall, 1832), 'The !
Bottle of Champagne' (Vauxhall, 1832), and j
' The Demon,' a version of Meyerbeer's ' Ro-
bert le Diable,' in which he collaborated with ;
T. Cooke and R. Hughes (Drury Lane, 1832). j
He also wrote music for ' Hamlet ' at Drury j
Lane (1830), for Stanfield's diorama at the
same theatre (1830), and for ' Kenil worth ' :
(1832),'Waverley'(1832),'Manfred'(1834),
' The Captain and the Colonel ' (1835), and
' The Doom Kiss ' (1836). The long list of
Bishop's writings for the stage is closed by ;
' Rural Felicity ' (Haymarket, 9 June 1839),
additions to 'The Beggars' Opera' (Covent
Garden, 1839), music to 'Love's Labour's
Lost' (1839), and the masque of 'The Fortu-
nate Isles,' written to celebrate the marriage
of Queen Victoria, and produced at Covent
Garden under Madame Vestris's management
on 12 Feb. 1840.

In 1830 Bishop left Drury Lane and was
appointed musical director of Vauxhall Gar- j
dens, which post he occupied for three years, j
In 1832 he was commissioned by the Phil-
harmonic Society to write a work for their
concerts, in fulfilment of which he composed j
a sacred cantata, ' The Seventh Day,' which |
was performed in the following year, with- j
out, however, achieving any great success.
Two years later (1836) another cantata of
Bishop's, ' The Departure from Paradise,' was
sung at the same concerts by Malibran. Other
cantatas composed by him are ' Waterloo '
(performed at Vauxhall in 1826), and a set-
ting of Burns's ' Jolly Beggars.' In 1838, ac-
cording to the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' (1838,
i. 539), he was appointed composer to her
majesty ; but this statement is proved to be
inaccurate by the absence of any record of his
appointment in the official documents of the
lord steward's and lord chamberlain's offices,
as well as by the fact that in 1847 he was
desirous of obtaining the post on its becom-
ing vacant. In the following year he received

the degree of Mus. Bac. at Oxford. He was for
some time professor of harmony and composi-
tion at the Royal Academy of Music, and in
November 1841 was elected to the Reid profes-
sorship at Edinburgh, which appointment he
continued to hold until December 1843, when
he was succeeded by Henry Hugo Pierson.
From 1840 to 1848 he conducted the Antient
Concerts, and in 1842 he was knighted by
the queen, this being the first occasion on
which a musician had been so honoured. In
1848 he succeeded Dr. Crotch as professor of
music at Oxford, where in 1853 he received
the degree of Mus. Doc., his exercise being
an ode performed on the installation of the
Earl of Derby as chancellor of the university.
Between 1819 and 1826 Bishop had been
occupied at various times with arranging
different ' Melodies of Various Nations ' and
' National Melodies ' to English words, and
in 1851 he began a similar undertaking, his
collaborator in this case being Dr. Charles
Mackay. Of these arrangements, which are
extremely free and much altered from the
originals, Bishop wrote that he was more
proud than of any musical composition that
he had ever produced. He also edited
Handel's ' Messiah ' and many other works.
Though at one time Bishop must have been
in receipt of a considerable income, he was
extravagant in his habits and made no pro-
vision for his old age, in which he was
harassed by pecuniary difficulties. In a let-
ter (Egerton, 2159) written in 1840 he says:
'I have worked hard, and during many a
long year, for fame ! and have had many
difficulties to encounter in obtaining that
portion of it which I am proud to know I
possess. I have been a slavish servant to
the public; and too often, when I have
turned each way their weathercock taste
pointed, they have turned round on me and
upbraided me for not remaining where I was I
. . . Had the public remained truly and loyally
English, I would have remained so too ! But
I had my bread to get, and was obliged to
watch their caprices, and give them an exotic
fragrance if I could not give them the plant,
when I found they were tired of, and neg-
lecting the native production.' In writing
these words Bishop doubtless had in mind
the failure of his ' Aladdin,' but the reason-
why in his later years he suffered from neg-
lect was perhaps not so much the fault of the
public as he thought. Possessed of a won-
derful wealth of melody and great facility in
composition, during the best years of his life
he frittered away his talents on compositions
which were not strong enough to survive be-
yond the season which saw their production ;
and worse than this, he not only wrote down,

Bishop

94

Bishop

to the level of the taste of the day, but in
his adaptations from the works of great
foreign musicians he altered and defaced
them so as to bring them to a level with his
own weak productions. If, as he complained,
he suffered from the public taste veering
round to the music of continental composers,
it was in some sort a revenge brought about
by the whirligig of time, for from no one did
the works of the great masters receive worse
treatment than they met with at the hands
of Bishop himself. Amongst the manuscript
scores in his handwriting which are preserved
in the Liverpool Free Library there is a volume
entirely consisting of l additional accompani-
ments ' (mostly for brass and percussion in-
struments), and alterations which he made
in works by Beethoven, Mozart, Cherubini,
Rossini, and many others, a volume which
must ever remain a disgrace to the man who
wrote it, and a record of the low state of
musical opinion that could have allowed
such barbarisms to be perpetrated without
a protest. With regard to his original com-
positions, there is no doubt that his style
was very much based upon that of his
master Bianchi, as an examination of the
somewhat rare compositions of the latter will
show. But, though Bishop's music is in this
respect less original than is usually supposed,
he was possessed of a singularly fertile vein
of melody, in which the national character
can be perpetually recognised, although the
dress in which it is presented is rather Italian
than English. In this respect Bishop may
be regarded as the successor of Arne, who in
the latter part of his career came under the
influence of the Italian school in which Bishop
received his early training. In his glees
Bishop was without a rival, and it is pro-
bable that it is on this form of composition
that his future fame will rest ; for his songs,
with the exception of a very few, are even
now but seldom heard, and it is safe to pre-
dict that the entire operas in which all his best
glees and songs originally appeared will never
bear revival.

Bishop was twice married. His first wife
was a Miss Lyon, who came out as a singer
at Drury Lane in ' Love in a Village ' on
10 Oct. 1807, and to whom he was married
soon after the production of ' The Circassian
Bride/ in which opera and l The Maniac ' she
sang small parts. By her he had two sons
and a daughter. By his second wife [see
BISHOP, ANN] he had two daughters and a
son.

During the greater part of his life he lived
at 4 Albion Place and 13 Cambridge Street,
Hyde Park. In his latter years he suffered
much from cancer, and eventually died from

| the effects of an operation he underwent for
that disease. His death took place at his
house in Cambridge Street on Monday eve-
ning, 30 April 1855. He was buried on the
Saturday following at the Marylebone Ceme-
tery, Finchley Road, where a monument was
! erected to his memory by public subscription.
I The manuscript scores of most of Bishop's
I operas are preserved in the libraries of the
j British Museum, the Royal College of Music,
and the Free Library of Liverpool. There
I are two portraits of him in the National
| Portrait Gallery, both by unknown painters.
There are engravings of him (1) drawn by
Wageman, engraved by Woolnoth, and
! published on 1 June 1820 ; (2) engraved by
S. W. Reynolds from a painting by J. Foster,
published in July 1822; and (3) engraved by
B. Holl and published 1 April 1828.

[Grove's Diet, of Music, i. 245 ; Dictionary
of Musicians, i. (1827); Add. MSS. 19569,
29905 ; Musical World, xxxiii. 282 ; Musical
Times for April 1885 ; Athenaeum, 5 May 1855 ;
Fitzball's Memoirs, i. 152, 196, ii. 276 ; Parke's
Memoirs, ii. 36; Gent. Mag. 1838, i. 539; manu-
script scores in the Royal College of Music and
Liverpool Free Library; Genest's Hist, of the
Stage, viii. and ix. ; information from Messrs.
G. Scharf, H. Wakeford, Doyne C. Bell, and
A. D. Coleridge.] W. B. S.

BISHOP, JOHN (1665-1737), musical
composer, was born in 1665, and (according
to Hawkins) educated under Daniel Rosein-
grave, but, as the latter was organist of Win-
chester Cathedral from June 1682 to June
1692, and Bishop only came to Winchester
in 1695, this is probably an error. Between
Michaelmas and Christmas 1687 he became a
lay clerk of King's College, Cambridge, where
in the following year he was appointed to
teach the choristers. In 1695 he was ap-
pointed organist of Winchester College, on
the resignation of Jeremiah Clarke, but he
continued to receive his stipend at Cambridge
until the Easter term of 1 696. In November
1696 he was elected a lay-vicar of Winchester
Cathedral in the place of Thomas Corfe, and
on 30 June 1729 he succeeded Vaughan
Richardson as organist and master of the
choristers of the same cathedral. Bishop's
rival for this post was James Kent, who Avass
esteemed a better player, but the * age and
amiable disposition ' of the former, coupled
with the sympathy felt for some family mis-
fortune he had suffered, induced the dean and
chapter to give him the appointment, Bishop
remained at Winchester until his death, which
took place 19 Dec. 1737. He was buried on
the Avest side of the college cloister, where his
epitaph styles him ' Vir singular! probit ate, in-
tegerrima vita, moribus innocuis, musicaeque

Bishop

95

Bishop

scientise bene peritus.' Bishop published some
collections of psalm tunes and anthems, copies
of which are now but rarely met with. Manu-
script compositions by him are preserved in the
British Museum (Add. MS. 17841 , and Harl.
MS. 7341), and in the libraries of the Royal
College of Music (1649), and of Christ Church,
Oxford. In the latter collection is a complete
copy of his i Morning and Evening Service '
in I), the Te Deum from which is to be found
in other collections. Dr. Philip Hayes's ' Har-
monia Wiccamica' (1780) also contains some
Latin compositions by Bishop for the use of
Winchester College. All his extant works
are interesting as showing the manner in
which the disregard of proper emphasis and
the introduction of meaningless embellish-
ments gradually corrupted the style of the
school of which Purcell was the greatest orna-
ment, and led to the inanities of writers like
Kent. Hawkins, who has been followed by
other biographers, says that Bishop was at
one time organist of Salisbury, but this is in-
accurate. The organists of Salisbury (and
the dates of their appointments) during
Bishop's life were as follows : Michael Wise
(1668), Peter Isaacke (1687), Daniel Rosein-
grave (1692), Anthony Walkley (1700), and
Edward Thompson (1718).

[Hawkins's Hist, of Music (ed. 1853), p. 767 ;
Hayes's Harmonia Wiccamica (1780) ; Records of
King's Coll. Cambridge (communicated by the
Rev. A. Austen Leigh) ; Chapter Registers of
Salisbury (communicated by the Rev. S. M.
Lakin) ; Chapter Registers of Winchester ; in-
formation from the Rev. J. H. Mee ; Catalogues
of the British Museum and Royal College of
Music.] W. B. S.

BISHOP, JOHN (1797-1873), surgeon,
was the fourth son of Mr. Samuel Bishop,
of Pimperne, Dorsetshire. He was born on
15 Sept. 1797, and he received his education
at the grammar school at Childe Okeford in
Dorsetshire, where he remained for several
years. Bishop was originally intended for
the legal profession, but this intention was
never carried out, and for many years he led
the life of a country gentleman. When about
twenty-five years of age Bishop was induced
by his cousin, Mr. John Tucker of Bridport,
to enter the medical profession. After a short
preliminary practice, under the direction of
his relative, at Bridport, he came to London
and entered at St. George's Hospital under
Sir Everard Home. While studying in this
hospital Bishop attended the lectures of Sir
Charles Bell, of Mr. Guthrie, and Dr. George
Pearson, and he was a regular attendant at
the chemical courses which were delivered at
the Royal Institution. In 1824 he obtained

the diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons,
and entered regularly into his profession. He
soon acquired a reputation as a careful and
skilful observer. This secured for him the
offices of senior surgeon to the Islington
Dispensary, and surgeon to the Northern and
St. Pancras dispensaries, and to the Drapers'
Benevolent Institution. In 1844 Bishop
contributed a paper to the 'Philosophical
Transactions ' of the Royal Society, on the
' Physiology of the Human Voice.' He was
shortly afterwards elected a fellow of the
Royal Society, and a corresponding member
of the medical societies of Berlin and Ma-
drid. The Royal Academy of Science of
Paris awarded him two, prizes for memoirs
1 On the Human and Comparative Anatomy
and Physiology of Voice.' He was the au-
thor of a work l On Distortions of the Hu-
man Body,' another l On Impediments of
Speech,' and one ' On Hearing and Speaking
Instruments.' These works were remarkable
for the careful examinations which the author
had made on the subjects under investigation,
and for the mathematical demonstration given
of each theory advanced by him. Bishop con-
tributed several articles to Todd's { Cyclopae-
dia,' and many papers of more or less impor-
tance to the medical literature of the day.
Bishop was a man of varied attainments ; he
was conversant with continental as well as
English literature, and to within a few months
of his death he was deeply interested in the
progress of science. On 29 Sept. 1873 he died
at Strange way s-Marshale, Dorsetshire, within
a few miles of his birthplace.

[Proceedings of the Royal Societj^ xxi. 5
(1873); Catalogue of Scientific Papers, vol. i.
(1877).] R. H-T.

BISHOP, SAMUEL (1731-1795), poet,
was born in St. John Street, London, on
21 Sept. 1731, but his father, George Bishop,
came from Dorset, and his mother from
Sussex. He was entered at Merchant Taylors'
School in June 1743, and soon became known
among his fellow scholars for aptitude and
knowledge. In June 1750 he was elected to
St. John's College, Oxford, and became a
scholar of that institution on 25 June, his
matriculation entry at the university being
' 1750, June 28, St. John's, Samuel Bishop,
18, Georgii, Londini, pleb. fil.' Three years
later (June 1753) he was elected a fellow of
his college, and in the following April took
his degree of B.A. Not long afterwards he
was ordained to the curacy of Headley in
Surrey, and resided either in that village or
at Oxford until 1758, when he took his M.A.
degree. On 26 July 1758 Bishop was ap-
pointed third under-master of his old school,

Bishop

9 6

Bishop

rose to the second under-mastership 11 Feb.
1772, became the first under-master 12 Aug.
1778, and the head-master 22 Jan. 1783. His
preferments in the church were two, the first
being the rectory of Ditton in Kent, and the
second the rectory of St. Martin Outwich
in London, 1 March 1789. He had married
in 1763, at St. Austin's, Watling Street,
Mary, daughter of Joseph Palmer, of Old
Mailing, near Lewes, and at her husband's
death, on 17 Nov. 1795, she survived him
with one daughter. Bishop was buried in
St. Martin Outwich. Bishop published
during his lifetime an anonymous 'Ode to
the Earl of Lincoln on the Duke of New-
castle's retirement' J 762, an effusion said to
have been prompted by the connection of his
future wife's family with the duke ; numerous
essays and poems, signed S. and P. in a
division of the 'Publick Ledger' for 1763
and 1764 ; a Latin translation of an ode of
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams to Stephen
Poyntz ; a volume entitled ' Ferige Poeticse,
sive Carmina Anglicana . . . Latine reddita/
1766 ; and a sermon on the anniversary of
Mr. Henry Raine's charity, 1 May 1783.
After his death the Rev. Thomas Clare col-
lected and printed a volume of 'Sermons
chiefly upon Practical Subjects, by the Rev.
Samuel Bishop, A.M./ 1798, and two volumes
of the ' Poetical Works of the Rev. Samuel
Bishop, A.M./ 1796, with a life of the author.
A second edition was issued in 1800, a third
in 1802, and the poems were embodied in
Ezekiel Sanford's 'Works of British Poets/
vol. xxxvii., a collection printed at Phila-
delphia. The smaller poems are very grace-
ful and pleasing; those to his wife on the
recurring anniversaries of their wedding-day,
and to their daughter on her various birth-
days, breathy the purest affection. Southey
said of Bishop that * no other poet crowds
so many syllables into a verse. . . . His

domestic poems breathe a Dutch spirit by

which I mean a very amiable and happy
feeling of domestic duties and enjoyments.'
Bishop's widow subsequently married the
Rev. Thomas Clare, who became the vicar of
St. Bride's, Fleet Street.

[Gent. Mag. 1795, pt. ii. 972, 994, 1052 ; Life j
by Clare ; Southey's Commonplace Book. iv. I
308-9 ; Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' !
School, i. p. xv ; Wilson's Merchant Taylors'
School, 450, 510-20, 1098, 1130. 1137, 1178;
Malcolm's Loncl. Redivivum, iv. 407.1

W. P. C.

BISHOP, WILLIAM, D.D. (1554-1624),
bishop of Chalcedon, the son of John Bishop,
who died in 1601 at the age of ninety-two,
was born of a ' genteel family ' at Brailes in

Warwickshire in or about 1554. l Though
always a catholic ' (DoDD, Church Hist. ii.
361), he was sent to the university of Oxford
in the seventeenth year of his age, ' in 1570,
or thereabouts ;' and Wood conjectures that
he studied either in Gloucester Hall or
Lincoln College, which societies were then
governed by men who were catholics at heart.
It has indeed been surmised, with some ap-
pearance of probability, that he was the Wil-
liam Bishop who matriculated at Cambridge,
as a member of Trinity College, on 2 Dec.
1572, and who took the degree of B.A. in
| that university in 1585 (MS. Addit. 5863
f. 156 #), but the biography in Pits's work,
' De illustribus Anglise Scriptoribus ' (1619),
the preface to which was written by Bishop
himself, must be taken as conclusive evidence
that he studied at Oxford. After remaining
j there three or four years he settled his pater-
nal estate, which was considerable, upon his
younger brother, and went over to the Eng-
j lish college at Rheims, where he began his-
| theological studies, which he subsequently
j pursued at Rome. He then returned to>
Rheims, was ordained priest at Loan in May
1583, and was sent to the English mission,
t but being arrested on his landing, he was-
j taken before secretary Walsingham and was
imprisoned in the Marshalsea with other
priests. Towards the close of the year 1584
i he was released, and proceeded to Paris, where
! he studied with great application for several
i years, and was made a licentiate of divinity.
He returned to England upon the mission,
15 May 1591 . After labouring here for about
two years he returned to Paris to complete
the degree of D.D., and then came back to
England.

When a dispute arose between George
Blackwell [q.v.], the archpriest, and a num-
ber of his clergy, who appealed against him for
maladministration and exceeding his commis-
sion, Bishop and John Charnock were sent to<
Rome by their brethren to remonstrate against
him. On their arrival they were both taken
into custody by order of Cardinal Cajetan, the
protector of the English nation, who had been
informed that they were turbulent persons
and the head of a factious party. They were
confined in the English college under the
inspection of Father Robert Parsons, the
j esuit. After a t ime they regained their liberty
and returned to England. [For the result of
the dispute see BLACKWELL, GEOKGE.] The
catholics were greatly alarmed in King
James's reign by the new oath of allegiance,
and Bishop had his share in those troubles ;
he was committed prisoner to the Gatehouse,
although he and twelve other priests had
given ample satisfaction as to all parts of

Bishop

97

Bissait

civil allegiance in a declaration published by
them in the last year of Queen Elizabeth's
reign. He was examined on 4 May 1611,
when he said he was opposed to the Jesuits,
but declined to take the oath of allegiance,
as Blackwell and others had done, because he
wished to uphold the credit of the secular
priests at Rome, and to get the English col-
lege there out of the hands of the Jesuits
(State Papers, James I, Dom. vol. Ixiii.) On
being again set at liberty he went to Paris
and joined the small community of contro-
versial writers which had been formed in
Arras College.

Ever since the death of Thomas Goldwell,
bishop of St. Asaph, in 1585, when, accord-
ing to the view taken by Roman catholics,
the ancient hierarchy came to an end, the
holy see had been frequently importuned to
appoint a bishop for England. Some obstacle
always intervened, but at length, after three
archpriests had been appointed in succession
to govern the secular clergy, the holy see ac-
ceded to the wishes of the English catholics,
and nominated Bishop as vicar-apostolic and
bishop elect of Chalcedon in February 1622-3.
In the following month a bull issued for his
consecration, and it was followed almost im-
mediately by a brief, conferring on him epi-
scopal jurisdiction over the catholics of Eng-
land and Scotland. ' When thou shalt be
arrived in those kingdoms/ says the brief,
' we give thee license, at the good will of our-
selves and our successors in the holy see,
freely and lawfully to enjoy and use all and
each of those faculties committed by our pre-
decessors to the archpriests, as also such as
ordinaries enjoy and exercise in their cities
and dioceses.' Thus Bishop had ordinary
jurisdiction over the catholics of England and
Scotland, but it was revocable at the pleasure
of the pope, so that in the language of cu-
rialists he was vicar-apostolic with ordinary
jurisdiction. In exercise of his power he
instituted a dean and a chapter as a standing
council for his own assistance, with power,
during the vacancy of the see, to exercise
episcopal ordinary jurisdiction, professing at
the same time that ' what defect might be
in his own power he would supplicate his
holiness to make good from the plenitude of
his own.' The appointment of this chapter
occasioned many warm debates between the
secular and the regular clergy. Bishop was
consecrated at Paris on 4 June 1623, and he
landed at Dover on 31 July. The summer
he spent in administering the sacrament of
confirmation to the catholics in and near
London. He passed most of the winter in
retirement, intending to visit the more re-
mote parts of the kingdom in the spring,

YOL. V.

but falling sick at the residence of Sir Basil
Brook, at Bishop's-court near London, he
died on 13 April 1624. Wood is mistaken in
supposing that Bishop was in his latter days
a member of the order of St. Benedict.

His works are : 1. ( Reformation of a Ca-
tholic deformed by Will. Perkins,' 2 parts,
1604-7, 4to. 2. ' A Reproofe of M. Doct,
1 Abbot's Defence of the Catholike Deformed
by M.W. Perkins. Wherein his sundry abuses
of Gods sacred word, and most manifold
mangling, misaplying, and falsifying the
auncient Fathers sentences, be so plainely
discouered, euen to the eye of euery indif-
ferent reader, that whosouer hath any due
care of his owne saluation, can neuer here-
| after giue him more credit, in matter of faith
| and religion,' 2 parts, Loud. 1608, 4to. 3. 'Dis-
proof of Dr. R. Abbots counter-proof against
i Dr. Bishops reproof of the defence of Mr.
Perkins' reform. Cath./ Paris 1614, 4to,
i part i. 4. ' Defence of the King's honour
i and his title to the Kingdom of England.'
5. Several pieces concerning the archpriest's
| jurisdiction. 6. Preface to John Pits's book,
j <De illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus,' Paris,
1619. 7. ' An Account of the Faction and
Disturbances in the Castle of Wisbech, oc-
casioned by Father Weston, a Jesuit/ MS.

In the second part of Thomas Scot's * Vox
Populi, or Newes from Spayne ' (1624), there
is a curious picture of Bishop presiding at
a meeting of the ' lesuits and prists : as they
vse to sitt at Counsell in England to further
y e Catholicke Cause.'

[Wood's Athense Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 356, 862 ;
Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 361, iii. 58, and Tierney's
edit. iv. 137, App. 269 et seq. v. 92, App. 246 ;
Husenbeth's Notices of English Colleges, 18;
Douay Diaries ; Berington's Memoirs of Pan-
zani ; Ullathorne's Hist, of the Restoration of
the Catholic Hierarchy, 12 ; Flanagan's Hist, of
the Church in England, ii. 290, 306-308 ; Pits,
De illustr. Angl. Script. 810 ; Weldon's Chrono-
logical Notes, 129, 130, 193; Cal. of State
Papers, Dom. 1611-18, p. 28, Dom. Addend.
1580-1625, p. 296, 312, 411, 412, 414; MS.
Burney 368, f. 100, 1006; Butler's Hist. Me-
moirs, ii. 269 ; Granger's Biog. Hist, of England
(1824), ii. 77; Fuller's Worthies, ed. Nichols,
i. 417.] T. C.

BISLEY, GEORGE (d. 1591), catholic

missioner. [See BEESLEY.]

BISSAIT or BISSET, BALDRED (Jl.
1303), a native of the county of Stirling,
became rector of Kinghorn, in the diocese of
St. Andrews. When in 1300 and 1301 a dis-
cussion arose between the pope Boniface VIII,
King Edward of England, and the Scottish
government, with regard to the independence

H

Bisse

9 8

Bisse

of Scotland, Bisset was appointed one of the
commissioners to the pope to represent the
claims of Scotland. These commissioners were
provided with ' instructions ' on which to base
their arguments, and from these instructions
Bisset composed 'Progressus contra figmenta
regis Angliae.' Both are printed in the ' Sco-
tichronicon.' It is in the ' Progressus ' that
we have the first mention of the coronation-
stone of Scotland, which Bisset states Scot a,
daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, brought !
to Scotland with her. W. F. Skene is of
opinion that ' we owe the legend entirely to '
the patriotic ingenuity of Baldred Bisset.'
Another writing of Bisset is also printed in
the ' Scotichronicon : ' i Lamentatio pro rege
S. Davidis.' He is also said to have written
'Contra Ecclesiam Anglicanam,' 'Pro Pri- I
vilegiis Ecclesiae Scoticanae,' and 'Defensio !
Ecclesiae Catholicse.'

[Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 102 ; Skene's Chroni- |
cles of the Picts and Scots (1867), pp. Ixi, Ixx, !
271-84 ; Skene's Coronation Stone (1869), pp. 19- i
21 ; Skene's edition of Johannis deFordun Chro- (
nica in Historians of Scotland, i. pp. xxxv, 332, \
ii. 325, 394.] T. F. H.

BISSE,PHILIP,D.D.(1667-1721),bishop
of St. David's and of Hereford, was a native
of Oldbury in Gloucestershire * a sacerdotum
stemmate per quinque successiones deducto '
and received his education at Winchester
School, whence he was sent to New College,
Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship (B. A.
1690, M.A. 1693, B.D. and D.D. 1705). On
13 Feb. 1705-6 he was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society. He was consecrated bishop
of St. David's 19 Nov. 1710, and was trans-
lated to the see of Hereford 16 Feb. 1712-3.
He died at Westminster 6 Sept. 1721, in the
fifty-fifth year of his age, and was buried in
his cathedral between two pillars above the
episcopal throne, under a very sumptuous
monument of fine marble. Dr. Bisse was |
' a person most universally lamented, being '
of great sanctity and sweetness of manners ;
of clear honour, integrity, and steadiness in
all times to the constitution in church and
state : of excellent parts, judgment, and
penetration, in most kinds of learning, and of
equal discernment and temper in business ;
a great benefactor to his cathedral church,
and especially to his palace, which last he
in a manner rebuilt ' (BoYER, Political State
of Great JBritain, xxii. 329). Noble states
that Bisse was more indebted to his fine
person than his fine preaching for prefer-
ment, and refers to a report that the Duchess
Dowager of Northumberland gave him her
hand because she had by mistake received
the pressure of his lips in the dark in a

kiss intended for her waiting gentlewoman
( Continuation of Granger, ii. 100). In reality
Bisse married in 1706 Bridget, third daughter
of Thomas Osborne,duke of Leeds, and widow
of Charles Fitz-Charles, earl of Plymouth
(LuTTRELL, Relation of State Affairs, vi. 76).
The bishop published several of his sermons.
One was preached before the House of Com-
mons 15 March 1709-10, being the day ap-
pointed for a general fast, and another was
delivered before the House of Peers 29 May
1711, being the day of public thanksgiving
to Almighty God for having put an end to
the great rebellion. There is a portrait of
him engraved by Vertue from a painting
by Thomas Hill. Another portrait of him
will be found in the Oxford Almanac for
1738.

[Godwin, De Prsesulibus (Richardson), 498 ;
Browne Willis's Survey of the Cathedrals, ii. 530-
532 ; Thomson's Hist, of the Royal Soc. Append,
p. xxxt ; Addit. MSS. 6693, p. 163, 22136, f. 8 ;
Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus. ; Historical Re-
gister (1721), Chronological Diary, 36 ; Nichols's
Lit. Anecd. i. 120, 703, vi. 225, viii. 391 ; Lut-
trell's Relation of State Affairs, vi. 76, 548, 558,
643; Manby's Hist, of St. David's, 167; Jones
and Freeman's Hist, of St. David's, 334 ; Notes
and Queries, 2nd ser. ii. 53. 54 ; Cat. of Oxford
Graduates (1851), 62 ; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy),
i. 304, 473 ; Cooke's Contin. of Duncumb's Here-
fordshire, iii. 223, 224; Britton's Cathedral
Church of Hereford, 33, 61, 71.] ;T. C.

BISSE, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1731), divine,
was a younger brother of Dr. Philip Bisse,
bishop of Hereford. He was educated at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he gra-
duated B.A. in 1695, M.A. in 1698, B.D. in
1708, and D.D. in 1712. In 1715 he was
chosen preacher at the Rolls Chapel, London,
and in the following year, on the deprivation
of John Harvey, M.A., a nonjuror, he was
collated to the chancellorship of Hereford on
the presentation of his brother the bishop.
He was made prebendary of Colwall in the
church of Hereford in 1731, and he also held
the rectories of Cradley and Weston in Here-
fordshire. His death "occurred on 22 April
1731. He was a frequent and an eloquent
preacher, and several of his occasional ser-
mons were published. Those of most per-
manent reputation are: 1. <The Beauty of
Holiness in the Common Prayer, as set forth
in four sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel,'
London, 1716, 8vo. 2. ' A Rationale on Ca-
thedral Worship or Choir-Service,' 1720 ; this
and the preceding work have been frequently
reprinted. A new edition of them in one
volume appeared at Cambridge in 1842.
3. 'Decency and Order in Public Worship
recommended, in three discourses preached

Bisset

99

Bisset

in the cathedral church of Hereford/ 1723.
4. ' A Course of Sermons on the Lord's
Prayer, preach'd at the Rolls' [Oxford? 1740],
8vo ; edited from the author's manuscripts
by his relative Thomas Bisse, M.A., chaplain
of All Souls College, Oxford. He was also
the author of ' Microscopium,' a Latin poem,
printed in l Musarum Anglican arum Ana-
lecta' (London, 1721), i. 200-79.

There is a portrait of him, engraved by
Vertue from a painting by T. Hill.

[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 120, 130, 139, 186,
193, 236, 328, 385, 392 ; Noble's Continuation of
Granger, iii. 100; Gent. Mag. i. 1J4 ; Cat. of
Oxford Graduates (1851), 62 ; Le Neve's Fasti
(Hardy), i. 493, 499.] T. C.

BISSET, CHARLES, M.D. (1717-1791), i
physician and military engineer, was son !
of a lawyer of that name of some local repute
for his attainments in Latin and in Scots law,
and was born at Glenalbert, near Dunkeld,
Perthshire, in 1717. He studied medicine
at Edinburgh, and in 1740 was appointed
second surgeon of the military hospital, |
Jamaica, lie afterwards served on board
Admiral Vernon's fleet, by some accounts as
a naval surgeon, and by others as surgeon of
one of the marine regiments subsequently j
disbanded. After spending five years in the !
West Indies and America he returned home
in ill-health in 1745. In May 1746 he ob- j
tained an ensigncy in the 42nd Highlanders,
then commanded by Lord John Murray, with l
which corps he served in the unsuccessful j
descent on the French coast near L'Orient '
in September the same year. After wintering j
with his regiment at Limerick, he accom-
panied it to the Low Countries, where it was
first engaged at Sandberg, near Hulst, in
Dutch Flanders, in April 1747. A military :
sketch of this affair, and another of the de-
fences of Bergen-op-Zoom, drawn by him,
having been submitted by Lord John Murray
to the Duke of Cumberland, Bisset was
ordered to the latter fortress to prepare re- ;
ports of the progress of the siege. For his |
brave and skilful performance of this duty ;
he was recommended by the Duke of Cum- j
berland for the post of engineer-extraordinary j
in the brigade of engineers attached to the
army, in which capacity he served with credit
during the remainder of the war. At the
peace of 1748 the engineer brigade was !
broken up, and Bisset was placed on half-
pay as a lieutenant of the reduced additional
companies of Lord John Murray's High- '
landers, under which heading his name ap- !
peared in the annual army lists up to his !
death. After travelling in France he pub-
lished his ; Theory and Construction of For-

tifications,' with plans, 4to (London, 1751).
! He subsequently reverted to the medical
profession, and went into practice at the
village of Skelton, near Cleveland, York-
shire, where he continued during the rest
of his life. When war threatened in 1755,
he published his ' Treatise on Scurvy, with
remarks on Scorbutic Ulcers,' 8vo (dedicated
I to the lords of the admiralty) ; and in 1762
he brought out < An Essay on the Medical
Constitution of Great Britain, to which is
added Observations on the Weather and the
Diseases which appeared during the period
from 1st January 1758 to the summer solstice
of 1760. Together with an account of the
Throat Distemper and Miliary Fever which
were epidemic in 1760 ' (London, 8vo). This
work, to which was also appended a paper
on the properties of bearsfoot (hellebore)
as a vermifuge, was translated into German
by J. G. Moeller (Breslau, 1779). In 1766
the university of St. Andrews conferred on
Bisset the degree of doctor of medicine, and
the same year he published * Medical Essays
and Observations' (Newcastle-on-Tyrie, 8vo),
of which a German translation by Moeller
was published in 1781, and an Italian one
about 1790. Bisset wrote several minor
works on medical subjects, and is stated to
have likewise published a small treatise on
naval tactics and some political essays. A
manuscript treatise by him on ' Permanent
and Temporary Fortifications and the Attack
and Defence of Temporary Defensive Works,'
which is dedicated to George, prince of
Wales, and dated 1778, is preserved in the
British Museum (Add. MS. 19695). Bisset
presented to the Leeds Infirmary a manu-
script of observations for his ' Medical Con-
stitution of Great Britain,' extending over
700 pages, all traces of which are now lost
(information supplied by Leeds Philosophical
Society). A copy of Cullen's ' First Lines
of Practice of Physic,' with numerous manu-
script notes by him, is preserved in the
library of the London Medical Society. An
interesting medical correspondence between
Drs. Bisset and Lettsom is published in
Pettigrew's ' Memoirs and Correspondence
of Dr. Lettsom.' Bisset, who is described
as thin in person and of weakly habit, had
a very extensive country practice in which
he amassed an ample fortune. He died at
Knayton, near Thirsk, on 14 June 1791, in
his seventy-fifth year.

[Gent. Mag. Ixi. i. p. 598, ii. p. 965 (par-
ticulars stated to be taken from memoranda
in possession of Mrs. Bisset 1 ; Cannon's Hist.
Record 42nd Highlanders ; Watts's Cat. Printed
Books; Rose's Biog. Diet. vol. iv. ; Brit. Mtis.
Cat.] H. M. C.

H 2

Bisset

100

Bisset

BISSET, JAMES (1762 P-1832), artist, he pleased ; and by paying for the engraving-
publisher, and writer of verse, was born in it has enabled the author to lay a magnificent
the city of Perth about 1762. He received work before the public for only five shillings,
his early education at a dame's school, where which otherwise would cost nearly fifty.' A
the fee for him and his sister together was a second edition of the Directory appeared in
penny a week, with ' a peat for firing every 1808, with several additional plates, but
Monday morning during winter.' His love without ' The Poetic Survey.' In 1804 he
of art and literature received its first impulse published ' Critical Essays on the Dramatic
from the perusal of several copies of the Essays of the Young Roscius.' In 1813 he
* Gentleman's Magazine ' and some old books removed to Leamington, where he had opened
with prints, the whole being purchased in a museum, newsroom, and picture gallery in
early childhood at an old bookstall for a the preceding year. A ' Picturesque Guide
dollar given him by General Elliot, then on to Leamington,' enlivened by stray scraps
a visit to Perth. From his ninth year he ! of verse, was published by him in 1814 ;
began regularly to take in the magazine by ' Variorum, or Momentary and Miscellaneous

the help of pocket-money supplied by an in-
dulgent uncle. At the age of fifteen he
became an artist's apprentice at Birmingham.
In the ' Birmingham Directory ' of 1785 his
name appears as miniature painter, New-
market, and in that of 1797 as fancy painter,

Effusions,' 1823 ; and ' Comic Strictures on
Birmingham's Fine Arts and Conversaziones,
by an Old Townsman/ 1829. His verses
also appeared occasionally in the 'Gentle-
man's Magazine.' He boasted that he had
sold over 100,000 of his different works, and

New Street. In the latter premises he esta- that many had reached the fifteenth andsix-
blished a museum and shop for the sale of i teenth editions. He died on 17 Aug. 1832,

curiosities. He was also a coiner of medals,
and was permitted to use the designation
' medallist to his majesty.' On the title-page
of one of his books he advertises medallions
of their majesties and of several leading
statesmen, and a medal commemorating the
death and victory of Nelson. He had great
facility in composing amusing and grandilo-
quent verses on the topics of the day so as
to hit the popular fancy, and, while he ob-
tained a considerable profit from their sale,

and was buried at Leamington, where a
monument was erected by his friends to his
memory. By his enterprise and public spirit
he secured himself an honourable place in
the annals both of Birmingham and Leaming-
ton. Widely known from his superficial ec-
centricities, lie won general esteem by his ami-
ability and good humour, while his social gifts
rendered him highly popular among his own
friends. In Birmingham he belonged to the
Minerva Club, consisting of twelve members,

they served to attract customers to his ' mu- nicknamed ' The Apostles.' whose meetings
seum ' and to advertise his medals. Among j at the Leicester Arms to discuss political
his earlier volumes of verse were 'The Orphan j subjects may be regarded as the small begin-
Boy,' ' Flights of Fancy,' ' Theatrum Oceani,' j nings of the political gatherings for which
' Songs of Peace,' 1802, and * The Patriotic Birmingham is now so famous. A picture
Clarion, or Britain's Call to Glory, original j of the members was painted by Eckstein, a
Songs written on the threatened Invasion,' | Prussian artist, to which Bisset, as the oldest
1803. The last was dedicated by permission j surviving member, fell heir. Bisset's collec-
to the Duke of York, and the presentation j tion of pictures, which included several
copy to George III with Bisset's inscription j celebrated paintings, as well as some pieces
is in the British Museum. The work, how- | by himself, were sold by auction after his
ever, by which he will be longest remembered,
and one quite unique in its kind, is his 'Poetic
Survey round Birmingham, with a Brief
Description of the different Curiosities and
Manufactures of the place, accompanied with
a magnificent Directory, with the names and
professions, &c. superbly engraved in em-
blematic plates,' 1800. From the preface we

learn that the charge for engraving single ad- Adamson, his wife. He was born 20 April
dresses in a general plate in the Directory was | 1795 in the parish of Udny in Aberdeenshire,
ten shillings and sixpence, and for half a plate where his father was parish schoolmaster and
ten guineas, and that various designs were head master of a private academy and board-

death.

[Gent. Mag. cii. pt. ii. pp. 648-50; Langford's
Century of Birmingham Life, ii. 118-22 ; Dent's-
Old and New Birmingham, pp. 212-13, 289-92.]

T. F. H.

BISSET, JAMES, D.D. (1795-1872),
scholar, was son of George Bisset and Mary

inserted at one and two guineas each. ' Thus,'
it is added with amusing naivete, ' every gen-
tleman had an opportunity of having his ad-
dress inserted in the work at whatever price

ing-school. James was the second son of
a numerous family, one of whom became
vicar of Pontefract, another incumbent of
Upholland in Wigan, and a third attainect

Bisset

101

Bisset

the rank of colonel in the East India Com-
pany's service. He was well trained by his
father, and then proceeded to Marischal
College and University, Aberdeen. At the
early age of seventeen, in consequence of the
death of his father, he was obliged to as-
sume all the responsibilities of school teach- !
ing, and of educating his younger brothers
and sisters. Like his father he developed
remarkable teaching ability, and his private
school became celebrated. Many of the local
gentry were educated by him, and not a few
of his pupils became men of mark, among
them being Sir James Outram and Canon \
Robertson, the ecclesiastical historian. He '
was aided by very able assistants ; Dr. James
Melvin, afterwards rector of Aberdeen Gram-
mar School, and Dr. Adam Thorn, sometime
recorder of Hudson's Bay Company, were both j
members of his staff. He qualified himself
for the ministry of the church of Scotland,
studying divinity at Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
In 1826 he became minister of the small parish
of Bourtrie, Aberdeenshire. The duties of his
limited parochial charge left him leisure to
continue his philological studies, as well !
as to educate his children. He was twice
married : (1 ) in 1829 to Mary Bannerman,
eldest daughter of Rev. Robert Sessel of In-
verurie ; (2) in 1840 to Elizabeth Sinclair,
daughter of Rev. William Smith of Bowes, i
He had issue by both. In 1851 the degree ;
of D.D. was conferred upon him by the uni-
versity of Aberdeen.

Bisset became an ardent politician on |
what was designated the ' constitutional j
side/ and ecclesiastically was a prominent i
figure in the prolonged conflict within and j
without the church courts which terminated '
in the founding of the free church of Scot-
land. Bisset did not support the secession
headed by Chalmers and Candlish and Guth-
rie. In 1862 he was chosen moderator of the
general assembly of the church of Scotland, j
His repute as a scholar was unsustained by i
any publication of permanent value. He I
died on 8 Sept. 1872.

[Obituary notices ; letters from son and son-in- j
law and other members of the family.] A. B. Gr.

BISSET, SIB JOHN (1777-1854), com- |
inissary-general, served in the commissariat
at home from 1795 to 1800, in Germany from
May 1800 to June 1802, at home from 1802
to 1806, in South America in 1806-7, and at
the Scheldt in 1809. He was appointed com-
missary-general in Spain in 1811, and had
charge of the commissariat of the Duke of
Wellington's army at one of the most impor-
tant periods of the Peninsular war, before
and after the battle of Salamanca. Bisset,

who was made a knight-bachelor and knight-
commander of the Guelphic order in 1830,
was the author of a small work entitled
'Memoranda regarding the Duties of the
Commissariat on Field Service abroad'
(London, 1846). He was made K.C.B. in
1850. He died at Perth, N.B., on 3 April
1854.

[War Office Kecords; Eeport Select Comm. on
Army and Ordnance Expenditure (Commissariat),
1850 ; Perth Advertiser, April 1854.]

H. M. C.

BISSET, BISSAT, orBISSART, PETER

(d. 1508), professor of canon law in the uni-
versity of Bologna, Italy, was a native of
the county of Fife, and a descendant by a
previous marriage of Sir Thomas Bisset, who
after his marriage with the Countess Isabel,
daughter and heiress of Duncan MacDuff,
earl of Fife, received a charter from David II
granting him the earldom, but left no issue
by her. After completing his studies in
grammar and philosophy at the university of
St. Andrews, Bisset attended the classes of
law at the university of Paris. Proceeding
to Italy he received the degree of LL.D. from
the university of Bologna, where he after-
wards became professor of civil law. Tanner
(Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 102), on
the authority of Dempster (Historia JEccle-
siastica Gentis Scotorum, ii. 95), states that
he flourished in 1401, a palpable error. He
assigns to him, also on the authority of
Dempster, ' De Irregularitate liber unus,' and
'Lectiones Seriales liber unus,' and to a
Petrus Bizarrus, who flourished in 1565,
' Orationes aliquot et poemata.' This Petrus
Bizarrus he conjectures to have been possibly
identical with Pietro Bizari [q.v.], called also
Petrus Perusinus, but in reality Bizarrus here
is a misspelt form of jBissartus, and Peter
Bisset, the author of ' De Irregularitate,' is
identical with the author of ' Orationes aliquot
et Poemata.' Both works were included in
the volume entitled ' Patricii Bissarti Opera
omnia, viz. Poemata, Orationes, Lectiones
Seriales, et Liber de Irregularitate,' published
at Venice in 1565. Bisset died in the latter
part of 1568.

[Dempster's HistoriaEcclesiastica Gentis Sco-
torum, ii. 95; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 102; Mac-
kenzie's Lives of Scottish Writers, iii. 99, 101 ;
Chambers's Biog. Diet, of Eminent Scotsmen, i.
129 Notes and Queries, 5th series, vi. 389-90.]

T. F. H.

BISSET, ROBERT, LL.D. (1759-1805),
biographer and historian, born in 1759, was
master of an academy in Sloane Street,
Chelsea. He published, in 1796, a ' Sketch

Bisset

102

Bisset

of Democracy/ 8vo, the aim of which was
to show, by a surrey of the democratic states
of ancient times, that democracy is a vicious
form of government. His next work was a
* Life of Edmund Burke, comprehending an
impartial account of his Literary and Poeti-
cal Efforts, and a Sketch of the Conduct and
Character of his most eminent. Associates,
Coadjutors, and Opponents,' 1798, 8vo. In
1800 he published a novel, entitled ' Douglas,
or the Highlander,' 4 vols. 12mo. Another
novel, entitled ' Modern Literature,' 3 vols,
12ino, appeared in 1804 ; and in the same year
he published his ' History of George III to
the Termination of the* late War/ in six
volumes, 8vo. He died in 1805, and his
death is said to have been caused by ' chagrin
under embarrassed circumstances.' An edi-
tion of the ' Spectator/ in eight volumes, was
edited by Bisset in 1796. Two anonymous
tracts in the librarv of the British Museum,
(1) ' A Defence of the Slave Trade/ 1804,
8vo, (2) ' Essays on the Negro Slave Trade/
8vo (1805 ?), are attributed, in manuscript
notes on the title-pages, to Bisset.

[Gent. Mag. Ixxr. 494 ; Watt's Bibl. Brit]

A. H. B.

BISSET, WILLIAM (d. 1747), clergy-
man and pamphleteer, was a native of
Middlesex. His father was, he says, a
royalist, but was not rewarded for his de-
votion to the crown. After passing some
years as a scholar of Westminster, he went in
1687 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where
he took his B.A. degree in 1690. Having
taken orders, he was for some time in
charge of the parish of Iver. While there
he married a wife who brought him some
money. On this he set up a coach, which
gave his enemies occasion to make many
sneers at his foolish ostentation in the
pamphlet war he afterwards engaged in.
He defended himself by declaring that he
bought this < leathern conveniency ' in order
to enable himself to fulfil an engagement to
preach three times a week in a neighbouring
parish. During this period of his life he
appears to have been industrious in his
clerical work. He became rector of Whiston
in 1697. Having been elected elder brother
of St. Catherine's Collegiate Church in 1699,
he resided much in London, leaving his wife
and children at Whiston. As a low church-
man and a whig he was much offended at Dr.
SacheverelPs sermon at St. Paul's on 5 Nov.
1709, and at once preached and published a
reply to it. He followed up this attack by
a pamphlet entitled ' The Modern Fanatick/
which appeared in 1710. This pamphlet
called forth many replies, and among them

one by Dr. W. King. A second part of t The
Modern Fanatick ' appeared in Feb. 1711, and
a third in May 1714. Cole, in his manuscript
' Athense Cantabrigienses/ says that he was
1 almost a madman : ' the character of the
pamphlets put forth by both sides in this
controversy is little proof of the sanity of
any of the parties concerned in it. Bisset
was the champion of an unpopular cause.
He fought with courage, and bad as his
weapons were, they were of much the same
kind as those used against him. There is
no reason to doubt the truth of his assertion
that he was constantly mobbed and insulted,
especially by Sacheverell's * female prose-
lytes.' He also declares that his life was
attempted three times. He deserves credit
for having raised an indignant protest
against the cruel floggings then often in-
flicted on soldiers. A revolting and probably
exaggerated account of the flogging of a man
and his wife is given in the collective edition
of the i Fanatick ' tracts. He was made chap-
lain to Queen Caroline. He died 7 Nov.
1747 ( Gent. Mag.} He published : 1. ' Verses
on the Revolution/ 1689, in poems of Cam-
bridge scholars. 2. ' Plain English, a Sermon
i for the Reformation of Manners/ 8vo, 1704 r
which reached a sixth edition. 3. l More
Plain English, two more Sermons for/ &c.,
1704. 4. ' Remarks on Dr. Sacheverell's
Sermon at St. Paul's/ 4to, 1709. 5. < Fair
Warning, or a Taste of French Government
at Home/ 1710. 6. < The Modern Fanatick,
with a Large and True Account of the Life,

Actions, Endowments, &c., of Dr. S l, r

8vo, 1710. 7. ' The Modern Fanatick, pt. ii.,
containing what is Necessary to clear all
Matters of Fact, &c., with a Postscript/
1711. 8. 'The Modern Fanatick, pt, iii.,
being a further Account of the famous
Doctor and his Brother of like renown, with
a Postscript/ 1714. In the collective edition
of these pamphlets part i. is stated to be the
eleventh edition : it is a reprint, witn the
correction of a few typographical errors,
from the first edition ; it was reprinted as a
twelfth edition in 1715. 9. ' A Funeral Ser-
mon on Mrs. Catesby/ 1727. 10. 'Verses
composed for the Birthday of Queen Caro-
line/ fol., 1728.

[The Modern Fanatick, 1710-14 ; Vindication
of the Rev. Dr. H. S. from the False, &c. ;
Cole's Athense, B. 145 ; Addit. MSS. ; Welch's-
Alumni Westmon. 209 ; Nichols's Lit. Anecd.
i. 32.] W. H.

BISSET, WILLIAM, D.D. (1758-1834),
Irish bishop, was a member of the ancient
family of Bisset of Lessendrum, Drumblade,

Bisset

103

Bizari

near Huntly, in Aberdeenshire. His father |
was the Rev. Alexander Bisset, D.D., chan-
cellor of Armagh, who died in 1782. Wil-
liam Bisset. who was born 27 Oct. 1758, was,
like his father, educated at Westminster,
where he was admitted a king's scholar in
1771, and at Christ Church, Oxford, to which ;
he was elected a scholar in 1775, and where I
he took his degree of B.A. 4 Nov. 1779, !
and proceeded M.A. 7 Feb. 1782 (Cat. Oxford \
Graduates}. He was presented in 1784 to
the rectory of Dunbin, in the county of Louth,
which he resigned upon his collation, 31 Jan.
1791, to the prebend of Loughgall ; or Leval-
leaglish, in the cathedral church of Armagh.
In 1794 he became rector of Clonmore, and
in 1804 was collated, 29 Sept., to the arch-
deaconry of Ross, in what had been, since
1583, the united episcopate of Cork, Cloyne,
and Ross. In 1807 he resigned his prebendal
stall of Loughgall in order to become rector
of Donoghmore, and was appointed, 1812, to
the rectory of Loughgilly. All his prefer-
ments, with the exception of the archdeaconry
of Ross, were within the diocese of Armagh.
A few years afterwards he was appointed to
the chancellorship of Armagh, to which he
was collated on 23 August 1817, thus suc-
ceeding his father after an interval of twenty-
five years. As his final preferment, Bisset
was promoted by the Marquis of Wellesley,
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 1821-1828, to the
bishopric of Raphoe. His patent was dated
5 June 1822. He administered the affairs of
the diocese with general approval. On the
death of Dr. Magee, archbishop of Dublin,
19 Aug. 1831, Bisset was pressed to be-
come his successor, but he declined on the
ground of increasing infirmities. He built
several churches in his diocese, and expended
a considerable sum of money on the improve-
ment of the palace at Raphoe ; and when the
parliamentary grant was withdrawn from the j
Association for discountenancing Vice, his |
lordship supplied the loss. Bisset died
5 Sept. 1834, whilst on a visit to his nephew
at Lessendrum. His clergy erected to his
memory a monument in the cathedral, with
an inscription by W. Archer Butler. At his
death the see of Raphoe became annexed to !
that of Derry. The authorship of a l Life of \
Edmund Burke,' London, 1798, was errone- j
ously claimed for him, the real author being |
Robert Bisset, LL.D. [q. v.]

[Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, Edinburgh,
1798 ; New Statistical Account of Scotland,
vol. xii. Edinburgh, 1844; Cotton's Fasti Eccle-
sise Hibernicse ; Cork Evening Herald, quoted in
the Record, 15 Sept. 1834 ; Dublin Evening Mail,
quoted in the St. James's Chronicle, 16 Sept.
1834.] A. H. G.

BIX, ANGEL (d. 1695), Franciscan friar,
after filling the office of confessor to the Poor
Clares at Aire, and to the community at
Princenhoft', Bruges, was sent to England, and
became chaplain to the Spanish ambassador
in London in the reign of James II. He died
early in 1695 whilst guardian of his order at
York. Bix preached ' A Sermon on the Pas-
sion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Preach'd before her majesty the queen-dow-
ager in her chapel at Somerset House, upon
Good Friday, 13 April 1688 ; ' published by
royal authority, London, 1688, 4to, and re-
printed in * A Select Collection of Catholick
Sermons,' 2 vols., London, 1741. -

[Dodd's Church Hist. In. 491; Oliver's Hist,
of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 545 ; Oat.
of the Grenville Library ; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.,
ed. Bohn, 2243.] T. C.

BIZARI, PIETRO (1530 P-1586 ?), an
Italian historian and poet, long resident in
England, was born at Sassoferrato in Umbria,
or, according to some writers, at Perugia,
whence he is sometimes called PETRTJS PE-
RUSINUS. When young he went to Venice,
but having adopted the reformed faith he
left that city for England. He describes
himself as l an exile from Italy, his native
country, by reason of his confession of the
doctrine of the gospel' (Original Letters
relative to the English Reformation, ed. Ro-
binson [Parker Soc.], 339). He was patro-
nised by the Earl of Bedford, and on 4 July
1549 was admitted a fellow of St. John's
College, Cambridge, by the royal commis-
sioners for the visitation of the university,
being incorporated there in the same degree
which he had taken ' in partibus transmarinis '
(BAKER, Hist, of St. Johns College, ed. Mayor,
i. 285 n). It does not appear how he dis-
posed of himself during the reign of Queen
Mary. If he left England he returned in
the reign of Elizabeth, for in 1567 Bishop
Jewel, at the instance of Archbishop Parker,
gave him the prebend of Alton Pancras in
the church of Sarum, worth 20/. a year
(STRYPE, Life ofAbp. Parker, 255 fol.) Fail-
ing in his expectations of receiving church
preferment in this country, he obtained, in
1570, a license from secretary Cecil to go
abroad, partly for the purpose of printing his
own works, and partly to collect news of
foreign affairs for the English government.
He passed some time at Genoa, though at
what precise period it is difficult to deter-
mine, for he appears to have led a very mi-
gratory life on the continent, and the various
statements which have been made respecting
his place of abode cannot be easily reconciled
with one another. Passing to Germany he.

Bizari

104

Bizari

obtained, through the influence of the cele-
brated Hubert Languet, some employment
from the elector of Saxony. On 20 Oct.
1573 he addressed from Augsburg a letter
in Italian to Lord Burghley, containing seve-
ral items of intelligence, chiefly relating to
affairs at Rome (MS. Cotton. Titus B. ii. f. 386).
Writing to Sir Philip Sidney from Vienna
on 19 Nov. 1573, Hubert Languet says : ' I
send you an epistle of Pietro Bizarro of
Perugia, that you may have before your eyes
his surpassing eloquence and make it your
model. You will now perceive how un-
wisely you English acted in not appreciating
all this excellence and not treating it with
the respect it deserves. You judged your-
selves unworthy of immortality, which he
surely would have bestowed on you by his
eloquence if you had known how to use the
fortunate opportunity of earning the good
will of such a man ' ( Correspondence of Sid-
ney and Languet, 2). Soon after this Bizari
went to Antwerp, where he formed an inti-
macy with the scholars who frequented the
house of Christopher Plantin (MS. Sloan.
2764, f. 44). A letter of Justus Lipsius in-
forms us that in 1581 Bizari, on passing
through Leyden, left with him the manu-
script of a 'Universal History' in eight
volumes, with a request that he would seek
for a publisher who would undertake to
bring it out at his own expense (BuRMANN",
Sylloge Epistolamm, i. 258, 259). Bizari
was at Antwerp in December 1583. On
23 Nov. 1586 he addressed a Latin letter
from the Hague to Lord Burghley, wherein
he gives a detailed and interesting account
of his literary labours, and alludes to certain
verses which he had lately printed (STRYPE,
Annals, iii. 448, fol.) Neither the place
nor the time of his death appears to be re-
corded.

His works are : 1. ' Yaria Opuscula,'
Venice (Aldus), 1565, 8vo. Dedicated to
Queen Elizabeth. This work is divided into
two parts. The first comprises declamations
in the manner of the ancient rhetoricians
' De optimo principe,' ' De bello et pace,'
' Pro philosophia et eloquentia,' ' .'Emilii ac-
cusatio et defensio,' ' Pro L. Virginio contra
Ap. Claudium.' The second part consists
of poems, several of which are reprinted in
Gherus's < Delitiae 200 Italorum Poetarum,'
236, and in ' Carmina illust. Poetarum Ita-
licorum,' ii. 250. Wiffen, in his memoirs
of the house of Russell, has given English
metrical versions of two short poems ad--
dressed to members of that family. 2. ' His-
toria della guerra fatta in Ungheria dall'
inuittissimo Imperatore de' Christiani, contra
quello de' Turchi : con la Narratione di tutte

I quelle cose che sono auuenute in Europa,
I dall' anno 1564, insino all' anno 1568,' Lyons,
1568, 8vo, and, with a slightly different title,
\ 1569. A Latin translation by the author
himself was printed under the title of ' Pan-
i nonicum Bellum, sub Maximiliano II Rom.
et Solymano Turcarum Imperatoribus ges-
tum : cumque Arcis Sigethi expugnatione,
iam pridem magna cura et studio descriptum.
I Vna cum Epitome illarum rerum quae in
' Europa insigniores gestse sunt : et praesertim
de Belgaruin motibus, ab anno LXIIII us-
! que ad LXXIII,' Basle, 1573, 8vo. The first
treatise in this volume is included by Jacques
' Bongars in his ' Rerum Hungaricarum Scrip-
: tores varii,' Frankfort, 1600, and by Matthew
Bell in his reprint, Vienna, 1746. 3. ' Cyprium
j Bellum inter Venetos et Selymum, Turcarum
i imperatorem, gestum,' Basle, 1573, 8vo. A
I French translation appeared with this title :
* Histoire de la Guerre qui s'est passee entre
les Venitiens et la saincte Ligue centre les
i Turcs, pour 1'Isle de Cypre, es anii6es 1570,
I 1571, & 1572, mise en Francoys par F. de
Belleforest,' Paris, 1573, 8vo. 4. ' Seiiatus
! Populiq. Geneuensis Rerum domi, forisque,
I gestarum Histories atque Annales : cum lu-
I culenta variarum rerum cognitione dignissi-
marum, quse diversis temporibus, & potissi-
mum hac nostra ternpestate contigerunt,
enarratione,' Antwerp, 1579, fol. Graevius
has printed two pieces from this work in the
first volume of his 'Thesaurus Antiquitat.
Italicar.' 5. ' Rerum Persicarum historia,
initia gentis, resque gestas ad hsec usque
tempora complectens : accedunt varia opus-
cula diversorum scriptorum ad historiam
Persicam recentiorem spectantia,' Antwerp,
1583, fol.; Frankfort, 1601, fol. The Frank-
fort edition contains some opuscula not to
be found in the other. 6. Universal His-
tory. MS. in 8 vols. 7. ' De Principe trac-
tatus ; ad reginam Elizabethan!,' Royal
MS. in Brit. Mus. 12 A, 48. This differs
slightly from the printed treatise ' De op-
timo principe ' in the l Varia Opuscula.' The
dedication of the manuscript is dated 5 Dec.
1561. Bizari also brought out a new edition
of ' La Santa Comedia ' of Mario Cardoini,
Venice, 1566, 8vo.

[Lamb's Cambridge Documents, 119; Saxius,
Onomasticon Literarium, iii. 413, 414; Murdin's

i State Papers, 287 ; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 595 ;

I MS. Addit, 5864, f. 38 ; MS. Lansd. 50, art. 14 ;

1 Fabricius's Conspectus Thesauri Literarii Italiae,
82 ; Jacobillo's Bibliotheca Umbrise, i. 221
Biog. Universelle, Iviii. 315; Casley's Cat. of
MSS. in the King's Library, 198 ; David Clement's
Bibl. Curieuse, iv. 262-5 ; Bradford's Writings,
ed. Townsend (Parker Soc.), ii. p. xxi, 352, 353 ;
Cooper's Athense Cantab, ii. 8 ; Correspondence

Blaauw

I0 5

Black

of Sir P. Sidney and Languet, ed. Pears, 2, 46 ;
Index to Strype's Works ; Thomas's Hist. Notes,
i. 395.] T. C.

BLAAUW, WILLIAM HENRY (1793-
1870), antiquary, was born in London 25 May
1793. He was" educated at Eton and Christ
Church, Oxford, where, after taking a first
class in classics, he graduated B.A. in 1813,
and M.A. in 1815. He was elected a fellow
of the Society of Antiquaries in 1850 ; was
treasurer of the Camden Society for many
years, and member of many other learned
societies. Blaauw resided at Newick, near
Lewes, Sussex, and under his guidance the
Sussex Archaeological Society was founded
in 1846. He was the editor of the society's
collections till 1856, when the eighth volume
was issued, and was its honorary secretary
until 1867. He died 26 April 1870.

Blaauw's chief work was a history of the
"barons' war of Henry Ill's reign, which was
first published in 1844. It is a very care-
ful production, is especially valuable in its
topographical details, and forms the chief
modern authority on its subject. Its author
was engaged at the time of his death in pre-
paring a revised edition, and this was issued
under Mr. C. H. Pearson's editorship in 1871.
Between 1846 and 1861 Blaauw contributed
nearly thirty papers on Sussex archaeology to
the ' Sussex Archaeological Collections.' He
communicated a paper on Queen Matilda and
her daughter to the * Archaeologia' (xxxii. 108)
in 1846, and he exhibited many archaeologi-
cal treasures at meetings of the Society of
Antiquaries and of the Archaeological Insti-
tute in London. A portrait of Blaauw is
prefixed to vol. xxii. of the * Sussex Archaeo-
logical Collections.'

[Sussex Archaeological Collections, xxii. 9-11 ;
index to the first twenty-five volumes of the
Sussex Archaeological Collections, where a full
list of Blaauw's papers may be found.]

S. L. L.

BLACADER or BLACKADER, RO-
BERT (d. 1508), archbishop of Glasgow,
was the son of Sir Robert Blacader, of Tulli-
allan, by Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress
of Sir James Edmestone, of Edmestone. He
is first mentioned as a prebendary of Glas-

?ow and rector of Cardross. On 23 June
480 he sat among the lords of council as
bishop elect of Aberdeen. He was trans-
lated to the see of Glasgow previously to
February 1484. The see was erected into
an archbishopric 9 Jan. 1492. On account
of this a bitter rivalry ensued between him
and the archbishop of St. Andrews, and the
estates had to intervene to silence their quar-
rels. Archbishop Blacader was frequently

employed in the public transactions with the
English, especially in 1505. Along with the
Earl of Bothwell and Andrew Foreman, prior
of Pittenweem, he negotiated a marriage be-
tween King James IV and Margaret, eldest
daughter of Henry VII. In 1494 the arch-
bishop sent up thirty persons from the district
of Kyle, in Ayrshire, who had been convicted
of the Lollard heresy by the ecclesiastical ju-
dicatories, for punishment by the civil power ;
but nothing further was done in the matter.
He died 8 July 1508 (Regist. Episcop. Glasg.
ii. 616). According to Knox ( Works, i. 12)
and Bishop Lesley (Hist. ed. 1830, p. 78), the
latter of whom gives the date of his death as
26 July, he died in the Holy Land, during a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. David Laing, in
' Proceedings of the Scottish Society of An-
tiquaries,' ii. 222, quotes extracts from the
contemporary diary of the Venetian, Maria
Sanuto, describing the reception by the doge
of Venice of the * rich Scottish bishop,' who
arrived there in May 1508 on his way to Je-
rusalem. This diary also states that the vessel
from Jaffa, in Palestine, returned to Venice
in November 1508, and that the ' rich bishop '
was one of the twenty-seven pilgrims who
died on the voyage.

