DICTIONARY
OF
NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
BURTON CANTWELL
VY'
DICTIONARY
OF
NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
EDITED BY
LESLIE STEPHEN
VOL. VIII.
BURTON CANTWELL
MACMILLAN AND CO.
LONDON : SMITH, ELDER, & CO.
1886
LIST OF WEITEES
IN THE EIGHTH VOLUME.
0. A OSMUND AIRY.
A. J. A. . . SIB A. J. ARBUTHNOT, K.C.S.I.
T. A. A. . . T. A. ARCHER.
W.E.A.A. W. E. A. AXON.
G. F. E. B. G-. F. EUSSELL BARKER.
T. B THOMAS BAYNE.
G. V. B. . G. VERB BENSON.
G. T. B. . . G. T. BETTANY.
A. C. B. . . A. C. BICKLEY.
W. G. B. . THE REV. PROFESSOR BLAIKIE, D.D.
G. C. B. . . G. C. BOASE.
H. B HENRY BRADLEY.
E. C. B. . . E. C. BROWNE.
A. H. B. . A. H. BULLEN.
G. W. B. . G. W. BURNETT.
H. M. C. . H. MANNERS CHICHESTER.
A. M. C. . Miss A. M. CLERKE.
T. C THOMPSON COOPER, F.S.A.
C. H. C. . . C. H. COOTE.
W. P. C. . W. P. COURTNEY.
M. C THE EEV. PROFESSOR CREIOHTON.
J. D JAMES DIXON, M.D.
A. D AUSTIN DOBSON.
E. D PROFESSOR DOWDEN, LL.D.
F. E FRANCIS ESPINASSE.
L. F Louis FAGAN.
C. H. F. . . C. H. FIRTH.
J. G JAMES GAIRDNER.
E. G EICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
J. W.-G. . . J. WESTBY-GIBSON, LL.D.
J. T. G. . . J. T. GILBERT, F.S.A.
G. G GORDON GOODWIN.
A. G THE EEV. ALEXANDER GORDON.
E. G EDMUND GOSSE.
A. H. G. . . A. H. GRANT.
J. A. H. . . J. A. HAMILTON.
T. F. H. . . T. F. HENDERSON.
J. H Miss JENNETT HUMPHREYS.
E. H-T. . . EGBERT HUNT, F.E.S.
W. H. ... THE EEV. WILLIAM HUNT.
B. D. J. . . B. D. JACKSON.
A. J THE EEV. AUGUSTUS JESSOPP, D.D.
T. E. K. . . T. E. KEBBEL.
C. K CHARLES KENT.
J. K JOSEPH KNIGHT.
J. K. L. . . PROFESSOR J. K. LAUGHTON.
S. L. L. . . S. L. LEE.
W. B. L. . THE EEV. W. B. LOWTHER.
H. E. L. . . THE EEV. H. E. LUARD, D.D.
M. M'A. . . Miss MARGARET MACARTHUR.
N. McC. . . NORMAN MACCOLL.
G. P. M. . . G. P. MACDONELL.
W. D. M. . THE EEV. W. D. MACRAY, F.S.A.
C. T. M. . . C. TRICE MARTIN, F.S.A.
J. M JAMES MEW.
A. M. . . . ARTHUR MILLER.
VI
List of Writers.
C. M COSMO MONKHOUSB.
N. M NOEMAN MOORE, M.D.
J. B. M. . . J. BASS MULLINGEB.
T. THE REV. THOMAS OLDEN.
J. H. 0. . . THE REV. CANON OVEBTON.
R. L. P. . . R. L. POOLE.
S. L.-P. . . STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
J. M. R. . . J. M. RIGG.
C. J. R. . . THE REV. C. J. ROBINSON.
J. H. R. . . J. H. ROUND.
B. C. S. . . B. C. SKOTTOWE.
G. B. S. . . G. BABNETT SMITH.
W. B. S. . . W. BARCLAY SQUIRE.
J. P. S. . . MBS. LESLIE STEPHEN.
L. S LESLIE STEPHEN.
H. M. S. . . H. M. STEPHENS.
W.R.W.S. THE REV. W. R. W. STEPHENS.
C. W. S. . . C. W. SUTTON.
E. M. T. . E. MAUNDE THOMPSON.
H. R. T. . . H. R. TEDDER.
T. F. T. . . PBOFESSOB T. F. Tour.
W. H. T. . W. H. TREGELLAS.
E. V THE REV. CANON VENABLES.
A. W. W. . PROFESSOR A. W. WABD, LL.D.
F. W-T. . . FRANCIS WATT.
H. T. W. . H. TRUEMAN WOOD.
W. W. . . . WARWICK WROTH.
DICTIONARY
OF
NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Burton
Burton
BURTON, CASSIBELAN (1609-1682),
translator, was the only son of William Bur-
ton, the historian of Leicestershire [q. v.],
by his wife Jane, daughter of Humfrey Ad-
derley of Weddington, Warwickshire (Ni-
CHOLS, Hist, of Leicestershire). He was bom
on 19 Nov. 1609, but nothing is known of
his education. He translated Martial into
English verse, but the translation remained in
manuscript. His friend Sir Aston Cokaine
thought highly of it. He inherited his father's
collections in 1645, and handed them over to
Walter Chetwynd [q. v.], ' to be used by him
in writing " The Antiquities of Staffordshire." '
Wood states that he was ' extravagant, and
consumed the most or better part of the estate
which his father had left him.' He died on
28 Feb. 1681-2.
[Wood's Athense, ed. Bliss, iii. 134; Nichols's
History of Leicestershire ; Cokaine's Choice
Poems, 1658.]
BURTON, CATHARINE (1668-1714),
Carmelite nun, was born at Bayton, near
Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, on 4 Nov.
1668. She made her religious profession in
the convent of the English Teresian nuns at
Antwerp in 1694, being known in that com-
munity as Mother Mary Xaveria of the
Angels. She acquired a high reputation for
sanctity, was several times elected superior
of her convent, and died on 9 Feb. 1713-14.
A ' Life ' of her, collected from her own
writings and other sources by Father Thomas
Hunter, a Jesuit, remained in manuscript
till 1876, when it was printed, with the title
of 'An English Carmelite' (London, 8vo),
under the editorial supervision of the Rev.
Henry James Coleridge, S. J.
[Life by Hunter ; Poley's Kecords, vii. 104.]
T. C.
VOL. VIII.
BURTON, CHARLES (1793-1866),
theologian, was born in 1793 at Rhodes Hall,
Middleton, Lancashire, the seat of his father,
Mr. Daniel Burton, a cotton manufacturer,
of whom he was the youngest son. He was
educated at the university of Glasgow and
St. John's College, Cambridge, where he gra-
duated LL.B. in 1822. In 1829 he was in-
corporated B.C.L. at Magdalen College, Ox-
ford, on 14 Oct., and received the degree of
D.C.L. on the following day.
His family were Wesleyans, and he was
for a time a minister of that denomination,
but was ordained in 1816, and the church
of All Saints, Manchester, was built by him
at a cost of 18,000/., and consecrated in
1820, when he became rector, after serving
for a short time as curate of St. James's in
the same town. The greater part of the
church was destroyed by fire on 6 Feb. 1850.
He had considerable reputation as a preacher.
His writings are : 1. ' Horae Poeticse,' 1815.
2. 'Middleton, an elegiac poem,' Glasgow,
1820 (printed for private circulation). 3. 'A
Selection of Psalms and Hymns, including
original compositions,' Manchester, 1820.
4. 'The Bardiad, a poem in two cantos,'
London (Manchester), 1823. This came to
a second edition in the same year. 5. 'A
Sermon on the Parable of the Barren Fig-
tree,' London (Manchester), 1823. 6. ' Three
Discourses adapted to the opening of the
Nineteenth Century ; exhibiting the por-
tentous and auspicious signs and cardinal
duties of the times,' Manchester, 1825.
7. ' The Day of Judgment, a Sermon on the
death of Ann, wife of Rev. John Morton,'
Manchester, 1826. 8. ' The Servant's Monitor '
(? Manchester, 1829). This was originally
published at the expense of the Manchester
Society for the Encouragement of Faithful
Female Servants. 9. ' Sentiments appro-
is
Burton
Burton
priate to the present Crisis of unexampled
Distress ; a Sermon,' Manchester, 1826.
10. ' Discourses suited to these Eventful and
Critical Times,' London, 1832 (preached at
the Episcopal Chapel, Broad Court, Drury
Lane, London, of which Burton is said, on
the title-page, to be minister). 11. 'A Dis-
course on Protestantism, delivered on the
occasion of admitting two Roman Catholics
to the Protestant Communion ' (? Manchester,
1840). 12. ' The Church and Dissent : an
appeal to Independents, Presbyterians, Me-
thodists, and other Sects, &c.,' Manchester,
1840. 13. < The Watchman's Cry, or Pro-
testant England roused from her Slumber ;
a Discourse,' Manchester, 1840. 14. 'Lec-
tures on the Millennium,' London, 1 841 . The
millennium is to begin in 1868. 15. ' Lectures
on the World before the Flood,' London
(Manchester), 1844. An attempt to har-
monise the literal narrative of Genesis with
the discoveries of science. 16. ' Lectures on
the Deluge and the World after the Flood,'
London (Manchester), 1845. 17. ' Lectures
on Popery,' Manchester, 1851. 18. ' A De-
monstration of Catholic Truth by a plain
and final Argument against the Socinian
Heresy, a discourse,' Manchester, 1853.
19. ' The Comet,' ' The World on Fire,' The
World after the Fire,' ' The New Heaven
and the New Earth,' are titles of single
sermons issued in 1858. 20. ' The Antiquity
of the British Church, a lecture,' Manchester,
1861. This is a pamphlet on the Liberation
Society controversy.
In addition to his theological studies Bur-
ton had a great fondness for botanical pur-
suits, and his discovery in Anglesea of a
plant new to science led to his election as
fellow of the Linnean Society. While on
a visit at Western Lodge, Durham, he was
attacked by typhus fever of a virulent nature,
and died after three weeks' illness on 6 Sept.
1866.
[Manchester Courier, 8 Sept. 1866; British
Museum General Catalogue ; Illustrated London
News, 16 Feb. 1850; private information.]
W. E. A. A.
BURTON, CHARLES EDWARD
(1846-1882), astronomer, was born on 16 Sept.
1846, at Barnton, Cheshire, of which bene-
fice his father, the Rev. Edward W. Bur-
ton, was then incumbent. He showed from
childhood a marked taste for astronomy, and
entered Lord Rosse's observatory as assistant
in February 1868, some months before taking
a degree of B. A. at the university of Dublin.
Compelled by constitutional delicacy to re-
sign the post in March 1869, he joined the
Sicilian expedition to observe the total solar
eclipse of 22 Dec. 1870, and read a paper on
its results before the Royal Irish Academy,
13 Feb. 1871 (Proc. new ser. i. 113). The
observations and drawings made by him at
Agosta (Sicily) were included in Mr. Ran-
yard's valuable ' eclipse volume ' (Mem. R. A.
Soc. xli.) Attached as photographer to the
transit of Venus expedition in 1874, he pro-
fited by his stay at Rodriguez to observe
southern nebulae (30 Doradus and that sur-
rounding TJ Argus) with a 12-inch silvered
glass reflector of his own construction (Month.
Not. xxxvi. 69). On his return he spent
nearly twelve months at Greenwich mea-
suring photographs of the transit, then worked
for two years at the observatory of Dunsink,
near Dublin, and retired in August 1878,
once more through ill-health, to his father's
parsonage at Loughlinstown, county Dublin,
where he made diligent use of his own ad-
mirable specula. His observations on Mars,
during the opposition of 1879, were of espe-
cial value as confirming the existence, and
adding to the numbers, of the ' canals ' dis-
covered by Schiaparelli two years previously.
A communication to the Royal Dublin So-
ciety descriptive of them was printed in their
'Scientific Transactions' under the title of
'Physical Observations of Mars, 1879-80'
(i. 151, ser. ii.) From twenty-four accom-
panying drawings (two of them executed by
Dr. Dreyerwith theDunsink refractor) a chart
on Mercator's projection was constructed,
which Mr. Webb adopted in the fourth edi-
tion of his ' Celestial Objects ' (1881). Bur-
ton's experiments on lunar photography were
interrupted by preparations for the second
transit of Venus. But within a few weeks
of starting for his assigned post at Aberdeen
Road, Cape Colony, he died suddenly of
heart-disease in Castle Knock church, on
Sunday, 9 July 1882, aged 35. '
The loss to science by the premature close
of his useful and blameless life was consider-
able. He was equally keen in observing, and
skilful in improving the means of observing.
With Mr. Howard Grubb he devised the
' ghost micrometer,' described before the Royal
Dublin Society, 15 Nov. 1880 (Proc. iii. 1 ;
Month. Not. xli. 59), and alluded to hope-
fully by Dr. Gill in his treatise on micro-
meters (Encycl. Brit., 9th ed, xvi. 256).
Among his communications to scientific
periodicals may be mentioned ' Note on the
Appearance presented by the fourth Satellite
of Jupiter in Transit in the years 1871-3 '
(Month. Not. xxxiii. 472), in which he con-
cluded, independently of Engelmann, an iden-
tity in times of rotation and revolution ; ' On
the Present Dimensions of the White Spot
Linne ' (ib. xxxiv. 107) ; ' On Certain Pheno-
Burton
Burton
mena presented by the Shadows of Jupiter's
Satellites while in Transit, and on a possible
Method of deducing the Depth of the Planet's
Atmosphere from such Observations' (ib.
xxxv. 65) ; ' On the possible Existence of
Perturbations in Cometic Orbits during the
Formation of Nuclear Jets, with Suggestions
for their Detection ' (ib. xlii. 422) ; ' On the
Aspect of Mars at the Oppositions of 1871
and 1873 ' (Trans. R. I. Ac. xxvi. 427) ; 'On
recent Researches respecting the Minimum
visible in the Microscope ' (Proc. R. I. Ac.
ser. ii. iii. 248) ; ' Note on the Aspect of
Mars in 1881-2 '(Copernicus, ii. 91) ; ' Notes
on the Aspect of Mars in 1882 ' (Sc. Trans.
R. Dub. Soc. i. 301, 2nd ser.) He was a mem-
ber of the Royal Irish Academy and of the
Royal Astronomical Society.
[Copernicus, ii. 158; Astr. Eeg. xx. 173;
R. Soc. Cat. Sc. Papers, vii. 309.] A. M. C.
V BURTON, DECIMUS (1800-1881),
' architect, was the son of James Burton, a
well-known and successful builder in Lon-
don in the beginning of the present century.
After receiving a thorough practical training
in the office of his father and in that of Mr.
George Maddox, he began business as an
architect on his own account, and met with
early and signal success in the practice of
his profession. Among his first large works
was the Colosseum erected by Mr. Homer in
Regent's Park as a panorama and place of
public entertainment. As such it proved a
failure, and its site is now occupied by the
terrace of private residences known as Cam-
bridge Gate, a much more lucrative invest-
ment. But from the architectural point of
view it was regarded as a successful example
of the then fashionable classic style, and its
dome, a few feet larger than that of St. Paul's,
was looked upon as a remarkable constructive
effort, especially for an architect at the time
only twenty-three years old. In 1825 Bur-
ton was employed by the government to
carry out the Hyde Park improvements,
which included the laying out of the roads
in and around the park and the erection of
the fa$ade and triumphal arch at Hyde Park
Corner. In Burton's design the arch was
destined to support a quadriga, and the dis-
figurement of the structure by the equestrian
statue of the Duke of Wellington, which
elicited from a French officer the cutting
ejaculation, ' Nous sommes veng6s ! ' was a
keen disappointment to him. For many
years after its erection, indeed, Burton's will
provided to the nation the sum of 2,0001. if
it would agree to remove the statue from
its unsuitable position. He eventually with-
drew the legacy, without, however, relin-
quishing the hope of the ultimate removal
of the statue to a suitable pedestal of its
own, and the completion of his design, with
the bas-reliefs and triumphal car which it
originally included. (The statue was moved
to Aldershot in 1885.) In 1828 Burton
accepted a special retainer from Mr. Ward
of Tunbridge Wells, for the laying out of
the Calverley Park estate there, and but for
this engrossing employment, which occupied
his time for over twenty years, his public
works would no doubt have been more nu-
merous and important. His practice after-
wards, however, lay chiefly in the erection of
country houses and villas and the laying
out of estates for building purposes. The
numerous mansions and villas designed by
him are distinguished by suitability of in-
ternal arrangement and simplicity and purity
of style, and many thriving localities in some
of the chief towns of the country still evi-
dence his skill in the laying out of building
estates. In his day Greek was the fashion-
able, and indeed almost only, style, and in
that he worked ; but he used it with effect
and judgment, never sacrificing the require-
ments of modern life to mere archaeological
accuracy. And although many of his de-
signs may appear, and sometimes are, anti-
quated and unsuitable revivals of ancient
buildings, it must be remembered that most
of them date from before the Gothic, or
indeed any, revival of architecture as now
understood and practised. Judged by the
standard of his time, no little credit is due
to him for honest and independent regard
for the practical objects of his profession.
He was a traveller when travelling was the
exception, visiting and studying the classic
remains of Italy and Greece, and later ex-
tending his observations to Canada and the
United States of America. He was a man
of wide culture and refinement, amiable and
considerate to all with whom he came in con-
tact, and had a wide circle of friends. He
was proprietor of a pleasant bachelor residence
at St. Leonards-on-Sea, a watering-place
which his father had almost entirely built,
and where he spent the greater part of the
later years of his life. He died, 14 Dec. 1881,
unmarried, at the advanced age of eighty-
one. He was a fellow of the Royal Society,
and of many other learned societies, including
the Royal Institute of British Architects, of
which he was one of the earliest members
and at one time vice-president.
[Builder, xli. 780, where a list of his principal
works will be found.] G-. W. B.
BURTON, EDWARD. [See CATCHEB,
EDWAED.]
B 2
Burton
Burton
BURTON, EDWARD (1794-1836), re-
gius professor of divinity at Oxford, the son
of Major Edward Burton, was born at Shrews-
bury on 13 Feb. 1794. He was educated at
Westminster, matriculated as a commoner
of Christ Church, Oxford, on 15 May 1812,
gaining a studentship the next year, and in
1815 obtained a first class both in classics
and mathematics. Having taken his B.A.
degree on 29 Oct. 1815, he was ordained to
the curacy of Pettenhall, Staffordshire. On
28 May 1818 he proceeded M.A., and paid a
long visit to the continent, chiefly occupy-
ing himself in work at the public libraries of
France and Italy. In 1824 he was select
preacher. On 12 May 1825 he married Helen,
daughter of Archdeacon Corbett, of Longnor
Hall, Shropshire. After his marriage he re-
sided at Oxford. In 1827 he was made
examining chaplain to the bishop, and in
1828 preached the Bampton lectures. On
the death of Dr. Lloyd, bishop of Oxford and
regius professor of divinity, Burton was ap-
pointed to succeed him in the professorship,
and took the degree of D.D. the same year.
As professor he was also canon of Christ
Church and rector of Ewelme, where, at a
time when such arrangement was somewhat
rare, he introduced open seats into the church
in the place of pews. He died at Ewelme
on 19 Jan. 1836, in his forty-second year.
Among his works are : 1. ' An Introduction
to the Metre of the Greek Tragedians,' 1814.
2. ' A Description of the Antiquities ... of
Rome,' 1821, 1828. 3. ' The Power of the
Keys,' 1823. 4. ' Testimonies of the Ante-
Nicene Fathers to the Divinity of Christ,'
1826, 1829. 5. ' An edition of the Works
of Bishop Bull,' 1827. 6. ' The Greek Tes-
tament, with English notes,' 1830, 1835.
7. ' Testimonies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers
to the Doctrine of Trinity,' 1831. 8. 'Ad-
vice for the Proper Observance of the Sun-
day,' 1831, 1852. 9. 'The Three Primers
... of Henry VHI,' 1834. 10. ' Lectures on
Ecclesiastical History,' 1831, 1833. 11. ' An
edition of Pearson on the Creed,' 1833.
12. 'Thoughts on the Separation of Church
and State,' 1834, 1868. He also superin-
tended the publication of Dr. Elmsley's edi-
tion of the ' Medea ' and ' Heraclidse,' 1828,
and of some posthumous works of Bishop
Lloyd. Among the works on which he was
engaged at the time of his death was an edi-
tion of Eusebius, published 1838, 1856 ; the
notes of this volume were separately edited
by Heinichen, 1840; the text was used in
the edition of Eusebius of 1872. Burton was
also the author of other smaller works.
* .' , Mag< 1836 ' P fc - i- 31 ; Catalogue of
the British Museum Library.] W. H.
BURTON, GEORGE (1717-1791), chro-
nologer, was the second son of George Burton
of Burton Lazars, Leicestershire, and the
younger brother of Philip Burton, the father
of Mrs. Horne, wife of George Home, bishop
of Norwich. He was born in 1717, and re-
ceived his education at Catharine Hall, Cam-
bridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1736 and
M.A. in 1740, being at the latter date a
member of King's College. In 1740 he was
presented to the rectory of Eldon, or Elveden,
and in 1751 to that of Heringswell, both in
Suffolk. Burton received pupils, and gene-
rally had three or four boarding in his house for
instruction. He died at Bath on 3 Nov. 1791,
and was interred in the church of Walcot.
He published : 1. ' An Essay towards
reconciling the Numbers of Daniel and St.
John, determining the Birth of our Saviour,
and fixing a precise time for the continuance
of the present Desolation of the Jews ; with
some conjectures and calculations pointing
out the year 1764 to have been one of the
most remarkable epochas in history,' Norwich,
1766, 8vo. 2. ' A Supplement to the Essay
upon the Numbers of Daniel and St. John,
confirming those of 2436 and 3430, men-
tioned in the Essay ; from two numerical
prophecies of Moses and our Saviour,' Lon-
don, 1769, 8vo. 3. ' The Analysis of Two
Chronological Tables, submitted to the can-
dour of the public : The one being a Table
to associate Scripturally the different Chro-
nologies of all Ages and Nations ; the other
to settle the Paschal Feast from the begin-
ning to the end of time,' London, 1787, 4to.
4. ' History of the Hundred of Elvedon,
Suffolk,' MS. in the library of Sir Thomas
Phillipps.
The Rev. George Ashby (1724-1808) [q.v.],
the well-known antiquary and rector of Bar-
row, gives him the character of a person of
great industry in his favourite study of chro-
nology, but adds : ' I could never perceive
what his principles or foundations were,
though I have attended in hopes of learning
them. Mr. Burton would often repeat, turn-
ing over the leaves of his MSS., " All this is
quite certain and indisputable ; figures can-
not deceive ; you know 50 and 50 make 100."
But when I asked him, " Why do you as-
sume 50 and 50 ? " I never could get any
answer from him ; nor does he seem to have
settled a single aera, or cleared up one point
of the many doubtful ones in this branch of
the science ; nor could he ever make himself
intelligible to, or convince, a single person.
He was, however, the friend of Dr. Stuke-
ley, who made him a present of Bertram's
" Richard of Cirencester," ' an ingenious for-
gery [see BERTRAM, CHARLES].
Burton
Burton
[Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 228, 268, Append.
325 ; Nichols's Illustrations of Literature, vi.
880-7; Addit. MS. 5864 f. 36, 19166 f. 216 ;
Stukeley's Carausius, 116; Cantabrigienses Gra-
duati (1787), 66.] T. C.
BURTON, HENRY (1578-1648), puri-
tan divine, was born at Birdsall, a small
parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, ' which
never had a preaching minister time out of
mind.' In his own ' Narration ' of his life,
sixty-four is stated as his age in the latter
part of 1642 ; in his ' Conformities Defor-
mity,' 1646, it is stated as sixty-seven ; the
inference is that he was born in the latter part
of 1578. The record of his baptism is not re-
coverable, but his father, William Burton, was
married to Maryanne Homle [Humble] on
24 June 1577. His mother, he tells us, care-
fully kept a New Testament which had been
his grandmother's in Queen Mary's time.
He was educated at St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1602.
His favourite preachers were Laurence Cha-
derton and William Perkins. On leaving
the university he became tutor to two sons
of ' a noble knight,' Sir Robert Carey, after-
wards (1626-1639) earl of Monmouth. He
relates that one Mrs. Bowes, of Aske, pre-
dicted ' this young man will one day be the
overthrow of the bishops.' Through the Carey
interest, Burton obtained the post of clerk of
the closet to Prince Henry ; while acting in this
capacity he composed a treatise on Antichrist,
the manuscript of which was placed by the
prince in his library at St. James's. He com-
plains that the bishop (Richard Neile of
Durham), who was clerk of the closet to
King James, ' depressed him ; ' however, on
Prince Henry's death (6 Nov. 1612) Burton
was appointed clerk of the closet to Prince
Charles. On 14 July 1612 he had been in-
corporated M.A. at Oxford, and was again
incorporated on 15 July 1617. He tells us
that at the age of thirty (i.e. in 1618) he re-
solved to enter the ministry. Fuller says
that he was to have attended Prince Charles
to Spain (17 Feb. 1623), and that for some
unknown reason the appointment was coun-
termanded, after some of his goods had been
shipped. Burton does not mention this, but
says (which perhaps explains it) that he
could not get a license for a book which he
wrote in 1623 against the ' Converted Jew,'
by Fisher (i.e. Piercy) the Jesuit, to refute
Arminianism and prove the pope to be Anti-
christ. He had, in fact, thrust himself into
a discussion then going on between Fisher
and George Walker, puritan minister of St.
John's, Watling Street. On the accession
of Charles, Burton took it as a matter of
course that he would become clerk of the
royal closet, but Neile was continued in that
office. Burton lost the appointment through
a characteristic indiscretion. On 23 April
1625, before James had been dead a month,
Burton presented a letter to Charles, inveigh-
ing against the popish tendencies of Neile
and Laud (who in Neile's illness was act-
ing as clerk of the closet). Charles read the
letter partly through, and told Burton ' not
to attend more in his office till he should
send for him.' He was not sent for, and did
not reappear at court. Clarendon says that
Burton complained of being 'despoiled of
his right.' He deplored the death of James,
but not through any love for that sovereign ;
indeed he speaks of the influence of James
in retarding the high-church movement as
the only thing which ' made his life desir-
able.' fie was almost immediately presented
to the rectory of St. Matthew's, Friday
Street, and used his city pulpit as a vantage
from which to conduct an aggressive warfare
against episcopal practices. He began to
' fall off from the ceremonies/ and was cited
before the high commission as early as 1626,
but the proceedings were stopped. Bishop
after bishop became the subject of his attack.
For a publication with the cheerful title
'The Baiting of the Popes Bvll,' &c., 1627,
4to, which bore a frontispiece representing
Charles in the act of assailing the pope's
triple crown, he was summoned, in 1627,
before the privy council, but again got off,
in spite of Laud. His 'Babel no Bethel,'
1629, in reply to the 'MaschiP of Robert
Butterfield [q.v.], procured him a temporary
suspension from his benefice, and a sojourn
in the Fleet. More serious troubles were to
come. On 5 Nov. 1636 he preached two
sermons in his own church from Prov. xxiv.
21, 22, in which he charged the bishops with
innovations amounting to a popish plot. His
pulpit style was perhaps effective, but cer-
tainly not refined ; he calls the bishops cater-
pillars instead of pillars, and ' antichristian
mushrumps.' Next month he was summoned
before Dr. Duck, a commissioner for causes
ecclesiastical, to answer on oath to articles
charging him with sedition. He refused the
oath, and appealed to the king. Fifteen days
afterwards he was cited before a special
high commission at Doctors' Commons, did
not appear, and was in his absence suspended
ab officio et beneficio, and ordered to be appre-
hended. He shut himself up in his house, and
published his sermons, with the title, ' For
God and the King,' &c., 1636, 4to, where-
upon (on 1 Feb. 1636-7) his doors were forced,
his study ransacked, and himself taken into
custody and sent next day to the Fleet (the
warrants will be found reprinted in BROOK).
Burton
Burton
Peter Heylyn wrote a ' Briefe Answer ' to
Burton's sermons. In prison Burton was
soon joined by William Prynne and John
Bastwick, a parishioner [q. v.], who had also
written 'libellous books against the hie-
rarchy,' and the three were proceeded against
in the Star-chamber (11 March) and included
in a common indictment. An attempt was
indeed made on 6 June to get the judges
to treat the publications of Bastwick and
Burton (he had added to his offence by pub-
lishing, from his prison, ' An Apology for an
Appeale,' 1636, 4to, consisting of epistles
to the king, the judges, and ' the true-hearted
nobility ') as presenting a primd facie case
of treason, but this fell to the ground. The
defendants prepared answers to the indict-
ment, but it was necessary that these should
be signed by two counsel. No counsel could
be found who would risk the odium of this
office, and the defendants applied in vain to
have their own signatures accepted, accord-
ing to ancient precedents. Burton was the
only one who got at length the signature of
a counsel, one Holt, an aged bencher of
Gray's Inn, and Holt, finding he was to be
alone, drew back, until the court agreed to
accept his single signature. Burton's answer,
thus made regular, lay in court about three
weeks, when on 19 May the attorney-general,
denouncing it as scandalous, referred it to
the chief justices, Sir John Bramston and
Sir John Finch. They made short work of
it, striking out sixty-four sheets, and leaving
no more than six lines at the beginning and
twenty-four at the end. Thus mutilated,
Burton, would not own it ; he was not al-
lowed to frame a new answer, and on 2 June
it was ordered that he, like the rest, should
be proceeded against pro confesso. Sentence
was passed on 14 June, the defendants crying
out for justice, and vainly demanding that
they should not be condemned without ex-
amination of their answers. Burton, when
interrogated as to his plea by the lord keeper
(Baron Coventry), briefly and with dignity
defended his position, maintaining that ' a
minister hath a larger liberty than always to
go in a mild strain,' but his defence was
stopped. He was condemned to be deprived
of his benefice, to be degraded from the
ministry and from his academical degrees,
to be fined 5,OOOZ., to be set in the pillory at
Westminster and his ears to be cut off, and
to be perpetually imprisoned in Lancaster
Castle, without access of his wife or any
friends, or use of pen, ink, and paper. For
this sentence Laud gave the court his ' hearty
thanks.' Burton's parishioners signed a peti-
tion to the king for his pardon ; the two who
presented it were instantly committed to
prison. Burton took his punishment with
enthusiastic fortitude. 'All the while I
stood in the pillory,' he says, ' I thought my-
self to be in heaven and in a state of glory and
triumph.' His address to the mob ran : ' I
never was in such a pulpit before. Little do
you know what fruit God is able to produce
from this dry tree. Through these holes God
can bring light to his church.' His ears were
pared so close, says Fuller, that the temporal
artery was cut. When his wounds were
healed, and he was conveyed northward on
28 July, fully 100,000 people lined the road
at Highgate to take leave of him. His wife
followed in a coach, and 500 'loving friends'
on horseback accompanied him as far as St.
Albans. The whole journey to Lancaster,
reached on 3 Aug., resembled a triumphal
progress rather than the convoy of a criminal.
Laud (see his letter to Wentworth on 28 Aug.)
was very angry about it. At Lancaster, Burton
was confined in ' a vast desolate room,' with-
out furniture ; if a fire was lighted, the place
was filled with smoke ; the spaces between
the planks of the floor made it dangerous to
walk, and underneath was a dark chamber
in which were immured five witches, who
kept up ' a hellish noise ' night and day. The
allowance for diet was not paid. Dr. Augus-
tine Wildbore, vicar of Lancaster, kept a
watchful eye over Burton's reading, to see
that the order confining him to the bible,
prayer-book, and ' such other canonical books '
as were of sound church principles, was
strictly obeyed. Many sympathisers came
about the place, and, notwithstanding all
precautions, Clarendon says that papers ema-
nating from Burton were circulated in Lon-
don. A pamphlet giving an account of his
censure in the Star-chamber was published
in 1637. Accordingly on 1 Nov. he was sent,
by way of Preston and Liverpool, to Guern-
sey, where he arrived on 15 Dec., and was
shut up in a stifling cell at Castle-Cornet.
Here he had no books but his bibles in He-
brew, Greek, Latin, and French, and an ec-
clesiastical history in Greek, but he contrived
to get pen, ink, and paper, and wrote two
treatises, which however were not printed.
His wife was not allowed to see him, though
his only daughter died during his imprison-
ment. On 7 Nov. 1640 his wife presented
a petition to the House of Commons for his
release, and on 10 Nov. the house ordered
him to be forthwith sent for to London.
The order arrived at Guernsey on Sunday,
15 Nov. ; Burton embarked on the 21st. At
Dartmouth, on the 22nd, he met Prynne,
and their journey to London was again a
triumphal progress. Ten thousand people
escorted them from Charing Cross to the
Burton
Burton
city with every demonstration of joy. On I
30 Nov. Burton appeared before the house,
and on 5 Dec. presented a petition setting i
forth his sufferings. The house on 12 March
1640-1 declared the proceedings against him |
illegal, and cast Laud and others in damages. [
On 24 March his sentence was reversed, and i
his benefice ordered to be restored; on20 April j
a sum of Q,QOOL was voted to him ; on 8 June
a further order for his restoration to his
benefice was made out. He recovered his de-
grees, and received that of B.D. in addition.
The money was not paid, nor did he get his
benefice, to which Robert Chestlin had been
regularly presented. But on 5 Oct. 1642
his old parishioners petitioned the house that
he might be appointed Sunday afternoon
lecturer, and this was done. Chestlin, who
resisted the appointment, was somewhat
hardly used, being imprisoned at Colchester
for a seditious sermon ; he escaped to the
king at Oxford. Left thus in possession at
St. Matthew's, Friday Street, Burton orga-
nised a church on the independent model.
Gardiner says of Burton's ' Protestation Pro-
tested,' published in July 1641, that it
' sketched out that plan of a national church,
surrounded by voluntary churches, which was
accepted at the revolution of 1688.' He pub-
lished a ' Vindication of Churches commonly
called Independent,' 1644 (in answer to
Prynne), and exercised a very strict ecclesi-
astical discipline within his congregation.
Marsden says ' it was not in the power of
malice to desire, or of ingenuity to suggest,
a weekly spectacle so hurtful to the royal
cause ' as that of Burton preaching in Friday
Street without his ears. He had enjoyed the
honour of preaching before parliament, but
did not approve the course which events sub-
sequently took. He was for some time al-
lowed to hold a catechetical lecture every
Tuesday fortnight at St. Mary's, Alderman-
bury, but on his introducing his independent
views the churchwardens locked him out in
September 1645. This led to an angry
pamphlet war with the elder Calamy, rector
of the parish [see CALA.MY, EDMUND, 1600-
1666]. Wood, who remarks that he ' grew
more moderate,' thought he lived to witness
the execution of Charles, but he died a year
before that event. During his imprisonment
he had contracted the disease of the stone,
which was probably the cause of his death.
He was buried on 7 Jan. 1647-8. By his first
wife, Anne, he had two children: 1. Anne,
bapt, 21 Sept. 1621. 2. Henry, bapt. 13 May
1 624, who married Ursula Maisters on 30 Nov.
1647, and is described as a merchant. His
second wife, Sarah, and son, Henry, survived
him, and on 17 Feb. 1652 petitioned the house
for maintenance ; the son got lands of 200/.
yearly value from the estate of certain delin-
quents, out of Avhich the widow was to have
100/. a year for life. Granger describes a
rare print of Laud and Burton, in which the
archbishop vomits his works while the puri-
tan holds his head.
Burton's chief publications in addition to
those mentioned are : 1. ' A Censvre of
Simonie,' 1624, 4to. 2. ' A Plea to an Ap-
peale,' 1626. 3. ' The Seven Vials ; or a
briefe Exposition upon the 15 and 16 chapters
of the Revelation,' 1628. 4. ' A Tryall of
Private Devotion,' 1628. 5. 'England's
Bondage and Hope of Deliverance,' 1641,
4to (sermon from Psalm liii. 7, 8, before the
parliament on 20 June). 6. ' Truth still
Truth, though shut out of doors,' 1645, 4to
(distinct from ' Truth shut out of doores,' a
previous pamphlet of the same year) ; and,
from the catalogue of the Advocates' Li-
brary, Edinburgh, 7. ' The Grand Impostor
Unmasked, or a detection of the notorious
hypocrisie and desperate impiety of the late
Archbishop (so styled) of Canterbury, cun-
ningly couched in that written copy which
he read on the scaffold,' &c. 4to, n.d.
8. ' Conformities Deformity,' 1646, 4to.
[Narration of the Life, &c., 1643 (portrait);
Biog. Brit. 1748, ii. 1045, ed. Kippis, iii. 43;
Wood's Ath. Ox. 1691, i. 814, 828, &c. ; Walker's
Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 165 ; Brook's
Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 40; Fisher's
Companion and Key to Hist, of Eng. 1832,
pp. 515, 610 ; Marsden's Later Puritans, 1872,
pp. 122 sq. : Gardiner's Hist. England, vii. viii.
ix. x. ; Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canter-
bury, xi. 1875 (Laud), 292 sq. ; extracts from
parish registers of Birdsall, per Rev. L. S.
Gresley, and of St. Matthew's, Friday Street,
per Eev. Dr. Simpson.] A. G.
BURTON, HEZEKIAH (d. 1681), di-
vine, was a fellow of Magdalen College,
Cambridge, and eminent as a tutor. He was
entered as a pensioner in 1647, was elected
Wray fellow 1651, graduated as M.A. 1654,
was incorporated at Oxford the same year, was
B.D. 1661, and D.D. by royal mandate 1669.
He was known to Samuel Pepys, Richard
Cumberland, and Orlando Bridgeman, all of
his college, and to Henry More, the Platonist.
More sent him a queer story of a ghost, as
circumstantial as Mrs. Veal's, which appeared
in Yorkshire about 1661 (LIGHTFOOT, Remains,
Ii; KENNET, Register, 763). Bridgeman, on
becoming chancellor in 1667, gave a chap-
laincy to his college friend, and appointed
him to a prebendal stall at Norwich. He was
intimate with Tillotson and Stillingfleet, and
had been associated with them and Bishop
Wilkins in an abortive proposal for a com-
Burton
8
Burton
prehension communicated by Bridgeman to
Baxter and others in the beginning of 1668.
Wood says that a club formed by Wilkins
to promote comprehension used to meet at
the 'chambers of that great trimmer and
latitudinarian, Dr. Hezekiah Burton.' He
afterwards became minister of St. George's,
Southwark, where he was especially chari-
table to imprisoned debtors, and in 1680 was'
appointed, through Tillotson's influence, vicar
oi Barnes in Surrey, by the dean and chapter
of St. Paul's. He died there of a fever, which
carried off several of his family, in August or
September 1681. His only writings were an
' Alloquium ad lectorem ' prefixed to his
friend Bishop Cumberland's book, ' De Legi-
bus Naturae ; ' and two posthumous volumes
of 'Discourses' (1684 and 1685), to the first
of which is prefixed a notice by Tillotson,
speaking warmly of his friendliness and sweet-
ness of temper. A portrait is engraved in the
same volume.
[Tillotson's Preface to Discourses ; Birch's Life
of Tillotson, 42,77, 93, 124-126; Knight's Life
of Dean Colet (1823), 366; Sylvester's Baxter,
iii. 24 ; Neal's Puritans, iv. 432 ; Wood's Athenae
Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 513; Fasti, ii. 184; Pepys's
Diary (24 April 1659-60, and 1 Feb. 1661-62),
where is also a letter to Pepys of 9 April 1677.]
L. S.
BURTON, JAMES. [See HALIBUKTON,
JAMES.]
BURTON, JAMES DANIEL (1784-
1817), Wesleyan minister, was the son of
Daniel Burton, of Rhodes, near Manchester,
and was born at Manchester 25 July 1791.
He received a good education, but one not
purposely intended to fit him for the office of
minister. At the age of sixteen he was in
the habit of attending the theatre at Man-
chester, but was soon turned from 'the
snares connected with that place of gay re-
sort and destructive pastime,' and, as the
result of his ' effectual awakening,' prepared
himself for the Wesleyan ministry, and de-
voted a considerable portion of his time
among the poor in the neighbourhood of
Middleton. He became a methodist itine-
rant preacher at the age of twenty-one. In
the tenth year of his ministry his health
failed, and he died, 24 March 1817, in his
thirty-third year. In 1814 he published, at
Bury, in Lancashire, ' A Guide for Youth,
recommending to their serious consideration
Vital Piety, as the only rational way to
Present Happiness and Future Glory,' 12mo.
[Methodist Mag. 1817, pp. 708, 881; Os-
born s Methodist Literature, p. 78.]
c. w. s.
BURTON, JOHN, D.D. (1696-1771),
theological and classical scholar, was born
at Wembworthy, Devonshire, of which parish
his father, Samuel Burton, was rector, in
1696, and was educated partly at Okehamp-
ton and Tiverton in his native county and
partly at Ely, where he was placed on his
father's death by the Rev. Samuel Bentham,
the first cousin of his mother. In 1713 he was
elected as a scholar of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, and took his degree of B. A. on 27 June
1717, shortly after which he became the col-
lege tutor. He proceeded M.A. 24 March
1720-1, was elected probationary fellow
6 April following, and admitted actual fellow
4 April 1723. As college tutor he acted with
great zeal, and acquired a greater reputation
than any of the Oxford 'dons' of his day, but
in consequence of an incurable recklessness
in money matters he was little richer at the
end than at the beginning of his collegiate
career. The particulars of his teaching are set
out in his friend Edward Bentham's ' De Vita
et Moribus Johannis Burtoni . . . epistola ad
Robert um Lowth,' 1771. In logic and meta-
physics he passed from Sanderson and Le
Clerc to Locke ; in ethics from Aristotle to
Puffendorf s abridgment and Sanderson's lec-
tures. Twice a week he lectured on Xeno-
phon and Demosthenes, and occasionally he
taught on some Latin author. It was through
Burton that the study of Locke was intro-
duced into the schools, and he printed for
the use of the younger students a double
series of philosophical questions, with refe-
rences to the authors to be consulted under
each head. This is probably lost, but a set
of exercises which he gave the undergra-
duates of his college for employment during
the long vacation was printed under the title
of ' Sacrse Scripturse locorum quorundam
versio metrica,' 1736, and a copy is at the
British Museum. In the progress of the
university press he took great interest, and
obtained for it a gift of 1001. from Mr. (after-
wards Lord) Rolle, and a legacy of 200/. from
Dr. Hodges, the provost of Oriel. Through
the circumstance that Burton had been tutor
to a son of Dr. Bland, a fellowship at Eton
College was bestowed upon him on 17 Aug.
1733, and when the valuable vicarage of
Mapledurham, on the Oxfordshire bank of
the Thames, became vacant by the death of
Dr. Edward Littleton on 16 Nov. 1733,
Burton was nominated thereto by the col-
lege and inducted on 9 March 1734. Dr.
Littleton had married a daughter of Barn-
ham Goode, under-master of Eton School,
and left her a widow 'with three infant
daughters, without a home, without a for-
tune.' The new vicar, in his pity for their
Burton
Burton
destitute condition, allowed the family to re-
main for a time in their old home, and the
story runs that ' some time after a neigh-
bouring clergyman happened to call and
found Mrs. Littleton shaving John Burton.'
At this sight the visitor remonstrated with
his clerical friend, and the result was that
' Burton proposed marriage and was ac-
cepted.' In this delicious retreat Burton
characteristically sacrificed much of his in-
come in improving the parsonage and the
glebe lands. When the settling of Georgia
was in agitation he took an active part in
furtherance of the colony's interests, and pub-
lished in 1764 ' An Account of the Designs of
the late Dr. Bray, with an Account of their
Proceedings,'a tract often reprinted [see BRAY,
THOMAS, 1656-1730]. His other university
degrees were M.A. in 1720, B.D. in 1729,
and D.D. in 1752. On 1 Feb. 1766, towards
the close of his life, he quitted the vicarage
of Mapledurham for the rectory of Worples-
don in Surrey, and here he was instrumental
in the formation of a causeway over the Wey,
so that his parishioners might travel to Guild-
ford at all seasons. A year or two later he
was seized by fever, but he still lingered on,
His death occurred on 11 Feb. 1771, and he
was buried at the entrance to the inner
chapel at Eton, precisely in the centre under
the organ-loft. His epitaph styles him : ' Vir
inter primes doctus, ingeniosus, pius, opum
contemptor, ingenuse juventutis fautor exi-
mius.' Among the manuscripts which Bur-
ton left behind him was ' An Essay on Pro-
jected Improvements in Eton School,' but it
was never printed and has since been lost.
His mother took as her second husband Dr.
John Bear, rector of Shermanbury, Sussex.
She died on 23 April 1755, aged 80; her
husband on 9 March 1762, aged 88 ; and in
1767 her son erected a monument to their
memory. Dr. Burton's wife died in 1748.
Throughout his life Burton poured forth
a vast number of tracts and sermons. His
reading was varied, and he composed with
remarkable facility, but the possession of
this latter quality led to his wasting his
efforts in productions of ephemeral interest.
Most of his sermons are reprinted in ' Occa-
sional Sermons preached before the Univer-
sity of Oxford/ 1764-6. Many of his Latin
tracts and addresses are embodied in his
' Opuscula Miscellanea Theologica,' 1748-61,
or in the kindred volume ' Opuscula Miscel-
lanea Metrico-Prosaica,' 1771. He contri-
buted to the ' Weekly Miscellany ' a series of
papers on ' The Genuineness of Lord Claren-
don's History of the Kebellion Mr. Old-
mixon's Slander confuted,' which was sub-
sequently enlarged and printed separately at
Oxford in 1744. The circumstances which
led to their production are set out in John-
son's ' Poets ' in the life of Edward Smith.
A Latin letter by Burton to a friend, or a
' commentariolus ' of Archbishop Seeker, at-
tracted much attention, and was severely
criticised by Archdeacon Blackburne on be-
half of the latitudinarians ( Works, ii. 92-9),
and by Dr. Philip Furneaux for the noncon-
formists in his ' Letters to Blackstone,' pp.
190-7. In 1758 he issued a volume, ' lievra-
\oyia, sive tragcediarum Grsecarum Delectus,'
which was reissued with additional observa-
tions by Thomas (afterwards Bishop) Bur-
gess in 1779. Two copies of this latter edi-
tion, now in the library of the British Mu-
seum, contain copious manuscript notes by
Dr. Charles Burney. Burton made frequent
visits to his mother in Sussex, and in 1752
described his journey thither in an amusing
tract, ''OftonropovvTos MeXe&j/zara, sive iter
Surriense et Sussexiense.' Numerous extracts
from this tour were printed in the ' Sussex
Archaeological Collections,' viii. 250-65. His
Latin poem, ' Sacerdos Parcecialis Rusticus,'
was issued in 1757, and a translation by
Dawson Warren of Edmonton came out in
1800. Though Burton was a tory in poli-
tics, he was not so strict in his views as
Dr. William King of St. Mary Hall, and he
criticised, under the disguise of 'Phileleu-
therus Londinensis,' the celebrated speech
which King delivered at the dedication of
the Radcliffe Library, 13 April 1749. King
thereupon retorted with a fierce ' Elogium
famse inserviens Jacci Etonensis; or the
praises of Jack of Eton, commonly called
Jack the Giant,' with a dissertation on ' the
Burtonic style,' and left behind him in his
' Anecdotes of his own Times ' several sting-
ing references to Burton. An oration which
Burton delivered at Oxford in 1763 gave
him the opportunity for an attack on Wilkes,
whereupon Churchill, in the ' Candidate '
(verse 716 et seq.), retaliated with sneers at
his 'new Latin and new Greek,' and his
' pantomime thoughts and style so full of
trick.' Burton was fond of jests. One or
two of them can be found in [S. Pegge's]
'Anonymiana' (1809, pp. 384-5), and an
unlucky jocose allusion to Ralph Allen pro-
voked Warburton to insert in the 1749 edi-
tion of the ' Dunciad ' (book iv., verse 443) a
caustic note on Burton, which was subse-
quently omitted at the request of Bishop
Hayter. While at Mapledurham he wrote
' The present State of the Navigation of the
River Thames considered, with certain regu-
lations proposed,' 1765 ; second edition 1767.
Several of his letters are in 'Addit. MS.'
British Museum, 21428.
Burton
Burton
[Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes and his Illustrations
of Lit. passim ; Manning and Bray's Surrey, iii.
100-102, where is portrait; Gent, Mag. (1771), ,
pp. 95, 305-8 ; Bentham, De Vita J. Burtoni ;
Biog. Brit. (Kippis) ; Lyte's Eton College, 308- \
309 ; Eawlinson MSS. fol. 16348.] W. P. C.
BURTON, JOHN, M.D. (1697-1771),
antiquary and physician, was born at Ripon
in 1697, and is said to have received part of
his education at Christ Church, Oxford, but
he himself speaks only of the time which he
spent in study at Leyden and Cambridge, i
He graduated M.B. at the latter university in j
1733, and before 1738, when he published a
' Treatise of the Non-naturals,' he had taken
the degree of M.D. at Rheims. He was a i
good Greek and Latin scholar, and attained
no little eminence in his profession both in
the city and county of York. It is said that
in 1745 he had some intention of joining the
Pretender, but by his own account (British l
Liberty Endangered, 1749) he was taken pri-
soner by the rebels and detained unwillingly
for three months. It seems, however, that
he incurred much censure from those in power,
and that his political opinions rendered him
obnoxious to Sterne, who satirised him in
' Tristram Shandy ' under the name of ' Dr.
Slop.' The satire betrayed either great igno-
rance or gross unfairness, for Dr. Burton's
reputation as an accoucheur was deservedly
high, and his ' Essay on Midwifery ' has been
styled ' a most learned and masterly work '
(AxzitfSON, Med. Bibliography, 1834). In
later years he became widely known as an
antiquarian, and in 1758 published the first
volume of the ' Monasticon Eboracense, and
Ecclesiastical History of Yorkshire,' a most
important contribution to the archaeology of
his native county. Ample materials for a
second volume were got together by him, but
these and his other antiquarian collections
have never been printed. In 1769 he was in
correspondence with Dr. Ducarel and others
about their sale to the British Museum, but
shortly before his death, which occurred
21 Feb. 1771, he disposed of them to Mr. Wil-
liam Constable, of Constable Burton. His
printed works are : 1. 'Essay on Midwifery,'
1751 and 1753. 2. ' Monasticon Eboracense,'
vol. i. 1758 (the copy in the King's Library,
British Museum, has the first eight pages of
the intended second volume, entitled 'The
Appendix, containing Charters, Grants, and
other Original Writings referred to in the pre-
ceding volume, never published before,' York.
N. Nickson, 1759). 3. Two Tracts on Yorkshire ,
Antiquities in the ' Archaeologia,' 1768-1771. j
[Nichols's Illust. of Literature, iii. 375-99;
Gough's Brit. Top. ii. 407-415; Notes and
Queries, 3rd series, v. 414.] C. J. E.
BURTON, JOHX HILL (1809-1881),
historiographer of Scotland, was born at Aber-
deen 22 Aug. 1809. His father, of whose
family connections nothing is known, was a
lieutenant in the army, whose feeble health
compelled him to retire on half-pay shortly
after his son's birth. His mother was the
daughter of John Paton, laird of Grandholm,
a moody, eccentric man driven into seclusion
by frantic sorrow for the death of his wife,
and possessed by an insane animosity towards
his own children. The family circumstances
were thus by no means promising. Burton,
however, obtained a fair education after his
father's death in 1819, and gained a bursary,
which enabled him to matriculate at the uni-
versity of his native city. On the completion
of his college course he was articled to a
writer, but, assuredly from no want of in-
dustry, found the confinement of an office in-
tolerable. His articles were cancelled, and
he repaired to Edinburgh to qualify himself
for the bar, accompanied by his devoted
mother, who had disposed of her little pro-
perty at Aberdeen to provide him with the
means of study. He in due time became an
advocate, but his practice was never large, and
for a long time he found it necessary to earn
his livelihood by literature. His beginnings
were humble. Much that he wrote cannot
now be identified, but he is known to have
composed elementary histories under the name
of White, to have shared in the compilation
of Oliver & Boyd's ' Edinburgh Almanack,'
and to have furnished the letterpress of Bil-
lings's 'Ecclesiastical and Baronial Anti-
quities.' His ardent adoption of Bentham's
philosophy probably served to introduce him
to the ' Westminster Review,' from which he
subsequently migrated to the 'Edinburgh.'
He also contributed to the 'Cyclopaedia of
Universal Biography' and Waterston's ' Cy-
clopaedia of Commerce;' prepared (1839) a
useful ' Manual of the Law of Scotland,' after-
wards divided into distinct treatises on civil
and criminal jurisprudence ; edited the works
of Bentham in' conjunction with Sir John
Bo wring; and compiled (1843) 'Benthami-
ana,' a selection from Bentham's writings, de-
signed as an introduction to the utilitarian
philosophy. About this time he acted for a
season as editor of the ' Scotsman,' and com-
mitted the journal to the supportof free trade.
He also edited the 'At hole Papers' for the
Abbotsford, and the ' Darien Papers ' for the
Bannatyne Club. In 1844 he married, and in
1846 achieved solid literary distinction by his
biography of Hume, assisted by the extensive
stores of unpublished matter bequeathed by
Hume's nephew to the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh. It was a great opportunity, and if
Burton
Burton
Burton's deficiency in imagination impaired
the vigour of his portrait of Hume as a man,
he has shown an adequate comprehension of
him as a thinker, and is entitled to especial
credit for his recognition of Hume's origi-
nality as an economist. A supplementary
volume of letters from Hume's distinguished
correspondents, one half at least French, fol-
lowed in 1849. In 1847 Burton had pro-
duced his entertaining biographies of Lord
Lovat and Duncan Forbes ; and in 1849 he
wrote for Messrs. Chambers a ''Manual of
Political and Social Economy,' with a com-
panion volume on emigration, admirable
works, containing within a narrow compass
clear and intelligent expositions of the mutual
relations and duties of property, labour, and
government. In the same year the death of his
wife prostrated him with grief, and although
he to a great extent recovered the elasticity
of his spirits, he was ever afterwards afflicted
with an invincible aversion to society. Seek-
ing relief in literary toil, he produced in 1852
his ' Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scot-
land ; ' in 1853 his ' Treatise on the Law of
Bankruptcy in Scotland;' and in the same
year the first portion of his ' History of Scot-
land,' comprising the period from the Revolu-
tion to the rebellion of 1745. Like Hume,
he executed his task in instalments, and with-
out strict adherence to chronological order, a
method prompted in his case by a delicate
reluctance to enter into manifest competition
with his predecessor Tytler during the latter's
lifetime. The work was eventually com-
pleted in 1870 ; and a new edition with con-
siderable improvements, especially in the pre-
historic and Roman periods, appeared in 1873.
In 1854 Burton obtained pecuniary indepen-
dence by his appointment as secretary to
the prison board, and in 1855 married the
daughter of Cosmo Innes. Though no longer
necessary to his support, his literary labours
continued without remission ; he wrote largely
for the ' Scotsman,' became a constant contri-
butor to ' Blackwood's Magazine,' and edited
(1860) the valuable autobiography of Alex-
ander Car lyle. His essays in 'Blackwood'
formed the substance of two very delightful
works, 'The Book Hunter' (1860), contain-
ing a vivid personal sketch of De Quincey,
and < The Scot Abroad ' (1862). Burton, who
had always been a great pedestrian at home,
had now imbibed a taste for solitary tours on
the continent, which formed the theme of
his latest contributions to 'Blackwood.' After
the completion of his ' History,' he undertook
the editorship of the ' Scottish Registers,' a
work of great national importance, and pub-
lished two volumes. The task has since his
death been continued by Professor Masson.
His last independent work of much compass
| was his ' History of the Reign of Queen
Anne,' published in 1880. Ere this date his
extraordinary power of concentrated applica-
tion had become impaired by a serious illness,
and the book, dry without exactness, and de-
sultory without liveliness, hardly deserves
to be ranked among histories. The most va-
luable part is his account of Marlborough's
j battles, the localities of which he had visited
I expressly. From this time Burton suffered
] from frequent attacks of illness, and indicated
the change which had come over his spirit by
| disposing of his library, weighing eleven tons,
| as he informed the writer of this memoir.
; He continued, however, to write for ' Black-
. wood,' performed his official duties with un-
' diminished efficiency, rallied surprisingly in
health and spirits after every fit of illness,
and was preparing to edit the remains of his
friend Edward Ellice, when he succumbed
to a sudden attack of bronchitis on 10 Aug.
; 1881.
Burton's biographies and his ' Book Hunter '
secure him a more than respectable rank as
a man of letters; and his legal and econo-
mical works entitle him to high credit as a
jurist and an investigator of social science.
His historical labours are more important,
and yet his claims to historical eminence are
more questionable. His 'History of Scot-
land ' has, indeed, the field to itself at present,
being as yet the only one composed with the
accurate research which the modern standard
of history demands. By complying with
this peremptory condition, Burton has dis-
tanced all competitors, but must in turn give
way when one shall arise who, emulating or
borrowing his closeness of investigation, shall
add the beauty and grandeur due to the his-
tory of a great and romantic country. Bur-
ton indeed is by no means dry ; his narrative
is on the contrary highly entertaining. But
this animation is purchased by an entire
sacrifice of dignity. His style is always below
the subject ; there is a total lack of harmony
and unity ; and the work altogether produces
the impression of a series of clever and meri-
torious magazine articles. Possessing in per-
fection all the ordinary and indispensable
qualities of the historian, he is devoid of all
those which exalt historical composition to
the sphere of poetry and drama. His place
is rather that of a sagacious critic of history,
and in this character his companionship will
always be found invaluable. To render due
justice to Scottish history would indeed re-
quire the epic and dramatic genius of Scott,
united with the research of a Burton and the
intuition of a Carlyle ; and until such a com-
bination arises, Burton may probably remain
Burton
Burton
Scotland's chief historian. As a man, he was
loved and valued in proportion as he was truly
known. With a dry critical intellect he
combined an intense sensitiveness, evinced in
a painful shrinking from deficient sympathy,
the real and pathetic cause of his unfortunate
irascibility and impatience of contradiction.