[Keith's Scottish Bishops, ed. 1824, pp.
254-5 ; Gordon's Eccles. Chron. of Scotland, ii.
512-4; Knox's Works, ed. Laing, i. 7, 10, 12, vi.
663-4.] T. F. H.

BLACATER, ADAM (fi. 1319), was de-
scended from a family of good position in
Scotland, and after studying at several uni-
versities on the continent became successively
professor of philosophy at Cracow in Poland,
professor of the same subject at Bologna, and
rector of one of the colleges of the university
of Paris. He wrote ' Dissertatio pro Alex-
andro M. contra T. Livii locum ex decade i.
lib. ix.,' which was published at Lyons.

[Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Scot. Gent. (1627),
124 ; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 102 ; Mackenzie's
Scottish Writers, i. 420-2.]

BLACK, ADAM (1784-1874), politician
and publisher, was the son of a builder in
Edinburgh, and was born 20 Feb. 1784 in
Charles Street, a few doors from the birth-
place of Lord Jeffrey. He was educated at
the High School of Edinburgh, and during
one session attended the Greek class at the
university. After serving an apprenticeship
of five years to a bookseller in Edinburgh, he
went to London, where he was for two years
assistant in the house of Lackington, Allen,
& Co., the < Temple of the Muses,' Finsbury.
In 1808 he returned to Edinburgh, where,
after carrying on a bookselling business for

Black

1 06

Black

some years in his own name, he took his ne- j
phew into partnership, and established the i
house of Adam and Charles Black. On the
failure of Archibald Constable & Co. in 1827
the firm acquired the copyright of the ' Ency-
clopaedia Britannica,' the seventh and eighth j
editions of this important work being under- ;
taken while he was head of the firm. In 1851 j
they purchased from the representatives of !
Mr." Cadell, for 27,000/., the copyright of Sir
Walter Scott's "VVaverley novels and other
works, which they immediately began to I
issue in editions suited to all classes of the j
community with remarkable success.

Very soon after he settled in Edinburgh !
he began, at considerable risk to his business j
prospects, to take a prominent part in burgh 1
and general politics as a liberal politician. |
As a member of the Merchant Company, of i
which he was elected master in 1831, his |
energetic advocacy of a thoroughgoing mea- |
sure of burgh reform was of great assistance
in hastening the downfall of close corpora-
tions, and in regard to the Corporations and
Test Acts his procedure was equally uncom-
promising. Having become a member of the
first town council of Edinburgh after the
passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, he was
chosen treasurer of the city at the time of its
liquidation, and materially assisted in ar-
ranging its affairs. He was twice elected
lord provost, and on account of his successful
administration of the affairs of the city at this
critical period, 1843-8, received the offer of
knighthood, which he declined. In all pro-
minent public schemes connected with the
city he took an active interest, and on the
foundation of the well-known Philosophical
Institution in 1845 was elected its first presi-
dent. He was instrumental in introducing
Macaulay to the electors of Edinburgh, and,
when the latter was elevated to the peerage
in 1856, succeeded him as member for the
city, which he continued to represent till
1865. His practical shrewdness and straight-
forward honesty secured him the special con-
fidence of the leaders of the liberal party in
parliament, by whom he was much consulted
in matters relating to Scotland. He died in
Edinburgh, in his ninetieth year, 24 Jan. 1874.
By his wife, the sister of William Tait, of
' Tait's Magazine,' he left issue, and he was
succeeded by his sons in the business of A. & C.
Black. In recognition of his services to Edin-
burgh a bronze statue was in 1877 erected to
his memory in East Prince's Street Gardens.

[Scotsman, 26 Jan. 1874; Men of the Time,
8th ed. ; Crombie's Modern Athenians, ed. Scott
Douglas (1882), pp. 179-83; Trevelyan's Life of
Lord Macaulay ; Nicolson's Memoirs of Adam
Black (1885).] T. F. H.

BLACK, ALEXANDER, D.D. (1789-
1864), Scottish theologian, was born in
Aberdeen in 1789, where his father, John
Black, owned a few fields and carried on the
business of a gardener. He was educated at
t&<e grammar school and Marischal College,
arid after studying medicine devoted himself
to preparation for the ministry. His abili-
ties and application to study were so remark-
able that, when a vacancy occurred in the
chair of divinity in King's College, Aber-
deen, he offered himself as a candidate, and
went through the examinations prescribed
to the applicants. His fellow-candidates
were the late Dr. Mearns, then minister of
Tarves, who was successful, and the late Dr.
Love, of Glasgow. Young Black, though
unsuccessful, attracted the attention of the
Earl of Aberdeen, who on the promotion of
Dr. Mearns to the chair presented him to the
parish of Tarves, and there Black was or-
dained in 1818. From Tarves Black was
transferred to Aberdeen in 1832 as professor
of divinity in Marischal College. His great
powers as a linguist and his very large and
particular acquaintance with rabbinical lite-
rature caused him to be selected in 1839 by a
committee of the general assembly, along
with the Rev. Dr. Keith, St. Cyrus, Rev.
R. M. McCheyne, Dundee, and Rev. A. A.
Bonar, Collace, to go to the East to make
inquiries as to the expediency of beginning
a mission to the Jews. After a good many
difficulties and trials Black and his brethren
returned to Scotland, and an interesting
report of their mission was presented to the
general assembly. At the disruption in
1843, joining the Free church, he gave up his
chair at Aberdeen and removed to Edin-
burgh, where he was connected with the
New College. Referring to the linguistic
powers of Black and his colleague, Dr. John
Duncan (Colloquia Peripateticcf), Dr. Guthrie
used to say that ' they could speak their way
to the wall of China ; ' yet no corresponding
products of their learning were given to the
public. Black published a ' Letter on the
Exegetical Study of the Scriptures to the
Moderator of the General Assembly of the
Free Church.' He also contributed a dis-
course to the volume on the ' Inauguration
of the New College.' He died at Edinburgh
in January 1864.

[Keport of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews
in 1839, by Rev. A. A. Bonar ; Scott's Fasti ;
letter to the writer from Mr. Alexander Black,
son of the subject of this notice.] W. Gr. B.

BLACK, JAMES (1788 P-1867), physi-
cian, was born in Scotland about 1788. He
was admitted a licentiate of the Edinburgh

Black

107

Black

College of Surgeons in 1808, and then en-
tered the royal navy. At the end of the war
he retired on half-pay and began practice at
Newton Stewart, but shortly afterwards re-
moved to Bolton, where he resided until
1839. From that date to 1848 he practised
at Manchester, and again at Bolton until
1856. He eventually removed to Edinburgh,
where he died on 30 April 1867, aged 79.
Dr. Black was an M.D. of Glasgow, 1820 ;
a licentiate of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, 1823 ; and F.R.C.P., 1860. He was
for some time physician to the Bolton In-
firmary and Dispensary, and to the Man-
chester Union Hospital ; president of the
British Medical Association, 1842 ; and of
the Manchester Geological Society. His cqn-
tributions to medical literature include :
1. 'An Inquiry into the Capillary Circula-
tion of the Blood and the intimate Nature
of Inflammation,' London, 1825, 8vo. 2. 'A
Comparative View of the more intimate
Nature of Fever,' London, 1826, 8vo. 3. 'A
Manual of the Bowels and the Treatment of
their principal Disorders/ London, 1840,
12mo. 4. ' Retrospective Address in Medi-
cine,' 1842. 5. 'Observations and Instruc-
tions on Cold and Warm Bathing/ Man-
chester, 1846, 8vo. Dr. Black published
several papers on geological subjects, and
communicated to the Literary and Philo-
4 sophical Society of Manchester ' Some Re-
marks on the Seteia and Belisama of Ptolemy,
and on the Roman Garrison of Mancunium '
(2nd edition, Edinburgh, 1856, 8vo). In 1837
he published a paper of 100 pages in the
' Transactions of the Provincial Medical and
Surgical Association/ entitled ' A Medico-
Topographical, Geological, and Statistical
Sketch of Bolton and its Neighbourhood.'
On the establishment of a free library in
Bolton, Dr. Black was chosen as a member
of the committee, and he published ' A few
"Words in aid of Literature and Science, on
the occasion of opening the Public Library,
Bolton/ 1853.

[Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physi-
cians, 1878, iii. 277 ; Brit. Med. Journal, 25 May

1867, p. 623 ; Whittle's Bolton-le-Moors, p. 372;
Royal Society's Cat. of Scientific Papers, 1867,
i. 401 ; Proceedings of the Geological Society,

1868, p. xxxviii]. C. W. S.

BLACK, JOHN (1783-1855), journalist,
editor of the * Morning Chronicle/ was
born in a poor cottage on the farm called
Burnhouses, four miles north of Dunse in
Berwickshire. His father, Ebenezer Black,
had been a pedlar in Perthshire, of the stamp
of Wordsworth's hero in the ' Excursion.'
In the decline of life he accepted employ-

ment at Burnhouses, and married Janet Gray,
another worker on the farm. Four years
afterwards Janet was left a widow with one
daughter and a son, John, and before the
latter had reached his twelfth year mother
and sister died. The orphan was sheltered
and fed by his mother's brother, John Gray, a
labourer on the same farm, who sent him to
the parish school at Dunse, four miles off.
Black gained at Dunse a knowledge of Eng-
lish, Latin, and Greek. He became the friend
of James Gray, scholar, poet, and missionary,
of Adam Dickenson, of James Cleghorn, of
Jock M'Crie, brother of the biographer of
Knox, and others. At the age of thirteen
Black was articled by his uncle to Mr. Turn-
bull, a writer of Dunse, with whom he re-
mained four years. During this time he read
all the books of the subscription library in
the town, and formed a very creditable collec-
tion of his own. He accepted a well-paid
clerkship in the branch bank of the British
Linen Company, but was obliged to leave
the town on account of a practical joke
played upon one of the ' respectabilities.'

Black found a situation in Edinburgh in
the office of Mr. Selkrig, an accountant, who,
in addition to an adequate salary, allowed
his clerk time to attend classes at the uni-
versity. His official duties were strictly

| performed, his attendance in the lecture-

rooms never failed, and he undertook any
remunerative work that offered, notably some
translations from the German for Sir David

1 Brewster's ' Edinburgh Cyclopaedia.' He met
with an intellectual companion in William

! Mudford, the son of a London shopkeeper.
'Cobbett's Political Register' was then a
popular serial, and there Black and Mudford
engaged in another ' battle of the books/
the former defending ancient classical study,
the latter insisting on the acquisition of
modern learning as better. *' Doctor Black,
the feel-osopher/ seemed to be at a rather
later time Cobbett's favourite aversion.

In Edinburgh Black is reported to have
delivered a dozen challenges before he was
thirty years old. His schoolfellow James Gray
was now classical master at Edinburgh High
School, and exercised a moderating influence
upon him. In 1809 he was in the way of
making a happy marriage with a lady from
Carlisle, but the engagement was broken off
by him because he was disappointed of an
expected increase of income. The failure of
this engagement seems to have had a de-
moralising effect upon Black. He fell into
the coarse indulgences of low dissipation,
quarrelled with his employer, from whom
he was receiving a salary of 150/. a year,
and distressed his best friends. His friend

Black

108

Black

Mudford was then in London and editor of a
1 Universal Magazine/ to which Black con-
tributed articles on the Italian drama and
on German literature in 1807-8-9.

By Mudford's persuasion he left Edinburgh
for London in 1810. Dr. C. Mackay gives
as a doubtful statement of Black himself,
that he walked with a few pence in his pocket
all the way from Berwickshire to London,
subsisting on the hospitality of farmers. He
carried a letter of introduction to Mr. Cromek,
engraver and publisher, who received him at
once into his friendly home. Three months
after his arrival in London he was engaged
as a reporter by James Perry, an Aberdonian,
who, with another Scotsman named Gray, had
in 1789 become proprietors of the i Morning
Chronicle.' Besides reporting Black had to
translate the foreign correspondence. As
a reporter he was considered to be very
rapid, but Mr. Proby, the manager of the
paper, used to say that Black's principal
merit consisted in the celerity with which
he made his way from the House of Commons
to the Strand. He was already, in 1810,
engaged in translating into English ' Hum-
boldt's Political Essay on New Spain,' which
was published in four volumes (1811-12).
In 1813 Black completed the translation of
a quarto volume of * Travels in Norway and
Lapland, by Leopold von Buch,' and, in
1814, * Berzelius on a System of Mineralogy.'
In 1814 he translated ' Schlegel's Lectures
on Dramatic Literature,' and the ' Memoirs
of Goldoni.'

At the house of one of his London friends
Black was introduced, in the autumn of
1812, to his friend's mistress, who was not
averse to a marriage which her old lover
seemed anxious to promote. Black fell into
the snare, and five days later, in the month
of December 1812, they were married. The
union was a most unhappy one. His wife
made no pretence of love for him. In the
space of two months she had involved him
in debt, sold some of his furniture, and
clandestinely renewed acquaintance with her
former lover. Black bore patiently with her
whims. Before the beginning of March 1813
she left him altogether, and Black knew how
much she and their common friend had be-
fooled him. He challenged the betrayer.
But the spell was not broken. His wife had
only to write him a penitent letter to obtain
from him the money supplies she demanded.
In 1814, however, he sought a divorce. An
arrangement was made that the wife should
go to Scotland and be domiciled there long
enough to sue for a divorce on her petition.
The project, however, failed, the proof of
domicile of both parties not being deemed

adequate by the court. Black, in full ex-
pectation of a divorce, had offered marriage
to an old friend, who became his housekeeper
and bore the name of Mrs. Black. The
undivorced wife did not fail to extract money
from her husband. This pertinacious perse-
cution went on for many years.

This episode in Black's career explains the
disorganisation of his official labours which
led to a quarrel with Mr. Perry. Due ex-
planation being given the breach was healed.
' In 1817 Mr. Perry's health was giving way,
I and the functions of editor gradually devolved
i on Black.

The ' Morning Chronicle ' was the most
uncompromising of all the opposition papers,
andBlack maintained its position, being much
assisted by the counsels of Mr. James Mill.
I At one time there was scarcely a day that
I they did not walk together from the India
; House giving and receiving political inspira-
: tion. John Stuart Mill wrote of Black :
. l He played a really important part in the
I progress of English opinion for a number of
years which was not properly recognised. I
have always considered Black as the first
, journalist who carried criticism and the spirit
of reform into the details of English insti-
tutions. Those who are not old enough to
remember those times can hardly believe
what the state of public discussion then was.
People now and then attacked the constitu-
tion and the boroughmongers, but no one
thought of censuring the law or the courts
of justice, and to say a word against the
unpaid magistracy was a sort of blasphemy.
Black was the writer who carried the war-
| fare into these subjects, and by doing so he
, broke the spell. Very early in his editorship
! he fought a great battle for the freedom of
! reporting preliminary investigations in the
| police courts. He carried his point, and the
1 victory was permanent. Another subject on
which his writings were of the greatest
[ service was the freedom of the press on
I matters of religion. All these subjects were
! Black's own' (Private Letter, 1869). At
the outset of his editorial career he attracted
! much public attention by his determined
j condemnation of the authorities in their con-
duct at Manchester in the affair long known
i as the Peterloo massacre (16 Aug. 1819).
I In the matter of the queen's trial the
t Chronicle' leaned to the unpopular side,
j deeming her majesty guilty, and the circula-
I tion of the paper was greatly diminished.

In 1821 Mr. Perry died, and his executors
sold for 42,OOOZ. the newspaper which thirty
years before had been bought for 150/. Black
retained his post of editor, but the new pro-
prietor, Mr. Clement, owner also of the * Ob-

Black

109

Black

server ' and of ( Bell's Life/ had not the ;
public spirit of his predecessor, and the paper
began to decline in a commercial sense. In !
1834 it was again sold for the sum of 16,5007. '
to Sir John East hope and two partners. The
' Times ' had distanced the ' Chronicle,' when, j
by a sudden change in its politics in 1835, <
it caused numbers of its whig subscribers
to abandon it and support the ( Chronicle.' ;
Black was so elated by this turn of fortune :
that he exclaimed, ' Now our readers will
follow me anywhere I like to lead them ! ' j

In 1835 Black fought a duel with John
Arthur Roebuck. The latter had published
a pamphlet in which cowardice was attri-
buted to the editor of the ' Chronicle.' A
meeting took place at which the principals
fired twice, and the seconds nearly engaged
in mortal combat.

When Lord Melbourne returned to office
(8 April 1835) he found a useful ally and a
congenial companion in Black. A story is
told of the prime minister having vowed he
would make Black a bishop on an occasion
when he was foiled of his intention to confer
that dignity on Sydney Smith. Black sup-
ported the ministry with all his powers, and
wrote some specially vigorous articles against
Sir Robert Peel in 1839. Melbourne during his '
next administration professed a desire to serve
Black, who declined the offer on the ground
that he l lived happily on his income.' ' Then
by - - I envy you,' said the peer, * and
you're the only man I ever did.' With Lord
Palmerston he did not get on quite so well.
He once vexed the soul of the busy foreign
secretary by launching out into half an hour's
dissertation on the ethnological peculiarities
of the yellow-haired races of Finland, when
the business of the interview was simply to
know what the government meant to do
at a certain crisis in foreign affairs. Lord
Brougham was very intimate with 'Dear
Doctor,' as he styled Black, a title derisively
applied by Cobbett, and not agreeable to
Black's ears. It was Black's great pleasure
to encourage the budding talents of the young
writers around him, and among others that
of Charles Dickens, who began his literary
career as a reporter for the ' Chronicle.' Lat-
terly there was thought to be a decline of
energy in the management of the paper, and
Black, in 1843, received an intimation that
his resignation would be accepted. Black,
who was now sixty years old, had saved no
money, and had to part with his beloved
books, some 30,000 volumes. Friends and
admirers rallied round him, and a sum, to
which the proprietors of the ' Chronicle ' con-
tributed, was raised sufficient to buy him an
annuity of 150/. His old friend Mr. Walter

Coulson placed a comfortable cottage at Snod-
land, near Maidstone, at his disposal, and
there Black passed the remaining twelve
years of his life in the study of his favourite
Greek, chiefly the Septuagint version of the
Scriptures, and in the assiduous practice of
gardening. Black's Newfoundland dogs, Cato
and Plutus, were as well known as himself.
One of them rescued from the Thames a boy
who subsequently attained a seat on the
judicial bench. Mr. James Grant describes
Black in his latter years as having ' the blunt
and bluff appearance of a thickset farmer
. . . never seen in the streets without being
accompanied by a large mastiff (? Newfound-
land), and a robust stick in his hand.' He
died 15 June 1855.

[Hunt's Fourth Estate ; Mackay's Forty Years'
Recollections ; Grant's Newspaper Press ; Black's
Private Papers.] R. H.

BLACK, JOSEPH, M.D. (1728-1799),
an eminent chemist, was born in 1728 at
Bordeaux, where his father, John Black,
carried on the business of a wine-merchant.
John Black was a native of Belfast, but of
Scottish extraction, and married a daughter
of Robert Gordon, of the Gordons of Hill-
head in Aberdeenshire, like himself engaged
in the Bordeaux wine trade, by whom he
had eight sons and five daughters. The
worth of his sterling character and well-
informed mind obtained for him the friend-
ship of Montesquieu. At the age of twelve
Joseph Black was placed at a grammar school
in Belfast, and in 1746 proceeded thence to
the university of Glasgow. There he chose
medicine as his profession, and became en-
amoured of chemistry through the teachings
of William Cullen, the first in Great Britain
to raise the science to its true dignity. Cullen
noted Black's aptitude, promoted him from
the class-room to the laboratory, and im-
parted to him, as his assistant, his own
singular dexterity in experiment.

When Black went to Edinburgh to com-
plete his medical education in 1750 or 1751,
he found an active controversy in progress
as to the mode of action of the lithontriptic
medicines then recently introduced into the
pharmacopoeia. He took up the subject, and
finding himself, in 1752, on the brink of an
important discovery, he postponed taking his
degree until its proofs were assured. There
is, perhaps, no other instance of a graduation
thesis so weighted with significant novelty
as Black's ' De humore acido a cibis orto, et
Magnesia alba,' presented to the faculty
11 June 1754. Developed and perfected, it
was read before the Medical Society of Edin-
burgh 5 June 1755, published in the second

Black

IIO

Black

volume of 'Essays and Observations' (1756),
with the title * Experiments upon Magnesia
alba. Quicklime, and some other Alkaline
Substances/ and subsequently twice reprinted
(1777 and 1782).

As a model for philosophical investigation
this essay was, by Brougham and Robison,
placed second only to the ' Optics ' of Newton.
Its importance in chemical history is two-
fold. By setting an example of the success-
ful use of the balance, it laid the foundation
of quantitative analysis ; and by the distinc-
tion of qualities conveyed in it between
* fixed ' and common air, it opened the door
to pneumatic chemistry. Up to that time
the causticity of alkalis after exposure to
strong heat had been universally attributed
to an acrid principle derived from fire. Black
showed that they lost instead of gained in
weight by calcination ; and that what they
lost was a kind of ' air ' previously ' fixed ' in
them, and neutralising, by its acid qualities,
their native causticity. The effervescence of
' mild ' and non-effervescence of ( caustic '
alkalis when dissolved in acids were alleged
in countenance of the new theory, which,
nevertheless, encountered a vigorous, though
futile, opposition in Germany. It was pointed
out in the same remarkable treatise that
magnesia, until then generally held to be a
variety of lime, formed, with the same acids,
wholly different salts, and was consequently
to be regarded as a distinct substance.

Black was fully aware of the vast ness of
the field of research thrown wide by the dis-
covery (or rather individualisation) of fixed
air, named by Lavoisier in 1784 ' carbonic
acid' (Mem. de TAcad. 1781, p. 455). In
1757 he ascertained its effects upon animals,
and its production by respiration, fermenta-
tion, and the burning of charcoal (Lectures,
ii. 87-8). He also inferred its invariable pre-
sence, in small quantities, in the atmosphere.
Here, however, he stopped, leaving the path
which he had struck out to be pursued by
Cavendish, Priestley, and Lavoisier.

On the removal of Culien to Edinburgh,
Black was appointed in 1756 to replace him
in the chair of anatomy and chemistry in the
university of Glasgow ; but dissatisfied with
his qualifications for the former post, he ex-
changed duties with the professor of medicine,
and lectured during the ensuing ten years
with much care and success on the institutes
of medicine. He was at the same time in
large practice as a physician, and devoted the
most anxious care to the welfare of his
^patients. Nevertheless he found time to
complete the second achievement in science
with which his name remains associated.
'This is the discovery of what is termed 'latent

heat.' In 1756 he began to meditate on the
perplexing slowness with which ice melts, and
water is dissipated in boiling. He divined the
cause in 1757, and ascertained it in 1761. A
large quantity of heat, he found, is consumed
in bringing about these changes in the state
of aggregation, and is thus rendered insen-
sible to the thermometer. The cause of this
disappearance, according to modern theory,
is the employment of the absorbed heat in
l doing work that is, conferring ' potential
; energy ' on material particles ; in Black's
; view it was the formation of a quasi-chemi-
| cal combination between those particles and
i the subtle fluid of heat. But this erroneous
| conception in no way detracted from the im-
I portance of his discovery. The decisive ex-
I periment of obtaining from water during
I congelation an amount of heat equal to that
expended or rendered ' latent ' in its liquefac-
I tion was performed in December 1761. This
| quantity he measured at rather more than
[ would have sufficed to raise the temperature
| of the same weight of water 140 Fahrenheit
i (accurately 143). He, however, considerably
underestimated the latent heat of steam,
fixing it, with his pupil Irvine's assistance,
9 Oct. 1764, at 750 (later at 810) instead of
967. The results of this brilliant investi-
gation not only formed the basis of modern
thermal science, but gave the first impulse
to Watt's improvements in the steam-engine,
and thereby to modern industrial develop-
ments. Black read an account of his suc-
cessful experiments before a literary society
in Glasgow, '23 April 1762, and from 1761
downwards carefully taught the doctrine of
latent heat in his lectures, dwelling with
sedate eloquence on the beneficent effects of
the arrangement in checking and regulating
the processes of nature. But he published
nothing on the subject, and was thus scarcely
entitled to complain if his ideas were appro-
priated with little or no acknowledgment.
To the same society he detailed, 28 March
1760, a series of experiments instituted with
the object of testing the validity of thermo-
metrical indications. He originated, more-
over, the theory of * specific heat,' or of the
various thermal ' capacities ' of different
bodies, but committed it to Irvine to workout.
Still treading in his master's footsteps,
Black became, on Cullen's advancement to
a higher post in 1766, professor of medicine
and chemistry in the university of Edinburgh.
His career thenceforward was exclusively that
of a teacher. Restricting his medical practice
to a narrow circle of friends, and abandoning
all thought of original research, he concen-
trated his powers upon the effective discharge
of his official duties. His success was con-

Black

III

Black

spicuous. During above thirty years he in-
culcated the elements of chemistry upon en-
thusiastic and continually growing audiences.
1 It could not be otherwise/ Robison wrote
in 1803. * His personal appearance and i
manner were those of a gentleman, and pecu-
liarly pleasing. His voice in lecturing was
low/ but fine ; and his articulation so dis-
tinct that he was perfectly well heard by an
audience consisting of several hundreds. His
discourse was so plain and perspicuous, his |
illustrations by experiment so apposite, that j
his sentiments on any subject never could i
be mistaken, even by the most illiterate ; and
his instructions were so clear of all hypo- i
thesis or conjecture, that the hearer rested
on his conclusions with a confidence scarcely
exceeded in matters of his own experience ' !
(BLACK'S Lectures, preface, Ixii). His lectures
had thus a powerful effect in popularising
chemistry ; and attendance upon them even i
came to be a fashionable amusement.

Black was a prominent member of the !
intellectual society by which Edinburgh was
then distinguished. Amongst his intimates
were his relative and colleague Adam Per- j
guson, Hume, Hutton, A. Carlyle, Dugald
Stewart, and John Robison. Adam Smith,
with whom he knit a close friendship at
Glasgow, used to say that * no man had less
nonsense in his head than Dr. Black.' He
was one of James Watt's earliest patrons,
and kept up a constant correspondence with
him. Though grave and reserved, Black was
gentle and sincere, and it is recorded of him
that he never lost a friend. He was at the
same time gifted with a keen judgment of
character, and with the power of expressing
that judgment in an ' indelible phrase.' In
person he is described as ' rather above the
middle size ; he was of a slender make ; his
countenance was placid, and exceedingly
engaging ' (THOMSON). As he advanced in
years, Robison tells us, he preserved a pleas-
ing air of inward contentment. Graceful
and unaffected in manner, ' he was of most
easy approach, affable, and readily entered
into conversation, whether serious or trivial.'
Nor did he disdain elegant accomplishments.
In his youth he both sang and played taste-
fully upon the flute. He had talent for
painting, and ' figure of every kind excited
his attention . . . even a retort or a crucible
was to his eye an example of beauty or de-
formity.' But love of propriety, the same
authority informs us, was his leading senti-
ment. Indeed, his mind was so nicely balanced
as to be deficient in motive power. He had
all the faculties of invention, but lacked
fervour to keep them at work. Hence the
slackness with which he pursued discoveries

which his genius, as it were, compelled him
to make.

A perhaps more prevailing reason for his
inaction was the weakness of his constitution.
The least undue strain, whether physical or
mental, produced spitting of blood, and it
was only by the most watchful precautions
that he maintained unbroken, though feeble,
health. From 1793, however, it visibly de-
clined, and he led, more and more completely,
the life of a valetudinarian. In 1795 Charles
Hope Avas appointed his coadjutor in his pro-
fessorship ; in 1797 he lectured for the last
time. The end came 6 Dec. 1799 (Dr. G.
WILSON, in Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, ii.
238), just in the way he had often desired.
* Being at table,' Ferguson relates, ' with his
usual fare, some bread, a few prunes, and a
measured quantity of milk diluted with water,
and having the cup in his hand when the last
stroke of the pulse was to be given, he ap-
peared to have set it down on his knees,
which were joined together, and in the action
expired without spilling a drop, as if an ex-
periment had been purposely made to evince
the facility with which he departed.' The
provisions of his will curiously illustrated
the just but cold precision of his modes of
thought. He divided his property, without
specification of its amount, into 10,000 por-
tions, ' parcelled to a numerous list of rela-
tives, in shares, in numbers or fractions of
shares, according to the degree in which they
were proper objects of his care or solicitude.'
He was never married, but lived on the best
! terms with his family. His morals were
irreproachable, his habits abstemious, his
frugality was free from parsimony. Indif-
ferent to fame, he disliked the publicity of
authorship, and never could be induced to
vindicate claims which his friends held to be,
in many quarters, encroached upon. He
enjoyed, nevertheless, a unique reputation.
Fourcroy called him ' the Nestor of the che-
mistry of the eighteenth century ' (HoEFER,
Hist, de la Chimie, ii. 353) ; Lavoisier ac-
knowledged himself his disciple. Black, on
! his side, while professing the highest admira-
| tion for Lavoisier's genius, and admitting his
i discoveries, intensely disliked what he re-
garded as his premature generalisations. 'Che-
mistry,' he observed, 'is not yet a science.
We are very far from the knowledge of first
principles. We should avoid everything that
has the pretensions of a full system ' (Lectures,
note xxvi.) This philosophic caution was
eminently characteristic.

Amongst other honours Black was elected
member of the Paris and St. Petersburg Aca-
demies of Sciences, of the Society of Medi-
cine of Paris, as well as of the Royal Society

Black

112

Black

of Edinburgh, and of the Koyal College of
Physicians. He was, besides, first physician
to his majesty for Scotland. It is worth
notice that he made, in 1767, the first attempt
to inflate a balloon with hydrogen (Ed. En-
cycl. iii. (pt. ii.) 553). His lectures were
published by Robison in 1803 from notes
found after his death, eked out by those of
his hearers, in two quarto volumes, entitled
' Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry,
delivered in the University of Edinburgh.'
A German translation by Crell appeared at
Hamburg in 1804-5, and again in 1818, in
four vols. 8vo. Black communicated to the
Royal Society of London a paper * On the
supposed Effect of Boiling upon Water in
disposing it to freeze more readily, ascertained
by Experiment' (Phil. Trans. Ixv. 124), and
to that of Edinburgh ' An Analysis of the |
Waters of some Hot Springs in Iceland ' j
(Trans. JR. Spc. Ed. iii. 95). Two letters by
him on chemical subjects were published, one
by Lavoisier in the ' Annales de Chimie,' the
other by Crell in his ' Collections ' for 1783.

[Ferguson, Trans. E. Soc. Ed. v. 101 (Hist, of
Soc.) ; Kobison's Pref. to Black's Lectures ;
Thomas Thomson, M.D., Brewster's Ed. Encycl.
iii. (pt. ii.), 548 ; Sir A. Grant's University of
Edinburgh, ii. 395 ; Bibl. Britannique, xxviii.
133, 324 (1805); Phil. Mag. x. 157 (1801);
Ann. Phil. iii. 324 ; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved
Portraits, 383.] A. M. C.

BLACK, PATRICK, M.D. (1813-1879),
physician, was son of Colonel Patrick Black,
of the Bengal cavalry, and like his father
was called after his ancestor, Sir Patrick
Dun, president of the Irish College of Phy-
sicians in 1681. He was born at Aberdeen
in 1813, was sent to Eton in 1828, matri-
culated at Christ Church in 1831, and gra-
duated M.D. at Oxford in 1836. In 1842 he
was elected assistant physician to St. Bar-
tholomew's Hospital, in 1851 warden of its
college, in 1860 physician to the hospital,
and somewhat later lecturer on medicine in
the school. Black was a tall and handsome
man, and the trust which his open counte-
nance encouraged was never disappointed.
He was a careful observer, a just reasoner,
well read in medicine, a scholar who enjoyed
literature, a physician who, as one of his
patients remarked, hastened no one into the
grave, yet he never attained a large prac-
tice. That he was a man of considerable pro-
perty perhaps stood in his way, but another
reason was that he had so little belief in
treatment that both students and patients
perceived that he regarded his own prescrip-
tion as a ceremonial observance rather than
as a practical measure. He even questioned

the value of quinine as a remedy for ague.
In 1855 Black wrote a short treatise : ' Chlo-
! roform ; how shall we ensure safety in its
I administration ? ' In 1867 he revised the
1 Latin part of the l Nomenclature of Diseases '
j for the College of Physicians, of which he
j was a fellow and three times censor. In 1876
j he published a popular lecture on ' Respira-
tion,' a pamphlet on ( Scurvy,' and an l Essay
I on the tTse of the Spleen.' His sceptical
j turn of mind is noticeable in all : he doubts
j whether chloroform ever causes death except
by simple suffocation, doubts whether lime
| juice prevents scurvy, and doubts whether
the spleen does anything but regulate the
current of the blood. His scepticism was an
infirmity which prevented his accumulated
observation from yielding its proper fruit,
but it did not affect his personal relations
with mankind. He was sound in his judg-
ment of character, firm in his friendship, and
universal in his kindness. He died on 12 Oct.
1879. His colleague, Dr. Reginald Southey,
wrote his memoir in the St. Bartholomew's
Hospital Reports, vol. xv., and his former
house physician, Dr. R. Bridges, published in
1876 a Latin poem dedicated to Dr. Black,
and describing in Ovidian verse his personal
appearance, character, and manner of teach-
ing.

[Southey's Memoir ; personal knowledge.]

N.M.

BLACK, ROBERT, D.D. (1752-1817),
Irish presbyterian minister, was born in
1752, the eldest son of Valentine Black, a
farmer at Mullabrack, co. Armagh. In 1770
he entered the class of ethics under Dr.
Thomas Reid at Glasgow. He was licensed
by the Armagh presbytery, declined in 1776
a call to Keady, co. Armagh, and in the
following year, on the death of Alexander
Colville, M.D., the non-subscribing minister
of Dromore, co. Down, he accepted the call
of this congregation, which returned to the
jurisdiction of the general synod of Ulster.
Black was ordained at Dromore by the
Armagh presbytery on 18 June 1777. On
15 Feb. 1782 he attended the convention of
Irish volunteers at Dungannon as Captain
Robert Black, and seconded the resolution
adopted in favour of catholic emancipation.
Like other ministers of that date, he some-
times preached in regimentals, and with
drumhead for book-rest. He attended also
the second great Dungannon convention on
8 Sept. 1783, when his eloquence attracted
the attention of Frederick Augustus, earl of
Bristol and bishop of Derry, and of Robert
Moore of Molenan near Derry. Hence his
call to First Derry, where he was installed

Black

Black

by the Deny presbytery on 7 Jan. 1784 as i
colleague to David Young. On '2 Dec. 1788 j
lie was elected synod agent for the reyium !
donum, in succession to James Laing. He
delivered an applauded oration at the cen-
tenary commemoration (7 Dec. 1788) of the
closing of the gates of Derry. As agent for
the royal bounty, he exerted himself to se-
cure its augmentation ; in 1792, by help of
the Earl of Charlemont, Henry Grattan, and
Colonel Stewart of Killymoon, the Irish par- ;
liament passed a favourable resolution, and '
500J. a year was added to the grant, thus in-
creasing the dividend from about 10/. to 321.
(Irish currency). In gratitude for his ser-
vices the synod in 1793 presented Black with
a piece of plate. The seditious tendencies
now beginning to appear in the volunteer
movement excited his alarm, and he delivered
a solemn warning against them in a speech
at a meeting of the parishioners of Temple-
more held in Derry Cathedral on 14 Jan.
1793 (see abstract in Belfast News-Letter, \
25 Jan. 1793). He never, however, receded j
from the positions he had taken in favour of j
parliamentary reform and catholic ernanci- ,
pation. In the rebellion of 1798 he was j
strongly on the side of constituted authority, j
and had great influence as the friend and j
correspondent of Castlereagh. One form in j
which this influence was exercised was a j
further increase of the reyium donum, which ,
from 1804 was distributed in three classes
(100/., 75/., and 50/.), the agent being hence-
forth appointed not by the synod but by the
government. Black held this office till his
death, and did not scruple to use the power
it gave him. Opponents called him ' the un-
mitred bishop ' and ' chief consul of the
general synod.' In 1800 or 1801 the degree
of D.D. was sent him by an American col-
lege. As a speaker he had no equal in his
day. In theology he was strongly suspected
of heresy, a view which is countenanced by
the fact that in 1804 he endeavoured to se-
cure as his colleague William Porter, whose
Arianism was openly known. His local
prestige was impaired by the circumstances
of Castlereagh's defeat at the county Down
election of 1805, but his influence at Dublin
Castle was equally strong with all ministries.
In 1809 the synod publicly thanked him for
his exertions in procuring the act of parlia-
ment incorporating the widows' fund. In
1813 his controversy with William Steele
Dickson, D.D. [q. v.], one of the chief victims
of the rebellion of 1798, was ended by a
synodical resolution declaring that words in
a previous resolution (1799), complained of
by Dickson, had been 'inaccurately used;'
but Black's influence was still powerful
VOL. T.

enough to cause the expulsion of an elder
who, in the course of debate, had laid charges
against him in connection with the bounty.
Black was a strong opponent of the esta-
blishment of the Belfast Academical Insti-
tution (opened 1814) j at the synod of 1815,
in Black's absence from ill-health, a resolution
was passed in its favour ; in the same year
government made the institution an annual
grant of 1,500/. Next year the grant was
withdrawn on political grounds, but Black
vainly endeavoured, in two successive years,
to procure the rescinding of the synod's reso-
lution. His defeat was softened by a not
very successful public dinner, given by his
admirers in Belfast. Black was a man whose
ambition could not brook repulses ; his tem-
perament alternated between geniality and
gloom. Loss of leadership unhinged his
spirit. He threw himself over the railing of
Derry Bridge, and was drowned in the Foyle,
on the evening of 4 Dec. 1817. His body
appears to have been filched from its grave.
There is a curious caricature engraving of
Black in ' The Patriotic Miscellany,' 1805, a
collection of squibs relating to the Down
election of that year. It represents him as
a short corpulent man, with a large head and
strong profile. He had married his cousin,
Margaret Black (who died in April 1824),
and left three sons and two daughters. He
published: 1. ' A Catechism.' 2. 'Substance
of Two Speeches delivered at the Meeting of
Synod in 1812, with an Abstract of the Pro-
ceedings relative to the Eev. Dr. Dickson,'
Dublin, 1812.

[Glasgow Matriculation Book; Keid's Hist.
Presb. Church in Ireland, 1853, vol. iii. ; Withe-
row's Hist, and Lit. Mem. of Presbyterianism in
Ireland, 2nd series, 1880; Porter's Irish Presb.
Biog. Sketches, 1883; Min. of Gen. Synod, 1824.]

A. G.

BLACK, WILLIAM (1749-1829), phy-
sician, was born in Ireland; studied medicine
(according to MUNK, Coll. Phys. iii. 367) at
Leyden, and took his degree as M.D. there
20 March 1772 with an inaugural disserta-
tion l De diagnosi, prognosi, et causis mortis
in febribus.' He received the license of the
College of Physicians 2 April 1787, and
afterwards practised in London, residing in
Piccadilly. He appears to have retired from
practice before his death, which occurred at
Hammersmith in December 1829.

Black did not attain any remarkable emi-
nence in his profession, but wrote some
books which are not without value as illus-
trating the application of the statistical
method to medicine. He was one of the
first writers, at least in England, who

I

Black

114

Blackadder

showed that statistics, which had been pre-
viously employed chiefly in political and
commercial matters, might he of great ser-
vice to the progress of medicine.

Being invited to deliver the ' annual ora-
tion' before the Medical Society of London, he
expanded this lecture into an octavo volume,
entitled ' A Comparative View of the Mor-
tality of the Human Species at all Ages, and
of Diseases and Casualties, with Charts and
Tables,' published in 1788. Before half the
first edition was sold he cancelled the re-
mainder and brought out a second and cor-
rected edition, as ' An Arithmetical and
Medical Analysis of the Diseases and Mor-
tality of the Human Species/ 8vo, London,
1789. In this his design was to exhibit
births, mortality, diseases, and casualties as
being subject to arithmetical proof, to con-
struct in fact a * medical arithmetic/ a
phrase evidently suggested by the ' Political
Arithmetic' of Sir W. Petty. Although
the efforts of Black have long been eclipsed
by the brilliant results of Louis, Quetelet,
and others in the same field, they had con-
siderable importance in their day. The l Dis-
sertation on Insanity ' is an expansion of a
chapter in this book, and was based on ob-
servations furnished by an official of Bethle-
hem Hospital. His ' Sketch of the History
of Medicine ' is a slight work, but was trans-
lated into French by Coray.

He wrote : 1. ' A Historical Sketch of
Medicine and Surgery from their Origin to
the Present Time, with a Chronological Chart
of Medical and Surgical Authors/ 8vo, Lon-
don, 1782. In French, Paris, an vi. (1798).
2. 'A Dissertation on Insanity, illustrated
with tables from between two and three
thousand cases in Bedlam/ 8vo, London,
1810; second edition 1811. 3. 'Observa-
tions, Medical and Political, on the Small-
pox, the Advantages and Disadvantages of
General Inoculation, and on the Mortality of
Mankind at every age/ 8vo, London, 1781.
4. 'Reasons for preventing the French, under
the mask of Liberty, from trampling on
Europe/ 8 vo, 1792. 5. ' Observations on Mili-
tary and Political Affairs by General Monk/
new edition, 8vo, 1796 (the last on authority
of Biog. Diet, of Living Authors, 1816). His
portrait, engraved by Stanier, was published
by Sewell, 1790.

[Hunk's Coll. Physicians, ii. 367 ; Biog. Diet.
of Living Authors (1816).] J. E. P.

BLACK, WILLIAM HENRY (1808-
1872), antiquary, was the eldest son of John
Black of Kintore, in Aberdeenshire, and
was born 7 May 1808. From his mother,
who came of a good family (the Langleys),

possessing estates in Oxfordshire and Buck-

; inghamshire, he imbibed his love of religion,

and also his thirst for antiquarian knowledge.

l He was educated at a private school, and at

seventeen years of age became himself a

tutor among families residing at Tulse Hill

and neighbourhood.

As a reader at the British Museum he
; became acquainted with many literary men,
through whose influence he obtained a situa-
tion in the Public Record Office, attaining at
last to the position of assistant keeper. It
I was during the time he filled this post that
j he corrected the errors in Rymer's ' Foedera/
He was a prolific writer, especially on anti-
quarian subjects. He prepared an edition of
the British part of the f Itinerary of Anto-
ninus ' (never issued), and contributed to
Samuel Bentley's ' Excerpta Historical He
catalogued the manuscripts of the Ashmolean
Museum at Oxford, the Arundel MSS. in the
library of the College of Arms, and Colfe's
library at Lewisham, and left behind him a
monograph on the Roman mile, which still
awaits editing and publication.

At the time of his death he was in nomi-
nation for, and would have been elected on,
the council of the Society of Antiquaries.
He was one of the earliest members of the
British Archaeological Society, the Surrey,
London and Middlesex, and Wiltshire
Archaeological Societies, and the founder of
the Chronological Institute of London, Pales-
tine Archaeological Association, and Anglo-
biblical Institute, besides being a member of
the Camden Society.

His religious views were somewhat pecu-
liar. He was the pastor of a small sect
called the Seventh Day Baptists, whose
chapel is in Mill Yard, Leman Street, White-
chapel, and maintained that Saturday was
the Sabbath. Black died 12 April 1872.
As a conscientious and painstaking antiquary,,
he has had few equals in the present century.

[Private information.] J. A.

BLACKADDER, ADAM (/. 1674-
1696), covenanter, was second son of the
elder John Blackadder [q. v.], brother of Dr.
William Blackadder [q. v.], physician to Wil-
liam III, and of Lieutenant-colonel John
Blackadder [q. v.] He was born about 1659.
He was bred to the mercantile profession in
Stirling, and in November 1674, while still an
apprentice, he was, along with several others,
apprehended, because he had not subscribed
the 'Black Bond' of history, and for attending
conventicles. The entire household remained
steadfast to their father. His eldest brother
(Dr. Blackadder) presented a petition to the
privy council, and obtained his temporary re-

Blackadder

Blackadder

lease. He was at least twice subsequently im- I
prisoned, once in Fife, and once in Blackness
Castle. In the latter his and Welsh's dun- |
geons are still shown. His seizure and im- j
prisonment in Blackness was for having been !
present at his father's preaching near Bor-
rowstownness(Linlithgowshire), on which oc-
casion no fewer than twenty-six children were \
baptised. Compelled by persecution to be an
exile, Blackadder is found next in Sweden.
He was a merchant in Sweden for nine years.
Having married a Swedish lady, whom he
had converted from Lutheranism to presbyte- j
rian Calvinism, they were obliged to fly the !
country. The penalty at the time for a |
Swede who changed to Catholicism or Cal- !
vinism was death. About the close of 1684 |
he was settled in Edinburgh. Twelve years
later his name is found in the Darien Papers
(Bannatyne Club, 1849) among the sub-
scribers to the Darien Company ' 26 March
1696. Adam Blackader, merchant in Edin-
burgh, as factor for his brother, Captain John
Blackader, in Flanders, 100/.' He wrote a
narrative of his father's sufferings, worked
into Dr. Crichton's full ' Life/ which he sub-
mitted to Wodrow. He is also known to
have written a number of political tractates
on the state of parties and the Darien scheme.
The date of his death is not discoverable.

[Authorities cited under BLACKADDER, JOHN ;
Anderson's Scottish Nation; Wodrow MSS. ;
Howie's Scots Worthies ; Dodd's Scottish Cove-
nanters: Gilfillan's Scottish Covenanters.]

A. B. G.

BLACKADDER, JOHN the elder
(1615-1686), Scotch divine, was son of John
Blackadder, of the families of Blackadder
of Blairhall and Tulliealan, whose ancestry
were famous in border story, and joined
in the wars of the Roses. He was born in
December 1615, but where is not known.
According to Scott (Fasti, i. 604), he was
born in 1623. He studied at Glasgow under
Principal Strang, his uncle. He was early
distinguished for his scholarship Oriental,
Latin, and Greek. He took his degree of M. A.
in 1650. Having received license he was una-
nimously called to the parish of Troqueer in
1652, ' one of the kirks of Galloway within
the presbytery of Dumfries,' and was or-
dained 7 June 1653. The condition of his
parish and of the county was deplorable.
Bastardy and profanity were everywhere.
The Bible was practically unknown. Black-
adder worked hard to* correct these evils.
Upon the ' intrusion ' of episcopacy on pres-
byterian Scotland in 1662, the minister of
Troqueer was 'extruded' from his church
and temporarily imprisoned at Edinburgh.

He afterwards retired with wife and family
to Caitloch, Corsack Wood, and other places.
But holding his clerical orders to be inde-
feasible and the enforcement of episcopacy a
violation of the Act of Union, as well as the
imposition of a non-scriptural form of church
government, he preached eloquently to for-
bidden conventicles among the mountains and
in the moors and glens and caves. War-
rants were again and again issued against
him, but he contrived to escape imprison-
ment, and with Welsh, Peden, Cargill, and
other covenanters, continued to preach.

In 1666, 1674, 1677, the records of the
privy^ council show that letters for his appre-
hension were issued. On one particular oc-
casion, when he delivered a sermon at Kinkell,
the people crowded to hear him, notwith-
standing the absolute commands, with threats,
of Archbishop Sharp. When the irate pre-
late a renegade presbyterian ordered the
provost to march out the militia to disperse
the congregation, he was told it was impos-
sible, l as the militia had gone there as wor-
shippers.' In 1674 Blackadder was outlawed,
and a heavy reward offered for his body. He
fled to Rotterdam in 1678, and there aided
in * healing differences ' between the presby-
terian ministers, Fleming and M'Ward. He
was again in Edinburgh in June 1679. On
5 April 1681 he was ' made prisoner in his
house at ^Edinburgh,' and after a form of
examination was sent to the Bass Rock.
After four years of rigid imprisonment his
health finally gave way. The privy council,
in hot haste, gave permission to him to leave,
on condition of confining himself to Edin-
burgh. But it was too late, and he died on
the Bass in January 1686.

Blackadder succeeded to, but never assumed,
a baronetcy which had been conferred on a
member of an elder branch of his family in
1626. He married, in 1646, Janet Haining,
daughter of Homer Haining of Dumfries.
She died 9 Nov. 1688. Their issue were five
sons (of whom Adam, John, and William are
separately noticed) and two daughters.

[Scott's Fasti, i. 604; Anderson's Scottish
Nation; Min. Glasg. Univ. Ill; Edin. Guild
and Reg. (Bass) ; Wodrow and Kirkton's Hist. ;
Analecta ; Edin. Christian Instructor, xxiii. ;
New Statistical Ace. ii. iv. viii. &c. ; Crichton's
Memoirs, 2nd ed. 1826, full and valuable ; Two
Sermons on Isaiah liii. 11, in Howie of Loch-
goin's Faithful Coiitendings, 1780, pp. 72-104 ;
Bishop Burnet's Life.] A. B. G.

BLACKADDER, JOHN the younger
(1664-1729), lieutenant-colonel of the Came-
ronian regiment, was the fifth son of John
Blackadder the elder [q. v.], and was bom

i2

Blackadder

116

Blackader

in the parish of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire,
14 Sept. 1664. Notwithstanding the persecu-
tions to which the father was subject, the son,
after receiving from him the rudiments of
classical learning, attended the courses of hu-
manity and philosophy in the university of
Edinburgh. Accustomed from infancy to
frequent conventicles and communions, he ac-
quired at an early period strong Calvinistic
convictions and strict and stern views of con-
duct and duty. When the regiment raised by
the covenanting Cameronians (now the 26th
of the line) was embodied by the Earl of Angus
in 1689, he volunteered into it as a cadet at the
pay of sixpence a day. Probably through his
intimacy with the commander, Colonel Cle-
land, who was an old college acquaintance,
he was in a few months promoted lieutenant.
The regiment, by the remarkable stand it
made against the Highlanders at Dunkeld,
did service of the highest importance in quell-
ing the rebellion. After the reduction of the
Highlands he embarked with the regiment
for Flanders, and took part in the principal
sieges and battles in the campaigns of the
Prince of Orange until the peace of Ryswick in
1697. On the resumption of the war in 1702,
Blackadder, who had previously obtained
his captain's commission, served with his old
regiment in the campaigns of Marlborough.
In December 1705 he was promoted major,and
in October 1709 raised to the command of the
regiment. Shortly before the peace of Utrecht
he sold his commission, and taking up his
residence at Edinburgh, and afterwards at
Stirling, he occupied much of his attention
with ecclesiastical affairs, becoming a member
of the Society for Propagating Christianity,
and also of the general assembly of the
church of Scotland. Upon the news of a
rising in the north in 1715 in behalf of the
Pretender, he was appointed colonel of the
regiment raised by the city of Glasgow, which
he posted at the bridge of Stirling to guard
against an attack of the highlanders, who,
however, were defeated at the battle of She-
riffmuir. In consideration of his services
during the rebellion he was, in March 1717,
appointed deputy governor of Stirling Castle.
He died 31 Aug. 1729, and was buried in the
West church of Stirling, where a marble
tablet was erected to his memory.

[Life and Diary of Lieut.-col. J. Blackader. ed.
Crichton, 1824.] T. F. H.

BLACKADDER, WILLIAM, M.D.
(1647-1704), physician to William III, the
eldest son of the elder John Blackadder
[q. v.], was born in 1647. He was sent to
the university of Edinburgh in 1665, and he
graduated in medicine at Leyden in 1680.

Having in Holland made the acquaintance of
some of the principal political refugees of
England, he was frequently employed by them
in important negotiations. He accompanied
the Earl of Argyle in his expedition to Scot-
land in 1685, and having, along with Spence,
the earl's secretary, put ashore at Orkney to
obtain information regarding the sentiments
of the people, he was apprehended and sent
for examination to Edinburgh. After landing
at Leith he succeeded by signs in communi-
cating to his sister, who had joined the crowd,
the necessity of burning some papers amongst
the luggage forwarded to his lodgings. A
search therefore revealed nothing of a com-
promising character : but he was retained
in prison for more than a year until, through
a clever device of his brother, he obtained
writing materials, and sent a letter to Fagel,
the pensioner of Holland, who represented
the case to the British envoy in such a
way that King James ordered his liberation.
Thereupon he went to Holland, whence, in
1688, he was sent to Edinburgh to carry on
secret negotiations on behalf of the Prince of
Orange. Having imprudently ventured into
the castle, he was seized by order of the go-
vernor and committed for trial ; but on the
news of the landing of the Prince of Orange
he was set at liberty. After the revolution
he was, in reward of his services, appointed
physician to King William. He died about
1704.

[Crichton's Memoirs of Rev. John Blackadder,
2nd ed. pp.295-301, and Life and Diary of Lieut.-
col. J. Blackader, pp. 28-31; "Wodrow's History
of the Church of Scotland, ed. Burns, iv. 231,
285, 313.] T. F. H.

BLACKADER, CUTHBERT (d. 1485),
a chieftain of the Scottish border, received
his surname and estate from James II in
1452 for his success in repelling the English
marauders on the Scottish frontier. By his
prowess he earned for himself the title of the
( chieftain of the south.' He and his seven
sons who accompanied him on his expeditions
were also named, from the darkness of their
complexions, the ' Black band of the Black-
aders.' When the kingdom was placed in a
posture of defence against Edward IV, the
Blackaders raised a force of two hundred and
seventeen men, and also planted their castle
with artillery, and left in it a strong garrison.
During the wars of York and Lancaster
Cuthbert and his sons took service in Eng-
land, and fought under the banner of the red
rose. In the fatal battle of Bosworth, 22 Aug.
1485, he and three of his sons were slain.

[Crichton's Memoirs of the Eev. John Black-
adder (2nd ed. 1826), pp.. 2-4.]. T. F. H.

Blackader

Blackall

BLACKADER, ROBERT. [See BLAC-

ADEE.l

BLACKALL, JOHN, M.D. (1771-1860),
physician, sixth son of the Rev. Theophilus
Blackall, a prebendary of Exeter cathedral,
by his wife Elizabeth Ley, and grandson
of Bishop Offspring Blackall [q. v.], was
born in St. Paul's Street, Exeter, 24 Dec.
1771. He was educated at the Exeter gram-
mar school, whence he proceeded to Balliol
College, Oxford, as a member of which he
graduated BA. 1793, M.A. 1796, M.B. 1797,
and M.D. 2 March 1801. Immediately after
taking his first degree he applied himself to
the study of medicine at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, and it was in its wards, while
working as the clinical clerk of Dr. John
Latham, that he made the observations on
albuminuria which were afterwards stated and
enlarged in his treatise on dropsies. In 1797
he settled in his native city, and on 1 June in '
that year was chosen physician to the Devon
and Exeter Hospital. At this period, how- i
ever, the medical practice of Exeter was j
engrossed by Dr. Hugh Downman, Dr. Bar-
tholomew Parr, and Dr. George Daniell, and
in 1801 Dr. Blackall resigned his appointment
at Exeter, and settled at Totness, where he ;
became the physician of the district. His i
reputation increased, and in 1807 he returned j
to Exeter, where he was a second time elected j
physician to the Devon and Exeter Hospital, i
and in 1812 was appointed physician to St. j
Thomas's Lunatic Asylum. In 1813 he :
published his well-known and admirable i
1 Observations on the Nature and Cure of j
Dropsies,' London, 8vo, of which there are I
four editions, and which entitles its author to |
a position among medical discoverers. Dropsy |
is the morbid effusion of the serum of the i
blood into the cavities of the body and into j
the meshes of its tissues. It had been ob- j
served from the beginning of medicine, but |
up to the time of Lower (1669) nothing was
known of its morbid anatomy. He made
the first step, which was the demonstration
that dropsy of a limb always follows direct
obstruction of its veins. Blackall's discovery
came next, and was that dropsy is often as-
sociated with the presence of albumen in the
urine. His treatise states clearly the relation
between albuminuria and dropsy, and shows
that he suspected that the kidneys were dis-
eased in these cases. The further discovery
of Bright (1836) of the constant relation be-
tween renal disease and albuminuria is based
upon the observations first made by Blackall.
Blackall also published (1813) some ob-
servations on angina pectoris, a disease then
much discussed, owing to Heberden's writings
upon it. Blackall was admitted a candi-

date of the College of Physicians, 22 Dec.
1814, and a fellow, 22 Dec. 1815. His pro-
gress from this period was rapid and unin-
terrupted, and for a long series of years he
had a great practice in the west of England.
He was famed for his skill in diagnosis, and it
was based upon a thorough method of clinical
examination. He used no complicated re-
medies, was patient in waiting for results, and
was justly confident in the conclusions to
which he had attained with so much care.

Dr. Blackall retained his strength and fa-
culties to an advanced age, and he did not
relinquish private practice till he was eighty.
He died at Southernhay, Exeter, 10 Jan.
1860, and was followed to the grave in the
burial-ground of Holy Trinity Church by a
large body of relations and friends and the
Avhole of the medical profession resident
within the city.

[British Medical Journal (Memoir by Thomas
Shapter, M.D.), 1860, pp. 75-6 ; Munk's Boll of
College of Physicians (1878), iii. 138-41.]

GK C. B.

BLACKALL or BLACKBALL, OFF-
SPRING (1654-1716), bishop of Exeter, did
not come into public notice until he was a
middle-aged man, and of his early years little
is known. He was born in London, and in
due time became a member of St. Catherine's
Hall, Cambridge, where, it may be presumed,
he lived a strictly religious life, for he is men-
tioned as one of the intimate college friends of
the saintly James Bonnell [q. v.], who chose
none but the godly for his companions. In
1690 he became rector of South Okenden or
Ockenden in Essex, and in 1694 rector of St.
Mary Aldermary in London ; with this latter
preferment he also held successively two lec-
tureships in the city. He was next made
chaplain to King William III, although he
was so strongly suspected of inclining to the
exiled dynasty that he was charged in a
pamphlet of 1705 with having continued a
nonjuror for two years after the revolution.
A sermon preached before the House of Com-
mons on 30 Jan. 1699 first brought him into
notice as a controversialist. The sermon is
really a very moderate one, in comparison
with many which were wont to be preached
on such occasions, but in it the preacher
made a passing reference it only takes up
about a twentieth part of the sermon to
John Toland, against whom everybody was
then preaching. In 1698 Toland in his ' Life
of Milton ' disputed the royal authorship of
the ' Icon Basilike,' and took occasion, more
suo, to insinuate that, as people were mis-
taken on this point, so they might be about
the authenticity of many of the early writings

Blackall

nS

Blackall

about Christianity. Blackball not unnaturally
supposed tbat Toland referred to tbe New (
Testament, and binted to the House of Com-
mons tbat their pious designs to suppress |
vice and immorality would not be of much ,
effect if the foundations of all revealed religion
were thus openly struck at. Toland replied
in his well-known i Amyntor,' declaring that ,
he had not referred to the holy scriptures at \
all. Blackball rejoined, and the controversy
brought him into such notice that the next
year (1700) he was chosen Boyle lecturer. ,
The subject he chose was ( The Sufficiency of ,
a standing Revelation,' and the seven ser-
mons, preached at St. Paul's, which formed
the lecture, may be found in bis published
works. On 8 March 1704, the anniversary
of Queen Anne's accession, Blackball preached
at St. Dunstaii's, and on the same occasion in
1708 at St. James's, before the queen, ser-
mons which called forth the wrath of the
whigs. In 1709 Benjamin Hoadly attacked
him, and a long and rather warm contro-
versy ensued. Pamphlet after pamphlet
poured forth from the press. Among the
supporters of Blackball one is supposed to
have been the famous Charles Leslie, and the
pamphlet with the curious title ' The best
answer ever was made, and to which no
answer ever will be made (not to be behind
Mr. Hoadly in assurance), &c.,' bears strong
internal evidence of having been written by
Leslie. Among the supporters of Hoadly
were the wits of the ' Tatler.' Blackball
had by this time become a bishop. In January
1707-8 Queen Anne, on the recommendation
of her spiritual director, Archbishop Sharp,
conferred upon him the see of Exeter, to the
great annoyance of the low-church party.
Burnet, while admitting that Blackball was
' a man of value and worth,' strongly repro-
bates the appointment because ' his notions
were all on the other side,' and declares that
'he [Blackball] seemed to condemn the
Revolution and all that had been done pur-
suant to it ' (Own Times, book vii.) Black-
hall also, as we learn from Le Neve (Fasti
Ecclesice Anglicance, vol. i.), held with his
bishopric the archdeaconry of Exeter until
his death. Little is known of Blackhall's
management of his diocese, except that he
took a deep interest in the newly formed
scheme of charity schools, and endeavoured
to rouse his clergy into activity on their be-
half. But he had a great reputation in his
day both as a preacher and a writer. His
friend and editor, Sir William Dawes, tells
us in the posthumous edition of Blackhall's
sermons that he had ' universally acquired
the reputation of being one of the best
preachers of his time,' and the published ser-

mons bear out this reputation. They are
105 in number, no less than eighty-seven of
them being an exposition of the sermon on
the Mount. These eighty-seven, in especial,
are remarkably clear and exhaustive ; they
are written in the homely style which be-
came fashionable soon after the Restoration.
Unlike the sermons of an earlier date, they
contain no quotations from foreign languages,
no fine words, no similes or metaphors, but
they thoroughly grapple with the difficulties,
never diverge from tbe subject in hand, and
are full of weighty matter. We are not sur-
prised to learn that 'vast numbers both of
clergy and laity flocked to hear them/ and
that he was importuned by many friends to
print them. He intended to do so, but a
long sickness, which terminated in his death
(29 Nov. 1716). prevented him from carrying
out his intention, so the task was left for his
friend and brother prelate, Sir William Dawes,
who executed it with fidelity and judgment.
The drawback to the series (not to the indi-
| vidual sermons, for each would take not more
i than half an hour in. delivery) is its inordi-
! nate length. It fills no less than 939 folio
pages, and this, perhaps, is the reason why it
i has not been accepted as a standard exposi-
tion of the sermon on the Mount. Many of
the other sermons have been published sepa-
rately. Writing from a literary point of view,
; Felton, in his 'Classics,' describes Blackball
I as 'an excellent writer,' and De la Roche,
in his l Memoirs of Literature,' calls him ' one
| of those English divines who, when they un-
j dertake to treat a subject, dive into the bottom
j of it and exhaust the matter.' As to his per-
j sonal character, his friend Sir W. Dawes thus
! describes it, in language which evidently
| came from the heart : ' I, who had the happi-
| ness of a long and intimate friendship with
| him, do sincerely declare that in my whole
! conversation I never met with a more per-
fect pattern of a true Christian life in all its
I parts than in him.' He showed such ' primi-
j tive simplicity and integrity, such constant
evenness of mind, such unaffected and yet
| most ardent piety towards God.' His son
i Theophilus (d. 1737) was the father of Samuel
| Blackall [q. v.], and his grandson, also Theo-
| philus (d. 1781), was father of John Blackall

! [q- v.]