His private affections were deep and constant,
his philanthropy embraced mankind, his gra-
cious and charitable actions were endless, and
it is mournful to think that the mere exag-
geration of tender feeling, combined with his
aversion to display and neglect of his personal
appearance, should have obstructed the gene-
ral recognition of qualities as beautiful as un-
common. His main defect was, as remarked
by his widow, an absence of imagination,
rendering it difficult for him to put himself
in another's place. In an historian such a
deficiency is most serious, and could be but
imperfectly supplied by the acuteness of his
critical faculty. In biography it was to a
certain extent counteracted by the strength
of the sympathy which originally attracted
him to his theme ; and hence his biographical
writings are perhaps the most truly and per-
manently valuable.
[Memoir by Mrs. Burton, prefixed to the large-
paper edition of the Book Hunter, 1882 ; Black-
wood's Mag. September 1881.] E. Gr.
BURTON, ROBERT (1577-1640), author
of the ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' and one of
the most fantastic figures in literature, was
the second son of Ralph Burton of Lindley
in Leicestershire. In the calculation of his
nativity, on the right hand of his monument
in Christ Church Cathedral, the date of his
birth is given as 8 Feb. 1576-7. He tells us
in the ' Anatomy of Melancholy ' (chapter on
' Aire Rectified, with a digression of the
Aire,' part ii., sect. 2, memb. 3) that his birth-
place was Lindley in Leicestershire. There
is a tradition that he was born at Falde
in Staffordshire, and Plot, in. his 'Natural
History of Staffordshire,' 1686 (p. 276), states
that he was shown the house of Robert Bur-
ton's nativity; but the tradition probably
arose from the fact that William Burton [q.v.]
resided at Falde . We learn from his will that
he passed some time at the grammar school,
Nuneaton ; and in the ' Digression of the
Aire ' he mentions that he had been a scholar
at the free school of Sutton Coldfield, War-
wickshire. In the long vacation of 1593 he
was sent as a commoner to Brasenose College,
Oxford, and in 1599 was elected student of
Christ Church, where, ' for form sake, tho' he
wanted not a tutor,' he was placed under the
tuition of Dr. John Bancroft. He took the
degree of B.D. in 1614, and was admitted to
the reading of the sentences. On 29 Nov.
1616 he was presented by the dean and
chapter of Christ Church to the vicarage of
St. Thomas, in the west suburbs of Oxford ;
and it is recorded that he always gave his
parishioners the sacrament in wafers, and
that he built the south porch of the church.
About 1630 he received from George, Lord
Berkeley, the rectory of Segrave in Leicester-
shire, which, with his Oxford living, he
kept ' with much ado to his dying day.' In
1606 Burton wrote a Latin comedy, which
was acted at Christ Church on Shrove Mon-
day, 16 Feb. 1617-18. It was not printed in
the author's, lifetime, and was long supposed
to be irretrievably lost ; but two manuscript
copies had fortunately been preserved. One
of these belonged to Dean Milles (who died
in 1784), and is now in the possession of the
Rev JI JfiaIliam^E > dwar.d Buckley, of Middleton
Cheney, by whom it was privately printed in
handsome quarto for presentation to the Rox-
burghe Club in 1862. , On the title-page is
written ' Inchoata A Domini 1606, alterata,
renovata, perfecta Anno Domini 1615.' Over
inchoata is written in the same hand scripta,
and over renovata, revisa. The other manu-
script, a presentation copy from the author
to his brother, William Burton, is in Lord
Mostyn's library (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th
Rep. 356). ' Philosophaster ' bears a certain
resemblance to Tomkis's ' Albumazar,' acted
at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1614, and
to Ben Jonson's ' Alchemist,' acted in 1610,
and published in 1612. In the prologue the
author anticipates criticism on this point :
Emendicatuni e nupera scena aut quis putet,
Sciat quod undecim abhinc annis scripta fuit.
Burton's comedy is a witty exposure of the
practices of professors in the art of chicanery.
The manners of a fraternity of vagabonds
are portrayed with considerable humour and
skill, and the lyrical portions of the play
are written with a light hand. At the end
of the volume Mr. Buckley has collected,
at the cost of considerable research, all Bur-
ton's contributions to various academic col-
lections of Latin verse.
In 1621 appeared the first edition of Bur-
ton's ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' one of the
most fascinating books in literature. The
full title is ' The Anatomy of Melancholy,
What it is. With all the Kindes, Cavses,
Symptomes, Prognostickes, and severall Cvres
of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their
seuerall Sections, Members, and Svbsections.
Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically
opened and cvt vp. By Democritus lunior.
With a Satyricall Preface conducing to the
following Discourse. Macrob. Omne meum,
Burton
Burton
Nihil meum. At Oxford, Printed by lohn
Lichfield and lames Short, for Henry Cripps,
Anno Dom. 1621,' 4to. The first edition con-
tains at the end an ' Apologetical Appendix '
(not found in later editions), signed ' Robert
Bvrton,' and dated ' From my Studie in
Christ-Church, Oxon. December 5, 1620.'
Later editions, in folio, appeared in 1624, 1628,
1632, 1638, 1651-2, 1660, 1676 ; an edition in
2 vols. 8vo was published in 1800, and again
in 1806 ; and several abridgments of the great
work have been published in the present
century. In the third edition (1628) first
appeared the famous frontispiece, engraved
by C. Le Blond. The sides are illustrated
with figures representing the effects of Me-
lancholy from Love, Hypochondriasis, Super-
stition and Madness. At the top is Demo-
critus, emblematically represented, and at
the foot a portrait of the author. In the
corners at the top are emblems of Jealousy
and Solitude, and in the corners at the
bottom are the herbs Borage and Hellebore.
Burton was continually altering and adding
to his treatise. In the preface to the third
edition he announced that he intended to
make no more changes : ' I am now resolved
never to put this treatise out again. Ne
quid nimis. I will not hereafter add, alter,
or retract ; I have done.' But when the fourth
edition appeared it was found that he had
not been able to resist the temptation of
making a further revision. The sixth edition
was printed from an annotated copy which
was handed to the publisher shortly before
Burton's death. Wood states that the pub-
lisher, Henry Cripps, made a fortune by the
sale of the 'Anatomy;' and Fuller in his
' Worthies ' remarked that ' scarce any book
of philology in our land hath in so short a
time passed so many editions.' The treatise
was dedicated to George, Lord Berkeley. In
the long preface, ' Democritus to the Reader,'
which is one of the most interesting parts
of the book, the author gives us an account
of his style of life at Oxford : ' I have lived
a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, mihi
et musis, in the university, as long almost
as Xenocrates in Athens, ad senectam fere,
to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most
part in my study. For I have been brought
up a student in the most flourishing colledge
of Europe [Christ Church in Oxford marg.
note], Augustissimo Collegia, and can brag
with lovius almost, in ea luce dotnicilii Vati-
cani, totius orbis celeberrimi, per 37 annos
multa opportunaque didici : for thirty years I
have continued (having the use of as good
libraries as ever he had) a scholar, and would
be, therefore, loth either by living as a drone
to be an unprofitable or unworthy a member
of so learned and noble a societie, or to write
that which should be any way dishonourable
to such a royal and ample foundation.' He
then proceeds to speak of the desultory cha-
racter of his studies : ' I have read many books
but to little purpose, for want of good method ;
I have confusedly tumbled over divers au-
thors in our libraries with small profit for
want of art, order, memory, judgment.'
For preferment he was not anxious : ' I am
not poor, I am not rich : nihil est, nihil deest,
I have little, I want nothing ; all my treasure
is in Minerva's tower.' He anticipates the
objections of hostile critics who may urge
that his time would have been better spent
in publishing books of divinity. He saw ' no
such need ' for that class of works, as there
existed already more commentaries, treatises,
pamphlets, expositions, and sermons than
whole teams of oxen could draw. Why did
he choose such a subject as melancholy? 'I
write of melancholy,' is the answer, ' by
being busy to avoid melancholy.' He apolo-
gises for the rudeness of his style, on the
ground that he could not afford to employ
an amanuensis or assistants. After relating
the story of Pancrates (in Lucian), who by
magic turned a door-bar into a serving-man,
he proceeds in this strain : ' I have no such
skill to make new men at my pleasure, or
means to hire them, no whistle to call like
the master of a ship, and bid them run, &c.
I have no such authority ; no such bene-
factors as that noble Ambrosius was to Origen,
allowing him six or seven Amanuenses to
write out his Dictats. I must for that cause
do my businesse my self, and was therefore
enforced, as a Bear doth her whelps, to bring
forth this confused lump.' To some slight
extent Burton was indebted to ' A Treatise
of Melancholy,' by T. Bright, 1586. The
* Anatomy ' is divided into three partitions,
which are subdivided into sections, members,
and subsections. Prefixed to each partition
is an elaborate synopsis as a sort of index,
in humorous imitation of the practice so com-
mon in books of scholastic divinity. Part i.
deals with the causes and symptoms of melan-
choly ; part ii. with the cure of melancholy ;
and part iii. with love melancholy and re-
ligious melancholy. On every page quota-
tions abound from authors of all ages and
countries, classics, fathers of the church,
medical writers, poets, historians, scholars,
travellers, &c. There is a unique charm in
Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy.' Dr.
Johnson said that it was the only book that
ever took him out of his bed two hours sooner
than he intended to rise. Ferriar in his
* Illustrations of Sterne ' showed how ' Tris-
tram Shandy ' was permeated with Burton's
Burton
Burton
influence. Charles Lamb was an enthusiastic
admirer of the 'fantastic old great man/ and to
some extent modelled his style on the ' Ana-
tomy.' In ' Curious Fragments extracted
from the Commonplace Book of Robert Bur-
ton' (appended to the tragedy of 'Woodvil,'
1802) Lamb imitated with marvellous fidelity
Burton's charming mannerisms. Milton, as
Warton was the first to point out, gathered
hints for ' L' Allegro ' and ' II Penseroso' from i
the verses (' The Author's Abstract of Me- ;
lancholy ') prefixed to the ' Anatomy.' There ;
is no keener delight to an appreciative student ;
than to shut himself in his study and be im-
mersed ' from morn to noon, from noon to
dewy eve,' in Burton's far-off world of for-
gotten lore. Commonplace writers have
described the ' Anatomy ' as a mere collec-
tion of quotations, a piece of patchwork.
The description is utterly untrue. On every
page is the impress of a singularly deep and
original genius. As a humorist Burton bears
some resemblance to Sir Thomas Browne ;
this vein of semi-serious humour is, to his
admirers, one of the chief attractions of his
style. When he chooses to write smoothly
his language is strangely musical.
Little is recorded of Burton's life. Bishop
Kennet (in his Register and Chronicle, p. 320)
says that after writing the 'Anatomy' to
suppress his own melancholy, he did but im-
prove it. 'In an interval of vapours ' he
would be extremely cheerful, and then he
would fall into such a state of despondency
that he could only get relief by going to the
bridge-foot at Oxford and hearing the barge-
men swear at one another, ' at which he
would set his hands to his sides and laugh
most profusely.' Kennet's story recalls a
passage about Democritus in Burton's pre-
face :. ' He lived at last in a garden in the
suburbs, wholly betaking himself to his
studies and a private life, saving that some-
times he would walk down to the haven and
laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous
objects which there he saw.' It would appear
that when he adopted the title of Democritus
Junior, Burton seriously set himself to imi-
tate the eccentricities recorded of the old
philosopher. Anecdotes about Burton are
very scarce. It is related in ' Reliquiae
Hearnianse ' that one day when Burton was
in a book-shop the Earl of Southampton en-
tered and inquired for a copy of the ' Ana-
tomy of Melancholy ;' whereupon ' says the
bookseller " My lord, if you please I can show
you the author." He did so. " Mr. Burton,"
says the earl, " your sen-ant." " Mr. South-
ampton," says Mr. Burton, " your servant,"
and away he went.' Wood gives the follow-
ing character of Burton : ' He was an exact
mathematician, a curious calculator of nati-
vities, a general read scholar, a thorough-
paced philologist, and one that understood
the surveying of lands well. As he was by
many accounted a severe student, a devourer
of authors, a melancholy and humorous per-
son, so by others who knew him well a person
of great honesty, plain dealing and charity.
I have heard some of the antients of Christ
Church often say that his company was very
merry, facete and juvenile, and no man of his
time did surpass him for his ready and dex-
terous interlarding his common discourses
among them with verses from the poets or
sentences from classical authors.' Burton died
at Christ Church on 25 Jan. 1639-40, at or
very near the time that he had foretold some
years before by the calculation of his nativity.
Wood says there was a report among the
students that he had ' sent up his soul to
heaven thro' a noose about his neck ' in order
that his calculation might be verified. He
was buried in the north aisle of Christ Church
Cathedral, and over his grave was erected, at
the expense of his brother William Burton,
a comely monument, on the upper pillar of
the aisle, with his bust in colour ; on the right
hand above the bust is the calculation of his
nativity, and beneath the bust is the epitaph
which he had composed for himself ' Faucis
notus, paucioribus ignotus, hie jacet Demo-
critus Junior, cui vitam dedit et mortem
Melancholia.' His portrait hangs in the hall
of Brasenose College. He left behind him a
choice library of books, many of which he
bequeathed to the Bodleian. The collection
included a number of rare Elizabethan tracts.
There is an elegy on Burton in Martin
Llewellyn's poems, 1646.
[Wood's Athense, ed. Bliss, ii. 652-3 ; Nichols's
Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt i. 415-19; Preface to
the Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. 6 ; Philoso-
phaster, Comoedia, ed. Rev. W. E. Buckley, 1 862 ;
Kennet's Register and Chronicle, 1728, p. 320;
Ferriar's Illustrations of Sterne, 1799 ; Hearne's
Reliquiae, ed. Bliss, i. 288 ; Blackwood's Maga-
zine, September 1861 ; Lamb's Detached Thoughts
on Books and Reading ; Stephen Jones's Memoir
prefixed to the Anatomy, ed. 1800.] A. H. B.
BURTON, ROBERT or RICHARD
( 1632 P-1725?), miscellaneous author, whose
real name was NATHANIEL CKOTTCH, was the
author of many books, attributed on the
title-page to R. B., to Richard Burton, and
(after his death) to Robert Burton. He
was born about_ 1632, and was the son of
a tailor at Lewes. Nathaniel was appren-
ticed on 5 May 1656 for seven years to Live-
well Chapman, and at the close of his ap-
prenticeship became a freeman of the Sta-
tioners' Company. He was a publisher, and
Burton
Burton
compiled a number of small books, which,
issued at a shilling each, had a great popu-
larity. ' Burton's books ' so they were called
attracted the notice of Dr. Johnson, who in
1784 asked Mr. Dilly to procure them for
him, ' as they seem very proper to allure back-
ward readers.' John Dunton says of him :
' I think I have given you the very soul of
his character when I have told you that his
talent lies at collection. He has melted down
the best of our English histories into twelve
penny books, which are filled with wonders,
rarities, and curiosities ; for, you must know,
his title-pages are a little swelling.' Dun-
ton professed a * hearty friendship ' for him,
but objects that Crouch ' has got a habit of
leering under his hat, and once made it a
great part of his business to bring down the
reputation of" Second Spira" ' (a book said to
be by Thomas Sewell, published by Dunton).
Crouch was also, according to Dunton, 'the
author of the "English Post," and of that
useful Journal intituled "The Marrow of
History." ' ' Crouch prints nothing,' says
Dunton, ' but what is very useful and very
diverting.' Dunton praises his instructive
conversation, and says that he is a ' phoenix
author (I mean the only man that gets an
estate by writing of books).' A collected
edition in quarto of his ' historical works '
was issued in 1810-14, chiefly intended for
collectors who 'illustrate' books by the in-
sertion of additional engravings. His ori-
ginal publications are : 1. ' A Journey to
Jerusalem ... in a letter from T. B. in
Aleppo, &c.,' with a ' brief account of ...
those countries,' added apparently by Crouch.
In 1683 it was augmented and reprinted as
' Two Journies to Jerusalem, containing first
a strange and true Account of the Travels
of two English Pilgrims (Henry Timberlake
and John Burrell) ; secondly, the Travels of
fourteen Englishmen, by T. B. To which
are prefixed memorable Remarks upon the
ancient and modern State of the Jewish
Nation ; together with a Relation of the great
Council of the Jews in Hungaria in 1650 by
S. B.[rett], with an Account of the wonderful
Delusion of the Jews by a False Christ at
Smyrna in 1666 ; lastly, the final Extinction
and Destruction of the Jews in Persia.' There
were editions with various modifications of
title, such as ' Memorable Remarks,' ' Judee-
orum Memorabilia,' &c., in 1685, 1730, 1738,
1759. It was reprinted at Bolton in 1786.
The latest reissue, entitled ' Judseorum Me-
morabilia,' was edited and published at Bris-
tol by W. Matthews iir 1796. A Welsh
translation, published about 1690 at Shrews-
bury, is in the British Museum. 2. ' Miracles
of Art and Nature, or a Brief Description of
the several varieties of Birds, Beasts, Fishes,
Plants, and Fruits of other Countrys, to-
gether with several other Remarkable Things
in the World. By R. B. Gent., London,
printed for William Bowtil at the Sign of
the Golden Key near Miter Court in Fleet
Street,' 1678. A tenth edition appeared in
1737. 3. ' The Wars in England, Scotland,
and Ireland from 1625 to 1660,' London,
1681. The preface is signed Richard Burton.
The fourth edition appeared in 1683 ; issues
in 1684, 1697, 1706, and 1737. 4. 'The
Apprentice's Companion,' London, 1681.
5. ' Historical Remarques on London and
Westminster,' London, 1681 ; reprints in 1684
(when a second part was added), 1703, 1722,
and 1730, with some modifications. 6. ' Won-
derful Prodigies of Judgment and Mercy,
discovered in Three Hundred Histories,' 1681 ;
other editions in 1682, 1685, 1699, Edinburgh
1762. 7. ' Wonderful Curiosities, Rarities, and
Wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland,'
London, 1682. ; reprinted in 1685, 1697, 1728,
and 1737. 8. ' The Extraordinary Adventures
and Discoveries of Several Famous Men,'
London, 1683, 1685, 1728. 9. ' Strange and
Prodigious Religious Customs and Manners of
sundry Nations,' London, 1683. 10. 'Delights
for the Ingenious in above fifty select and
choice Emblems, divine and moral, curiously
ingraven upon copper plates, with fifty de-
lightful Poems and Lots for the more lively
illustration of each Emblem, to which is pre-
fixed an incomparable Poem intituledMajesty
in Misery, an Imploration to the King of
Kings, written by his late Majesty K. Charles
the First. Collected by R. B.' London, 1684.
11. ' English Empire in America. By R. B.,'
London, 1685; 3rd edit. 1698, 5th edit.
1711, 6th edit. 1728, 1735, 7th edit. 1739 ;
there was also a 7th edit. Dublin, 1739.
12. 'A View of the English Acquisitions in
Guinea and the East Indies. By R. B.,' Lon-
don, 1686, 1726, 1728. 13. ' Winter Evening
Entertainments, containing : I. Ten pleasant
and delightful Relations. II. Fifty ingenious
Riddles,' 6th edit. 1737. 14. ' Female Excel-
lency, or the Ladies' Glory ; worthy Lives
and memorable Actions of nine famous
Women. By R.B.,' London, 1688. 15. 'Eng-
land's Monarchs from the Invasion of Romans
to this Time, &c. By R. B.,' 1685, 1691,
1694. 16. ' History of Scotland and Ireland.
By R. B.,' London, 1685, 1696. 17. ' History
of the Kingdom of Ireland,' London, 1685,
1692. In the seventh edition, Dublin, 1731,
it is said to be an abridgment of Dean Story's
' Late Wars in Ireland.' 18. ' The Vanity
of the Life of Man represented in the
seven several Stages from his Birth to his
Death, with Pictures and Poems exposing the
Burton
16
Burton
Follies of every Age, to which is added Poem
upon divers Subjects and Occasions. B 1
R. B.,' London, 1688, 3rd edit, 1708. 19. ' Thi
Young Man's Calling, or the whole Duty o
Youth,' 1685. 20. 'Delightful Fables in
Prose and Verse,' London, 1691. 21. 'His
tory of the Nine Worthies of the World,
London, 1687; other editions 1713, 1727
4th edit. 1738, Dublin, 1759. 22. ' History
of Oliver Cromwell,' London, 1692, 1698
1706, 1728. 23. ' History of the House o:
Orange,' London, 1693. 24. ' History of th<
two late Kings, James the Second and Charles
the Second. By R. B.,' London, Crouch
1693, 12mo. 25. < Epitome of all the Lives
of the Kings of France,' London, 1693
26. ' The General History of Earthquakes,
London, 1694, 1734, 1736. 27. ' England's
Monarchs, with Poems and the Pictures ol
every Monarch, and a List of the present
Nobility of this Kingdom,' London, 1694.
28. ' The English Hero, or Sir Francis Drake
revived,' London, 1687, 4th edit, enlarged
1695; there were editions in 1710, 1716,
1739, 1750, 1756, 1769. 29. 'Martyrs in
Flames, or History of Popery,' London, 1695,
1713, 1729. 30. ' The History of the Prin-
cipality of Wales,' in three parts, London,
1695, 2nd edit. 1730. 31. ' Unfortunate Court
Favourites of England,' London, 1695, 1706 ;
6th edit. 1729. 32. ' Unparalleled Varieties,
or the matchless Actions and Passions dis-
played in near four hundred notable Instances
and Examples,' 3rd edit. London, 1697, 4th
edit. 1728. 33. ' Wonderful Prodigies of Judg-
ment and Mercy discovered in near three
hundred Memorable Histories.' The 5th
edition enlarged, London, 1699. 34. ' Ex-
traordinary Adventures, Revolutions, and
Events,' 3rd edit. London, 1704. 35. 'Devout
Souls' Daily Exercise in Prayer, Contempla-
tions, and Praise,' London, 1706. 36. ' Di-
vine Banquets, or Sacramental Devotions,'
London, 1706, 1707. 37. 'Surpri/ing Mi-
racles of Nature and Art,' 4th edit. London,
1708. 38. ' History of the Lives of English
Divines who were most zealous in Promoting
the Reformation. By R. B.,' London, 1709.
39. 'The Unhappy Princess, or the Secret
History of Anne Boleyn; and the History
of Lady Jane Grey,' London, 1710, 1733.
40. 'History of Virginia,' London, 1712.
41. '^Esop's Fables in Prose and Verse,' 1712.
42. ' Kingdom of Darkness, or the History
of Demons, Spectres, Witches, Apparitions,
Possessions, Disturbances, and other Super-
natural Delusions and malicious Impostures
of the Devil.' The first edition appeared as
early as 1706. 43. 'Memorable Accidents
and unheard-of Transactions, containing an
Account of several strange Events. Trans-
lated from the French [of T. Leonard], and
printed at Brussels in 1691. By R. B.,' Lon-
don, 1733. The first edition appeared in 1693.
44. ' Youth's Divine Pastime, Part II., con-
taining near forty more remarkable Scripture
Histories, with Spiritual Songs and Hymns
of Prayer and Praise. By R. Burton, author
of the first part.' The 6th edition, London,
C. Hitch, 1749. 45. 'Triumphs of Love, con-
taining Fifteen Histories,' London, 1750. In
the Grenville Collection the following is
attributed to Burton, but apparently by mis-
take : ' The Accomplished Ladies' Rich Closet
of Rarities, &c.' The last official communi-
cation with him from the Stationers' Com-
pany was in 1717, and his name ceases to be
recorded in 1728. As the name of Thomas
Crouch, presumably his son, appears on the
title-page of one of Burton's books in 1725,
it may be assumed that he died before that
date.
[Records of the Stationers' Company, obligi ngly
examined for this article by Mr. C. E. Bivington,
the clerk ; John Dunton's Life and Errors ;
Catalogue of the Grenville Collection ; Lowndes's
Bibliographer's Manual ; Hawkins's History of
Music, xi. 171; Chalmers's Biog. Diet.; Book-
Lore, 1885.] W. E. A. A.
BURTON, SIMON, M.D. (1690P-1744),
physician, was born in Warwickshire about
1690, being the eldest son of Humphrey
Burton, of Caresly, near Coventry. His
mother was Judith, daughter of the Rev.
Abraham Bohun. He was educated at Rugby,
and at New College, Oxford, where he pro-
ceeded B.A. 29 Nov. 1710 ; M.A. 26 May
1714 ; M.B. 20 April 1716 ; and M.D. 21 July
1720. After practising for some years at
Warwick, he removed to London, where he
established himself in Savile Row, and ob-
tained a large practice. He was admitted,
12 April 1731, a candidate of the Royal Col-
lege of Physicians, of which he became a fel-
low on 3 April 1732. On 19 Oct. in the
following year Burton was appointed phy-
sician to St. George's Hospital, and subse-
quently royal physician in ordinary (General
Advertiser, 13 June 1744). He was one of
;he physicians who attended Pope in his last
llness, and had a dispute upon that occasion
with Dr. Thompson, a well-known quack, to
which reference is made in a satire entitled
One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-
Four, a Poem, by a Great Poet lately de-
ceased.' Burton survived Pope somewhat less
,han a fortnight, and died, after a few days'
llness, 11 June 1744, at his house in Savile
low.'
[General Advertiser, 13 June 1744; Penny
Condon Morning Advertiser, 13-15 June 1744 ;
Burton
Burton
Gent. Mag. June 1744; Catalogue of Oxford
Graduates, 1851 ; Carruthers's Life of Alexander
Pope, 1857.] A. H. G.
BURTON, THOMAS (fi. 1656-1659),
reputed parliamentary diarist, was a justice
of the peace for AVestmoreland. He was re-
turned to parliament as member for the county
on 20 Aug. 1656. On 16 Oct. 1656 he was
called upon by the parliament to answer a
charge of disaffection towards the existing
government, which he did to the satisfaction
of the house (Parl. Hist. pp. 439-40). The
Westmoreland returns for Richard Crom-
well's parliament (27 Jan. 1658-9 to 22 April
1659) are missing, but probably Burton was
re-elected to it. He did not sit in parliament
after the Restoration. Although he spoke
seldom, he is assumed to have been a regular
attendant in the house, and has been identi-
fied as the author of a diary of all its pro-
ceedings from 1656 to 1659. In this record
the speeches are given in the oratio recta, and
it is therefore to be inferred that the writer
prepared his report in the house itself. The
' Diary,' in the form in which it is now known,
opens abruptly on Wednesday, 3 Dec. 1656.
It is continued uninterruptedly till 26 June
1657. A second section deals with the period
between 20 Jan. 1657-8 and 4 Feb. 1657-8, and
a third with that between 27 Jan. 1658-9 and
22 April 1659. The ' Diary ' was first printed
in 1828, by J. T. Rutt,from the author's note-
books, which had come into the possession of
Mr. Upcot, librarian of the London Institu-
tion. These manuscripts, which form six ob-
long 12mo volumes, are now in the British
Museum (Addit. MSS. 15859-64), and bear
no author's name. The editor prefixed extracts
from the ' Journal ' of Guibon Goddard, M.P.
(Addit. MS. 5138, ff. 285 et seq.), dealing
with the parliament of 1654. The identity
of the author of the ' Diary ' can only be dis-
covered by internal evidence. At vol. ii. p. 159
he writes (30 May 1657), 'Sir William Strick-
land and /moved that the report for the bill
for York River be now made.' On 1 June
Sir William Strickland's colleague is stated
to be 'Mr. Burton,' and the only member of
the name in the house at the time was
Thomas Burton, M.P. for Westmoreland. But
Carlyle (Cromwell, iv. 239-40) has pointed
out that the writer speaks of himself in the
first person as sitting on two parliamentary
committees (ii. 346, 347, 404) in the list of
whose members given in the ' Commons Jour-
nals ',(vii. 450, 580, 588) Barton's name is
not found. The evidence of authorship is
very conflicting, and suggests that more than
one member of parliament was concerned in
it. Carlyle asserts that Nathaniel Bacon,
1593-1660 [q. v.J, has a better claim to the
VOL. VIII.
work than Burton, but this assertion is con-
trovertible. The diarist was a mere reporter,
and Carlyle, whilst frequently quoting him,
treats his lack of imagination with the bit-
terest disdain. 'A book filled . . . with
mere dim inanity and moaning wind.'
[Burton's Parliamentary Diary (1828), vols.
i-iv.; Names of M.P.s, pt. i. pp. 504-6; Carlyle's
Cromwell, iv. 240.] S. L. L.
BURTON, WILLIAM (d. 1616), puri-
tan divine, was born at Winchester, but in
what year is not known. He was educated
at Winchester School and New College, Ox-
ford, of which, after graduating B.A., he
was admitted perpetual fellow on 5 April
1563. He left the university in 1565. He
was minister at Norwich (he tells us) for ' fiue
yeares,' presumably the period 1584-9. But
he seems to have been in Norwich or the im-
mediate neighbourhood at least as early as
1576, perhaps as assistant in the free school.