[Authorities indicated in the text.] J. H. 0.

BLACKALL, SAMUEL (d. 1792), di-
vine, was the son of the Rev. Theophilus
Blackall, chancellor of the diocese of Ex-
eter, and a grandson of Dr. Offspring Black-
all, bishop of Exeter. He received his edu-
cation at Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
of which he became a fellow and mathe-

Blackbourne

TI 9

Blackbourne

matical tutor (B. A. 1760, M. A. 1763, B.D. a scholar and divine. To keep himself inde-
1770). Cole, in his manuscript ' Athenae pendent, he became corrector of the press to
Cantabrigienses,' says : ' This gent, in 1771, Mr. Bowyer, printer, and was, indeed, one
on Mr. Hubbard, a fellow of his college, and of the most accurate of any that ever took
one to whom he had great obligations, pre- upon him that laborious employ ' (NICHOLS,
paring a Grace, or voting for it, contrary to Literary Anecdotes, i. 252). He was power-
the inclination and disposition of this person, fully recommended to f King James III ' by
publicly hissed him in the Senate House, j Lord Winchelsea and other nobles of his
which was a method so unusual and thought j faction, and was consecrated bishop of the
so indecent, that even he himself was, or pre- nonjurors 11 June 1725 (BLUNT, Theological
tended to be, ashamed of it, and made excuses Dictionary, 1872) by the nonjuring prelates,

Spinckes, Gandy, and Doughty, with the last

about it. On the petitioners against the
Liturgy and Thirty-nine Articles applying to
parliament for relief, he was a busy and active
petitioner and . . . wrote a spirited pamphlet

two of whom he took part in the consecra-
tion of Richard Rawlinson, 25 March 1728,
and subsequently with Gandy and Rawlin-

son in the consecration of George Smith.
Blackbourne belonged to that section of the
nonjurors which, in respect to the ' usages/

against Dr. Hallifax's three sermons. He is

a little black man, of no humane aspect, and

carries his malignancy in his forehead : he is

lame of one leg by some accident, and a great adhered to the practice of the English church

rower on the water ; a lively and ingenious as it stood at the time of the separation, and

man, plays well on the harpsichord, sings | who were known as ' nonusagers,' in contra-

"\VOll sin/1 rlvQTirc on/'l o+nliac iir\i- amice TTft H 1 s1".m P^",i ATI T,n T.nfi ^noonrovc* ' TrrTi^ -nriol-*/-!/-! -f^.

well, and draws and etches not amiss,
is son to a dignitary of Exeter, and probably
a degenerate grandson to a quondam bishop
of that see. I think the Grace Mr. Hubbard
opposed was that brought in by Mr. Jebb to
abolish subscription in the university.' Black-
all is mentioned in a silly poem called ' Pot
Fair' (1780). On 12 July 1786 he was ad-
mitted to the valuable rectory of Lough-
borough in Leicestershire on the presentation
of his college. He died there on 8 May 1792,
and a monument to his memory was placed in
the parish church of Sidmouth, Devonshire.
Besides publishing some detached sermons he
took part in the ' confessional controversy '
by addressing l A Letter to Dr. Hallifax upon
the subject of his three discourses preached
before the University of Cambridge, occa-
sioned by an attempt to abolish subscription
to the Thirty-nine Articles,' 1772.

[Addit. MS. 5864, f. 65 ; Cantabrigienses Gra-
duati (1787), 40 ; Gent. Mas;, xxvii. 531 ; xlii.
265, 446, 516, 572, xliii. 69, 1. 225, Ixii. (i.) 483;
Dyer's Hist, of the Univ. of Cambridge, ii. 390 ;
Lond. Mag. 1757, p. 563 ; Lysons's Devonshire,
447 ; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. ii. 900.]

T. C.

BLACKBOURNE, JOHN (1683-1741),
nonjuror, was born in 1683, and educated
at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
became B.A. in 1700, and M.A. in 1705.
His refusal to recognise the revolutionary
settlement excluded him from clerical prefer-
ment. According to Dr. Bowes, who ' waited
on him often in Little Britain, where he lived
almost lost to the world and hid amongst
old books,' Blackbourne 'lived a very ex-
emplary, good life, and studied hard, en-
deavouring to be useful to mankind, both as

distinction to the ' usagers,' who wished to
introduce chiefly into their eucharistic li-
turgy certain catholic practices. The two
parties remained separate, each consecrating
several bishops, from the year 1718 to 1733,
when a reconciliation took place on the
basis of a general adoption of the catholic
< usages:' but Blackbourne still refused,
though almost alone, to relinquish the use
of the communion office of the Anglican
church. Blackbourne published an edition
of Johan Bale's 'Brefe Chronycle concern-
ynge the Examinacyon and Death of the
Blessed Martyr of Christ, Syr Johan Olde-
castell the Lorde Cobham. To which is
added an Appendix of original Instruments/
8vo, London, 1729 ; and an edition of ' The
Works of the Lord Bacon. Francisci Baconi,
Baronis de Verulamio, Vicecomitis Sancti
Albani, Magni Anglise Cancellarii, Opera
omnia, quatuor Voluminibus comprehensa ;
hactenus edita, ad autographorum maxime
fidem, emendantur ; nonnulla etiam ex MSS.
Codicibus deprompta, mine primum prodeunt/
fol. London, 1730. He is also credited with
editing the 'Castrations to Holinshed's Chro-
nicle,' 1728, fol. Blackbourne died 17 Nov.
1741, and his library was sold by auction in
February 1742. He was buried^in Islington
churchyard. His widow, Philadelphia, after
having contracted a second marriage with
Richard Heybourne, a citizen of London,
died 10 Jan. 1750, at the age of 70, and was
buried by the side of her first husband.

[Graduati Cantab. 1787; Nichols's Literary
Anecdotes ; Lathbury's History of the Nonjurors,
London, 1845; Blunt's Dictionary of Theology,
London, 2nd ed. 1872; Lee's Glossary of Litur-
gical and Ecclesiastical Terms, London, 1877.1

A. H. G.

Blackburn

I2O

Blackburn

BLACKBURN, WILLIAM (1750-1790),
surveyor and architect, was born in South-
\vark. His father was a tradesman of St.
John's parish, and his mother a native of
Spain. His limited education was derived

ment, useful labour, and moral reform, pro-
posed premiums for the best plans for such
buildings ; and the highest premium of one
hundred guineas was unanimously awarded
to Blackburn in March 1782. In due course

from a common school, and at a proper age ' he was appointed to the office of architect
he was placed under a surveyor one, how- and surveyor of the proposed buildings. But
ever, of so little note that few advantages after the plan of a penitentiary for male
could be obtained in the knowledge of his j offenders had been arranged, and a great part
profession. But his intelligence and persever- j of the work contracted for, the attention of
ance soon overcame these early drawbacks, public men was diverted from this important
and he managed to make the acquaintance of i social scheme, and the designs of government
men of reputation, several of whom belonged were not carried into execution. Popular
to the Royal Academy. Encouraged and feeling had become so strongly stimulated in

assisted by them, he became a student in that
institution, and worked so industriously that
in 1773 he was presented with the medal
for the best drawing of the interior of St.
Stephen's church .Walbrook/ the chef d'ceuvre
of Sir Christopher Wren,' as Pennant has
justly called it ; and on receiving the prize,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, the president, highly
eulogised his abilities and prognosticated his
future success.

Soon after entering into business on his own
account in Southwark, his reputation steadily
increased, until at length his name was
brought into public notice by the following
circumstance. An act of parliament had
passed in 1779 declaring that 'if any offenders
convicted of crimes for which transportation
had been usually inflicted were ordered to
solitary confinement, accompanied by well
regulated labour and religious instruction, it
might be the means, under Providence, not

favour of the erection of prisons in confor-
mity to his plans, that many gaols and other
structures throughout the country were built
under Blackburn's inspection. But before
he had reached his fortieth year, he died sud-
denly at Preston, in Lancashire, on 28 Oct.
1790, while on a journey to Scotland, taken
at the instance of the Duke of Buccleuch
and the lord provost of Glasgow, with a view
to erect a new gaol in that city. His body
was removed to London, and interred in the-
Bunhill Fields burial-ground.

During Blackburn's short career his labour
had been very extensive. The gaol of New-
gate in Dublin was indebted to him for many
of its improvements : the plan of anew prison
for Limerick w r as his design, and, shortly
before his death, negotiations had commenced
for the erection of a penitentiary house for
Ireland ; he constructed the tank in Cornhill
and the prison at Oxford. His abilities were

only of deterring others from the commis- employed also in preparing designs of churches,,
sion of the like crimes, but also of reforming,' j houses, villas ; and of three elegant designs for
&c. &c. By this act his majesty was autho- a new church at Hackney, one had been se-
rised to appoint three supervisors of the build- lected for early execution, when his untimely
ings to be erected, who were to fix upon any j death set aside the undertaking. It was at one-
common, heath, or waste in Middlesex, Essex, \ time intended to have engraved and published
Kent, or Surrey, on which should be built ' a series of his principal drawings, which dis-
two plain strong edifices, to be called ' Peni- ! played great taste and a thorough mastery of
tentiary Houses,' one for six hundred males [ his favourite study of architecture, but we^
the other for three hundred females. In the cannot find, that this project was ever carried

same year three supervisors were appointed :
John Howard (who had been strongly soli-
cited by Sir William Blackstone, a great friend

out.

Blackburn belonged to the presbyterian

denomination, and was intimate with the

of the scheme), John Fothergill, M.D. (a most prominent members of that persuasion
friend of Howard's), and George Whatley, both in town and country. The most agree-
treasurer of the Foundling Hospital. This
commission, however, was soon dissolved, for
Dr. Fothergill died in 1780, and Mr. Howard,
not being able to coalesce with his remaining
colleague, resigned shortly afterwards. In
1781 a new commission was formed, consist-
ing of Sir Gilbert Elliot, bart., Sir Charles
Bunbury, bart., and Thomas Bowdler. These

gentlemen being desirous that the penitentiary i youth was very corpulent. A widow, Lydia,
houses should be constructed in the manner daughter of Joshua Hobson, a well-known
most conducive to the ends of solitary co n fine builder of Southwark, whom he had married

able association connected with his memory
is his intimate friendship with John Howard,,
whose benevolent designs he endeavoured to.
promote. Howard used to say that Black-
burn was the only man who was capable of
delineating to his mind upon paper his ideas,
of what a prison ought to be. In person he
was of middle stature, and from his early;

Blackburne

121

Blackburne

in 1783, and four young children survived
him.

[Gent. Mag. xlix. 567, lv. 325, lx. 1053;
Aikin's Life of Howard.] J. W.-G-.

BLACKBURNE, ANNA (d. 1794),

botanist, daughter of John Blackburne [q.y.]
of Orford, was accomplished in natural his-
tory, and formed a large and varied collection.
She was a friend and constant correspondent
of Linnseus. She died at Fail-field, near
Warring-ton, in 1794.

[Gent, Mag. Ixiv. 180-1 G - T - B -

BLACKBURNE, FRANCIS (1705-
1787), divine, was born at Richmond, York-
shire, on 9 June 1705. He was educated at
Kendal, Hawkshead, and Sedbergh, and was
admitted (May 1722) at Catherine Hall, Cam-
bridge, where he seems to have already shown
his liberal principles. ' Young man,' said a
worthy old lay gentleman to him, ' let the first
book thou readest at Cambridge be Locke upon
government.' Blackburne thoroughly assimi-
lated Locke's politics and theology, and,
though the only qualified candidate, was re-
fused a fellowship in consequence. He was
ordained deacon 17 March 1728, and became
' conduct ' of his college. He left it on being
refused a fellowship, and lived with an uncle
in Yorkshire till 1739, when he was ordained
priest to take the rectory of Richmond in
Yorkshire, which had been promised to him
on the first vacancy. He resided there till
his death. In 1744 he married a widow,
Hannah, formerly Hotham, who had (in
1737) married Joshua Elsworth. He was
collated to the archdeaconry of Cleveland in
July 1750, and in August 1750 to the prebend
of Bilton, by Archbishop Hutton of York ;
but his principles prevented any further pre-
ferment, and he early made up his mind never
again to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles.
In 1749 John Jones, vicar of Alconbury,
published his ( Free and Candid Disquisitions
relating to the Church of England,' which
made some noise at the time, by proposing
modifications of the church services and
ritual with a view to meeting difficulties of
the latitudinarian party. Blackburne had
read the book in manuscript, but denied that
he had any share in the composition. Its
phraseology was too ' milky ' for his taste.
He defended it in an apology (1750). In
1752 he published anonymously an attack
upon Bishop Butler's well-known charge
(1751), called 'A Serious Inquiry into the
Use and Importance of External Religion,' and
accusing Butler of deficient protestantism.
This was first printed with his name in 1767
in the ' Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy

shaken,' a collection by R. Baron. He sup-
ported the semi-materialist theory of the ' sleep
of the soul' of his college friend Bishop Law,
in a tract called 'No Proof in the Scriptures
of an Intermediate State,' &c., 1755 ; and in
1758 he argued against the casuistry whicli
j would permit subscription to the articles to
j be made with considerable latitude of niean-
I ing, in l Remarks on the Rev. Dr. Powell's
j Sermon in Defence of Subscriptions.' This
j controversy led to his best known work. He
had reconciled himself with some difficulty
to the subscriptions necessary for his later
preferments, but his doubts had increased
when the prospect of a further appointment
led to a fresh consideration. He then studied
the history of the tests imposed by protestant
churches, and his studies resulted in the
composition of l The Confessional, or a full
and free inquiry into the right, utility, and
success of establishing confessions of faith
and doctrine in protestant churches.' The
manuscript remained unpublished for some
years, when the one confidential friend who
had seen it mentioned it to the republican
Thomas Hollis, through whom Millar, the
well-known bookseller, was introduced to
! the author, and published the book anony-
mously in May 1766 ; a second edition ap-
peared in June 1767. The l Confessional '
argues, as a corollary from Chillingworth's
; principle 'The Bible is the religion of
protestants ' that a profession of belief in
the scriptures as the word of God, and a
i promise to teach the people from the scrip-
| tures, should be the sole pledges demanded
from protestant pastors. This is supported
by historical considerations, and the device
of lax interpretation of the articles is de-
nounced as a casuistical artifice of Laud's
in defence of Arminianism. A lively con-
, troversy arose. A list of the pamphlets is
given in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' xlu
405, xlii. 263, and in a ' Short View of the
Controversy ' (by Dr. Disney), 1773. A third
edition of the ' Confessional ' appeared in
1770. In 1772 a meeting was held at the-
Feathers Tavern, and a petition signed by
200 persons for giving effect to Blackburne's
i proposal. It was rejected by 217 to 71 after
a speech in condemnation by Burke, pub-
lished in his Works.

Theophilus Lindsey, who married a step-
daughter of Blackburne's, and Dr. Disney,
; who married his eldest daughter, joined in
this agitation, and both of them afterwards left
the church of England to become Unitarians.
Blackburne was naturally supposed to sym-
pathise with their views. On Disney's se-
cession he drew up a paper called 'An Answer
to the Question, Why are you not a Socinian ? *

Blackburne

122

Blackburne

He declares his belief in the divinity of |
Christ, though he confesses to certain doubts !
and guards his assertions. He had qualified ,
for his preferment by subscribing tests to j
which he would not again submit, but we j
are told that his preferments produced only
150/. a year, and that he declined an offer to i
succeed S. Chandler at the Old Jewry at a
salary of 400/.

He had made some preparations for a life j
of Luther, but abandoned his plan in order
to write the memoirs of his friend Thomas
Hollis [see HOLLIS, THOMAS]. These ap-
peared in 1780. In 1787 he performed his
thirty-eighth visitation in Cleveland, and
died, 7 Aug. 1787, a few weeks later. He
left a widow (died 20 Aug. 1799) and four
children: Jane, married to Dr. Disney;
Francis, vicar of Brignal ; Sarah, married to
the Rev. John Hall, vicar of Chew Magna ;
and William, a physician in London. A son,
Thomas, a physician, died, aged thirty-three,
in 1782. His ' Works, Theological and Mis-
cellaneous, including some pieces not before
printed,' with a memoir, were published by
his son Francis in 1804, in seven volumes.
The ' Confessional ' occupies the fifth volume.
The third volume contains ' A Historical View
of the Controversy concerning an Interme-
diate State,' of which the first edition appeared
in 1765, and the second, much enlarged, in

1772. It brought him into collision with
Bishop Warburton. His ' Remarks on Dr.
Warburton's Account of the Sentiments of
the Jews concerning the Soul' is said to
be his masterpiece. The fourth volume of
the Works contains his charges, as arch-
deacon, in 1765, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1771, and

1773. They show that he was not prepared to
extend full toleration to catholics. The other
volumes contain miscellaneous pamphlets.

[Life by himself and his son, prefixed to
Works.] * L. S.

BLACKBURNE, FRANCIS (1782-
1867), lord chancellor of Ireland, was born
at Great Footstown, county Meath, on 11 Nov.
1782. In 1792 he was sent to school at the
village of Dunshaughlin, where he remained
a year and a half. At this time the effects
of the French revolution were severely felt
in some parts of Ireland. A conspiracy was
discovered for an attack upon the house at
Footstown, and the family removed to the
village of Kells, and ultimately to Dublin.
After some time spent in the school of the
Rev. William White in the Irish capital,
Blackburne entered Trinity College, Dublin,
in July 1798, where he acquired numerous
distinctions.

Blackburne kept the usual terms at King's
Inn, Dublin, and subsequently proceeded to
Lincoln's Inn, London. He was called to
the bar in 1805, and went the home circuit.
In the course of four years he was able to
clear off the charges upon the paternal pro-
perty to which he had succeeded. In 1809
he married the daughter of Mr. William
Martley of Ballyfallon, by whom he had
fourteen children. Five only of these sur-
vived him. The condition of Ireland in 1822
was very turbulent, and it was necessary to
renew the Insurrection Act. Blackburne,
now called within the bar, administered the
act in the county and city of Limerick for
two years, and he effectually restored order
in the district. In 1824 Blackburne was ex-
amined on the state of Ireland before com-
mittees of both houses of parliament. Two
years later he was appointed Serjeant. Al-
though Blackburne's political opinions were
distinctly conservative, on the accession of
Earl Grey to power in 1830 he became
attorney-general for Ireland, and speedily
achieved a legal victory over Daniel O'Con-
nell, who had threatened to teach him law.
A conspiracy was formed in 1831 for the
purpose of resisting the payment of tithe,
and riots and murders took place in several
of the disturbed districts. The government
failed to obtain convictions against the agi-
tators, in spite of the evidence accumulated
by Blackburne. After the anti-tithe meet-
ings in Ireland were suppressed, the condition
of the country grew more alarming. A new
coercion act was considered to be necessary
and passed in March 1833.

Blackburne was called upon to draw up
a report to the lord-lieutenant on the con-
dition of the country at about the same time.
His activity was very distasteful to O'Con-
nell and his followers, who fiercely attacked
him in a series of letters to Lord Duncannon,
the home secretary. On the recall of Lord
Melbourne to power in 1834, Blackburne re-
signed. Post after post on the bench became
vacant during the premiership of Lord Mel-
bourne, but Blackburne was overlooked. It
is said that Lord Melbourne was not a free
agent in this matter, being bound to O'Con-
nell and his followers, who were bitterly hos-
tile to Blackburne.

In 1841 Sir Robert Peel again appointed
Blackburne attorney-general for Ireland.
Upon the death of Sir Michael O'Loghlen in
1842 he became master of the rolls in Ireland.
Soon afterwards he assisted the lord-chan-
cellor in preparing a code of general orders
for the court of chancery. In January 1846
Blackburne was appointed chief justice of the
queen's bench. He presided with conspicuous

Blackburne

123

Blackburne

ability at the assizes during the critical period
of 18-47-8. He delivered the charge in the
prosecution of Smith O'Brien and his confede- j
rates, who were convicted of high treason.
Referring to this charge, Lord Brougham
said : ' I never in the course of my experience
read a more able and satisfactory argument
in every respect than that of Chief-justice j
Blackburne' (House of Lords' Cases, ii. 496). j
Blackburne also delivered an important i
charge to the grand jury at Monaghan in |
1851, in connection with the outbreak of j
Ribbonism.

When Lord Derby came into office in '
February 1852, Blackburne was made chan-
cellor of Ireland, but he resigned the post
on the formation of a coalition government
under Lord Aberdeen in December of the !
same year.

In 1852, at the wish of the government, !
Blackburne became one of the commissioners
of national education, but he retired from it j
in the following year along with Archbishop
"Whately and Lord Greene. In 1854 Black-
burne, when examined at great length before |
a committee of the House of Lords as to the \
circumstances which led to his retirement, j
stated that he joined the board under the i
conviction that it would afford a large amount
of religious, combined with secular, instruc- j
tion, but that a substantial part of the reli- j
gious instruction had been subtracted from i
the course (Report of the Select Committee \
of the House of Lords, $c.)

In 1856 Blackburne was appointed by
Lord Palmerston lord justice of appeal in j
Ireland. Two years later he was invited by j
Lord Derby again to become lord chancellor,
but he declined on account of his advanced
age and failing health. On the accession
to power of Lord Derby in 1866 he consented,
however, to accept the appointment, but being
warmly attacked he was ultimately induced
to resign. In May 1867 Blackburne declined
Lord Derby's offer of a baronetcy. He died
on 17 Sept. 1867, in' the eighty-fifth year of
his age. Blackburne was for some years
vice-chancellor of Dublin University.

In private character Blackburne was gene-
rous and urbane. As a lawyer he possessed
extraordinary power of mental concentration,
wide experience, and profound acquaintance
with every branch of law and equity. He
had a dignified and courteous manner, a style
nervous, terse, and perspicuous, a distinct and
melodious voice, and a fluent delivery. His
mind was clear to the last.
- [Life of the Eight Hon. Francis Blackburne,
late Lord Chancellor of Ireland, by his son Ed-
ward Blackburne, Q.C., 1874 ; Annual Register,
1867.] G. B. S.

BLACKBURNE, JOHN (1090-1786),
botanist, of Orford, near Warrington, main-
tained an extensive garden, including very
many exotic species. A catalogue was pub-
lished by his gardener, Adam Neal, at War-
rington, in 1779.

[Gent. Mag. Ivii. 204.] G. T. B.

BLACKBURNE, LANCELOT (1658-
1743), archbishop of York, was the son of
Richard Blackburne of London, whom the
archbishop claimed to have been connected
with the Blackburnes of Marricke Abbey, and
after being educated at "Westminster School
matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on
20 Oct. 1676, aged 17. At the close of 1681,
shortly after his ordination, he went to the
West Indies, the sum of 20/. appearing in the
record of ' Moneys paid for Secret Services '
(Camden Soc. 1851) to have been paid ' to
Launcelott Blackburne, clerk, bounty for his
transportation to Ant ego.' On 28 Jan. 1683 he
proceeded M. A., and having attached himself
to Bishop Trelawny on his appointment to
the see of Exeter, received considerable pre-
ferment in that diocese. He became a pre-
bendary in June 1691 and sub-dean in January

1695. Among the correspondence of John
Ellis in the British Museum, * Additional
MSS.' 28880-88, occur several letters from
Blackburne, and among them (28880, f. 169)
is one requesting the influence of Ellis on
behalf of his appointment to the duchy rec-
tory of Calstock in Cornwall (29 May 1696).
This preferment Blackburne obtained, and
during his tenure of it he built the old rectory
house. A letter from Blackburne to Bishop
Trelawny, describing the evidence given in
a trial at Exeter for witchcraft in September

1696, was printed in l Notes and Queries,'
1st series, xi. 498-9 (1855), and reprinted in
the < Western Antiquary,' iii. 226-7 (1884).
Rumours injurious to his reputation were
freely circulated during his lifetime, and in
1702 they forced him to resign his sub-deanery.
In July 1704, however, he was reinstated,
and from that time his rise was rapid. He
became the dean of Exeter on 3 Nov. 1705,
archdeacon of Cornwall in January 1715,
and bishop of Exeter in January 1717. This
preferment he retained until 1724, and it is
stated that he desired to hold it in commendam
with the deanery of St. Paul's, but that he
was prevailed upon to accept the archbishopric
of York, a piece of preferment which, ac-
cording to scandal, was bestowed upon him
for having united George I in marriage with
his mistress, the Duchess of Munster. ^ Two
ballads, printed in 1736, represented him as
contending with Hoadly and Gibson for the
primacy of Canterbury, but that prize was

Blackburne

124

Blackburne

missed by all three. Blackburne's rise in the I
church was originally due to the patronage of j
Bishop Trelawny, but it was probably accele- '
rated through his marriage, at the Savoy
Chapel, 2 Sept. 1684, with Catherine, j
daughter of William Talbot, of Stourton |
Castle, Staffordshire, and widow of Walter
Littleton of Lichfield. From her brother, !
William Talbot, bishop of Durham, father of ,
lord-chancellor Talbot, is descended the pre- !
sent Earl of Shrewsbury, and her issue by i
her first husband was a direct ancestor of
Lord Teynham. She was older than the
archbishop, and predeceased him. He died
at a time of extreme cold, 23 March 1743,
and was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster,
on 1 April.

Archbishop Blackburne was gay and witty.
His enemies repeated the story that he acted
as chaplain on board one of the ships engaged
in buccaneering, and that he shared the booty,
the joke running that one of the buccaneers
on his arrival in England asked what had
become of his old chum Blackburne, and was
answered that he was archbishop of York, j
The freeness of his manners is shown by two j
anecdotes: (1) That on a visitation at St.
Mary's, Nottingham, he ordered pipes and
tobacco and some liquor to be brought into
the vestry 'for his refreshment after the
fatigue of confirmation ; ' whereupon the vicar,
Mr. Disney, remonstrated with the archbishop
for his conduct, and, with the remark that the
vestry should not be turned into a smoking-
room, forbad their introduction. (2) That he
applauded the conduct of Queen Caroline in not
objecting to the king's new mistress. It was
at one time insinuated that Francis Black-
burne, the archdeacon [q. v.], was a natural
son of the archbishop, but this was a slander.
Horace Walpole more than once asserted that
Bishop Hayter of Norwich, was an illegiti-
mate son of the archbishop, but this assertion
is refuted in the ' Quarterly Review/ xxvii.
186. One of Walpole's sentences combines
all the reckless charges which were repeated
by the prelate's slanderers : ' The jolly old
archbishop of York, who had all the manners
of a man of quality, though he had been a
buccaneer and was a clergyman ; but he re-
tained nothing of his first profession except
his seraglio.' The popular opinion concerning
the character of Blackburne's life may be
gathered from a poem entitled ' Priestcraft
and Lust, or Lancelot to his Ladies, an
Epistle from the Shades/ 1743, fo. Hayter
was one of Blackburne's executors, and with
two Talbots was residuary legatee to the
estate. In a charge to the clergy of the arch-
deaconry of York (1732) he pays a warm
tribute to the archbishop, styling him 'my

indulgent benefactor.' Archbishop Black-
burne was the author of a sermon in Latin
to convocation, three sermons before Queen
Anne, and one before the House of Commons.
When Queen Caroline inquired whether
Butler, the author of the 'Analogy/ was not
dead, a ready remark of the witty prelate
'No, madam, he is not dead, but buried/ an
allusion to his retirement at Stanhope led
to Butler's appointment as clerk of the closet,
and to the queen's recommendation of him
to Archbishop Potter when she was on her
deathbed. A fine engraving of the archbishop
by Vertue, from a painting by Zeernan, is
dated 'Aged 68, 10 Dec. 1726.'

[Walpole's Last Ten Years of George II (1822),
i. 75; Letters, i. 235, 250; Atterbiiry's Cor-
respondence,!. 253; Bliss's Wood, iv. 661 ; Raw-
linson MSS. 4to, i. 299, Bodleian Library; Noble's
Continuation of Granger, iii. 68-9 ; Granger's
Letters, 199; Polwhele's Devon, i. 313; Life of
F. Blackburne, i. p. viii (1805); Notes and
Queries, ,4th ser. ix. 226, 289, 396; Oliver's
Bishops of Exeter, 161, 273, 277, 296 ; Bartlett's
Life of Bp. Butler, 38 ; Welch's Westminster
Scholars, 178-9; Sir C. Hanbury Williams's
Works (1822), ii. 133-5.] W. P. C.

BLACKBURNE, RICHARD, M.D.

(b. 1652), physician, was born in London
in 1652, and was educated at Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge, where he took his degree of
B. A. in 1669. ' He was entered on the physic
line at Leyden, 23 May 1676, being then
twenty-four years of age, and he graduated
doctor of medicine in that university '
(MuNx's Roll, i. 451), where his thesis was
published as ' Disputatio medica inauguralis
de Sanguificatione/ &c., 8vo, Lugduni Bata-
vorum, 1676. About the year 1681 Dr. Black-
burne co-operated with John Aubrey, who
says that he was ' one of the College of
Physicians, and practiseth yearly at Tun-
bridge Wells/ to bring into public repute
for their curative properties the chalybeate
springs discovered by Aubrey in 1666 at
Seend, near Devizes, and which Dr. Black-
burne declared ' to be of the nature and virtue
of those at Tunbridge, and altogether as
good;' but 'it was about 1688 before they be-
came to be frequented ' (BRiTTOtf , Memoir of
Aubrey, p. 17). Blackburne was admitted an
honorary fellow of the Royal College of Phy-
sicians of London, 25 June 1685, and, being
created a fellow of the college by the charter of
King James II, was admitted as such at the
extraordinary comitia of 12 April 1687, and
was censor in 1688. The time of his death
is unknown. Dr. Blackburne had a great re-
gard and admiration for Thomas Hobbes of
Malmesbury, and it is probable that he
wrote the short Latin memoir sometimes re-

Blackburne

I2 5

Blacker

ferred to Hobbes himself, entitled 'Thorme
Hobbes Angli Malmesburiensis Philosophi
Vita.' This short ' Life ' of the philosopher !
lias also been attributed to Ralph Bathurst,
dean of Bath. Dr. Blackburne certainly '
wrote a Latin supplement to the short 'Life,' ;
entitled f Vitee Hobbianre Auctarium,' the
first sentence of which supplies the chief
evidence of his authorship of the ' Life.' Both
these works would seem to have been derived
from a larger and fuller f Life ' in manuscript
written in English by John Aubrey, and
used with the knowledge and consent of the
latter, and possibly with the assistance of
Hobbes himself. The 'Vita,' the 'Aucta-
rium,' and the autobiographic Latin verses,
1 Thornae Hobbes Malmesburiensis Vita Car-
mine expressa, Authore Seipso,' were issued
together in a volume inscribed to William,
earl of Devonshire, and bearing on its title-
page the mystifying imprint ' Carolopoli :
Apud Eleutherium Anglicum, sub signo
Veritatis, MDCLXXXI.' The penultimate
page gives the place of production. 'Londini :
Apud Guil. Cooke, ad Insigne Viridis Dra-
conis juxta portam vulgo dictam Temple
Bar.' -These productions form the basis of
the ' Life ' prefixed to the first collection of
' The Moral and Political Works of Thomas
Hobbes of Malmesbury,' &c., fol. London,
1750.

[Graduati Cantab. 1787 ; Britton's Memoir of
John Aubrey, 1845; Munk's Roll of the College
of Physicians.] A. H. G-.

BLACKBURNE, SIR WILLIAM

(1764-1839), major-general, an Indian officer,
entered the Madras army as a cadet of in-
fantry in 1782, and in 1784 served with the
force employed under Colonel Fullarton in
the reduction of the Poligars in Madura and
Tinnevelly. He subsequently served in the
campaign which ended in the defeat of
Tippoo Sultan in 1792. His proficiency as a
linguist led to his being employed in 1787 as
Mahratta interpreter at Tanjore, on the occa-
sion of an inquiry into the right of succes-
sion to the Tanjore Raj, and he afterwards
held for some years the post of Mahratta
interpreter under the British resident at
Tanjore. In 1801, having then attained to
the military rank of captain, he was appointed
resident at the Tanjore court, and held that
office until he left India in 1823.

Very shortly after his appointment as resi-
dent, Blackburne was called upon to take
the field at the head of his escort and of the
raja's troops, to repel two invasions of the
province by insurgents from the adjoining
districts. This duty was successfully per-
formed, and the neighbouring province of

Ramnad was recovered. In 1804 Black-
burne, having brought to light extensive
frauds and oppression on the part of the
native officials in Tanjore, the civil administra-
tion of which was under officers independent
of the resident, was employed by the Madras
government to remodel the administration
both in Tanjore and in the native state of
Pudukota. He was twice sent on special
missions to Travancore. His political services
elicited the high approval of Lord Wellesley,
and also of successive governors of Madras.
On his retirement from the residency of
Tanjore, Sir Thomas Munro recorded a minute
testifying to the value of Blackburne's ser-
vices and influence in Tanjore. Blackburne,
being then a major-general, received the
honour of knighthood in 1838, and died
16 Oct. in the following year.

[Records of the Madras Government ; East
India Military Calendar, containing the services
of the general and field officers of the Indian
army, 1824 ; Gent. Mag. 1840, p. 92.] A. J. A.

BLACKER, GEORGE (1791-1871), an-
tiquary, elder son of James Blacker, a Dublin
magistrate, was born in 1791, was elected a
scholar of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1809,
and proceeded B.A. in 1811 and M.A. in
1858. He was for several years curate of
St. Andrew's, Dublin, chaplain of the city
corporation, and rector of Taghadoe. In
1840 he became vicar of Maynooth and a
prebendary in St. Patrick's Cathedral. He
died at Maynooth on 23 May 1871, and was
buried in the Leinster mausoleum, by the
parish church. Blacker wrote (for private
circulation) : 1. ' Castle of Maynooth,' 1853;
2nd edition 1860. 2. ' Castle of Kilkea,'
1860. 3. A Record of Maynooth Church,'
1867.

[Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette (June 1871), xiii.
731; Cotton's Fasti Eccles. Hibern. ii. 168;
information from Rev. B. H. Blacker.]

BLACKER, VALENTINE (1780?-
1826), lieutenant-colonel, historian of the
Mahratta war of 1817-18-19, obtained his
commission in the Madras cavalry in 1798,
and served as a cornet in the Mysore cam-
paign of 1799, with a troop of cavalry of the
Nizam's contingent. A year later he was em-

gloyed in Wainad as aide-de-camp to Colonel
tevenson, and subsequently served with his
regiment in the southern provinces of the
Madras presidency under Colonel Agnew, by
whom he was thanked in despatches for hav-
ing surprised a party of the enemy, and for a
successful charge with the troop of cavalry
under his command. The remainder of his
military service was in the quartermaster-

Blackerby

126

Blacket

general's department, to the head of which
h was raised in. 1810. In 1815 he served
with the army of reserve under Lieutenant-
general Sir Thomas Hislop, and in 1817
under the same commander with the army
of the Deccan at the battle of Mahidpur, and
the other operations in the Deccari. His
services at Mahidpur and the reconnaissances
made by him before the battle were specially
brought to the notice of the governor-general.

Lieutenant-colonel Blacker was subse-
quently appointed surveyor-general of India,
and on returning to Europe in 1821 was
thanked in general orders by the commander-
in-chief of the Madras army for his ( eminent
and scientific services as quartermaster-ge-
neral of the army of Fort St. George during
a period of ten years.' He died at Calcutta
in 1826.

He was appointed a companion of the
Bath in 1818.

[Blacker's Memoir of the Operations of the
British Army in India during the MahrattaWar
of 1817-18-19, London, 1821 ; India Office Ee-
cords.] A. J. A.

BLACKERBY, RICHARD (1574-
1648), puritan, was born in 1574 at Worling- |
ton, Suffolk. He was the second son of Thomas I
Blackerby, a man of ' good estate and quality.' j
Of their nine sons Richard was by his parents i
designed from his birth for the ministry. After j
attending school at St. Edmundsbury, in his |
fifteenth year he was entered of Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge, where he continued nine
years, and was renowned for his Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew scholarship. Perkins was the
great preacher of Cambridge at the time, and
Blackerby came under his spell. From the uni-
versity where he proceeded B.A. and M.A.
he went as chaplain to Sir Thomas Jermin of
Rushbrook in Suffolk, father of the Earl of St.
Albans. Leaving Rushbrook he ' removed to
the house of the renowned and pious knight
Sir Edward Lewknor, of Denham in Suffolk.'
Here he married Sarah, eldest daughter of the
Rev. Timothy Prick, alias Oldman, 'which
alias Oldman was assumed by the family in
the days of Queen Mary, the father of the
said Timothy being forced then to abscond
and to change his name, being prescribed for
the protestant religion.' He resided with
his father-in-law at Denham for two years.
Thence he was called to Feltwell in Norfolk,
' where he continued without institution or
induction for some time ; but then, by reason
of his nonconformity, he was forced to re-
move and hired a house at Ashen (Ashdon) |
in Essex.' He here received as boarders for
their classical and theological education a
select number of young men, many of whom

became subsequently eminent clergy of the
church of England. Dr. Bernard, the bio-
grapher of L'ssher, was one, and Samuel
Fairclough another. Blackerby never saw
his way to take orders in the established
church. But he was constantly preaching
! wherever opportunity was afforded, although,
i being unable to subscribe conscientiously, he
could take no benefice. There are many ex-
tant testimonies to his power as a preacher.
Daniel Rogers of Wethersfield ' told another
i divine that he could never come into the
! presence of Mr. Blackerby without some kind
of trembling upon him, because of the divine
majesty and holiness which seemed to shine
in him.' It is much to be lamented that three
diaries which he kept in Latin, Greek, and
English respectively were lost in a fire.

In his fifty-fifth year his son-in-law, Chris-
topher Burrell, having been presented to the
! rectory of Great Wrating (Suffolk), Black-
erby went with him. Afterwards he was
called to a congregation at Great Thurlow,
where he died in 1648, in his seventy-fourth
year. Another of his daughters was mar-
ried to Rev. Samuel Fairclough. Blackerby
printed nothing.

[Clark's Lives ; Brook's Puritans, iii. 96-100 ;
local researches.] A. B. Gr.

BLACKET, JOSEPH (1786-1810), poet,
was born, according to his own testimony, at
an obscure village called Tunstill, in the
north of Yorkshire, two miles from Catte-
rick, and about five from Richmond. His
father was a day labourer, and had for many
years been employed in the service of Sir
John Lawson, bart., whose goodness and
humanity to the neighbouring poor rendered
him, according to Blacket's account, uni-
versally beloved. Joseph was the youngest
but one not the youngest, as is commonly
stated of a dozen children. Up to the age
of eleven he received an elementary educa-
tion ; in 1797 his brother, a ladies' shoe-
maker in London, offered him work as his
apprentice, with provision for seven years.
He reached the metropolis by wagon in ten
days. Young Blacket was addicted to books,
and before he was fifteen had read Josephus,
Eusebius's 'Ecclesiastical History,' Foxe's
' Martyrs,' and a number of other religious
works. A visit to the theatre to see Kemble
play Richard III turned his attention to
Shakespeare. He married in 1804, and in
1807 his wife died of consumption. He
suffered much from poverty, but sought con-
solation in composing poetry, and especially
in attempting dramatic verse.

Blacket's first patron was his printer, Wil-
liam Marchant, who set up his poetry for

Blackball

127

Blacklock

nothing, and introduced him to his second
patron, Mr. Pratt. * In the autumn of 1808,'
says this gentleman, ' I received a variety of
manuscripts, with a request that I should
read and give my opinion of them.' Mr.
Pratt was at once' struck by Joseph's genius.
He drew a detailed parallel between Blacket
and Bloomfield, whose muse had been che-
rished by Capel Lofft. Mr. Pratt took Blacket
under his protection, and introduced him to
the public with pride as a literary rarity.
Meanwhile, however, Blacket was not inat-
tentive to his trade, but ill-health compelled
him to relinquish it. Friends enabled him
to take a sea voyage. He embarked, and
arrived at the house of his brother-in-law,
John Dixon, gamekeeper of Sir Ralph Mil-
banke, at Seaham, Sunderland, in August
1809. Milbanke, his wife and daughter, in-
terested themselves in him. He is satirically
noticed in Byron's ' English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers.' The Duchess of Leeds troubled
herself to obtain subscriptions towards ' Spe-
cimens ' of his poetry. But he died on 23
Aug., and was buried in Seaham churchyard.
A plain monument bears the concluding lines
of his own poem, ' Reflections at Midnight,'
written in 1802, when he was but sixteen.

The ' Dying Horse,' in blank verse, is sup-
posed to best exhibit Blacket's power of
moral declamation. Of his dramatic skill
'The Earl of Devon, or the Patriots,' a
tragedy in five acts, is quoted as a leading
and conspicuous example. Mr. Pratt col-
lected and published his l Remains ' with a
memoir. As, however, he knew him little
more than eighteen months, he has fallen
back upon the poet's letters to his brother,
mother, &c., in writing his life. The letters
are arranged in seven distinct series. Thus
Joseph Blacket becomes his own biographer.
He corresponded with the author of the
'Farmer's Boy.'

The full titles of his works are : 1. ' Speci-
mens of the Poetry of Joseph Blacket,' Lon-
don, 1809 (a private edition for limited cir-
culation). 2. 'The Remains of Joseph
Blacket, consisting of Poems, Dramatic
Sketches, and the "Times," an ode, and a
Memoir of his Life, by Mr. Pratt,' 2 vols.
London, 1811.

[Gent. Mag. Ixxx. ii. 544 ; Monthly Review
(1811), Ixvi. 392, (1809) lix. 100; Pratt's Re-
mains, &c. ; Brit. Mus. Cat. ; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]

J. M.

BLACKBALL, GILBERT (ft. 1667),
catholic missioner, is believed to have been
a native of the diocese of Aberdeen. He
entered the Scotch college at Rome in 1626,
was ordained priest, and returned to Scot-

land in 1630, but encountered so much op-
position from the Jesuits that he withdrew
to Paris, where he became confessor to Lady
Isabella Hay, eldest daughter of Francis,
Earl of Errol. In 1637 he returned to Scot-
land, where he performed the duties of a
missionary in the shires of Aberdeen and
Banff, acting at the same time as chaplain to
the Countess of Aboyne at Aboyne castle.
After her death he returned to France in
1643, with the view of inducing the Mar-
chioness of Huntly to withdraw from Scot-
land her young granddaughter, the only child
of the Countess of Aboyne, and bring her to
France to be educated. Having failed in
this purpose he applied to the queen of France
to use her influence in accomplishing his
object, in which he was ultimately success-
ful. He wrote his autobiography in Paris
in 1666 or 1667, but how long the author
survived the composition of it is unknown.
It contains accounts of his relations with
Lady Isabella Hay, with the' Countess of
Aboyne, and with her daughter. The title
is ' A breiffe Narration of the Services done
to three noble Ladyes, by Gilbert Blakal,
Preist of the Scots Mission in France, in the
Low Countries, and in Scotland. Dedicated
to Madame de Gourdon, one of the forsaid
three, and now Dame d'Attour to Madame.'
This work is a valuable addition to the history
of the eventful times in which Blackball lived.
It was edited by Mr. John Stuart from the
original manuscript in the possession of Bishop
Kyle, and printed at Aberdeen for the Spald-
ing Club in 1844, 4to.

[Stuart's preface to the Breiffe Narration;
Gordon's Roman Catholic Mission in Scotland,
introd. v. 523.] T. C.

BLACKBALL, OFFSPRING. [See
BLACKALL.]

BLACKLOCK, THOMAS (1721-1791),
poet, was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, in
1721. His parents were natives of Cumber-
land, poor but well educated. His father
was a bricklayer. When six months old he
lost his sight by an attack of smallpox. His
misfortune and his gentle disposition won
much sympathy. His friends read poetry
to him, especially Spenser, Milton, Prior,
Addison, Pope, and A. Ramsay. He acquired
a little Latin, and at the age of twelve at-
tempted to write poetry himself. His father
was killed by an accident when the son was
nineteen. Meanwhile his manuscripts were
handed about and gained some attention.
Dr. Stevenson, an eminent physician at Edin-
burgh, brought him to that city in 1741, and
supported him entirely at the grammar school
for four years. Upon the rebellion of 1745

Blacklock

128

Blacklock

he retired to Dumfries, and lived with a Mr.
McMurdo, who had married his sister; he
afterwards returned to Edinburgh to study
at the university. In 1746 he had published
an octavo volume of poems. A second edition
of these was published in the winter of
1753-4. Blacklock had meanwhile become
known to David Hume, who exerted himself
to serve the young man by circulating his
poems and recommending their author for
tutorships or similar employments. In De- '
cember 1754 Hume, who had been appointed !
librarian in 1752 by the Faculty of Advocates j
at a salary of 40., had a dispute as to the '
management of the library. He was un-
willing to give up his right to use the books,
and therefore showed his indignation by
giving to Blacklock a ' bond of annuity ' for '
the salary, whilst retaining the office. Hume
resigned the office two years afterwards ]
(BURTON'S Hume, i. 393, ii. 18). Meanwhile '
he had written a long and interesting account !
of Blacklock to Joseph Spence, the friend of
Pope (printed in BURTON, i. 388, and SPENCE'S j
Anecdotes, 448). Blacklock, we learn from
this, had been patronised by Stevenson and |
Provost Alexander ; he had learnt Latin !
and Greek, and would have been made pro-
fessor of Greek at Aberdeen but for a timidity
which disqualified him for managing boys.
He had made 100 guineas by the last edition
of his poems ; he had a bursary of 61. a year ;
and Hume with some friends had allowed him
12 guineas a year for five years. Thirty pounds
a year, added Hume, would make this ( man
of fine genius ' easy and happy. Spence had
already seen Blacklock's poems, Hume having
sent some copies to Dodsley for distribution
among men of taste, and had undertaken to
bring out an edition by subscription. An
4 Account of the Life, Character, and Poems of
Mr. Blacklock, Student of Philosophy in the
University of Edinburgh/ written by Spence,
appeared in 1754, and was prefixed to an edi-
tion of the poems in 1756. All reference to
Hume is avoided in the account ; and Spence
insisted upon the omission of a complimentary
mention of Hume in an ode on 'Refinements
in Metaphysical Philosophy.' Blacklock re-
sisted, but Hume, accidentally hearing of the
controversy, authorised Spence to make the
omission (BURTON, i. 436). 'That foolish
fellow, Spence,' said Johnson to Boswell
(5 Aug. 1763), 'has laboured to explain
philosophically ' how Blacklock achieved an
impossibility, viz. to describe visible objects
without sight. The explanation, indeed, is
easy, for Blacklock's poems are mere echoes
of the poetical language of his time, and
show little more than a facility for stringing
together rhymes. He would, we are told,

dictate thirty or forty verses as fast as they
could be written down. Whilst doing so he
acquired a trick of nervous vibration of his
body which became habitual.

By Hume's advice Blacklock abandoned a
project of lecturing on oratory, and studied
divinity. He was licensed as a preacher in
1759. In 1762 he married Miss Sara John-
ston, daughter of a surgeon in Dumfries, and
about the same time was presented by the
crown, on the application of Lord Selkirk,
to the ministry of Kirkcudbright. The pa-
rishioners objected to him on account of his
blindness, and Blacklock, whose nervous
timidity was much tried by the controversy,
retired after two years' legal dispute, receiv-
ing a small annuity from the parish. He re-
turned to Edinburgh in 1764, and took pupils
to board in his house. Amongst them was
Joseph, eldest son of Hume's elder brother,
John Hume of Nine wells (BURTON, ii. 399).
For some unexplained reason Blacklock be-
came alienated from Hume, who at this time
was still trying to help him. In 1770 he
published in the l Edinburgh Courant ' a brief
analysis of Beattie's ' Essay on Truth,' di-
rected against Hume's principles (FORBES'S
Beattie, i. 173, 218). He continued to take
pupils till growing infirmity caused his re-
tirement in 1787.

In 1767 the university and Marischal Col-
lege of Aberdeen conferred upon him the
degree of D.D. at the suggestion of Beattie,
who had exchanged complimentary verses
with him, and who became his friend and
correspondent. He wrote a letter (4 Sept.
1786) to Burns upon the first appearance of
the poems. Burns says that this letter in-
duced him to give up his intended emigration
and to go to Edinburgh, where Blacklock
received him kindly and introduced him to
many friends. Some complimentary poems
afterwards passed between the two. He died
7 July 1791, after a week's illness. He seems
to have been very amiable, playful, and kindly
to the young, though subject to nervous de-
pression. A curious story is told by Anderson
(British Poets, vol. xi.) of his joining a party
in a state of somnambulism. He was fond
of music and carried a flageolet in his pocket,
the use of which he said had been suggested
to him in a dream. A ' Pastoral Song,' set
to music by him, appeared in 1774.

Besides the above works he published:
1. Paraclesis, or Consolations deduced from
Natural and Revealed Religion; two dis-
sertations, the first (erroneously) supposed to
have been composed by Cicero, now rendered
into English, the last originally written by
Dr. Blacklock,' 1767. 2. Translation from
the French of Armand of two discourses on

Blacklock

129

Blackmore

the Spirit and Evidences of Christianity, with
a dedication from his own pen, 1768. 3. ' The
Graham, an heroic ballad in four cantos/
1774. This poem, intended to promote har-
mony between Scotch and English, was
thought unworthy of a place in his works.
He wrote an article on blindness for the
' Encyclopaedia Britannica, and perhaps one
on poetry. A conversation with Johnson is
given in the 'Tour to the Hebrides,' and a
letter of Blacklock's to Boswell in regard to
it is given in an appendix to later editions.
He also wrote, in 1756, an l Essay towards
Universal Etymology/ in verse ; and in 1773
a satire called 'A Panegyric upon Great
Britain.' An edition of his poems was pub-
lished in 1793, \vith a life by Henry Mac-
kenzie, the 'man of feeling.' He left a trans-
lation (never published) of the Abbe Haiiy's
work on the education of the blind.,

[Lives by Spenee ( 1 756) and Anderson ; Forbes's
Life of Beattie ; Burton's Life of Hume ; Kerr's
Memoirs of W. Smellie (1811), ii. 14-30.]

L. S.

BLACKLOCK, WILLIAM JAMES

(1815 P-1858), landscape painter, was born
at Curnwhitton, near Carlisle, about 1815,
and as a youth was apprenticed to a book-
seller of Carlisle. He had always been re-
markable for his love of drawing, and so
strong did this predilection become that he
determined to adopt art as a profession, and
accordingly proceeded to London, where he
at once began to exercise his talent. In the
year 1836 he sent his first pictures to the
Royal Academy and continued to exhibit
there, as well as at the British Institution and
Society of British Artists, until 1855, in which
year he contributed to the Royal Academy
exhibition four pictures : l Hermitage Castle/
1 The Border Keep/ ' Elter Water, and the
Langdale Pikes/ and ' Belted Will's Tower,
Naworth Castle.' He resided principally in
London for about fifteen years, when de-
clining health compelled him to return to
his native county, where he continued to
follow his profession until within a year or
two of his decease, when the malady with
which he was afflicted obliged him to relin-
quish its pursuit. He died at Dumfries on
12 March 1858, at the age of 42, and was
buried at Cumwhitton. His works are prin-
cipally views of the landscape scenery of the
north of England, and their chief character-
istics are picturesqueness and truthfulness.
Lonely border towers, deeply embosomed in
waving foliage, and bathing in the light of a
golden sunset ; remote and almost inacces-
sible tarns, surrounded by rough mountains,
upon whose sides the shadows of the light
VOL. v.

clouds danced merrily ; brawling brooks with
overhanging rocks and waving trees were
the scenes which he admired and loved to
paint.

[Carlisle Journal, 19 March 1858 ; Royal
Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1836-55; Art
Journal, 1858, p. 157 ; Athenaeum, 1858, p. 439 }

E. E. G. '

BLACKLOE, THOMAS. [See WHITE,
THOMAS.]

BLACKMORE, SiRRICHARD(rf. 1729),
physician and voluminous writer in verse
and prose, son of Robert Blackmore, an at-
torney-at-law, was born at Corsham, in Wilt-
shire, and educated at Westminster School.
He entered St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, in
1668, took his B. A. degree on 4 April 1674, and
proceeded M. A. on 3 June 1676. His neces-
sities compelled him to temporarily adopt
the profession of schoolmaster. With this,
fact his enemies frequently taunted him in
later years.

By nature form'd, by want a pedant made,
Blackmore at first set up the whipping trade.
Next quack commenced ; then fierce with pride

he swore
That toothache, gripes, and corns should be no

more ;

In vain his drugs as well as birch he tried,
His boys grew blockheads and his patients died.

After abandoning school work Blackmore
spent some time abroad, visited France, Ger-
many, and the Low Countries, and took the
degree of M.D. at Padua. On his return to
England he was admitted fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians, under the charter of
James II, at the Comitia Majora Extraordi-
naria of 12 April 1687, became censor of the
college in 1716, and was named an elect on
22 Aug. 1716, which oflice he resigned on
22 Oct. 1722. In 1695 he published < Prince
Arthur, an Heroick Poem in X books,' fol.,
which reached a second edition in 1696, and
a third in 1714 ; an enlarged edition, in
twelve books, appeared in 1697. The writer
tells us that his work was written in such
scant moments of leisure as his professional
duties afforded, ' and for the greatest part in
coffee-houses, or in passing up and down the
streets.' Shortly after its appearance the
poem, if so it must be called, was attacked
by John Dennis in a criticism which Dr.
Johnson pronounced to be ' more tedious and
disgusting than the work which he con-
demns.' Far from resenting the attack,
Blackmore took occasion in a later work to
praise Dennis as ( equal to Boileau in poetry,
and superior to him in literary abilities/
When Dr. Johnson wrote his ' Life of Black-

Blackmore

130

Blackmore

more/ the poem was completely forgotten ;
but at the time of its publication ' Prince
Arthur' found an admirer in no less dis-
tinguished a person than John Locke. In
1697 Blackmore was appointed physician in
ordinary to William III, and received the
honour of knighthood. On the latter cir-
cumstance Pope has some lines in the ' Imi-
tations of Horace' (Epistles, ii. 1)

The Hero William and the Martyr Charles,
One knighted Blackmore and one pension'd

Quarles ;
Which made old Ben and surly Dennis swear,

* No Lord's anointed, but a Kussian Bear.'

Blackmore was strongly attached to the
principles of the Revolution, and may per-
haps have owed his advancement to some
political services rendered to King William.
He was afterwards one of the physicians
to Queen Anne. In 1699 he published
a, ' Short History of the Last Parliament,'
fol., which was followed in 1700 by a

* Satyr against Wit.' The publication of the

* Satyr,' in which the wits of the time were
attacked on the score of grossness and irre-
ligion, raised up a swarm of enemies against
the writer. Sir Richard had for some time
past been residing in Cheapside ; his friends
belonged chiefly to the City, and he had little
acquaintance with men of letters. Imme-
diately after the publication of the ' Satyr '
there appeared a collection of satirical ' Com-
mendatory Verses on the Author of the two
Arthurs and the Satyr against Wit. By some
of his particular friends,' fol. The verses
were by various hands, but the chief contri-
butor was Tom Brown. Blackmore lost no
time in replying with ' Discommendatory
Verses on those which are truly commenda-
tory on the Author of the two Arthurs, &c.,'
fol. Dryden, who had previously castigated
Blackmore in the preface to his l Fables,'
assailed him very vigorously in the Prologue
to the 'Pilgrim' (1700). Garth attacked
him in the ' Dispensary ' (iv. 172, &c.), bid-
ding him ( learn to rise in sense and sink in
sound.' Sedley, Steele, and others had their
fling. But ridicule was powerless to check
Blackmore's literary aspirations. In 1700 he
was before the public with a book of ( Para-
phrases on Job,' &c., fol. But when he launched
another epic in 1705, l Eliza, an Epic Poem in
X books,' fol., the portentous folio was received
in absolute silence by an indifferent public.
* I do not remember,' says Dr. Johnson, f that
by any author, serious or comical, I have
found " Eliza " either praised or blamed.'
,In 1711 appeared the * Nature of Man ; a
poem in three books,' 8vo, and in 1712
'* Creation ; a philosophical Poem demonstrat-

ing the Existence and Providence of God,'
8vo. The last-named work, which to modern
readers presents few attractions, was warmly
praised by Addison in the ' Spectator ' (No.
339). Dr. Johnson prophesied that this
poem alone, ' if he had written nothing else,
would have transmitted him to posterity as
one of the first favourites of the English
Muse.' Even the splenetic John Dennis was
excited to admiration. In beauty of versifi-
cation, according to this critic, the long-de-
funct ' Creation ' equalled the l De Rerum
Natura ' of Lucretius, while in solidity and
strength of reasoning the august Roman was
far excelled by Sir Richard. A volume of
' Essays on several Subjects,' 8vo, appeared
in 1716, a second edition (in two vols. 8vo)
following in 1717. One of the essays con-
tained an allusion to a ' godless author ' who
had burlesqued a psalm. The charge was
understood to refer to Pope, who afterwards
avenged himself by including his critic in
the 'Dunciad' (ii. 259-68). In No. 45 of
the ' Freeholder,' Addison says, ' I have lately
read with much pleasure the essays upon
several subjects published by Sir Richard
Blackmore,' on which statement Swift,
( Works by Scott, ed. 2, xii. 140) makes the
remark, ' I admire to see such praises from
this author to so insipid a scoundrel, whom
I know he despised.' After publishing in
1716 a volume of * Poems on several Sub-
jects,' 8vo, the indefatigable writer turned his
attention to controversial divinity, and in
1721 was ready with ' Just Prejudices against
the Arian Hypothesis,' 8vo (2nd edition
1725), which was immediately followed by
( Modern Arians unmasked/ 1721, 8vo.
Having thrown off in the same year a l New
Version of the Psalms of David,' 8vo, he
lost no time in issuing ' Redemption, a Di-
vine Poem in VI books,' 1722. Never was
a man afflicted with a scribendi caco'ethes
more incurable. No sooner was he delivered
of * Redemption' than he was at work on
' Alfred, an Epic Poem in XII books,' which
was published in 1723, fol. In the same
year appeared ' History of the Conspiracy
against the Person and Government of King
William the Third in the year 1695,' 8vo.
During the next few years he employed his
leisure in writing medical treatises, but in
1728 he reverted to divine studies, and pub-
lished 'Natural Theology, or Moral Duties
considered apart from Positive,' 8vo. This
was the last work published in his lifetime.
He died on 9 Oct. 1729, and was buried at
Boxted, Essex, whither he had retired in
1722. There is a monument in the church
at Boxted bearing an inscription to the
memory of his wife, Dame Mary Blackmore,

Blackmore

Blackmore

and of himself. To the very last he continued
writing, and left at his death ' The Accom-
plished Preacher ; or an Essay on Divine Elo-
quence/ which was edited in 1731, Svo, by
the Rev. John White, of Nayland, in Essex,
who had administered to him on his deathbed
the last spiritual consolation. It remains to \
mention Blackniore's medical treatises. These \
are: 1. 'Discourse on the Plague/ 1720,
Svo. 2. 'Treatise on the Small Pox/ 1723,
Svo. 3. ' Treatise on Consumptions/ &c. |

1724, Svo. 4. ' Treatise on the Spleen/ &c.

1725, Svo. 5. ' Critical Dissertation on the |
Spleen/ 1 725, Svo. 6. ' Discourses on the I
Gout, Rheumatism, and King's Evil/ 1726, j
Svo. 7. ' Dissertations on a Dropsy/ &c. j
1727, Svo. A portrait of Sir Richard Black-
more by Colsterman hangs in the hall of the
Royal College of Physicians. It was pre-
sented to the college in 1863 by Richard
Almack, Esq. Swift gives a ludicrous rhym-
ing list of Blackniore's writings in a copy of j
verses ' to be placed under the picture of Eng-
land's Arch-Poet/ &c.

[Hunk's College of Physicians, i. 467-9 ; John-
son's Lives of the Poets ; Scott's Dryden, i. 417-
22, viii. 442-5; Scott's Swift, ed. 2. xii. 140,
xiii. 374-5 ; Wood's Fasti, ed Bliss, ii. 380.]

A. H. B.

BLACKMORE, THOMAS (1740 ?-
1780?), mezzotint engraver, was born in
London about 1740, and from the dates upon
his prints, which range from 1769 to 1771,
lie appears to have practised his art for a
very limited period of time. There are by
him several well-drawn and brilliantly exe-
cuted plates, which include portraits after Sir
Joshua Reynolds of Samuel Foote, the actor,
Mrs. Cholmondeley, Mrs. Anne James, as a
Madonna, and, as a youth, Henry William I
Bunbury, the caricaturist, who afterwards
married Miss Catharine Horneck, the ' Little
'Comedy ' of Goldsmith. Among his other!
plates are ' Sigismonda/ after Cosway ; a
4 Dutch Lady/ after Frans Hals ; a ' Man in
u Cloak/ after Van Dyck ; and ' Innocence ; '
as well as subjects after Molenaer and other
painters. He died about 1780.

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the Eng-
lish School, 1878; Smith's British Mezzotinto
Portraits, 1878-83, i. 61-3.] R. E. G.