His name appears in 1583 among the Norfolk
divines (over sixty in number) who scrupled
subscription to Whitgift's three articles.
He has left a very interesting account of the
puritan ascendency in Norwich during his
time. The leaders of the party were John
More, vicar of St. Andrew's (buried on
16 Jan. 1592), and Thomas Roberts, rector
of St. Clements (d. 1576). For many years
there was daily preaching, attended by
the magistrates and over twenty of the city
clergy, besides those of the cathedral, it
was the custom each day for one or other of
the magistrates to keep open house for the
clergy, without whose advice 'no matter was
usually concluded ' in the city council. Very
interesting also is his account, as an eye-
witness, of the burning at Norwich, on 14 Jan.
1589, of Francis Ket [q. v.] as an ' Arrian
heretique.' Burton bears the strongest testi-
mony to the excellence and apparent godli-
ness of Ket's life and conversation, but glories
in his fate, and is quite certain of his damna-
tion. Burton, while rejecting the ceremonies,
was firm against separation from the na-
tional church ; he writes bitterly respecting
' our English Donatists, our schismaticall
Brownists.' He left Norwich owing to
troubles which befell him about some matters
of his ministry. In after years it was re-
ported that the civic authorities had driven
him away; his enemies wrote to Norwich
for copies of records which they expected
would tell against him ; but it seems that
the mayor and council had d-one their best
to retain him. On leaving Norwich he
found a friend in Lord Wentworth, as we
learn from the dedication prefixed to his
' Dauid's Euidence,' &c., 1592, 8vo. Went-
c
Burton
18
Burton
worth took him into his house, gave him
books, and was the means of his resuming the
work of the ministry. Richard Fletcher,
bishop of Bristol (consecrated 3 Jan. 1590),
gave him some appointment in Bristol, not
upon conditions, ' as some haue vntruely re-
ported.' Complaints were made about his
teaching, whereupon he published his ' Cate-
chism,' 1591, which is a very workmanlike
presentation of Calvinism. In it he argues
against bowing at the name of Jesus, and de-
scribes the right way of solemnising 'the
natiuitie of the Sonne of God.' He subse-
quently published several sets of sermons
which had been delivered in Bristol. He be-
came vicar of St. Giles, Reading, on 25 Nov.
1591. At some unknown date (after 1608)
he came to London. He died intestate in
the parish of St. Sepulchre, apparently in
1616 ; whether he held the vicarage or not
does not appear ; the registers of St. Sepul-
chre were burned in the great fire of 1666.
His age at death must have been upwards of
seventy. His wife, Dorothy, survived him ;
his son Daniel administered to his effects on
17 May 1616.
Of Burton's publications, the earliest
written was a single sermon preached at
Norwich on 21 Dec. 1589 from Jer. iii. 14,
but it was probably not published till later,
for he calls his 'Catechism,' 1591, 16mo, his
* first fruites.' Wood enumerates eight subse-
quent collections of sermons and seven trea-
tises, including ' An Abstract of the Doctrine
of the Sabbath,' 1606, 8vo, which has escaped
the researches of Robert Cox. The little vo-
lume of ' seauen sermons/ bearing the title
' Dauids Evidence,' above referred to, was re-
printed in 1596, 16mo, and in 1602, 4to.
Burton translated seven dialogues of Erasmus,
published to prove ' how little cause the papists
haue to boast of Erasmus, as a man of their
side.' This wasissued in 1606, sm. 4to ; some
copies have the title ' Seven dialogves Both
pithie and profitable,' &c., others bear the title
' Utile-Dulce : or, Trueths Libertie. Seuen
wittie-wise Dialogues,' &c. ; but the two
issues (both dated 1606) correspond in every
respect except the title-pages.
[Burton's dedications in Catechism, 1591,
Dauids Euidence, 1596, and Seven Dialogues,
1606; Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. ii. 1745 (Nor-
wich) ; Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 1 ;
Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, ii. 230 ;
Christian Moderator, 1826, p. 37; Leversage's
Hist, of Bristol Cathedral, 1853, 66.] A. G.
BURTON, WILLIAM (1575-1645),
author of ' Description of Leicestershire,' son
of Ralph Burton, and elder brother of Robert
Burton (' Democritus Junior ') [q. v.], was
born at Lindley in Leicestershire on 24 Aug.
1575. At the age of nine years he was sent
to school at Nuneaton, and on 29 Sept. 1591
entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he
took the degree of B. A. on 22 June 1594. Be-
fore taking his degree he had been admitted,
on 20 May 1593, to the Inner Temple. In
his manuscript ' Antiquitates de Lindley' (an
epitome of which is given in Nichols's 'Leices-
tershire,' iv. 651-6), he states that on apply-
ing himself to the study of law he still con-
tinued to cultivate literature, and he mentions
that he wrote in 1596 an unpublished Latin
comedy, ' De A moribus Perinthii et Tyanthes,'
and in 1597 a translation (also unpublished)
of ' Achilles Tatius.' He had a close know-
ledge, both literary and colloquial, of Spanish
and Italian, and found much pleasure in the
study of the emblem-writers, but his interest
lay chiefly in heraldry and topography. In
1602 he issued a corrected copy, printed at
Antwerp, of Saxton's map of the county of
Leicester. On 20 May 1603 he was called
to the bar, but soon afterwards, his health
being too weak to allow him to practise, he
retired to the village of Falde in Stafford-
shire, where he owned an estate. He now
began to devote himself seriously to his ' De-
scription of Leicestershire.' From a manu-
script ' Valediction to the Reader ' (dated
from Lindley in 1641), in an interleaved copy
which he had revised and enlarged for a se-
cond edition, we learn that the book was
begun so far back as 1597, ' not with an in-
tendment that it should ever come to the
public view, but for my own private use,
which after it had slept a long time was on
a sudden raised out of the dust, and by force
of an higher power drawn to the press, hav-
ing scarce an allowance of time for the fur-
bishing and putting on a mantle ' (NICHOLS,
Leicestershire, iii. xvi). The 'higher power'
was his patron, George, marquis of Bucking-
ham, to whom the work was dedicated on
its publication (in folio) in 1662. Nichols
(ibtd. p. Ixv) prints a manuscript preface to
the 'Description' dated 7 April 1604, and
hence it may be assumed that the publica-
tion was delayed for many years. Burton
was one of the earliest of our topographical
writers, and his work must be compared, not
with the elaborate performances of a later
age, but with such books as Lambarde's
' Kent,' Carew's ' Cornwall,' and Norden's
' Surveys.' Dugdale, in the ' Address to the
Gentrie of Warwickshire' prefixed to his
' Warwickshire,' says that Burton, as well as
Lambarde and Carew, ' performed but briefly ; '
and Nichols observes that ' the printed volume,
though a folio of above 300 pages, if the un-
necessary digressions were struck out and the
Burton
Burton
pedigrees reduced into less compass, would
shrink into a small work.' The author was
well aware of the imperfections of his work,
and spent many years in making large addi-
tions and corrections towards a new edition.
In the summer of 1638 he had advanced so
far in the revision that the copy of the in-
tended second edition was sent to London
for press, as appears from two letters to Sir
Simonds d'Ewes (NICHOLS, Leicestershire, ii.
843). Gascoigne says that Sir Thomas Cave,
in the year 1640, ' had in his custody a copy
of Burton's that should have been reprinted,
but the war breaking out prevented it ' (ibid.
p. 844) ; and he adds, from personal inspec-
tion, that the work had been augmented to
three times the original size. After Bur-
ton's death his son Cassibelan presented, with
several of his father's manuscripts, to Walter
Chetwynd, of Ingestree, Staffordshire, a copy
of the ' Description ' containing large manu-
script additions by the author. In 1798 Shaw
discovered this copy at Ingestree {Gent. Mag.
Ixviii. 921), and it was utilised by Nichols in
the third and fourth volumes of his ' Leicester-
shire.' Doubtless this was the copy which
Gascoigne saw in 1640. Several copies of
Burton's work, with manuscript annotations
by various antiquaries, are preserved in pri-
vate libraries (see the long list in NICHOLS'S
Leicestershire, ii. 843-5). In 1777 there
was published by subscription a folio edition
which claimed to be 'enlarged and corrected,'
but the editorial work was performed in a
very slovenly manner. All the information
contained in the ' Description ' was incorpo-
rated in Nichols's ' Leicestershire.'
In 1607 Burton married Jane, daughter of
Humfrey Adderley of Weddington in "War-
wickshire, by whom he had a son Cassibelan
[q. v.] Among his particular friends were
Sir Robert Cotton and William Somner. In
his account of Fenny-Drayton he speaks with
affection and respect of his ' old acquaint-
ance ' Michael Drayton. Dugdale in his ' Au-
tobiography ' acknowledges the assistance
which he had received from Burton. In 1612
Thomas Purefoy of Barwell in Warwickshire
bequeathed at his death to Burton the origi-
nal manuscript of Leland's ' Collectanea.'
Wood (Athena, ed. Bliss, i. 200) charges
Burton with introducing ' needless additions
and illustrations ' into this work ; but Hearne,
in the preface to his edition of the ' Col-
lectanea,' denies the truth of the charge. In
1631 Burton caused part of Leland's ' Itine-
rary ' to be transcribed, and in the following
year he gave five quarto volumes of Leland's
autograph manuscripts to the Bodleian. When
the civil wars broke out, Burton sided with
the royalists, and endured persecution. He
died at Falde on 6 April 1645, and was
buried in the parish church at Hanbury.
Among the manuscripts that he left Avere :
1. ' Antiquitates de Lindley,' which was after-
wards in the possession of Samuel Lysons,
who lent it to Nichols (Leicestershire, iv. 651).
2. ' Antiquitates de Dadlington Manerio, com.
Leic.,' which in Nichols's time belonged to
Nicholas Hurst of Hinckley. 3. Collections
towards a history of Thedingworth, as ap-
pears from a letter to Sir Robert Cotton, in
which Burton asks that antiquary's assist-
ance (ibid. ii. 842). He also left some col-
lections of arms, genealogies, &c. About
1735 Francis Peck announced his intention
of writing Burton's life, but the project does
not seem to have been carried out.
[Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 843-5, iii. xvi,
Ixr, iv. 651-6 ; Wood's Athenae (ed. Bliss), i. 200,
iii. 153-6; Oldys's British Librarian (1737),
pp. 287-99 ; Gent. Mag. Ixviii. 921 ; Dugdale's
Autobiography, appended to Dallaway's He-
raldry, 1793.] A. H. B.
BURTON, WILLIAM (1609-1657), an-
tiquary, son of William Burton, sometime of
Atcham, in Shropshire, was born in Austin
Friars, London, and educated in St. Paul's
school. He became a student in Queen's Col-
lege, Oxford, in 1625 ; but as he had not suffi-
cient means to maintain himself, the learned
Thomas Allen, perceiving his merit, induced
him to migrate to Gloucester Hall, and con-
ferred on him a Greek lectureship there. He
was a Pauline exhibitioner from 1624 to 1632.
In 1630 he graduated B.C.L., but, indigence
forcing him to leave the university, he became
the assistant or usher of Thomas Farnaby,
the famous schoolmaster of Kent. Some
years later he was appointed master of the
free school at Kingston-upon-Thames, in
Surrey, where he continued till two years
before his death, ' at which time, being taken
with the dead palsy, he retired to London.'
He died on 28 Dec. 1657, and was buried
in a vault under the church of St. Clement
Danes, in the Strand. Bishop Kennett calls
'this now-neglected author the best topo-
grapher since Camden,' while Wood tells us
that ' he was an excellent Latinist, noted
philologist, was well skill'd in the tongues,
was an excellent critic and antiquary, and
therefore beloved of all learned men of his
time, especially of the famous Usher, arch-
bishop of Armagh.'
His works are : 1. ' InTlaudem] doctissimi,
clarissimi, optimi senis, Thomae Alleni ultimo
Septembris MDCXXXII Oxoniis demortui, exe-
quiarum justis ab alma Academiapostridie so-
lutis, orationes binse ' (the first by Burton, the
second by George Bathurst), London, 1632,
4to. 2. ' Nobilissimi herois Dn. C. Howardi
C2
Burton
Burton
comitis NottinghamiaeaTro&'wo-ir ad illustris-
simum V. Dn. 0. Howardum, comitem Not-
tinghamife, fratrem superstitem ' (London,
1 April 1643), on a small sheet, fol. 3. ; The
beloved City : or, the Saints' Reign on Earth
a Thousand Years, asserted and illustrated
from 65 places of Holy Scripture,' Lond.
1643, 4to, translated from the Latin of John
Henry Alstedius. 4. ' Clement, the blessed
Paul's fellow-labourer in the Gospel, his
First Epistle to the Corinthians ; being an
effectuall Suasory to Peace, and Brotherly
Condescension, after an unhappy Schism and
Separation in that Church,' London, 1647,
1652, 4to, translated from Patrick Yong's
Latin version, who has added ' Certaine An-
notations upon Clement.' 5. ' Graecae Linguae
Historia (Veteris Linguae Persicae \efyava) '
2 parts, London, 1657, 8vo. 6. ' A Comment-
ary on Antoninus his Itinerary, or Journies
of the Roman Empire, so far as it concerneth
Britain,' Lond. 1658, fol. With portrait en-
graved by Hollar, and a ' Chorographicall
Map of the severall Stations.' At pp. 136,
137, Burton gives some account of his family,
and relates that his great-grandfather ex-
pired from excess of joy on being informed of
the death of Queen Mary.
[Biog. Brit. (Kippis), iii. 42; Cat. of Printed
Books in Brit. Mus. ; Gardiner's Registers of
St. Paul's School, 34,400 ; Gough's British To-
pography, i. 5 ; Knight's Life of Dr. John Colet,
402; Granger's Biog. Hist, of England (1824),
iv. 56 ; Kennett's Life of Somner, 19 ; Lowndes's
Bibl. Man. (Bohn), 330, 478 ; Wood's Athense
Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 438.] T. C.
BURTON, WILLIAM EVANS (1802-
1860), actor and dramatist, was the son of
William Burton, sometimes called William
George Burton (1774-1825), printer and
bookseller, and author of 'Researches into
the Religion of the Eastern Nations as illus-
trative of the Scriptures,' 2 vols. 1805. He
was born in London September 1802, received
a classical education at St. Paul's School,
and is said to have matriculated at Christ's
College, Cambridge, with the intention of
entering the church ; but at the age of eigh-
teen he was obliged to undertake the charge
of his father's printing business. His success
in some amateur performances led him to
adopt the stage as a profession, and he joined
the Norwich circuit, where he remained seven
years. In February 1831 he made his first
appearance in London at the Pavilion Theatre
as Wormwood in the ' Lottery Ticket,' and
in 1833 was engaged at the Haymarket as the
successor of Liston ; but on Listen's unex-
pected return to the boards he went to Ame-
rica, where he came out at the Arch Street
Theatre, Philadelphia, 3 Sept. 1834, as Doctor
Ollapod in the ' Poor Gentleman.' His first
engagement in New York was at the National,
4 Feb. 1839, as Billy Lackaday. Burton was
subsequently lessee and manager of theatres in
Philadelphia and Baltimore, and on 13 April
1841 essayed management in New York at
the National Theatre, which was consumed
by fire on 29 May following. In 1848 he
leased Palmo's Opera House, New York,
which he renamed Burton's Theatre. Here
he produced, with extraordinary success, John
Brougham's version of ' Dombey and Son,' in
which he personated Captain Cuttle. The
Metropolitan Theatre, Broadway, New York,
came under his management September 1856,
with the title of Burton's New Theatre.
Little satisfied with his success in this new
house, he gave up its direction in 1858, and
commenced starring engagements, his name
and fame being familiar in every quarter of
the Union. His humour was broad and
deep, and sometimes approached coarseness,
but at the same time was always genial and
hearty, and generally truthfully natural ;
while in homely pathos and the earnest ex-
pression of blunt, uncultivated feeling, he has
never been excelled. His power of altering
the expressions of his face was also much
greater than that possessed by any other actor
of modern times. His name was almost ex-
clusively identified with the characters of
Captain Cuttle, Mr. Toodle, Ebenezer Sudden,
Mr. Micawber, Poor Pillicoddy, Aminadab
Sleek, Paul Pry, Tony Lumpkin, Bob Acres,
and many others. In literature he was almost
as industrious as in acting. He wrote several
plays, the best known being ' Ellen Ware-
ham, a domestic drama,' produced in May
1833, and which held the stage at five Lon-
don theatres at the same time. He was
editor of the ' Cambridge Quarterly Review,'
editor of and entire prose contributor to the
'Philadelphia Literary Souvenir,' 1838-40,
proprietor of the ' Philadelphia Gentleman's
Magazine,' seven volumes, of which Edgar A.
Poe was sometime the editor, contributor to
many periodicals, and author of ' The Yankee
among the Mermaids,' 12mo, ' Waggeries and
Vagaries, a series of sketches humorous and
descriptive,' Philadelphia, 1848, 12mo, and
' Cyclopaedia of Wit and Humour of America,
Ireland, Scotland, and England,' New York,
1857, 2 vols. 8vo. His library, the largest
and best in New York, especially rich in
Shakespearean and other dramatic literature,
was sold in the autumn after his death in
upwards of six thousand lots, ten to twenty
volumes often forming a lot. A large col-
lection of paintings, including some rare works
of the Italian and Flemish school, adorned his
Burton
two residences. His health was failing many
months prior to his decease, which took place
at 174 Hudson Street, New York, 9 Feb.
18GO, from a fatty degeneration of the heart,
in the fifty-eighth year of his age. As an
actor he held the first rank, and in his pecu-
liar line the present generation cannot hope
to witness his equal. He was twice married,
the second time, in April 1853, to Miss Jane
Livingston Hill, an actress, who, after suf-
fering from mental derangement, died at New
York on 22 April 1863, aged 39. His large
fortune was ultimately divided between his
three daughters, Cecilia, Virginia, and Rosine
Burton.
[Ireland's Kecords of the New York Stage
(1867), ii. 235-38 ; Eipley and Dana's American
Cyclopaedia (1873), iii. 479; Drake's American
Biography (1872), p. 147; The Era, London,
4 March 1860, p. 14; Willis's Current Notes,
1852, p. 38 ; Cyclopaedia of Wit and Humour
(1857), with Portrait.] G. C. B.
BURTON, WILLIAM PATON (1828-
1883), water-colour painter, son of Captain
William Paton Burton, of the Indian army,
was born at Madras in 1828 and educated at
Edinburgh. After studying for a short time
in the office of David Bryce, the architect,
he turned to landscape painting, and was a
frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy
and in Suffolk Street between 1862 and
1880. His works consisted of views in Eng-
land, Holland, France, Italy, and Egypt.
He died suddenly at Aberdeen on 31 Dec.
1883.
[Athenaeum, January 1884.]
L. F.
BURTT, JOSEPH (1818-1876), archjeo-
logist and assistant-keeper in the national
Record Office, was born in the parish of St.
Pancras, London, on 7 Nov. 1818. He was
educated by his father, who was a private
tutor, known as a Greek scholar, and author
of a Latin grammar. He entered the public
service as a lad of fourteen in 1832 under
Sir Francis Palgrave, by whom he was em-
ployed on work connected with the Record
Commission at the chapter-house of West-
minster Abbey. Here he continued his
labours for many years, arranging and mak-
ing inventories of the national records then
housed in that building. In August 1851 he
was promoted to be assistant-keeper of the
records of the second class, and was raised
to be a first-class assistant-keeper in June
1859, a position which he enjoyed to his
death. About this time Burtt superintended
the removal from the old chapter-house to
the newly erected record office in Fetter
Lane of the vast mass of documents which
had been lying, many of them unsorted and
i Bury
uncatalogued, in that most unsuitable deposi-
tory. The calendaring of the chancery records
of Durham was a task which Burtt undertook
in addition to his ordinary official duties.
He was also employed in his private capa-
city by Dean Stanley and the chapter of
Westminster in sorting and arranging the
muniments of the abbey, and he was the
first to commence the work of examining
and bringing into order the muniments of
the dean and chapter of Lincoln. In 1862
he became secretary of the Royal Archaeo-
logical Institute, to which he subsequently
added the editorship of the 'Archaeological
Journal.' He was for many years the prime
mover of all the operations of the institute,
especially in connection with its annual con-
gresses, which were ably organised by him.
As a private friend Burtt was much and de-
servedly valued. He died after a protracted
illness at his residence at Tulse Hill on
15 Dec. 1876, and was buried in Nunhead
Cemetery. Burtt contributed a large number
of archaeological and historical papers to the
'Journal of the Archaeological Institute,'
the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' the ' Athenaeum,'
' Archaeologia Cantiana,' and other kindred
periodicals. He also edited the ' Household
Expenses of John of Brabant and of Thomas
and Henry of Lancaster ' for the ' Miscellany '
of the Camden Society.
[Journal of the Archaeological Institute, xxxiv.
90-2 ; private information.] E. V.
BURY, ARTHUR, D.D. (1624-1714?),
theologian, was the son of the Rev. John
Bury (1580-1667) [q. v.], and matriculated at
Exeter College, Oxford, on 5 April 1639, aged
15. He took his degree of B.A. on 29 Nov.
1642, was elected a Petreian fellow of his col-
lege on 30 June 1643, and became full fellow
on 6 May 1645. When Oxford was garrisoned
for the king, Bury laboured at the works of
defence and took his turn among the guards
who watched over its safety. Like most of
his associates, he refused to submit to the
parliamentary visitors of the university, and
was driven from the city to take refuge with
'his sequestered father in Devonshire. At
the Restoration he was restored to his fel-
lowship, and was offered, according to his
own statement in after life, preferment
' more than eight times the value ' of the
rectorship of his college, but declined the
offer. In 1666 the rectorship at Exeter Col-
lege became vacant, and Bury was elected
(27 May), partly on the recommendation of
Archbishop Sheldon and partly under instruc-
tions from Charles II (which were somewhat
resented by the college) that he should be
elected, ' notwithstanding any statute or
Bury
22
Bury
custom thereof to the contrary, with which
we are graciously pleased to dispense in this
behalf.' On 22 June in the same year he
took the degree of B.D. and five days later
became D.D. Bury claimed to have intro-
duced some improvements in the college
rules, and to have expended over 7001. in
the erection of college buildings and in the
enlargement of the rector's lodgings; but
there were disputes in 1669 over the election
of fellows, when he suspended five of them
at a stroke, and the visitor in 1675 com-
plained of his management of the college
property and of the laxity of the internal
discipline. Against this it is only fair to
state that Dean Prideaux, when speaking of
the ' drinking and duncery ' at Exeter Col-
lege, referred to Bury as ' a . man that very
well understands businesse and is always
very vigorous and diligent in it.' In 1689 a
still more serious trouble arose. Bury had
expelled one of the fellows on, as it seems, a
groundless charge of incontinence, and the
visitor ordered the restoration of the ' socius
ejectus.' The rector was contumacious, and,
when the bishop held a formal visitation,
tried to shut the gates against him. Bury
and his backers among the fellows were
thereupon expelled, and a new rector was
elected in his stead. The legality of Bury's
deprivation was tried in the king's bench
and carried to the House of Lords, with the
result that on 10 Dec. 1694 the latter tri-
bunal gave its decision against Bury. By
his ejection his numerous family were re-
duced to great distress.
A treatise issued in 1690, under the title
of ' The Naked Gospel, by a true son of the
Church of England,' was discovered to be
the work of Bury, and for some passages in
it a charge of Socinianism was brought
against him by his enemies. His object was
to free the gospel from the additions and
corruptions of later ages, and he sums up its
doctrines ' in two precepts believe and re-
pent.' An answer to it was published in
1690 by William Nicholls, fellow of Merton
College. Another reply came out in the
next year from Thomas Long, B.D., and a
third appeared in 1725, the latter being the
work of Henry Felton, D.D. In spite of the
publication by Le Clerc of ' An Historical
Vindication of the Naked Gospel,' the treatise
was condemned by a decree of convocation of
Oxford (19 Aug. 1690) and was publicly burnt
in the area of the schools. On 30 Aug. there
was issued from the press a letter of fifteen
pages, evidently the composition of Bury, with
the title of ' The Fires continued at Oxford,' in
defence of his conduct, and in 1691 he brought
out, under his own name, a second edition
of ' The Naked Gospel.' Twelve years later
(1703) he published an enlarged work, ' The
rational Deist satisfy'dbyajust account of the
Gospel. In two parts ; second edition.' Bury
was also the author of several sermons and of
a tract called ' The Constant Communicant,'
1681. The titles of the pamphlets provoked
by his controversies may be read in Boase
and Courtney's ' Bibliotheca Cornubiensis,'
ii. 772. He was one of the vicars of Bamp-
ton, Oxford, but resigned the charge in
1707. The date of his death is not known
with certainty, but is believed to have been
about 1714.
[Boase's Keg. of Exeter College, pp. xxxiii,
Ixv, 68-83, 212, 229; Luttrell's Eelation of
State Affairs (1857), ii. 227, iii. 410-11 ; Hunt's
Keligious Thoughts, ii. 195-201 ; Account Ex-
amined, or a Vindication of Dr. Arthur Bury,
18-20; Prideaux Letters (Camden Soc.), p. Ill ;
Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 473, 502, 3rd ser.
i. 264 ; "Wood's Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 483 ;
Visitation of Oxford (Camdeii Soc.) p. 13.]
W. P. C.
BURY, LADY CHARLOTTE SUSAN
MARIA (1775-1861), novelist, youngest
child of John Campbell, fifth duke of Ar-
gyll, by Elizabeth, second daughter of John
Gunning of Castle Coot in Roscommon, and
widow of James Hamilton, sixth duke of
Hamilton, was born at Argyll House, Oxford
Street, London, 28 Jan. 1775. In her youth
she was remarkable for her personal beauty,
and the charm of her manners rendered her
one of the most popular persons in society,
while the sweetness and excellence of her
character endeared her more especially to
those who knew her in the intimacy of private
life. She was always distinguished by her
passion for the belles-lettres, and was accus-
tomed to do the honours of Scotland to the
literary celebrities of the day. It was at one
of her parties that Sir Walter Scott became
personally acquainted with Monk Lewis.
When aged twenty-two she produced a vo-
lume of poems, to which, however, she did not
affix her name. She married, 14 June 1796,
Colonel John Campbell (eldest son of Wal-
ter Campbell of Schawfield, by his first wife
Eleanora Kerr), who, at the time of his de-
cease in Edinburgh 15 March 1809, was
member of parliament for the Ayr burghs.
By this marriage she had nine children,
of whom, however, only two survived her,
Lady A. Lennox and Mrs. William Russell.
Lady Charlotte Campbell married secondly,
17 March 1818, the Rev. Edward John
Bury (only son of Edward Bury of Taun-
ton) ; he was of University College, Oxford,
B.A. 1811, M.A. 1817, became rector of Lich-
field, Hampshire, in 1814, and died at Arden-
Bury
Bury
ample Castle, Dumbartonshire, May 1832,
aged 42, having had issue two daughters.
On Lady Charlotte hecoming a widow in
1809 she was appointed lady-in-waiting in
the household of the Princess of Wales, after-
wards Queen Caroline, when it is believed
that she kept a diary, in which she recorded
the foibles and failings of the unfortunate
princess and other members of the court.
After her marriage with Mr. Bury she was
the author of various contributions to light
literature, and some of her novels were once
very popular, although now almost forgotten.
When the ' Diary illustrative of the Times
of George IV ' appeared in two volumes in
1838, it was thought to bear evidence of a
familiarity with the scenes depicted which
could only be attributed to Lady Charlotte.
It was reviewed with much severity, and at-
tributed to her ladyship by both the ' Edin-
burgh ' and ' Quarterly ' Reviews. The vo-
lumes, hoAvever, sold rapidly, and several
editions were disposed of in a few weeks.
The charge of the authorship was not at the
time denied, and as no one has since arisen
claiming to have written the diary the public
libraries now catalogue the work under Lady
Charlotte's name. She died at 91 Sloane
Street, Chelsea, 31 March 1861. The once
celebrated beauty, the delight of the highest
circles of London society, died quite forgotten
among strangers in a lodging-house, and her
death certificate at Somerset House curiously
says, ' daughter of a duke and wife of the
Rev. E. J. Bury, holding no benefice.'
The following is believed to be a complete
list of Lady Bury's writings ; many of them
originally appeared without her name, but
even at that time there does not seem to have
been any secret as to the identity of the
writer : 1. ' Poems on several Occasions, by
a Lady,' 1797. 2. ' Alia Giornata, or To the
Day,' anonymous, 1826. 3. 'Flirtation,'
anonymous, 1828, which went to three
editions. 4. ' Separation,' by the author of
' Flirtation,' 1830. 5. ' A Marriage in High
Life,' edited by the author of ' Flirtation,'
1828. 6. ' Journal of the Heart,' edited by
the author of ' Flirtation,' 1830. 7. ' The
Disinterested and the Ensnared,' anonymous,
1834. 8. ' Journal of the Heart,' second se-
ries, edited by the author of 'Flirtation/
1835. 9. 'The Devoted,' by the author of
' The Disinherited,' 1836. 10. ' Love,' anony-
mous, 1837 ; second edition 1860. 11. ' Me-
moirs of a Peeress, or the days of Fox,' by
Mrs. C. F. Gore, edited by Lady C. Bury,
1837. 12. 'The Three Great Sanctuaries of
Tuscany : Valambrosa, Camaldoli, Lavernas,'
a poem historical and legendary, with en-
gravings from drawings by the Rev. E. Bury,
1833. 13. ' Diary illustrative of the Times of
George the Fourth/ anonymous, 1838, 2 vols.