BLACKMORE, WILLIAM (d. 1684), j
ejected minister, came of an Essex family,
and was the second son of William Black- |
more of London, a member of the Fish-
mongers' Company, whose elder son, Sir John
Blackmore, knight, was in the confidence of
Cromwell, and became governor of St. Helena
after the Restoration. William was a mem-

ber of Lincoln College, Oxford, and graduated
M.A. there, although he is not mentioned
by Wood. Having been ordained deacon
he was appointed in December 1645 to the
rectory of Pentloe, Essex, sequestered from
Edward Alston. On 1 Sept. 1646 his re-
signation of Pentloe was accepted by the
committee for plundered ministers, and lit'
removed to London, and became curate to
Thomas Coleman ('Rabbi 'Coleman, who died
March 1647) at St. Peter's, Cornhill. He
was ordained presbyter by the Fourth Lon-
don Classis on 20 April 1647, but did not
take the covenant, and was duly presented
to the rectory of St. Peter's by the corpora-
tion of London on 13 May 1656, after tin-
death in 1655 of William Fairfax, D.D., se-
questered in August 1643. On 1 Dec. 1646
the London presbyterians published a de-
fence of their system, 'Jus Divinum Regi-
minis Ecclesiastici/ &c., of which Blackmore
wrote the part relating to ordination. Hether-
ington (Hist. West. Assemb. p. 288) describes
the book as 'the most complete and able
defence of presbyterian church government
that has yet appeared.' In 1648 Blackmore
was one of the scribes to the London pro-
vincial assembly. He signed (probably on
20 Jan. 1649) the presbyterian remonstrance
to Cromwell on the meditated death of the
king. He was one of the thirteen clergy
arrested on a charge of complicity in Chris-
topher Love's plot in 1651 ; being liberated
through the influence of his brother Sir John,
he rendered great assistance to Love during
his trial. In 1662 Blackmore seceded with
the nonconformists, and retired into Essex,
where he lived on his ample means and
gathered a small flock. In April 1672 lie
was licensed as 'a presbyterian teacher in
his own house ' in Hornchurch, near Rom-
ford. He died at Hare Street, a hamlet
within a mile of Romford, in 1684, and was
buried at Romford on 18 July. He married

(1) on 1 May 1660 Mary Chewning, from
Leeds, Kent, who died in November 1678, and

(2) before 1681, Sarah Luttrell, who survived
him. His only son, CHEWNING BLACKMOKE,
born on 1 Jan. 1663, was educated for the minis-
try at the Rev. John Woodhouse's academy,
Sheriff-Hales, near Shifnall, Salop, settled at
Worcester in 1 688 as assistant to Thomas Bad-
land (ejected in 1663 from Willenhall, Staf-
fordshire, and died 1689), and remained there
till his death on 2 Aug. 1737. He married
in 1694 Abigail (died in April 1734), daughter
of Edward Higgins, and left two sons :
(1) Francis, presbyterian minister ut Evesham
(1728-30), Coventry (1730-42), and Wor-
cester (1743-61), and (2) Edward Chewning.
presbvterian minister at Stoke, near Malvern.

K 2

Blackner

132

Blackstone

[Minutes of Fourth London Classis (now in
Dr. Williams's Library) ; Blackmore Papers,
Christian Reformer, 1851, p. 413, 1852, pp.
1, 218; cf. 1852, p. 609, 1858, pp. 529, 532;
Calamy's Contin. i. 43 ; Sibree's Indep. in War-
wickshire, 1855, pp. 44, 46 ; Davids' Ann. of
Noncon. in Essex, 1863, pp. 443, 599.] A. Gr.

BLACKNER, JOHN (1770-1816),
author of a history of Nottingham, was born
at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, about 1770. After
serving an apprenticeship to a stocking-maker
in his native place, he migrated to Nottingham.
He did not receive even the rudiments of edu-
cation, but being possessed of strong natural
abilities, a facility for making rhymes, and a
readiness of speech, he became a great favour-
ite with his associates. His ardent radical
sympathies afterwards brought him into pro-
minence as a leader of a section of local poli-
ticians, and he acquired such literary ability
and reputation as to obtain in 1812 the edi-
torship of the radical daily paper ' The States-
man,' published in London. Through failure
of health he held this post only a short time.
Soon afterwards he took the editorship of the
' Nottingham Review.' He published several
pamphlets, including one in 1805 on the
i Utility of Commerce,' and in 1815 he issued
his ' History of Nottingham ' (4to, pp. 459),
a Avork which displays much industry and
research, though later writers complain of its
bombast and party spleen. He was the land-
lord for some years of the Rancliffe Arms,
Sussex Street, Nottingham, and died there
on 22 Dec. 1816, in his forty-seventh year.

[Bailey's Annals of Nottinghamshire, 1853-5,
iv. 285; Wylie's Old and New Nottingham,
1853, p. 232 ; Orange's Hist, and Antiq. of Not-
tingham, 1848, ii. 939.] C. W. S.

BLACKRIE, ALEXANDER (d. 1772),
apothecary, was a native of Scotland, and
for nearly forty years carried on his business
at Bromley, Kent, where he died 29 May
1772. In "October 1763 he contributed a
letter to the ' Scots Magazine,' in which he
exposed the secret of Dr. Chittick's cure for
gravel. This letter was expanded into a
volume, and published in 1766 under the
title, ' A Disquisition on Medicines which
dissolve the Stone ; in which Dr. Chittick's
Secret is considered and discovered.' A second
edition, enlarged and improved, appeared in
1771.

[Gent. Mag. xlii. 295 ; Scots Mig. xxxiv. 278 ;
Watt's Bibl. Brit. i. 118.]

BLACKSTONE, JOHN (d. 1753), bota-
nist, was a London apothecary. He published
' Fasciculus Plantarum circa Harefield (Mid-
dlesex) sponte nascentium/ London, 1737 ;

' PlanUe rariores Angliae,' London, 1737 ;
' Specimen Botanicum quo Plantarum plu-
rium rariorum Anglue indigenarum loci na-
turales illustrantur,' London, 1746, to which
a number of other botanists contributed. In
it several species were added to the British
flora. The author intended to publish a
second volume of the ' Specimen/ for which
he had collected materials, but he died in
1753 before its completion.

[Pulteney's Sketches of the Progress of Botany,,
ii. 270, London, 1790.] G. T. B.

BLACKSTONE or BLAXTON, WIL-
LIAM (d. 1675), one of the earliest episcopal
clergymen resident in New England as dis-
tinguished from the puritan founders of New
England, must, according to the records" of
Massachusetts, have arrived in the colony
between 1620 and 1630. In the ' Literary-
Diary ' of President Stiles he is called ' an
episcopal clergyman ' his name being vari-
antly spelled Blackstone, Blackston, and
Blaxton. He was found by the Massachusetts
Bay colony, on their arrival in 1630, settled
on the peninsula of Shawmut, where the-
city of Boston now stands. He had had a
pleasant cottage built and a garden planted.
Difficulties beset him with the new-comers.
As a consequence he sold his property and
removed to the more tolerant colony of Roger
Williams in 1631, observing that 'he had
left England to escape the power of the lord
bishops, but he found himself in the hands
of the Lord's brethren.' According to Stiles's
' Diary ' he ' removed to Blaxton river, and
I settled six miles north of Providence.' Else--
| where in the same diary we learn that he was
| ' a great student with a large library/ that
he 'rode a bull for want of a horse/ and'
'preached occasionally/ and that his home
and library were burnt in King Philip's war.
He married, 4 July 1659, widow Sarah
Stephenson, who died in June 1673. Black-
stone died 26 May 1675. 'He was buried/'
says the ' Massachusetts Historical Collec-
tions ' (2nd series, x. 710), ' in classic ground,
on Study Hill, where it is said a white stone
marks his grave.' President Stiles visited
his grave in 1771, and left a careful map of
the whole region, marking the homes of Black-
stone, Roger Williams, and Samuel Gorton,
the patriarchs of New England (local) his-
tory. The high ground on which his secondt
I New England home was built about six
| miles from Providence still bears the name
of ' Study Hill/ because it was on this hill
that Blackstone pursued his studies which
gave him a wide reputation. The Blackstone
river (formerly Pawtucket) and the Black-
stone canal also preserve his name.

Blackstone

Blackstone

L>r. Samuel Hopkins speaks of Blackstone
AS ' a man of learning/ and doubtfully adds :
' He seems to have been of the puritan per-
suasion, and to have left his country for his
nonconformity.' He tells us also that ' he
used to come to Providence and preach, and
to encourage his hearers gave them the first
.apples they ever saw ' his orchard having
been as celebrated as his library. Lechford,
who wrote in 1641, thus mentions him :
* One Mr. Blackstone, a minister sent from
Boston, having lived there nine or ten years,
because he would not join the church : he
lives with Mr. [Roger] Williams, but is far
from his opinions/

[Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv. 202,
x. 710; Johnson's Wonder-working Providence,
where is to be found a notice of one who sym-
pathised with Blackstone: 'Mr. Samuel Maverick,
living on Noddle's Island in Boston Harbour . . .
a,n enemy to the reformation in hand, being strong
for the lordly prelatical power ; ' Holmes's An-
nals, i. 377 ; Savage's Winthrop, i. 44 ; Everett's
Address, Second Century, 29 ; Sprague's Annals
of the American Pulpit, v. 1-3.] A. B. Gr.

BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM (1723-
1780), legal writer and judge, was born in
Cheapside, London, on 10 July 1723. He was
the posthumous son of Charles Blackstone,
who is described as ' a silkman, and citizen and
bowyer of London,' and who came of a Wilt-
shire family. His mother, a daughter of Love-
lace Bigg of Chilton Foliot in Wiltshire, died
before he was twelve years of age, leaving him
to the care of his brother, a London surgeon.
Through being thus early left an orphan, he
was saved, it has been reasonably suggested,
from passing through life as a prosperous
tradesman. He had already gone to Charter-
house School, and after his mother's death
was, on the nomination of Sir Robert Wai-
pole, admitted on the foundation. When he
left for Oxford in 1738, he was head of the
school ; and perhaps from the fact that he
gained a gold medal for some verses on
Milton, we may gather that his mind had
already received its strong literary bent. At
Pembroke College, whicli he entered at the
age of fifteen, his studies were chiefly in
classical learning. Among his contemporaries
was Shenstone the poet ; and doubtless at this
time were written most of the ' originals and
translations ' which he is said to have after-
wards collected in an unpublished volume.
Prom the pieces which can still be traced to
him, and which are full of the strained and
.stilted mannerisms of the period, we can
judge that nothing has been lost to English
literature by Blackstone's seeking in poetiy
only a relaxation. In 1741 he entered him-

self at the Middle Temple, solemnly marking
the change in his life by a poem entitled
' The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse,' wherein
English law is figured, in the spirit of his
1 Commentaries,' as a complex yet harmonious
whole. The poem has been often reprinted,
i e.g. in Dodsley, vol. in., Southey's ' Speci-
mens of English Poetry,' Irving Browne's
i ' Law and Lawyers in Literature.' Of his
: legal studies we know nothing except from a
! letter written by him in 1745 (see Law Stud.
Mag. ii. 279), in which he describes himself
| as following the plan sketched out by C. J.
; Reeve (see Coll. Jurid. i. 79), and as having
| already finished one book of Littleton with-
out experiencing much difficulty. ' In my
apprehension,' he says, again anticipating the
' Commentaries,' ' the learning out of use is
as necessary to a beginner as that of every
day's practice.' The vow of exclusive at-
tachment to law was not rigorously kept.
Before completing his twentieth year he had
written a treatise on the ' Elements of Archi-
tecture,' which has never been published, but
which was highly spoken of by those to
whom it was shown. He became a careful
student of Shakespeare; Malone tells us that
' the notes which he gave me on Shakespeare
show him to have been a man of excellent
taste and accuracy, and a good critick '
(PRIOR, Life of Malone, 431. The notes are
initialed l E' in Malone's supplement).
Even verse was not abandoned, though he
had to write in secret. His friends particu-
larly admired a poem written by him in
1751 on the death of Frederick, prince of
Wales ; but it has now little interest except
to collectors of literary parallels, who will
compare with ' the cock's shrill clarion ' of
Gray's ' Elegy ' (published in the same year)

The bird of day
'Gan morn's approach with clarion shrill declare.

It appeared under the name of Blackstone's
brother-in-law, Clitherow, and is, reprinted
in 'Gent, Mag.' li. 335. This interest in
literature never left him. Thus in his last
years, when he sat on the bench, we find
him carefully discussing, as if it were an im-
portant legal case, the quarrel between Pope
and Addison, and criticising by the light of
Pope's letters the account of the quarrel given
in Ruff head's < Life.'

He had already been elected a fellow of
All Souls (1744) and had taken the degree
of B.C.L. (1745), when, after the usual period
of probation, then five years, he was called
to the bar in 1740. For a long time he
made little way, ' not being/ it is said,
'happy in a graceful delivery or a flow of
elocution (both of which he much wanted),

Blackstone

134

Blackstone

nor having- any powerful friends or con-
nections to recommend him.' Perhaps his
lack of friends is exaggerated, for only three
years after his call he succeeded one of his
uncles as recorder of Wallingford. Still his
practice must have been small. He attended
the courts assiduously, but in the notes which
he took of important cases his own name
occurs only twice in the period from 1746
to 1760. He was busy, however, at Oxford.
He assisted in bringing to completion the
Codrington Library, and as bursar of his
college and steward of its manors, he had an
opportunity of exercising his almost exces-
sive love of order and regularity, ' applying
his legal mind/ says Professor Burrows, ' to
the examination of all the documents bearing
on the college property, re-arranging its ar-
chives, and leaving ... a characteristic re-
cord of the labour he had bestowed on its
accounts in a special manuscript book for the
benefit of his successors ' ( Worthies of All
Souls, p. 400 ; CHALMERS, i. 179). With the
same earnestness he entered into the question
of founder's kin, which then agitated the col-
lege. Claims had been made J3y remote col-
lateral descendants to the privileges which
Archbishop Chichele declared in favour of his
kin. The college held that some bounds should
be put to the meaning of kindred, but their i
decisions in particular cases were uniformly !
overruled by the visitors. Blackstone defended !
the college in a tract on * Collateral Consan- j
guinity ' (1750, reprinted in ' Law Tracts '),
arguing that if there were no collateral limit j
all men would be founder's kin, and con- j
eluding in favour of the limit of the canon j
law, namely the seventh degree. It was <
probably due in great part to the assistance ;
which he thus gave that in his lifetime a ;
regulation was made limiting the number of >
privileged fellows. He found fresh work in \
un attempt to reform the administration of j
the Clarendon Press. On being appointed a j
delegate in 1755 he saw the Press * languish- :
ing in a lazy obscurity,' and set himself to ;
discover the cause. He studied the charters,
statutes, and registers relating to it, and i

* had repeated conferences,*' he says, ' with
the most eminent masters, in London and
other places, with regard to the mechanical
part of printing.' His recommendations, i
many of which were earned into effect, he
set out in a letter to Dr. Randolph, the j
vice-chancellor, which still retains some in-
terest from its details as to the cost of |
printing. Blackstone himself gave an ex-
ample of admirable printing in his edition of

* Magna Charta,' published by the Clarendon
Press in 1758, under the direction of Dr.
Prince (THOMSON, Magna Charta).

He had meanwhile been led to the chief
work of his life. Murray, the solicitor-
general (afterwards Lord Mansfield), had
recommended him to the Duke of Newcastle
for the professorship of civil law at Oxford,
which fell vacant in 1752; but owing, it is
said, to his want of readiness to promise that
he would give the duke his political support
at the university, he was passed over (see an
account of his interview with the duke in
HOLLIDAY'S Life of Mansfield, i. 88). The
disappointment was great, but Murray, who
seems even then to have understood where
Blackst one's strength lay, advised him to go
to Oxford and read lectures on English law.
As it turned out, he could not have had
better advice. Not only were his lectures
received with great favour, but they sug-
gested to Mr. Viner the idea of founding a
chair of English law (HOLLIDAY, p. 89).
Mr. Viner, who had himself done useful
work in compiling his l Abridgment of Law
and Equity,' bequeathed a sum of 12,000/.
for the purpose ; and so clear w r ere his direc-
tions that in 1758, only two years after his
death, his scheme was carried to completion,
and Blackstone, as the first professor, began
his lectures (see an account of Yiner's bene-
faction in BLACKSTONE'S Commentaries, i. 28rc).
Among his hearers at one time was Bentham,
who claims to have even then detected the
fallacies that were to appear in the i Com-
mentaries,' and who describes him as 'a
formal, precise, and affected lecturer just
what you would expect from the character
of his writings ; cold, reserved, and wary
exhibiting a frigid pride ' (BowRiNG, Bent-
ham, x. 45). The subject was a novel one
in an English university ; and Blackstone's
lectures, which showed the skill of the man
of letters quite as much as the learning of
the lawyer, attracted considerable attention,
and quickly led to a bettering of his own
prospects. He took up law r once more, and
for several years lived a twofold life : in
London, practising at Westminster, and sit-
ting in parliament as member for the rotten
borough of Hindon in Wiltshire (1761) ; and
at Oxford, holding not only his professorship,
but also the principalship of New Inn Hall,,
to which he was appointed in 1761. From
this time onward his name occurs frequently
in his own reports of cases ; and, seeing that
in 1761 he was offered and that he declined
the chief justiceship of the Common Pleas in
Ireland, and that two years later he was
made solicitor-general to the queen, he must
have rapidly risen to a high place in his pro-
fession. Through his published w r orks, too,
he was becoming known as a careful student
of legal history. He had been counsel in the

Blackstone

'35

Blackstone

case of the Oxfordshire election in 1754,
when one of the questions raised was whether
tenants holding by copy of court roll ac-
cording to the custom of the manor, though ;
not at the will of the lord, were freeholders |
qualified to vote in elections for knights of j
the shire. The case exciting great interest, |
Blackstone elaborately discussed the ques- I
tion in his ' Considerations on Copyholders,' |
tracing the history of the tenures in dispute, !
and arguing that they could not confer the I
freehold vote. The matter was settled by
the passing of the act 31 Geo. II, cap. 14,
which declared all tenants holding by copy
of court roll incapable of voting. Apart
from its own value, Blackstone 's tract shows
that he had made a far more careful study
of the history of English tenures than his
' Commentaries ' would lead one to imagine.
But here, as elsewhere, he accepted too
readily the conclusions of previous writers,
never questioning, for instance, the theory,
afterwards repeated in a balder form in the
* Commentaries,' and still almost universally
received as true, that copyholders were ori-
ginally villeins in a state of bondage, who
after the Conquest, by the ' good-nature and
benevolence ' of their lords, had been per-
mitted to hold their lands without interrup-
tion till finally they got fixity of tenure ac-
cording to the custom of the manor. (Black-
stone is not to blame for originating the
theory ; see COKE'S Compleat Copyholder,
sect, xxxii. ; BACON'S Use of the Law ;
WRIGHT'S Tenures, 3rd ed. p. 220; GIL-
BERT'S Tenures, p. 155. A great part of the
passage in the ' Commentaries,' in fact, is in
Wright's words) . In 1 759 Blackstone brought
out his first important work, an edition of
the Great Charter and the Charter of the
Forest. It contains the Articles of the
Barons, the issues of the Great Charter in
1215, 1216, and 1217, with several charters
of confirmation, the Charter of the Forest,
and the Statute of Marlebridge. In a long
introduction he traces the history of the
charter up to the 29 Edw. I, and gives an
account of the various manuscripts known
to him, most of which he had himself ex-
amined (see in the Introd. to Statutes of the
Realm the results of later research compared
with Blackstone's work).

Some imperfect reports of his lectures
having been circulated, and some having
' fallen,' as he says, ' into mercenary hands,
and become the object of clandestine sale,' |
Blackstone determined to prepare them for I
publication in the form of a general sur-
vey of English law. The manuscript notes |
of his lectures, in his own handwriting, j
are in the library of the Incorporated Law

Society. They are in four volumes, written
with great neatness, and with scarcely a
single erasure. He produced the first volume
of the ' Commentaries ' in 1765, and the other
three volumes at intervals during the next
four years. The work begins with his first
Yinerian lecture on the study of the law, an
elegant plea, once much admired, 'that a
competent knowledge of the laws of that
society in which we live is the proper accom-
plishment of every gentleman and scholar r
(cf. the preface to WOOD'S Institutes). He
goes on, by way of introduction, to discuss
the nature of laws in general (in a chapter
which, says Sir H. Maine, ' may almost be
said to have made Bentham and Austin into
jurists by virtue of sheer repulsion '), the
sources of English law, the countries subject
to that law, and the legal divisions of Eng-
land. In the exposition of the law he fol-
lows the arrangement of which he had pub-
lished the outline on beginning his lectures
(Analysis of the Law, 1754), and which in
substance he adopted from Hale's ' Analysis
of the Civil part of the Law.' He treats
first of the rights commanded or recognised
by the law, and secondly of the wrongs
which it prohibits ; rights again he divides,
accepting Hale's unfortunate translation from
Roman law, into rights of persons and rights
of things (or property), and wrongs into
private wrongs, or civil injuries, and public
wrongs, or ' crimes and misdemeanors.' To
each of these four divisions is allotted a
volume (see a table representing in detail
* the arrangement which seems to have been
intended by Sir William Blackstone ' in
AUSTIN, ii. 1018). The work closes with a
chapter on the rise, progress, and gradual
improvements of the laws of England, which
is interesting as having suggested to Reeves-
the utility of a history of English law filled
up with some minuteness upon the outline
there drawn. The work thus covers the field
of law, and though its critics have remarked
some disproportion in its parts, such subjects
as public law, equity, ecclesiastical law, and
the constitution and jurisdiction of the courts-
receiving less than their due attention, yet
there is a singular completeness in the
whole.

Few books have been more successful than
the ' Commentaries.' From his lectures, and
from the sale of the work, he is said to-
have made altogether about 14,000/. (PRIOR,
Malone, p. 431 ; in BOHMER'S Litteratur de
Criminal-Rechts the sum is said to have
been 16,0007.) Eight editions appeared in
the author's lifetime, and the ninth edition
was ready for publication. For sixty years
after his death editions continued to follow

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Blackstone

one another almost as quickly ; editors were ;
found in men like Burn, Christian, Coleridge, j
and Chitty, who felt that they were render- :
ing a service to their profession in annotat- ;
ing Blackstone with minute and almost tender
care ; and laymen turned to him to find for
the first time English law made readable.
So great have been the growth and the changes
of law during the last century that to keep
the work up to date by means of footnotes
is now an almost hopeless task. The attempt
is not abandoned in America (see Cooley's
edition, 1884), but Blackstone's text has
not been reprinted in England since the
edition of 1844. As an institutional treatise,
however, it still stands alone. When anno-
tation grew too cumbersome, less reverent
editors came who laid hands 011 the text itself,
.and by mechanically inserting corrections and
additions adapted it to modern use. In most
cases, from a strange desire for uniformity,
they have even removed from the lecture on
the study of the law the form of oral address
and all the references which it contains to
the circumstances of its delivery, and have
given it thus maimed as aformal introductory
chapter ; while Blackstone's worn-out theories
on the origin and nature of law and govern-
ment have been considered to need only
abridgment and not revision. The best known
of the adaptations, in point of arrangement
and otherwise composed with a freer hand
than the rest (the poor laws, for example,
being no longer treated under the head of
overseers of the poor), is Stephen's 'New
Commentaries on the Laws of England,' first
published in 1841. It reached a ninth edition
in 1883, and is now the recognised text-book
by which solicitors are introduced to law.
It is still to Blackstone, in some form or other,
that English law students turn who seek a
general view of the subject. The ' Commen-
taries has had a yet higher legal fame, having
almost, but not quite, reached the distinction
accorded to those treatises which, as Black-
stone himself says, ' are cited as authority . . .
and do not entirely depend on the strength
of their quotations from older authors.' (But
see Lord Redesdale's protest against the
citing of the ' Commentaries ' as an authority,
1 Sch. and Lef. 327.) His name is constantly
heard in our courts, and to this day judges
fortify their decisions by quoting his state-
ment of the law. ' If he has fallen into some
minute mistakes in matter of detail,' said
Lord Campbell, in the famous case of the
Queen v. Mills, ' I believe that upon a great
question like this, as to the constitution of
marriage, there is no authority to be more
relied upon ' (10 CL and Fin. 767). How
wide his influence has been may be judged on

the one side from the fact that throughout
Digby's ( History of the Law of Real Pro-
perty ' his work is referred to ' as at once the
most available and the most trustworthy
authority on the law of the eighteenth cen-
tury,' and on the other side from the publi-
cation in 1822 of Sir J. E. Eardley-Wilmot's
Abridgment, ' intended for the use of young
persons, and comprised in a series of letters
from a father to his daughter,' and from the
existence of a ' Comic Blackstone/ His re-
putation is not confined to England. (See
translations in bibliography.) It was made,
indeed, matter of reproach to French jurists
that they incessantly cited Blackstone as a
great authority, rating him even higher than
did his own countrymen ; and it is still to the
' Commentaries ' that most continental writers
refer on points of English law. Nowhere has
his work been more widely read than in
America. 1 1 hear,' said Burke, in 1775,
' that they have sold nearly as many of Black-
stone's Commentaries in America as in Eng-
land.' It has been edited and abridged in
America nearly as often as in England ; it
suggested to Chancellor Kent the idea of
writing his ' Commentaries on American
Law :' and there, as here, it has shaped the
course of legal education.

Yet while edition after edition was ap-
pearing the work had many hard things said
about it. There were some who looked with
apprehension on an attempt to make smooth
the path of the student of law. President
Jeiferson is reported to have doubted the pro-
priety of citing in America English autho-
rities after the period of emigration, and still
more after the declaration of independence,
and to have said that the consequence of ex-
cluding them would be ' to uncanonise Black-
stone, whose book, although the most eloquent
and best digested of our law catalogue, has
been perverted more than all others to the
degeneracy of legal science. A student finds
there a smattering of everything, and his
indolence easily persuades him that if he
understands that book he is master of the
whole body of the law ' (TuCKEK, Life of
Jefferson, ii. 361. See a similar opinion in
RITSO'S Introduction to the Science of Law).
Blackstone sustained more vigorous attacks
at home. In 1769, when the publication of
the first edition was completed, Dr. Priestley
wrote what Blackstone called ( a very angTy
pamphlet ' on some passages in the ' Com-
mentaries ' relating to dissenters. Black-
stone replied in a conciliatory tone, admit-
ting that the passages needed some revision
in point of expression, but confessing to no
material change of opinion: and Priestley
wrote a second letter of explanation, in which,

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137

Blackstone

as one of his friends said, ' there is rather too ;
much submission for the honour of having
"been noticed ' (RuTT, Memoirs of Priestley,
i. 73). The same part of the work was sub-
jected to a more careful examination in cer-
tain letters on the Toleration Act, addressed \
to Blackstone by Dr. Furneaux, who not only
condemned its illiberal spirit, but found grave
fault with it as an incomplete statement of
the law. These criticisms were so far suc-
cessful that in subsequent editions the ob-
noxious passages were considerably modified ;
the doubt, for example, being no longer ex- !
pressed whether, as compared with those of |
the papists, ' the spirit, the doctrines, and the '
practice of the sectaries are better calculated '
to make men good subjects.' A few years
later (1776) came Bentham's famous ' Frag-
ment on Government/ directed against the
digression on the legislative power of govern- |
ment which occurs (pp. 47-50) in Black- |
stone's chapter on the nature of laws in
general, where he states his quaint proof of
the perfection of the British constitution.
Bentham did not notice, nor did Blackstone
acknowledge, that much of this chapter comes
from Burlamaqui, the very words being some-
times reproduced. Even the digression ? which
to Bentham seemed to be made without any
reason, occurs in Burlamaqui with the same
context (Droit de la Nature, part i. ch. 8.
Evidently Blackstone had before him Nu-
gent's translation published in 1748). In
the preface to the tract Bentham summed up
his opinion of the ' Commentaries' as a whole,
and while frankly recognising Blackstone's
merits, ' who, first of all institutional writers,
has taught jurisprudence to speak the lan-
guage of the scholar and the gentleman,'
urged that the work is thoroughly vitiated
by its tone of intolerance and of blind ad-
miration. We have only Bentham's own
account of the way in which Blackstone re-
ceived the criticism ; when asked if he would
answer it, he said, 'No, not even if it had
been better written.' (For Bent ham's opinion
of Blackstone see also the very strongly
worded remarks extracted from his common-
place book in BOWRING'S Bentham, x. 141.)
The judgment of Austin was not less severe.
To him Blackstone's arrangement is a slavish
and blundering copy of Hale's ; in the whole
work ( ; the far too celebrated Commentaries'
he calls it) there is not a single particle of
original or discriminating thought ; its flattery
of English institutions is ' a paltry but effec-
tual artifice' which has made it popular;
and its style, for which other critics have
only one voice of admiration, is ' a style which
is fitted to tickle the ear, though it never or
xarely satisfies a severe and masculine taste '

(i. 71). There should be mentioned one other
critic, long ago forgotten, Sedgwick, the editor
of Gilbert's ' Law of Evidence,' who, with
strong dissent, yet in a spirit of great fair-
ness and with minute care, discusses Black-
stone's first volume, chapter by chapter
(Remarks Critical and Miscellaneous on the
Commentaries of Sir W. Blackstone, 1800 ;
2nd ed. 1808). A weak reply to Sedgwick
was made by W. H. Rowe in a f Vindication
of Blackstone's Commentaries ' (1806).

The criticisms of Bentham and of Austin
had weight enough to bring Blackstone into
undue discredit. To read the ' Commentaries '
ceased to be considered an essential part of
the liberal education of gentlemen and
scholars, and it grew the fashion to speak
lightly of the work. There seems now to be
the beginning of a more just appreciation.
Most of the specific charges against Black-
stone were indeed well founded. His was
not a mind of much analytical power, nor in
any high sense was he an original thinker.
His philosophy of law was but a confused
mingling of the theories of Puffendorf, Locke,
and Montesquieu ; and its importance now
consists only in its having created, by repul-
sion, the later English school of jurispru-
dence. Of the spirit of intellectual inde-
pendence he had very little. Partly by nature,
partly through his political sympathies, partly
also, it must be remembered, from a truly
worthy admiration of a great system of law
and government, he was conservative almost
to rigidity. In a characteristic passage he
declared that the legal restraints to which
Englishmen were subject in his day were
' so gentle and moderate . . . that no man
of sense or probity would wish to see them
slackened ' (i. 144) ; and, with not less bold-
ness, speaking of the time of Charles II, and
drawing a distinction bet ween the theoretical
perfection of law and its practical working,
he said that * by the law, as it then stood,
. . . the people had as large a portion of
real liberty as is consistent with a state of
society ' (iv. 439 ; see AM os's The English Con-
stitution in the Reign of Charles II, which is
a detailed examination of this opinion ; it is
discussed also in Fox's History, in ROSE'S
Observations, and in HEYWOOD'S Vindication ;
and see also how Blackstone himself explains
his habit of defending legal anomalies, i. 172).
The extent of his learning, moreover, has
been often exaggerated. He never knew the
civil law otherwise than superficially, and
frequently states it inaccurately ; and even
in English law his work is not more remark-
able for original research than for the sin-
gular skill which it shows in making a happy
use of the labours of previous text-writers.

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138

Blackstone

As Lord Ellenborough suggested, he made
himself a learned lawyer by writing the
' Commentaries' (see the discussion on Black-
stone's merits in 23 Parl. Hist. 1078). But
within his own sphere of exposition his merits
are very great. ' It requires, perhaps,' says
Coleridge, in the preface to his edition of the
' Commentaries,' ' the study necessarily im-
posed upon an editor to understand fully the
whole extent of praise to which the author
is entitled ; his materials should be seen in
their crude and scattered state ; the contro-
versies examined, of which the sum only is
shortly given ; what he has rejected, what he
has forborne to say should be Known ; before
his learning, judgment, taste, and, above all,
his total want of self-display can be justly
appreciated.' To this just eulogy one need
only add that Blackstone had formed the true
conception of an institutional work, which
not merely should state the principles of ex-
isting law, but by means of ' the learning out
of use ' should explain their growth. And so
well did he carry out his plan that in the
' Commentaries ' there is still to be found the
best general history of English law, needing
comparatively little correction, and told with
admirable clearness and spirit. To his style
Austin did less than justice. It lacks variety
and restraint ; but, except amid the loose
generalities of the introductory chapters, it is
never obscure, and at its best it rises to con-
siderable dignity. Fox thought it ' the very
best among our modern writers, always easy
and intelligible ; far more correct than Hume,
and less studied and made up than Robert-
son ' (TROTTER, Memoirs ; see also Fox's
speech on Lord Ellenborough's admission to
the cabinet).

In 1766 Blackstone, with a growing prac-
tice and failing health, resigned both his
professorship and his principalship. He still
continued to sit in the House of Commons,
being returned for the new parliament of
1 768 as member for Westbury, in Wiltshire.
But beyond a slight connection with Dr. Mus-
grave's report on the peace of 1763 (16 Parl.
Hist. 763), his political career was marked by
only a single incident. In the exciting de-
bates on Wilkes he played an unfortunate part.
On the motion to declare Luttrell elected,
Blackstone gave it as his opinion that Wilkes
was by common law disqualified from sitting
in the house. Grenville retorted by quoting
from the ' Commentaries ' (i. 162) the causes
of disqualification, none of which applied to
Wilkes. ' It is well known,' says Philo-
Junius, describing the scene, ' that there was
n pause of some minutes in the house, from
a general expectation that the doctor would
say something in his own defence; but it-

seems his faculties were too much over-
powered to think of those subtleties and re-
finements which have since occurred to him.'
The matter gave rise to a prolonged paper
controversy, in which Sir W. Meredith,
Blackstone, Jimius, Dr. Johnson, and others
took part. Blackstone, who argued that the
expulsion of a member creates in him an in-
capacity of being re-elected, had certainly
the worst of the controversy, maintaining
without great dignity an indefensible posi-
tion (see MAY'S Parliamentary Practice, p. 63).
Without allowing himself to have been in
the wrong, he took pains in his next edition
to state the causes of disqualification so as to
include such a case as that of Wilkes (i. 162-3 ;
the last sentence of the paragraph does not
occur in the first edition). Hence came the
toast at opposition banquets : ' The first edi-
tion of Dr. Blackstone*s " Commentaries on
the Laws of England"' (MAHON, Hist. v.
352).

After this experience, Blackstone was no
doubt glad to retire from parliament. He
was invited to be solicitor-general, but he de-
clined the office, as hopes of ajudgeship were
at the same time held out to him. In Fe-
bruary 1770 he was made a justice of the
Common Pleas, but he immediately exchanged
places with Mr. Justice Yates, and for a few
months sat with Lord Mansfield in the court
of King's Bench. On Yates's death in the
same year he returned to the Common Pleas.
He acquired the reputation of being a pains-
taking judge, and nothing more. Although
he had now unquestionably made himself a
learned lawyer, his excessive caution and a
scrupulous adherence to formalities stood
sadly in his Avay. What Malone tells us of
him is in keeping with his general character:.
'There were more new trials granted in
causes which came before him on circuit than
were granted on the decisions of any other
"-} who sat at Westminster in his time.

'he reason was that, being extremely diffi-
dent of his opinion, he never supported it
with much warmth or pertinacity in the
court above if a new trial was moved for *
(PRIOR, Malone, p. 432 ; see the chief case&
in which he took part in his own reports,
vol. ii., also in Burrow's and in Wilson's re-
ports. His most famous judgment is that
delivered in Perrin v. Blake, in which he dis-
cussed the reason, the antiquity, and the extent
of the rule in Shelley's case. He took part
also in the leading case of Scott v. Shepherd,
where he differed from the rest of the court
in holding that the action was not maintain-
able ; and in the case of Crosby, the lord
mayor, reported also in 8 St. Tr. 31, and 19
St. Tr. 1137). In his later years he sue-

Blackstone

139

Blackstone

ceeded in procuring an increase in the salaries
of judges; and he devoted much of his time
to advocating a reform in the system of
criminal punishment. He strongly supported
the penitentiary system, and it was mainly
owing to him and Eden (Lord Auckland)
that the act 19 George III c. 74 was passed.

He died 14 Feh. 1780, and was buried in
the parish church of Wallingford, where he
had spent much of the latter part of his life.
He had married in 1761 Sarah Clitherow,
and of his nine children one followed so far
in his footsteps as to become a fellow of All
Souls, principal of New Inn Hall, Vinerian
professor, and assessor in the vice-chancellor's
court. Henry Blackstone, the law reporter,
was his nephew.

In personal character he ever showed that
almost oppressive spirit of orderliness which
kept him busy at Oxford, and which exhibited
itself throughout his life in habits of scrupu-
lous punctuality. He was both languid and
hot-tempered. So languid was he, it is said,
that in writing the ' Commentaries ' he re-
quired a bottle of port before him, being
' invigorated and supported in the fatigue of
his great work by a temperate use of it ' (Cuo-
KEK, Boswell, iv. 465) ; and Lord Stowell,
who is the authority for the story, also said
that Blackstone was the only man he had
ever known who acknowledged and lamented
his bad temper. Physically as well as men-
tally he was lethargic ; he grew stout, and
came more and more to dislike all forms of
exercise, and he seems really to have died
from the want of it.

His statue by Bacon, representing him with
his right hand on the ' Commentaries,' and
with Magna Charta in his left, stands in the
Codrington Library. His works are: 1.' Essay
on Collateral Consanguinity,' 1750 (reprinted
in 'LaAv Tracts'). See the other side of the
question put in ' An Argument in favour of
Collateral Consanguinity ' in Wynne's * Law
Tracts.' "2. 'Analysis of the Laws of England,'
1 754 ; 6th ed. 1771 ; 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions
contain the discourse on the study of the law
(reprinted in ' Law Tracts '). 3. * Letter to
the llev. Dr. Randolph, Vice-Chancellor of

the study of
6. 'The Great Charter and Charter of the
Forest, with other authentic instruments, to
which is prefixed an introductory discourse,
containing the history of the Charters,' 1759
(reprinted in ' Law Tracts '). 7. * A treatise
on the law of descents in fee-simple,' 1759.
* ' Reflections on the opinions of Messrs.

8.

Pratt, Morton, and Wilbraham, relating to
Lord Leitchfield's disqualifications,' 1759.

9. ' A case for the opinion of counsel on the
' right of the university to make new statutes/
1759. (For these two pamphlets see life by
Clitherow; they are not mentioned elsewhere.)
| 10. ' Tracts, chiefly relating to the antiqui-
ties and laws of England,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1762
; (tracts on collateral consanguinity, copy-
! holders, laws of descent, and a reprint of his
i Great Charter) ; 3rd ed. 1771, 1 vol. 4to (same
i tracts, except that on laws of descent ; in
: addition his * Analysis ' and the letter to
I Dr. Randolph) ; German translation, 1779.
11. 'Commentaries on the Laws of England/
j 4 vols. Editions: 1st, 1765-9, 4to; 2nd, 1768,
I 4to (see LOWNDES); 3rd, 1768, 4to (the 2nd and
i 3rd seem to be editions of only vols. i. and ii.) ;
4th, 1770, 4to ; 5th, 1773 ; 6th, 1774, 4to
(Dublin edition, 1775, 12mo) ; 7th, 1775 (this
edition and all the subsequent ones are 8vo) ;
8th, 1778 ; 9th (by Burn), 1783 ; 10th and
llth (Burn and Williams), 1787, 1791 : 12th,
13th, 14th, and 1 5th (Christian), 1793-5, 1800,
1803, 1809 (the 12th edition was published
in numbers, with portraits of sages of the
law, which were inserted by the bookseller
without the editor's sanction) ; ' a new edi-
tion ' (Archbold), 1811 ; another edition not
numbered (J. Williams), 1822 ; 16th (Cole-
ridge), 1825; 'a new edition' (Chitty), 1826;
17th (' enlarged and continued by the editor
of " Warton ? s History of English Poetry,'"
Price. 1830) ; 18th (Lee, Hovenden, and
Ryland), 1829; 19th (Hovenden and Ry-
land), 1836; 20th (adapted by Stewart),
1837-41 ; 21st (Hargrave, Sweet, Couch, and
Welsby), 1844 ; 22nd (adapted by Stewart),
1844-9; 23rd (adapted by Stewart), 1854.
Other adaptations : (by Stephen, ' partly
founded on Blackstone ') 1st ed. 1848-9 ; 9th
ed. 1883 ; (by Kerr) 1st ed. 1857, 4th ed.
1876 : (by Broom and Hadley) 1869. The
abridgments and volumes of selections are
numerous. Among them are Curry's, 1796
and 1809 ; Gifford's, 1821 ; Bayly's, 1840 ;
Warren's, 1855 and 1856. Also < The Comic
Blackstone,' by G. A. a Beckett, 1867. The
American editions nearly equal in number
the English. The first edition is the Phila-
delphia reprint of 1771-2 ; the last and test
are Sharswood's, 2 vols. 1878, and Cooley's,
2 vols. 1884. There are also American
adaptations, including an edition of Broom
and Hadley, by Wait (1875), and abridg-
ments, the last being Ewell's (1883). Trans-
lations (French) : From the 4th ed. by
I). G . . . (de Gomicourt), 6 vols. 1774-6, a
translation ' qui n'est ni exacte ni francaise *
(CAMUS, Biblioth. des livres de draft) ', it
omits the notes and references. From the
15th ed. by N. M. Chompre, 6 vols. 1822.
' Coinmentaires sur le code criminel,' by the

Blackstone

140

Blackwall

Abbe Coyer, 2 vols. 1776, is & free transla-
tion of Blackstone's 4th volume. Other
translations of parts of the same volume ap-
peared at the end of the century (see QUE-
KARD'S La France Litter air e). (German) :
A translation of Giffard's abridgment by ;
H. F. C. von Colditz, with preface by Falck, !
2 vols. 1822-3. (Italian) : The first 2 vols. |
of ' Classici Criminalist! ' (1813) contain
Blackstone's 4th vol. (Russian) : Cathe- j
rine II is said to have caused a Russian trans- j
lation to be made (NICHOLS, Lit. Anecd. ii.
553), but it is mentioned in no catalogue of I
foreign law-books. (See bibliographies of MAE- \
VIN, SOULE, LOWNDES, BRUNEI, &c. and Cat . of
Brit. Mus.) 12. < A Reply to Dr. Priestley's |
Remarks on the fourth volume of the " Com- !
mentaries on the Laws of England." By the j
author of the Commentaries,' 1769 (reprinted
in a volume called ' An interesting Appendix
to Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries,
Ac.,' Philadelphia, 1773, another edition of |
which appeared in 1774 with the further title
of the ' Palladium of Conscience.' Besides
Blackstone's reply, it contains Priestley's j
and Furneaux's letters, and f The case of the
late election, &c.') 13. The Wilkes Case.
4 An answer to the question stated,' 1769 ;
published anonymously in answer to l The
question stated, a pamphlet attributed to I
Sir W. Meredith. To a new edition Black-
stone added i A Postscript to Junius ' (see :
JUNIUS'S letters of 29 July and 8 Aug. 1769). j
' The case of the late election of the County j
of Middlesex considered on the principles of j
the constitution and the authorities of law,'
probably by Blackstone (reprinted in ' The
Interesting Appendix, &c.'). *A speech with-
out-doors upon the subject of a vote given
on the 9th day of May, 1769 ; ' it appeared in
the ' Public Advertiser' of 28 July 1769 ('see
letter of PniLO-JuNirs of 1 Aug. 1769). !
14. i Reports of cases determined in the seve- j
ral courts of Westminster Hall from 1746 to
1779/ 2 vols. fol. 1781 ; Dublin edition, |
2 vols. 8vo, 1781 ; with notes by Elsley,
2 vols. 8vo, 1828. His reports have never
been held in high esteem (see WALLACE'S
Reporters, but see the testimony of Best, ;
C. J., to their accuracy, 1 Moore and Payne,
553). 15. ' A memoir in answer to the late
Dean of Exeter, now Bishop of Carlisle ;' I
read before Society of Antiquaries in 1762.
When Blackstone was preparing his edition
of the Great Charter, Dean Lyttelton lent j
him an ancient parchment roll containing the I
Great Charter and Charter of the Forest of
9 Henry III. Blackstone considered it a
copy, and now, in answer to a communica-
tion made by the dean to the society, he
gives his reasons in detail (in GUTCH'S Col-

lect. Cur. ii. 357, and in Bioy. Hist, of Black-
stone). 16. 'A letter from Sir William
Blackstone Knt., to the Hon. Daines Bar-
rington, describing an antique seal, &c. ; '
read before Society of Antiquaries in 1775.
He discusses the seals directed by 1 Ed-
ward VI, cap. ii. to be used by persons having
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the circum-
stances of their disuse (in Archceol. iii. 414,
and in Bioy. Hist, of BLACKSTONE). 17. ' Ac-
count of the Quarrel between Pope and Addi-
son' (in Bioy. Brit. 2nd ed. i. 56 n.). 18. < An
Argument in the Exchequer Chamber on
giving judgment in the case of Perrin and
another v. Blake' (in HARGKAVE'S Law
Tracts, p. 487).

[Life by Clitherow, prefixed to reports ; The
Biographical History of Sir W. Blackstone,
&c., by a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn (Dr. Dou-
glns), 1782 a rambling expansion of Clitherow's
Life ; Life in Law. Mag. vol. xv., reprinted
in Welsby's Judges; article by Marquardsen in
Bluntschli-Brater's Staats-Wo'rterbuch ; Glas-
son's Hist, du Droit et des Instit. de 1'Angle-
terre ; Burrow's Worthies of All Souls ; Prior's
Malone; Chalmers's Oxford; Junius.]

G. P. M.

BLACKWALL, ANTHONY (1674-
1730), classical scholar, was born at Black-
wall, a hamlet for many generations the seat
of his family in the parish of Kirk Ireton,
and the hundred of Wirksworth, Derbyshire,
in 1674, educated at Derby grammar school,
admitted sizar at Emmanuel College, Cam-
bridge, on 30 Sept. 1690, took the degree of
B.A. in 1694, and that of M.A. in 1698, and
was shortly afterwards appointed headmaster
of the Derby School, and lecturer of All
Saints' Church, Derby.

In 1706 he distinguished himself in his
first literary venture by the publication of
'Oeoyvidos IVai/Aat : Theognidis Megarensis
Sententiee Morales ' the original Greek, with
a Latin translation, notes, &c.,8vo, to which
was prefixed an address in Greek to Joshua
Barnes [q. v.] , the well-known Greek professor.
In 1718 he published ' An Introduction to the
Classics, containing a short discourse on their
Excellencies, and Directions how to study
them to advantage ; with an Essay on the
Nature and use of those Emphatical and
beautiful figures which give strength and
ornament to Writing,' London, 12mo. This
work gives the beauties of the ancient writers
in a clear and concise manner, illustrated
from the author's rich stores of knowledge, and
with sound criticism. In 1719 appeared the
second edition, with additions and an index,
London, 12mo, and there were other London
editions in 12mo (3rd ed. 1725, 4th ed.,
5th ed. 1737, 6th ed. 1746), issued both be-

Blackwall

141

Blackwall

fore and after the author's death in 1730 ;
and Dr. William Mayor, while at Woodstock
in 1809, reissued the work as i BlackwaH's
Introduction to the Classics,' London, 12mo,
with an ' Essay on Rhetoric/ and a ' Biblio-
graphy of the best English Translations of
Greek and Roman Classics,' and describes it
as a work most invaluable to those who have
not received a sound education.

In 1722 Blackwall was appointed head
master of the grammar school of Market Bos-
worth, Leicestershire, a school founded in
the time of Henry VIII, but much increased
in revenue by endowments of the Dixie
family. Here, in the quiet of a thoroughly
pastoral district, he produced his most cele-
brated work, ' The Sacred Classics defended
and illustrated, or an Essay humbly offered
towards proving the Purity, Propriety, and
True Eloquence of the Writers of the New
Testament ; ' in two parts, 4to, London, 1725 ;
2nd ed. 8vo, London, 1727. ' Not with-
out very great labour and pains, though ac-
companied with pleasures,' as he says, he
completed the second and last volume of this
work a few weeks before his death in 1730,
and it was published under the same title
in 1731, London, 8vo, with his portrait by
Vertue. The two volumes were reprinted
at Leipsic by Christopher Wollius, 4to, 1736,
with Bernigeroth's copy of the portrait. The
third London edition appeared in 2 vols. 8vo,
1737. This work is chiefly on the plan of
Raphelius, and is of very fair merit in its
fund of general learning and its useful obser-
vations. Words and phrases in the New
Testament long considered to be barbarisms
or solecisms are shown to have been used by
the old Greek writers of the best reputation,
but the critics thought he had failed to prove
the general purity and elegance of the lan-
guage of the Testament. Orme, Bickersteth,
Dr. Williams, and especially his great oppo-
nent, Dr. Clarke, make light of his work ;
while, on the other hand, Dr. Doddridge and
T. H. Home speak highly of its value. In any
case, his work can claim the merit of leading
the w r ay to sounder biblical criticism.

At both Derby and Bosworth he had the
happiness to bring up a number of excellent
scholars, among whom were the well-known
Richard Dawes, author of ' Miscellanea Cri-
tica,' and Budworth, the master of Bishop
Hurd. One of his pupils, Sir Henry Atkins,
presented him to the rectory of Clapham,
Surrey, on 12 Oct. 1726. About this time
he went up for ordination and waited upon
Dr. Gibson, then bishop of London, when a
young chaplain of the bishop began to ex-
amine Blackwall in the Greek Testament.
The bishop, whom Blackwall had known well

in the see of Lincoln, on entering the room,
good-naturedly asked what the chaplain was
about. ' Mr. B. knows more of the Greek
Testament than you do, or I to help you.' The
Latin grammar which Blackwall made use of
in the Derby and Market Bosworth schools
was of his own composition, and he was pre-
vailed upon to publish it, but anonymously,
as he did not wish to appear to prescribe rules
to other instructors of youth. It was entitled
* A new Latin Grammar, being a short, clear,
and easy introduction of young Scholars to
the Knowledge of the Latin Tongue, &c., r
London, 12ino, 1728.

Although the Clapham living was the only
preferment received by l the good old school-
master,' as Gilbert Cooper calls him in his
'Letters on Taste,' he relinquished it by 1729,
when he was again master of Bosworth gram-
mar school, with an income of less than a third
of that yielded by the clerical living. About
this time Samuel Johnson became his ' usher, r
.but the dates of the association are very diffi-
cult to unravel. Blackwall returned to Bos-
worth early in 1729 ; Johnson left college
about December 1729, and even if he went
direct to assist Blackwall it could only have
been for a few months, as the latter died at
the schoolhouse on 8 April 1730. After the
master's death, the usher may have continued
to teach, and when we study Johnson's his-
tory, and read of his going on foot to the
school in a forlorn state of circumstances on
16 July 1732, that can only refer to his
last attendance at Bosworth, probably at
the close of the summer holidays. He left
the house of Sir Wolstan Dixie, a patron of
the school, eleven days after, and thus-
we may conclude he taught in the school
for two and a half years, of which only a few
months were under Blackwall. The dis-
tressing experiences of which we read so-
much in Boswell's memoir and elsewhere
must therefore be referred to the time subse-
quent to Blackwall's death, and when the
control of the Dixies as 'patrons of the
school ' seems to have weighed very heavily
upon Johnson. The present writer, when
under-master of this school, 1854-1863, was
unable to find any records of the association
of Johnson with Blackwall.

Blackwall was twice married. The only
child by the first wife, named Toplis, was An-
thony, who was B.A. of Emmanuel College in
1721 ; by the second wife, who was widow
of Cantrell, his predecessor in the Derby
school, and mother of Henry Cantrell [q.v.] r
he had four sons : Henry, B.A. Emmanuel
College 1721 ; Robert, a dragoon; John, at-
torney at Stoke Golding, near Bosworth,
who died in 1762 ; and William, who died

Blackwall

142

Blackwell

young. He had also one daughter, who
married Mr. Pickering. The daughter of
John Blackwall married William Cantrell,
bookseller, Derby.

[Nichols's Leic. iv. 2, 509 ; Glover's Derby-
shire, i. 106 ; Boswell's Johnson (Croker's). pp.
18, 20; Cooper's Letters on Taste, p. 119;
Home's Introd. 10th ed. iv. 22; Nichols's Lit.
Anecd. i. 130, ii. 551, iii. 332, ix. 809; and
Blackwall's works.] J. W.-GK

BLACKWALL, JOHN (1790-1881),
zoologist, was born at Manchester 20 Jan.
1790. After some years' partnership with
his father, an importer of Irish linen, he re-
tired in 1833 to North Wales, settling ulti-
mately at Llanrwst. As early as 1821 he
published, in Thomson's l Annals of Philo-
sophy,' observations on diurnal mean tempe-
rature, and in 1822 some notes by him on
migratory birds appeared in the * Memoirs of
the Manchester Philosophical Society.' This
was followed by observations on the notes
of birds. Fifteen of his first twenty-five
papers were ornithological. Being attracted
to the study of spiders and their webs, he
was surprised to find scarcely any available
authorities, and this determined his choice of
a principal lifework. His first paper on
spiders appeared in 1827 in the ' Transactions
of the Linnean Society,'. on the means by
which gossamer spiders effect their aerial ex-
cursions. In 1830 he published, in the
>l Zoological Journal,' a paper on the manner
m which the geometric spiders construct
their nets. His papers were collected in
'Researches in Zoology,' 1834; the second
-edition, 1873, was not brought up to date.
Blackwall pursued the study of the spiders
of his own neighbourhood and their habits
with extreme painstaking, almost wholly un-
aided by any British or foreign worker. His
great work, ' A History of the Spiders of
"Great Britain and Ireland,' 1861-4, published
by the Ray Society, was unfortunately in the
hands of the society ten years before its
publication. It is full of minute detail, giv-
ing an almost photographic picture of the
object. Nearly all his work was done with-
out any aid but that of a pocket lens. Some
of his type-specimens are lost, owing to their
having been kept indiscriminately with
others. His writing for the press was most
remarkably clear, and scarcely a single cor-
rection was needed in his proof-sheets. He
died 11 May 1881.

[Obit, notice in the Entomologist, xiv. 145-50,
"'by Rev. 0. Pickard-Cambridge ; see also xiv.
190, and Entomologist's Monthly Mag. xviii. 45.]

GK T. B.

BLACKWELL, ALEXANDER (d.

1747), was an adventurer, whose career is
for the most part enveloped in mystery and
contradiction. It is admitted that he was
born in Aberdeen early in the eighteenth cen-
tury; Fryxell, the Swedish historian of the
intrigue which brought him to the scaffold,
says in 1709, but this seems too late. Ac-
cording to a contemporary memoir, his father
was a petty shopkeeper ; but this production,
although professedly written at Stockholm,
was to all appearance fabricated in London
to serve a political object ; and there seems
no reasonable doubt that he was the brother
of Dr. Thomas Blackwell [q. v.], and conse-
quently the son of another Thomas Blackwell
[q. v.] According to the anonymous bio-
graphy referred to, he studied medicine at
Leyden, under Boerhaave, and he may very
probably have represented himself to have
done so. As, however, we find him practis-
ing the trade of a printer in London about
1730, there is far more probability in the
statement of an apparently well-informed
correspondent of the f Bath Journal,' ab-
stracted in ' The Gentleman's Magazine ' for
September 1747, that Blackwell, urged by
ambition and restlessness, left the university
of Aberdeen without taking a degree, and
! came up to seek his fortune in the metropo-
lis. Having obtained employment from the
printer Wilkins as corrector of the press, he
married an excellent wife with a consider-
able portion, and set up as a printer on his
own account. He seemed on the high road
to prosperity, when he was ruined by a com-
bination of the London printers, who opposed
him as an interloper who had never been ap-
prenticed to the trade. He spent two years
in a debtor's prison, from which he was de-
! livered by the enterprise of his wife [see
! BLACKWELL, ELIZABETH] He then took up
i the study of medicine and agriculture, and was
frequently cor suited respecting the manage-
| ment of estates. Being introduced to the
Duke of Chandos, he obtained employment
as the director of that nobleman's improve-
ments at Cannons, which situation he for-
feited under circumstances not explained,
but apparently little to his credit. ' It kept
him/ says the editor of the ' Gentleman's
Magazine/ annotating the article in the
'Bath Journal/ 'from other employment.'
The printer of the magazine was probably
one of Blackwell's persecutors, yet this may
have been the reason why, as stated in
Chalmers's 'Dictionary/ 'Mr. Blackwell's
family were not very desirous of preserving
his memory/ and allowed the circulation of
erroneous statements which have hitherto
entirely misled his biographers. In 1741,

Blackwell

143

Blackwell

while still in the duke's service, he had heir, was to have been poisoned, that ' a cer-
published ' A New Method of improving tain young prince,' the Duke of Cumberland,
Cold, Wet, and Clayey Grounds,' of which was to have been set upon the throne, and
there is no copy in the British Museum or | that Adolphus Frederick's son, afterwards

the Bodleian. It may have attracted atten-
tion abroad, for the indomitable adventurer
next turns up in Sweden in 1742. Here he
represented himself as a phvsician, prescribed

Gustavus III,was to have been indemnified bv
a principality in Germany. On these charges,
of most if not of all of which he was unques-
tionably innocent, Blackwell was condemned

successfully for the king, and was actually , without any public trial to be broken on the
appointed one of his physicians in ordinary, j wheel, a punishment commuted into decapita-
but soon incurred the suspicion of quackery, j tion. He met his fate on 9 Aug. 1747 with
and fell back upon his old trade of practical I remarkable fortitude, apologising for laying
agriculturist. He published in 1745 ' An Essay ; his head on the wrong side of the block on the
on the Improvement of Swedish Agriculture,' I ground that it was the first time he had ever
which was suspected of being a translation been beheaded. The speech he endeavoured to
from the English ; and was entrusted with j address to the bystanders was drowned in
the direction of a model farm at Allestad. I the roll of drums, and a paper published in
This was alleged to have deteriorated under j his name is probably spurious. The real
his management, and the precariousness of j object and secret springs of his intrigue re-
his appointment may perhaps have driven main a mystery. Some have thought that it
him to engage in political intrigue. Sweden, was a device of his own to gain the king's
under the weak rule of King Frederick, j favour and magnify his own importance, and
was at the time distracted by the contending j that the alleged anonymous letter was a
factions of the ' Hats ' and the ' Caps,' the figment. Others deem him the instrument
former under French influence, the latter ! of a foreign court, probably England. The
inclining to England. An unquiet spirit j ' Hats ' regarded him as an agent of their ad-

like Blackwell would be prone to fish in
these troubled waters, and as his political re-
lations were chiefly with the English party,
the representatives of his own country might
well seek to make a tool of him. In March
1747 he presented himself to the king with a
mysterious verbal communication purporting
to come from the Queen of Denmark (Louisa,
George II's daughter), vaguely hinting at a
large sum of money to be bestowed on con-
dition of altering the succession to the ex- | most plausible, but for the evident pains taken
elusion of the infant crown prince. The king by the English government to vindicate itself
at first referred Blackwell to two of his con- at his expense. According to the corre-

versaries ; the ' Caps ' insisted that he had been
made the stalking-horse of a fictitious plot.
Not a few suspected that he had been ensnared
by the minister Tessin, who was supposed to
be jealous of his influence, and certainly
took the leading part in his torture and
execution. Blackwell is universally repre-
sented as meddlesome, pragmatical, and lo-
quacious, and the theory that his plot was
wholly concocted by himself would appear the

fidants, but on the following day, becoming
alarmed, disclosed the incident to his minis-
ters, who immediately arrested Blackwell.
The latter admitted making the communica-
tion, and declared that he had been prompted
to do so by an anonymous letter which he had
destroyed, and the source of which was un-
known to him. To extract further revelations
he was cruelly tortured. He long with-
stood his sufferings with the greatest con-
stancy, and although he ultimately suc-
cumbed, he revoked his confession, and it is
difficult to ascertain what it really was. It
certainly implicated no other person, for no
one else was proceeded against. The sentence
of his judges, if correctly cited, condemned
him for ' designing to alter the present con-
stitution, and to render the crown absolute ;
to set aside the present established succession ;
and to procure large sums of money to enable
him to execute these schemes.' It was in-
sinuated that Adolphus Frederick, the next

spondent of the ( Bath Journal ' Blackwell
was an excellent scholar in his youth. His
eminent talents were marred by want of prin-
ciple and unsoundness of judgment, but he
must have possessed enterprise, courage, and
versatility.

[Gent. Mag. 1747, pp. 424-6 ; A Genuine Copy
of a Letter from a Merchant in Stockholm to his
Correspondent in London (London, 1747) ; Chal-
mers's Dictionary, art. ' Blackwell (Elizabeth) ;
Credercreutz, Srerige under Ulrica, Eleonora,
och Fredric I (1821); Fryxell, Berattelser ur
Svenska Historien, pt. xxxvii., Stockholm, 1868.
The proceedings of the tribunal which condemned
Blackwell were sealed up by order of Count Tes-
sin, and remained unexamined for thirty-three
years, when Gustavus III deposited them in the
public archives. Their contents were first di-
vulged in 1846, in an essay contributed to the
newspaper Frey, by N. Arfvidsson, upon which
Fryxell's circumstantial and interesting narra-
tive is mainly founded.] B. G.

Blackwell

144

Blackwell

BLACKWELL, ELIZABETH (ft. 1737),
wife of Alexander Blackwell [q. v.], is posi-
tively asserted by James Bruce (Lives of Emi-
nent Men of Aberdeen, p. 307) to have been
the daughter of a stocking merchant in Aber-
deen, and to have eloped with her husband
to London before he found employment as a
corrector of the press. No authority is given
for these statements. Blackwell's biographer
in the ' Bath Journal,' who seems to write
with a knowledge of the family, asserts on ;
the other hand that the marriage took place !
subsequently, and describes Elizabeth as ' a j
virtuous gentlewoman, the daughter of a \
worthy merchant,' who gave his daughter a
handsome portion. ' Virtuous ' and ' worthy ' j
were unquestionably epithets applicable to
Elizabeth herself, who extricated her hus- !
band from his pecuniary difficulties by apply-
ing her talent for painting to the delineation i
of medicinal plants with the colours of nature.
She was encouraged by Sir Hans Sloane, Dr.
Mead, and Mr. Rand, curator of the botanical ,
garden at Chelsea. By his advice she took
lodgings close by the garden, where she was
supplied with plants, which she depicted with
extreme skill and fidelity, while Blackwell
himself supplied the scientific and foreign
nomenclature, and, with the original author's i
consent, abridged the descriptions in Philip I
Miller's ' Botanicum Officinale.' After finish-
ing the drawings, Elizabeth engraved them
on copper herself, and coloured the prints
with her own hands. The work at length
appeared in 1737, in 2 vols. folio, under the
title of ' A Curious Herbal, containing five j
hundred cuts of the most useful plants which !
are now used in the practice of Physic.' It j
was accompanied by laudatory certificates j
from the College of Physicians and College
of Surgeons, and dedications to Drs. Mead,
Pellet, and Stuart. As a monument of female
devotion it is most touching and admirable,
and its practical value was very great. l If/
says a writer in Chalmers's 'Dictionary,'
' there is wanting that accuracy which mo-
dern improvements have rendered necessary
in delineating the more minute parts ; yet,
upon the whole, the figures are sufficiently |
distinctive of the subject.' Rousseau com- I
plains of its want of method, but it was not
designed to accompany treatises on botany.
Its merits received the most substantial re-
cognition from the fine republication under-
taken by Trew (Nuremberg, 1757-73), with
the addition of a sixth century of plants, and j
a preface pointing out its superiority to the
more scientific work of Morandi alike in ac-
curacy and delicacy of colouring and in the
copiousness of representations of exotic plants.
Having performed her task of delivering her

husband and temporarily re-establishing his
affairs, Elizabeth Blackwell disappears from
observation. According to the contemporary
pamphlet on her husband's execution, she
was then in England, but had been upon tha
point of joining him in Sweden. The date
of her death is not recorded. She must have
left children if, as has been stated, descend-
ants from her exist at the present day.