14. ' The Divorced,' by Lady C. S. M. Bury,
1837 ; another edition 1858. 15. ' Family
Records, or the Two Sisters/ by Lady C. S. M.
Bury, 1841. And 16, a posthumous work en-
titled ' The Two Baronets/ a novel of fashion-
able life, by the late Lady C. S. M. Bury,
1864. She is also said to have been the
writer of two volumes of prayers, ' Suspirium
Sanctorum/ which were dedicated to Dr.
Goodenough, bishop of Carlisle.
[Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, xlix. 76-
77 (1837), portrait; Burke's Portrait Gallery of
Females (1833), i. 103-5 ; Allibone's Dictionary
of English Literature (1859), i. 308.] G. C. B.
BURY, EDWARD (1616-1700), ejected
minister, born in Worcestershire in 1616, ac-
cording to Walker was originally a tailor,
and was put into the living of Great Bolas,
Shropshire, in place of a deprived rector.
Calamy says that Bury was a man of learn-
ing, educated at Coventry grammar school
and at Oxford, and that before obtaining
the rectory of Great Bolas he had been chap-
lain in a gentleman's family and assistant to
an aged minister. He received presbyterian
ordination. The date at which he began his
ministry at Great Bolas was before 1654.
In the parish records he signs himself
'minister and register' till 1661, when, in
consequence of the act for confirming pos-
session of benefices, he signs ' rector.' His
entries show that he was somewhat given to
astrology. Ejected in 1662, Bury, who re-
mained at Great Bolas in a house he had
built, was subjected to great privations. On
2 June 1680, Philip Henry gives him II. from
a sum left at his disposal by William Probyn
of Wem. Henry's diary, 22 July 1681, has
an account of the distraint of Bury's goods
(he is here called Berry) for taking part at a
private fast on 14 June. After this he was
a good deal hunted about from place to place.
In later life his circumstances were improved
by bequests. He became blind some years
before his death, which occurred on 5 May
1700, owing to a mortification in one foot.
By his wife Mary, he had at least five chil-
dren: 1. Edward, b. 1654 ; 2. Margarit (sic),
b. 12 Feb. 1655 ; 3. John, b. 14 March 1657 ;
4. Mary, b. 13 Aug. 1660; 5. Samuel [q.v.]
The following is Calamy's list of his publi-
cations : 1. ' The Soul's Looking-glass, or a
Spiritual Touchstone/ &c., 1660. 2. 'A
Short Catechism, containing the Funda-
mental Points of Religion/ 1660. 3. ' Re-
lative Duties.' 4. 'Death Improv'd, and
Immoderate Sorrow for Deceased Friends
and Relatives Reprov'd/ 1675; 2nd edit.
Bury
Bury
1693. 5. ' The Husbandman's Companion,
containing an 100 occasional meditations,
&c., suited to men of that employment,' 1677.
6. ' England's Bane, or the Deadly Danger
of Drunkenness.' 7. ' A Sovereign Antidote
against the Fear of Death,' 1681, 8vo (in Dr.
Williams's library). 8. ' An Help to Holy
Walking, or a Guide to Glory,' 1705.
[Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714,
pt. ii. pp. 310, 368; Calamy's Account, 1713,
p. 557 seq. ; Continuation, 1727, p. 723 seq.; Lee's
Diaries and Letters of P. Henry, 1882, pp. 289,
301 ; Extracts from the Eegisters of Bolas
Magna by Eev. E. S. Turner.] A. G-.
BURY, EDWARD (1794-1858), engi-
neer, was born at Salford, near Manchester,
on 22 Oct. 1794. His early education was
received at a school in the city of Chester,
and his youth was remarkable for the fond-
ness which he displayed for machinery, and
for the ingenuity which he exhibited in the
construction of models. His scholastic edu- j
cation being finished, he went through the |
usual course of mechanical engineering, and
he eventually established himself at Liver-
pool as a manufacturer of engines.
In 1830 the Liverpool and Manchester
railway was opened, and for several years
after this period Bury devoted his attention
to the construction of engines for railways.
He supplied many of the first engines used
on the Liverpool and Manchester and on
the London and Birmingham railways. In
the ' Transactions of the Institution of Civil
Engineers ' for 17 March 1840 will be found
a valuable paper by him, ' On the Locomotive
Engines of the London and Birmingham
Railway,' in which he discusses the relative
advantages of four and six wheels, and con-
tributes a series of tables which are of the
greatest importance in the history of loco-
motive traction, and of considerable interest
in the theory of steam-drawing engines.
Bury about this time introduced a series of j
improved engines for the steamboats employed i
on the Rhone, which attracted much atten- j
tion on the continent, and led to his being
consulted by the directors of most of the
railways then being constructed in Europe.
For some years after the openingof the Lon-
don and Birmingham railway, in September
1838, Bury had the entire charge of the loco-
motive department of that line. He subse-
quently undertook the management of the
whole of the rolling stock for the Great
Northern railway. In each case his admi-
nistrative services were duly recognised by
the directors, and his engineering capabilities,
his mechanical knowledge, his good judg-
ment, and his tact, secured for him, in an
unusual degree, the confidence of those who
were employed under him.
On 1 Feb. 1844 Bury was elected a fellow
of the Royal Society, his claim being founded
on the great improvements which he had in-
troduced, especially in adjusting, the dimen-
sions of the cylinder and driving wheels, and
the effective pressure of the steam.
In the ' Annual Report of the Institution
of Civil Engineers ' for the session 1856-7
we find Bury tendering his resignation. The
council of the Institution permitted him to
retire under exceedingly gratifying circum-
stances. During his later years he lived at
Crofton Lodge, Windermere. He died at
Scarborough on 25 Nov. 1858.
[Proceedings of the Eoyal Society, 1859-60,
vol. x. ; Minutes of Proceedings of Institution of
Civil Engineers, 1859.] E. H-T.
BURY, MRS. ELIZABETH (1644-1 720),
diarist, was baptised 12 March 1644 at Clare,
Suffolk, the day of her birth having probably
been 2 March (Account of the Life and Death
of Mrs. Elizabeth Bui-y, p. 1). Her father
was Captain Adams Lawrence of Linton,
Cambridgeshire ; her mother was Elizabeth
Cutts of Clare, and besides Elizabeth there
were three other children. In 1648, when
Elizabeth was four years old, Captain Law-
rence died, and in 1651 Mrs. Lawrence re-
married (ib. 3), her second husband being Mr.
Nathaniel Bradshaw, B.D., minister of a
church in the neighbourhood. About 1654
Elizabeth described herself as ' converted,'
and she commenced that searching method
of introspection with the evidence of which
her ' Diary ' abounds. Her studies, begun
rigidly at four in the morning, in spite of
delicate health, embraced Hebrew (ib. 5),
French, music, heraldry, mathematics, philo-
sophy, philology, anatomy, medicine, and di-
vinity. Her stepfather, Mr. Bradshaw, be-
ing one of the ejected ministers in 1662, the
family moved to Wivelingham, Cambridge-
shire. Elizabeth in 1 664 began writing down
her ' experiences ' in her ' Diary,' ' concealing
her accounts' at the onset 'in shorthand.'
In 16G7, on 1 Feb., she married Mr. Griffith
Lloyd of Hemmingford-Grey, Huntingdon-
shire, who died on 13 April 1682. In her
widowhood, which lasted another fifteen years,
Mrs. Lloyd passed part of her time in Norwich.
She was married at Bury to Samuel Bury
[q. v.], nonconformist minister, on 29 May
1697, having previously refused to marry
three several churchmen, whose initials are
given, because ' she could not be easy in their
communion.'
Mrs. Bury was mistress of a good estate, and
was described as 'a great benefactrix' (ib, 6).
Bury
She kept a stock of bibles and practical books
to be distributed as she should see occasion
(BALLARD'S British Ladies, p. 425) ; her
knowledge of the materia medica was sur-
prising (ib. 424) ; ' her gift in prayer was very
extraordinary ' (Account, 36) ; and she had 'a
motto written up in her closet in Hebrew
"Thou, Lord, seest me," ... to keep her
heart from trifling.' She became infirm after
1712, and died 8 May 1720, aged 76. Mr
Bury gave the fullest testimony to his wife's
deep learning and unfailing excellences. Dr
Watts described her as ' a pattern for the
sex in ages yet unborn.' Her funeral sermon
was preached at Bristol on 22 May 1720 by
the Rev. William Tong, and was printed al
Bristol the same year ; a third edition was
reached the next year, 1721. ' The Account
of the Life and Death of Mrs. Bury,' Bristol
1720, included the extant portions of her
diary, the funeral sermon, a life by her hus-
band, and an elegy by Dr. Watts.
[Account of the Life and Death of Mrs. Eliza-
beth Bury, chiefly collected out of her own Diary,
with Funeral Sermon, &c., Bristol, 1720; Bal-
lard's British Ladies, pp. 262, 321, 424 et seq.]
J. H.
BURY, HENRY DE. [See BEDERIC.]
BURY, JOHN (/. 1557), translator,
graduated at Cambridge B.A. 1553, and
M.A. 1555 ; he translated from Greek into
English ' Isocratis ad Demonicum oratio pa-
reenetica' or 'Admonysion to Demonicus,'
with a dedication to his uncle, Sir W. Chester,
1557.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 143 ; Ames's Typogr.
Antiq. (Herbert), 358 ; Cooper's Athenae Cantab,
i. 174.] W. H.
BURY, JOHN (1580-1667), divine, the
eon of a descendant of the Devonshire family
of Bury, long resident at Colyton, who was in
business at Tiverton, was born there in 1580.
On 9 Feb. 1597 he was elected a scholar of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 1603,
shortly after he had taken his degree ofB.A.,
he became the first fellow of Balliol College
under the bequest of Peter Blundell. After
remaining for several years at the university
he returned to his native county, where he
obtained the vicarage of Heavitree and a
canonry in Exeter Cathedral, his collation to
the latter preferment dating 20 March 1637.
The presentment of Bury and the other pre-
bendaries at Laud's visitation, 19 June 1634,
is printed in Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep.
p. 138. A fewyears later he resigned his bene-
fice in favour of a relation, and accepted the
rectory of Widworthy in the same county.
The latter preferment he retained until his
Bury
death, and after the Restoration (2 March
1662) the rectory of St. Mary Major, Exeter,
was conferred upon him. He died 011 5 July
1667, and was buried in the ' middle area '
of Exeter Cathedral, ' a little below the
pulpit.' His literary works were few in
number two sermons (1615 and 1631) and
a catechism for the use of his parishioners at
Widworthy (1661). He endowed a school
in St. Sidwell's, Exeter, left funds for the
maintenance of thirteen poor persons in St.
Catherine's Almshouse in the same city and
for the poor of his native town of Tiverton,
and largely added to the resources of the
public workhouse at St. Sidwell's. Canon
Bury had two sons, Arthur [q. v.],the rector
of Exeter College, Oxford, and John, a colonel
in the parliamentary army. Portraits of all
three are in the present workhouse at Exeter.
[Prince's Worthies, 152-4; Harding's Tiverton,
book iii. 276, iv. 113; Wood's Athenae Oxon. ed.
Bliss, iii. 777 ; Oliver's Exeter, 152.]
W. P. C.
BURY, RICHARD DE (1281-1345)/**" *
bishop of Durham, was the son of Sir Richard ^ '
Aungerville, and is known as Richard de s<?e
Bury from his birthplace of Bury St. Ed- ^+ b
munds. His father died when he was a child, v.-l(
leaving him to the charge of his uncle, John
de Willoughby, a priest. Richard studied
at Oxford, where he gained distinction as a
scholar. On leaving Oxford he became a
Benedictine monk at Durham. He was chosen
on account of his learning to be tutor to
Edward of Windsor, son of Edward II, and
afterwards Edward III. He was also trea-
surer of Guienne on behalf of his pupil. When
Queen Isabella left her husband, taking her
son with her, Richard supplied her with
money from the revenues of Guienne. The
king sent to seize him, but he fled to Paris.
Thither he was pursued and had to take
sanctuary. Isabella prospered in her oppo-
sition to her husband, and the young Ed-
ward III heaped honours on his former tutor,
for whom he had a great regard. Richard
was made successively cofferer, treasurer of
;he wardrobe, archdeacon of Northampton,
irebendary of Lincoln, Sarum, and Lichfield,
ind keeper of the privy seal. He was twice
sent as ambassador to Pope John XXII,
who made him a chaplain of the papal chapel
and allowed him to appear attended by
twenty chaplains and thirty-six knights. In
L333 he was made dean of Wells, and at the
nd of the same year was appointed bishop
'f Durham by papal provision at the king's
request. This appointment was in opposition
o the wishes of the monks of Durham, who
lad elected their learned sub-prior, Robert de
Bury 2
Graystanes. They were, however, unable to
withstand the pope and king combined, and
accepted Richard de Bury with a good grace.
Richard was consecrated bishop of Durham
at Chertsey on the Sunday before Christmas
Day 1333, in the presence of the king and
queen, the king of Scots, and all the magnates
this side the Trent. Rarely had a bishop
met with such signal marks of favour. Next
year he was made high chancellor of Eng-
land, and treasurer in 1336. In 1335 he
resigned the office of chancellor that he might
serve the king as ambassador in Paris, Hai-
nault, and Germany. In this capacity his
coolness and clearness of judgment made him
most valuable to the king, and he was again
employed in 1337 as a commissioner for the
affairs of Scotland. On the outbreak of the
French war his diplomatic services came to
an end, and he retired with satisfaction from
public work to the duties of his own diocese.
In 1342 he was again employed in the con-
genial task of making a truce with the Scot-
tish king.
The lands of the bishopric were undisturbed
during Richard's episcopate, and he was not
called upon to engage in warfare which was
entirely abhorrent to him. In the affairs of
his diocese he was a capable official and a
good administrator, as is shown by his chan-
cery rolls, which are the earliest preserved
in the archives of Durham. He was also an
admirable ecclesiastic, beloved for his kind-
liness and charity. He was always ready to
do the business of his office, and his progress
through his diocese was marked by an or-
ganised distribution of alms to the poor,
amounting in the case of journeys between
Durham and Newcastle to eight pounds ster-
ling. But Richard de Bury was above all
things a scholar and a promoter of learning.
He surrounded himself with learned men ;
Thomas Bradwardin, Richard Fitzralph, and
other less known scholars were among his
chaplains. Some book was always read aloud
to him when he sat at table, and afterwards
he used to discuss with his attendants what
had been read. He possessed more books
than all the other bishops put together.
Wherever he went his room was filled with
books, which were piled upon the floor so
that, his visitors found some difficulty in
steering a clear course. He had passionate
enthusiasm for the discovery of manuscripts.
He tells us himself (Philobiblon, ch. viii.)
that he used his high offices of state as a
means of collecting books. He let it be
known that books were the most acceptable
presents which could be made to him. He
searched the monastic libraries and rescued
precious manuscripts from destruction. His
Bury
account of the state of English libraries is
exactly parallel to that given by Boccaccio of
the libraries of Italy. The manuscripts lay
neglected, 'murium fcetibus cooperti et ver-
mium morsibus terebrati.' Moreover Richard
had agents in Paris and in Germany who were
charged to gather books for his library. He
deserves to rank among the first bibliophiles
of England. Nor was he selfish in his pur-
suit. His aim was to raise the intellectual
standard and to provide the necessary ma-
terial for students. For this end he founded
during his lifetime a library at Oxford in
connection with Durham College, and made
rules for its management. Five scholars
were to be appointed librarians, three of
whom were to be present and to assent to
the loan of every book. He was anxious
that all should be taught to use books care-
fully and respect them as they merited. He
deplored the prevailing ignorance of Greek,
and provided his library with Greek and
Hebrew grammars. His literary sympathies
were wide, and his library was by no means
confined to theology. He declares his pre-
ference of liberal studies to the study of
law, and urges that the works of the poets
ought not to be omitted from any one's read-
ing. While thus actively engaged in fostering
learning he died at Auckland in 1345, and
was buried in Durham cathedral.
Richard de Bury can scarcely claim to be
regarded as himself a scholar ; he was rather
a patron and an encourager of learning. He
corresponds in England to the early human-
ists in Italy, men who collected manuscripts
and saw the possibilities of learning, though
they were unable to attain to it themselves.
He was recognised as a member of the new
literary fraternity of Europe, and was pene-
trated by the chief ideas of humanism, as
the ' Philobiblon ' sufficiently shows. Petrarch,
who met him at Avignon, describes him as
*vir ardentis ingenii nee literarum inscius,
abditarum rerum ab adolescentia supra fidem
curiosus ' (Epist. de Rebus Fam. iii. 1).
Petrarch's account of his own relations with
him harmonises with this description of an
ardent amateur. Petrarch wished for some
information about the geography of Thule,
and applied to Richard, who answered that
he had not his books with him, but would
write to him on his return home. Though
Petrarch more than once reminded him of
his promise, he never received an answer.
Richard was not so learned that he could
afford to confess ignorance. His merit lies
in his love for books, his desire to promote
learning, and his readiness to learn from
others. His rules for his library at Dur-
ham College were founded on those already
Bury
adopted for the library of the Sorbonne, which
he saw on his visit to Paris.
Bale, following Leland, speaks of a collec-
tion of Richard de Bury's ' Epistolse Fami-
liares.' This, however, seems to be a mistake.
A manuscript 'Liber Epistolaris quondam
Ricardi de Bury/ is in the possession of
Mr. Ormsby-Gore, but it is a formal ' letter
writer,' made for one engaged in business of
various kinds ; to this are appended a number
of official letters, some of Ricard's own and
many royal letters of importance {Historical
MSS. Commission, 4th Rep. 85, 5th Rep. 379,
&c.) Richard's great work is the 'Philo-
biblon,' which was written as a sort of hand-
book to his library at Durham College. It
is an admirable treatise in praise of learn-
ing, at times rhetorical, but full of genuine
fervour. ' No one can serve books and Mam-
mon,' he exclaims, and he urges the refining
influence of study. He gives an interesting
description of the means by which he col-
lected his library ; he examines the state of
learning in England and France. He speaks
of books as one who loved them, and gives
directions for their careful use. Finally, he
explains his rules for the management of the
library which he founded. The work is an
admirable exhibition of the temper of a book-
lover and librarian. The ' Philobiblon ' was
first printed at Cologne (1473) ; then by Hust,
at Spires (1483) ; at Paris by Badius, Ascen-
sius, and also by Jean Petit (1500) ; at Oxford,
edited by Thomas James (1599) ; at Leipzig
(1574), at the end of ' Philologicarum Episto-
larum Centuria una ; ' and, edited by Cocheris,
again at Paris (Aubry), 1856. It was trans-
lated by J. Bellingham Inglis, London, 1832,
and there is also an American edition of this
translation (Albany, 1861). Professor Henry
Morley gives an epitome of the book in his
' English Writers,' ii. 43, &c. It Avas edited and
translated again by Mr. E. C.Thomas in 1885.
Richard de Bury's library at Oxford was
dispersed at the dissolution of the monasteries,
when Durham College shared the fate of the
monastic foundation to which it was annexed.
Some of the books went to the Bodleian,
some to Balliol College, and some to Dr.
George Owen of Godstow, who purchased
Durham College from Edward VI (CAMDEN,
Brit. 1772, p. 310).
[Extracts from the Chancery Eolls of Kichard
de Bury are given in Hutchinson's Durham, i.
288, &c. The authority for the life of Kichard
de Bury is William de Chambre in Wharton's
Anglia Sacra, i. 765 ; also Historic Dunelmensis
Scriptores (Surtees Soc.), 1839, p. 139, &c., the
documents in Eymer's Fcedera, vol. ii. ; see, too,
Bale's Script. Brit. Cat. (1548), p. 151 ; God-
win, De Praesulibus (1743), p. 747; Hutchin-
27
Bury
son's Durham, i. 284 ; Kippis's Biog. Brit. i. 370,
under the name Aungervyle ; Cocheris' preface
to his Philobiblon ; J. Bass Mullinger's University
of Cambridge, i. 201, &c.] M. C.
BURY, SAMUEL (1663-1730), presby-
terian minister, son of Edward Bury (1616-
1700) [q. v.], was born at Great Bolas, Shrop-
shire, where he was baptised on 21 April 1663.
He was educated at Thomas Doolittle's aca-
demy, then at Islington. Here he was contem-
porary with Matthew Henry, who entered in
1680, and remained long enough to contract a
strongfriendship with Bury. Edmund Calamy
(1671-1732) [q. v.], who entered in 1682,
speaks of Bury as a student of philosophy, not
divinity. Bury's first settlement was at Bury
St. Edmunds, prior to the date of the Tolera-
tion Act, 1689. In 1690ahousein Churchgate
Street was bought, and converted into a place
of worship. The congregation was conside-
rable, and Bury became a recognised leader of
Suffolk dissent. In Tymms's ' Handbook of
Bury St. Edmunds ' it is stated that Daniel
Defoe was an attendant on his ministry.
In 1696 we find Bury engaged in collect-
ing a list of the nonconforming ministers ;
Oliver Heywood supplied him (14 Aug.)
with the names in Yorkshire and Lancashire,
through Samuel Angier. On 11 Aug. 1700,
John Fairfax, ejected from Barking-cum-
Needham, Suffolk, died (aged seventy-six)
at his house in that parish ; Bury preached
two funeral sermons for him, and Palmer
rightly infers, from expressions in the one at
the actual funeral at Barking, that, by an
unusual concession, it was delivered in the
parish church.
The still existing chapel in Churchgate
Street was built in 1711, and opened 30 Dec.
Bury preached the opening sermon. Bury,
who was tortured with stone, went with
his wife to Bath in the autumn of 1719, on
a journey of health. Just before he set out
on his return home, he received overtures
from Lewin's Mead, Bristol. This was the
larger of the two presbyterian congregations
in Bristol, and it had been vacant since the
death of Michael Pope in 1718. It counted
1,600 adherents. Some of its members had
been sheriffs of the city ; others were ' persons
of condition ; divers very rich, many more very
substantial, few poor. The whole congrega-
tion computed worth near 400,000^.' Bury
agreed to go to Bristol for six months ' to
make a tryal of the waters there.' He ar-
rived there on 8 April 1720. In little more
than a month he lost his wife. His stay at
Bristol was permanent ; he got as assistant
(probably in 1721) John Diaper, who suc-
ceeded him as pastor, and resigned in 1751.
Under Bury's ministry the congregation
Bury
Bury
increased both in numbers and in wealth. In
the Hewley suit, 1830-42 [see BOWLES, ED-
WARD], great pains were taken by the uni-
tarian defendants to collect indications of
concession to heterodox opinion on the part
of Bury, as a representative presbyterian of
his time. James has shown that the ' Ex-
hortation ' at Savage's ordination, quoted
to prove (which it does not) opposition to
the Calvinistic doctrine of election, was not
by Bury, but by John Rastrick, M.A., of
Lynn (d. 18 Aug. 1727, aged seventy-eight).
The strength of the Unitarian case is in a
farewell letter from Bury to his Lewin's
Mead congregation. He here says, ' I never
was prostituted to any party, but have en-
deavoured to serve God as a catholic Chris-
tian,' and speaks of requirements which have
no good Scripture warrant, as making ' apo-
cryphal sins and duties.' The address is
essentially practical, avoiding controversy,
and the strain is fervently evangelical. Bury
died 10 March 1730, and was buried in St.
James's churchyard, where formerly was an
altar tomb with Latin epitaphs to Bury
and his wife (given in COERT and EVANS'S
Bristol, 1816, ii. 181). The parish register
has the entry, 'Burialls 1729, March 15.
Mr. Samll. Bury. Tom [i.e. tomb] a techer
lewends mead meating.' His portrait hangs
in the vestry at Bury St. Edmunds. He
married, on 29 May 1697, Elizabeth [q. v.],
second daughter of Captain Adams Lawrence,
of Linton, Cambridgeshire.
Bury published: 1. 'A Scriptural Cate-
chism, being an Abridgment of Mr. 0. Stock-
ton's, design'd especially for the use of charity
schools in Edmund's-Bury,' 1699 (not seen).
2. 'A Collection of Psalms, Hymns, &c.,'
for private use, 3rd ed. 1713 (not seen).
3. ' GpTjj/wSi'a. The People's Lamentation for
the Loss of their Dead Ministers, or Three
Sermons occasioned by the death of the late
Reverend and Learned Divines, Mr. John
Fairfax and Mr. Timothy Wright,' 1702, 8vo.
4. 'A Funeral Sermon for the Rev. Mr.
Samuel Cradock,' &c. 1707, 8vo. 5. ' Two
sermons preach'd at the opening of a new
erected Chappel in St. Edmunds-Bury,' &c.,
1712, 8vo. 6. ' A Funeral Sermon for Robert
Baker, Esq.,' &c., 1714, 8vo. 7. ' The Ques-
tions ' at the ordination of S. Savage, printed
with John Rastrick's ' Sermon ' on the occa-
sion, 1714, 8vo. 8. 'An Account of the Life
and Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Bury, &c.,
chiefly collected out of her own Diary,'
Bristol, 1720, 8vo, 4th edit. 1725, 8vo.
[Tong's Life of Matthew Henry, 1716, p. 27 ;
Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 1803, iii. 250;
Toulmin's Histor. View of Prot. Diss., 1814,
p. 584 ; Calamy's Histor. Account of My Own
Time, 1830, i. 106; Prot, Diss. Mag. 1794,
p. 235; Murch's Hist, of Presb. and Gen. Bapt.
Churches in W. of Eng., 1835, p. 107 sq.;
Historical Illustrations and Proofs, in Shore v.
Attorney-Gen, [by Joseph Hunter], 1839, p.
17; Hunter's Life of 0. Heywood, 1842, p. 389;
James's Hist. Presb. Chapels and Charities, 1867,
pp. 165 sq., 634 sq., 675, 679; Browne's Hist, of
Congregationalism in Norf. and Suffi, 1877, pp.
420, 498, 518; Bristol Times and Mirror, 13
April 1885; extract from Register of Bolas
Magna, per Eev. R. S. Turner ; Evans's MS. List
of Congregations, in Dr. Williams's Library;
manuscript minute-book of Churchgate Street
Chapel, Bury St. Edmunds ; and Bury's publica-
tions, noted above.] A. G.
BURY, THOMAS (1655-1722), judge,
youngest son of Sir William Bury, knight,
of Linwood in Lincolnshire, was born in
1655, took a bachelor's degree at Lincoln Col-
lege, Oxford, in February 1667, and in 1668
was entered a student at Gray's Inn. He
was called to the bar in 1676, and after some
years' practice became a serjeant-at-law in
1700, and on 26 Jan. 1701, when Sir Littel-
ton Powys was removed to the king's bench,
he was created a baron of the exchequer. Of
this his epitaph says that he ' by his Great
Application to the Study of the Law, raised
himself to one of the highest Degrees in that
Profession,' but Mr. Speaker Onslow, in his
notes to Bishop Burnet's 'History,' affirms
that it appeared from Bury's book of accounts
(a most unlikely place for such a revelation)
that he gave Lord-keeper Wright a bribe of
1,0001. for elevating him to the bench. For
fifteen years he continued to discharge the
duties of a puisne judge. In 1704, when
corrupt practices had extensively prevailed
at the Aylesbury election, the whigs, who
were then defeated, knowing that proceeding
by a petition to the House of Commons would
be useless, caused actions to be brought in
the queen's bench by some of the electors
against the returning officers. One of these
actions, the leading case of Ashby v. White,
after judgment for the defendants in the
queen's bench, from which Lord Chief Justice
Holt dissented, was taken to the House of
Lords upon a writ of error, and the judges
were summoned to advise the house. Of
these judges Bury was one, and his opinion
was given in support of that of the lord chief
justice in the court below ; and Lord Somers
being of the same opinion, the decision of the
queen's bench was reversed by fifty to six-
teen. On 20 and 22 April 1710 he, with
Chief-justice Parker and Mr. Justice Tracy,
at the Old Bailey, tried one Damary for riot
and being ringleader of a mob. There is a
letter of his (25 June 1713) preserved among
Bury 2
the treasury papers to the lord high treasurer,
about offering a reward for the apprehension
of one Robert Mann. On the death of Sir
Samuel Dodd, Bury was raised by King
George I to be chief baron of the exchequer
10 June 1716. He died on 4 May 1722, sud-
denly, having been engaged in the discharge
of his judicial duties until within a few hours
of his death ; and was buried, with a hand-
some tomb, in the parish church of Grant-
ham, Lincolnshire. He left no issue, and
his estates at Irby, near Wainfleet, passed
to his grandnephew, William Bury, of Lynd-
wood Grange, Lincolnshire. There is a
portrait of him, engraved in mezzotint by
J. Smith, after a picture by J. Richardson
dated 1720 (NOBLE, Granger, iii. 198).