[Gent. Mag. vol. xvii. ; Chalmers's Diet. ;
Br uce's Eminent Men of Aberdeen, 1841.1

E.G.

BLACKWELL, GEORGE (1545 P-1613),
archpriest, was born in Middlesex in or about
1545. A secular priest, in a controversial
letter addressed to him, says : ' Your father
was indeed a pewterer by Newgate in Lon-
don, a man of honest occupation it is most
true, but not the best neighbour to dwell by/
He was admitted scholar of Trinity College,.
Oxford, 27 May 1562, graduated B.A. in 1563,
became probationer of his college in 1565, per-
petual fellow in the following year, and M.A.
in 1567. ' But his mind being more addicted
to the catholic than to the reformed religion he
left his fellowship and retired to Gloucester
Hall for a time, where he was held in good
repute by Edm. Rainolds and Thomas Allen,
the two learned seniors ' (WooD, Athence
Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 122). Leaving the uni-
versity he went over to the English college
at Douay, where he was admitted in 1574, and
being already far advanced in learning was
ordained priest in 1575. He took the degree
of B.D. the same year in the university of
Douay, and returned to England upon the
mission in November 1576.

As early as 1578 he was in prison (J)oua\f
Diaries, 147). To this occasion perhaps the
secular priest already mentioned refers when
he says : l About twenty years since, to my
remembrance, you were imprisoned in Lon-
don : but your brother, being the bishop of
London's register, procured your release very
shortly after.' Blackwell lodged for seven
or eight years in the house of Mrs. Meany in
Westminster, and was constantly in fear of"
arrest and imprisonment. Once he owed his
deliverance from impending danger to the in-
tervention of the Countess of Arundel and
Surrey, whose anonymous biographer informs -
us that < he being forced for his own and the
gentlewoman's security he liv'd with to hide
himself in a secret place of the house when
search was made after [him] by the hereticks :
and being in great danger of being taken or
famish'd by reason that all the catholicks of
the house were cariy'd away to prison, and
heretick watchmen put into the house to keep
it and hinder any from helping him. She-

Blackwell

145

Blackwell

haveing notice of his distress dealt so with the
officer who had the principal charge of that
business that after three dayes he was content
two of her servants should come to that house
at the time when the guard was chang'd, take
Mr. Blackwell out of the hideing-place, and
convey him away, as they speedily did, bring-
ing him betwixt them, he not being able to
go alone, to their lady's house, where, after
some dayes for refreshing he had stay'd, she
sent him safe to the place he desir'd to go '
(Lives of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel,
and of Anne Dacres, his wife, 216, 217). It
would seem that he sometimes visited the
continent, as he is said to have formed a per-
sonal acquaintance with Cardinal Bellarmin
And other eminent writers, who give an ex- ;
cellent character of his learning and capacity
which they discovered while he had occasion
to reside in Rome (DoDD, Church Hist. ii. 380). j

After the decease of Cardinal Allen the at- \
fairs of the English catholic clergy fell into
a state of confusion, owing to the absence of j
any means of enforcing regular discipline.
The petitions for the appointment of a bishop
were not favourably received at Rome, but
on 7 March 1597-8 Cardinal Cajetan, the pro- j
tector of the English nation, addressed a letter
to Blackwell, announcing to him the command
of the pope, Clement VIII, that he should be
archpriest over the secular clergy. Unlimited
power was given to Blackwell to restrain or
revoke the faculties of the clergy, to remove
them from place to place at his pleasure, and
to punish the refractory by deprivation or j
censures. The cardinal named six persons to
be his assistants, and empowered him to ap-
point six others. ' The Jesuits,' the cardinal
continues, ' neither have nor pretend to have
any jurisdiction or authority over the clergy,
-or seek to disquiet them ; it seemeth, there-
fore, a manifest subtlety and deceit of the
devil, complotted for the overthrow of the
whole English cause, that any catholic should
practice or stir up emulation against them.'
This letter was accompanied by private in-
structions, which prohibited the archpriest j
and his twelve assistants from determining \
any matter of importance without advising i
with the superior of the Jesuits and some j
others of the order.

The appointment of Blackwell gave rise to i
serious and protracted dissensions among the I
.clergy, which were secretly fomented by the I
English government (FoLEY, Records, i. 12
v-et seq.) Thirty-one secular priests, headed
by Dr. Bishop, sent an appeal to Rome, and
on 6 April 1599 the pope issued a bull, fully
.recognising and sanctioning the letter of Car-
dinal Cajetan, and the appointment of the arch- |
Driest and his acts, declaring the letter to have j

VOL. V.

been valid from the first, and explicitly or-
dering it to be obeyed and its regulations to
be complied with. The appellant priests at
once submitted to the bull without any linii-
: tation. It was contended, however, that the
actual submission of the appellants did not
undo or atone for the criminality of their
former appeal, and on this ground the arch-
priest and his adherents continued to treat
them as schismatics. They again appealed to
i Rome, and the pope addressed to the arch-
priest a brief (17 Aug. 1601), recommending
him to temper severity with mildness, and
exhorting all parties to a general oblivion of
the offence. This letter, however, did not
entirely pacify the troubles ; the clergy sent
a third deputation to Rome, and a second
letter was addressed by the pope to the arch-
priest (6 Oct. 1602). His holiness blamed him
for proceeding by suspension and censures
against the appellant priests, and commanded
him to communicate no business of his office
to the provincial of the Society of Jesus, or
to any members of the society in England,
lest it should be a cause of animosity and dis-
cord between the society and the appellants ;
and with the same view he revoked the con-
trary injunctions given by Cardinal Cajetan.
Thus the matters in dispute were finally set-
tled by papal authority.

For some time after this Blackwell exer-
cised his authority as archpriest without
opposition ; but he eventually got entangled
in a controversy of another kind, and drew
upon himself the censures of the holy see.
In 1606 the government of King James I im-
posed on catholics a new oath, which was
to be the test of their civil allegiance. The
wording of the oath was entrusted to Arch-
bishop Bancroft, who, with the assistance of
Sir Christopher Perkins, a ' renegado Jesuit/
so framed it as to give to the designs of the
ministry the desired effect, ' which was first
to divide the catholics about the lawfulness
of the oath ; secondly, to expose them to daily
prosecutions in case of refusal, and, in con-
sequence of this, to misrepresent them as dis-
affected persons, and of unsound principles in
regard of civil government ' (Dors, Church
Hist. ii. 366). Blackwell told his clergy by
a circular letter, dated 22 July 1606, that it
was his holiness's pleasure that they should
behave themselves peaceably with regard to
all civil matters. ' Sua sanctitas nullo modo
probat, tales tractatus agitari inter catholicos:
imo jubet, ut hujusmodi cogitationes depo-
nantur.' Previously, on 28 Nov. 1605, he had
written a similar letter to the catholic laity.
At several meetings of the secular and regu-
lar clergy, convened to consider the oath,
Blackwell advised them to take it. Cardinal

Blackwell

146

Blackwell

Bellarmin wrote to him an admonitory letter
on this subject, to which he replied. Being
apprehended near Clerkenwell on 24 June
1607, he was committed prisoner to the Gate-
house in Westminster, and thence was re-
moved to the Clink prison in Southwark,
where he was frequently examined upon
several articles, especially concerning the oath
of allegiance. In fine, he took the oath, and
several of the clergy and laity followed his
example, notwithstanding the fact that the
oath had twice been formally condemned by
Pope Paul V in 1606 and 1607. Blackwell's
conversion being despaired of, the sovereign
pontiff deprived him of the office of archpriest
in 1608, and appointed George Birket [q. v.]
to supply his place.

Blackwell died on 12 Jan. 1612-13, per-
sisting to the last in his approbation of the
oath. On being taken suddenly ill some
priests attended him, and he assured them
that he deemed it to be a lawful oath, and
that in taking it he had done nothing con-
trary to conscience (WIDDKINGTON, Dispu-
tatio Theologica de Juramento Fidelitatis,
393-5).

A large number of books were published
against him, chiefly by Watson, Colleton, Dr.
Bishop, Dr. Champney, and other catholic
divines. The principal other works relating
to the controversies in which he was engaged
are : 1. ' The Hope of Peace, by laying open
such doubts and manifest untruthes as are de-
vulged by the Archpriest in his letter or an-
swere to the Bookes which were published by
the priestes,' Frankfort, 1601, 4to. 2. ' Mr.
George Blackwel (made by Pope Clement 8,
Archpriest of England), his Answeres vpon
sundry his Examinations : together with his
Approbation and taking of the Oath of Alle-
geance : and his Letter written to his assis-
tants and brethren, moouing them not onely
to take the said Oath, but to aduise all Ro-
mish Catholikes so to doe,' London, 1607, 4to.
3. ' A large Examination taken at Lambeth,
according to his Maiesties direction, point by
point, of M. George Blakwell, made Arch-
priest of England, by pope Clement 8. Vpon
occasion of a certaine answere of his, without
the priuitie of the State, to a Letter lately
sent vnto him from Cardinall Bellarmine,
blaming him for taking the Oath of Allegeance.
Together with the Cardinals Letter, and M.
Blakwels said answere vnto it. Also M.
Blakwels Letter to the Romish Catholickes
in England, as well Ecclesiasticall as Lay,'
London, 1607, 4to ; also printed in French at
Amsterdam, 1609. 4. ' In Georgium Black-
vellum Anglige Archipresbyterum a Clemente
Papa Octavo designatum Quaestio bipartita :
Cuius Actio prior Archipresbyteri iusiuran-

dum de Fidelitate prestitum, Altera eiusdem
iuramenti Assertionem, contra Cardinalis Bel-
larmini Literas, continet,' London, 1609, 4to.
5. ' Relatio compendiosa turbarum quas le-
suitae Angli, vna cum D. Georgio Blackwello
Archipresbytero, Sacerdotibus Seminariorum
populoq; Catholico cociuere ob schismatis &
aliorum criminum inuidiam illis iniuriose
impactam sacro sanctee inquisitionis officio
exhibita, vt rerum veritate cognita ab inte-
gerrimis eiusdem iudicibus lites & causse dis-
cutiantur et terminentur,' Rouen, 4to.

[Dodd's Church Hist. (1737), ii. 251-65, 366,
380, also Tierney's edit. iv. 70 et seq., App. 110.
142, 147, 148, 157, v. 8, 12 ; Wood's Athen. Oxon.
ed. Bliss, ii. 122, Fasti, i. 162, 179 ; Berington's
Memoirs of Panzani ; Ullathorne's Hist, of the
Restoration of the Cath. Hierarchy, 7 ; Flana-
gan's Hist, of the Church in England, ii. 265-69,
299, 301 ; Anatomie of Popish Tyrannie (1603),
177; Diaries of the English College, Douay;
Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,
2nd ser. 23, 153, 154, 3rd ser. 116; MS. HarL
6809, art. 190; MS. Lansd. 983 f. 123; MS.
Cotton. Titus B. vii. 468 ; MS. Addit. 30, 662 f.
726. ; Butler's Hist. Memoirs of the English
Catholics (1822), ii. 204 et seq. 254 ; Lingard's
Hist, of England (1849), vii. 91-95; Foley'&
Records ; Calendars of State Papers.] T. C.

BLACKWELL, JOHN (1797-1840),
Welsh poet and prose writer, was born at
Mold, in Flintshire, in 1797, and for many
years followed the trade of a shoemaker in
his native town. From an early age he showed
the greatest avidity for books, and he carried
off' several prizes offered for poems and essays
in the Welsh language. By the liberality of
friends he was enabled to enter Jesus College,
Oxford, in 1824, and he took the degree of
B.A. in 1828. In the autumn of the latter
year, at the Royal Denbigh Eisteddvod, a
prize was adjudged to him for his beautiful
Welsh elegy on the death of Bishop Heber.
In 1829 he was ordained to the curacy of
Holy well. During his residence there he con-
tributed largely to the columns of the t Gwy-
liedydd,' a periodical conducted on the prin-
ciples of the established church, and in 1832
he was presented with a prize medal at the
Beaumaris Eisteddvod. In 1833 he was pre-
sented by Lord-chancellor Brougham to the
living of Manor Deivy, in Pembrokeshire.
I Soon afterwards he became editor of an illus-
trated magazine in the Welsh language, en-
1 titled ' Y Cylchgrawn,' and he conducted this
j periodical with remarkable ability. He died on
14 May 1840, and was buried at Manor Deivy.
t His poems and essays, with a memoir of his
j life, were edited by the Rev. Griffith Edwards
I of Minera, in a volume entitled 'Ceinion.
! Alun,' Ruthin, 1851, 8vo.

Blackwell

147

Blackweli

[Williams's Eminent Welshmen, 554 ; Gent.
Mag. (New Set.), xiv. 100.] T. C.

BLACKWELL, THOMAS, the elder
(1660 P-1728), a learned Scotch minister, is
sometimes confounded with his more cele-
brated son of the same name. He was called
to the charge as presbyterian minister at Pais-
ley, Renfrewshire, on 5 April 1693, but his or-
dination was delayed to 28 Aug. 1694 for
various reasons, one being his own ' unclear-
ness ' about accepting the call. He was trans-
lated to Aberdeen on 9 Oct. 1700, and in 1710
he was elected professor of divinity in the
Marischal College of the university of Aber-
deen. In the same year he published * Ratio
Sacra, or an appeal unto the Rational World
about the reasonableness of Revealed Religion
. . . directed against the three grand prevailing
errors of Atheism, Deism, and Bourignonism/
Edin. 12mo. The same year his second work
appeared : ( Schema Sacrum, or a Sacred
Scheme of Natural and Revealed Religion,
making a Scriptural-Rational Account of
these Three Heads ... of Creation ... of
Divine Predestination . . . and of the Wise
Divine Procedure in accomplishing the
Scheme/ Edin. 8vo, pp. 340. A second edi-
tion in 12mo was published at Paisley in
1800. An American edition was brought
out by a New Hampshire minister, with a
list of over 700 names of subscribers, under
the altered title of ' Forma Sacra, or a Sacred
Platform of Natural and Revealed Religion
... by the pious and learned Thomas Black-
well ' (with a lengthy introduction on the-
position and prospects of religion in America),
by Simon Williams, M.A.,' 12mo, Boston,
1774. The latter was minister of the gospel
at Wyndham, New Hampshire, and he
speaks of Blackwell as ' a minister much es-
teemed in Peasley, North Britain/ his in-
formant, the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, then
president of the college in the Jerseys, having
been one of his successors in the church at
Paisley. Blackwell appears to have taken a
prominent part in the disturbed affairs of the
Scottish church. The first of the ' Tracts con-
cerning Patronage by some eminent Lairds ;
with a candid inquiry about the constitu-
tion of the Church of Scotland in relation to
the Settlement of Ministers/ 8vo, Edin. 1770,
is entitled, < Representation by Mr. William
Carstairs, Thomas Blackwell, and Robert
Baillie, Ministers of the Church of Scotland,
offered by them in the name and by appoint-
ment of the General Assembly against the
bill for restoring patronages/ 1712. Another
work of his was published in 1712 entitled
'Methodus Evangelica/ 8vo, London.

Black well's appointment as professor of

divinity in the Marischal College was by pre-
sentation vested in the Marischal family

George Keith, fifth Earl Marischal, being
the founder but on the forfeiture of their
rights consequent upon their adherence to the
cause of the Stuarts, the patronage in 1715
was vested in the crown ; and the office of
principal being vacant in 1717, George I re-
cognised the merits of Blackwell by appoint-
ing- him to the same, a position which, along
with his previous professorship, he held until
his death in 1728. The names associated
with this famous institution in Blackwell's
time and during his son's career, or early in
the eighteenth century, are of great emi-
nence. Among many others, there occur to
us those of Bishop Burnet, Dr. Arbuthnot,
Dr. Reid, the poet Beattie, Bishop Keith,
Dr. Turnbull, the Fordyces (his grandsons),
Gibbs the architect, and Professors Mac-
laurin, Duncan, Stewart, Gerard, and George
Campbell.

Blackwell married a sister of Dr. Johnston,
many years professor of medicine in the uni-
versity of Glasgow, and by her had two sons,
Alexander [q. v.] and Thomas [q. v.] ; and
one daughter, married to Provost Fordyce of
Aberdeen, by whom she had nineteen children ,
some of whom became well known : David
Fordyce the professor, James Fordyce the
popular preacher, and Sir William Fordyce
the physician.

[Blackwell's works ; Williams's Forma Sacra ;
New Statist. H. of Scotland, vii. 235, xii. 11,
1190 ; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 93] J. W.-G.

BLACKWELL, THOMAS, the younger
(1701-1757), classical scholar, born on 4 Aug.
1701 in the city of Aberdeen, was the son of
the Rev. Thomas Blackwell [see BLACZWELL,
THOMAS, the elder]. He was educated at the
grammar school of Aberdeen, and studied
Greek and philosophy in the Marischal College
of the university of the same city, of which his
father occupied the chair of divinity from 1 710,
and had become principal in 1717. He took
the degree of M.A. in 1718, a remarkable in-
stance of proficiency in a young man of seven-
teen, and in recognition of his ability he was
presented on 28 Nov. 1723 to the professor-
ship of Greek in the same college, and took
office on 13 Dec. following. He soon made
his mark as a successful teacher of the Greek
language. It was not in his favourite Greek
literature only, but also in the Latin classics,
that he exerted himself. He was held in high
estimation by the celebrated Berkeley, who
selected him as a professor in the projected
college at Bermuda.

In 1735 Blackwell published in London
an octavo volume, without bookseller's or

L 2

Blackwell

148

Blackwell

author's name, 'An Enquiry into the Life
and Writings of Homer/ arranged in twelve
sections, as an answer to the question, ' By
what fate or disposition of things it has hap-
pened that no poet has equalled him for
2,700 years, nor any that we know ever sur-
passed him before ? ' A second London edi-
tion in octavo, and also anonymous, came
out in 1736, followed soon after by ' Proofs
of the Enquiry into Homer's Life and
Writings, translated into English ; being a
Key to the ^nquiry . . . .' With a curious
Frontispiece, 8vo, London, 1747. This was
merely a translation of the learned and co-
pious notes originally given in Greek, Latin,
Spanish, Italian, and French. The t Enquiry '
was considered a remarkable book at the
time, and opinions on its merits have varied
considerably. Gibbon, without any expla-
nation of his assertion, speaks of it as ' by
Blackwell of Aberdeen, or rather by Bishop
Berkeley, a fine, though sometimes fanciful,
effort of genius ! '

In 1748 appeared another work by Black-
well, 'Letters concerning Mythology,' 8vo,
London, without his name or the bookseller's
(Andrew Millar) imprint. The preface in-
timates that some of the first letters ' passed
in correspondence written by a learned and
worthy man, whose death prevented his pro-
secuting his plan,' the additions to the seventh
and eighth letters, and all following, being
by the author of ' An Enquiry . . .^JEEomer/
&c. No clue is afforded to the original
writer, whose letters are given in a very
pleasant and lively style, and chiefly refer
to the Homeric ' Enquiry.' The later writer
continues throughout in the same vein, and
makes a very readable book. The second
edition, 8vo, London, 1757, appeared soon
after the author's death, and gives his name.
In the first volume of the ' Archseologia '
there is a letter, dated 18 Aug. 1748, ad-
dressed by Dr. T. Blackwell to Mr. Ames,
with an explanation of an ancient Greek
inscription on a white marble found in the
Isle of Tasso by Captain Hales.

On 7 Oct. 1748 George II appointed Black-
well principal of the Marischal College in
Aberdeen, a position which he held, along
with the Greek chair, till his death. Black-
well is the only layman ever appointed prin-
cipal of this college since the patronage was
vested in the crown. When the well-known
Glasgow printers, Robert and Andrew Foulis,
projected an edition of Plato, Blackwell pro-
posed to furnish them with critical notes,
together with an account of Plato's life and
philosophy ; his terms being too high, the
design was relinquished. He then published
in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for 1751 a

Latin advertisement of a similar venture* of
his own. This work was never published,
however, and his manuscripts, after death,
offered no traces of such a scheme.

On 30 March 1752 he took the degree of
doctor of laws, and in the following year ap-
peared the first volume of his ' Memoirs of
the Court of Augustus,' 4to, Edinburgh. The
second volume was published, 4to, Edin-
burgh, in 1755, and the third volume, which
was posthumous and left incomplete by the
author (whose text reached to p. 144 only),
was prepared for the press, with additional
pages, by Mr. John Mills, and published in
4to, London, 1764 (seven years after his
death), along with the third edition of the
two former volumes. This work contains
fine impressions of heads of great personages
from genuine antiques. It had a good recep-
tion, but unfortunately it was written with so
much parade and in such a peculiar style that
it offered a wide field for adverse criticism.
Johnson reviewed it sarcastically in the
Literary Magazine,' 1756, but concludes :
' This book is the work of a man of letters ; it
is full of events displayed with accuracy and
related with vivacity.' A French translation
by M. Feutry of this work was published in
12mo, 3 vols., Paris, 1781.

Several years before his death Blackwell's
health began to decline, and compelled him
to take assistance in his Greek class. Even-
tually he was forced to travel, and in February
1757 he reached Edinburgh, but could pro-
ceed no further. In that city he died on
8 March, in his fifty-sixth year. During
a protracted illness he had displayed an
equable flow of temper, endearing him to
all. Before he started on his journey he
drew together all the professors of the col-
lege and spent two hours of pleasant con-
ference with them, and on the day of his
death he wrote letters to several of his
friends, and took leave of them in a cheerful
and contented strain. In private life his
habits were very agreeable ; his conversation
ever instructive and affable, accompanied
with a flow of good humour, even when pro-
voked to some display of passion.

Soon after his appointment as principal of
his college he married Barbara Black, daugh-
ter of an Aberdeen merchant, by whom he
had no children. This lady survived him
many years and died in 1793. She be-
queathed her estates, partly to found a chair
of chemistry in the college with which the
names of her husband, her father-in-law,
and the Fordyces (her nephews) had been so
long associated, and partly for the premium
of an English essay and for the augmenta-
tion of the professorial salaries.

Blackwood

149

Blackwood

[Nichols's Lit. Illust. ii. 35, 69, 814, 820, 851,
iv. 84; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 641 ; Kames's
H. of Man ; Beattie's Dissertations ; Stat. H. of
Scot. xii. 1169 ; Archseologia, i. ; Gent. Mag. xvii.
298, xxi. 283 ; Lit. Mag. 1756 ; Johnson's Works,
1835, vi. 9 ; Warburton's Pamphlets; Blackwell's
Works, &c.] J. W.-G.

BLACKWOOD, ADAM (1539-1613),
Scottish writer, was descended from a family
in good circumstances, and was born at Dun-
fermline in 1539. His father, William Black-
wood, was slain in battle before the son reached
his tenth, year, and his mother did not long
survive the loss of her husband. Thereupon he
was taken in charge by her uncle, Robert Reid,
bishop of Orkney, who, recognising his excep-
tional abilities, sent him to the university of
Paris, where he enjoyed the tuition of the two
celebrated professors, Turnebus, and Auratus
or Dorat, from the latter of whom he acquired
an ambition to excel in Latin poetry. After
the death of Bishop Reid in 1558, Blackwood
went to Scotland ; but finding, on account of
the disquiet of the times, no prospect of con-
tinuing his studies, he returned to Paris,
where, through the munificence of Queen
Mary, then residing with her first husband,
the dauphin, at the court of France, he was
enabled to resume his university course.
After prosecuting the study of mathematics,
philosophy, and oriental languages, he passed
two years at Toulouse, reading civil law. On
his return to Paris he began to employ him-
self in teaching philosophy. In 1574 he pub-
lished at Paris a eulogistic memorial poem
on Charles IX of France, entitled l Caroli IX
Pompa Funebris versiculis expressa per A. B.
J.C.' (Juris Consultum), and in 1575, also at
Paris, a work on the relation between religion
and government, entitled ' De Vinculo ; seu
Conjunctione Religionis et Imperil libri duo,
quibus conjurationum traducuntur insidiee
fuco religionis adumbratse.' A third book
appeared in 1612. The work was dedicated
to Queen Mary of Scotland, and, in keeping
with his poem commemorating the author of
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was in-
tended to demonstrate the necessity laid upon
rulers to extirpate heresy as a phase of rebel-
lion against a divinely constituted authority.
The work was so highly esteemed by James
Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, that he re-
commended Queen Mary to bestow on him the
office of counsellor or judge of the parliament
of Poictiers, the province of Poitou having by
letters patent from Henry III been assigned to
her in payment of a dowry. Some misunder-
standing regarding the nature of this office
seems to have given rise to the statement of
Mackenzie and others that Blackwood was
professor of civil law at Poictiers. He now

collected an extensive library, and, encouraged
by the success of his previous work, he set
himself to the hard and ambitious task of
grappling with George Buchanan, whose
views he denounced with great bitterness
and severity in ' Apologia pro Regibus, ad-
versus Georgii Buchanani Dialogum de Jure
Regni apud Scotos,' Pictavis, 1581 ; Parisiis,
1588. During Queen Mary's captivity in
England he paid her frequent visits, and was
untiring in his efforts to do her all the service
in his power. After her death he published
a long exposure of her treatment in imprison-
ment, interspersed with passionate denuncia-
tions of her enemies, especially Knox and
Elizabeth. The work bears to have been
printed 'a Edimbourg chez Jean Nafield.
1587,' but the name is fictitious, and it was
in reality printed at Paris. It was reprinted
at Antwerp in 1588, and again in 1589, and
is also included in the collection of Jebb ' De
Vita et Rebus gestis Mariee Scotorum Reginse
Autores sedecim,' torn, ii., London, 1725. The
title of the work is l Martyre de la Royne
d'Escosse, Douairiere de France ; contenant
le vray discours des trai'sons a elle faictes a la
suscitation d'Elizabet Angloise, par lequel les
mensonges, calomnies, et faulses accusations
dressees contre ceste tresvertueuse, trescatho-
lique et tresillustre princesse son esclarcies
et son innocence averee.' At the end of the
volume there is a collection of verses in Latin,
French, and Italian, on Mary and Elizabeth.
A fragment of a translation of the work into
English, the manuscript of which belongs to
the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the
seventeenth century, was published by the
Maitland Club in 1834. The work contains
no contribution of importance towards the
settlement of the vexed question regarding
the character of the unhappy queen, but is
of special interest as a graphic presentment
of the sentiments and feelings which her piti-
able fate aroused in her devoted adherents.
In 1606 Blackwood published a poem on the
accession of James VI of Scotland to the
English throne, entitled ' Inauguratio Jacobi
Magnse Britanniae Regis,' Paris, 1606. He
was also the author of pious meditations in
prose and verse, entitled ' Sanctarum Preca-
tionum Prooemia, seu mavis, Ejaculationes
Animse ad Orandum se preeparantis,' Aug.
Pict. 1598 and 1608 ; of a penitential study,
1 In Psalmum Davidis quinquagesimum, cujus
initium est Miserere mei Deus, Adami Blac-
vodaei Meditatio,' Aug. Pict. 1608 ; and of
miscellaneous poems, * Varii generis Poemata,'
Pictavis, 1609. He died in 1613, and was
buried in the St. Porcharius church at Poic-
tiers, where a marble monument was erected
to his memory. By his marriage to Catherine

Blackwood

Blackwood

Court inier, daughter of the ' procureur de roi '
of Poictiers, he left four sons and seven
daughters. His collected works in Latin and
French appeared at Paris in 1644, with a life
and eulogistic notice by Gabriel Naud6. The
volume contains a portrait of the author by
Picart, in his official robes.

[Life by Naud in collected ed. of his Works ;
Mackenzie's Writers of the Scots Nation, iii.
487-513; Irving's Scottish Writers, i. 161-9;
Chambers's Biog. Diet, of Eminent Scotsmen, i.
142-3.] T. F.H.

BLACKWOOD, GEORGE FREDE-
RICK (1838-1880), major, was second son of
Major William Blackwood, of the Bengal
army, and grandson of the founder of the
firm [see BLACKWOOD, WILLIAM].

He was born in 1838 ; was educated at the
Edinburgh academy and at Addiscombe :
and was gazetted a second lieutenant in the
Bengal artillery on 11 Dec. 1857. He ar-
rived in India "in the midst of the Indian
mutiny, and was at once appointed to com-
mand two guns in Colonel Wilkinson's Ro-
hilcund movable column. He was promoted
first lieutenant on 27 Aug. 1858, and filled
the post of adjutant first to the Bareilly
and Gwalior divisions, and then to the
twenty-second and nineteenth brigades of
royal artillery from 1859 to 1864. He was
promoted captain on 20 Feb. 1867, and in
1 872 was appointed to command the artillery
attached to General Bourchier's column in
the Looshai expedition. In that capacity
he was present at the attacks on Tipar-Mukh,
Kiing-Is iing and Taikooni, and he gave such
satisfaction that his services were specially
mentioned in the general's despatch of
19 March 1872, and he was promoted major
by brevet on 11 Sept. following. He gave
further evidence of his ability as an artillery
officer by his very able report on the use of
guns in such country as that in which he had
been recently engaged, with hints on the
calibre best suited for mountain guns, which
was printed by the Indian government and
circulated by it among its officers. Black-
wood was promoted major on 10 Feb. 1875,
and after temporarily commanding a battery
of royal horse artillery came to England on
sick leave. He thus missed the first Afghan
campaign of 1878-79, but was in India when
on the news of Cavagnari's death it was
determined to once more occupy both Cabul
and Candahar. Blackwood was posted to the
command of the E battery B brigade of royal
horse artillery, and ordered to join the force
destined for Candahar. While stationed there
the news arrived of the advance of Ayoub
Khan, and a column was ordered out under

the command of Brigadier-general Burrows
to assist the wali placed in command by Ab-
dur-rahman Khan, and to investigate the
strength of the enemy. To that column Black-
wood's battery was attached ; the column was
cut to pieces in the terrible battle of Maiwand
on 27 July 1880, where Blackwood was killed
and two of his guns lost.

[Times, 2 Oct. 1880.] H. M. S.

BLACKWOOD, HENRY, M.D. (d. 1614),
physician, was descended from a family of
good position in Fifeshire, and was a brother
of Adam Blackwood [q. v.], judge of the par-
liament of Poitiers. He was born at Dun-
fermline, and after studying belles lettres and
philosophy was sent by his uncle, Robert
Reid, bishop of Orkney, to the university of
Paris, where he taught philosophy about the
year 1551. Having afterwards studied medi-
cine he graduated M.D., was incorporated a
member of the College of Physicians of Paris,
and ultimately became dean of the faculty.
He died in 1614. He edited < In Organum
Aristotelis Commentaria,' * Collatio Philoso-
phise atque Medicinae,' and 'De Claris Me-
dicis ; ' and left in manuscript ' Animadversio
in omnes Galeni libros,' ' Hippocratis quse-
dam cum MSS. collata,' 'In Alexandrum
Trallianum Comment.,' and ' Locorum quo-
rumdam Plinii explicatio.' Mackenzie also
attributes to him ' Hippocratis Coi Progno-
sticorum libri tres, cum Latina interpreta-
tione, ad veterum exemplarium fidem emen-
dati et recogniti,' Paris, 1625, but the work
was really edited by his son Henry, who was
also a professor of medicine and surgery at
Paris, and who died at Rouen, 17 Oct. 1634.
George Blackwood, a brother of the father,
taught philosophy at Paris about the year
1571, but subsequently took holy orders, and
, obtained considerable preferment in the
French Church.

[Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Scot. Gent. (1627),
116-17; Biographie Universelle, iv. 549 ; Moreri's
Dictionnaire Historiqne, ii. 489 ; Mackenzie's
Writers of the Scots Nation, iii. 479-87 ; Irving's
Scottish Writers, i. 168-9.] T. F. H.

BLACKWOOD, SIB HENRY (1770-
1832), vice-admiral, fourth son of Sir John
Blackwood, bart., of Ballyleidy, co. Down,
and of Dorcas, Baroness Dufferin, and Clane-
boye, was born on 28 Dec. 1770. In April
1781 he entered the navy as a volunteer on
board the Artois frigate, with Captain Mac-
bride, and in her was present at the battle on
the Doggerbank. He afterwards served with
Captains Montgomery and Whitshed, and for
four years in the Trusty with Commodore
Cosby in the Mediterranean. In 1790 he

Blackwood

Blackwood

was signal midshipman 011 board the Queen
Charlotte with Lord Howe, by whom he was
made lieutenant 3 Nov. 1790. In 1791 he
was in the Proserpine frigate with Captain
Curzon, and towards the close of that year
obtained leave to go to France in order to
improve himself in the French language.
During the greater part of 1792 he was in
Paris, and on one occasion was in consider-
able danger, having been denounced as a spy,
and eventually had to fly for his life. He
was almost immediately appointed to the
Active frigate, from which, a few months
later, he was transferred to the Invincible
at the special request of Captain Pakenham.
Of this ship Blackwood was first lieutenant
on 1 June 1794, and as such was promoted,
along with all the other first lieutenants of
the ships of the line, on 6 July. He was
immediately appointed to the Megaera, and
continued in her, attached to the fleet under
Lord Howe and afterwards Lord Bridport,
until he was promoted to the rank of captain
2 June 1795. After a few months in com-
mand of the guardship at Hull he was ap-
pointed to the Brilliant frigate, of 28 guns,
which for the next two years was attached
to the North Sea fleet under the command
of Admiral Duncan. Early in 1798 the
Brilliant was sent out to join Admiral Wal-
degrave on the Newfoundland station : and
on 26 July, whilst standing close in to the bay
of Santa Cruz, in quest of a French privateer,
she was sighted and chased by two French
frigates of the largest size. By admirable
seamanship, promptitude, and courage, Black-
wood succeeded in checking -the pursuit and
in escaping (JAMES, Naval History, ed. I860,
ii. 250). His conduct at this critical time
was deservedly commended. Early in 1799
the Brilliant returned to England, and Black-
wood was appointed to the Penelope frigate,
of 36 guns, in which, after a few months of
Channel service, he Avas sent out to the
Mediterranean, and employed during the
winter and following spring in the close
blockade of Malta. On the night of 30 March
1800 the Guillaume Tell, of 80 guns, taking
advantage of a southerly gale and intense
darkness, weighed and ran out of the har-
bour. As she passed the Penelope, Black-
wood immediately followed, and, having the
advantage of sailing, quickly came up with
her : then in the words of the log ' luffed
under her stern, and gave him the larboard
broadside, bore up under the larboard quarter
and gave him the starboard broadside, receiv-
ing from him only his stern-chase guns. From
this hour till daylight, finding that we could
place ourselves on either quarter, the action
continued in the foregoing manner, and with

such success on our side that, when day broke,
the Guillaume Tell was found in a most dis-
mantled state' (Log of the Penelope, kept
by Lieutenant Charles Inglis). At five
o'clock the Lion, of 64 guns, and some little
time afterwards the Foudroyant, of 80 guns,
came up, and after a determined and gallant
resistance the Guillaume Tell surrendered ;
j but that she was brought to action at all was
entirely due to the unparalleled brilliancy of
i the Penelope's action. Nelson wrote from
Palermo (5 April 1809) to Blackwood him-
self: ' Is there a sympathy which ties men
together in the bonds of friendship without
1 having a personal knowledge of each other ?
If so (and I believe it was so to you), I was
your friend and acquaintance before I saw
you. Your conduct and character on the
late glorious occasion stamps your fame be-
yond the reach of envy. It was like your-
i self; it was like the Penelope. Thanks: and
I say everything kind for me to your brave
j officers and men' (Blackwood 's Magazine,
j xxxiv. 7).

On the peace of Amiens the Penelope was
| paid off; and in April 1803, when war again
j broke out, Blackwood was appointed to the
| Euryalus, of 36 guns. During the next two
| years he was employed on the coast of Ire-
land or in the Channel, and in July 1805
was sent to watch the movements of the
allied fleet under Villeneuve after its de-
feat by Sir Kobert Calder. On his return
with the news that Villeneuve had gone to
Cadiz, he stopped on his way to London to
see Nelson, who went with him to the Ad-
miralty, and received his final instructions to
resume the command of the fleet without
delay. Blackwood, in the Euryalus, accom-
panied him to Cadiz, and was appointed to
the command of the inshore squadron, with
the duty of keeping the admiral informed of
every movement of the enemy. He was
offered a line-of-battle ship, but preferred
to remain in the Euryalus, believing that he
would have more opportunity of distinc-
tion ; for Villeneuve, he was convinced,
would not venture out in the presence of
Nelson. When he saw the combined fleets
outside, Blackwood could not but regret his
decision. On the morning of 21 Oct., in
writing to his wife, he added : ' My signal
just made on board the Victory I hope to
order me into a vacant line-of-battle ship/
This signal was made at six o'clock, and from
that time till after noon, when the shot were
already flying thickly over the Victory,
Blackwood remained on board, receiving the
admiral's last instructions, and, together with
Captain Hardy, witnessing the so shamefully
disregarded codicil to the admiral's will

Blackwood

152

Blackwood

(Nelson Despatches, vii. 140). He was then
ordered to return to his ship. ' God bless

wrote it) i not only gave me the command of
all the frigates, for the purpose of assisting
disabled ships, but he also gave me a latitude j
seldom or ever given, that of making any ,
use I pleased of his name in ordering any of
the sternmost line-of-battle ships to do what
struck me as best' (ibid. vii. 226).

Immediately after the battle Collingwood j
hoisted his flag on board the Euryalus, but j
after ten days removed it to the Queen, and
the Euryalus was sent home with despatches '
and with the French admiral. Blackwood
was thus in England at the time of Lord
Nelson's funeral (8 Jan. 1806), on which
occasion he acted as train-bearer of the chief
mourner, Sir Peter Parker, the aged admiral
of the fleet.

After this Blackwood was appointed to
the Ajax, of 80 guns, in which he joined
Lord Collingwood off Cadiz on the first an-
niversary of Trafalgar, and early in the fol-
lowing year was detached with the squadron
under Sir John Duckworth in the expedi-
tion up the Dardanelles. At the entrance
of the straits, on the night of 14 Feb., the
Ajax caught fire through the drunken care-
lessness of the purser's steward, and was
totally destroyed, with the loss of nearly
half the ship's company. Blackwood himself
was picked up hanging on to an oar, well
nigh perished with the cold, after being
nearly an hour in the water. During the
following operations in the straits he served
as a volunteer on board the flagship, and
arrived in England in May. He was now
offered the situation of pay-commissioner at
the navy board, which he declined, prefer-
ring to be appointed to the command of the
Warspite, of 74 guns. In this, after some
uneventful service in the North Sea, he again
went out to the Mediterranean, where the
principal duty of the fleet was the very
harassing blockade of Toulon. Here, for
some time during the summer of 1810,
Blackwood had command of the inshore
squadron, and on 20 July had the credit
of driving back a sortie made by a very
superior French force. He returned to Eng-
land at the end of 1812, but remained in
command of the Warspite for another year.
In May 1814, on the occasion of the visit
of the allied sovereigns, he was appointed
captain of the fleet under the Duke of
Clarence, a special service which was nomi-
nally rewarded by a baronetcy. On 4 June
1814 he attained the rank of rear-admiral,

and in August 1819 was nominated aK.C.B.,.
and appointed commander-in-chief in the
East Indies, from which station he returned
in December 1822. He became vice-admiral
on 19 July 1821, and from 1827 to 1830 he
commanded in chief at the Nore ; and still in
the full vigour of life he died after a short ill-
ness, differently stated as typhus or scarlet
fever, on 17 Dec. 1832, atBallyleidy,theseatof
his eldest brother, Lord Dufferin and Clanboye.
He was married three times, and left a
large family, the descendants of which are
now numerous. His portrait, presented by
one of his sons, is in the Painted Hall at
Greenwich.

[Blackwood's Magazine, xxxiv. 1 ; Marshall's,
Eoyal Naval Biog. ii. (vol. i. part ii.) 642.]

J. K. L.

BLACKWOOD, JOHN ' (1818-1879),
publisher, editor of ' Blackwood's Magazine/'
sixth surviving son of its founder [see BLACK-
WOOD, WILLIAM], was born at Edinburgh on
7 Dec. 1818. Educated at the high school
and university of Edinburgh, he early dis-
played literary tastes, which procured for him
the nickname of l the little editor.' At the
close of his college career he spent three years
in continental travel. Soon after his return,
his father having meanwhile died and been
succeeded by two of his elder brothers, he-
entered, in 1839, to learn business, the house-
of a then eminent London publishing firm.
In 1840 he was entrusted with the superin-
tendence of the branch which his brother's
Edinburgh house was establishing in Lon-
don. He occupied this position for six years,,
during which his office in Pall Mall became
a literary rendezvous, among his visitors being
Lockhart of the ' Quarterly Review/ Delane-
of the l Times/ and Thackeray, with the last
two of w r hom he formed an intimate friend-
ship. One of his functions was to procure
recruits for 'Blackwood's Magazine/ then
edited by his eldest brother, and to him was
due the connection formed with it by the
first Lord Lytton, who began in 1842 to con-
tribute to it'his translation of the poems and
ballads of Schiller. In 1845 he returned to
Edinburgh on the death of his eldest brother,
whom he succeeded in the editorship of
1 Blackwood's Magazine.' In 1852, by the
death of another elder brother, he became
virtual head of the publishing business also,
and he retained both positions until his death.
As an editor he was critical and suggestive,
as well as appreciative. As a publisher he
preferred quality to the production of quan-
tity ; in both capacities he displayed heredi-
tary acumen and liberality. He quickly dis-
cerned the genius of George Eliot, forthwith

Blackwood

153

Blackwood

accepting and publishing in his magazine the
first instalment of her earliest fiction the
; Scenes of Clerical Life/ which had been sent
to him without the name of the author, for
whom thus early he predicted a great career
as a novelist. This commencement of a busi-
ness connection was soon followed by a per-
sonal acquaintance between author and pub-
lisher, which ripened into intimacy. In her
husband's biography of George Eliot there
are many indications of her readiness to ac-
cept Blackwood's friendly criticisms and sug-
gestions, and of her grateful regard for him.
On hearing of the probably fatal termination
of his last illness she wrote : ' He will be a
heavy loss to me. He has been bound up
with what I most cared for in my life for more
than twenty years, and his good qualities
have made many things easy to me that with-
out him would often have been difficult.' All
her books, after the l Scenes of Clerical Life/
were, with one exception, first published by
his firm. Although Blackwood was a staunch
conservative and the conductor of the chief
monthly organ of conservatism, he always wel-
comed, whether as editor or publisher, what
he considered to be literary ability, without
regard to the political or religious opinions
of its possessors. A genial and convivial host
and companion, he delighted to dispense, at
his house in Edinburgh, and his country
house, Strathtyrum, near St. Andrews, a libe-
ral hospitality to authors with whom he had
formed a business connection. To his maga-
zine he contributed directly only occasional
obituary notices of prominent contributors.
A fragmentary paper of his, entitled ' Suther-
landia/ described as ( racy/ was published in
Mr. Clark's work on l Golf/ a game to which
he was devoted. He died at Strathtyrum on
29 Oct. 1879.

[A selection from the Obituary Notices of the
late John Blackwood, editor of Blackwood's
Magazine, printed for private circulation, Edin-
burgh, 1880 ; George Eliot's Life, as related in
her Letters and Journals, arranged and edited
by her husband, J. W. Cross, 1885.] F. E.

BLACKWOOD, WILLIAM (1776-
1834), publisher, founder of 'Blackwood's
Magazine/ was born at Edinburgh in Novem-
ber 1776. The circumstances of his parents
were very moderate, but he received a sound
education. Intelligent and fond of reading,
he was apprenticed at fourteen to a bookselling
firm in Edinburgh, and while in their service
was a diligent student of the historical and
archaeological literature of Scotland. At the
early age of twenty he was thought worthy
by an Edinburgh publishing firm of some
eminence to be entrusted with the manage-

ment of a branch of their business which they
were establishing in Glasgow. There he re-
mained a year, and then resumed for another
year his connection with his first employers.
Entering afterwards into partnership with an
Edinburgh bookseller and auctioneer, he found
this conjunction of vocations distasteful, and
migrating to London he completed his biblio-
graphical education in the antiquarian de-
partment of a bookseller noted for his cata-
logues of old publications. Having acquired
through industry and frugality some capital,
he returned to Edinburgh in 1804 and be-
gan business on his own account, dealing
chiefly in old books. He soon became the
head of that branch of the trade in Scotland,
and his catalogue of old books, published in
1812, is said to have been the first in which
classification was attempted, and to have long
remained a standard authority. Meanwhile
he had begun to exhibit some enterprise and
judgment as a publisher. In or about 1810
he took a principal part in founding the elabo-
rate and costly 'Edinburgh Encyclopaedia/
edited by Mr. (afterwards Sir) David Brew-
ster. In 1811 he published what remains the
standard biography of John Knox by Dr.
McCrie, and it was, it is said, at Blackwood's
instance that the university of Edinburgh
conferred on its author, though not a minister
of the Scottish establishment, the degree of
D.D. Having become the Edinburgh agent
of the first John Murray of Albemarle Street,
Blackwood published, in conjunction with
him, the first series of Sir Walter Scott's
* Tales of my Landlord.' In this transaction
he showed his reliance on his own literary
judgment by suggesting an alteration in the
finale of the ' Black Dwarf.' Scott indig-
nantly rejected the suggestion, in making
which, it must be added, Blackwood had been
fortified by the opinion of Murray's chief
literary adviser, William Gifford.

In 1816 Blackwood took what was con-
sidered the bold step of removing his business
from the old town of Edinburgh to Prince's
Street, at that time a fashionable thoroughfare
of the new town. Soon afterwards he resolved
to establish a monthly periodical which would
combat the influence, in politics and litera-
ture, of the ' Edinburgh Review/ then still
published in the city from which it derived
its name. On 1 April 1817 he issued No. 1
of the * Edinburgh Monthly Magazine/ But ,
probably through precipitancy in his selection
of its two editors [see CLEGHOEN, WILLIAM ;
PKISTGLE, THOMAS], the tone and tenor of the
new periodical w T ere calculated to strengthen
instead of to counteract the influence of the
1 Edinburgh Review/ The June number ac-
cordingly contained an intimation that in

Black wood

Bladen

three months from that date it would be dis-
continued ; but on 1 Oct. following was is-
sued as No. 7 ' Blackwood's Edinburgh Maga-
zine,' Its publisher was, and until his death
continued to be, its sole editor. John Wilson
and John Gibson Lockhart were the chief
contributors to the magazine under its new
name. Its first issue produced a considerable
sensation from the appearance in it of the
Chaldee Manuscript, which was chiefly their
composition. In style and phraseology a some-
what audacious imitation of the Old Testa-
ment, this piece satirised the chief contributors
to and the publisher of the * Edinburgh Re-
view,' and the leading Edinburgh whigs, while
giving a glowing description of the parentage
and prospects of * Blackwood's Magazine.'
Probably its apparent profanity offended in
presbyterian Scotland many who would have
relished its personalities. With the caution
which, as w r ell as enterprise, characterised
him, Blackwood excluded the Chaldee Manu-
script from the second edition, immediately |
called for, of the number in which it had
appeared.

With Wilson and Lockhart among its prin-
cipal contributors, and its sagacious publisher
to edit it, l Blackwood's Magazine ' prospered
and took a leading position among British
periodicals. New contributors of mark or
likelihood were always welcomed and libe-
rally treated. Blackwood was the first to re-
cognise the merits of John Gait as a novelist :
his i Ayrshire Legatees,' the earliest pub-
lished of his prose fictions, was at once ac-
cepted, and speedily appeared in the magazine.
While encouraging and rewarding his con-
tributors, Blackwood kept in check the exu-
berance of some of them. The restraining
influence which he exercised over Wilson him-
self, the most powerful and prolific of them
all, is shown in those of Blackwood's letters
to him published in Mrs. Gordon's ' Christo-
pher North.' Among the latest and most
telling of his editorial acquisitions was Samuel
Warren's l Diary of a Late Physician,' the
first chapter of which, declined by the editors
of the principal London magazines, was at
once accepted by Blackwood.

As a publisher Blackwood was largely, but
by no means exclusively, occupied with the
reissue, in book form, of prominent contribu-
tions to his magazine. In 1818 he published
4 Marriage,' the earliest of Miss Ferrier's fic-
tions. He lived to see completed in 1830
the publication, begun by him twenty years
before, of the ' Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.'
The publication of the voluminous and valu-
able ' New Statistical Account of Scotland '
he undertook more from patriotic motives
than with a view to profit. One of the latest

and most spirited of his enterprises he did
not live to see completed, Alison's l History
of Europe,' which he at once undertook to
publish on a perusal of the first volume in
manuscript, though he foresaw that it would
be a voluminous work. In spite of his en-
grossing business avocations he found time to
attend, as an active member of the town coun-
cil of Edinburgh, to the interests of his native
city, and, while as a staunch tory opposed
to parliamentary reform, he is said to have
been a zealous promoter of all civic improve-
ments. He died at Edinburgh on 16 Sept.
1834, after an illness of some months, during
which he was attended by D. M. Moir, poet
and physician, the l Delta ' of his magazine. To
the last John Wilson was a visitor to his sick
room. In * Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk '
Lockhart has described him in his prime
among the literary loungers in his Prince's
Street shop as ( nimble, active-looking, with
a complexion very sanguineous.' ' Nothing,'
it is added, ' can be more sagacious than the
expression of his whole physiognomy the
grey eyes and eyebrows full of locomotion.'
He is said to have contributed three papers
to his magazine, but their subjects and dates
have not been specified.

[Obituary Notice (by Lockhart) in Black-
wood's Magazine for October 1834 ; Christopher
North, a Memoir of John Wilson, by his daugh-
ter Mrs. Gordon (edition of 1879); Chambers's
Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen ;
Histories of Publishing Houses : the House of
Blackwood, in (London) Critic for July-August
I860.] F.E.

BLADEN, MAKTIN (1680-1746), sol* ^
dier and politician, was the son of Nathaniel - ' ! - e p
Bladen of Hemsworth, Yorkshire, by Isabella,
daughter of Sir William Fairfax of Steeton,
and was born in 1680. He is said to have
passed a short time at a small private school
in the country with the great Duke of Marl-
borough, and from 1695 to 1697 was at West-
minster School. He went into the army,
and served in the low countries and in Spain,
becoming aide-de-camp to Lord Galway, and
rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
When he determined upon adopting a parlia-
mentary career, he contested the Cornish con-
stituency of Saltash in 1713 and 1715 in the
whig interest, but was rejected on both occa-
sions. For nineteen years (1715-34) he sat
for Stockbridge in Hampshire, from 1734 to
1741 he represented Maldon in Essex, and
from the latter year until his death he sat for
Portsmouth. In 1714he was appointed comp-
troller of the mint, and from 1717 to 1746 he
was a commissioner of trade and plantations.
So complete a sinecure was the latter post

Blagden

155

Blagden

that \vlien the colonel applied himself to the
business, such as it was, of his office, he went
by the name of l trade,' while his colleagues
were called the 'board.' He refused in 1717
the appointment of envoy extraordinary to
Spain, but accepted the post of first commis-
sary and plenipotentiary to the conference at
Antwerp in 1732 for drawing up the tariffs
between this country, the Emperor of Ger-
many, and the States General. He ranked
among the steadiest supporters of Sir Robert
Walpole, and often spoke in the debates on
fiscal, naval, or military matters, his adhe-
rence being so marked that Horace Walpole
says (Letters, i. 130) that it was proposed to
impeach him for his share in the Antwerp
conference. Bladen died 15 Feb. 1746, and
was buried in the chancel of Stepney Church,
the inscription on the tomb being preserved
in Lysons s l Environs.' His first wife was
Mary, daughter of Colonel Gibbs; the second,
whom he married in 1728, was Frances, niece
and heir of Colonel Joseph Jory, and widow
of John Foche of Aldborough Hatch, Essex.
With her he acquired a considerable estate,
and on it he built a new house, now de-
stroyed, at a considerable cost. She died
14 Aug. 1747. His sister was the mother of
Lord Hawke, the great admiral, in whose ad-
vancement he materially aided. The colonel
composed adulltragl-comedy, ' Solon, or Phi-
losophy no Defence against Love. With the
masque of Orpheus and Euridice ' (1705), and
translated ' Caesar's Commentaries of his Wars
in Gaul, and Civil War with Poinpey, with
supplement commentaries and life.' The lat-
ter work, which was dedicated to the Duke
of Marlborough, originally appeared in 1712,
and the seventh edition was published in
1770. To an issue which was brought out in
1750, Bowyer, the learned printer, added
many notes signed 'Typogr.' These were in-
cluded, with manv additional observations,
in BoAvyer's 'Miscell. Tracts' (1785), pp. 189-
222. A person of the name of Bladen is
satirised in the fourth book of Pope's i Dun-
ciad,' line 5GO, and this ifi sometimes sup-
posed to have referred to Martin Bladen.

[Welch's Westminster Scholars, p. 230 ; Ly-
sons's Environs, iii. 430-1, iv. 86; Nichols's
Lit. Anecdotes, ii. "222-3 ; Morant's Essex, i. 7 ;
Blore's Entland, 180-1 ; Burro ws's Lord Hawke,
77, 110-32; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vii.
326, 1865.] W. P. C.

BLAGDEN, SIB CHARLES (1748-
1820), physician, was born on 17 April 1748.
In 1768 he graduated M.D. at the university
of Edinburgh, selecting as the subject of his
thesis for the occasion ' De Causis Apoplexise.'
This treatise was afterwards published. Blag-

den then entered the army as a medical officer,
and remained in the service till 1814, in which
year he was present in Paris with the allied
armies, as a physician of the British forces.
During his military career he is said to have
acquired a considerable fortune, and this was
augmented by a legacy of 16,000/. bequeathed
to him by the celebrated chemist, Cavendish,
with whom he was on intimate terms. Blag-
den also enjoyed for fifty years the friendship
of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal
Society, and to this circumstance he owed
his election as secretary of the society at a
disturbed period in its history. Blagden was
elected fellow on 25 June 1772, and was ad-
mitted 12 Nov. of the same year. In 1784
arose the quarrel between Banks and his op-
ponents [see BANKS, SIR JOSEPH], in conse-
quence ol which Mr. Maty resigned the secre-
taryship, and Sir Joseph Banks proposed
Blagden for the vacant post. In the result
he was elected on 5 May 1784 by a large
majority in a crowded meeting. Blagden
was a careful worker in physical research,
and contributed many papers to the ' Philoso-
phical Transactions,' besides publishing several
papers on medical subjects. Perhaps the
most noteworthy of his physical papers is that
on the i Cooling of Water below its Freezing
Point,' read on 31 Jan. 1788.

He would seem also to have interested
himself to some extent in antiquarian matters,
as we find him mentioned in a letter of the
Rev. Sam. Denne (1799) as inspecting, in
company with Lord Palmerston, the ancient
Clausenturn at Southampton (NICHOLS'S Il-
lustrations of Literature, vol. vi.) Among
the ' Johnson iana ' which Langton commu-
nicated to Boswell is the statement that,
talking of Blagden's copiousness and pre-
cision of communication, Dr. Johnson said :
' Blagden, sir, is a delightful fellow ' (Bos-
WELL'S Johnson, vii. 377). Hannah More
describes him as so modest, so sensible, and
so knowing, that he exemplifies Pope's line :
'Willing to teach, and yet not proud to
know' (Life, ii. 98).

Blagden travelled a good deal abroad, and
for the last six years of his life always passed
six months of the year in France. He was
elected in 1789 a correspondent of the Aca-
demie des Sciences of Paris. He died sud-
denly on 26 March 1820 at the house of his
friend Berthollet, the renowned chemist, at
Arcueil, near Paris.

Blagden was author of the following :
1. ' Experiments and Observations in a
Heated Room' (Phil. Trans. 1775). 2. < On
the Heat of the Water in the Gulf Stream '
(ib. 1781). 3. * History of the Congelation of
Quicksilver ' (ib. 1783). 4. ' An Account of

Blagge

156

Blagrave

some late Fiery Meteors ' (Phil. Trans. 1784).
5. ' On the Cooling of Water below its Freez-
ing Point' (ib. 1788). 6. < On the Effect of
various Substances in lowering the Point of
Congelation of Water ' (ib. 1788). 7. ' Re-
port on the best Method of proportioning the
Excise on Spirituous Liquors' (ib. 1790).
8. < On the Tides of Naples *(tb. 1793). 9. < On
Vision' (ib. 1813). 9. <Sur la chaleur des
rayons solaires ' (Bullet. Soc. Philomat.,
Ann. viii.) 10. i Sur la production de la lu-
miere solaire ' (ib. x.) 11. < Letters to Crell/
published in Crell's Annals, 1786, 1787, 1788.

[Weld's Hist, of Boyal Society ; Philosophical
Transactions; Biographie Nouvelle Grenerale;
Revue Encyclopedique, tome 6, 1820 ; Poggen-
doriFs Handworterbuch zur Greschichte der ex-
acten Wissenschaften ; Candolle's Histoire des
Sciences et des Savants; Army List, 1814.]

E.H.

BLAGGE or BLAGE, ROBERT (d.
1522 ?), judge, was of a Suffolk family, and
was son of Stephen Blagge of Broke Montague
in Somersetshire, by Alice, his wife. In 1502
(6 Dec.) he received a grant for life of the
office of king's remembrancer in the ex-
chequer, with the same fees as John Fitz-
Herbert, his predecessor, had, and on 27 June
1511 was raised to the bench as third baron
of the exchequer, having a deputy in the
office of remembrancer. On 28 Oct. 1511 he
was, with four others, appointed on a com-
mission of inquiry into the death of William
Lymster of London. On 23 May 1514 he
received a patent of succession on his death
or the first vacancy to the office of remem-
brancer, to be held for life, for his son Bar-
naby. This patent, however, was annulled
on the ground that at its date and from
and after Blagge's appointment as baron he
had no legal estate in the remembrancership
(DYER'S Reports, 3 Eliz., Easter Term, 47).
In 1514 (1 Feb.) he is mentioned as receiving,
with others, a pardon for the alienation of
the manor of Halton, and was repeatedly in
the commissions of the peace for Kent and
Middlesex. On 2 June 1515 he received a
grant to himself during pleasure of 80 marks
annually out of the tonnage and poundage of
London. His salary was fixed in 1516 at
46/. 13*. 4?. as baron of the exchequer, and
65/. 17s. 4:d. as king's remembrancer, all
during the king's pleasure. In 1515, along
with Sir Edward Bealknap of the privy
council and Baron "Westby of the exchequer,
he was appointed a surveyor of crown lands,
pursuant to the act of 6 Hen. VIII, and is
found as such advising a lease of the manor
of Bewmaner 6 Oct. 1515, and of Staunford,
part of 'Warwick's lands/ He was reap-

pointed 30 Sept. 1517, and was acting as
such also in 1518. He had also been ap-
pointed one of the general purveyors of the
king's revenues 22 May 1515. He was a
commissioner of sewers in Cambridgeshire
and Lincolnshire in 1515, in Middlesex,
Essex, and Hertfordshire in 1516, and in
Kent in 1517. On 6 May 1518 he is found
appointed to be guardian of William, son
and heir of George Carleton. He was still
acting as surveyor of crown lands on 29 Nov.
1520 and 21 March 1522. In May 1520,
being seized of the manor of Peddon, and
other land in Stone, in Kent, to the use of
Sir Roger Cholmley, license was given him
to have free warren in his lands in Stoynye.
Foss says he was alive in 1524 ; but it seems
more probable that he died in London 13 Sept.
1522, and was buried near his wife in St.
Bartholomew's Church. In a grant, how-
ever, of 1532, he is mentioned as deceased,
but not apparently so long as ten years pre-
viously. His will was dated 8 Sept. 1522.
He was twice married, first to Katherine, sole
daughter and heiress to Thomas Brune or
Brown, who brought him Horsman's Place,
near Dartford, and estates in Kent, and
bore him two sons, Barnaby and Robert (or
John), neither of whom had issue. He mar-
ried for the second time, on the feast of St.
Matthew 1506, Mary, daughter of John, Lord
Cobham, who survived him, and was ap-
pointed his administratrix cum testamento
annexo. She bore him in 1512 a son George,
said to have been afterwards gentleman of
the bedchamber to Henry VIII, and a knight,
who married a maid of honour, Dorothy,
daughter of "William Badby of Essex, and
died at Stanmore in Middlesex 17 June 1551.

[Foss's Lives of the Judges ; Dugdale's Orig.
Juridiciales ; Dyer's Eeports; Gaze's Suffolk,
520; cf. Collect. Topographica, iv. 126 ; Cooper's
Ath. Cantab, i. 105; Brewer's Letters, &c., of
Hen. VIH, vol. i. Nos. 1747, 1921, 4699, 5118,
vol. ii. part i. pp. 40, 876, Nos. 1172, 359, 667,
1440, 2161, 3354, 4151, 102, 1007, 3710,495,
2870, 2138, 552, 3290, vol. iii. 1076, 2121, 854,
vol. v. 1499.] J. A. H.

BLAGRAVE, DANIEL (1603-1668),
the regicide, was a nephew of John Blagrave
of Reading, the mathematician [q. v.] He was
born in 1603, and was bred for the bar. He
sat in parliament 3 Nov. 1640 for the borough
of Reading, and five years later was recorder
of the same town, being dismissed the office
in 1656, but reinstated in 1658. During the
trial of Charles I he attended the high court
of justice, and was one of those who signed
the king's death-warrant. He was appointed
by the parliament to the office of exigenter

Blagrave

157

Blagrave

of the court of common pleas, said to have
been worth 6001. per annum, and also became
a master in chancery. He was also parlia-
mentary treasurer for the county of Berk-
shire, and in 1654 was named one of the com-
missioners for the ejection of scandalous and
inefficient ministers, in which capacity he is
accused by his enemies of using undue se-
verity and of proving a vexatious persecutor
of the clergy. By the means which he had
acquired from his different offices he was able
to purchase the fee-farm rent of the manor of
Sunning, Berkshire, and other estates, as it is
said, on easy terms. He sat in the Conven-
tion parliament of 1658 ; but on the Resto-
ration he fled the kingdom and settled at
Aachen, where he died in 1668.

[Wood's Athense Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 97 ;
Noble's Lives of English Kegicides, i. 95 ; Coates's
Hist, of Reading, 1802, p. 433.] E. M. T.

BLAGRAVE, JOHN (d. 1611), mathe-
matician, was the son of John Blagrave of
Bullmarsh, near Sunning, Berkshire, by Anne,
daughter of Sir Anthony Hungerford of
Down-Ampney, Gloucestershire, knight. He
was born at Reading, but the date of his
birth is unknown. He received his early
education in his native town, and afterwards
entered St. John's College, Oxford. He did
not, however, take a degree, but retired to
his patrimony at Southcote Lodge, Reading,
and devoted himself to his favourite study
of mathematics, being esteemed, as Anthony
"Wood declares, 'the flower of mathematicians
of his age.' He published four works, viz. :
1. 'The Mathematical Jewel, shewing the
making and most excellent use of a singuler
instrument so called, in that it performeth
with wonderfull dexteritie whatever is to be
done either by Quadrant, Ship, Circle, Cylin-
der, Ring, Diall, Horoscope, Astrolabe, Sphere,
Globe, or any such like heretofore devised,'
1585. 2. ' Baculum Familliare Catholicon
sive Generale : a booke of the making and
use of a Staffe newly invented by the Author,
called the Familiar Staife, as well for that it
may be made usually and familiarlie to walke
with, as for that it performeth the Geometri-
cal mensurations of all Altitudes,' &c., 1590.

3. ' Astrolabium Uranicum Generale : a ne-
cessary and pleasaunt solace and recreation
for Navigators in their long jorneying,' 1596.

4. < The Art of Dyalling, in two parts/ 1609.
In private life Blagrave was distinguished

for his charity. His father settled upon him
in 1591 the lease for ninety-nine years of
lands in Southcote, which he in turn be-
queathed to his nephews and their descen-
dants, of whom as many as eighty are said
to have benefited. To his native town of

Reading he left certain legacies, one of which
provided annually the sum of twenty nobles
to be competed for by three maid servants
of good character and five years' service under
one master, to be selected by the three parishes
of the town. The whimsical conditions of
this bequest required that the maids should
appear on Good Friday in the town-hall
before the mayor and aldermen, and there
cast lots for the prize. The losers had the
right of competing a second and third time.
Blagrave died on 9 Aug. 1611, and was
buried, in the same grave as his mother, in the
church of St. Lawrence, wherein an elaborate
monument of himself, surrounded by alle-
gorical figures, was erected. He married a
widow, whose daughter is named in his will,
but he left no issue.

[Wood's Athenae Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 96 ; Ash-
mole's Antiq. of Berkshire, 1723, ii. 371 ; Coates's
Hist, of Reading, 1802, p. 430 ; Biog. Britannica ;
Chalmers's Biog. Diet.] E. M. T.

BLAGRAVE, JOSEPH (1610-1682), as-
trologer, was born in the parish of St. Giles,
Reading, in 1610 ; he was probably a nephew
of John Blagrave, the mathematician [q. v.j,
fromwhom he appears to have inherited a small
estate in Swallowfield, five miles from his
native town. Of his personal history we have
no knowledge beyond what is to be gleaned
from a perusal of his books. His youthful
years were spent in the study of astronomy
and astrology, afterwards in philosophy and
the practice of physic, upon which he writes :
{ Without some knowledge in astronomy one
can be no astrologer, and without know-
ledge in astrology one can be no philosopher,
and without knowledge both in astrology and
philosophy one can be no good physician, the
practice of which must be laid upon the five
substantial pillars of time, virtue, number,
sympathy, and antipathy' (Astrological Prac-
tice ofPhysick, Preface). His first appearance
as an author was in a series of : 1. 'Epheme-
rides, with Rules for Husbandly for the years
1658, 1659, 1660, and 1665,' London, 8vo ;
no copy of the ' Ephemeris ' for 1658 is now
preserved to us, as we learn from the volume
for 1660 that ' it came into but few hands, by
reason of the slackness of the printer before
it came forth.' Copies for the years 1659 and
1660 are in the British Museum library, and
one for the year 1665 in the Bodleian library at
Oxford. The next work ascribed to him, and
probably with justice, is (2) ' The Epitome of
the Art of Husbandry, by J. B., gent.,' Lon-
don, 1669, 8vo. That this work is by Blagrave
seems to be proved by the fact that it was
edited by his nephew, Obadiah Blagrave, a
bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, who

Blagrave

158

Blagrove

published this and all the subsequent works
of his uncle, two of which were posthumous.
This was followed by (3) ' Blagrave's Astro-
logical Practice of Physick,' London, 1671,
8vo, already referred to. That it first saw
the light in Trinity term for this year is cer-
tain ; the copies usually met with bear date
1689, being reprints published in Hilary term
1689-90 (cf. CLAVEL, infra). His next was
(4) 'Supplement or Enlargement to Mr.
Nich. Culpepper's English Physitian, to which
is annexed a new Tract for the Cure of
Wounds by Gunshot,' London, 1674, 8vo.
The preface to this work is dated l From my
house called Copt Hall, upon the seven
bridges in Reading.' (5) Blagrave's latest
and posthumously published work is his ' In-
troduction to Astrology,' in three parts, Lon-
don, 1682, 8vo. The interest attached to this
work is that it contains an engraved portrait
of our author at the age of seventy-two years,
and is dedicated to his friend Elias Ashmole
the antiquary. Lowndes ascribes to Joseph
Blagrave ' Planispherium Catholicum.' This is
certainly an error, for the work referred to is
a revised version of the ' Mathematical Jewel '
of John Blagrave, edited by J. Palmer, and
published in London in 1658, 4to (cf. GRAN-
GER, i. 274). Another work also ascribed to
Blagrave is a manuscript, now lost, l A Re-
monstrance in favour of Antient Learning
against the Proud Pretensions of the Moderns,
more especially in respect to the Doctrine of
the Stars/ about 1669-70. It was never pub-
lished ; but from the account of it preserved
(Biog. Brit. ii. 804) we should infer from its
wide range of subjects, and in point of style,
that it was superior to anything that could
have been produced by Blagrave. His cha-
racter appears to have been a curious mixture
of earnest piety with a profound belief in the
virtues of astrology. Of the various cures
which he claims to have effected, one of the
most curious is that of casting out a dumb
devil from a maid at Basingstoke, where we
are quaintly informed that, after invoking the
name of the Tetragrammaton with that of the I
blessed Trinity, ' the devil came forth, but in- i
visible, with a great cry and hideous noise, I
raising a sudden gust of wind, and so vanished ' I
(Astrological Practice of Physick^.lZty. The !
whole story is a curious study in the demo- !
nology of the seventeenth century.

[Allibone's Diet. Eng. Literature, 1859, i. 200 ; i
Biog. Brit. Lond. 17-47, fol. ; Clavel's^Mercurius
Librarius, or Cat. of Books from 1668 to 1700,
fol. Nos. 6 and 35 ; Coates's Hist, of Beading, I
1802, p. 234 ; Granger's Biog. Hist, of England, I
1775 ; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual, ed. Bohn, 1864, i
i. 214; Lysons's Mag. Brit. i. pt. 2, Berkshire,
1813, fol. p. 545.] C. H. C.

BLAGRAVE, THOMAS (d. 1688), mu-
sician, was a member of an old Berkshire
family. Dr. Rimbault and Colonel Chester
state that he was the eldest son of Richard
Blagrave (eldest son of John Blagrave [q.v.]
j of Bullmarsh and Reading, Berkshire) by his
! third wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Mason
j of Northwood, Isle of Wight ; but it is diffi-
I cult to reconcile this statement with the very
| detailed family tree of the Blagraves in Berry's
i 'County Genealogies of Berkshire' (145-8).
Blagrave's name occurs amongst the gen-
tlemen of the chapel at the coronation of
Charles II (23 April 1661), and about 22 Oct.
in the following year he was appointed clerk
of the cheque. He was also a member of
Charles II's private band, and Wood says
that he was 'a player for the most part on the
cornet-flute, and a gentill and honest man.'
Blagrave's name occasionally occurs in Pepys's
' Diary.' On 7 March 1662 by his means Pepys
obtained admission to the Chapel Royal,
Whitehall, and on 11 Sept. 1664 the same
chronicler records that he had been ' with Mr.
Blagrave, walking in the Abbey, he telling
me the whole government and discipline of
White Hall Chapel, and the caution now used
against admitting any debauched persons.'
Blagrave is also mentioned as one of the
king's ' musick' at whom Pelham Humphreys
laughed on his return from France in 1667,
saying ( that they cannot keep time nor tune,
nor understand anything.' On 14 Oct. 1645
Blagrave was married, at St. Margaret's, West-
minster, to Margaret Clarevell or Clairvox of
Parson's Green. He died 21 Nov. 1688, and
was buried in the north cloister of West-
minster Abbey on 24 Nov. By his will (dated
14 May 1686) he left to his widow his house
and lands at Teddington, and bequeathed
various sums to his kinsmen, among whom
were another Thomas Blagrave, and John
Blagrave, 'my brother Anthony Blagrave's
youngest sonne.' A portrait by J. V. Souman
of a Thomas Blagrave, which is preserved in
the Music School at Oxford, has always been
said to represent the subject of this biography ;
but this clearly cannot be the case, as the
picture represents a boy, and bears the in-
scription 'eet. 12, 1702.' A few songs by him
may be found in the publications of Playford
and other contemporary collections.

[Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey ;
Old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal (ed. Rim-
bault); Probate Registers ; Egerton MS. 2159 ;
Hawkins's Hist, of Music (1853), ii. 767 ; Pepys's
Diary (ed. 1848), i. 332, ii. 375, iv. 263.]

W. B. S.

BLAGROVE, HENRY GAMBLE
(1811-1872), musician, was born at Notting-
ham 20 Oct. 1811. He was the eldest son of

Blagrove

159

Blague

a professor of music, from whom, when only
four years old, he received his earliest instruc-
tion in the violin. At the age of five he played
in public, and in 1817 he appeared as a violinist
at Drury Lane Theatre in an entertainment
called ' The Liliputians,' as well as in a succes-
sion of concerts at the Exhibition Rooms in
Spring Gardens. In 1821 he studied with
Spagnoletti, and two years later, on the
opening of the Royal Academy of Music, he
entered that institution, where he became the
pupil of Dr. Crotch and F. Cramer. In 1824
Blagrove was awarded a silver medal for his
violin-playing, and in 1830 he received the
appointment of solo-violinist in the royal pri-
vate band, a post he held until 1837. Queen
Adelaide took great interest in his career, and
at her wish he went (in 1832) to Cassel, where
he spent two years studying with Spohr. Sub-
sequently he travelled on the continent for
some time, playing with great success at
Vienna and elsewhere. On his return to Eng-
land he appeared as a soloist at the Philhar-
monic concerts, and in 1836 assumed the
leadership of a string quartett party, the
other members of which were H. Gattie,
J. B. Dando, and C. Lucas, who gave a
series of admirable concerts at the Hanover
Square Rooms. At the coronation of Queen
Victoria he led the State band, with which
he was connected until his death. At about
the same time he gave lessons on the violin
to the Duke of Cambridge. On 17 Aug. 1841
Blagrove married Etheldred, daughter of Mr.
Henry Combe, by whom he had three chil-
dren. In the course of his long and brilliant
professional career he was successively prin-
cipal violin in Jullien's band, at both opera
houses, at most of the provincial festivals, the
Handel celebrations at the Crystal Palace,
and the leading musical societies in London,
besides teaching the violin at the Royal
Academy of Music. In 1858 he was for a
short time in Germany, and a few years later
he played at the Lower Rhine Festival at
Diisseldorf. On 8 Jan. 1869 Mrs. Blagrove
died, and before long Blagrove began to show
signs of declining health. He still, however,
continued occasionally to perform, and in
1872 was presented with a public testimonial
in recognition of his merits. In the December
following he was seized with paralysis while
playing at a private concert, and on the 15th
of the same month died at his house, 224
Marylebone Road. He was buried at Kensal
Green. Blagrove's published works comprise
some valuable exercises and studies for the
violin and a few solos. As a performer he
ranked among the best of Spohr's pupils, his
tone and execution being alike admirable.
Personally he was very popular with all with

whom he came in contact, and he was a most
persevering and successful teacher.

[Information from Mrs. Murray ; Grove's Diet,
of Music, i. 246 ; Musical Directory for 1874, 8.1

W. B. S.

BLAGUE or BLAGE, THOMAS (d.
1611), dean of Rochester, was of Queens' Col-
lege, Cambridge. He was undoubtedly the
author in early life of 'A Schoole of wise Con-
ceytes. Wherein as euery conceyte hath wit,
so the most haue much mirth, set forth in
common places by order of the alphabet.
Translated out of diuers Greeke and Latin
wryters by Thomas Blage, student of the
Queenes Colledge in Cambridge. Printed at
| London by Henrie Binneman. Anno 1572.
Cvm Privilegio ' (12mo). He was admitted,
9 Sept. 1570, to the rectory of Braxted
Magna in Essex. Local inquiries prove
that he was non-resident. On 2 Sept. 1571,
being A.B., he was presented to the church of
St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London. Again, on
20 July 1580, he is found ' presented by the
queen' to Ewelme, Oxfordshire, which he
resigned in 1596. On 2 April 1582, at Ox-
ford, being described as ' student in divinity
! and one of the chaplains in ordinary to
| the queen/ he ' supplicated for D.D., but
1 whether admitted appears not' (WooD,
Fasti, i. 222). On 1 Feb. 1591, being then
D.D., he was installed dean of Rochester in
the place of John Coldwell, M.D. Wood
erroneously states that at the time he was
master of Clare Hall, confounding him with
another dean of Rochester (Dr. Scott). In

1602 he, as dean, presented John Wallis (or
Wallys), father of the more famous Dr. John
Wallis, to the living of Ashford, Kent. In

1603 he printed and published a sermon on
I Psalm i. 1-2, which had been preached at the
Charter House. In 1604 he was appointed
| rector of Bangor, but never resided. He

died 11 Oct. 1611. Wood, in recording the
above solitary sermon, adds, ' and perhaps
others ; ' but all appear to have perished.
He had a son named John, who, in his
father's lifetime, was a commoner of Oriel
College, Oxford (Fasti, i. 222). Later a Colonel
John Blague was the person by whom Isaac
I Waltonrestored to Charles II his t George ' that
had been lost. Another Thomas Blague per-
haps another son wrote the following trac-
tate : ' A great Fight at Market Harborough
in Leicestershire betwixt the Presbyterians
and Independents, some declaring for his Ex-
cellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, others for the late
elected Generals Maine and Poynts. With
the number that were slain and wounded,
and the manner how the Presbyterians were
put to flight. By Thomas Blague,' 1647

Blair

160

Blair

(4to). He casually names a ' cosen Blague
the surgeon' as ' attending on the wounded.'

[Le Neve's Fasti, i. 577 ; Reg. Abbot ; Wood's
Fasti, ii. 184; Reg. Whitgift, 3, 269; Keg.
G-rindall et Bancroft, Kennet; "Wood's Fasti, i.
222, 227 ; communications from present Dean of
Rochester, rectors of Bangor, Ewelme, Great
Braxted, &c. &c. ; Newcourt's Repertorium, ii.
91-2.] A. B. G-.

BLAIR, HUGH (1718-1800), divine,
was born in Edinburgh 7 April 1718. His
father, John Blair, was an Edinburgh mer-
chant, son of Hugh and grandson of Robert
Blair, 1593-1666 [q.v.], chaplain to Charles I.
Hugh Blair was educated at Edinburgh, and
entered the university in 1730. An essay irepl
rot) KCI\OV, written whilst he was a student,
was highly praised by Professor Stevenson and
always cherished by its author. Boswell says
(Johnson, 1760) that Blair with his cousin, Q-.
Bannatyne, composed a poem on the resurrec-
tion, which was published as his own by a Dr.
Douglas. He graduated as M. A. in 1739, and
printed a thesis, * De fundamentis et obliga-
tione legis naturae.' On 21 Oct. 1741 he was
licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edin-
burgh. A sermon in the West church pro-
cured him the favour of Lord Leven, through
whose interest he was ordained minister of
Colessie, Fife, 23 Sept. 1742. In July 1743
he returned to Edinburgh, where he was
elected as second minister of the Canongate
after a contest. On 11 Oct. 1754 he was
appointed by the town council and gene-
ral sessions to Lady Tester's, one of the city
churches; and on 15 June 1758 was ap-
pointed, at the request of the lords of council
and session, to the High church, a charge
which he retained during life. On 11 Dec.
1759 he began to read lectures upon compo-
sition in the university ; in August 1760 the
town council made Mm professor of rhetoric ;
and on 7 April 1762 a regius professorship
of rhetoric and belles lettres was founded,
to which Blair was appointed with a salary
of 70Z.

These appointments indicate the general
estimate of Blair's merits as preacher and
critic. He was one of the distinguished
literary circle which nourished at Edinburgh
throughout the century. He was a member,
with Hume, A. Carlyle, Adam Ferguson,
Adam Smith, Robertson, and others, of the
famous Poker Club (TYTLER'S Kames, iii. 78).
He was on very friendly terms with Hume,
whose house he occupied during its owner's
stay in France. Their friendship was not
disturbed by Blair's sympathy with Hume's
theological opponents, as Hume judiciously
avoided discussions of such matters (B

i. 427, ii. 116). He defended Kames, his
intimate friend, when Kames's 'Essays on
Morality ' exposed their author to a charge
of infidelity, and brought Campbell's answer
to Hume's essay upon Miracles under the
notice of Hume (TYTLER'S Kames, i. 198,
266). He was intimate with Henry Dundas,
, afterwards Lord Melville, and through him
had some influence upon Scotch patronage.
He declined to use it in order to succeed
Robertson as principal of the university, but
is said to have been annoyed at being passed
over in favour of Dr. Baird. Blair encouraged
MacPherson to publish the 'Fragments of
Ancient Poetry ' in 1760, and eulogised their
merits with more zeal than discretion in ' A
Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian,
the son of Fingal,' 1763. In an appendix to a
third edition (1765) he adduces some external
testimony to their authenticity. The essay
was much admired at the time ; the substance
had been given in his lectures. These were
not published till 1783, when he resigned
the professorship. He states in a note that
he had borrowed some ideas from a manu-
script treatise upon rhetoric (afterwards de-
stroyed) by Adam Smith, who had given the
first lectures in Scotland on the same subject
in 1748-51. Smith and his friends seem to
have thought the acknowledgment insuffi-
cient (HiLL, p. 266). The lectures expressed
the canons of taste of the time in which
Addison, Pope, and Swift were recognised
as the sole models of English style, and are
feeble in thought, though written with a
certain elegance of manner. A tenth edition
appeared in 1806, and they have been trans-
lated into French. The same qualities are
obvious in the sermons, which for a long time
enjoyed extraordinary popularity. The first
volume was declined by Strahan. Strahan,
however, showed one of them to Johnson,
who saii that he 'had read it with more
than approbation ; to say it is good is to say
too little.' Strahan hereupon bought it for
100/., and upon its success doubled the price.
For a second volume he paid 3007., and for a
third and fourth 600/. each. The first ap-
peared in 1777 ; a nineteenth edition of the
first volume and a fifteenth of the second
appeared in 1794. A fifth volume, with an
account of Blair's life by the Rev. Dr. Fin-
lay son, appeared in 1801. A pension of 200 J.
a year was conferred upon the author in
1780, which he enjoyed till his death. The
sermons were translated into many languages,
and until the rise of a new school passed as
models of the art. They are carefully com-
posed ; he took a week over one (BOSWELL'S
Tour, ch. iii.), and they are the best examples
of the sensible, if unimpassioned and rather

Blair

161

Blair

affected, style of the moderate divines of the
time. They have gone through many editions.
Johnson seems to have had a warm esteem
for Blair, who had been introduced to him
shortly before Boswell's first introduction in !
1763, and had been told by the doctor that i
* many men, many women, and many chil- |
dren ' could have written Ossian (BOSWELL'S |
Johnson, 24 May 1763). Blair omitted from
his published lectures a passage in which he
had censured Johnson's pomposity (BoswELL, ,
1777). Blair is described by Hill and A. Car- j
lyle as very amiable, ready to read manu-
scripts of young authors, fall of harmless [
vanity and simplicity, and rather finical |
in his dress and manners. He had con- j
siderable influence in the church, and was j
reckoned as one of the leading men amongst !
the ' moderate ' divines. But his diffidence |
disqualified him from public speaking, and j
he declined to become moderator of the
general assembly. He married his cousin. \
Katharine Bannatyne, in April 1748, who died
long before him. He had a son who died in j
infancy, and a daughter who died at the age
of twenty-one. He preached his last sermon |
before the Society for the Benefit of the Sons |
of the Clergy in the seventy-ninth year of i
his age (1797). He died, after an illness of
three days, on 27 Dec. 1800. Besides the
writings above mentioned, Blair contributed
to the short-lived ' Edinburgh Review ' of
1755 a review of Hutcheson's ' Moral Philo- j
sophy,' and of Dodsley's collection of poems.
His early system of notes led to the ' Chrono- |
logical Tables ' published by his relative, John
Blair. A collection of the 'sentimental
beauties' in his writings was published in |
1809, with a life by W. H. Reed.

[Life by Finlayson; Life by John Hill, 1807;
Burton's Life of Hume ; A. Carlyle's Autobio-
graphy, pp. 291-4; Tytler's Life of Kames.l

L.S.

BLAIR, JAMES, D.D. (1656-1743), epi-
scopalian divine, was born in Scotland (it is
believed in Edinburgh) in 1656. He was
educated in ' one of the Scottish universities,'
but none of the notices of him specifies which
it was. He obtained a benefice in the revived
episcopal church in Scotland, but where does
not appear. He retreated to England before
the tempest which threatened the episcopal
church after 1679. There, having been intro-
duced to Dr. Compton, bishop of London, he
was sent as a missionary to Virginia, where
he arrived in 1685. He soon secured the con-
fidence of the provincial government and of
the planters, and proved himself far in ad-
vance of his contemporaries on the question of
slavery. In 1689, when Sir Francis Nichol-

VOL. v.

son was appointed lieutenant-governor of
Virginia, Blair was appointed commissary,
the highest ecclesiastical office in the pro-
vince. By this office he had a seat in the
council of the colonial government, presided
over the trials of clergymen a strangely
mixed class at the period and pronounced
sentence upon conviction of ' crimes or mis-
demeanours.'

Being * deeply affected with the low state
of both learning and religion' in Virginia,
he endeavoured to establish a college, and
set on foot a subscription with this object,
which, being headed by the lieutenant-
governor and his council, soon amounted to
2,500Z. The project was warmly supported
in the first assembly held by Sir Francis
Nicholson in 1691, and was recommended to
the sovereigns, William and Mary, in an ad-
dress prepared for the assembly by Blair,
which he was unanimously appointed to pre-
sent. He accordingly proceeded to England ;
William and Mary favoured the plan; on
14 Feb. 1692 a charter for the college was
granted, the Bishop of London being ap-
pointed chancellor and Blair president, and
the college was named ' William and Mary.'
Among the most liberal contributors to the
college was Robert Boyle.

On Blair's return to Virginia the opening
of the college was repeatedly deferred, al-
though Blair's enthusiasm never waned. In
1705 a destructive fire practically reduced the
college buildings to ruins. Under the loyal
support of the new lieutenant-governor, Spo-
tiswoode, the edifice was re-erected, and
classes were afterwards commenced. But,
according to the records of the college, it was
not until 1729 that Blair entered formally on
the duties of his office as president. Blair
was for some time president of the council of
Virginia and rector of Williamsburgh.

In 1722 he published his one work : t Our
Saviour's Divine Sermon on the Mount, con-
tained in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters
of St. Matthew's Gospel, explained, and the
practice of it recommended in divers Sermons
and Discourses,' 4 vols. 8vo. A second edition
was published in 1732, under the supervision
of Dr. Daniel Waterland, who prefixed a
' commendatory notice.'

Blair died on 1 Aug. 1743, aged 87. He
bequeathed his library to his college. Two
portraits of him are preserved in the college,
one taken in youth and the other in later life.
Bishop Burnet (History of his Own Times}
calls him < a worthy and good man.' George
Whitefield wrote in his journal for 15 Dec.
1740: 'Paid my respects to Mr. Blair,
commissary of Virginia. His discourse was
savoury, such as tended to the use of edifying.

Blair

162

Blair

He received me with joy, asked me to preach,
and wished my stay were longer.'

[Preface to liis Sermon on the Mount. 1st, 2nd,
and 3rd editions ; Dr. Miller's Retrospect, ii. ;
Bishop Burnet's History of his Own Times;
Hawks' s Ecclesiastical Contributions ; History of
Virginia ; Dr. Totten MS. ; Sprague's Annals of
the American Pulpit, v. 7-9.] A. B. G.

BLAIR, SIR JAMES HUNTER (1741-

1787), was the son of John Hunter, a mer-
chant in Ayr, where he was born 21 Feb.
1741. In 1756 he was apprenticed in the
house of the brothers Coutts, bankers in
Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance
of Sir William Forbes, and the two being-
admitted to a share in the business on the
death of the senior partner of the firm, they
gradually rose to the head of the copartnery.
In 1770 he married Jane, eldest daughter of
Mr. John Blair of Dunksey, Wigtonshire,
and on his wife succeeding to the family es-
tate in 1777, he assumed the name of Blair.
On his estate he effected remarkable improve-
ments, introducing to his tenants the most
approved modes of farming, and nearly re-
building the town of Portpatrick, at which
he established larger and better packet-boats
on the passage to Donaghadee in Ireland. In
1781 he was chosen to represent the city of
Edinburgh in parliament, and again in 1784,
but on account of the claims of his profes-
sional duties he resigned a few months after-
wards. In the same year, however, he con-
sented, at the urgent request of the town
council, to accept the lord-provostship. It was
chiefly due to his energy and public spirit
during his term of office that several impor-
tant schemes for the improvement of the city
were successfully carried out. He did much
to further the rebuilding of the university,
and contrived a plan for obtaining funds to
erect the South Bridge over the Cowgate.
Chiefly by his strenuous perseverance against
strong opposition the scheme was successfully
carried out, thus opening up a convenient
communication between the southern suburbs
and the city. He died of a putrid fever at
Harrogate, Yorkshire, 1 July 1787, and
was buried in the Greyfriars churchyard.
Hunter Square and Blair Street, Edinburgh,
are named after him. He held the appoint-
ment of king's printer.

Robert Burns, whose special regard for
Blair was increased by his enlightened in-
terest in agriculture, wrote an elegy on his
death, a performance he acknowledged to be
' but mediocre,' although his grief was sin-
cere. ' The last time,' says Burns, { I saw
the worthy, public-spirited man, he pressed
my hand and asked me with the most friendly

warmth if it was in his power to serve me.'
In a letter to Robert Aiken of Ayr, en-
closing the poem, Burns also wrote, ' That I
have lost a friend is but repeating after
Caledonia.'

[Gent. Mag. Ivii. pt. ii. 641-2; Edinburgh
Magazine, vi. 43-4 ; Kay's Edinburgh Portraits,
1838, i. 62-4 ; Arnot's 'History of Edinburgh,
pp. 256, 264 ; "Works of Eobert Burns.]

T. E. H.

BLAIR, JOHN (jft. 1300), chaplain of
Sir William Wallace, was a native of Fife,
and is said to have been educated at Dun-
dee in the same school with Wallace. After
continuing his studies at the university of
Paris he entered holy orders, and under the
name of Arnoldus became a monk of the
order of St. Benedict at Dunfermline. When
Wallace became governor of the kingdom,
Blair was appointed his chaplain. According
to Henry the Minstrel, Blair, along with
Thomas Gray, parson of Liberton, ( oft one,
oft both,' accompanied Wallace in almost all
'his travels,' and one or the other kept a
record of his achievements. From these notes
Blair l compiled in dyte the Latin book of
Wallace life,' from which Henry the Minstrel
professed to derive the principal materials
for his poem on the ' Acts and Deeds of Sir
William Wallace.' The work of Blair is
supposed to have been written in 1327. A
professed fragment of it from a manuscript
in the Cottonian Library was published with
notes by Sir Robert Si'bbald in 1705 under
the title ' Relationes qusedam Arnoldi Blair
Monachi de Dumfermelem et Capellani D.
Gulielmi Wallas militis/ 1327, and was also
reprinted along with the poem of Henry the
Minstrel in 1758. These so-called l Relationes r
are, however, nothing more than a plagiarism
from the ' Scotichronicon.' He is said to have
been also the author of a work entitled ' De
liberata tyrannide Scotia,' which is now lost.
[The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace,
by Henry the Minstrel, especially Book V.,
chap, i., lines 525-50 ; Dempster's Hist. Eccl.
Scot. Gent. (1627), p. 86 ; Mackenzie's Writers of
the Scots Nation, i. 247-8, 264; Ross's Scottish
History and Literature (1884), p. 60.] T. E. H.

BLAIR, JOHN, LL.D. (d. 1782), chrono-
logist, erroneously said to have been a de-
scendant of the Rev. Robert Blair (1593-
1666) [q. v.], really belonged to the Blairs
of Balthayock, Perthshire. The date of his
birth is unknown, but he was born and edu-
cated in Edinburgh. Leaving Scotland as^a
young man, he became usher of a school in
Hedge Lane, London, in succession to An-
drew Henderson, author of a well-known
history of the rebellion of 1745. In 1754 he

Blair

163

Blair

published, after elaborate preparations, his
magnum opus, which he designated ' The
Chronology and History of the World, from
the Creation to the Year of Christ 1753,
illustrated in fifty-six tables/ It was mo-
destly dedicated to the lord chancellor (Hard-
wicke), and was published by subscription.
In the preface he acknowledged great obli-
gations to the Earl of Bute, and announced
certain supplementary dissertations, which
never appeared. The plan and scope of the
work originated with Dr. Hugh Blair's scheme
of chronological tables. The ' Chronology '
was reprinted in 1756, 1768, and 1814. It
was ' revised and enlarged ' by Willoughby
Rosse in Bohn's 'Scientific Library/ 1856.
In 1768 Blair published ' Fourteen Maps of
Ancient and Modern Geography, for the il-
lustration of the Tables of Chronology and
History ; to which is prefixed a dissertation
on the Rise and Progress of Geography.'
The dissertation was separately republished
in 1784.

Blair's first book was well received. In
1755 he was elected a fellow of the Royal
Society, and in its ' Transactions ' appeared
a paper by him on the 'Agitation of the
Waters near Reading' (Phil. Trans, x. 651,
1755). He had previously obtained orders
in the church of England, and in September
1757 was appointed chaplain to the Princess-
dowager of Wales and mathematical tutor to
the Duke of York. In March 1761, on the
promotion of Dr. Townshend to the deanery
of Norwich, Blair was given a prebend al stall
at Westminster. Within a week the dean
and chapter of Westminster presented him
to the vicarage of Hinckley. In the same
year he was chosen fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries. In September 1763 he left with
the Duke of York on a tour on the continent,
and was absent until 1764. In 1771 he was
transferred, by presentation of the dean and
chapter of Westminster, to the vicarage of
St. Bride, London, and again to the rectory
of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, in
April 1776. He was also rector of Horton
(Milton's Horton) in Buckinghamshire. He
died on 24 June 1782. The statement that
his last illness was aggravated by the sad
death of his gallant brother, Captain Blair
[see BLAIK, WILLIAM, 1741-1782], is erro-
neous. They were only cousins. Blair's 'Lec-
tures on the Canons of the Old Testament,
comprehending a Dissertation on the Sep-
tuagint Version/ 1785, was a posthumous
publication.

[Notes and Queries, 6th series, vii. 48 ; An-
derson's Scottish Nation; researches in Edin-
burgh.] A. B. G-.

BLAIR, PATRICK, M.D. (Jl. 1728),
botanist and surgeon, was born at Dundee,
where he practised as a doctor, and in 1706
dissected and mounted the bones of an ele-
phant which had died in the neighbourhood,
and of which he contributed a description,
under the title of ' Osteographia Elephantina/
to the Royal Society of London, published in
1713. Being a nonjuror and Jacobite, he
was imprisoned as a suspect in 1715. He
subsequently removed to London, and de-
livered some discourses before the Royal So-
ciety on the sexes of flowers. But he soon
settled at Boston, Lincolnshire, where he
published ' Miscellaneous Observations on
the Practice of Physick, Anatomy, and Sur-
gery' in 1718, 'Botanick Essays' in 1720,
and 'Pharmaco-botanologia' in 1723-8, which
closed with the letter H, it is presumed
through his death. His l Botanick Essays '
formed his most valuable work. In them he
clearly expounded the progress of the classi-
fication of plants up to his time, and the then
new views as to the sexual characters of
flowering plants, which he confirmed by his
own observations.

[Pulteney's Progress of Botany in England,
1790, ii. 134-140; Chalmers's Biog. Diet.]

O. T. B.

BLAIR, ROBERT (1593-1666), divine,
a native of Irvine, Ayrshire, was born in
1593. His father was a merchant>adventurer,
John Blair of Windyedge, a younger brother
of the ancient family of Blair of that ilk ; his
mother was Beatrix Muir (of the house of
Rowallan), who lived for nearly a century.

From the parish school at Irvine Blair pro-
ceeded to the university of Glasgow, where
he took his degree of M.A. He is stated to
have acted as a schoolmaster in Glasgow. In
his twenty-second year he was appointed a
regent or professor in the university. In
1616 he was licensed as a preacher of the
gospel in connection with the established
church (presbyterian) of Scotland. In 1622
he resigned his professorship, ' in conse-
quence/ it is alleged, ' of the appointment
of Dr. Cameron, who favoured episcopacy,
as principal of the university ' (ANDEKSON,
Scottish Nation). This reason seems im-
probable, for having gone over to Ireland he
was called to Bangor there and ordained by
the Bishop of Down on 10 July 1623. But he
was suspended in the autumn of 1631, and
deposed in 1632 for nonconformity. By the
interposition of the king (Charles I) he was
restored in May 1634. Yet the former sen-
tence was renewed, with excommunication,
by Bramhall, bishop of Derry, the same year.

M 2

Blair

164

Blair

It would appear that even in Scotland [see
WILLIAM BIBNIE] and in Ireland presby-
terians were received into the episcopal
church without subscription.

Excommunicated and ejected, Blair, along
with a company of others, ' fitted out a ship,'
intending to go to New England in 1635.
But the weather proved so boisterous that
they were beaten back, and, returning to
Scotland, he lived partly in that country
and partly in England. Orders were issued
in England for his apprehension in 1637, but
he escaped to Scotland, and preached for
some time in Ayr. He was invited to go to
France as chaplain to Colonel Hepburn's regi-
ment, but alter embarking at Leith he was
threatened by a soldier whom he had reproved
for swearing, and thereupon went ashore
again. He also petitioned the privy council
'for liberty to preach the gospel,' and re-
ceived an appointment at Burntisland in
April 1638. He was nominated to St. An-
drews in the same year, and was admitted
there on 8 Oct. 1639. In 1640 he accom-
panied the Scottish army into England on its
famous march. He assisted in the negotia-
tions for the treaty of peace presented by
Charles I, 8 Nov. 1641. After the Irish re-
bellion of 1641 he once more proceeded to
Ireland with several other clergymen of the
' kirk,' the Irish general assembly (presby-
terian) having petitioned for supplies for their
vacant charges. He afterwards returned to
St. Andrews. In 1645 he attended the lord
president (Spottiswoode) and others to the
scaffold. In the same year he was one of the
Scottish ministers who went to Newcastle to
speak very plainly to the king. In 1646 he
was elected to the highest seat of honour in
his church, that of moderator of the general
assembly (3 June 1646). Later, on the death
of Henderson, he was appointed chaplain-
in-ordinary to the king, ' being paid by the
revenues of the Chapel Royal.' The com-
mission of the general assembly, in 1648,
named him one of those for ' endeavouring
to get Cromwell to establish a uniformity of
religion in England.' The endeavour was a
valorous one to impose presbyterianism on
England. At the division of the church, in
1650, into resolutioners and protesters, he
leaned to the former, ' but bitterly lamented
the strife.' Summoned with others to London
in 1654, that l a method might be devised for
settling affairs of the church,' he pleaded ill-
health and declined to go. In the same year
he was appointed by the council of England
' one of those for the admission to the ministry
in Perth, Fife, and Angus.'

At the Restoration he came under the
lash of Archbishop Sharp. He had to resign

his charge in September 1661, and was con-
fined to certain places, first of all to Mussel-
burgh, afterwards to Kirkcaldy (where he
remained three and a half years), and finally
to Meikle Couston near Aberdour. As a
covenanter he preached at the hazard of life
in moor and glen. He died at Aberdour on
27 Aug. 1666, and was buried in the parish
churchyard. He left behind him a manu-
script commentary on the book of Proverbs,
and manuscripts on political and theological
subjects. None were printed, and they
appear to have perished. Fortunately his
' Autobiography was preserved, and has
been published by the Wodrow Society
(1848) ; fragments were published in 1754.
He married first Beatrix, daughter of Robert
Hamilton, merchant, in right of whom he
became a burgess of Edinburgh on 16 July
1626 ; she died in July 1632, aged 27. Their
issue were two sons and a daughter : James,
one of the ministers of Dysart, Robert, and
Jean, who married William Row, minister
of Ceres. His second wife was Katherine,
daughter of Hugh Montgomerie of Braidstane,
afterwards Viscount Airds. Their issue were
seven sons and a daughter. One of these
sons, David, was father of Robert Blair [q. v.],
the poet of the t Grave,' and another, Hugh,
grandfather of Dr. Hugh Blair [q. v.]

[Autobiography, 1593-1636 ; Reed's Presbyte-
rianism of Ireland, i. ; Row and Stevenson's Hist. ;
Rutherford's and Baillie's Letters; Kirkcaldy
Presb. Reg. ; Connolly's Fifeshire ; Chambers's
Biogr. ; Scott's Fasti, ii. 91 ; Hill's Life of Hugh
Blair.] A. B. G.

BLAIE, ROBERT (1699-1746), author
of the ' Grave/ was born in Edinburgh in
1699, the eldest son of the Rev. David Blair,
a minister of the old church of Edinburgh,
and one of the chaplains to the king. His
mother's maiden name was Euphemia Nisbet,
daughter of Alexander Nisbet of Carfin.
Hugh Blair, the writer on oratory, was his
first cousin. David Blair died in his son's
infancy, on 10 June 1710. Robert was edu-
cated at the university of Edinburgh, and
took a degree in Holland. Nothing has been
discovered with regard to the details of either
curriculum. From about 1718 to 1730 he
seems to have lived in Edinburgh as an un-
employed probationer, having received license
to preach, 15 Aug. 1729. In the second part
of a miscellany, entitled ' Lugubres Cantus/
published at Edinburgh in 1719, there occurs
an 'Epistle to Robert Blair,' which adds
nothing to our particular information. He
is believed to have belonged to the Athenian
Society, a small literary club in Edinburgh,
which published in 1720 the 'Edinburgh

Blair

165

Blair

Miscellany.' The pieces in this volume are
anonymous, but family tradition has attri-
buted to Robert Blair two brief paraphrases
of scripture which it contains, and Callender,
its editor, is known to have been his intimate
friend. In 1728 he published, in a quarto
pamphlet, a < Poem dedicated to the Memory
of William Law,' professor of philosophy in
Edinburgh. This contained 140 lines of elegiac
verse. In 1731 Blair was appointed to the ,
living of Athelstaneford in East Lothian, to |
which he was ordained by the presbytery of j
Haddington on 5 Jan. of that year. In 1738 ;
he married Isabella, the daughter of his de-
ceased friend, Professor Law ; she bore him
five sons and one daughter, and survived
him until 1774. He possessed a private for-
tune, and he gave up so much of his leisure
as his duties would grant him to the study
of botany and of the old English poets.
Before he left Edinburgh he had begun to
sketch a poem on the subject of the * Grave.'
At Athelstaneford he leisurely composed this
poem, and about 1742 began to make arrange- j
ments for its publication. He had formed the i
acquaintance of Dr. Isaac Watts, who had j
paid him, he says, ' many civilities.' He sent j
the manuscript of the l Grave ' to Dr. Watts, |
who offered it ' to two different London book- I
sellers, both of whom, however, declined to j
publish it, expressing a doubt whether any j
person living three hundred miles from town
could write so as to be acceptable to the
fashionable and the polite.' In the same j
year, however, 1742, Blair wrote to Dr. Dod- ;
dridge, and interested him in the poem, which ,
was eventually published, in quarto, in 1743. i
It enjoyed an instant and signal success, but i
Blair was neither tempted out of his solitude
nor persuaded to repeat the experiment which
had been so happy. His biographer says : i
' His tastes were elegant and domestic. Books ,
and flowers seem to have been the only rivals I
in his thoughts. His rambles were from his |
fireside to his garden : and, although the only
record of his genius is of a gloomy character, <
it is evident that his habits and life contri- :
buted to render him cheerful and happy.' He !
died of a fever on 4 Feb. 1746, and was
buried under a plain stone, which bears the
initials R. B., in the churchyard of Athel-
staneford. Although he had published so
little, no posthumous poems were found in his
possession, and his entire works do not amount
to one thousand lines. His third son, Ro-
bert [q. v.], was afterwards judge.

The < Grave ' was the first and best of a
whole series of mortuary poems. In spite of
the epigrams of conflicting partisans, * Night
Thoughts' must be considered as contem-
poraneous with it, and neither preceding nor

following it. There can be no doubt, how-
ever, that the success of Blair encouraged
Young to persevere in his far longer and more
laborious undertaking. Blair's verse is less
rhetorical, more exquisite, than Young's, and,
indeed, his relation to that writer, though
too striking to be overlooked, is superficial.
He forms a connecting link between Otway
and Crabbe, who are his nearest poetical
kinsmen. His one poem, the ' Grave,' con-
tains seven hundred and sixty-seven lines
of blank verse. It is very unequal in merit,
but supports the examination of modern
criticism far better than most productions of
the second quarter of the eighteenth century.
As philosophical literature it is quite with-
out value ; and it adds nothing to theology ;
it rests solely upon its merit as romantic
poetry. The poet introduces his theme with
an appeal to the grave as the monarch whose
arm sustains the keys of hell and death
(110) ; he describes, in verse that singularly
reminds us of the seventeenth century, the
physical horror of the tomb (11-27), and the
ghastly solitude of a lonely church at night
(28-44) . He proceeds to describe the church-
yard (45-84), bringing in the schoolboy
1 whistling aloud to keep his courage up,' and
the widow. This leads him to a reflection
on friendship, and how sorrow's crown of
sorrow is put on in bereavement (85-110).
The poetry up to this point has been of a
very fine order ; here it declines. A con-
sideration of the social changes produced by
death (111-122), and the passage of persons
of distinction (123-155), leads on to a homily
upon the vain pomp and show of funerals
(156-182). Commonplaces about the de-
vouring tooth of time (183-206) lead to the
consideration that in the grave rank and
precedency (207-236), beauty (237-256),
strength (257-285), science (286-296), and
eloquence (297-318) become a mockery and
a jest ; and the idle pretensions of doctors
(319-336) and of misers (337-368) are ridi-
culed. At this point the poem recovers its
dignity and music. The terror of death is
very nobly described (369-381), and the mad-
ness of suicides is scourged in verse which is
almost Shakespearian (382-430). Our igno-
rance of the after world (431-446), and the
universality of death, with man's unconscious-
ness of his position (447-500), lead the poet
to a fine description of the medley of death
(501-540) and the brevity of life (541-599).
The horror of the grave is next attributed to
sin (600-633), and the poem closes some-
what feebly and ineffectually with certain
timid and perfunctory speculations about the
mode in which the grave will respond to the
Resurrection trumpet.

Blair

166

Blair

[The ' Grave ' was constantly reprinted after
Blair's death, but with no authoritative details
about the author. Dr. William Anderson, in
1796, exactly half a century after Blairs death, I
collected from surviving members of his family |
such particulars as could still be recovered, and \
prefixed them to an edition of the ' Grave ' pub- !
lished that year in a prefatory biography which
contains all of a biographical nature which has
been preserved about Robert Blair. Various
brief accounts of his life which had appeared
previous to that date had been entirely apocry-
phal.] E. G.

BLAIR, EGBERT, of Avontoun (1741-
1811), judge, was the third son of the Rev.
Robert Blair, the author of the 'Grave' I
[q. v.], and Isabella his wife, the daughter I
of Mr. William Law of Elvingston, East i
Lothian. He was born in 1741 at Athel- !
staneford, where his father was the minister, i
Young Blair commenced his education at the j
grammar school at Haddington, where he |
formed a friendship with Henry Dundas, after-
wards Viscount Melville, which only ended
with their lives. From Haddington he was
removed to the high school at Edinburgh,
and thence was transferred to the university.
In 1764 he was admitted a member of the
Faculty of Advocates, and soon obtained a
considerable practice at the bar, where he and
Henry Erskine were often pitted against each
other. In 1789 Blair was appointed by his
friend Dundas one of the depute advocates,
which office he continued to hold until 1806.
For some years also he was one of the asses-
sors of the city of Edinburgh. In 1789, at
the age of forty-seven, Blair became solicitor-
general for Scotland. This post he continued
to occupy until the change of ministry which
was occasioned by Pitt's death in 1806.
During this period he twice refused the offer
of a seat on the judicial bench, and both in
1802 and 1805 declined to accept the office
of lord advocate. In 1801 he was elected
dean of the faculty of advocates. Upon the
return of his friends to power in 1807 he re-
fused the offices of solicitor-general and lord
advocate, but in the next year, upon the re-
signation of Sir Hay Campbell, he accepted
the presidency of the college of justice. This
dignity, however, he did not long enjoy. He
died suddenly on 20 May 1811. His old
friend, Viscount Melville, who came to Edin-
burgh purposely to attend the funeral, was
taken ill, and died on the very day the presi-
dent was buried. This singular coincidence
gave rise to. a i Monody on the Death of the
Right Hon. Henry Lord Viscount Melville,
and Right Hon. Robert Blair of Avontown,
Lord President of the College of Justice'
(Edinburgh, 1811), written by an anonymous

author. Blair married Isabella Cornelia, the
youngest daughter of Colonel Charles Craigie
Halkett of Lawhill, Fifeshire. His widow,
one son, and three daughters, survived him ;
but he left them so badly off that a pension
was granted by the crown to his widow and
daughters through the instrumentality of Mr.
Perceval. He was a man of a very powerful
understanding, with a thoroughly logical
mind and a firm grasp of legal principles, but
without any gift of eloquence or even of flu-
ency of speech. He had such l an innate love
of justice and abhorrence of iniquity,' and took
so liberal and enlarged a view of law, that he
was eminently qualified to fill the post which
he held for so short a time. It is somewhat
remarkable that Blair never sat in parliament.
As a recreation he took much pleasure in
agricultural pursuits, and he brought his small
estate at Avontoun, near Linlithgow, to the
highest state of cultivation. His statue by
Chantrey stands in the first division of the
inner house of the Court of Session. Two
portraits of him were taken by Kay of Edin-
burgh, one in 1793, and the other in 1799,
etchings of which will be found in vol. i. of
Kay's ' Portraits,' Nos. 127-8.

[Law Eeview, ii. 341-52 ; Kay's Original Por-^
traits and Caricature Etchings, 1877, i. 313-6 ;
Edinburgh Eeview, Ixix. 31-2, 281-3 ; Scots
Magazine, 1811, pp. 403-7.] G. F. E. B.

BLAIR, ROBERT, M.D. (d. 1828), in-
ventor of the ' aplanatic ' telescope, was born
(there is reason to believe) at Murchiston,
near Edinburgh. He was, in all proba-
bility, identical with the Robert Blair who
wrote 'A Description of an accurate and
simple Method of adjusting Hadley's Qua-
drant for the Back Observation,' appended to
the ' Nautical Almanac ' for 1788 (published
1783), and printed separately by order of the
commissioners of longitude. But the first
fact authentically known about him is his
appointment by a royal commission, dated
25 Sept. 1785, to the chair of practical astro-
nomy erected for his benefit in the university
of Edinburgh, with a yearly salary of 120.
Being unprovided with instruments or an ob-
servatory, he held the post as a complete
sinecure for forty-three years, eight of which
he is said to have spent in London, where his
only son, Archibald Blair, was established as
an optician. When in Edinburgh he rarely
entered the Senatus Academicus, and his name
was even omitted from the list of professors
furnished to the university commission, which
began its sittings in 1826. In 1787 Blair
undertook, with a view to finding a substitute
for flint glass, the first systematic investiga-
tion yet attempted of the dispersive powers

Blair

167

Blair

of various media, the results of which were
lengthily detailed in a paper read before the
Royal Society of Edinburgh 3 Jan. and
4 April 1791. He was the first to attempt
the removal of the ; secondary spectrum/
and succeeded in his attempt by a triple
combination of two essential oils, such as
naphtha and oil of turpentine, with crown
glass ; but his discovery of fluid media pos-
sessing the same relative, though a different
absolute dispersion from glass, gave a far
more brilliant prospect of practical suc-
cess. This valuable optical property he found
to belong to metallic solutions, especially of
antimony and mercury, mixed with chlorhy-
dric acid, and to the absolutely colourless re-
fraction thus rendered possible he gave the
name of ' aplanatic/ or < free from aberration '
(Ed. Phil Trans, iii. 53). < Could solid media
of such properties be discovered,' Sir John
Herschel remarked (Encycl. Metr. iv. 429),
1 the telescope would become a new instru-
ment.' Blair constructed object-glasses upon
this principle, of which the performance was
highly praised, in one case, at least, ventur-
ing successfully upon the unexampled feat of
giving to an aperture of three inches a focal
length of only nine. He took out a patent for
his invention, and entrusted the fabrication
of the new instruments to a London optician,
George Adams the younger [q. v.] ; but they
never came into general use. An equally
fruitless effort to establish a regular manu-
facture and sale of them in Edinburgh was
made by Archibald Blair, under his father's
directions, in 1827 (Ed. Journ. of Science, vii.
336). The fluid used in the lenses appears,
in course of time, to have lost its transparency
by evaporation or crystallisation, and the
difficulty offered by the secondary spectrum is,
by modern art, rather evaded than overcome.

Sir David Brewster relates (Encycl. llrit.
art. ' Optics,' p. 586, eighth edition) that an
instrument for magnifying by means of prisms,
similar to the ' teinoscope ' invented by him-
self in 1812 (Ed. Phil. Journ. vi. 334), was
shown him by Archibald Blair as having been
constructed by his father at an unknown date.
The principle of the contrivance was arrived
at independently by Amici of Modena in 1821.

Blair became a fellow of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh in January 1786, and at one
period held the appointment of first commis-
sioner of the board for the care of sick and
wounded seamen. In this capacity he was
instrumental in banishing scurvy from the
navy by introducing the use of lime-juice, a
method of preserving which for an indefinite
time at sea he had previously ascertained
(Ed. Journ. of Science, vii. 341). In 1827 he
published at Edinburgh a small volume, en-

' titled ' Scientific Aphorisms, being the out-
1 line of an attempt to establish fixed principles
of science, and to explain from them the gene-
ral nature of the constitution and mechanism
of the material system, and the dependence
! of that system upon mind.' The large pro-
[ mise of the title-page is but imperfectly ful-
filled by the contents. Extending Lesage's
machinery for producing the effects of gravi-
tation, he divided matter into three classes,
distinguished by the size of the constituting
' projected,' ' jaculatory,' and ' quiescent ' par-
ticles, in the mutual collisions of which he
sought a universal explanation of phenomena
of the material order, all motion being, how-
ever, in the last resort, referred to the action
of mind. His health was by this time much
broken, and he died at Westlock, in Berwick-
shire, 22 Dec. 1828.

An abridgment of his l Experiments and
Observations on the unequal Refrangibility
of Light,' originally published in the ' Trans-
actions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh '
(iii. 3-76, 1794), appeared in Nicholson's
' Journal of Natural Philosophy ' with the
title, ' The Principles and Application of a
new Method of constructing Achromatic
Telescopes ' (i. 1, 1797), and, in a German
translation, in Gilbert's ' Annalen der Physik'
(vi. 129, 1800). The best account of the
principle of his * fluid lens,' or aplanatic tele-
scopes, will be found in Sir John Herschel's
article on Light in the * Encyclopaedia Me-
I tropolitana ' (pars. 474-7).

[Sir Alexander Grant's Story of the University
1 of Edinburgh (1884), i. 339, ii. 361 ; Cat, of
Scientific Papers, i. 1867.] A. M. C.

BLAIR,, WILLIAM (1741-1782), cap-
tain in the royal navy, was the son of Daniel

i Blair of Edinburgh, collaterally related to

I the Blairs of Balthayock. He became a
lieutenant in the navy on 9 Oct. 1760, but

| did not attain his commander's rank till
6 Dec. 1777. He was posted on 18 April
1778, and commanded the Dolphin, of 44
guns, in the stubborn battle on the Dog-
gerbank, 5 Aug. 1781. Notwithstanding her
small force, the exigencies of the case com-
pelled the Dolphin to take her place in the
line of battle. Blair's conduct was worthy
of the distinction thrust upon him, and won
for him the special approval of the admiralty,
and his appointment to the Anson, a new

i 64-gun ship, then fitting for service in the
West Indies. In the January following
Blair sailed in company with Sir George Rod-
ney, and on 12 April, when the French were
completely defeated to leeward of Dominica,
the Anson was in the leading squadron under
the immediate command of Rear-admiral

Blair

168

Blair

Drake, and was warmly engaged from the |
very beginning of the battle. Her loss was i
not especially great in point of numbers, but j
one of her killed was Captain Blair. A monu- ;
ment to his memory, jointly with his brother j
officers, Captains Bayne and Lord Robert i
Manners, was erected in Westminster Abbey j
at the public expense.

[Beatson's Memoirs, v. 405, 475, 479 ; Gent, j
Mag. (1782), lii. 337; Notes and Queries, 6th ser.
vii. 122.] J. K, L.

BLAIR, WILLIAM (1766-1822), sur-
geon, youngest son of William Blair, M.D.,
and Ann Gideon, his wife, was born at La-
venham in Suffolk 28 Jan. 1766. He qualified
himself for surgical practice in London under
Mr. J. Pearson of Golden Square, by whom
he was introduced to the Lock Hospital, and
on a vacancy was elected surgeon to that
charity. Blair was a master of arts, but it is
not stated at what university he graduated.
He became very eminent in his profession,
and was surgeon to the Asylum, the Finsbury
Dispensary, the Bloomsbury Dispensary in
Great Russell Street, the Female Peniten-
tiary at Cumming House, Pentonville, and the
New Rupture Society. He was a member
of the Royal College of Surgeons, London,
and of the medical societies of London, Paris,
Brussels, and Aberdeen. For some time he
was editor of the ' London Medical Review
and Magazine.' Blair was a very earnest
protestant of the methodist persuasion, and
laboured zealously in the cause of the British
and Foreign JBible Society, to which he pre-
sented his valuable collection of rare and cu-
rious editions of the Bible, and many scarce
commentaries in different languages. Once
or twice he attempted lectures on anatomy
and other subjects, but with little success.
On his wife's death in March 1822 he resolved
to give up professional practice, and to retire
into the country. He accordingly took a
house in the neighbourhood of Colchester, but
before the preparations for removing were
completed he was seized with illness, and died
at his residence in Great Russell Street,
Bloomsbury, 6 Dec. 1822.

His works are: 1. 'The Soldier's Friend,
containing familiar instructions to the loyal
volunteers, yeomanry corps, and military men
in general, on the preservation and recovery
of their health,' London, 1798, 12mo, 2nd
edition 1803, 3rd edition 1804. 2. ' Essays
on the Venereal Disease and its concomitant
Effects,' London, 1798, 8vo, 3rd edition 1808.
3. ' Anthropology, or the Natural History of
Man, with a comparative view of the structure
and functions of animated beings in general,'
London, 1805, 8vo. 4. ' The Vaccine Con-

test, being an exact outline of the arguments
adduced by the principal combatants on both
sides respecting Cow-Pox inoculation, includ-
ing a late official report by the medical council
of the Royal Jennerian Society/ London,
1806, 8vo ; written in defence of vaccination
in answer to Dr. Rowley. 5. ( Hints for the
consideration of Parliament in a letter to Dr.
Jenner on the supposed failure of vaccination
at Ringwood, including a report of the Royal
Jennerian Society, also remarks on the pre-
valent abuse of variolous inoculation, and on
the exposure of out-patients attending at the
Small-pox Hospital,' London, 1808, 8vo.

6. ' Prostitutes Reclaimed and Penitents Pro-
tected, being an answer to some objections
against the Female Penitentiary,' 1809, 8vo.

7. 'Strictures on Mr. Hale's reply to the
pamphlets lately published in defence of the
London Penitentiary,' 1809, 8vo. 8. 'The
Pastor and Deacon examined, or remarks on
the Rev. John Thomas's appeal in vindication
of Mr. Hale's character, and in opposition to
Female Penitentiaries,' 1810, 8vo. 9. 'The
Correspondence on the Formation, Objects,
and Plan of the Roman Catholic Bible So-
ciety,' 1814 ; this engaged him in a contro-
versy with Charles Butler of Lincoln's Inn
(vide Gent. Mag. Ixxxiv. pts. i. and ii.).
10. A long and elaborate article on ' Cipher/
in Rees's < Cyclopedia ' (1819), vol. viii. The
engraved illustrative plates are erroneously
inserted under the heading of f Writing by
Cipher' in the volume of 'Plates/ vol. iv.
This article is incomparably the best treatise
in the English language on secret writing and
the art of deciphering. It includes a cipher
method invented by Blair, which he declared
to be inscrutable ; but the key was discovered
by Michael Gage, who published at Norwich
in 1819 (though it is by a typographical error
dated 1809) 'An Extract taken from Dr. Rees's
New Cyclopaedia on the article Cipher, being
a real improvement on all the various ciphers
which have been made public, and is the first
method ever published on a scientific prin-
ciple. Lately invented by W. Blair, Esq.,
A.M. ; to which is now first added a Full
Discovery of the Principle/ 8vo. 11. An ar-
ticle on 'Stenography' in Rees's 'Cyclopaedia/
vol. xxxiv. 12. ' The Revival of Popery, its
intolerant character, political tendency, en-
croaching demands, and unceasing usurpa-
tions, in letters to William Wilberforce/
London, 1819, 8vo. 13. 'A New Alphabet
of Fifteen Letters, including the vowels/ in
William Harding's ' Universal Stenography/
2nd edit. 1824. 14. Correspondence respect-
ing his method of Secret Writing, containing
original letters to him on the subject from the
Right Hon. W. Windham, G. Canning, the

Blak

169

Blake

Earl of Harrowby, J. Symmons of Padding- |
ton, and Michael Gage of Swaft'ham, with the j
whole of his system of ciphers. Manuscript |
sold at the dispersion of William Upcott's I
collection in 1846.

[MS. Addit. 19170, ff. 23, 24; Page's Sup- |
plement to the Suffolk Traveller, v. 946 ; Collet's
Relics of Literature, 112 ; Notes and Queries, 1st j
ser. xii. 384, 2ndser. iii. 17 ; Biog. Diet, of Living \
Authors (1816), 29 ; Some Account of the Death
of William Blair, Lond. (1823), 12mo; Orthodox j
Journal, iv. 139, 140 ; Cat. of William Upcott's
MSS. and Autographs, art. 23 ; Gent. Mag. xcii. I
(ii.) 646, xciii. (i.) 213 ; Cat. of Printed Books !
in Brit. Mus. ; Cotton's Rhemes and Doway, 78, '
95, 98, 107, 115.] T. C.

BLAK or BLACK, JOHN (d. 1563), a
Dominican friar of Aberdeen, wrote 'De reali
prsesentia Christ! in Sacramento Altaris;'
' Acta coltoquii cum Willoxio symmysta ; '
1 Conciones pise ; ' and ' Monita ad Apostatas.'
His public disputation with John Willox took
place in Edinburgh in the summer of 1561.
Bishop Lesley gives the three heads of their
disputation, and adds that in the end nothing i
was agreed. Indeed it would seem that the
only important result of such discussions was
to exasperate the temper of the people, for
Blak was stoned to death by a protestant mob
in Edinburgh on 7 Jan. 1562-3.

[Camerarius, De Scot. Fort. p. 202; Collec-
tions for the Shire of Aberdeen and Banff (Spald-
ing Club, 1843), i. 202 ; Lesley's History of
Scotland (Baimatyne Club, 1830), p. 295 ; Sir
James Balfour's Annals (1824), i. 325; Wod-
row's Biog. Collections, i. 110 ; Dempster's Hist.
Eccles. Gent. Scot. (1627), p. 85 ; Tanner's Bibl.
Brit. p. 104.] T. F. H.

BLAKE, CHARLES, D.D. (1664-1730),
divine and poet, was born at Reading, Berk-
shire, being the son of John Blake, ' gent.,' I
of that town, and educated at the Merchant I
Taylors' School and St. John's College, Ox- !
ford, of which he was scholar and afterwards !
fellow (B.A. 1683, MA. 1687-8, D.D. 1696). !
He was domestic chaplain to Sir William |
Dawes, afterwards bishop of Chester and arch- I
bishop of York, who was his close friend.
Among his preferments were the rectory of
St. Sepulchre's, London, of Wheldrake in '
Yorkshire, and of St. Mary's, Hull, and he was
successively a prebendary of Chester, a pre-
bendary of York (1716), and archdeacon of
York (1720). He died 22 Nov. 1730. He
published a small collection of Latin verses,
consisting of a translation into Latin of the
poem of Musaeus on Hero and Leander, and of
part of the fifth book of Milton's l Paradise
Lost;' and two original poems, one called
1 Hibernia Plorans/ written in 1689, the year

of the siege of Londonderry, deploring Ire-
land's woes, in the style of Virgil's Eclogues,
and the other an elegy on the death, in 1688,
of Frederick, the Great Elector of Branden-
burg. These were all published together in
a little sixpenny pamphlet, under the title
of ( Lusus Amatorius, sive Musaei de Herone
et Leandro carmen ; cui accedunt Tres Nugae
Poeticae,' at London in 1693.

[Wood's Athense Oxonienses ; Lists, &c. of
Scholars of the Merchant Taylors' School, ed.
Hessy ; Robinson's Eegister of Merchant Taylors'
School, i. 296; Allen's History of Yorkshire;
Ormerod's History of Cheshire.] R. B.

BLAKE, SIR FRANCIS (1708-1780),
first baronet, mathematician, born 1708, was
descended from the house of Menlough, co.
Galway. His father, Robert Blake, by his
marriage with Sarah, third daughter of his
kinsman, Sir Francis Blake, knight, of Ford
Castle, Northumberland, became possessed of
the Twisell estate, in the county of Durham.
The son rendered active support to the go-
vernment during the rebellion of 1745, and
was created a baronet 3 May 1774. He de-
voted much of his time to mechanics and
experimental philosophy, and upon becoming
a fellow of the Royal Society, in 1746,
wrote some papers in the 'Philosophical
Transactions.' Sir Francis died at Tilmouth
29 March 1780, and was buried at Houghton-
le-Spring.

[Raine's North Durham, pp. 314, 316 ;
Betham's Baronetage, iii. 439.] G-. G.

BLAKE, SIR FRANCIS (1738 P-1818),
second baronet, political writer, was the
eldest surviving son of Sir Francis, the first
baronet [q. v.], by Isabel, his wife, second
daughter and coheiress of Mr. Samuel Ayton
of West Herrington, Durham. He was edu-
cated at Westminster, whence he removed
to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and proceeded
LL.B. in 1763. He died at Twisell Castle
2 June 1818, at the age of 81. He wrote :

1. 'The Efficacy of a Sinking Fund of One
Million per annum considered,' 8vo, 1786.