[Foss's Lives of the Judges ; Campbell's Lives
of the Chief Justices, ii. 160; Patents, William
III, p. 5 ; Burnet, v. 219 note ; Luttrell, 6, 572,
573 ; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. 99 ; Epitaph Grant-
ham church; Tumor's Grantham. 18; Collins's
English Baronetage, iv. 99 ; Cal. Treas. Papers,
1708-U ; Kedington, p. 492 ; Catalogue Oxford
Graduates.] J. A. H.
BURY, THOMAS TALBOT (1811-
1877), architect, was descended from a
Worcestershire family, afterwards settled in
the city of London. He was born on 26 Sept.
1811, and was articled in 1824 te Augustus
Pugin. Among his fellow-pupils were Messrs.
Ferrey, Dollman, Shaw, Lake Price, Nash,
Walker, and Charles Mathews the actor. He
commenced practice in Gerrard Street, Soho,
in 1830 ; and, in addition to his architec-
tural practice, was often engaged in engrav-
ing and lithographing his own and other
architects' drawings, notably those of Pugin
and Owen Jones. He was particularly skilful
in colouring architectural studies, and his aid
in this respect was often sought by the most
eminent architects of the day when they were
engaged in preparing designs for competition.
In 1847 he published his ' Remains of Eccle-
siastical Woodwork,' illustrated by himself;
and in 1849, his ' History and Description
of the Styles of Architecture of various
Countries, from the Earliest to the Present
Period.' He was engaged with Pugin in
designing the details of the houses of parlia-
ment under Sir Charles Barry. He frequently
exhibited his works at the Royal Academy
bet ween 1846 and 1872; and sent to the Inter-
national Exhibition of 1862 a large picture
representing, at one view, all the churches,
schools, public and other buildings erected
toy him. This fine drawing is now preserved
as a record at the Institute of British Ar-
chitects. Among his principal works were
35 churches and chapels, 15 parsonages, 12
Busby
schools, and 20 other large public buildings
and private residences in various parts of
England and Wales. He was elected an
associate of the Institute of British Archi-
tects in 1839, and a fellow in 1843. In 1876
he was elected a vice-president. He was in
1863 made a fellow of the Society of Anti-
quaries, and was also a member of the council
of the Royal Archaeological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, a member of the Cam-
brian Archaeological Association, and an as-
sociate of the Society of Civil Engineers. His
collections of architectural and antiquarian
books, his pictures, drawings, cabinets, and
armour, were sold at Christie's in the
autumn of 1877. On 23 Feb. 1877 he died,
a widower and childless, and was buried at
Norwood Cemetery.
[Kedgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the Eng-
lish School ; Journal of the Archaeological Insti-
tute ; Archseologia Cambrensis ; Transactions of
the Institute of British Architects : Builder,
1877.] W. H. T.
BUSBY, RICHARD (1606-1695), head-
master of Westminster School, was the second
son of Mr. Richard Busby, a citizen of West-
minster, but was born, 22 Sept. 1606, at Lut-
ton, otherwise called Sutton St. Nicholas, in
Lincolnshire. He obtained a king's scholar-
ship at Westminster, and was educated at
that school, whence he was elected, in 1624,
to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford,,
where he took his B.A. degree in 1628 and
his M.A. in 1631. He was for some time a
tutor at Christ Church, and in 1639 was ad-
mitted to the prebend and rectory of Cud-
worth, with the chapel of Knowle annexed,
in Somersetshire. He was appointed master
of Westminster School provisionally when
Osbolston was deprived of that office in
1638, but was not confirmed in it till 23 Dec.
1640. In the civil war he lost the profits of
his rectory and prebend, but in spite of his
staunch loyalty and churchmanship managed
to retain both his studentship and his mas-
tership. His only trouble during this period
was of a local character. The second master,
Edward Bagshaw the younger [q. v.], tried
to supplant him, but ' was removed out of
his place for his insolence' in May 1658.
Bagshaw published in 1659 an account of
the transaction from his own point of view.
Upon the restoration Dr. Busby's services to
the royal cause were immediately recognised.
In July 1660 he was made by the king pre-
bendary of Westminster, and in the follow-
ing month canon residentiary and treasurer
at Wells. At the coronation of Charles II
he had the high honour of carrying the am-
pulla. He was elected proctor for the chapter
Busby
Busby
of Bath and Wells, and in the convocation
of 1661 was, of course, among the number
of those who approved and subscribed to the
Book of Common Prayer. Busby's name has
become proverbial as a type of the severest
of severe pedagogues ; and though this cha-
racter of him only rests upon general tradi-
tion, there appears to be little doubt that
during his extraordinarily long reign at
Westminster he ruled the school with a rod
of iron, or rather of birch. But it is also
clear that his rule was as successful as it was
severe. He gained the veneration and even
love of his pupils, among whom were num-
bered a vast majority of the most distin-
guished men in a distinguished era. John
Dryden, John Locke, Robert South, Francis
Atterbury, Philip Henry, and George Hooper
were among his pupils. He is said to have
boasted that at one time sixteen out of the
whole bench of bishops had been educated
by him ; and, it may be added, at a time
when the bench contained more brilliant
men than it has perhaps ever contained before
or since. His favourite pupil among those
who afterwards became bishops was the
friend and ultimately the successor of the
saintly Ken, George Hooper, of whom he
said : ' Hooper is the best scholar, the finest
gentleman, and will make the compleatest
bishop that ever was educated at Westmin-
ster.' It has been hinted that Busby's repu-
tation for extreme severity arose from the
malignity of party spirit. But it is remark-
able that one of the strongest and most
definite testimonies to the merits of Dr.
Busby as a master comes from the mouth of
a puritan. ' Dr. Busby,' writes Sir J. B.
Williams in his ' Life of Philip Henry,' ' was
noted as a very stern schoolmaster, especially
in the beginning of his time. But Mr.
Henry would say sometimes that as in so
great a school there was need of a strict
discipline, so for his own part, of the four
years he was in the school, he never felt the
weight of his hand but once, and then, saith he,
I deserved it. ... Dr. Busby took a particular
kindness to him, called him his child, and
would sometimes tell him he should be his
heir; and there was no love lost betwixt
them. . . . He often spoke of the great pains
which Dr. Busby took to prepare, for several
weeks before, all king's scholars who stood
candidates for election to the university, and
who, according to the ancient custom of
Westminster, were to receive the Lord's
Supper the Easter before. He himself was
most deeply impressed with Dr. Busby's pre-
paration. In fact, he dates his own conver-
sion from that preparation ; and ' he frequently
referred with the deepest gratitude to the
earnest solicitude and care of his old master
for his instruction in the best of all know-
ledge.' Other old pupils were equally grate-
ful. Atterbury describes him as ' a man to
be reverenced very highly,' and speaks of
leaving his school for college ' loaded with
his counsels, his warnings, and his gifts.'
Dryden all through his life retained a deep
respect for him. Dr. William King, one of
the brilliant scholars whom he trained, re-
ferred to him many years later as ' the grave
Busby, whose memory to me shall be for
ever sacred.' Dr. Basire's letters, when he
was in exile, evidently show that it was
a real comfort to him to feel that his son
was under the care of Dr. Busby. The tra-
ditions of his excessive severity are of rather
a vague character. Dr. Johnson's saying,
for instance, that Busby used to declare that
his rod was his sieve, and that whosoever
could not pass through that was not the boy
for him, is often quoted. The unfavourable
impression of public schools given in Locke's
' Thoughts upon Education ' is thought to
have been derived from his own experience
under Dr. Busby. The story of "his thrash-
ing the sulkiness out of Robert South is not
referred to by South's earliest biographer,
who merely states that 'he was under the
care of Dr. Richard Busby, who cultivated
and improved so promising a genius with in-
dustry and encouragement.' The report,
again, has been perpetuated by an epigram
' on Dr. Freind's appointment to AA r estmin-
ster ' to the following effect :
Ye sons of Westminster who still retain
Your antient dread of Busby's awful reign,
Forget at length your fears, your panic end,
The monarch of the place is now a Freind.
But too much importance must not be at-
tached to suchjetix d? esprit, nor yet to such
stories as that of Dr. Busby refusing to take
his hat off before Charles II in the presence
of his scholars, lest they should think there
was any man greater than himself. At any
rate he was the most pious and benevolent
of men. He took the deepest interest in
the church life of the period, and was most
intimate with other leading churchmen be-
sides his old pupils. His neighbour Peter
Barwick found his great solace in his later
Sjars, when his eyesight failed him, in
usby's society ; Isaac Basire cultivated the
closest friendship with him ; Busby's letters
to Basire breathe a spirit of the most ardent
piety. Anthony a Wood rightly describes
him as being ' a person eminent and exem-
plary for piety and justice.' His liberality to
the church, both in his lifetime and by his
bequests, was not only most munificent, but
Busby
3 1
Busby
also shows a most thoughtful consideration
for the special wants of the age. He built
in his lifetime a handsome church at Willan,
and a library within the church filled with
books, and gave 2(M. a year for the vicar if
he would perform the services in the church
every Wednesday, Friday, and holy day
throughout the year (WHITE KENNET). He
gave 2501. towards the ' repairing and beau-
tifying of Christ Church and the cathedral '
at Oxford. He offered to found ' two cate-
chistical lectures, one in each university,
for instructing undergraduates in the rudi-
ments of religion, provided the undergra-
duates should be obliged to attend those
lectures, and not receive the B.A. degree
till they had been examined and approved
by the catechist.' The offer was rejected by
both universities, and Wood may be right in
saying that they could not accept them con-
sistently with their statutes. He died on
6 April 1695, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey, where there is a curious monument
to his memory. His portrait by Biley is in
the hall at Christ Church, and there are
also portraits of him in the chapter-house
and in the common room, where there is a
bust by Rysbrac. All, however, are copied
from a cast taken after death. By his will
he left 520/. a year in trust for non-clergy-
men, who were to deliver thirty lectures,
which are still known as the 'Busby Lec-
tures.' Among numerous other bequests
(see WHITE KEIWET'S Case of Impropria-
tions and Augmentation of Poor Benefices),
he remembered his native place, leaving a
sum of money for the erection of an elabo-
rate pulpit in Sutton Church, and for the
education of poor boys in Sutton and Gedney.
Dr. Busby's literary works are not very im-
portant, or at any rate are now out of date ;
but they too show the high moral character
of the man. They consist for the most part
of expurgated editions of the classics, and
were published solely for the pious purpose of
enabling his own pupils to imbibe the beau-
ties without being polluted by the impurities
of the ancients. The titles and dates are as
follows : 1. ' A Short Institution of Gram-
mar,' 1647. 2. ' Juvenalis et Persii Satirse,'
purged of all indecent passages, 1656.
3. ' An English Introduction to the Latin
Tongue,' 1659. 4. ' Martialis Epigrammata
selecta,' 1661. 5. ' Grsecae Grammaticse Ru-
dimenta,' 1663. 6. ' Nomenclatura Brevis
Eeformata,' and appended to this 'Duplex
Centenarius Proverbiorum Anglo-Latino-
Grsecorum,' 1667. 7. ' 'AvdoXoyia fevrepa,
sive Grsecorum Epigrammatum Florilegium
novum,' 1673. 8. 'Rudimentum Latinum,
Grammatica literalis et numeralis,' 1688.
9. ' Rudimentum Grammaticae Groeco-Latinse
Metricum,' 1689.
[Wood's Athenae (Bliss), iv. 417-20 ; Fasti, i.
438, 460, 464, ii. 242, 258, 260, 360 ; Colleges
and Halls (Gutch), 436, 448, app. 292, 301, 302 ;
Biog. Brit. (Kippis), iii. 52-6 ; Noble's Con-
tinuation of Grainger, i. 98-9 ; Gent. Mag. Ixv.
15-17 ; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iv. 398 ; Evelyn's
Memoirs, iii. 415 ; Seward's Anecdotes of Dis-
tinguished Persons ; Basire's Correspondence ;
Williams's Life of Philip Henry ; Warton's edi-
tion of Pope's Works ; Welch's Alumni Westmon.
(1852) pp. 95-7.] J. H. 0.
BUSBY, THOMAS (1755-1838), musical
composer, was the son of a coach-painter.
He was born at Westminster in December
1755, and though as a boy he received but
little education, yet at an early age he was
distinguished by his cleverness. Busby's
father was fond of music, and sang himself
with good taste. When his son developed a
fine treble voice, he determined to bring him
up as a musician. With this view, applica-
tion was made to Dr. Cooke, the organist of
Westminster Abbey, to take young Busby
(who was then between twelve and thirteen)
as a chorister ; but Cooke thinking him too
old, he was placed under Champness for sing-
ing, and Knyvett for the harpsichord. Sub-
sequently he studied under Battishill, and
made so much progress that in the summer
of 1769 he was engaged to sing at Vauxhall
at a salary of ten guineas a week. On his
voice breaking, he was articled to Battishill
for three years, during which time both his
musical and general education rapidly im-
proved, though more by his own efforts than
by those of his master. On the expiration of
his articles he returned to his father's house,
and set himself to earn his living by music
and literature. His first venture was the
composition of music to a play by Dr. Ken-
rick, ' The Man the Master,' but this was never
finished. He then turned his attention to
oratorio, and began a setting of Pope's ' Mes-
siah,' at which he worked intermittently for
several years. Busby was more successful
with literary pursuits than with musical.
He was for some time parliamentary reporter
of the ' London Courant,' and assisted in edit-
ing the 'Morning Post,' besides acting as
musical critic to the 'European Magazine'
and Johnson's ' Analytical Review,' and con-
tributing to the 'Celtic Miscellany' and
' Whitehall Evening Post.' In 1785 he wrote
j a poem called ' The Age of Genius,' a satire
in the style of Churchill, containing nearly
1,000 lines. About five years after the ex-
piration of his articles Busby was elected
organist of St. Mary, Newington. Shortly
afterwards (July 1786) he married a Miss
Busby 2
Angier, daughter of Mr. Charles Angier of
Earl's Court, Kensington. After his marriage
he lived in Poland Street, where he was much
in request as a teacher of Latin, French, and
music. A few years later he moved to Bat-
tersea. In 1786 Busby and Arnold brought
out a 'Musical Dictionary/ the success of
which induced the former to issue a serial
entitled ' The Divine Harmonist/ consisting
of twelve folio numbers of music, partly se-
lected and partly original. In this work are
included some fragments of an oratorio by
the editor, 'The Creation.' The 'Divine
Harmonist' was followed by 'Melodia Bri-
tannica/ which was to be a collection of Eng-
lish music, but the work was unsuccessful,
and was never completed. About the same
time Busby completed a translation of Lu-
cretius into rhymed verse. In 1798 he was
elected organist of St. Mary Woolnoth. In
the spring of 1799 his efforts to get an impor-
tant musical work performed were crowned
with success, and his early oratorio was pro-
duced by Cramer under the name of ' The
Prophecy/ probably in order not to provoke
comparison with Handel's ' Messiah.' The
oratorio seems to have been well received, and
Busby set to work upon settings of Gray's
' Progress of Poesy/ Pope's ' Ode on St. Ce-
cilia's Day/ and a cantata from Ossian, ' Co-
mala ; ' but it is doubtful whether any of these
were performed. A so-called ' Secular Ora-
torio/ ' Britannia ' (words by John Gretton),
was more fortunate, as it was sung at Covent
Garden in 1801 with Mara as the principal
soprano. In the preceding year Busby wrote
music for Cumberland's version of Kotzebue's
' Joanna/ which was produced at Covent
Garden 16 Jan. 1800, without much success.
Shortly afterwards he brought out ' A New
and Complete Musical Dictionary/ and started
the first musical periodical in England, ' The
Monthly Musical Journal/ of which four
numbers only saw the light. In June 1801
Busby obtained the degree of Mus. Doc. at
Cambridge, for which purpose he entered at
Magdalen College. His exercise on this occa-
sion was ' A Thanksgiving Ode on the Naval
Victories/ the words of which were written
by Mrs. Crespigny. In 1802 he wrote music
to Holcroft's melodrama, ' A Tale of Mystery/
the first play of this description which ap-
peared on the English stage. It was pro-
duced at Covent Garden 13 Nov. 1802, and
was very successful. In the following year
Busby wrote music for Miss Porter's musical
entertainment, 'The Fair Fugitives' (Covent
Garden, 16 May 1803), but this was a failure.
His connection with the stage ceased with
Lewis's 'Rugantino' (Covent Garden, 18 Oct.
1805). The music to all these plays was pub-
2 Bush
lished, and shows Busby to have been but a
poor composer, even for his day, when Eng-
lish music was at a very low ebb. From this
time until his death he devoted himself more
to literature. The translation of Lucretius
was published in 1813, and was followed by
an attempt to prove that the Letters of Ju-
nius were written by J. L. de Lolme (1816),
' A Grammar of Music' (1818), 'A Dictionary
of Musical Terms/ 'A History of Music/
2 vols. (1819) a work which was successful
in its day, though it is entirely a compilation
from the Histories of Burney and Hawkins,
' Concert-room Anecdotes/ 3 vols. (1825),
an amusing and useful collection, and a
' Musical Manual ' ( 1 828). In his latter years
Busby lived with a married daughter at
Queen's Row, Pentonville, where he died,
aged eighty-four, on Monday, 28 May 1838.
He was not an original genius, but a clever,
hard-working man of letters. According to
an obituary notice of him he was eccentric,
and held ' loose notions on religious subjects.'
[Public Characters for 1802-3, 371 ; Concert-
room Anecdotes, i. 93 ; Musical World for 1838,
80; Genest'sHist.of the Stage, vii. ; Times, SOMay
1838 ; British Museum Catalogue; Graduati Can-
tab. 1760-1856.] W. B. S.
BUSH, PAUL(1490-1558), bishop of Bris-
tol, according to Wood, was born in Somer-
set,' of honest and sufficient parents/ in 1490.
He studied at the university of Oxford, taking
his degree of B.A. about 1517, by which time
he was ' numbered among the celebrated poets
of the university' (WOOD). He subsequently
read divinity, studying among the 'Bon-
hommes ' (a reformed order of Austin Friars
introduced into England from France by the
Black Prince), whose house stood on the site
of Wadham College. He also applied himself
to the study of medicine, and gained the repu-
tation of ' a wise and grave man, well versed
both in divinity and physic, and not only a
grave orator, but a good poet' (Cole MSS.
x. 76). He took the degrees of B.D. and D.D.,
and having become a friar of the order, ' su-
perstitiosus monachus/ according to Bale, he
' displayed his varied learning in the publi-
cation of many books/ ' superstitiose satis.'
He rose to be provincial of the Bonhommes,
and became provost of the house of this order
at Edington, near Westbury, Wiltshire. He
held the prebendal stall of Bishopston in Salis-
bury Cathedral, about 1539, and became one of
the residentiary canons (JoifES, Fasti Eccl.
Sarisb. p. 446). He obtained royal favour and
was made chaplain to Henry VIII, who, on the
foundation of the bishopric of Bristol, selected
Bush as the first bishop of the new see (Rot.
Par 1. 34 Hen. VIII, p. 2). His consecration
Bush
33
Bush
took place in the parish church of Hampton,
Middlesex, on Sunday, 25 June 1542(SiRYPE's
Cranmer, lib. i. c. 24). His consecration is
erroneously placed both by Bale and Pits in
the reign of Edward VI. The latter writer
maliciously adds that he was appointed bishop
by the protestant monarch, 'though of an
adverse creed, in consequence of the dearth
of learned divines among the sectaries,' and
also with the hope that promotion would in-
duce him to desert the old faith for the new.
In this, says Pits, those who chose him were
disappointed, inasmuch as Bush kept firm to
the creed of Rome, and ' never by word or
writing professes heresy ' (Pixs, De Illust.
Angl. Script, setat. xvi. No. 997). Pits is so
far correct in his last statement, that in Bush's
replies to certain questions relative to ' the
abuses of the mass,' proposed in 1548, he dis-
plays a strong leaning to the old faith, and
in opposition to Cranmer allows of solitary
masses, and masses for departed souls sung
for hire. He also lays down that while every
Christian man ought to communicate, and
no one can receive the Eucharist for another,
yet one man may be spiritually benefited
by others partaking. The bread and wine
after consecration are ' the very body and
blood of Christ.' He does not regard it as
contrary to God's word that the gospel should
be expounded to the people at the time of
mass, but is wholly opposed to discarding
the Latin tongue. His answer on this point
is remarkable : ' If the mass should be wholly
in English, I think we should differ from
the custom and manner of all other regions ;
therefore if it may stand with the king's
majesty's pleasure, I think it not good to
be said all in English. Per me Paullum
Episcopum Bristollensem ' (BuKNET, Hist, of
Reform, vol. ii. appendix No. 25, pp. 133, 147,
ed. 1681, fol.) In one point, however, that
of marriage, Bush showed no repugnance to
the practice of the reformers. He took to
wife Edith Ashley, scurrilously called by
Pits his 'concubine.' She died, somewhat
opportunely, three months after the accession
of Mary, 8 Oct. 1553 ; but the fact of her
death did not prevent proceedings being taken
against him as a married priest. The follow-
ing year, 20 March 1554, a commission, of
which Gardiner and Bonner were the chief
members, passed sentence of deprivation on
him, the execution of which he forestalled
by a voluntary resignation in the following
June, when the dean and chapter of Canter-
bury assumed the spiritual jurisdiction of the
see, 21 June 1554. He is accused of having
impoverished the see by granting the manor
of Leigh to Edward VI in 1549. At that
time, however, bishops had little option in
VOL. VIII.
such matters. On his resignation Bush retired
to the rectory of Winterbourne, near Bristol,
which he held till his death, which occurred at
the age of 68, a few days before Mary's death,
11 Oct. 1558. He was buried near the grave
of his wife, on the north side of the choir of
Bristol Cathedral, where his mutilated re-
naissance monument, bearing his effigy as a
ghastly decaying corpse with a tonsured head,
still stands. The inscription ends after the
old fashion, ' cujus animse propitietur Chris-
tus.' A long epitaph, now decayed, bristling
with plays upon his name, is preserved by
Wood and Davies, and more correctly by Cole.
In his will, dated 25 Sept. 1558, and proved
1 Dec., he styles himself ' late bishop of Bris-
tol, parson of Winterbourne.'
Bush was the author of the following
works : 1. ' A Lyttell Treatyse in Englyshe
called the Exposycyon of Miserere mei Deus,'
London, 1525 (the date 1501 of a supposed
earlier edition is impossible, as Bush was then
only a boy of eleven). 2. ' Certayne Gostly
Medycynes necessary to be used among wel
disposed peple,to eschew and avoid the comen
plage of pestilence '(Redman; no date). This
is a small tract of twelve leaves containing
prayers and conjurations against the plague,
with some stanzas addressed to the reader at
the end ; the whole ' collecte and sette forth
in order by the diligent labour of the religious
brother, Syr Paull Bushe, prest and bon-
homme of the good house Edynden.' 3. ' A
Lyttell Treatyse in Englyshe called the Ex-
tripacion (sic) of Ignorancy, and it treateth
and speketh of the ignorance of people, shew-
yng them how they are bounde to feare God
. . . compyled by Sir Paull Bushe, prest and
bonhome of Edyndon ' (Pynson, 4to, no date).
This is a little poetical tract ' dedicated unto
the yong and most hye renomed Lady Mary,
prinses and daughter unto the noble progeny-
tour and worthy souerayne Kyng Henry
Eight.' 4. ' De laudibus Crucis ' (no date).
5. ' Dialogus inter Christum et Mariam,' 1525.
6. ' An Exhortacyon to Margaret, wyf of
John Burgess, clothier of Kingswood, in
the county of Wilts, by Paul Bush, bishop
of Bristol ' (London, Cawood, 1554, 8vo).
7. ' Carminum diversorum liber unus.'
[Wood's Athen. Oxon. i. 269, 270 ; Burnet's
Hist, of Eeform. vol. ii. App. 25 ; Pits, De
Illust. Angl. Script, setat. xvi. No. 997 ; Bale's
Script. Bryt. p. 723, ed. Basel; Wharton's Speci-
men of Errors, p. 133 ; Strype's Cranmer, lib. i.
c. 29 ; Browne-Willis's Account of Bristol Ca-
thedral, ii. 777 ; Davies's Athen. Brit. ii. 294 ;
Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Dibdin, ii. 562, iii.
242, iv. 393 ; Cole MSS. x. 76 ; Watt's Bibl.
Britan. i. 177; Lowndes's Bibliogr. Manual ; Le
Neve's Fasti, i. 214.] E. V.
D
Bushe
34
Bushell
BUSHE, CHARLES KENDAL (1767-
1843), chief justice of the king's bench,
Ireland, was the only son of the Rev. Thomas
Bushe, of Kilmurry, co. Kilkenny, rector of
Mitchelstown, co. Cork, and was born at
Kilmurry on 13 Jan. 1767. His mother was
Katherine Doyle, daughter of Charles Doyle,
of Bramblestown, co. Kilkenny. Bushe re-
ceived his early education at a private school
in Dublin, and entered Trinity College, Dub-
lin, in his sixteenth year July 1782. His
university career was distinguished. He
won high honours both in classics and in
mathematics, was a scholar and a gold me-
dallist. But his greatest triumphs were won
in the famous ' College Historical Society,'
founded by Grattan as a debating society
for the students of Trinity College, and at
that time numbering among its youthful
orators Plunket (afterwards Lord Plunket),
Magee, Curran, Shiel, and others. Here
Grattan heard him, and declared that ' Bushe
spoke with the lips of an angel.' He was
called to the Irish bar in 1790, and soon
acquired a good practice, a considerable por-
tion of the proceeds of which he voluntarily
devoted to the payment of the debts left by
his father, and said to have amounted to
40,000/. In 1797 Bushe entered the Irish par-
liament as member for Callan. The struggle
on the question of the union was just be-
ginning, and Bushe joined the opponents of
the measure. So anxious was Lord Corn-
wallis to silence the young barrister that he
offered him the post of master of the rolls.
Bushe declined the offer, and remained stead-
fast to his party. In the list of members of
the last Irish House of Commons given by
Sir Jonah Barrington in the appendix to his
' Historic Memoirs of Ireland,' the single
word ' incorruptible ' is placed after Bushe's
name. He wrote as well as spoke against
the union, and Lord Brougham says of one of
his pamphlets on this question ' Cease your
Funning ' that it reminded him of the best
of the satires of Swift. For his efforts in
defence of the legislative independence of his
country, Bushe received among other honours
the freedom of the city of Dublin.
On the dissolution of the Grenville ad-
ministration in 1803, Bushe, though differing
from the government on the question of
catholic emancipation a measure which he
steadily advocated accepted the office of
solicitor-general for Ireland, and he appears
to have held it uninterruptedly until 1822,
when, on the retirement of Lord Downes,
he was appointed lord chief justice of the
king's bench. This high position he re-
signed in 1841, having filled it for nearly
twenty years 'with a character the purest
and most unsullied that ever shed lustre on
the ermine ' (Legal Reporter, 6 Nov. 1841).
Bushe died at his son's residence, Furry Park,
near Dublin, and was buried in Mount Jerome
cemetery, where there is a monument erected
to him with the simple inscription, ' Charles
Kendal Bushe, July 10th, 1843.' He mar-
ried, in 1793, Miss Crampton, daughter of John
Crampton, of Dublin, and had a large family.
[Irish Quarterly Review, March 1853 ;
Brougham's Historical Sketches of Statesmen
who flourished in the Time of George III, 3rd
ser. ; Nation, 22 July 1843; Legal Reporter,
6 Nov. 1841.] a. V. B.
BUSHELL, BROWN (d. 1651), sea
captain, son of Nicholas Bushell of Rus-
warpe, near Whitby, and Dorothy, daughter
of Sir Henry Cholmley (or Cholmondley) of
Rooksby, Yorkshire, knight (Harleian MSS.
1487, fol. 464), was one of the garrison that,
under the command of his cousin, Sir Hugh
Cholmley, held Scarborough for the parlia-
ment in 1643. In the March of that year
Cholmley determined to give up the castle to
the queen, who was then at York. Before
he did so, however, he wished to secure some
valuable goods he had at Hull, and on
24 March sent his kinsman Bushell thither
in a small vessel armed with seven pieces of
ordnance. Hotham, who was in command
at Hull, took Bushell prisoner, but two days
afterwards allowed him to return to Scar-
borough on his promising to deliver the castle
again into the hands of the parliamentarians.
When Cholmley, having made his surrender,
left for York, Bushell and his brother Henry
conspired with the soldiers, who were highly
dissatisfied with Cholmley's conduct, and
with little difficulty seized the castle for the
parliament. Before long, however, Bushell
entered into correspondence with the royalists
and handed the castle over to them. It was
probably in consequence of this action that
Sir T. Fairfax on 19 April 1645 was ordered
to send him to London to answer a charge
made against him. Bushell again joined the
parliamentarian party, and received the com-
mand of a fine ship under Admiral Batten
[q. v.] When, early in 1648, the fleet lay in
the Downs, Bushell, like divers other captains,
delivered his ship to the Prince of Wales.