2. < The Propriety of an Actual Payment of
the Public Debt considered,' 8vo, 1786.

3. ' The True Policy of Great Britain con-
sidered,' 8vo, 1787. These, with other pieces,
were republished collectively under the title
of ' Political Tracts,' 8vo, Berwick, 1788, and
again at London in 1795. His eldest son and
successor, Francis, represented Berwick in
several parliaments. He published some se-
vere criticisms on the action of the House of
Lords in regard to the corn laws, and died
10 Sept. I860, aged 85.

Blake

170

Blake

[Eaine's North Durham, pp. 3 1 3-1 4, 316-17 ;
Cooper's Biog. Diet. p. 234 ; Biog. Diet, of Living >.
Authors (1816), p. 29; Gent. Mag. Ixxxviii. i. 641 !
(1860), ix. 445-6.] GK G.

BLAKE, JAMES (1049-1728), also
known as JAMES CROSS, Jesuit, born in Lon- ;
don in 1649, entered the Society of Jesus
at Watten, in Belgium, in 1675, and was
admitted a professed father 1 July 1675. He
is named in Titus Oates's list of Jesuits in
1678 as Mr. Blake, alias Cross, living in Spain.
On 3 April 1701 he was declared provincial
of his brethren in England, and he held that i
office for nearly four years. He was chaplain
at Mr. Mannock's, Bromley Hall, Colchester,
from 1720 till his death, on 29 Jan. 1728.
His only published work is ' A Sermon of
the Blessed Sacrament, Preach'd in the
Chappel of his Excellency the Spanish Em-
bassador on Corpus Christ! day, June 3,
1686,' London, 1686, 4to, reprinted in vol. ii.
of 'A Select Collection of Catholick Ser-
mons/ London, 1741, 8vo.

[Foley's Eecords, v. 98, 108, 161, 537, vii. 64 ;
Oliver's Collections S. J. ; Backer's Bibl. des
Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus (1869), i.
653.] T. C.

BLAKE, JOHN BRADBY (1745-1773),
naturalist, son of John Blake of Great Par-
liament Street, Westminster, was born in
Great Marlboro ugh Street, London, on 4 Nov.
1745, and received his education at West-
minster School. In 1766 he was sent out to
China as one of the East India Company's
supercargoes at Canton. There he devoted
all his spare time to the advancement of na-
tural science, His plan was to procure the
seeds of all the vegetables found in China
which are used in medicine, manufactures, or
food, or which are in any way serviceable to
mankind, and to send to Europe not only
such seeds, but also the plants by which they
are produced. His idea was that they might
be propagated in Great Britain and Ireland,
or in some of our colonies. His scheme was
attended with success. Cochin-China rice
was grown in Jamaica and South Carolina ;
the tallow-tree prospered in Jamaica, in Caro-
lina, and in other American colonies ; and
many of the plants the seeds of which he
transmitted were raised in several botanical
gardens near London. He likewise forwarded
to England some specimens of fossils and ores.
By attending too closely to these pursuits he
contracted a disease, of which he died at Can-
ton on 16 Nov. 1773, when he had just en-
tered the twenty-ninth year of his age.

'[Biog. Brit. (Kippis), ii. 359; Annual Reg.
xviii. pt. ii. 30-5.] . T. C.

BLAKE, MALACHI (1687-1760), dis-
senting minister, was born at Blagdon, near
Taunton, and was the son of the Rev. Malachi
Blake. The family, a collateral branch of
that of Admiral Blake, descends from Wil-
liam Blake of Pitminster (died 1642), whose
second son was John (1597-1645), the father
of John (1629-1682), the father of Malachi
(born 1651). This last-named, the presby-
terian minister of Blagdon, and founder of
the dissenting cause at Wellington, Somer-
setshire, was implicated in Monmouth's re-
bellion, and fled to London in disguise. His
second son Malachi, born in 1687, was pres-
byterian minister of Blandford, where he
died in 1760. He published : ' A Brief Ac-
count of the dreadful Fire at Blandford
Forum in the county of Dorset, which hap-
pened 4 June 1731. With sermons [4 June
1735] in remembrance, and serious address
to the inhabitants of the town,' London
[1735]. His younger brother, William (1688-
1772), a woolstapler, was father of Malachi
(1724-1795), presbyterian minister of Whit-
ney and Fullwood, and of William (1730-
1799), presbyterian minister of Crewkerne
[see BLAKE, WILLIAM, 1773-1821].

[Blake pedigree, MS.; March's Hist. Presb.
and Gren. Bapt. Churches in West of England,
1835, p. 244.] A. G-.

BLAKE, ROBERT (1599-1657), admiral
and general at sea, of a family formerly of
Bishop's Lydiard, near Taunton, and after-
wards merchants of Bridgwater, was born at
Bridgwater in August 1599, the eldest of
the twelve sons of Humphrey Blake and of
Sarah, daughter and coheiress of Humphrey
Williams of Plansfield. He received his early
education at the grammar school of the town,
and in 1615 was sent up to Oxford, where he
matriculated as a member of St. Alban Hall,
whence he removed shortly afterwards to
Wadharn College, then recently founded.
Here he remained for nearly ten years, gradu-
ating in due course, and standing for a fellow-
ship at Merton, though without success. Ac-
cording to the tradition, the cause of his
failure was his short, squat, ungainly figure,
which offended the artistic sense of the war-
den. In 1625 he left Oxford. His father
had died intestate and far from wealthy.
When Plansfield had been sold, and all avail-
able property had been realised, there was
little more than 200Z. a year. Two of the
elder brothers went to push their fortunes in
London, the younger ones were still at school ;
Robert, with his second brother Humphrey,
would seem to have continued the business,
and not without success, for a few years later,
and through the rest of his life he was in

Blake

171

Blake

easy circumstances. It is perhaps probable
that at this time he himself made voyages to
distant seas ; to do so was almost the common
course for a pushing merchant. It is said
that once, when Humphrey, as churchwarden,
was censured by the bishop for conniving at
certain irregularities in the service of the
church, Robert signed a remonstrance against
the bishop's conduct. The story is, however,
very vague and uncertain. He was returned
as member for his native place in the short
parliament of 1640, but in the election of
the following autumn he was unsuccessful ;
he was not a member of the Long parliament
till 1645, when, on the expulsion of Colonel
Windham, he was again returned for Bridg-
water. As a young man at Oxford he is said
to have professed republican sentiments; he
undoubtedly held republican opinions in his
later years. v But these were, in the main, theo-
retical preferences, which do not seem to have
dictated his course of action ; that was ruled
by his judgment of passing events, which, as
he interpreted them, gave him but the choice
between submission to arbitrary tyranny and
a manly resistance. Even before the appeal
to arms his mind was fully made up, and
amongst the very first he joined the army
raised by Sir John Homer in 1642. In July
1643 he commanded an important post in
Bristol when it was besieged by the royalists;
the town,however, was surrendered by Colonel
Fiennes, the governor, after a very feeble de-
fence, and though Blake, unwilling to believe
this, held his post for twenty-four hours after
the capitulation, he was at last compelled to
accede to its terms. It is said, but without
probability, that Rupert was with difficulty
persuaded not to hang him. Blake's resolute
conduct was warmly approved by the parlia-
mentary leaders ; he was named one of the
Somerset committee of ways and means, and
was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Popham's
regiment, fifteen hundred strong, in which also
his brother Samuel, born 1608, had a com-
pany. With a detachment of this regiment
he made a dash at Bridgwater, hoping to sur-
prise the castle. He failed in doing so, and,
being quite unprepared for a more formal at-
tack, at once drew off. There had been no
fighting in the town, but straggling down the
river Samuel Blake was killed in an acci-
dental skirmish. We are told that when the
loss was reported to the colonel, he said
calmly, ' Sam had no business there;' but
presently, retiring to a private room, he wailed
aloud in a transport of grief, crying ' Died
Abner as a fool dieth.' Samuel left a son
Robert, whose fortunes were afterwards very
closely linked with those of his uncle and
godfather.

After the fall of Bristol the royalists swept
the west of England, and there were but few
places which still held out for the parliament.
| One of these was Lyme in Dorsetshire, little
j more than a fishing village ; and though it
! was protected by a few earthworks hastily
thrown up, Prince Maurice had no expecta-
| tion of resistance when, at the head of some
| five thousand men, he summoned it to sur-
render. It happened, however, that Blake
I had been stationed there with a detachment
of about five hundred men, and had prepared
! himself as he best could to hold the post,
had raised volunteers in the neighbourhood,
; and had strengthened the defences. The sum-
I mons was rejected, and the assault which
I immediately followed was bloodily repulsed.
Maurice found that the place could not be
! taken without attacking in form, and accor-
1 dingly sat down before it ; but the defences
! grew as the siege' went on, and ' after he had
lain before it a month it was much more like
to hold out than it was the first day he came
before it ' (CLARENDON) ; so that when, on
23 May 1644, the garrison was relieved by the
fleet under Warwick, and Maurice had tidings
of the near approach of the Earl of Essex, he
hastily retired to Exeter, l with some loss of
reputation for having lain so long, with such
! a strength, before so vile and untenable a
[ place, without reducing it ' (ibid.}

The stand at Lyme had been of very great
I service to the parliamentary cause, and had
given time for Essex to come into that part
of the country. But Essex, by marching
into Cornwall, lost the opportunity, and com-
mitted a mistake which, had it not been for
Blake's prompt action, might have been fatal.
Among the many places in Somersetshire
held by the royalists Taunton was one ; it
was quite unfortified, and the garrison was
small ; but it was the point on which all the
main roads of the county converged, it com-
manded the lines of communication, and had
thus a peculiar strategic importance, which
Blake alone seems to have understood. He
had been promoted after his brilliant defence
of Lyme, and had an independent command,
with which, 8 July 1644, he suddenly threw
himself on Taunton. It was held by only
eighty men, who made no opposition, and in
Blake's hands the place 'became a sharp thorn
in the sides of all that populous country.'
The position was one of extreme peril, for it
was quite isolated ; and when Essex's army
was overwhelmed in August no relief could
be expected. Blake, however, determined to
hold his ground as long as possible ; the roads
were barricaded, breastworks thrown up, guns
planted, houses loopholed, and when the royal-
ists advanced on the place, which they had

Blake

172

Blake

judged it madness to defend, they received so
rude a check that they contented themselves
with investing it and waiting for famine to
do their work. From time to time more ener- j
getic attempts were made, but through all, |
against sword and famine and repeated bom-
bardments, the place was held for nearly a
year, till after the battle of Naseby, 14 June, ;
1645, had left the parliament free to under- j
take the subjugation of the west. When the |
siege was finally raised, Blake continued to
act as governor of Taunton. The town was j
little more than a heap of rubbish, the land
round about was desolate, the people were
impoverished. Money was granted 'by the
parliament to meet the immediate necessities,
and public collections were made for rebuild-
ing the ruined houses ; but through the au-
tumn and winter Blake was fully occupied !
with the task of administering relief and re-
storing order, and though returned to parlia-
ment he did not at that time take any part
in the parliamentary proceedings. His repu-
tation in Somerset stood extremely high, and
has been supposed to have excited the jealousy
of Cromwell himself. Of this there is no evi-
dence ; but it appears certain that Blake was
not of Cromwell's party, and, unlike a large
majority of the foremost men of the time, he
was neither relation nor connection of Crom-
well. It is said that he openly declared that
' he would as freely venture his life to save
the king as ever he had done it to serve the
parliament ' (History and Life, 28). This
is utter nonsense, and would, had he said it,
have been a strong condemnation of Blake,
a dark stain on his character ; for it is per-
fectly certain that he took no active measures,
either in word or deed, to stay the king's exe-
cution. It is probable enough that he con-
sidered it as a blunder ; but his appointment
27 Feb. 1648-9, a very few days after the
king's death, to share in the chief command
of the fleet, is a proof that the dominant fac-
tion had neither doubt of his goodwill nor
jealousy of his reputation. The events of
1648 had indeed shown that it was necessary
to have in command of the fleet a man whom
the council of state could trust [see BATTEN,
SIR WILLIAM] ; and it is very probable that
some familiarity with ships and maritime af-
fairs, gained as a merchant of Bridgwater,
may have directed the appointment of Blake,
as one of the admirals and generals at sea, to
command the fleet during the summer of
1649. The duty immediately before them was
to suppress Prince Rupert, who, with the re-
volted ships and some others, had begun a
naval war against the parliament on a system
scarcely, if at all, distinguishable from piracy
(WARBURTON, Prince Rupert, iii. 275 n.), and

had meantime established his headquarters at
Kinsale. Here Blake blockaded him, and the
summer of 1649 slipped away without his
being able to stir out of the port ; but so far
was Cromwell from the jealousy with which
he is commonly credited, that he suggested
and procured for Blake the offer of a command
with himself in the army in Ireland as major-
general of foot. The choice was left with
Blake (Calendar S. P., Dom. 2 Oct. 1649), who
preferred the more adventurous service, and
continued in command of the fleet.

Towards the end of October a gale of wind
blew Blake's squadron off shore, and Prince
Rupert, taking hasty advantage of the chance,
made good his escape to the coast of Portugal
and the straits of Gibraltar, where he was on
the main line of all foreign trade, and his pi-
racies rapidly filled his treasury. A winter
fleet was at once ordered to be got ready, and,
Deane being sick, the sole command was, in
the first instance, given to Blake (ibid. 4 Dec.),
who was ordered to reside at Plymouth to
expedite matters, and to get to sea as soon
as possible ; while Popham, the third of the
generals, was to follow with reinforcements.
He was directed to hunt down the princes
as public enemies, to seize or destroy them
wherever he should come up with them, and
to treat as enemies any foreign powers who
might support them (17 Jan. 1649-50 ; THTJR-
LOE, State Papers, i. 136). It was not till
the beginning of March that Blake got to sea,
and when he arrived at the mouth of the
Tagus he found that the princes were in the
river, and had obtained a promise of support
from the king of Portugal. The English resi-
dent in vain urged that these were pirates,
in vain demanded satisfaction for the in-
sults they received from the princes, whose
men fought with, and even killed, the English
sailors on shore ; whilst Rupert, always dis-
tinguished for his mechanical genius, at-
tempted to shorten matters by sending,
23 April, a species of torpedo not very dis-
similar from those of our own time on board
the vice-admiral, in hopes to set fire to his
ship (WARBURTON, iii. 305: THTTRLOE,!. 146).
Suspicion was excited, and the thing was not
received on board ; but though the attempt
was patent enough, and though the murder
of some of the English seamen was publicly
known, the king refused to give the English
any satisfaction. The case was provided for
j in Blake's instructions, and was rendered more
I pressing by the belief that a French squadron
j was expected, which was to act in concert
I with the princes. Accordingly, on 21 May,
| he seized nine ships going out of the river,
bound for the Brazils with rich cargoes.
i These ships were English, hired by the Por-

Blake

173

Blake

tuguese ; and Blake, taking out their officers
and strengthening their crews, converted them
into men-of-war. Five days later his fleet
was reinforced by Popham with several large
ships, and definite instructions to seize or de-
stroy any ships or goods belonging to the king |
of Portugal or his subjects. The king, on the I
other hand, was enraged at the injury which |
had been done him, and still more when the j
homeward-bound Brazil fleet ran ignorantly !
in amongst the blockading squadron, and was
captured ; he went on board Prince Rupert's
ship, and besought him to go out at once,
with his own squadron and all the Por-
tuguese fleet, and drive aw r ay the English.
Rupert was nothing loth to attempt this ;
but a foul wind in the first place, and after-
wards a want of cooperation on the part of
the Portuguese, prevented his gaining any
distinct success, though Blake had with him
but a very small force, his ships being appa-
rently distributed at Cadiz and along the
coast (WARBURTON, iii. 313; THTJKLOE, i.
1 57). All the same, the blockade was raised ;
and the Portuguese, determined to make
peace with the parliamentary government,
desired the princes to leave the Tagus. The
latter accordingly set sail from Lisbon on
29 Sept. 1650, and ran through the straits into
the Mediterranean, plundering as they went.
They had already made several captures when,
in the early days of November, Blake came
up with the greater part of their squadron,
which had been separated from the ships in
which the princes sailed in a storm off Cape
Gata. Blake chased the detached ships into
Cartagena, and, without standing on any close
observance of the rights of a neutral port,
followed them in, drove them ashore, and set
fire to them (WARBURTON, iii. 317 ; HEATH,
275). The princes, with three ships only, got
to Toulon, and thither Blake followed them ;
he at once sent in a protest against their being
allowed the succour of a French port, and when
this produced no effect he ordered reprisals
against French ships. These measures of re-
taliation cooled the warmth of the French wel-
come, and the princes thought it best to quit
the port, and to make what haste they could
out of the Mediterranean. They did, in fact,
sail to the West Indies, where, some eighteen
months later, Maurice was lost in a hurricane
(WARBURTON, iii. 324, 382). And meantime
Blake, having instructions that Penn was on
his way to relieve him [see PENN, SIR WIL-
LIAM], returned to England, where he arrived
towards the middle of February 1650-1. On
his passage down the Mediterranean he met, it
is said, a French ship of war, mounting forty
guns, * whose captain he commanded on board,
and asked him if he was willing to lay down his

sword. The captain answered No! Then Blake
bade him return to his ship and fight it out as
long as he was able, which he did ; and after
two hours' fight he came in and submitted,
and kissing his sword delivered it to Blake,
who sent him and his ship with the rest into
England ' (WHITELOCKE'S Memorials, 16 Jan.
1650-1). The story is so evidently absurd in
every particular that it would not be worth
repeating were it not that it is strictly con-
temporary, and, though resting on no autho-
rity beyond mere gossip, is, so far, evidence
of the peculiarly chivalrous character which
popular opinion attributed to Blake. The
official approval is better attested : the thanks
of parliament were given him ' for his great
and faithful service,' and a sum of 1,000/. as
a mark of the parliament's favour (Calendar,
13 Feb. 1651). He was shortly afterwards
(15 March) appointed to command the squa-
dron designed for the Irish seas and the Isle
of Man, and on news of a powerful Dutch
fleet, commanded by Tromp, being in the
neighbourhood of the Scilly islands, he was
ordered (1 April) to proceed thither, with all
his force, to demand of Tromp for what pur-
pose he had come, and with what intentions ;
and if the explanation should not be satisfac-
tory, then to require him to desist, and, if
necessary, ' to use the best ways and means
to enforce him, and in all things to preserve
the honour and interest of this nation.' The
threatened collision with the Dutch passed
over for the time, but the alarm was sufficient
to point out to the parliament the necessity
of subjugating the Scilly islands, which were
held as strongholds of the royalist privateers.
Blake was accordingly ordered to reduce them
, no easy task, for the navigation w r as diffi-
cult, the fortifications strong, and the garrison
numerous. Negotiations proved unavailing ;
but Blake, by seizing on Tresco, succeeded in
establishing a strict blockade of St. Mary's,
and having brought some of his smaller ships
in front of the castle he effected a practicable
breach, and compelled the governor to sur-
render on easy terms (Calendar, 23 May,
6 June). There were indeed murmurings at
the leniency shown to these very stiff-necked
! malignants ; but the council of state w r as quite
well aware of the importance of the capture,
: and approved of the whole business (28 June).
Blake continued in the west, taking mea-
I sures for the security of the Scilly islands
j and refitting his ships. In August he received
j a commission l to command in chief, in the
absence of Major-general Disbrowe, all forces
in the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset,
and Dorset ' (19 Aug.), a commission which
was cancelled only three days later ; for Pop-
ham had just died, Deane was with the army,

Blake

174

Blake

and Blake received pressing orders ' forthwith
to go to sea in person, to keep those affairs in
good order, and prevent any impressions that
may be made on the seamen by misrepresen-
tation of affairs,' and also ' to prevent any
supplies being sent from foreign parts to the
king of Scotland ' (22 Aug.) Accordingly,
with his flag in the Victory, he took his
station in the Downs, whence he effectually
prevented any foreign assistance being sent
to the king, or to any of the king's supporters.
The hopes of the king were crushed at Wor-
cester on 3 Sept. ; but all through the autumn
attempts were made to carry arms and stores
to his partisans in Ireland, and the watch
from the Downs was continued till well into
the winter. In September Colonel Heane
was ordered to reduce Jersey, held, as the

he bore up and ran down towards the Eng-
lish, his fleet following without further signal.
Blake, observing this sudden alteration of
course, at once understood that Trornp meant
to attack him, and prepared for battle. As
the Dutchman drew near and came within
musket-shot, without striking flag or lowering
topsails, he ordered a gun to be fired as a
summons. This was done and repeated ; the
third shot Tromp answered with a broadside,
and made the general signal to engage. The
Dutch fleet consisted of between forty and
fifty ships. Blake had with him only fifteen ;
but these were, as a rule, larger and more
powerful than the Dutch. On either side
there was no attempt at formation; Tromp's
fleet had come on in a straggling line, which
would have closed round Blake's squadron

Scilly islands had been, by an enterprising j had not Bourne, with his division, arrived in
and piratical body of cavaliers. Blake was j the nick of time, and fallen heavily on the
ordered to accompany him l with such ships ! Dutch rear. Thus reinforced the English fully
as he thought fit, and to give his best advice , held their own. The battle raged for four
and assistance for its reduction' (20 Sept.) ! hours, and ended only with the day, when
Against an attack in force, Jersey, now com- Tromp, having lost two ships, drew off, and
pletely isolated, could do very little, and be- \ the English anchored oft* Hythe. The next
fore October was out this last of the royalist j day the Dutch were seen steering towards
strongholds had surrendered to the parlia- the coast of France, and Blake, having col-
mentary army. ! lected his fleet at Dover, went into the Downs.

On 1 Dec. 1651 the council of state for the | The exact history of this battle and the trans-
year began its sittings. Blake was for the first actions which preceded it is to be found in
time a member, and during the next months an official pamphlet, entitled l The Answer
attended with some regularity (Calendar, I of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of
1651-2, Introd., p. xlvii), which was brought j England to three papers delivered in to the
abruptly to an end by the imminence of war Council of State by the Lords Ambassadors
with Holland. On 10 March 1651-2 he at- ! Extraordinary of the States General of the
tended the council for the last time j only i United Provinces.' It contains the letters of
eleven members were present, when, probably j Blake, Bourne, and Tromp, as well as a num-
at his own suggestion, he was ordered to re- j ber of depositions and other papers. The
pair to Deptford, Woolwich, and Chatham, to I popular story, which has been repeated by Mr.
hasten forth the summer fleet, f for which there I Dixon, is absurdly incorrect. It is unnecessary
is extraordinary occasion' (11 March). The to examine it in detail, but it may be well to

war broke out in May, and though there had
been an accidental collision off the Start some
days earlier, the first brunt of it fell on the fleet
which had been got together in the Downs.
Blake, with the bulk of his force, had gone
along the coast to Rye, leaving Bourne, his
rear-admiral, with only nine ships in the
Downs, when, on 18 May, Tromp, with a large
fleet, appeared outside, blown over, as he said,
by stress of weather, from Dunkirk. His pro-
fessions were amicable, but his bearing was
most insolent ; he anchored off Dover, did not
salute the castle, and during the rest of the
day exercised his men with small arms, firing
repeated volleys. The next day about noon
Blake was seen approaching from the west-
ward ; but the wind was foul, and his pro-
gress slow. Tromp weighed and stood over
towards the French coast, but afterwards, on
getting news of the encounter off the Start,

point out that Tromp's attack was certainly
not a surprise to Blake ; that as his ship, the
James, was lying to, whilst Tromp's, the Bre-
derode, was coming down before the wind,
the first broadside could not have been fired
into the James's stern ; that as the James was
cleared for action she had, for the time, neither
cabin nor cabin windows ; that it is in the
highest degree improbable that Blake, whilst
ordering shotted guns to be fired on an in-
sulting enemy, was below, either reading or
drinking; and lastly, that as, according to
every picture, tradition, and the custom of
the age, he had a smooth, clean-shaven face,
it is quite impossible that he could curl his
whiskers in his anger.

On the news of this battle the parliament
took immediate measures for strengthening
the fleet; but during the summer of 1652
Blake was alone in his office of general at sea,

Blake

175

Blake

Sir George Ayscue being subordinate to him,
although employed in a distinct command.
In the North Sea nothing of importance oc-
curred, and after the check which Ayscue
sustained from De Ruyter, 16 Aug., Blake,
with the main fleet, cruised in the Channel,
hoping to intercept De Ruyter on his home-
ward voyage. Bad weather and fog, how-
ever, enabled the Dutch fleet to escape with-
out any serious difficulty, and De Ruyter
joined fee With off Dunkirk on 22 Sept. He
was closely followed by Blake, and the two
fleets, each numbering about sixty-five ships,
met off the mouth of the Thames on 28 Sept.
The battle began about four o'clock in the
afternoon, and raged with great fury where
De With, De Ruyter, or Evertsen was ac-
tually present ; but political intrigue had, for
the moment, destroyed the usual spirit of the
Dutch officers, and the approach of evening
permitted them to draw on. No decisive ad-
vantage was gained, but the next morning the
Dutch were at some distance and would not
renew the battle ; in the afternoon the wind
was favourable, but on the English standing
towards them they turned and fled. The
victory was undoubted, but it was misunder- !
stood ; even Blake appears to have supposed
that the battle had been fought out, and to '
have been led into something very like con-
tempt for the enemy. The batteries which
had been constructed to protect the anchorage
in the Downs were dismantled and the fleet
dispersed, either on different detached services
or to refit ; Blake was left with not more than
thirty-seven ships for the guard of the Chan-
nel. In Holland, meanwhile, great exertions
had been made. It was necessary for the life
of the country that the trade which had been
stopped for several months by the English
fleet should be liberated, and towards the end
of November Tromp, again in command, put
to sea with some eighty ships of war and a
convoy of about three hundred merchantmen.
This last he left astern till he had cleared
the way, and on the morning of 29 Nov. ap-
peared with his fleet at the back of the Good-
win, standing towards the southward. Blake,
who was then lying in the Downs, held a
hasty council of war, weighed, and stood out
to meet him. It is impossible now to say
what induced the council to recommend, or
Blake to adopt, this extraordinary step, which,
to us, seems rash to the verge of madness.
All that can be said with certainty is that
the commonly received story is incorrect, and
that he was not influenced by any idea of
covering the approach to London, which in-
deed he left exposed, if Tromp had had any
design against it. It is perhaps most pro-
bable that he had not fully recognised the

enemy's great superiority until he was well
under way ; for the wind, which had been at
south-west, veered almost suddenly, and blew
very hard from the north-west. The Dutch
were swept down to the southward, the Eng-
lish avoided being carried in amongst them
| only by hugging the shore, slipping close
round the Foreland, and anchoring off Dover ;
whilst Tromp, unable to withstand the force
of the gale, anchored a couple of leagues dead
to leeward. The next morning, 30 Nov., the
two fleets weighed nearly together, and with
a fresh wind at from N. to N.N.W. stood to
the westward along the coast, Tromp unable,
Blake, it may be, unwilling, to attack. But
as they came near Dungeness the English
were forced to the southward by the trend
of the coast ; with or without their will they
were obliged to close, and their leading ships
were thus brought to action. Amongst the
first the Triumph, carrying Blake's flag, sup-
ported by Lane in the ^' ^ ictory, and Mildmay
in the Vanguard, was closely engaged by De
Ruyter and Evertsen. The Garland and
Bonaventure attacked Tromp himself in the
Brederode ; but other ships came up to their
admiral's support, and the English ships
were overpowered and taken after a gallant
resistance, in which both their captains were
slain. By those ships that did engage, the
fight was stoutly maintained, though against
tremendous odds ; but a great many, whether
fearing the superiority of the enemy, or cor-
rupted, as it was thought, by the emissaries of
the king in Holland, persistently remained to
windward ; whilst fortunately, on the side of
the Dutch, several which had fallen too far to
leeward were unable to get into the action.
Towards evening the English had lost, besides
the Garland and Bonaventure, one ship burnt
and three blown up ; the Triumph had lost
her foremast, and was unmanageable : the
other ships that had engaged had suffered se-
verely, and those that had not engaged still
kept aloof. With a sorrowful heart Blake
drew back, and under cover of the darkness
anchored off Dover ; the next day he went
into the Downs. Tromp, unable by the force
and direction of the wind to follow him in,
crossed over to the French coast, and anchored
off Boulogne, whence he sent word to the
convoy to pass on. For the next three weeks
the Channel was alive with Dutch ships, and
Tromp, having remained at Boulogne till the
trade had all passed, proceeded to the ren-
dezvous in the Basque roads. It was at this
time that, according to the popular story, he
wore the broom at the masthead, as signify-
ing that he had swept, or was going to sweep,
the English from the seas. There is no reason
to believe that he ever did anything of the

Blake

176

Blake

sort ; the statement is entirely unsupported
by contemporary evidence ; not one writer of
any credit, English or Dutch, mentions it even
as a rumour ; but months afterwards an anony-
mous and unauthenticated writer in a news-
paper wrote : ' Mr. Trump, when he was in
France, we understand, wore a flag 1 of broom '
(Daily Intelligencer, No. 113, 9 March 1652-
3). The story was probably invented as a joke
in the fleet, without a shadow of foundation.
Blake had meantime written to the council
of state a narrative of his defeat, complain-
ing that ' there was much baseness of spirit,
not among the merchant men only, but many
of the state's ships.' He was sick at heart, and
prayed that he might be discharged from his
employment, but before everything he made
it his earnest request that commissioners
might be sent down to take an impartial
and strict examination of the deportment of
several commanders.' The council, however,
refused to supersede him, although they as-
sociated two others with him as generals of
the fleet, his old colleague, Deane, and Monck,
now for the first time appointed to a naval
command. Blake they thanked for his con-
duct, and instituted the commission he had
desired, to investigate both the conduct of
the officers and the internal economy of the
fleet. Many improvements were ordered,
and the organisation of the navy began to
approach more nearly to that which after-
wards prevailed ; but most of all were efforts
made to increase the number and effective
force of the ships. It was determined that
Tromp should not return through the Channel
unchallenged, and every nerve was strained
to get together a fleet equal to the work before
it. By the middle of February 1652-3 a fleet
of between seventy and eighty ships was as-
sembled at Portsmouth, and sailed to cruise to
the westward ; it was known that Tromp was
approaching with a fleet about equal in point
of numbers, and a convoy of some 200 mer-
chant ships. On the morning of the 18th
they were sighted coming up Channel with :
a leading wind. Blake was then off Port- j
land and standing to the south ; his fleet in i
no formation, but gathered in squadrons ac- !
cording to the several flag-officers. Penn, I
with the blue squadron, was well to the
southward ; Monck, with the white squadron,
was a long way to leeward ; neither of them
was in a position to help the red squadron,
commanded by Blake and Deane together on
board the Triumph. Tromp was not slow to
understand this, though it seems altogether
to have escaped Blake ; he saw that it was im- |
possible for him to pass without doing battle ]
or endangering his convoy, and, at once taking
advantage of Blake's gross tactical blunder,

threw himself in force on the red squadron.
The Triumph was the very centre of the
attack, and round her the battle raged fiercely.
Blake was severely wounded ; Ball, her
captain, was killed ; so also was Sparrow,
the admiral's secretary, and very many other
brave men. The fight seemed likely to prove
disastrous to the English, when Penn with
the whole blue squadron, and Lawson with
the van of the red, who had struggled to
windward and tacked, bore in amongst the
Dutch. Later on, too, Monck with the
white squadron came up, and the battle
continued on equal terms till nightfall, when
Tromp, seeing some of the English threaten-
ing his convoy, drew off to its support.
Neither side could as yet claim the vic-
tory, and the loss of both, though very great,
was fairly equal. During the night Tromp
passed with his whole convoy ; when morn-
ing dawned they were off St. Catharine's,
and running freely up Channel. The Eng-
lish followed ; but Tromp ranged his fleet
astern of the merchant ships, so that they
could not be got at but by passing through
the ships of war ; and though many severe
partial actions occurred, nothing very de-
cisive was done. The chase continued
during that day and the next ; five Dutch
ships of war were sunk, four were captured,
and some thirty or forty merchant- ships ;
but Tromp kept up a semblance of order
and protection to the last, and got the re-
mainder away safely. The advantage was very
markedly with the English ; but the Dutch,
though worsted, were not dismayed, and
immediately began preparing for a further
struggle.

Blake's wound proved more serious than
was at first expected. He was put on shore at
Portsmouth, but his recovery was slow, and
a month afterwards his surgeon, Dr. Whistler,
wrote : ' General Blake, I hope, mends, but
my hopes are checked by the maxim " De
senibus non temere sperandum." I trust the
Great Physician's protection may be on him
and on all public instruments of our safety '
(21 March). A few weeks later he went to
London, where he attended to admiralty
business (Col. 12 May) ; but it was only the
news of the Dutch fleet being again at sea
that impelled him, weak as he was, to resume
the command. He hoisted his flag on board
the Essex, then in the river (Cal. 2 June),
but before he could get to the fleet the great
battle of 3 June 1653 had been fought. He,
with his squadron, did not arrive till late in
the afternoon, and, coming fresh on the field,
contributed largely to render the victory more
complete. Deane had been slain in the battle,
and for the next few weeks Blake shared the

Blake

177

Blake

command with Monck ; but his health gave
way under the strain, and he was compelled
to go on shore at Southwold. ' We found
him/ wrote the secretary of the admiralty,
who had visited him, ' in a very weak con-
dition, full of pain both in his head and left
side, which had put him into a fever, besides
the anguish he endures by the gravel, inso-
much that he has no rest night or day, but
continues groaning very sadly. This place
affords no accommodation at all for one in
his condition, there being no physician to be
had hereabouts, nor any to attend him with
necessary applications' (0 July). He had
thus no share in the final victory of the war,
31 July, but equally with Monck was pre-
sented with a gold chain worth 300/. ' as a
mark of favour for his services against the
Dutch ' (6 Aug.) ; Penn and Lawson were
also at the same time presented each with
a chain of TOO/, value ; and all four with a
large gold medal (VAX LOON, Hist. Met.
ii. 367). One of these medals, believed to
be Blake's, was bought for William IV in
1832 (Gent. Mag. cii. i. 352), and is now kept
at Windsor. The junior flag officers received
chains of value 40/., and smaller medals, one
of which is now in the British Museum.

A few weeks' rest happily restored Blake's
health so far as to permit him to return to
the fleet (Gal. 20 Sept.) ; but the press of
work was over, and during the winter his
time was divided between admiralty business
in London and his executive duties at Ports-
mouth(Ca/.19Nov.;2,31Dec;4,25Feb.,&c.)
After the peace with Holland in April 1654,
he still continued the senior commissioner
of the admiralty, and in July was appointed
to command the fleet, which sailed on 29 Sept.
for the Mediterranean, where, during the war,
English interests had been very inadequately
represented. His instructions seem to have
been to carry on reprisals against the French,
to repress the African pirates, to demand re-
dress for injuries done to English ships, and,
in general terms, to visit the different ports
-of the Mediterranean, in order as it is now
called to show the flag. In this way he
visited Cadiz, Gibraltar, Alicant, Naples,
and Leghorn (14 March 1654-5, Add. MS.
9304) ; but his earlier letters have unfor-
tunately not been preserved, and there is no
authentic account of his proceedings at this
time. It is said that he also visited Malaga,
and that whilst there he compelled the go-
vernor to make reparation for an outrage
inflicted on an English seaman. The man
liad committed a gross offence : he had insulted
the procession of the host. If complaint had
been made, he should have been punished ;
' but,' said Blake, ' I will have you know,
VOL. v.

and the whole world know, that none but
an Englishman shall chastise an English-
man.' The story is extremely doubtful. It
i rests only on the evidence of Bishop Burnet
(Hist, of Own Times (Oxford edit.), i. 137),
whose testimony is by no means unimpeach-
able ; it is told in a very hearsay sort of
manner, without any date ; and it is difficult
to believe that had any such thing occurred,
it would not be referred to in some of the
existing official correspondence. It is, how-
ever, a story which has been very generally
accepted, and, together with that of his cap-
ture of the French frigate already referred to,
has perhaps done more than the whole of
his historical career to fix the popular idea
of Blake's character. At Leghorn he is said
(LuDLOw's Memoirs, ii. 507) to have de-
manded and obtained from the Grand Duke
of Tuscany and from the pope reparation for
the countenance shown to Prince Rupert,
and for the loss sustained at the hands of
Van Galen (see APPLETON, HENRY ; BADILEY,
RICHARD) ; and 60,000/. is said to have been
actually paid (CAMPBELL, ii. 43). The state-
ment is, however, entirely unsupported by
exact evidence, and is virtually contradicted
by Blake's silence in his extant letters from
Leghorn, and his reference to others from the
same place, as of little importance (12 Jan.
1654-5, Add. MS. 9304).

From Leghorn he went on to Tunis, where,
according to his instructions, he demanded
restitution or satisfaction for piracies com-
mitted on English subjects. This was posi-
tively refused, and finding negotiations vain
and the Turks insolent, Blake finally resolved
to reduce them by force to terms of civility.
On the morning of 4 April 1655, his fleet
sailed into Porto Farina, and anchored under
the castles. As the fight began, a light wind
off the sea blew the smoke over the town
and shielded the English, so that after some
hours' cannonade, having set on fire all
the ships, to the number of nine, they re-
| treated into the roadstead with no greater
I loss than twenty-five killed and about forty
wounded. Blake was doubtful whether, in
thus attacking the Tunis pirates in their
stronghold, he had not exceeded his instruc-
tions, and in his official report expressed a hope
that ' his highness will not be offended at it,
nor any who regard duly the honour of our
nation' (18 April; THURLOE, in. 232). Crom-
well's reply was most gracious (13 June ;
ibid. iii. 547) ; at the same time he sent orders
to proceed off Cadiz, and carry on hostilities
against Spain, with an especial view to inter-
cept the Plate ships, or to prevent reinforce-
ments being sent to the West Indies. In
May Blake had visited Algiers, where the

Jf

Blake

178

Blake

dey, convinced by the arguments put in I Spanish ship was burnt, blown up, or sunk,
force at Tunis, entered into a friendly agree- [ and by seven o'clock the English ships had
ment ; and, in anticipation of his later in- all drawn off ; not one was lost. ' We had
structions, he was, by the beginning of June, not above fifty slain outright and 120 wounded,
at Cadiz, off which he cruised during the rest and the damage to our ships was such as
of the summer. The strain on his ships and in two days' time we indifferently well re-
the health of his ships' companies was very ' -
great ; and as winter approached he deter-
mined, in accordance with the discretion en-
trusted to him (THTJRLOE, i. 724) to return to

England, where he arrived on 9 Oct.

In the following spring, as soon as the
season permitted, he returned to the same
cruising ground in company with Colonel
Edward Mountagu, appointed also general
at sea. Mountagu remained during the sum-
mer, and with Blake and the bulk of the
fleet had gone to Aveiro in September, when
Stayner [see STAYNER, SIR RICHARD], in com-
mand of the light squadron, fell in with, cap-
tured, and destroyed the Plate fleet (8 Sept.),
with a loss to Spain estimated at nearly two
millions sterling in treasure alone, exclusive
of the ships and cargoes (Narrative of the

paired for present security. "Which we had no
sooner done, but the wind veered to the
south-west, which is rare among those islands,
and lasted just to bring us to our former
station near Cape Santa Maria, where we
arrived 2 May following' (Narrative, fyc.,
by order of parliament, 28 May 1657). The
news of this great victory, of the daring and
success of this extraordinary attack, which
compares with the most brilliant of naval
achievements, excited the greatest enthusi-
asm in England. A public thanksgiving was
ordered for 3 June, and the Protector wrote
(10 June) : ' We cannot but take notice how
eminently it hath pleased God to make use
of you in this service, assisting you with
wisdom in the conduct and courage in the
execution ; and have sent you a small jewel

late Success, fyc., published by order of par- j ps a testimony of our own and the parlia-
liament, 4 Oct. 1656). After this severe ment's good acceptance of your carriage in
blow to the enemy, several of the larger ships, this action ' (TnuRLOE, vi. 342). The jewel

referred to was a portrait set in gold and
diamonds, the cost of which amounted to
575/. (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vi. 444). We
may suppose that it reached Blake in safety,
but nothing further is known of it. A story
has been told and repeated that Blake's

with Stayner and Mountagu, went home for
the winter. Blake continued on the station,
and early in April 1657 he had news that
a large fleet from America had arrived at
Santa Cruz of Teneriffe. In a council of war

he announced his resolution of going thither

and attacking it. They sailed on the 13th, i brother, Benjamin, commanded a ship at

made the land on the 18th, and on the morn- ; Santa Cruz, was there guilty of cowardice,

ing of the 20th by daybreak were off Santa
Cruz. By signal from a frigate ahead they
learned that the West India fleet was still
in the bay. l Whereupon,' says the official
report, * after a short conference how to order
the attempt and earnest seeking to the Lord
for his presence, w r e fell in amongst them, and
by eight of the clock were all at an anchor,
some under the castle and forts, and others
by the ships' sides, as we could berth ourselves

was tried by court martial at Blake's order,
was sentenced to death, with a recommenda-
tion to mercy, to which the general yielded,
and sent the culprit home with an order ' he
shall never be employed more.' The story is
utterly false. Benjamin Blake went out to
the West Indies with Penn, and was ap-
pointed by him vice-admiral of the fleet left
there.

under Goodsonn as commander-in-
chief. Between these two a quarrel arose,

to keep clear one of another and best annoy apparently as to the right of command. The
the enemy. They had there five or six galeons details are not known, but the result was that
and other considerable ships, making up the \ Goodsonn sent his second in command home
number of sixteen; most of them were fur- : (25 June 1656; THURLOE, v. 154). From
nished with brass ordnance, and had their | beginning to end the general had nothing to
full companies of seamen and soldiers, kept \ do with the matter, except indeed that, out
continually on board. They were moored of respect to him, the case was not pressed
close along the shore, which lies in a semi- \ as it otherwise might have been.

circle, commanded as far as the ships lay by
the castle, and surrounded besides with six
or seven forts, with almost a continued line
for musketeers and great shot.' This was
the position which Blake, with a fleet barely
superior in nominal force to that of the enemy,
had attacked at the very closest quarters,
with the result that before evening every

With the destruction of the Spanish fleet,
Blake's work before Cadiz was finished. He
was ordered to return to England. He did
not live to reach it. His health had long
been extremely feeble ; and worn out by the
fatigues and excitement of the campaign and
by what the doctors called ' a scorbutic fever,'
he died on board his ship, the George, at the

Blake

'79

Blake

very entrance of Plymouth Sound, 7 Aug. j
1657. His body was embalmed ; was carried i
round by sea to Greenwich, where it lay in
state for some days ; was taken in procession |
up the river on 4 Sept. and placed in a vault
in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey. |
Out of this royal burial-place it was removed |
after the Restoration, and, with a score of j
others, was cast into a pit dug on the north
side of the abbey (STANLEY, Historical Me-
morials of Westminster, 5th edit., 209).

The peculiar and especial distinction which
attaches to the name of Blake is by no means
due solely to the brilliance of his achieve-
ments in the command of fleets, nor yet to
that exceeding care and forethought in their
organisation and government to which his
constant success must be mainly attributed, j
Where he led or ordered them his men were |
willing and able to go ; the work was done j
heartily and well ; but the tactics of a fleet |
were still in their infancy, and in this respect |
Blake was unquestionably inferior to his j
great Dutch rival, Martin Tromp. But more
even than by his glory and by his success,
the memory of Blake is dear to the English
people by the traditions of his chivalrous
character and of his unselfish patriotism.
These cannot be proved by historical evidence, |
but all indications tend to the same purpose, j
and compel us to believe that his object was, j
before everything, to uphold the honour and
the interests of England. It is said that
when urged to declare against Cromwell's
assumption of supreme power, he replied, ' It
is not for us to mind state affairs, but to keep
foreigners from fooling us.' The reply is
traditional; but its sentiment agrees with
what he wrote on hearing of the dissolution
of parliament, 22 Jan. 1654-5 : ' I cannot but
exceedingly wonder that there should yet
remain so strong a spirit of prejudice and
animosity in the minds of men who profess
themselves most affectionate patriots as to
postpose the necessary ways and means for
the preservation of the Commonwealth'
(THURLOE, iii. 232). It is in this spirit that
he commanded our fleets even to the end.
Except by tradition we know nothing of his
political bias ; but if in truth opposed to the
government and the usurpation of Cromwell
he never allowed his opposition to become
manifest, and, irrespective of party, devoted
his life to the service of his country.

No undoubted portrait of Blake is known
to exist. The portrait at Wadham College,
and that formerly in the possession of Joseph
Ames, are possibly originals; but the evidence
is defective. The same must be said of the
picture by Hanneman, which in 1866 was
exhibited at South Kensington, lent by Mr.

Fount aine of Narford Hall ; it may be Blake,
but proof is quite wanting. The picture in
the Painted Hall at Greenwich is a work of
modern imagination, based apparently on a
memoiy of the Ames portrait.

[Calendars of State Papers, Domestic, 1649-
1657 ; Granville Penn's Memorials of Sir Wil-
liam Penn ; Thurloe's State Papers. There are
many so-called lives of Blake : in Lives English
and Foreign (1704), ii. 74 the author of which
claims to have known some of the members of
Blake's family; by Dr. Johnson a paraphrase of
the preceding ; by Campbell, in Lives of the Ad-
mirals, ii. 62 ; History and Life, &c., by a Gentle-
man bred in his Family an impudent and men-
dacious chap-book ; and by Mr. Hepworth Dixon
(1852). From the historian's point of view they
are all utterly worthless. Mr. Dixon's notices of
Blake's family, so far as they are drawn from
parish and private records, may possibly be correct,
but his account of Blake's public life is grossly
inaccurate, and much of it is entirely false ; he
betrays throughout the most astonishing igno-
rance of naval matters, and a very curious inca-
pability of appreciating or interpreting historical
evidence.] J. K. L.

BLAKE, THOMAS (1597P-1657), puri-
tan, was a native of Staffordshire. As he
entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in
1616 in his nineteenth year, he must have
been born about 1597. He proceeded B.A.
and M. A., and having obtained orders, Wood
tells us, he had* some petit employment in the
church bestowed on him.' ' At length/ con-
tinues the historian, ' when the presbyterians
began to be dominant, he adhered to that
party,' and ' subscribed to the lawfulness of
the covenant in 1648 among the ministers of
Shropshire, and soon after, showing himself
a zealous brother while he was pastor of
St. Alkmond's in Shrewsbury, he received
a call to Tamworth in Staffordshire and
Warwickshire, where also being a constant
preacher up of the cause, he was thought
fit by Oliver and his council to be nominated
one of the assistants to the commissioners of
Staffordshire for the ejecting of such whom
they called ignorant and scandalous ministers
and schoolmasters.'

Blake published a large number of books
on puritan theology, but his attacks on Ri-
chard Baxter damaged his reputation with
many nonconformists. His arguments indi-
cate a narrow, if subtle, intellect. The follow-
ing are his chief works : 1. ' Birth Privilege,
or the Right of Infants to Baptism,' 1644.
2. f Infant's Baptism freed from Antichris-
tianisme. In a full Repulse given to Mr. Ch.
Blackwood in his Assault of that Part of
Christ's Possession which he holds in his Heri-
tage of Infants, entitled " The Storming of

N2

Blake

180

Blake

Antichrist," ' 1645 Wood misnames Black-
wood /Charles' for 'Christopher.' 3. <A
Moderate Answer to the Two Questions:
(1) Whether there be sufficient Ground from
Scripture to warrant the Conscience of a
Christian to present his Infants to the Sacra-
ment of Baptism ; (2) Whether it be not
sinful for a Christian to receive the Sacra-
ment in a Mixt Assembly/ 1645. 4. ' An
Answer to Mr. Tombes his Letter in Vindi-
cation of theBirth-priviledge of Believers and

flmit* looiiQ ' 1 (\A_(\ K ( TVatirnnntr f\f tViP

BLAKE, WILLIAM (1773-1821), dis-
senting minister, was born at Crewkerne on
29 March 1773, and was the second son of
the Eev. William Blake (born on 7 July 1730,
died on 29 March 1799), who had been a
pupil of Doddridge at Northampton (1749),
and who was presbyterian minister at Crew-
kerne from 1754 (ordained 11 May 1757) till
29 July 1798. His son William, also edu-
cated at Northampton in 1790 under Horsey,
preached first at Yeovil in 1793, and, on his

their issue/ 1646.~ 5. l Testimony of the ! father's resignation, succeeded him at Crew-
Ministers of Stafford to Solemn League/ I kerne, where he remained till his death on
1648. 6. * Vindicia? Fcederis, a Treatise of ! 18 Feb. 1821. Rev. William Blake, jun.,
the Covenant of God with Mankind/ 1653. j of Crewkerne, was the last presbyterian
7. ' Infant Baptism maintain'd in its Lati- minister of his name, from a family con-
tude/ 1653. 8. ' The Covenant Sealed, or a spicuous in the ministry of West of England
Treatise of the Sacrament of both Covenants/ j dissent [see BLAKE, MALACHI]. By his time
1655. 9. ' Postscript to the Rev. and Learned i the original Calvinism of the race had changed
Mr. Richard Baxter/ 1655 trenchantly an- | to Arianism, and he himself became humani-

swered by Baxter. 10. 'Mr. Jo. Hum-
phrey's Second Vindication of a Disciplinary
Anti-erastian, Orthodox, Free Admission to
the Lord's Supper, taken into consideration/
1656; and other pamphlets and occasional
sermons. 'Ebenezer, or Profitable Truths
after Pestilential Times/ 1666, which is
assigned to him by Wood and by Brook, was
not his, but by another Thomas Blake, who
was ejected from East Hoadley, Sussex
(PALMER, iii. 320).

Blake died at Tamworth, and was interred

tarian in his Christology.
of wealth and influence.

He was a man
He published :

1. * Devotional Services for the Public Wor-
ship of the One True God/ &c., Sherborne,
1812 (anonymous ; eight services, with occa-
sional and family prayers and 250 hymns).

2. ' Private Judgment/ Taunton, 1810 (ser-
mon before Southern Unitarian Society).
Like his father and grandfather he was twice
married, and left descendants (the Blake pedi-
gree is puzzling to trace from the constant
recurrence of the same baptismal names).

in his own church on 11 June 1657. His His elder brother, Malachi Blake, M.D., of
funeral sermon was preached by Anthony Taunton, survived till 1843 ; his portrait is
Burgesse, and was published in 1658, along j in the Taunton and Somerset Hospital,
with an oration by Samuel Shaw, then school- | where the ' Blake Ward ' is called from him.
master at Tamworth. It is entitled ' Paul's
Last Farewell, or a Sermon preached at the
Funerall of that godly and learned Minister
of Jesus Christ, Mr. Thomas Blake, by An-
thony Burgesse : appended, A Funerall Ora-
tion at the death of the most desired Mr.

[Blake pedigree, MS. ; Monthly Repository,
1821; March's Hist. Presb. and Gen. Bapt.
Churches in West of England, 1835, pp. 217,
245.] A. GK

BLAKE, WILLIAM (1757-1827), poet
Blake, by Mr. Samuel Shaw, then School- ' and painter, was born on 28 Nov. 1757, at

master at the Free School at Tamworth/
1658. In the 'Oration' Blake is thus de-
scribed : ' His kindness towards you could
not be considered without love, his awfull
gravity and secretly commanding presence
without reverence, nor his conversation
without imitation. To see him live was a

28 Broad Street, Golden Square. His father
was a hosier in sufficiently comfortable cir-
cumstances to give some furtherance to his
son's bent for art. At ten he was sent to
Par's drawing school in the Strand the best
of its day, where he drew from the antique.
His father also bought him casts and gave

provocation to a godly life; to see him dying him occasional small sums of money to make
might have made any one weary of living, a collection of prints for study, and the auc-
When God restrained him from this place tioneer (Langford) would sometimes knock
(which was always happy in his company down a cheap lot to ' his little connoisseur '
but now), he made his chamber a church j with friendly haste in those days of 'three-
and his bed a pulpit, in which (in my hear- | penny bids.' Raphael, Michael Angelo,
ing) he offered many a heavenly prayer for | Giulio Romano, Diirer, &c. were the objects
you.' of the boy's choice at a time when Guido and

[Wood's Athenae, ed. Bliss, iii. 431-3; Brook's | the Caracciwere the idols of the connoisseur.
Puritans, iii. 269-71; local researches; Blake's Blake began to write original verse in his
Works.] i A. B. G. twelfth year, some of which was afterwards

Blake

181

Blake

printed in the ' Poetical Sketches.' One of
the most beautiful of these, * How sweet I
roam'd from field to field,' was certainly
written before fourteen (MALKIN). At that
age Blake was apprenticed to James Basire,
engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, a
liberal-minded and kind master, but his style
of engraving was flat, formal, mechanical, j
but with solid excellence of drawing. It I
was adhered to in the main by Blake till
late in life, when his mode of handling the
graver was advantageously modified by the !
study of the work of Bonosoni, &c., and, |
though redeemed by the qualities of his j
genius, was an obstacle to his acceptance by
a public accustomed to the soft and fasci- j
nating manner of Wollett, Strange, and i
Bartolozzi. In summer time Basire set !
Blake upon the congenial task of drawing j
the monuments in the old churches of Lon-
don and above all in Westminster Abbey,
where, rapt and happy, he worked for some
years acquiring a knowledge and a fervent love
of Gothic art which profoundly influenced
him through life. During winter he engraved
his summer's work for Gough's ' Sepulchral
Monuments,' one of the best plates in which,
a 'Portrait of Queen Philippa, from her
monument,' though it has Basire's name
affixed, is, on the authority of Stothard, from
Blake's hand. In the evenings he began to
make drawings of subjects from English
history or from' his own already teeming
fancy. A noteworthy example ' Joseph of
Arimathea among the rocks of Albion ' he
engraved so early as 1773.

The seven years' apprenticeship ended, in
1778 Blake became for a short time a student
in the newly formed Royal Academy. Moser,
the first keeper, had little to teach Blake,
who tells how he was once looking over
prints from Raphael and Michael Angelo in
the library when Moser said to him, 'You
should not study these old, hard, stiff, dry,
unfinished works of art ; I will show you
what you should study.' 'He took down
Le Brun and Rubens' " Galleries." How did
I secretly rage ! I said " These things you
call finished are not even begun ; how then
can they be finished ? " ' Here Blake drew
for a short time from the living figure, but j
early conceived a dislike to, and quickly relin- ;
quished, academic modes of study. ' Natural ,
objects always did and do now weaken, i
deaden, and obliterate imagination in me/
he said in after life. As a mere child he j
gave evidence of that visionary power, that j
faculty of seeing the creations of his imagina- |
tion with such vividness that they were as
real to him as objects of sense, which, sedu-
lously cultivated through life, became a dis-

tinguishing feature of his genius. Returning
from a ramble over the hills round Dulwich,
he said he had seen a tree filled with angels,
bright wings bespangling every bough like
stars ; or, again, that he had beheld angelic
figures walking amongst some haymakers;
and only through his mother's intercession
did he escape a flogging from his father, who
regarded the story as a deliberate lie. As a
boy, he perhaps believed these were super-
natural visions : as a man, it must be gathered
from his explicit utterances that he under-
stood their true nature as mental creations.

Blake now supported himself mainly by
engraving for the booksellers. For Harrison's
'Novelists' Magazine' he engraved those early
and beautiful designs by Stothard which first
brought the latter into notice, viz. two illus-
trations to ' Don Quixote,' one to the ' Senti-
mental Journey.' one to ' David Simple,' one
to ' Launcelot Greaves,' and three to ' Grandi-
son.' Already he had made Stothard's ac-
quaintance, who introduced him to Flaxman,
soon to prove an influential and staunch
friend. Of original work belonging to this
early date (1780) may be mentioned the
scarce engraving ' Glad Day,' and a drawing,
' The Death of Earl Godwin,' which Blake
contributed to the Royal Academy's first
exhibition in Somerset House. In this year
he found himself an involuntary participator
in the Gordon riots, having become entangled
in the mob and been carried along by it to
witness the storming of Newgate and the
release of the prisoners.

In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher,
daughter of a market-gardener at Battersea,
who proved herself one of the best wives
that ever fell to the lot of a man of genius ;
and they set up housekeeping in lodgings at
23 Green Street, Leicester Fields.

In 1784 he opened a printseller's shop in
Broad Street, in partnership with a fellow en-
graver, Parker ; and Robert, Blake's youngest
brother, between whom and himself there
was the strongest sympathy and affection,
lived with them. In this year he exhibited
at the Royal Academy ' War unchained by
an Angel, Fire, Pestilence, and Famine fol-
lowing,' and ' Breach in a City, the Morning
after a Battle.' In 1787 Robert died, the
shop was given up, and Blake removed to
28 Poland Street. Unable to find a pub-
lisher for his 'Songs of Innocence,' he adopted
a plan of reproducing them himself, revealed
to him in a dream by his dead brother
Robert, he used to tell. ' Next morning Mrs.
Blake went out with their last half-crown
to buy the necessary materials. The verse
was written, and the design and marginal
embellishments outlined on copper with an

Blake

182

Blake

impervious liquid, and then the remainder of j
the plate was eaten away with aquafortis, so :
that the letters and outlines were left pro- !
minent as in stereotype and could be printed
off in any tint required as the basis of his |
scheme of colour. He then worked up the '.
pages by hand with great variety of detail j
in the local hues. Mrs. Blake learned to j
take off the impressions with delicacy, to
help in tinting them, and to do up the pages |
in boards. Thus the little book was literally
made by husband and wife, with a result of
unique beauty ; and so far as the poems are
concerned, taken in conjunction with the
companion ' Songs of Experience ' by which j
they were supplemented five years later, they
are the most perfect Blake ever achieved.
For whilst his powers of design steadily
developed and his last completed work, the
* Inventions to the Book of Job,' was also
his grandest, as a poet his inspiration lapsed
more and more into the formless incoherence
of the so-called 'Prophetic Books,' which
were all engraved and coloured by hand in
the above manner. Indeed, the main, if not
the whole, value of these t Prophetic Books,'
of which a list is givenjbelow, consists in the
frequent splendour of the designs interwoven
with the text. For here the fullest scope is
given to the two antagonistic tendencies of
Blake's mind, on the one hand as artist to
embody in human forms of terror, sublimity,
beauty, or grotesqueness the most abstract
ideas,*and on the other, as poet and theosophic
dreamer, to resolve into shadowy symbolism
the realities of human life and the visible
world, and to express in the most crude
manner his favourite tenet, that ' all things
exist in the human imagination alone.'

In 1791 bookseller Johnson employed him
to design and engrave six plates to ' Original
Stories for Children,' by Mary Wollstonecraft,
and some to ' Elements of Morality,' trans-
lated by her from the German. At Johnson's
weekly dinners he met Drs. Price, Priestley,
Godwin, Fuseli, Tom Paine, &c., with whom
he sympathised ardently in political, but not
at all in religious, matters. He was the only
member of the group who donned the bonnet
rouge and actually walked the streets in it.
About this time, too, he made the acquaint-
ance of Mr. Thomas Butts, a steady buyer at
moderate prices for thirty years of his draw-
ings, temperas, and ' frescoes.'

In 1793 Blake removed to Hercules Build-
ings, Lambeth, where he spent seven pro-
ductive years, the most important fruits of
which, in design, were 537 illustrations to
Young's 'Night Thoughts' for Edwards's
edition. Of these only forty-seven, to the
first four books, were engraved, the book not

proving successful (see description by F. J.
Shields in GILCHKIST'S Slake, vol. ii. 2nd
edit.) Blake's industry throughout life was
unceasing, and the mass of work accom-
plished by the rare union of exhaustless
patience with a fiery, restless, creative ima-
gination exceeds belief (see catalogues by
W. M. E-ossetti in GILCHKIST'S Blake). He
literally never paused. ' I don't understand
what you mean by the want of a holiday,' he
would say. Writing and design were his
recreation after the tedious toil of engraving.
Flaxman in 1800 introduced Blake to
Hayley, who invited him to come and settle
at Felpham while engraving the illustrations
for the ' Life of Cowper.' Here, in a cottage
by the sea, he spent three years, during
which he executed eighteen tempera heads
of the poets for Hayley's library ; a miniature
of Cowper's cousin, Johnson ; two very sweet
designs to ' Little Tom the Sailor,' a broad-
sheet ballad by Hayley ; a series of illustra-
tions to Hayley's 'Ballads on Animals/
besides more engraved books and drawings
for Butts. It was not to be expected, how-
ever, that Blake could long continue to
breathe freely in the atmosphere of elegant
triviality and shallow sentiment which sur-
rounded the literary squire. Kindly as he
I was, and unwearied in endeavours to serve,
j his entire incapacity to understand the ar-
tist's genius or appreciate his work except as
! an engraver, made the constant intercourse
! between them blighting to Blake's inner life
I and to the exercise of his creative faculty.
! After three years' patient endurance, there-
| fore, he determined to return to London at
! whatever pecuniary sacrifice, that he might
j < be no longer pestered with Hayley's genteel
: ignorance and polite disapprobation.' An
j absurd charge of sedition was brought against
; him, just before he finally quitted Felpham,
by a drunken soldier whom he had turned out
! of his garden. The case was tried at Chi-
chester, and Blake was acquitted. On his
return he settled- at 17 South Moltoii Street.
! Cromek, Blake's next employer, purchased of
i him that fine series of designs to Blair's
' Grave ' by which he is most widely known.
Never has the theme of death been handled
in pictorial art with more elevation and
beauty than in some of these, notably in
' Death's Door ' and the ' Soul departing from
the Body.' Fuseli, always a warm friend of
Blake (paying him the naive tribute of re-

| marking that l he was d d good to steal

from '), wrote a laudatory notice of the de-
| signs for the preface. But it was a bitter
disappointment to Blake that, contrary to
the original agreement, he was not permitted
to engrave his own designs. They were put

Blake

183

Blake

into the hands of Schiavonetti, by whom
they were rendered with a mingled grace
and grandeur which won for them a wider
popularity than Blake's austere style could
have achieved. The breach of contract and the
consequent loss of his copyright were injuries
which Blake deeply resented ; and Cromek's
conduct in relation to his next enterprise
enhanced the sense of injustice. For, having
seen a design of Blake's from the ' Canter-
bury Pilgrimage ' and vainly endeavoured to
negotiate for its publication on the same
terms, Croniek went to Stothard and sug-
gested the subject to him, who, ignorant that
Blake was already engaged upon it, accepted
the offer, and thus was occasioned a breach
between the friends which was never closed.
Blake having completed his * Canterbury
Pilgrimage ' as a ( fresco ' a word which he
applied to a method of his own of painting
in water-colour on a plaster ground of glue
and whiting laid on to canvas or board ap-
pealed to the public by opening an exhibition
of this and other of his works. The ' De-
scriptive Catalogue ' written for the occasion
interprets his pictures, expounds his canons
of art, and contains some admirable writing i
on the characters in Chaucer's ' Prologue.' j
Lamb preferred Blake's to Stothard's ' Pil-
grimage,' and called it ' a work of wonderful i
power and spirit, hard and dry, yet with I
grace.' In 1808 Blake, for the last time, ex- i
hibited at the Royal Academy. He then sent
i Christ in the Sepulchre guarded by Angels ' j
and t Jacob's Dream,' one of his most poetic i
works; and also executed for Mr. Butts 'The
Whore of Babylon,' now in the British Mu- j
seum ; and for the Countess of Egremont j
' The Last Judgment,' from one of the Blair j
drawings, of which, towards the close of life, j
he painted a replica containing some thou- j
sand figures highly finished and with much j
splendour of colour.