He was apprehended by two men, to whom,
on 25 April, the council awarded 201. for the
good service they had done, resolving at the
same time to lodge the prisoner in Windsor
Castle. As late, however, as 27 Dec. 1649,
it is evident that Bushell had not such good
quarters, for on that day the council, in con-
sequence of a petition received from him, or-
dered his removal to Windsor, directing the
Bushell
35
Bushell
governor ' to provide for him as necessary for
one of his quality.' On 26 June 1650 it was
determined to allow him os. a day for his
maintenance. The council at first resolved
that he should be tried as a pirate by the ad-
miralty court. Now, however, the attorney-
general was ordered to consider his offences, !
with a view to his trial by the high court of
justice, and on 7 Sept. witnesses against him '
were sent for from Scarborough. He was
found guilty, and was executed on 29 April !
1651. A small medallion portrait of him is
given in the frontispiece of Winstanley's
' Loyall Martyrology,' published in 1665.
[Harleian MSS. 1487, fol. 464; Rushworth's !
Collection, pt. iii. vol. ii. 264, pt. iv. vol. ii. 1070; j
Cal. State Papers, Com., 1649-50, 455, 1650
passim, 1651, 5; Whitelocke's Memorials, fols.
143, 302 ; Winstanley's Loyall Martyrology, 32 ;
Markham's Life of the great Lord Fairfax, 94,
95 ; Sir Hugh Cholmley's Memoirs, 1 ; Granger's
Biog. Hist, of England (5th ed.), iv. 9.] W. H.
BUSHELL, SETH, D.D. (1621-1684),
divine, the only son of Adam Bushell, of
Kuerden, near Preston, by his wife Alice,
daughter of John Loggan, of Garstang, was
born in the year 1621. At the age of eighteen
he became a commoner of St. Mary Hall,
Oxford, and lived at the university until
Oxford was garrisoned by King Charles's
forces, when he returned to Lancashire. In
1654 he is mentioned as minister of Whitley,
in Yorkshire, a living which has not been
identified. In that year he was at Oxford,
and took his B.A. and M.A. His further de-
grees of B.D. and D.D. were conferred in 1665
and 1672. In 1664 he was vicar of Preston,
and continued there until 1682. He was also
incumbent of Euxton before 27 Nov. 1649,
to which place he succeeded by an order from
the committee for plundered ministers. In
1682 he was appointed vicar of Lancaster,
where he died 6 Nov. 1684, aged 63. He
was a loyal, pious, and charitable man,
courteous to the dissenters and respected by
them. ' He discouraged persecution for re-
ligion, or prosecution of any of his parish
for what was customary due,' as one of his
quaker parishioners records. He was twice
married first to Mary, daughter of Roger
Farrington, and secondly to Mary, daughter
of William Stansfield, of Euxton and was
father of the Rev. William Bushell, in-
cumbent of Goosnargh 1715-1721, and rector
of Hey sham, and grandfather of William
Bushell, M.D., founder of the Goosnargh
Hospital. There is a Latin epitaph to the
memory of Dr. Seth Bushell in Lancaster
parish church.
His published writings are : 1. 'A Warn-
ing-piece for the Unruly ; in two Discourses,
at the Metropolitical Visitation of Richard,
Lord Archbishop of York, held at Preston,
in Lancashire, and there preached May 8,'
London, 1673 (4to). 2. 'The Believer's Groan
for Heaven ; in a Sermon at the Funeral of
the Honourable Sir Rich. Hoghton, of Hogh-
ton, Baronet, preached at Preston in Amoun-
derness,' London, 1678 (4to). 3. A sermon
preached on 25 Jan. 1658, which George
Fox answered in his book, 'The Great Mys-
tery of the Great Whore Unfolded,' 1659.
4. ' Cosmo-Meros, the AVorldly Portion ; or
the best Portion of the Wicked and their
Misery in the Enjoyment of it Opened and
Applied. Together with some Directions and
Helps in order to a Heavenly and Better
Portion, enforced with many useful and di-
vine considerations,' London, 1682 (12mo).
He also wrote the preface to R. Towne's ' Re-
assertion of Grace,' &c. 1654, 4to. Bliss
mentions a Latin dissertation, ' De Redemp-
tione,' by him in the Cole MSS. in the British
Museum.
[Wood's Athenae Oxon., ed. Bliss, iv. 161-2;
Raines's Notitia Cestriensis (Chetham Society),
xxii. 384, 428, 442 ; Lancashire and Cheshire
Church Surveys (Record Society), p. 102 : Fish-
wick's Hist, of Goosnargh, pp. 122-4 ; Fishwick's
Lancashire Library, pp. 385-6; Autob. of William
Stout, ed. Harland, p. 12.] C. W. S.
BUSHELL, THOMAS (1594-1674), spe-
culator and farmer of the royal mines, was
born about 1594, and was a younger son of a
family of that name living at Cleve Prior in
Worcestershire. At the age of fifteen he en-
tered the service of the great Sir Francis
Bacon, and afterwards acted as his master's
seal-bearer. When Bacon became lord chan-
cellor, Bushell accompanied him to court, and
attracted the notice of James I by the gor-
geousness of his attire ( BIRCH, Court of
James I, ii. 242). Anthony a Wood supposes
that he received some education at Oxford,
especially at Balliol College ; but in any case
his principal instructor was Bacon himself,
who, observing the natural bent of his in-
genious servant, imparted to him 'many se-
crets in discovering and extracting minerals.'
Bacon's instruction was always gratefully ac-
knowledged by Bushell, who admitted that his
own mining processes were the outcome of his
master's theories, of which, later on in life, he
gave an account in a treatise entitled ' Mr.
Bushell's Abridgment of the Lord Chancellor
Bacon's Philosophical Theory in Mineral Pro-
secutions ' (London, 1650), andin the ' Extract
by Mr. Bushell of the Abridgment [of Bacon's
Theory], printed for the Satisfaction of his
Noble Friends that importunately desired it '
(London, 1660). Bacon further earned his
prot6g's gratitude ' by paying all my debts
D 2
Bushell
Bushell
several times,' for Bushell's various specula-
tions and experiments more than once in his
career involved him in money difficulties. On
the occasion of Bacon's disgrace Bushell
thought it prudent to retire to the Isle of
Wight, where he lived for some time disguised
as a fisherman. He afterwards returned to
London ; but on his master's death in 1626
went again into retirement, and lived for
three years in a hut constructed 470 feet
above the sea in ' the desolated isle called the
Calf of Man, where, in obedience to my dead
lord's philosophical advice, I resolved to make
a perfect experiment upon myself for the ob-
taining of a long and healthy life, most ne-
cessary for such a repentance as my former
debauchedness required, by a parsimonious
diet of herbs, oil, mustard, and honey, with
water sufficient, most like to that [of] our
long-lived fathers before the flood.' On leaving
this retreat he came to live in Oxfordshire,
where he had an estate at Road Enstone, near
Woodstock. At this place he had the fortune
to discover a spring and a rock of curious for-
mation, with which, we are told, he at once
proceeded to make ' all the curious fine water-
works and artificial conclusions that could be
imagined,' constructing cisterns, laying ' di-
vers pipes between the rocks,' and building ' a
house over them, containing one fair room for
banquetting, and several other small closets for
divers uses.' Charles I, when in the neigh-
bourhood, heard of the fame of the ' rock,'
and paid Bushell an unexpected visit ; his in-
genious host managed to improvise an enter-
tainment of artificial thunders and lightnings,
rain, hail-showers, drums beating, organs
playing, birds singing, waters murmuring all
sorts of tunes,' &c. On a subsequent royal
visit in 1636 the rock was presented to Queen
Henrietta in a kind of masque, for which
Bushell himself provided some passable verse
(see The Several Speeches and Songs at the Pre-
sentment of the Rock at Enston, Oxon. 1636).
In 1635 we find Bushell's name occurring
in a list of persons to whom was granted the
exclusive right of manufacturing soap in a
particular manner ; but his acquaintance with
the king soon led to his obtaining (in January
1636-7) the more important grant of the royal
mines in Wales. The mines of Cardiganshire,
as containing silver mixed with their lead,
formed crown property. They had formerly
been farmed by Sir Hugh Middleton, who
sent up the silver which he extracted to be
. coined at the mint in the Tower of London.
After the death of Middleton the mines were
reported to be inundated and ' like to decay.'
Bushell in purchasing the lease proposed not
only to recover the inundated mines, but also j
to employ new and more expeditious methods
of mining ; he also proposed the more conve-
nient plan of erecting a mint on the spot, in
the castle at Aberystwith, taking care that
the lead ore which in former times had been
recklessly sent out of the country without the
extraction of its silver should now be refined
at home for the benefit of the king of England
and his subjects. The mint was established
in July 1637 with Bushell as warden and
master-worker, and English silver coins of
various denominations were issued from it.
Bushell's mining schemes seem to have been
fairly successful, at any rate so far as con-
i cerned the mines in Wales. He was certainly
l more than a mere adventurer, and always pro-
I fessed, probably not without sincerity, that
, he carried on his mining operations with a
view to the enrichment of his king and coun-
j try, and in order to give employment to the
| poorest classes as miners (see especially Mr.
Bushell's Invitation by Letter to Condemned
Men for Petty Felonies, to work in the Mines
of their own Country rather than be banished
\ to Slavery in Foreign Parts, and his curious
1 composition, The Miner's Contemplative
Prayer in his solitary Delves, which is con-
ceived requisite to be published that the Header
may know his heart implores Providence for
his Mineral Increase). In any case his labours
were indefatigable. Shortly after his connec-
tion with the Welsh mines began, ' a great
deluge of water ' occurred, which necessitated
a very considerable expenditure. He was
laughed at by his enemies and pitied by his
friends ; but ' after nigh four years night and
day ' spent in recovering the decayed mines
of the principality, and 'by the continued
maintenance and industry of 500 families and
the expense of about 7,0001., as a reward of
my hazard . . . [God] brought me to reap
the harvest of my hope. ' He recovered ' several
drowned mines,' and discovered other ' new
branches of the old mines wrought by the
Romans (viz.) at the mountains called Talli-
bont, Broomfloid, Cambmervin, Geginan,
Commustwith, Comsum Lock, and the Beacon
Hill of the Daren.' ' I contrived,' he says,
t & way of adits, cutting through the lowest
part of the mountain (and not beginning at
the top and sinking downward), whereby the
work was made . . . less subject to the casu-
alties of damp and drowning . . . also avoid-
ing the tedious and chargeable sinking of
air-shafts, by conveying air through the moun-
tain many hundred fathoms with pipe and
bellows, a way before never used by any un-
dertakers, but now approved by all.' He fur-
ther prevented the waste of wood by refining
his lead-ore with ' turf and sea-coal chark.'
During the progress of the civil war Bushell
proved himself a devoted royalist, and a letter
Bushell
37
Bushnan
addressed to him by Charles himself in Jane
1643 enumerates the ' manie true services you
have actually* done us in these times of trying
a subject's loyalty : as in raiseing us the Dar-
byshire minors for our life guard at our first
entrance to this warr for our owne defence,
when the lord-lieutenant of that countie re-
fused to appear in the service : supplyinge us
at Shrewsbury and Oxford with your mint
for the payement of our armye, when all the
officers in the mint of our Tower of London
forsook their attendance, except S r William
Parkhurst : your changing the dollars with
w ch wee paid our soldiers at six shillings a
piece, when the malignant partie cried them
down at ffive : your stopping the mutinie in
Shropshire . . . your providing us one hun-
dred tonnes of leadshot for our army without
mony, when we paid before twentie pounds
per tonne ; and your helpinge us to twenty-
six pieces of ordinance . . . your cloathing
of our liefe guard and three regiments more,
w th suites, stockings, shoes, and mounterees,
when wee were readie to march in the ffeild
. . . [your invention of badges of silver for
rewarding the forlorne hope] ; your contract-
inge with merchants beyond the seas, for
providing good quantities of powder, pistol,
carabine, muskett, and bullen, in exchange
for your owne commodities, when wee were
wantinge of such ammunition : with diverse
other severall services.' Besides all this
Bushell held Lundy Island for the king ; but,
with the royal sanction, surrendered it on
24 Feb. 1647. He now found it necessary to
go into hiding ; but at last, in August 1652,
gave securities to the council of state for his
future good behaviour. He obtained from
the Protector a renewal of his lease of the
mines royal, and a confirmation of his grant
for coining the silver thence extracted. These
privileges were confirmed in February 1658
by Richard Cromwell, who also protected and
encouraged Bushell in his operations in con-
nection with the lead mines in the forest of
Mendip. Bushell's mining schemes in Somer-
setshire likewise received the sanction of
Charles II ; but little is known of the last
few years of his life. It is probable that he
was much embarrassed by pecuniary difficul-
ties. The pet it ion of ' Thomas Bushell, master
workman of the royal mines,' dated March (?)
1663, prays the king ' for a royal protection
from arrests for two years (on account of his)
having contracted great debts in the service
of the late king, which he hopes to repay in
time from his mineral proceeds.' Bushell died
in April 1674, and was buried in the cloisters
of Westminster Abbey. His wife was Anne,
widow of Sir William Waad, lieutenant of
the Tower.
[The Case of Thomas Bushell, of Enston, in the
County of Oxford, Esquire, truly stated. To-
( gether with his progress in Minerals, London,
; 1 649 ; A Just and True Remonstrance of His Ma-
! jesty's Mines Royal . . . Presented by Thomas
j Bushell, Esq., London and Shrewsbury, 16-12 ;
i Bushell's Tracts cited in the text and various
printed documents relating to his mining schemes
(see Brit. Mus. Catalogue) ; Calendar of State Pa-
pers, Domestic, especially 3 Sept. 1635, November
1635, 22 Oct. 1636, 3 Dec. 1636, 25 Jan. 1636-7,
9 July (?) 1637, 3 Oct. 1638, 16 April 1650,
16 Aug. 1652, 28 June 1653, August (?), Novem-
ber (?) 1660, 18 Nov. 1661, March (?) 1663; Ellis's
Orig. Letters, 2nd ser. iii. 309 ; Memoirs of T.
Bushell by Eev. A. de la Pryme (1878), printed
in Manx Miscellanies, vol. ii. (1880) ; Wood's
Ath. Oxon. iii. 1007-10, s. v. ' Thomas Bushell ; '
Spedding's Life of Bacon, vii. 199, 200, 235;
Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, ii. 237-39 ;
Hawkins's Silver Coins, ed. Kenyon ; Hawkins's
Medallic Illustrations, ed. Franks and Grueber
(Charles II, Nos. 67-69 : Bushell's ' Mining Share
Ticket ') ; Walpole (Anecdotes of Painting) is in
error as to there being a medallist named
Bushell.] W. W.
BUSHNAN, JOHN STEVENSON
(1808 P-1884), medical writer, was born
about 1808. After studying at Heidelberg,
where he graduated M.D., he passed at Edin-
burgh in 1830 the examinations of the Royal
College of Surgeons and of the Royal College
of Physicians. Eventually he settled in
London, where he filled the post of editor of
the ' Medical Times and Gazette ' from 1849
to 1852. He published ' A History of a
Case of Animals in the Blood of a Boy,'
1833 ; and in the same year, from the Ger-
man, Dieflenbach's ' Surgical Observations on
the Restoration of the Nose,' and an ' Intro-
duction to the Study of Nature.' This was
followed in 1837 by the ' Philosophy of In-
stinct and Reason.' In 1840 he contributed
to the Naturalist's Library an article on
' Ichthyology ; ' ' Observations on Hydro-
pathy,' 1846 ; and ' Cholera and its Cures,'
1850. In the same year he published an ' Ad-
dress to the Medical Students of London ; '
and ' The Moral and Sanitary Aspects of the
New Central Cattle-market,'1851 . In this year
he engaged in a controversy with Miss Mar-
tineau, in ' Miss Martineau and her Master.'
He wrote ' Homoeopathy and the Homoeo-
paths ' in 1852 ; ' Household Medicine and
Surgery ' in 1854 ; and in the same year he
contributed to Orr's ' Circle of the Sciences.'
In 1860 he wrote ' Religious Revivals ' and
' Our Holiday at Laverstock House Asylum ; '
and in 1861-2 two reviews in the ' Journal
of Mental Science.'
Ultimately he became unfortunate in his
affairs, his sight failed, and he ended his
Bushnell
Bushnell
days as a ' poor brother ' of the Charter House,
where he died on 17 Feb. 1884, aged 76.
[Medical Times and Gazette, 8 March 1 884.1
J. D.
BUSHNELL, MBS. CATHERINE. [See
HAYES-BTTSHNELL, MADAME CATHEKINE,
1825-1861.]
BUSHNELL, JOHN (d. 1701), sculptor,
was a pupil of Thomas Burman, who, having
seduced his servant girl, forced Bushnell into
marrying her. Bushnell thereupon quitted
England in disgust, and, after studying his
profession for two years in France, travelled
thence into Italy, where he stayed in the first
instance at Rome, but latterly at Venice. In
Venice he carved a sumptuous monument for
a procuratore di San Marco, representing the
siege of Candia and a naval engagement
between the Venetians and Turks. Having
now attained considerable proficiency in his
art, he returned home, and among his first
commissions were the statues of Charles I,
Charles II, and Sir Thomas Gresham for the
Royal Exchange. Probably his best works
were the kings which formerly adorned
Temple Bar, and the statue of John, lord
Mordaunt, in Roman costume at Fulham
church. The monuments of Cowley and
Sir Palmer Fairbourn in Westminster Abbey
are also by him. Bushnell was a man of
a wayward and jealous temper, and various
tales are told of his eccentricities by Walpole
and other authors. He had agreed to com-
plete the set of kings at the Royal Exchange,
but hearing that Caius Cibber [q. v.], his rival,
was also engaged, he would not proceed, al-
though he had begun six or seven. To disprove
the assertion of some of his brother sculptors
that he could not model undraped figures,
he undertook a nude statue of Alexander
the Great, but failed conspicuously. He
next attempted to demonstrate the possi- j
bility of the Trojan horse, and began to
make one upon the same principles, of wood
covered with stucco ; the head was capable
of containing twelve men sitting round a
table, the eyes were to serve as windows.
Before it was half completed, a storm of
wind demolished this unwieldy machine.
The two publicans, who had contracted to
use his horse as a drinking-booth, offered to
be at the expense of erecting it again, but
Bushnell was too greatly discouraged to re-
commence, although his whim had cost him
500/. A still heavier failure was a project
for bringing coals to London in vessels of
his own construction. The collapse of these
and other schemes, together with the loss by
a lawsuit of an estate that he had bought
in Kent, totally upset his already disordered
brain, and he died insane in 1701. He was
buried in Paddington church, but the entry
does not occur in the register, which is im-
perfect during that year (LYSONS'S Environs
of London, iii. 340). He left issue two sons
and a daughter, to whom, despite his losses,
he was able to bequeath a sufficient main-
tenance.
The sons were as eccentric as their father,
for they shut themselves up in a large house
in Piccadilly, fronting Hyde Park, which
had been built but left unfinished by Bush-
nell, having neither staircase nor floors.
' Here,' relates Walpole (Anecdotes of Paint-
ing, Wornum, ii. 623-4), ' they dwelt like
hermits, recluse from all mankind, sordid
and unpracticable, and saying the world had
not been worthy of their father.' To this
strange residence, Vertue, the engraver, after
many previous attempts, gained admission
during the owners' absence in 1725, and has
related what he saw. Among other curiosities
he was shown a bar of iron, ' thicker than a
man's wrist,' which was alleged to have been
broken by one of Bushnell's many inventions.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists ( 1 8 7 8 ), p. 65 .]
G. a.
BUSHNELL, WALTER (1609-1667),
ejected clergyman under the Commonwealth,
was the son of William Bushnell of Corsham,
Wiltshire. He became a batler of Magdalen
Hall, Oxford, in 1628, at the age of nineteen.
He proceeded B.A. 20 Oct. 1631, and M.A.
11 June 1634. He afterwards was appointed
vicar of Box in his native county. He ap-
pears to have escaped disturbance through
the civil wars, but he suffered much perse-
cution at the hands of the commissioners ap-
pointed in August 1654 to eject ' scandalous,
ignorant, and insufficient ministers and school-
masters.' According to his own account he
was summoned before the commissioners at
Marlborough on 21 Jan. 1655-6, and charged
with profaning the sabbath, gambling, drunk-
enness, a specific act of immorality, with
using the common prayer and baptising with
the sign of the cross, and with general dis-
affection to the existing government. The
charges were preferred against Bushnell by a
professional informer named John Travers,
and Bushnell insisted on a public trial. On
28 April 1656 a court was held for the pur-
pose at Market Lavington. A large number
of parishioners were called as witnesses to
support the case for the prosecution, but their
testimony, even if genuine, merely proved
that Bushnell conducted much parish busi-
ness in alehouses, but was not known to drink
to excess. The commissioners adjourned till
4 June, when they met at Calne. 'More testi-
Busk
39
Busk
mony of the vaguest character was there ad-
duced against Bushnell, and at the defendant's
request a further adjournment took place.
On 1 July the court met at Marlborough,
and Bushnell called witnesses for the defence,
but their testimony was refused on the ground
that they were ' against the Commonwealth
and present government/ and their places
were taken by more witnesses on the other
side. On 14 July at Lavington the scene
was repeated ; on 23 July at Salisbury Bush-
nell was privately examined ' touching his
sufficiency,' and was finally ejected from his
living. Under a recent ordinance Bushnell
could claim ' the fifths ' of his living, and this
pittance he obtained with some difficulty.
His case does not differ from that of many
other beneficed clergymen, but it is regarded
as a typical one because Bushnell described
his experience at full length in ' A Narrative
of the Proceedings of the Commissioners ap-
pointed by Oliver Cromwell for ejecting
scandalous and ignorant Ministers in the case
of Walt. Bushnell, clerk, vicar of Box in the
county of Wiltshire.' Under the Common-
wealth the publication of this work was pro-
hibited, but in 1660 it was printed and be-
came popular. Humphrey Chambers, the
chief commissioner concerned, answered the
charge somewhat lamely in a pamphlet pub-
lished in the same year. To this answer was
also appended a ' Vindication of the Commis-
sioners/ by an anonymous writer. At the
Restoration Bushnell was restored to his
living. He died at the beginning of 1667,
and was buried in the church at Box, ' having
then/ says Wood, ' lying by him more things
fit to be printed, as I have been informed by
some of the neighbourhood.'
[Wood's Athense (Bliss), iii. 760, and Fasti
(Bliss), i. 460, 474 ; Walker's Sufferings of Clergy,
pt. i. 189-94, where Bushnell's pamphlet is sum-
marised at length.] S. L. L.
BUSK, HANS, the elder (1772-1862),
scholar and poet, was descended from the
family Du Busc of Normandy, one of whom
was created Marquis de Fresney in 1668. The
great-grandson of the marquis was naturalised
in England in 1723. From his eldest son Lord
Houghton was descended, and his youngest
son was Sir Wordsworth Busk, treasurer of
the Inner Temple. Hans Busk, the youngest
son of Sir Wordsworth Busk and Alice,
daughter and co-heiress of Edward Parish of
Ipswich and Walthamstow, was born on
28 May 1772. Possessing an estate at Glen-
alder, Radnorshire, he took an active interest
in county business, was a justice of the peace,
and for some time high sheriff. His leisure
was devoted to classical studies and general
literature, and he published several volumes
of verse, including 'Fugitive Pieces in Verse/
1814 ; ' The Vestriad or the Opera, a Mock
Epic Poem, in Five Cantos/ 1819; 'The
Banquet, in Three Cantos/ 1819; 'The
Dessert, to which is added the Tea/ 1820 ;
' The Lay of Life/ 1834. He died at Great
Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, on 8 Feb.
1862. By his wife, Maria, daughter and
heiress of Joseph Green, he left two sons
(the eldest of whom was Hans Busk, born
1815 [q. v.]), and five daughters.
[Burke's Landed Gentry, i. 242-3 ; Annual
Register, civ. 336 ; Brit. Mus. Cat.] T. F. H.
BUSK, HANS, the younger (1815-1882),
one of the principal originators of the volun-
teer movement in England, son of Hans Busk,
born 1772 [q. v.],was born on 11 May 1815.
He was educated at King's College, London,
and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gra-
duated B.A. in 1839, and M.A. in 1844. He
was called to the bar at the Middle Temple
in 1841. While still an undergraduate, he
represented to the government the advisability
of forming rifle clubs in the different districts
of the kingdom for defence against invasion,
and on receiving a discouraging reply from
Lord Melbourne, he instituted a model rifle
club in the university, and published a popular
treatise on ' The Rifle and how to use it.' In
1858 he restored vitality to the Victoria Rifles,
the only volunteer corps then existing, and the
lectures he delivered throughout the country-
were instrumental in extending the movement
over the whole kingdom. He also published
a number of treatises and pamphlets, which
proved to be of great practical value in the
development of the movement, and have
passed through numerous editions. They
include ' The Rifleman's Manual/ ' Tabular
Arrangement of Company Drill/ 'Hand-
book for Hythe/ 'Rifle Target Registers/
and ' Rifle Volunteers, how to organise and
drill them.' He took an equal interest in the
navy. Originally it was his intention to
adopt a naval career, and, being forced to
abandon it, he devoted much of his leisure
to yachting. He mastered the principles of
naval construction, and made designs for
several yachts which were very successful.
He was the first to advocate life-ship sta-
tions, and fitted out a model life-ship at his
own expense. In 1859 he published 'The
Navies of the World, their Present State
and Future Capabilities/ a comprehensive
description of the condition of the principal
navies of Europe, with suggestions for the
improvement of the navy of England. By
his friends he was held in high repute as a
gastronome, and characteristically turned his
Buss
Butchell
special knowledge to practical account for
the general good, by assisting to establish,
the school of cookery at South Kensington.
Besides the technical works above referred
to, he was the author of a number of minor
pamphlets, including ' The Education Craze,'
' Horse Viaticse,' and ' Golden Truths.' In
1847 he was chosen high sheriff of Radnor-
shire. He died at Ashley Place, Westminster,
on 11 March 1882. By his wife, Miss Dun-
bar, who died not long after her marriage, he
left a daughter, well known as an authoress.
[Annual Register, cxxiv. 119-20 ; Men of the
Time, 9th ed. ; Burke's Landed Gentry, i. 242 ;
Brit. Mus. Cat.] T. F. H.
BUSS, ROBERT WILLIAM (1804-
1875), subject painter, was born in London
on 4 Aug. 1804. He served an apprentice-
ship with his father, who was an engraver
and enameller, and then studied painting
under George Clint, A.R.A. For some years
he confined himself to painting theatrical
portraits, and many of the leading actors of
the day sat to him, including Macready,
Harley, Buckstone, Miss Tree, and Mrs.
Nisbet. Later he essayed historical and
humorous subjects, and was a frequent exhi-
bitor of pictures of this class at the Royal
Academy, British Institution, and Suffolk
Street between 1826 and 1859. Among his
principal works were ' Watt's First Experi-
ments on Steam,' engraved by James Scott ;
' Soliciting a Vote,' engraved by Lupton,
1834; 'The Stingy Traveller,' engraved by
J. Brown, 1845 ; and ' The Bitter Morning,'
lithographed by T. Fairland, 1834. He also
contributed to the Westminster competition
a cartoon of ' Prince Henry and Judge Gas-
coigne.' Buss illustrated Knight's editions
of ' London,' Chaucer, Shakespeare, and ' Old
England.' He published lectures on ' Comic
and Satiric Art,' 'Fresco,' 'The Beautiful
Picturesques,' and printed privately in 1874
' English Graphic Satire,' with etchings by
himself. He at one time edited ' The Fine
Art Almanack.' He died at Camden Town
on 26 Feb. 1875.
[Eedgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the Eng-
lish School, 8vo, 1878; Athenaeum, 1875, p. 366.1
L. F.
BUSSY, SIB JOHN (d. 1399), speaker of
the House of Commons, was sheriff of Lincoln
in 1379, 1381, and 1391. He was first chosen
a knight of the shire for Lincoln in 1388, and
continued to sit for that county during the
remaining parliaments of Richard II's reign.
He was three times elected speaker, first by
the parliament of 1393-4, and afterwards by
the two parliaments of 1397. Though at
first he showed some signs of a spirit of in-
dependence, he soon became a servile sup-
porter of Richard's arbitrary and unconsti-
tutional action. In the second parliament of
1397, which met at Westminster on 17 Sept.,
Sir John Bussy, Sir William Bagot, and Sir
Thomas Green acted as prolocutors of the
king's grievances, and Fitzalan, archbishop of
Canterbury, the Duke of Gloucester, and the
Earls of Arundel and Warwick were con-
victed of high treason. Bussy gained the
favour of the king by grossly flattering his
vanity. Holinshed, in his account of the trial
of these nobles, says that ' Sir John Bushie in
all his talke, when he proponed any matter
vnto the king, did not attribute to him titles
of honour due and accustomed, but inuented
vnused termes and such strange names as
were father agreeable to the diuine rnaiestie
of God than to any earthlie potentate. The
prince, being desirous of all honour, and more
ambitious than was requisite, seemed to like
well of his speech and gave good eare to his
talke' (ii. 340). This parliament was ad-
journed to Shrewsbury, where it met on
28 Jan. 1398, and Bussy was again formally
presented as speaker. It sat there only three
days, and by its last act delegated its autho-
rity to a committee of eighteen members
twelve lords and six members of the House
of Commons of whom Bussy was one. By
his manipulation of this parliament Richard
had contrived to become an absolute king,
and every man of this committee was be-
lieved by him to be devoted to his interests.