To John Linnell, with whom Blake first
became acquainted in 1813, is due all honour
for having been the stay of the neglected
artist's declining years, and for having com-
missioned his noblest work. Through him,
too, there gathered round a circle of friends
and disciples John Varley, George Rich-
mond, Samuel Palmer, Oliver Finch, and
others. John Varley, who gave a very ma-
terialistic interpretation to Blake's visionary
power, would sit by him far into the night
and say ' Draw me Moses ' or ' Julius Ceesar,'
straining his own eyes in the hope of seeing
what Blake saw, who would answer ' There
he is,' and draw with alacrity, looking up
from time to time as if he had a flesh-and-
blood sitter before him, sometimes suddenly
leaving off and remarking, * I can't go on, it

j is gone,' or * it has moved, the mouth is gone.'
i Thus were produced the famous visionary
j heads, or * Spiritual Portraits ' some forty
or fifty slight pencil sketches, all original,
many full of character and power. One of
i the most curious the 'Ghost of a Flea ' was
1 engraved in Varley 's 'Zodiacal Physiognomy '
and in the ' Art Journal ' for August 1858.
j The original drawings all passed into the
: hands of Mr. Linnell. Blake was wont to
say to his friends respecting these l visions,'
; ' You can see what I do if you choose. Work
up imagination to the state of vision, and the
thing is done.'

In 1820 Blake designed and executed his
first and last woodcuts to illustrate Thorn-
! ton's school Virgil (the ' Pastorals '). Rude
in execution, but singularly poetic and beauti-
ful, these prints were at the time so much
ridiculed by the engravers that some of them
were recut by another hand. The obscure
little book is now much prized for their sake.
| Samples of both styles were given to illus-
i trate an article on the principles of wood
engraving in the ' Athenaeum,' 21 Jan. 1843.
Blake made his last move in 1820, to 3 Foun-
tain Court, Strand, where, amid increasing
poverty and neglect, he executed and engraved
for Linnell those sublime ' Inventions to the
Book of Job ' on which his highest claim as
an artist rests. And whilst they were in
progress the same friend, himself still a
struggling artist, commissioned a series of
drawings from the ' Divina Comrnedia,' to be
also engraved, paying him on account the
two or three pounds a week necessary for
subsistence. A hundred designs were sketched
in, some finished, but only seven engraved
and published in 1827. For Blake's labours
were drawing to a close. His strength had
been for some time declining, but he worked
on with the old ardour to within a few days
of the end. 'I cannot think of death as
more than the going out of one room into
another,' he had said in speaking of Flaxman's
death ; and in that spirit, not serene merely,
but joyous and full of radiant visions, he
gently, almost imperceptibly, drew his last
breath, 12 Aug. 1827.

The following is a list of Blake's writings,
all engraved and coloured by hand, except
those marked * which are type-printed and
unillustrated : 1. *' Poetical Sketches,' 1783.
2. ' Songs of Innocence,' 1789. 3. ' Book of
Thel,' 1789. 4. ' Marriage of Heaven and
Hell, 1790 ; consisting partly of aphorisms
or proverbs, mostly vigorous and profound,
that condensed form of expression proving

five ' memorable fancies ' in which Sweden-

singularly favourable to Blake ; partly of
five ' memorable fancies ' in which Sweden-
borg's influence upon him, very potent through

Blake

184

Blakely

life, though he was never a Swedenborgian,
is first discernible. 5. *' The French Revo-
lution/ Book i. 1791 (not thought worth
reprinting by any of Blake's editors).
6. ' Gates of Paradise,' 1793, engraved but ,
not coloured, consisting of seventeen plates
of emblems, each with a title or motto and (
rhymed ' Keys of the Gates/ described by j

'. UU.ULIUU11, Ui wiiicu. tilde u-pjjeu.1 a LU uc ;

i copy in existence. 21. 'Tiriel/ first printed i
W. M. Rossetti's ' Aldine British Poets.'

1793. 9. ' America,' 1793. 10. ' Europe :
a Prophecy,' 1794. 11. ' The Book of Urizen,'
1794 (containing Asia and Africa). 12. 'The
Song of Los,' 1795. 13. ' The Book of Ahania/
1795. 14. ' Jerusalem,' 1804. 15. 'Milton/
1804. (There are different degrees of beauty
in the samples of all these engraved books ;
not only because Blake himself bestowed
different degrees of finish and richness but ;
also because Mrs. Blake worked upon some, j
There are copies, indeed, which appear to j
have been entirely coloured by her after her
husband's death. For descriptions and inter-
pretations see SWINBURNE'S William Slake : I
a Critical Essay, 1868.) 16. *' Descriptive
Catalogue/ 1809. 1^ 'Prospectus/ 1793. j
18. Four undated ' Sibylline Leaves," viz. j
'The Laocoon/ 'Ghost of Abel/ 'On Homer's j
Poetry/ ' On Virgil.' 19. ' There is no Na- I
tural Religion ' (eight ? leaves with design), j
20. ' Outhoon/ of which there appears to be
no co
in

22. 'Ideas of Good and Evil/ from Blake s
note-book, first printed in Gilchrist's ' Blake/
vol. ii. 23. Prose from the same, viz. ' Public
Address ' and ' Vision of the Last Judgment.' j
Reprints of Blake's works have appeared as :
follows : ' Songs of Innocence and Experience/
edit, by Dr. G. Wilkinson (much altered),
1839. ' Selections/ emendated, comprising
nearly everything except ' Prophetic Books/
edited by D. G. Rossetti, forming vol. ii. of
Gilchrist's ' Life of Blake/ 1863 and 1880.
' Songs of Innocence and Experience, with j
other Poems' (verbatim), 1866. 'Poetical 1
Sketches/ edit, by R. H. Shepherd (ver-
batim), 1868. ' Poetical Works, Lyrical and j
Miscellaneous/ edit., with prefatory memoir, j
by W. M. Rossetti, 1874 (verbatim). A j
facsimile, but without colour, of the ' Jeru- j
salem,' 1877, Pearson. Also one of the
' Marriage of Heaven and Hell/ colour-
printed, Camden Hotten. A reproduction of
the ' Illustrations to the Book of Job/ with
prefatory memoir by C. E. Norton, Boston,
1875. And lastly, a volume of 'Etchings
from Blake's Works/ with descriptive text
by William Bell Scott, 1878.

[Malkin's Father's Memoirs of his Child (In-
troduction to), 1806 ; Smith's Nollekens and his
Times, comprehending Memoirs of several Con-
temporary Artists, vol. ii. 1828; Cunningham's
Lives of the most eminent British Painters, &c.,
1830. Gilchrist's Life of William Blake, with
Selections from his Writings, &c., 1863, contains
impressions from some of the original plates of
' Songs of Innocence and Experience/ the ' Job,'
some of the ' visionary heads/ ' Gates of Para-
dise/ &c., 2nd edit. 1880, with additional letters,
illustrations, and a memoir of the author.]

A. G T.

BLAKELY, FLETCHER (1783-1862),
Irish remonstrant minister, was born on
13 May 1783 at Ballyroney, county Down.
He was the youngest son of Joseph Bleakly,,
a farmer, and was named after the Rev.
William Fletcher, presbyterian minister of
Bally roney (d. 1824), who gave him his
early training ; both his parents died when
he was very young. In 1799 he entered
Glasgow College (at which time he spelled
his name Bleakly), where he graduated. On
19 Sept. 1809 he was ordained by Bangor
presbytery as minister of Moneyrea, county
Down, in succession to Samuel Patton.
Fletcher had trained him in Calvinism, but
he did not long retain this form of theology.
He became by degrees a Unitarian of what
was then a very advanced type in Ireland,
being the first avowed humanitarian preacher
in Ulster (after 1813; see Mon. Rep. 1813,
p. 515 ). Under his influence Moneyrea was-
so marked a home of heterodox opinion that
it passed into a proverb, 'Moneyrea, where
there is one God and no devil.' When, in
1821, the English Unitarians sent John Smeth-
urst (1792-1859) on a mission to Ulster, the
Moneyrea meeting-house was the first that was
opened to him ; the Arian pulpits were (with
five exceptions) refused to him. In 1829
Blakely, with his whole congregation, joined
the remonstrant secession from the synod of
Ulster ; he had throughout the previous sy no-
dical debates been one of the most powerful
coadjutors of Henry Montgomery, the leader
of the New Light party, and assisted him in
forming the remonstrant synod. On 27 April
1836 a public testimonial bore witness to his
'successful advocacy of the rights of con-
science and human freedom.' In his own
neighbourhood he did much for popular edu-
cation, for the cause of tenant right, and for
the promotion of the flax industry. He was a
joint-editor (1830-3) of the ' Bible Christian/
and published two or three tracts and ser-
mons, especially : 1. 'A Dialogue/ Belf. 1817,
8vo (anon.), on the bible and other standards
of faith (not seen ; it was answered by a
covenanting minister, not Paul). 2. ' The

Blakely

185

Blakely

Battle of the Two Dialogues, being a conver-
sation between a Rev. Covenanter and a Rev.
Presbyterian on the impropriety of adhering
to any standard of faith except the Bible,'
Belf. 1818, 8vo (also anon. ; in reply to it John
Paul, then covenanting minister of Lough-
mourne, afterwards of Carrickfergus andD.D.
(died 17 March 1848, aged 71), published his
first work, ' Creeds and Confessions defended/
&c., Belf. 1819, 8vo, which is one of the most
caustic pieces of satire ever contributed on the
orthodox side of the religious controversies in
Ulster). 3. ' The Doctrine of the Trinity not
comprised in the Faith which was once de-
livered unto the Saints ' (Jude 1-3), London,
1846, 8vo. 4. < An Explicit Avowal of Truth
the best mode of teaching it' (Romans i.
16), Belfast, 1853, 8vo (preached as presi-
dent of the Association of Irish Nonsub-
scribing Presbyterians). He resigned his
charge on 22 Sept. 1857, but continued to
preach till the installation of his successor,
John Jellie, on 27 Sept. 1859. He died on
25 Feb. 1862 at Cradley, Worcestershire, the
residence of the Rev. William Cochrane, who
had married his eldest child. He was buried
at Moneyrea. He married Margaret Lindsay
(1783-1825), and had four children : Jane, as
above; Sarah (1814-1844) ; David Lindsay,
inspector of Irish National Schools (1816-
1854) ; and William Joseph (born 17 April
1818), Unitarian minister at Billingshurst,
Sussex, in 1839, ordained on 15 Dec. 1840 by
Bangor remonstrant presbytery as minister
of York Street, Belfast, and died on 19 March
1842.

[Glasgow Matriculation Register ; Chr. Re-
former, 1822, p. 218, 1859, p. 474 ; Min. Gen.
Synod, 1824 ; Synodical Portraits in Northern
Whig, 1829; Northern Whig, 28 April, 1838;
Inquirer, 15 March 1862; Chr. Unitarian, 1862,
p. 123; Min. Rem. Synod, 1841, 1858, 1860,
1862 ; tombstones at Moneyrea.] A. G.

BLAKELY, JOHNSTON (1781-1814),
commander in the United States' navy, was
born in Dublin in October 1781. While he
was still an infant, his parents emigrated to
America and settled in North Carolina. In
1800 Blakely entered the States' navy, and,
when the war with England broke out in
1812, had attained the rank of lieutenant.
In the early months of 1813 he commanded
the brig Enterprise on the east coast, but
was promoted from her to the command of
the Wasp, a new, large, and heavily armed
sloop. In this he sailed from Portsmouth
(New Hampshire) on 1 May 1814, and, cross-
ing the Atlantic, ran boldly into the en-
trance of the English Channel, where, on
28 June, he fell in with and, after a short but

severe action, captured the English brig
Reindeer, commanded by Captain Manners,
whose gallant conduct against an enemy of
immensely superior force has called forth the
admiration of both English and American
writers. The Reindeer was so much damaged,
and the risk of her recapture so great, that
Blakely ordered her to be set on fire, after
which he made the best of his way to Lorient,
where he arrived on 8 July. For this impor-
tant service congress voted him a gold medal,
which, however, he did not live to receive.
As soon as the Wasp was refitted he sailed
from Lorient (27 Aug.) on another cruise.
Within the next three days he made two
prizes ; and on 1 Sept., having fallen in with
a convoy of ten sail under the escort of a
74-gun ship, succeeded in the course of the
afternoon in cutting off and capturing one of
the convoy laden with military stores of great
value. The same evening, after dark, he
met the English brig Avon, commanded by
Captain the Hon. James Arbuthnott. The
force of the Avon was very inferior to that
of the Wasp, and the inferiority in her gun-
nery practice was almost more marked. After
a running fight of about three-quarters of an
hour, during which the Wasp had two men
killed and one wounded, the Avon having lost
forty-two men killed and wounded, and being
in a sinking condition, hailed that she sur-
rendered. The Castilian brig, of the same
force as the Avon, now came up, and the
Tartarus sloop was made out in the distance :
so the Wasp, having her rigging a good deal
cut, ran down to leeward to gain time. The
Castilian at first followed her, but gave up
the chase on the Avon's making urgent sig-
nals of distress ; she was indeed sinking fast,
and her men were scarcely out of her before

1 she went down. The Wasp after this sailed
for the south. Making two or three prizes as
she went, on 21 Sept. she was in latitude
3312 / N.; and on 9 Oct. in latitude 18 35' N.,
longitude 30 10' W., she spoke a Swedish
brig. This was the last known of her ; she
was never heard of again.

The Americans have formed a very high
estimate of Blakely ; and though the great
superiority of the Wasp over both the Rein-
deer and the Avon may perhaps be considered
as leaving little room for the display of any
extraordinary courage, his conduct of these
actions, and of his venturesome cruise in the
chops of the Channel, then swarming with
English men-of-war, and his successful raid
on the Gibraltar convoy, all tend to show
that the American estimate is not exagge-
rated.

[Ripley and Dana's American Cyclopaedia;

, Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812.] J. K. L.

Blakeney

186

Blakeney

BLAKENEY, SIB EDWARD (1778- j
1868), field-marshal, was the fourth son of j
Colonel William Blakeney, of Newcastle- j
upon-Tyne, and M.P. for Athenry in Gal- j
way in the Irish parliament, 1776-83. He |
was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1778, |
and entered the army, 28 Feb. 1794, as a j
cornet in the 8th light dragoons. Accom- ;
panying the expedition under Major-general
White to the West Indies, he was present at
the capture of Demerara, Berbice, and Esse-
quibo in 1796 ; in the course of this service
he was three times taken prisoner by pri-
vateers and suffered severe hardships. In
1799 he went with the expedition to Holland,
and was present in the actions of 10 and
19 Sept., and also in those of 2 and 6 Oct.
In 1807 he sailed with the 7th regiment of
foot, the Royal Fusiliers, to the Baltic, joined j
Lord Cathcart's expedition, and took part in
the capture of the Danish fleet and the sur- ;
render of Copenhagen. He was present at |
the capture of Martinique in 1809. Obtaining
the command of the 7th foot, 20 June 1811,
he proceeded in charge of his regiment to
Lisbon, and during the campaigns of the
years 1811-1-4 he served in the battles of (
Busaco and Albuera (where he was severely
wounded through the thigh), the action at
Aldea de Ponte, the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo
and Badajoz (where he was severely wounded
through the arm in the assault), battles of
Vittoria, Pampeluna, Pyrenees, and Nivelle, j
besides various minor actions. He joined
the army in Belgium in 1815, and was present
at the capture of Paris. For those and other
services he received the gold cross and a j
silver war medal, and was made a knight of j
the Tower and Sword of Portugal in 1812. !
Having retained the command of his regi- J
ment until 2 June 1825, the first brigade of j
the army sent to Portugal was then entrusted ;
to his charge. On 20 Sept. 1832 he was re- |
warded with the colonelcy of his old regi- j
ment, the 7th foot, which he did not resign |
until 21 Dec. 1854. In the meantime, how-
ever, he was not idle, as he served in Ireland
as commander-in-chief of the troops from
1838 to 1855. On 1 Dec. in the previous j
year he was nominated colonel of the 1st foot, !
and retained the appointment to his decease. ;
After his return from Ireland he became |
lieutenant-governor of Chelsea Hospital, !
6 Feb. 1855, and on 25 Sept. 1856 the go- |
vernor of that establishment. His general's :
commission dates from 20 June 1854, and !
the high honour of a field-marshalship was ;
conferred on him 9 Nov. 1862. In considera-
tion of his long and valuable services to his j
country, he was also made colonel-in-chief
of the Rifle Brigade, 28 Aug. 1865. Long

previous to this period he had been gazetted
K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815, and G.C.B. 7 May 1849,
and a privy councillor in Ireland 7 May 1836.
His death took place at Chelsea Hospital
2 Aug. 1868, and he was buried at Twicken-
ham on 8 Aug.

He married in 1814 Maria, a daughter of
Colonel Gardiner of the East India Com-
pany's service. She died at Chelsea Hospital
21 Jan. 1866, aged 76.

[Times, 10 Aug. 1868, p. 9 ; Army Lists, &c.]

GK C. B.

BLAKENEY, RICHARD PAUL

(1820-1884), canon of York, was descended
from an old Norfolk family, which had re-
moved to Ireland before his birth. He was
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where
he graduated B.A. in 1842, taking high
honours in theology. In 1852 he proceeded
LL.B. and LL.D. He became curate of
St. Paul's, Nottingham, in 1843, vicar of
Hyson Green, Nottinghamshire, in 1844,
vicar of Christ Church, Claughton, Birken-
head, in January 1852, vicar of Bridlington
in 1874, rural dean of Bridlington in 1876,
and canon of York in 1882. The university
of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of
D.D. in 1868. Blakeney died at Bridlington
on 31 Dec. 1884. He was well known as a
vigorous champion of evangelical doctrines
in the church of England, and was the author
of a large number of controversial books
and tracts, which attained a wide circula-
tion. The chief of these are : 1. ' Transla-
tion of the Moral Theology of Alphonsus
Liguori,' 1845, 2nd ed. 1852. 2. 'A Manual
of Romish Controversy, being a complete
Refutation of the Creed of Pope Pius IV,'
1851 (this work is stated to have passed
through ten editions). 3. l Protestant Cate-
chism, or Popery refuted and Protestantism
established by the Word of God,' 1854.
4. ' History and Interpretation of the Book
of Common Prayer,' 1865, 3rd ed. 1878.

[Times, 2 Jan.1885 ; Men of the Time (1 1th ed.),
136; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1883.1

S. L. L.

BLAKENEY, WILLIAM, LORD BLAKE-
NEY (1672-1761), the defender of Minorca,
was an Irishman of English descent, and was
born at Mount Blakeney in the county of
Limerick in 1672. His father was a fairly
wealthy country gentleman, and repre-
sented the borough of Kilmallock in the
Irish House of Commons for many years,
and expected his eldest son to lead the same
life as himself. But young William Blake-
ney caught the martial enthusiasm of the
Revolution period, and organised a small

Blakeney

187

Blakesley

military force in 1690, when only eighteen,
out of his father's tenants, with which he
kept the Rapparees at bay, and defended the
paternal estate. He was permitted to join
the army in Flanders as a volunteer, and won
his ensigncy at the siege of Venloo in 1702.
He served throughout the campaigns ot
Marlborough as adjutant of his regiment,
and is said to have first exercised regiments
by the beating of drums and the waving ol
colours, and even to have once exercised the
whole allied army in this way before certain
German princes. After the peace of Utrecht
came a long period of peace, during which
promotion went by favour and by court or
parliamentary influence, which Blakeney did
not possess, so that he was an old man of
sixty-five when he was at last promoted
colonel in 1737. During this long period he
always remained with his regiment, taking a
fatherly interest in both officers and men,
and never going on leave or running after
promotion. This long neglect was said to
be due to the misrepresentations of Lord
Verney ; but the Duke of Richmond, when
appointed colonel of his. regiment, at last ,
took notice of him, and obtained him a com-
mand in the expedition to Carthagena, with |
the rank of brigadier-general, in 1741. His
services were highly appreciated, and by the ;
aid of the same powerful patron he was pro- |
nioted major-general in 1744, and made
lieutenant-governor of Stirling Castle. The
Scottish insurrection of 1745 gave him his op- j
port unity. The highlanders besieged Stir-
ling Castle, and Blakeney, to keep them from
joining the main body, allowed them to raise
siege works for some weeks. When, however, <
these siege works became formidable, he or-
dered a sudden attack on the highlanders,
who were utterly defeated and lost three hun- j
dred men. His good service was not forgotten |
by George II, who promoted him lieutenant-
general in 1747, and gave him the lieutenant-
governorship of the island of Minorca.

He at once went to Minorca, and as Lord
Tyrawley, the governor, preferred stopping
at home, Blakeney was left in chief command
for ten years. He earnestly pressed for more
men, and for money for repairs. But the !
ministry of Pelham and Newcastle grudged
money not spent in maintaining their par- '
liamentary majority, and neglected his en-
treaties. On the breaking out of the Seven |
Years' War in 1756 an expedition was hur- j
riedly despatched from France under the de- :
bauchee Due de Richelieu and Admiral la
Galissonniere against Minorca. The French j
government well knew how the defences of I
Minorca had been neglected, and that a rapid j
attack before reinforcements could reach the i

garrison must be successful. Blakeney knew
also that without reinforcements he could
not hold out long, but determined to wait
resolutely for those reinforcements. When
Admiral Byng retreated all hope was lost,
and Blakeney, after seventy days' defence
of an almost indefensible fortress, surren-
dered on the honourable terms that his gar-
rison was to be transported to Gibraltar,
and not made prisoners of war. The gallant
defence of Minorca had greatly excited the
minds of the English people, and the veteran
of eighty-four, w r ho had never gone to bed
for seventy days, was as popular as Admiral
Byng was execrated. After giving truthful
evidence at Byng's trial as to the state of
Minorca, Blakeney received great honours
from George II, and was made a knight of
the Bath, colonel of the Enniskillen regiment
of infantry, and finally Lord Blakeney of
Mount Blakeney in the peerage of Ireland.
His popularity continued unabated ; a statue
of him by Van Most was erected in Dublin ;
and when he died, on 20 Sept, 1761, at the
patriarchal age of eighty-nine, he was buried,
amidst general mourning, in Westminster
Abbey.

Blakeney was a soldier of the soldiers,
always living among them, enjoying his
punch as well as any of them, and beloved
by them. In his family relations he was
always exemplary ; he used to live on his
pay, and to allow his brothers to live on his
estate 'of Mount Blakeney. One brother
swindled him grossly ; but he made no change
in his arrangements, and merely transferred
his estate to another brother.

[Memoirs of the Life and Actions of General
William Blakeney (anon.), London and Dublin,
1757 ; Letter to the Right Honourable Lord

B y, being an Inquiry into the merit of his

Defence of Minorca, London, 1757 ; Full Answer
to an Infamous Libel intituled a Letter to the

Right Honourable Lord B y, 1757.1

H. M. S.

BLAKESLEY, JOSEPH WILLIAMS

(1808-1885), dean of Lincoln, was born at
38 Coleman Street, in the city of London, on
6 March 1808, and baptised privately 22 April.
His parents were Jeremiah George and Eliza-
beth Blaksley, as the name was then spelt.
His father, who was a factor, died before his
son had attained his tenth year. Young
Blakesley entered St. Paul's School 3 Oct.
1819, whence, after a distinguished school
career, he passed as captain, with a Stock
scholarship and a special exhibition in con-
sideration of his merits, to Corpus Christ!
College, Cambridge, 3 Nov. 1827. Here he
immediately took a leading position, and

Blakesley

1 88

Blakesley

obtained admission to the highest intellectual
society among the younger residents. Among
his intimate friends were R. Chenevix Trench
(subsequently archbishop of Dublin), R.
Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), Dean
Alford, the two Speddings, Alfred Tennyson,
and his brothers. So large an acquaintance
among Trinity men, together with other con-
siderations, led to Blakesley's removal from
Corpus to Trinity in Lent 1830. Dr. Words-
worth, brother of the poet and father of the
bishops of Lincoln and St. Andrews, was
then master of Trinity, and among the tutors
were Dr. Whewell, Dr. Wordsworth's suc-
cessor, and Dr. Peacock, afterwards dean of
Ely. Blakesley joined the ' youthful band of
friends ' (commemorated by Lord Tennyson,
himself a member of the body) forming the
celebrated ' Apostles' Club.' The club had
recently begun its new phase of existence
under the influence of its 'second father/
Professor F. D. Maurice, the l creator not of
its form but of its spirit ' (Maurice's Life and
Letters, i. 56, 110), and it greatly influenced
Blakesley. He was the

Clear-headed friend, whose joyful scorn,
Edged with sharp laughter, cuts atwain
The knots that tangle human creeds,

to whom Lord Tennyson addressed one of his
first published poems.

The year (1830) of Blakesley's removal to
Trinity witnessed his election to a foundation
scholarship. He graduated B.A. in 1831,
M. A. in 1834, and B.D. 5 April 1849 ; he
was a wrangler in the mathematical tripos,
and was placed third in the classical tripos,
where his chief strength lay, subsequently
obtaining the senior chancellor's medal. He
was elected a fellow of Trinity in 1831, and
became assistant tutor in 1834, and tutor in
1839. Among his pupils were Lord Lyttelton,
Lord Frederick Cavendish, Mr. Justice Den-
man, Mr. Beresford Hope, and Professor Cay-
ley. Blakesley had originally intended to
adopt the law as his profession, for which he
was well fitted in many ways ; but delicacy
of health led him to change his destination.
He was ordained deacon in 1833, and priest
in 1835. He held his tutorship till 1845.
From 1845 to 1872 he held the college living
of Ware. In 1850 he was appointed classical
examiner in the university of London. As
vicar of Ware Blakesley became widely
known as the ' Hertfordshire Incumbent,'
whose letters occupied a leading place in the
' Times ' newspaper for some years. In these
letters he directed the dry light of an acute
practical mind, free from enthusiasm or senti-
ment, to some of the chief social and political
subjects of the day. The letters greatly in-

creased Blakesley's reputation, and in 1863
he received a canonry at Canterbury from
Lord Palmerston, with whose political views
he fully sympathised. He became proctor in
Convocation for his chapter, and was an in-
fluential, although very independent, member
of the lower house till his death. Although
no scientific theologian, Blakesley took much
interest in theological studies, especially in
the critical and evidential department. He
twice occupied the university pulpit, in 1840,
and again in 1843 ; the sermons then delivered,
on the * Dispensation of Paganism ' and on
' Christian Evidences,' were subsequently
published under the title of f Conciones Aca-
demicee.' Delicacy of health drove him to
Algiers in the winter of 1857-8. On his re-
turn he published an account of his sojourn
under the title of l Four Months in Algiers,
with a Visit to Carthage.' In 1872 he suc-
ceeded Dr. Jeremie as dean of Lincoln on
Mr. Gladstone's recommendation. As dean
he made Lincoln his home, and devoted him-
self to the interests of his cathedral and of
the city of Lincoln. If not an ideal dean ac-
cording to the modern type, for which his
tone of mind and line of thought, essentially
non-ecclesiastical, entirely unfitted him, he
conscientiously fulfilled the duties of his office.
In the city itself he helped to promote all well-
considered measures for the welfare of the
community. Blakesley was a whig of the old
school as opposed to the modern radical. He
1 was master of the court of the Mercers' Com-
! pany in 1864. As one of the governors he took
! a warm interest in the welfare of St. Paul's
I School. Blakesley's chief work was an edition
of Herodotus for the l Bibliotheca Clas'sica.'
The annotations, though always characterised
by sound sense and accurate scholarship, are
not of the highest order, and are chiefly de-
! voted to geographical and historical questions.
He contributed articles to the ' Quarterly ' and
1 Edinburgh Reviews ' and other periodicals,
and in addition to the already mentioned
' Letters of a Hertfordshire Incumbent ' he
wrote many reviews of books for the ' Times '
newspaper. He was an active member of
the committee for the revision of the trans-
lation of the New Testament. On leaving
college he married Margaret Wilson Holmes,
! the daughter of Thomas Holmes of Brooke,
in the county of Norwich. Mrs. Blakesley
predeceased her husband in 1880. He was
the father of seven sons and four daughters,
all of whom survived him. He died 18 April
1885.

The following is a list of his printed works :

1. ' Thoughts on the Recommendations of the
Ecclesiastical Commission,' London, 1837.

2. ' Commemoration Sermon in Trinity Col-

Blakeway

189

Blakey

lege,' 1836. 3. ' Life of Aristotle/ Cambridge,
1839. 4. l Commemoration Sermon in Trinity
College,' 1842. 5. * Conciones Academicae,'
London, 1843. 6. ' Where does the Evil lie ? '
(a pamphlet upon private tuition at Cam- j
bridge), London, 1845. 7. 'The Way of j
Peace,' a sermon, 1852. 8. ' Herodotus with |
a Commentary,' 2 vols., forming part of
Macleane's 'Bibliotheca Classica,' 1852-54. !
9. ' History of Greek and Roman Philosophy |
and Science,' part of the article in the ' En-
cyclopaedia Metropolitan,' ed. 2, London,
1853. 10. 'Four Months in Algeria, with a !
Visit to Carthage,' Cambridge, 1859. 11. 'Real \
Belief and True Belief,' a sermon, 1862.
12. ' A Preelection as Candidate for the Regius
Professorship,' on 1 Cor. xi. 17-31 (privately j
printed).

[Saturday Review, 25 April 1885 ; Guar-
dian, 22 April 1885 ; private information.]

E. V.

BLAKEWAY, JOHN BRICKDALE |

(1765-1826), topographer, was the eldest j
son of Joshua Blakeway, of Shrewsbury, |
by Elizabeth, sister of Matthew Brickdale,
M.P. in several parliaments for the city of
Bristol. He was born at Shrewsbury on
24 June 1765, and educated in the free
school there. In 1775 he was removed to
Westminster, at which school he remained
till 1782, when he proceeded to Oriel Col-
lege, Oxford (B.A. 1786, M.A. 1795). On
leaving the university he entered at Lincoln's
Inn, and was called to the bar in 1789. He
followed the law more as an amusement than
as a necessary means of support, and began
to go the Oxford circuit. Suddenly he found
his hereditary expectations destroyed, and
he was compelled to provide himself with an
income by his own exertions. In these cir-
cumstances the expensive profession of the
law was no longer to be thought of. He re-
solved to enter the church, and was or-
dained in 1793.

In 1794 he was presented by his uncle,
the Rev. Edward Blakeway, to the ministry
of the Royal Peculiar of St. Mary's, Shrews-
bury, and on his uncle's death he became
official of the peculiar, and also succeeded
him in the vicarage of Neen Savage, Shrop-
shire, and in the rectory of Felton, Somer-
setshire. In 1800 he was presented to the
vicarage of Kinlet. He was elected a fellow
of the Society of Antiquaries in 1807. From
1800 till 1816 he divided his time between
Kinlet and Shrewsbury, but, finding it in-
convenient to keep up two houses, he gave
up Felton and Kinlet in that year, and
thenceforward resided exclusively in his
native town. He died at the council house,

After ' Regeneration.' add ' His un-
ublished MSS. arc in the Bodleian and are

Shrewsbury, on 10 March 1826, and was
buried in St. Mary's Church, where a fine
Gothic monument, executed by John Car-
line, was erected to his memory by his
parishioners.

His works are : 1. 'An Attempt to ascer-
tain the Author of the Letters published
under the signature of Junius,' Shrewsbury,
1813, 8vo. He ascribes the authorship of
these famous letters to Home Tooke. 2. ' The
Sequel of an Attempt to ascertain the Author
of the Letters published under the signature
of Junius,' London, 1815, 8vo. 3. 'A His-
tory of Shrewsbury,' 2 vols., London, 1825,
4to. Written in collaboration with the Ven.
Hugh Owen, F.S.A., archdeacon of Salop.
4. 'The Sheriffs of Shropshire, with their
armorial bearings, and notices, biographical
and genealogical, of their families,' Shrews-
bury, 1831, fol. 5. Single sermons, and a
tract on the subject of Regeneration. ^ \,

[Salopian Journal, 15, 22, and 29 March 1826 ;
Gent. Mag.xcvi. (i.) 277, 369 ; Leighton's Guide
through the Town of Shrewsbury, 72, 73, 182 ;
Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.] T. C.

BLAKEY, NICHOLAS (Jl. 1753), de-
signer and engraver, was a native of Ireland,
but resided chiefly in Paris, and died there.
The dates of his birth and death are not
recorded. He enjoyed a considerable repu-
tation about the middle of the last centurv
as an illustrator of books, and, amongst other
works, designed and engraved the plates to
Jonas Hanway's 'Travels in Persia,' 1753,
and those to an edition of Pope's works.
Blakey was associated with Francis Hay-
man, R.A., in the production of a set of
prints of subjects from English history, of
which the following bear his name only as
the designer : ' The Landing of Julius Caesar,'
'Vortigern and Rowena,' and 'Alfred in
the Island of Athelney receiving News of
a Victory over the Danes;' these were
engraved respectively by S. F. Ravenet,
G. Scotin, and F. Vivares. One of Blakey's
most graceful compositions is a vignette in
the manner of Boucher, representing nymphs
dancing under the influence of Love, en-
graved by John Ingram.

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878); MS.
notes in British Museum.] L. F.

BLAKEY, ROBERT (1795-1878),
cellaneous writer and professor of logic and
metaphysics at Queen's College, Belfast, was
the son of a mechanic, and was born at
Morpeth 18 May 1795. Losing his father
when only nine months old, he was taken
charge of by his grandmother. From his
ninth to his thirteenth year he assisted his

Blake, Robert, ii. 632^. This arti
j c^A

] MA ,r<oi^t-> onrl *>Yn9nsirn. i\ec

Blakey

190

Blakiston

uncle in gardening, after which he was ap-
prenticed to the fur trade at Alnwick. Much
of his spare time was devoted to reading, and
in the evenings he received private instruction
from, a schoolmaster in geometry, physical
geography, and astronomy. At an early pe-
riod he acquired a strong love of abstract
speculation, and latterly this absorbed his
chief interest. In 1815' he left Alnwick for
Morpeth, and soon afterwards began to eon-
tribute to the 'Newcastle Magazine/ the
' Black Dwarf/ ' Gobbet's Register/ and the
* Durham Chronicle.' In 1831 he published
a ' Treatise on the Divine and Human Wills/
and in 1833, in two volumes, a ' History of
Moral Science.' In the beginning of 1838 he
purchased the l Newcastle Liberator/ which,
in 1840, was amalgamated with the ' Cham-
pion/ a London weekly paper under the title
of ' The Northern Liberator and Champion/
and published both at Newcastle and London.
For the publication in his paper of an essay
on the natural right of resistance to consti-
tuted authorities, he was prosecuted by the
government, and bound over to keep the
peace. Shortly afterwards he sold the paper
at a considerable loss, and on the failure of
an attempt to start in London a paper called
' The Politician/ he went to France with the
resolution to devote 'all his time and energies
to philosophical literature.' In order to ob-
tain a more thorough knowledge of the scho-
lastic and middle-age literature, he visited the
principal libraries of Belgium. The earliest
results of his studies were seen in ' Christian
Hermits/ published in 1845. For some time
he also, for a stipulated sum, assisted a gen-
tleman in preparing a work on the ' History
of Social and Political Philosophy from the
time of Charlemagne to the French Revolu-
tion.' The work never appeared, but the line
of research into which it led him was of great
service in the preparation of his l History of
Political Literature from the Earliest Times/
two volumes of which were published in 1855.
Previous to this he had brought out his prin-
cipal work, 'History of the Philosophy of
Mind, embracing the opinions of all Writers
on Mental Science from the Earliest Times
to the Present Day/ four vols. 1848 ; and
' Historical Sketch of Logic from the Earliest
Times to the Present Day/ 1851. In philo-
sophical speculation he was an orthodox fol-
lower of the intuitive school, and his works
are popular rather than profound, but they
are characterised by close reasoning, clear and
correct statement, and comprehensive know-
ledge. In 1848 he was appointed professor
of logic and metaphysics in Queen's College,
Belfast, and in 1860 he received a pension of
IQQL from the civil list. The later years of

his life were spent in London, where he died
26 Oct. 1878.

In addition to the more elaborate treatises
above mentioned, Blakey was the author of
a number of minor works, including, along
with the Rev. Daniel Paterson, a ' Life of Dr.
James Seattle/ the poet ; f Cottage Politics,
or Letters on the New Poor Law Bill/ 1837 ;
'Temporal Benefits of Christianity/ 1849 ;
' Old Faces in New Masks/ 1859 ; and, under
the pseudonym of Nathan Oliver, ' A few
Remarkable Events in the Life of Rev. Josiah
Thompson/ a fictitious biography intended to
illustrate the evils and inconveniences of dis-
sent. It is, however, by his books on angling
that he will be remembered with pleasure and
gratitude by the largest circle of readers. In
early life he found opportunity to become a
great proficient in the art, and it was his chief
recreation till his infirmities made it no longer
possible for him to follow it. In 1846 he
published, under the pseudonym of Hackle
Palmer, ' Hints on Angling, with suggestions
for angling excursions in France and Belgium,
to which are appended some brief notices of
the English, Scotch, and Irish waters ; ' in
1853, ' The Angler's Complete Guide to the
Rivers and Lakes of England ; ' in 1854 a
similar work on Scotland ; in the same year
'Angling, or How to angle and where to
go;' in 1855, 'Historical Sketches of the
Angling Literature of all Nations ; ' and in
the same year ' The Angler's Song Book.'
The knowledge he obtained in early life of
the kindred branch of sport, through the libe-
rality of the Duke of Northumberland of that
day, who allowed any one who chose to shoot
over a large extent of his property, he also
turned to account by publishing, in 1854,
' Shooting ; a Manual of practical Informa-
tion on this Branch of British Field Sports.'

[The Memoirs of Dr. Robert Blakey, edited by
the Kev. H. Miller, and published in 1879, con-
tain interesting reminiscences of many of the
most eminent persons of his time.] T. F. H.

BLAKISTON, JOHN (1603-1649), regi-
cide, was the son of Marmaduke Blakiston,
prebendary of Durham. He was baptised
on 21 Aug. 1603, and married in November
1626 Susan Chamber. He became a mercer
in Newcastle, and prospered so well in his
business that he was able to subscribe 900/.
for the reconquest of Ireland (1642). Al-
though his father was a strong high church-
man, the friend and father-in-law of Cosin,
and a noted pluralist (see COSIN'S Correspond-
ence, i. 185), John Blakiston became a puritan,
and was, in 1636, cited before the High Com-
mission Court for nonconformity, and for
defaming the vicar of Newcastle (Records of

Blamire

191

Blamire

High Commission Court in the Diocese of
Durham (Surtees Society), p. 155). He was
fined lOOA and excommunicated till he sub-
mitted. On 30 Jan. 1641 lie was voted
member for Newcastle in place of Sir J.
Melton, whose election was annulled. When
the Scots captured Newcastle he was also
appointed mayor, in place of Sir John
Marlay (BKAND, p. 469). He suffered losses
during the war, and was accordingly, on
3 June 1645, voted an allowance of 4Z. a
week, which was continued till 20 Aug.
1646. According to Noble he was also granted
the sum of 14,0007. and given the post of
coal meter at Newcastle, worth 200/. a year.
Holies in his ' Memoirs ' describes Blakiston
as one of the ' little northern beagles ' set on to
stir up public feeling against the Scots by ex-
aggerating the contributions they had levied
on the country. He was appointed one of
the king's judges, was present at every sitting
during the trial, and signed the death-war-
rant. In April 1649 the corporation of New-
castle found it necessary to write to the
speaker to vindicate their representative from
the charges brought against him in the 'hum-
ble remonstrance ' of George Lilburn. They
praise Blakiston as * unapt to cram himself
with the riches of his ruined country, or
seek after great things ' ( Tanner MSS. Ivi.
22). He died shortly afterwards, for his
will is dated 1 June 1649, and he is spoken
of as deceased in the Commons Journals of
6 June. On 16 Aug. 1649 the house voted
3,000/. to provide for his widow and children.

[Brand's History of Newcastle ; Surtees' His-
tory of Durham, iii. 165-402 ; Noble's account
in his Lives of the Kegicides is full of errors.]

C. H. F.

BLAMIRE, SUSANNA (1747-1794),
the t Muse of Cumberland/ was the daughter |
of a Cumberland yeoman, and was born in !
1747 at Cardew Hall, about six miles from '
Carlisle. At the age of seven she lost her
mother, and on her father's second marriage
was committed to the charge of her widowed
aunt, Mrs. Simpson of Thackwood. Mrs.
Simpson seems to have been an excellent ex-
ample of the qualities engendered by the life
of a yeoman farmer. With an independent
character, strongly marked individuality, and
great practical sense, she led a busy life in the
management of her farm and household. Su-
sanna Blamire's education was conducted ac-
cording to these principles. She went to the
village school at Raughton Head, where the
fee was a shilling a quarter. There she learned
the rudiments of knowledge, and her own
taste for reading enabled her to grow up -with
a cultivated mind. She was fond of poetry,

and began to write in imitation of her fa-
vourite authors. Her earliest poem, written
at the age of nineteen, was suggested by Gray's
^ Elegy/ as is shown by its title : ' Written
in a Churchyard, on seeing a number of cattle
grazing in it.'

Susanna Blamire's life was uneventful, and
there are scarcely any records of it left. She
lived in an obscure part of England amongst
her own relatives, and her correspondence has
not been preserved. Her poems were fugi-
tive pieces, some of which appeared in maga-
zines, but were never signed by her name.
They were not collected till long after her
death, when her memory had almost faded
away, and personal details were vague. She
is described as of ' graceful form, somewhat
above the middle size, and a countenance,
though slightly marked with the smallpox,
beaming with good nature ; her dark eyes
sparkled with animation.' Her country neigh-
bours called her a 'bonnie and varra lish young
lass.' She lived among the rustics, entered
into their enjoyments, and sympathised with
their troubles. She was fond of society, and
was in great request at the l merrie-neets/
or social gatherings, where she mixed with
every class. A good farmer said sadly after
her death : ' The merrie-neets won't be worth
going to since she is no more.' The genuine
gaiety and sprightliness of her disposition may
be judged by the fact that if she met a wan-
dering musician on the road she was known
to dismount from her pony, ask for the music
of a jig, and dance, till she was weary, on the
grass.

Susanna's eldest sister married Colonel Gra-
ham, of Gartmore, in 1767. A Graham of
Gartmore was the author of the song, ' Oh,
tell me how to woo thee/ and the traditions
of culture were common to the family of Gra-
ham. Through her sister's marriage Susanna
was introduced into a circle which sympa-
thised with her poetical tastes. She often
paid visits to Scotland. Once she went, to
see a relation who lived at Chill ingham, and
while there she attracted the attention of
Lord Tankerville and his family. At his re-
quest she wrote one of her most characteristic
sketches of rustic life, a dialogue beginning,
'Why, Ned, man, thou luiks sae down-
hearted.' Her poems were mostly written in
this way, on the spur of the moment, and very
few were revised with a view to publication.
Her poetical gift was, in fact, regarded by her
as an accomplishment which she sometimes
used to please her friends. It was the cus-
tom for the wealthier families in Cumberland
to take lodgings in Carlisle for the winter
months. There Susanna Blamire made the
acquaintance of one like-minded with herself,

Blamire

192

Blamire

Catharine Gilpin of Scaleby Castle, a member
of the family which produced Bernard Gilpin,
the apostle of the north. Catharine Gilpin
was also a poet. The two ladies lodged to-
gether in Carlisle, and wrote poems in com-
mon, so that it is difficult in all cases to dis-
tinguish the authorship. What little else is
known about Susanna Blamire is gathered
from her poems. ' Stoklewath, or the Cum-
brian Village,' a poem which recalls Gold-
smith's 'Deserted Village,' gives a faithful
picture of the surroundings of her ordinary
life. A poetical ' Epistle to Friends at Gart-
more ' describes the homely occupations of her
days at Thackwood. In it she speaks of keen
suffering from rheumatism, and her poems
bear increasing signs that they were written
in the intervals of bodily pain. Her ailments
gained upon her, and she died in Carlisle on
5 April 1794 in her forty-seventh year.

Susanna Blamire was a true poet, and de-
serves more recognition than she has yet re-
ceived. Her sphere is somewhat narrow, but
everything that she has written is genuine and
truthful . She has caught the peculiar humour
of the Cumbrian folk with admirable truth,
and depicts it faithfully so far as was consis-
tent with her own refinement. As a song-
writer she deserves to rank very high. She
preferred to write songs in the Scottish dia-
lect, and three at least of her songs are ex-
quisite, 'What ails this heart o' mine ? ' t And
ye shall walk in silk attire,' and ' The Travel-
ler's Return.' Another beautiful song, ' The
Waefu' Heart,' is, with great probability, at-
tributed to her. Susanna Blamire did not
write for fame, and fame was slow in coming
to her. Her song, ' The Traveller's Return,'
or * The Nabob,' as it was sometimes called,
was printed with her name in various col-
lections of Scottish songs. It fell into the
hands of a gentleman in India, Mr. Patrick
Maxwell, and fascinated him by its appropri-
ateness to his own thoughts. When he re-
turned to England he devoted himself to the
discovery of Miss Blamire's writings. In 1829
he found that Robert Anderson, the author
of ' Cumberland Ballads,' possessed a few of
her poems in manuscript and a few materials
for a memoir. He continued his search among
the members of Susanna Blamire's family and
the families of her friends. He filled with
like enthusiasm a medical student whom he
met in Edinburgh, Dr. Lonsdale, a native of
Carlisle. By their combined energy what re-
mained of Susanna Blamire's manuscripts
were gathered together, and such records of
her life as still survived were collected. The
fruit of their labours was at length published :
'The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Bla-
mire, "The Muse of Cumberland," now for

the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale,
M.D., with a preface, memoir, and notes by
Patrick Maxwell,' Edinburgh, 1842. To this
collection a few additions have been made in
'The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland,'
edited by Sidney Gilpin, London, 1866.

[Authorities cited above.] M. C.

BLAMIRE, WILLIAM (1790-1862),
tithe commissioner, was the nephew of Su-
sanna Blamire [q. v.], being the only son of her
brother William, who, in his early days, was a
naval surgeon, but later in life settled down on
his ancestral estate, The Oaks, near Dalston,
in Cumberland. The vicar of Dalston was
j the famous William Paley, and by him Wil-
! liam Blamire was baptised. In later life he
! attributed to his early intercourse with Paley,
j and his consequent knowledge of Paley's
' Moral and Political Philosophy,' the origin
of those ideas which he was enabled to carry
! out in practical politics. He received a good
, education, first at Westminster School, and
afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where
! he graduated in 1811. To the disappointment
of his father he refused to follow any of the
j learned professions, and preferred to settle on
one of his father's farms at Thackwood Nook,
j about three miles distant from his home. On
: his mother's side William Blamire was a
i nephew of John Christian Curwen [q. v.], of
Workington Hall, who was the great promoter
of agricultural improvements in Cumberland.
William Blamire imbibed his uncle's zeal for
agricultural science, and made many experi-
! ments in the breeding of stock, which cost him
| dear ; but his experience was always at the ser-
vice of his neighbours. He was well known at
agricultural dinners,where his wise advice and
! his personal geniality made him deservedly
' popular amongst the sturdy and independent
yeomen of his county. When, in 1828, he
was nominated high sheriff of Cumberland,
the yeomanry of the neighbourhood, to the
number of several hundred, mounted their
horses and escorted him to Carlisle, as a token
of their desire to do him honour.

In politics William Blamire was a strong
whig, and had taken an active part in par-
liamentary elections in behalf of his uncle,
John Christian Curwen, who, in 1820, was
elected both by the city of Carlisle and by
the county of Cumberland. In the excite-
ment about the Reform Bill the whigs in
Cumberland resolved to run two candidates
for the election of 1831. The personal popu-
larity of William Blamire marked him out as
the colleague of Sir James Graham against
Lord Lowther, who sat as a conservative.
The Cumberland election of 1831 is one of the
most exciting in the annals of parliamentary

Blamire

193

Blamire

contests. The sole polling-place was at Cocker-
mouth, at one corner of the county, in the
neighbourhood where the Lowther interest
was strongest. It needed the personal en-
thusiasm which Blamire inspired to induce
voters to incur the expense of so long a jour-
ney. But his yeoman friends rode in such
an imposing cavalcade towards Oockermouth
that Lord Lowther felt it better to retire on the
third day's polling than to be ignominiously
defeated.

In 1834 Blamire married his cousin, Doro-
thy Taubman. In parliament he showed
great knowledge of matters concerning land
tenures, and was useful on committees ; but
his reputation was made by a speech on the
Tithe Commutation Bill, which was intro-
duced by Lord John Russell in 1836. He
was complimented by Sir Robert Peel on his
consummate knowledge of the subject. His
suggestions were listened to by the govern-
ment, and the adoption of a seven years' ave-
rage of the price of corn as the basis of com-
mutation was the result of his practical expe-
rience in farming matters. When the bill
became law, Blamire was appointed the chief
commissioner for carrying it into effect. He
resigned his seat in parliament and devoted
himself exclusively to the adjustment of de-
tails which concerned every landowner and
every clergyman in England. He had able
colleagues in Colonel Wentworth Buller and
Rev. R. Jones. The work was enormous in
its extent, and beset with difficulties. First,
the sum to be paid in lieu of tithe had to be
fixed for each parish, then the rent-charge so
fixed had to be apportioned on the different
properties in the parish. There was need of
strong common sense and great power of con-
ciliation to carry out so complicated a pro-
cess. The absence of proper maps was another
difficulty, and the commissioners had fre-
quently to investigate and decide upon the
exact boundaries of parishes. It was owing
to Blamire's suggestion while engaged in this
work that the ordnance survey was under-
taken in 1842, in accordance with the report
of a committee of which Blamire was a chief
member. The work of the tithe commission
lasted from 1836 to 1851, when it was prac-
tically completed. Few reforms of such mag-
nitude, involving so many interests, have given
such universal satisfaction, and have stood
the test of time so well. The work of the tithe
commissioners has needed no amendment.

Blamire's energies, however, were not en-
tirely absorbed by the work of tithe commu-
tation. He was interested in all questions af-
fecting land tenure, and his suggestions were of
great use to Lords Lansdowne and Brougham
in framing their ; Copyhold Enfranchise-
VOL. v.

j ment Act.' When this act came into force
in 1841, Blamire was made a commissioner
for the purpose of carrying it out. At first
the enfranchisement was voluntary, but the
commissioners pressed that it should be made
compulsory, which was practically, done by
the acts of 1852 and 1858. Moreover, Blamire
was of great service to the government in pre-
paring the t Commons Enclosure Act/ passed
in 1845, by means of which large tracts of
waste land were divided and enclosed, so that
they could be brought under cultivation. The
evidence given by Blamire before the com-
mittee of the House of Commons on ' Com-
monable Lands and Enclosure Acts ' (1843)
is one of the most important sources of infor-
mation concerning the tenure and incidents
of commons. After the passing of the act
it was felt that the tithe commissioners could
not be saddled with any fresh duties; but
Blamire's assistance was considered to be so
necessary that he was requested to assume the
post of enclo&ure commissioner without any
salary. It was at his suggestion that the act
embodied clauses allowing the exchange of
lands of equal value by a simple process. In
1846 the scope of the labours of the enclosure
commissioners was still further extended by
an l Act authorising the Advance of Public
Money to promote the Drainage and Im-
provement of Land in Great Britain.'

Besides attending to these important ad-
ministrative measures Blamire was constantly
consulted by ministers on all matters con-
cerned with farming, such as the remedy for
the potato blight, and the measures necessary
to check the cattle plague. He prepared, in
1846, a Highway Act, which was postponed
at the time ; but his labours prepared the way
for future legislation, and his principles prac-
tically prevail at present in regard to the ad-
ministration of the highways. In all this work
Blamire was unsparing of himself, and often
was in his office till midnight. For months
his horse was brpught daily to the office door,
in hopes that he might find time for a ride ;
but the horse was never used. His stalwart
frame enabled him to endure much hard work ;
but in 1847 he was affected by paralysis of
the right arm. He soon recovered, and
worked as hard as before. His wife's death
in 1857 took him back to Cumberland, where
he had not visited his home for seventeen
years. His last work was the completion of
the Drainage Act by an < Outfall Bill,' which
was necessary to enable the drainage of low-
lying and swampy ground. In the summer
of 1860 his health entirely broke down. His
mental and bodily powers slowly declined,
and he died at Thackwood Nook on 12 Jan.
1862. Blamire is a conspicuous example of

Blanchard

194

Blanchard

practical capacity in an official position. His
.thorough knowledge of agriculture, combined
with his good education and sound sense,
enabled him to suggest practical solutions for
many questions of complicated detail. His
labours are of a kind that meets with small
recognition; they are embodied in statutes
and official reports. The working of the Eng-
lish parliamentary system put him in a posi-
tion where his voice could be heard. He
became an official without any previous train-
ing, and devoted to the public service remark-
able powers of business and untiring industry.

[Lonsdale's Life of William Blamire in the
Worthies of Cumberland, vol. i. 1867.] M. C.

BLANCHARD, SAMUEL LAMAN,
commonly known as LAMAN BLANCHAKD
(1804-1845), author, born at Great Yarmouth
on 15 May 1804, was the only son of Samuel
Blanchard, by his wife Mary Laman, the
widow of a Mr. Cowell. His father settled
in Southwark in 1840 as a painter and glazier,
and in 1809 young Blanchard entered St.
Olave's School, where he made rapid progress.
His parents declined the offer of the school
trustees to send him to a university, and he
became clerk to Mr. Charles Pearson, a proctor
of Doctors' Commons. His tastes from an
early period were literary, and the occupa-
tion proved distasteful to him. He made the
acquaintance of Douglas Jerrold, then a youth
of about his own age, and through Jerrold
of Buckstone, the actor. After abandoning
a notion of going to fight under Lord Byron
in Greece, Blanchard resolved to devote him-
self to the stage. He contributed dramatic
sketches, after Barry Cornwall's example, to
a paper called the ' Drama,' and joined for
a very short time a travelling troop of actors
formed by the manager of the Margate
theatre. Subsequently he became a proof-
reader in the printing office of Messrs.
Bayliss, of Fleet Street, and contributed
prose and verse to the ' Monthly Magazine.'
In 1823 he married Miss Ann Gates. In
1827, through the influence of N. A. Vigors,
M.P. for Carlow, a relation of his wife, he
was appointed secretary to the Zoological
Society. He held the post for three years,
and in that interval largely increased his
literary acquaintance and influence. In 1828
William Harrison Ainsworth, then a pub-
lisher in Old Bond Street, published for him
his ' Lyric Offerings,' a collection of verse,
which he dedicated to Charles Lamb. The
volume was highly praised by Lamb and
Allan Cunningham. In 1831 Blanchard be-
came acting editor of the ' Monthly Magazine '
under Dr. Croly, and during the next year
he began to edit the 'True Sun/ a daily

liberal paper. But the 'True Sun' failed
in 1836, and Blanchard was appointed editor
of the ' Constitutional,' an advanced liberal
organ, which soon died. During 1837 Blan-
chard edited the * Court Journal,' and from
1837 to 1839 he edited the 'Courier,' a
liberal evening newspaper, which under his
management proved of service to his party.
He retired from the paper in 1839 in conse-
quence of a change in its proprietorship and
politics, and a vain attempt was made by Sir
Edward Bulwer and other friends to obtain
for Blanchard a government clerkship or the
editorship of the 'London Gazette.' From
1841 till his death he was closely connected
with the ' Examiner.' In 1842 he edited a
monthly magazine called 'George Cruik-
shank's Omnibus,' to which he contributed
several poems. In February 1844 Mrs. Blan-
chard was seized with paralysis, and, after a
painful illness, died on 15 Dec. following.
Blanchard's health, long weakened by his un-
interrupted journalistic work, gave way under
the shock, and he died by his own hand in a
fit of delirium on 15 Feb. 1845. He left
three children, his eldest son being Sidney
Laman Blanchard.

Blanchard's personal character was sin-
gularly attractive, and his friends were very
numerous. Douglas Jerrold, J. B. Buckstone,
E. Chatfield, and John Ogden he came to
know in very early life, and in later years
he was on terms of intimacy with Serjeant
Talfourd, Charles Dickens, Leigh Hunt, John
Forster, B. W. Procter, Robert Browning,
George Cruikshank, and W. C. Macready.
In 1831 he directed, at the father's request,
the arrangements for the funeral of William
Godwin's only son, who died of cholera. He
was the firm friend of L. E. L.[andon]
throughout her literary life, and published
her 'Life and Literary Remains' in 1841.
With William Harrison Ainsworth, the
novelist, he was long in intimate relations,
and he contributed a laudatory memoir of
Ainsworth to the ' Mirror ' in 1842, which
has been frequently reprinted as a preface to

i Ainsworth's collected works. In 1832 he
made the acquaintance of Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton, who had re viewed, his 'Lyric Offer-

i ings ' very favourably in the ' New Monthly

j Magazine,' and the friendship lasted till

\ Blanchard's death.

Blanchard was in his own day a very popu-
lar writer of light literature, but he wrote
nothing of lasting merit. His ' Sonnets ' and
his ' Lyric Offerings ' show the influence of
Wordsworth, but are commonplace in senti-
ment and versification. His vers de soci6t6
run easily, but are less readable now than
those of many of his contemporaries. His

Blanchard

195

Blanchard

prose'essays take an invariably cheerful view
of life, but they are not to be classed in the
same category as the 'Essays of Elia,' which
Blanchard clearly took as his model. Bul-
wer-Lytton warned Blanchard in early life
that ' periodical writing is the grave of true
genius,' and Blanchard's literary career
proves the wisdom of the warning.

Bulwer-Lytton collected many of Blan-
chard's prose essays in 1846 under the title
of ' Sketches of Life ' (3 vols.) His poetical
works were collected in 1876 by Blanchard
Jerrold. The former work contains a por-
trait after a drawing by Maclise, and wood
engravings by George Cruikshank, Kenny
Meadows, and Frank Stone. The latter con-
tains a portrait from a miniature by Louisa
Stuart Costello. A series of amusing essays
by Blanchard entitled l Corporation Charac-
ters,' illustrated by Kenny Meadows, was
published in 1855.

[Bulwer-Lytton contributed a memoir of Blan-
chard to his edition of the ' Sketches from Life,'
1846, which embodies some interesting reminis-
cences by J. B. Buckstone. Blanchard Jerrold
wrote a memoir in the Poetical Works, 1876, and
printed a series of interesting letters from many
well-known literary men to Blanchard. Thacke-
ray contributed an article on Blanchard to
Fraser's Magazine, March 1846, which is reprinted
in vol. xxv. of the Standard edition of Thackeray's
Works, pp. 103-19.] S. L. L.

BLANCHARD, WILLIAM (1769-
1835), comedian, was born at York 2 Jan.
1769, and for a few years was educated at a
private school in that city. Losing both his
father, John Blanchard, and his mother, whose
maiden name was Clapham, while he was yet
a child, he was left to the care of his uncle,
William Blanchard, long well known as the
proprietor of the ' York Chronicle,' by whom
he was reared with a tenderness seldom dis-
played even by a parent. In 1782 he was
placed in his uncle's office. He took such
delight in Shakespeare that in 1785 he re-
solved to become an actor. He joined Mr.
Welsh's company of travelling comedians at
Buxton. His first appearance was as Allan-
a-Dale in M'Nally's < Robin Hood.' For four
years he played under the name of Bentley,
but from 1789 in his own name. He took
the parts of Achmet, Douglas, and even Ro-
meo. Asperne, of the ' European Magazine,'
wrote of him at that period : ' I knew John
Kemble in 1779, and he was not then half so
promising a performer as William Blanchard
appeared to me in 1790. Blanchard had more
fire, more nature, and more knowledge of the
stage.' He next became a manager, opening
theatres at Penrith, Hexham, Barnard Castle,

and Bishop Auckland. He lost money, and
joined Mr. Brunton's company of players on
the Norwich circuit, and took to comic parts.
His first appearance in London was made at
Covent Garden 1 Oct. 1800 as Bob Acres, in
which he succeeded remarkably, and as Crack
in the musical farce of the ' Turnpike Gate.'
By the middle of his second season Mr. Harris
cancelled the original arrangement for five
years by re-engaging him for seven, with an
increased salary. In certain classes of cha-
racter he secured a position of recognised pre-
eminence. Oxberry (p. 278) calls him ( un-
questionably the best drunken man on the
stage.' At Covent Garden Theatre, saving
only for a brief professional visit to America
in 1832, Blanchard remained continuously
for thirty-four years. He was especially noted
for his Shakespearian impersonations of Flu-
ellen, Sir Hugh Evans, Menenius, and Polo-
nius. According to Leigh Hunt, his best
performance was the Marquis de Grand-Cha-
teau in the musical toy show of the * Cabinet.'
Leigh Hunt also praises highly his Russett
in Colman's ' Jealous Wife.' Similar testi-
mony to his skill is borne by all the best dra-
matic critics of the time. The last character
created by him was that of Counsellor Crows-
foot in Douglas Jerrold's comedy of ' Nell
G wynne,' produced at Covent Garden Theatre
9 Jan. 1 833, which was warmly spoken of in
the < Athenaeum,' 12 Jan. 1833.' Blanchard's
death occurred very suddenly on 8 May 1835.
He died in his sixty-sixth year, and was
buried in the graveyard of St. Luke's Church,
Chelsea. His widow, Sarah Blanchard, who
was left with two sons, survived her husband
nearly forty years, dying at the age of eighty-
nine on 15 Feb. 1875. Among the best known
portraits of Blanchard in character are two
by De Wilde, one representing him as Sir
Andrew Aguecheek in ' Twelfth Night/ and
the other as the Marquis de Grand-Chateau.
Better known, through engravings of them,
are two famous theatrical paintings. In the
' Scene from Love, Law, and Physic,' by
George Clint, A.R.A., the original of which
is ^reserved at the Garrick Club, lifelike por-
traits are introduced of Listen as Lubin Log,
Mathews as Flexible, Blanchard as Dr. Cam-
phor, and John Emery as Andrew; while
in the scene from the ' Beggar's Opera ' the
same artist has given all but speaking like-
nesses of William Blanchard as Peachum, of
Mrs. Davenport as Mrs. Peachum, and of Miss
Maria Tree as Polly. Exactly a year