Upon the landing of Henry, duke of Lan-
caster, in England during the absence of
Richard in Ireland, Bussy fled to Bristol.
The Duke of York joined his nephew ; they
marched with their combined armies to Bris-
tol, which quickly surrendered to them, and
Bussy, the Earl of Wiltshire, and Sir Henry
Green, three of the parliamentary committee,
were put to death without trial on 29 July
1399. Shakespeare has introduced Bussy into
the play of 'Richard II' (i. 4, ii. 2, iii. 1).
[Manning's Lives of the Speakers (1851), 14-
21 ; Hot. Parl. iii. 310-85; Parliamentary Papers,
1878, Ixii. (pt. i.) 235-56; Holinshed's Chro-
nicles (1807), ii. 839-54: Stubbs's Constitutional
History of England (1875), ii. 491-502].
G. F. K. B.
BUTCHELL, MARTIN VAN (1785-
1812 ?), empiric, son of Martin van Butchell,
tapestry maker to George II, was born in
Eagle Street, near Red Lion Square, Lon-
don, in February 1735. Having shown an
aptitude for the study of medicine and ana-
tomy, he, became a pupil of John Hunter, and
after successfully practising as a dentist for
many years, he became eminent as a maker
of trusses, and acquired celebrity by his skill
Butcher
Butcher
in treating cases of fistula. He was still
more noted for the eccentricity of his man-
ners. His long beard and extraordinary cos-
tume astonished all beholders, and it was his
custom to ride about in Hyde Park and the
streets on a white pony, which he sometimes
painted all purple, sometimes with purple or
black spots. To defend himself against rude
molestation, he carried a large white bone,
which was said to have been used as q.
weapon of war in the island of Otaheite.
For many years he resided in Mount Street,
Berkeley Square, and attracted numerous
patients by his quaintly worded advertise-
ments in the newspapers.
On the death of his first wife in 1775 he
applied to Dr. William Hunter and Mr.
Cruickshank to exert their skill in preventing,
if possible, the changes of form after the ces-
sation of life. The mode pursued in this em-
balmment was principally that of injecting
the vascular system with oil of turpentine and
camphorated spirit of wine, coloured, so that
the minute vessels of the cheeks and lips
were filled, and exhibited their original hue,
the body in general having its cavities filled
with powdered nitre and camphor, so that it
remained free from corruption ; glass eyes
were also inserted. The corpse was then
deposited in a bed of thin plaster of Paris in
a box with a glass lid that could be with-
drawn at pleasure. For many years Van
Butchell kept the mummy of his wife in his
parlour, and frequently exhibited the corpse
to his friends and visitors. On his second
marriage it was found expedient to remove
the body to the museum of the College of
Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where it
is still preserved. At the present time it is
a repulsive-looking object.
Van Butchell appears to have been alive
in 1812. There is an engraved portrait of
him on his spotted pony in Kirby's ' Won-
derful and Scientific Museum,' 1803.
[Gent. Mag. Ixiii. 5, 6, 165, Ixxvi. 681, Ixxxii.
(i.) 326 ; Kirby's Wonderful Museum, i. 191 ;
Eccentric Magazine (1812), i. 109; Malcolm's
Curiosities of Biography, 333 ; Cat. of Printed
Books in Brit. Mus. ; Lysons's Suppl. to 1st. edit,
of Environs of London, 113; Timbs's Doctors
and Patients, i. 129 ; Evans's Cat. of Engraved
Portraits, 10664 ; Burning the Dead, by a mem-
ber of the Royal Coll. of Surgeons (1857), 13.]
T. C.
BUTCHER, EDMUND (1757-1822), uni-
tarian minister, was born on 28 April 1757,
at Colchester. He was descended from John
Butcher, vicar of Peering, Essex, about 1667.
The only son of an unsuccessful builder, he
had early to struggle for a living. His pri-
mary education was given him by Dr. Tho-
mas Stanton, presbyterian minister at Col-
chester. At fourteen years of age he gave
sign of precocious talent in an heroic poem,
the ' Brutseis,' illustrated with pen-and-ink
drawings (not printed). He was soon ap-
prenticed to a London linendraper, and at
this early age wrote for periodicals, sending
the profits to his parents and sister. Subse-
quently the family inherited the small estate
of their ancestor above mentioned. Butcher
attended the ministry of Hugh Worthing-
ton, the eloquent Arian of Salters' Hall, who
prepared him for the ministry. He entered
Daventry academy, under Thomas Belsham,
in 1783, having previously received some clas-
sical training from Richard Wright, presby-
terian minister at Atherstone. He had been
taught the assembly's catechism, but he says
he never gave credence to the trinitarian
doctrine, and his studies confirmed him in
Arian views. His first settlement was at
Sowerby, near Halifax, but he soon removed
to London, where Worthington got him
temporary engagements at Monkwell Street
and Carter Lane. He was ordained 19 March
1789 as successor to Thomas Pope at Leather
Lane, Holborn. In this ordination Bel-
sham, who was still reputed orthodox, was
associated, for the first time, with Lindsey,
the only humanitarian minister in London,
and five Arian ministers. While at Leather
Lane Butcher took part with others in the
Wednesday evening lecture established by
Worthington (after 1792) at Salters' Hall.
His feebleness of voice precluded him from
popularity, and compelled his retirement
from active duty in 1797. Butcher's lungs
recovered tone, and in 1798 he became mi-
nister at Sidmouth. Here he remained
till 1820, building a house on a piece of
ground presented to him by a member of a
wealthy Jewish family, who attended his
services. Relinquishing all belief in a pro-
pitiatory atonement, his views gradually
passed from the Arian to the humanitarian
form of unitarianism. A paralytic stroke
weakened the later years of his ministry,
but did not prevent him from preaching.
Early in 1821 he went to reside with his son
at Bristol, and removed thence in November
to Bath. A fall, which dislocated his hip,
confined him to bed. He died on Sunday
(his own wish), 14 April 1822, and was
buried at Lyncomb Vale, near Bath. A
tablet to his memory was placed in the Old
Meeting House, Sidmouth. One who knew
him describes him as ' a most lovable man in
all respects.' He married, 6 July 1790, Eliza-
beth, eldest daughter of John Lawrence, a
Shropshire landowner, and widow of Samuel
Lowe ; she died at Bath 25 Nov. 1831. By
Butcher
Butcher
her he had one son, Edmund, and a daughter,
Emma. Butcher is known among topo-
graphers by his account of Sidmouth, and
among poets by a few hymns of great merit, j
His hymn ' From north and south ' won the
warm commendation of Mrs. Barbauld. He I
published : 1 .' Sermons, to which are subjoined j
suitable Hymns,' 1798, 8vo (the hymns are J
original, and intended as ' poetical epitomes '
of the twenty-one sermons ; the second edi- j
tion, 1805, 8vo, has title ' Sermons for the j
use of Families,' contains twenty-two ser- j
mons and no hymns). 2. ' Moral Tales,' i
1801, 12mo. 3. The Substance of the ;
Holy Scriptures methodised,' 1801, 4to, 2nd
ed. 1813, 4to (intended as a sort of family
Bible ; Butcher assisted Worthington and
others in its preparation, and contributed a
hymn to each lesson). 4. 'An Excursion
from Sidmouth to Chester in the Summer of
1803,' 2 vols. 1805, 12mo. 5. ' A Picture of
Sidmouth ; ' the fourth edition, Exeter [1830],
12mo, has title ' A new Guide, descriptive of
the Beauties of Sidmouth.' 6. ' Sermons for
the use of Families,' vol. ii. 1806, 8vo.
7. 'Unitarian Claims described and vindi-
cated,' 1809, 12mo (sermon on 2 Cor. x. 7, at
Bridgwater, Wednesday, 5 July, before the
Western Unitarian Society, of biographical
interest as giving the process by which he
reached his latest views). 8. ' Sermons for
the use of Families,' vol. iii. 1819, 8vo (twenty-
eight sermons printed at the Chiswick Press;
the preface, 1 May, reproduces the autobiogra-
phical details of No. 7). 9. ' Prayers for the
use of Families and Individuals,' 1822, 8vo
(one for each sermon in his three volumes, and
some for special occasions) ; and single ser-
mons. Posthumous were 10. ' Discourses
on our Lord's Sermon on the Mount/ Bath
and London, 1825, 12mo (twenty-one ser-
mons edited by his widow ; the preface says
he had selected the materials for another
volume). 11. 'A Poetical Version of the
Chronological History of the Kings of Eng-
land,' 1827, 12mo. Besides these, Butcher
contributed to the ' Protestant Dissenters'
Magazine,' 1794-9 (see especially vol. i. pp
120, 204, 246, 330, 373, 417, 460, for poetical
pieces), and edited the later volumes.
[Evans, in Monthly Kepos. 1822, p. 309 seq.
(revised in Christian Moderator, 1827, p. 347
seq.); Monthly Eepos. 1821, p. 345 ; 1822, pp.
285, 332, 471 ; 1832, p. 70 ; Belsham's Mem. of
Lindsey, 1812, p. 292 ; Murch's Hist, of Presb.
and Gen. Bapt. Churches in W. of Eng. 1835,
p. 349 seq. ; Lawrence's Descendants of Philip
Henry, 1844, p. 21 seq. ; Miller's Our Hymns,
1866, p. 265 seq. ; Spears's Becord of Unit.
Worthies (1877), p. 211 ; private information.]
A. G. '
BUTCHER, RICHARD (1583-1665?),
antiquary, was a native of Stamford, and be-
came town clerk of that borough. He com-
piled ' The Survey and Antiquitie of the
Towne of Stamforde, in the county of Lin-
colne,' Lond. 1646, 4to, reprinted Lond. 1717,
8vo, and also with additions by Francis Peck,
at the end of his 'Academia tertia Angli-
cana ; or the Antiquarian Annals of Stanford,'
Lond. 1727, fol. A manuscript by him, in
two volumes, entitled 'Antiquity revived,'
is preserved in the library of St. John's Col-
lege, Cambridge. It is a translation from
Camden. Butcher's portrait has been en-
graved by Clamp.
[Gough's British Topography, ii. 29, 523 ;
Granger's Biog.Hist. of England (1824), iii. 152;
Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 573; Lowndes's Bibl.
Man. (Bonn), 352.] T. C.
BUTCHER, SAMUEL, D.D. (1811-
1876), bishop of Meath, eldest son of Vice-
admiral Samuel Butcher, was born in 1811
at his father's residence, Danesfort, near Kil-
larney, co. Kerry. His mother was Eliza-
beth, daughter of Richard Townsend Herbert,
of Cahirnane, in the same county. He was
educated at home until his sixteenth or
seventeenth year, when his father removed
to Cork, and he was sent to the school of
Drs. Hamblin and Porter. In 1829 he en-
tered Trinity College, Dublin, where he won
high honours in classics and mathematics,
and obtained a foundation scholarship for
classics in 1832. He graduated in 1834,
obtained a fellowship in 1837, and was soon
after appointed tutor and lecturer. The im-
provement in classical taste and scholar-
ship which was observable about this time
in the university of Dublin has been with
justice attributed in no small degree to But-
cher's lectures. In 1849 the degree of D.D.
was conferred on him. In 1850 he was ap-
pointed to the professorship of ecclesiastical
history, and two years later to the important
office of regius professor of divinity, on which
occasion he vacated his fellowship. In 1854
he accepted the college living of Ballymoney,
co. Cork, which he continued to hold along
with his professorship until, on the recom-
mendation of Lord Derby, he was appointed
in August 1866 to the vacant see of Meath,
the premier bishopric of Ireland. Butcher
ably supported the Irish church against ex-
ternal assailants, and his wise and moderate
counsels contributed not a little to avert
the dangers of disruption which threatened
it after its disestablishment. He laboured
unsparingly to reorganise the affairs of the
church throughout Ireland, and especially
in his own diocese. He took an active part
in promoting the movement for securing
Bute
Butler
an endowment for the divinity school in j
Trinity College. On the important question [
of the revision of the prayer book ' Dr. '
Butcher rather sided with the revision party,
to which undoubtedly his character, position, j
and learning contributed very considerable ',
weight ' (Freeman's Journal, 31 July 1876).
In the midst of these labours, and while still
in the enjoyment of a remarkably vigorous
constitution, he was suddenly prostrated by a
severe attack of congestion of the lungs and
bronchitis. In a moment of delirium he in-
flicted on himself a wound from which he
expired almost immediately. He died on
29 July 1876, at his episcopal residence, Ard-
braccan House, Navan. His public life was
a solid and unbroken success, no less honour-
able to himself than useful to the university
and the church to which he belonged. Within
the private circle of his own family he was !
peculiarly happy and fortunate, and he pos-
sessed in the fullest degree the affection of his
friends and the respect of the public. He was j
buried in the churchyard of Ardbraccan. He |
married, in 1847, Mary, second daughter of j
John Leahy, of South Hill, Killarney, by i
whom he had two sons and four daughters, j
His eldest son (S. H. Butcher) is now (1886) j
professor of Greek at Edinburgh.
His published works consist chiefly of oc-
casional addresses, sermons, and charges to
his clergy, and a treatise (published after his
death) on the ' Theory and Construction of
the Ecclesiastical Calendar,' London, 1877.
Of his charges perhaps the one which ex-
cited most attention was that of October 1874
(Dublin), in which he dealt exhaustively with
Professor Tyndall's address to the British
Association, delivered in Belfast in 1874.
[Cork Examiner ; Saunders's Newsletter,
8 Aug. 1866 ; Irish Times, 7 Aug. 1866; Daily
Express, 31 July 1876.] G. V. B.
BUTE, EAKLS and MAKQTTISES OF. [See
STUAKT.]
BUTLER, ALBAN (1711-1773), hagio-
grapher, was descended from the ancient
family of the Butlers of Aston-le- Walls, in
Northamptonshire. Towards the close of the
seventeenth century that family was repre-
sented by two brothers, Alban and Simon.
Albau, the elder, had issue only one daughter,
who married Mr. Edward Plowden, of Plow-
den, Shropshire. She inherited the estate
at Aston-le-Walls, and from her it descended
to the Plowden family. The Appletree estate
devolved to Simon, the younger brother. His
son, also named Simon, married Ann,daughter
of Thomas Birch, of Garscott, Staffordshire.
They had issue three sons, Charles, Alban,
and James. At a very early age Alban
Butler was sent to a school in Lancashire,
where he distinguished himself by his intense
application to literature, sacred biography
being, even then, his favourite pursuit.
When eight years old he was transferred to
the English college at Douay, and about this
time lost both his parents. After the usual
course of study he was admitted an alumnus
of the college, and appointed professor, first
of philosophy, and then of divinity. He was
ordained priest in 1735. The solicitude with
which he tended the wounded English
soldiers who were conveyed as prisoners to
Douay, after the battle of Fontenoy, was
brought under the notice of the Duke of
Cumberland, who promised Butler a special
protection whenever he should come over to
England. While he remained at Douay his
first publication made its appearance : ' Letters
on the History of the Popes published by
Mr. Archibald Bower ' [q. v.] In 1745-6 he
accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury and the
Hon. James Talbot and Thomas Talbot on
their travels through France and Italy. He
wrote a full account of the tour, which was
published at Edinburgh in 1803 by his
nephew, Charles Butler. On his return from
his travels he was sent to the English mis-
sion. He had long been engaged in com-
posing the ' Lives of the Saints,' and he
naturally wished to be stationed in London
for its literary resources ; but the vicar apo-
stolic of the midland district claimed him as
belonging to that district, and appointed him
to a mission in Staffordshire. Thence he re-
moved to Warkworth, the seat of Mr. Francis
Eyre, and next he was appointed chaplain
to Edward, duke of Norfolk, and charged
with superintending the education of Edward,
the duke's nephew, and presumptive heir to
the title. His first residence, after he was ap-
pointed to this situation, was at Norwich, in
a house generally called the Duke's palace.
Thither some large boxes of books belonging
to him were directed, but by mistake were
sent to the bishop's palace. The bishop
opened them, and, finding that they contained
catholic books, refused to deliver them. In
this difficulty Butler appealed to the Duke of
i Cumberland, who immediately wrote to the
j bishop, and the books were sent to the owner.
Butler accompanied his pupil, Mr. Edward
Howard, to Paris, where that young noble-
man, who was the Marcellus of the English
I catholics, was suddenly taken ill and died a
\ few days afterwards. During his residence
j in the French capital he completed his ' Lives
I of the Saints,' a monument of erudition on
, which he had been engaged for thirty years.
I The work was published anonymously in
j London, the full title being ' The Lives of
Butler
44
Butler
the Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal
Saints ; compiled from original monuments
and other authentick records; illustrated
with the remarks of judicious modern criticks
and historians.' The original edition, bearing
the imprint of London, but without the
printer's name, appeared in four bulky octavo
volumes, the first two in 1756 ; the third,
consisting of two parts, in 1757 and 1758 ;
and the fourth in 1759. The notes were
omitted from this edition on the suggestion
of Bishop Challoner. The second edition
was undertaken after Butler's death by Dr.
Carpenter, archbishop of Dublin, and pub-
lished in that city in 12 vols. 8vo, 1779-80.
It contains all the notes omitted from the
previous edition, and other matter prepared
by the author. The third edition, also in
12 vols., appeared at Edinburgh in 1798-
1800. Other editions were published at Lon- j
don, 12 vols., 1812 ; and at Dublin, 2 vols., J
1833-6, 8vo. Dr. Husenbeth's edition was
begun in 1857. A 'free' translation into |
French, by the Abb6 Godescard, and Marie j
Villefranche, in 12 vols. 8vo, was published |
in 1763 and subsequent years ; a new edition,
in 10 vols., appeared at Besancon in 1843. :
The work has been translated into Italian by .
G. Brunati.
Soon after his return to England he was
chosen president of the English college at
Saint-Omer. This office he continued to hold
during the remainder of his life. He was
also appointed vicar-general to the bishops of
Arras, Saint-Omer, Ypres, and Boulogne-sur-
Mer. He died at Saint-Omer on 15 May 1773.
He projected many works besides the
' Lives of the Saints.' His ' Life of Mary of
the Cross,' a nun in the English convent of
Poor Clares at Rouen, appeared in his life-
time ; but his treatise on the ' Moveable
Feasts and Fasts, and other Annual Obser-
vances of the Catholic Church/ was left in-
complete, and was published after his death
by Bishop Challoner in 1774. He made large
collections for lives of Bishop Fisher and
Sir Thomas More ; and he began a treatise
to explain the evidence and truths of natural
and revealed religion, being dissatisfied with
what Bergier had published on those subjects.
He composed many sermons and an immense
number of pious discourses. From what re-
mained of the latter the 'Meditations and
Discourses on the sublime Truths and impor-
tant Duties of Christianity,' published by his
nephew Charles Butler (1750-1832) [q. v.]
(3 vols., London, 1791-3), were collected. He
was also the author of ' The Life of Sir Tobie
Matthews,' published at London in 1795 by
his nephew, who also edited his uncle's ' Tra-
vels through France and Italy, and part of
Austrian, French, and Dutch Netherlands,
during the years 1745 and 1746 ' (Edinburgh.
1803).
His portrait has been engraved by Finden.
[Life of his nephew, Charles Butler (Edin.
1800, with portrait) ; Catholicon, iv. 184; Ca-
tholic Magazine and Review (Birmingham, 1832),
ii.451 ; Edinburgh Catholic Magazine (1832-3),
i. 166; Notes and Queries (1st series), viii. 387,
ix. 360, (2nd series) ix. 502, x. 79, (3rd series)
vi. 538, (5th series) vi. 409, vii. 35 ; Evans's
Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 65 ; The True
State of the Case of John Butler, B.C., a Minister
of the True Church of England ; in answer to
the Libel of Martha, his sometimes wife (Lond.
1697) ; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), 332 ; Cat.
of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.] T. C.
BUTLER, CHARLES (d. 1647), philolo-
gist and author of ' The Feminine Monarchic,'
was born at one of the Wycombes (' Great
Wycomb, I suppose,' says Wood) in Bucking-
h,amshire. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford,
in 1579, and afterwards became a bible-clerk
at Magdalen College, where he took the degree
of B. A. on 6 Feb. 1583-4, and proceeded M.A.
on 28 June 1587. On leaving the university
he received the mastership of the free school
in Basingstoke, Hampshire, which appoint-
ment, together with the cure of a small
church 'named Skewres, he held for seven
years. Afterwards he was advanced to the
poor vicarage of Laurence- Wotton (three
miles from Basingstoke), where he continued
to officiate for forty-eight years. He died on
29 March 1647, and was buried in the chan-
cel of Laurence- Wotton church.
Butler is the author of 'The Feminine
Monarchic, or a Treatise concerning Bees
and the due ordering of Bees,' 1609, 8vo. Pre-
fixed to the treatise are some commendatory
verses by Warner, South, and H. Crosby ; the
preface to the reader is dated from Wotton,
11 July 1609. A second edition, with com-
mendatory verses by Wither, and a frontis-
piece, appeared in 1623. The third edition
(1634) is printed in phonetic spelling, under
the title of ' The Feminin' Monarch!', or the
Histori of Bees.' A Latin translation by
Richard Richardson, of Emmanuel College,
was published in 1673. The most curious part
of this entertaining book is the bees' song, a
stave of musical notes, arranged in triple
time, to represent the humming of bees at
swarming. Butler had previously written a
Latin treatise on rhetoric, ' Rhetorics Libri
Duo. Quorum Prior de Tropis & Figuris, Pos-
terior de Voce & Gestu praecipit,' 4to, which
is not known to have been published before
1629, although the dedicatory epistle to Lord
Keeper Egerton is dated from Basingstoke
' 5 Idus Martii 1600.' In 1625 Butler pub-
Butler
45
Butler
lished a treatise displaying considerable learn-
ing on affinity as a bar to marriage. The title
of the work is ' SuyyeVeia. De Propinquitate
Matrimonium impediente Regula, quse una
omnes qutestionis hujus difficultates facile
expediat,' Oxford, 4to. In 1633 appeared
' The English Grammar, or the Institution
of Letters, Syllables, and Words in the Eng-
lish Tongue. Whereunto is annexed an index
of words like and unlike,' Oxford, 4to ; 2nd ed.
1634, Oxford, 4to. The author dwells upon
the capriciousness of English orthography
(' neither our new writers agreeing with the
old, nor either new nor old among them-
selves '), and proposes the adoption of a sys-
tem whereby men should ' write altogether
according to the sound now generally re-
ceived.' Butler's last work was ' The Prin-
ciples of Musik in Singing and Setting. With
the two-fold vse thereof, Ecclesiasticall and
Civil,' London, 1636, 4to, dedicated to Prince
Charles. Hawkins commends this treatise as
learned and valuable.
[Wood's Athense (ed. Bliss), iii. 209-10, Fasti,
i. 223, 240 ; Hist, of Hampshire by Woodward,
Willis, and Lockhart, iii. 230-2 ; Fuller's Wor-
thies; Hawkins's History of Music, ed. 1853,
p. 574.] A. H. B.
BUTLER, CHARLES (1750-1832), ca-
tholic and legal writer, was the son of James
Butler, brother of the Rev. Alban Butler
[q. v.], author of the ' Lives of the Saints,'
and was descended from the ancient family
of the Butlers of Aston-le- Walls, North-
amptonshire. James Butler settled in Lon-
don and carried on the business of a linen-
draper at the sign of the Golden Ball in
Pall Mall. There Charles Butler was born
on 14 Aug. 1750. In his sixth year he was
sent to a catholic school at Hammersmith,
kept by a Mr. Plunkett. He remained there
three years, and was then sent to Esquerchin,
a school dependent on the English college
at Douay, to which college, after three years,
he was removed. He continued his studies
to the end of rhetoric. About 1766 he re-
turned to England, and in 1769 began the
study of the law under Mr. Maire, a catho-
lic conveyancer. On the decease of that
gentleman he was placed under the care of
Mr. Duane, a catholic conveyancer of much
greater eminence. Here he formed a close
friendship with John Scott, afterwards Lord
Eldon, who, after attaining to legal emi-
nence, did not forget his old fellow-student.
In 177o Butler set up in business for him-
self, and entered at Lincoln's Inn. At this
period a catholic could not be called to the
bar nor hold any official position. In these
circumstances Butler commenced practice
under the bar as a conveyancer, which de-
partment of the profession was then be-
coming particularly celebrated, and counted
among its members Fearne, Booth, Duane,
Shadwell, and others nearly as famous. For
many years he was in the full swing of prac-
tice, and he was at the head of his profession
as a landed property lawyer and a convey-
ancer until his seventy-fifth year, when he
experienced a decay in his sight, and his
business considerably declined. He had nu-
merous pupils, and he took delight in making
the fortunes of all the young barristers who
studied under him. While he was drawing
deeds, writing opinions, and delivering c^icta
to his pupils, he was editing ' Coke upon
Littleton,' in conjunction with Mr. Hargrave,
or composing some literary work. He would
steal from his home, even in midwinter, at
four in the morning, taking his lantern, light-
ing the fire in his chamber, and setting dog-
gedly to work till breakfast-time. The whole
of the day afterwards was given to the ordi-
nary routine of business.
In the 31st George III, c. 32, an act passed
for the relief of the catholics, a clause was
inserted ( 6), as it was understood by the
instrumentality of Lord Eldon, then solicitor-
general, for dispensing with the necessity of
a barrister taking the oath of supremacy or
the declaration against transubstantiation.
Soon after the passing of this statute Butler
availed himself of its provisions, and in 1791
he was called to the bar, being the first ca-
tholic barrister since the revolution of 1688.
He took this degree rather for the sake of
the rank than with any intention of going
into court, and he never argued any case at
the bar, except the celebrated one of ' Chol-
mondeley v. Clinton ' before Sir Thomas Plu-
mer and the House of Lords. His argument
is printed at great length in the reports of
Merivale and of Jacob and Walker. In 1832
the lord chancellor (Brougham) informed
him that, if he chose to accept a silk gown, he
was desirous of giving it to him, and he was
accordingly called within the bar and made
a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. He took the
honour, however, without any view to prac-
tice, and he never appeared in court except
on the day on which he received his rank,
when the lord chancellor departed from the
common rule and complimented him on his
advancement. This honour was thrown open
to him by the catholic relief act.
Butler acted as secretary to the committees
formed for promoting the abolition of the
penal laws. The first of these committees
was appointed in 1782 at a general meeting
of the English catholics. It consisted of
five members, all laymen ; it was to continue
Butler
4 6
Butler
for five years, and its object was to promote
and attend to the affairs of the catholic body
in England. Dr. (afterwards bishop) Milner,
who was Butler's constant and uncompro-
mising antagonist, writing in 1820, says that
' here probably begins that system of lay
interference in the ecclesiastical affairs of
English catholics which .... has perpetu-
ated disorder, divisions, and irreligion among
too many of them for nearly the last forty
years.' The only measure which engaged
the attention of the committee was an abor-
tive scheme for the establishment of a regu-
lar hierarchy by the appointment of bishops
in ordinary instead of vicars apostolic. This
first committee was succeeded by another,
formed in 1787, consisting of ten lay mem-
bers, to whom were added, in the year follow-
ing, three ecclesiastics. In 1788 the com-
mittee resolved that Butler, their secretary,
should prepare a bill for the repeal of the
laws against the catholics. This was accom-
panied by a declaration of catholic princi*
pies, known as the 'Protestation/ which
was transmitted to the vicars-apostolic, and
eventually, but very reluctantly, signed by
them. The committee soon framed an oath
containing a new profession of faith, in which
they adopted the extraordinary name of Pro-
testing Catholic Dissenters. The oath was
formally condemned by the unanimous deci-
sion of the four vicars-apostolic (October
1789), but in spite of this Butler wrote an
' Appeal ' addressed to the catholics of Eng-
land, in defence of the ' protestation ' and
' oath,' which appeal was signed by two cle-
rical and five lay members of the committee,
who also signed a long letter to the vicars-
apostolic, remonstrating against their cen-
sure. These papers form the contents of the
first of the three famous ' blue books,' so
called from their being stitched up in blue,
or rather purple covers. Two of the vicars-
apostolic died soon after the condemnation
of the oath, and these deaths led to active
intrigues on the part of the committee to
procure the appointment of two successors
who might favour their views. Various pub-
lications appeared, the object of which was
to persuade the clergy and laity that they
had a right to choose their own bishops and
to procure their consecration by any bishop
without reference to the pope. This scheme
fell through, and two new vicars-apostolic
having been appointed by the holy see, they
joined with Dr. Walmesley, the vicar-apo-
stolic of the western district, in an encycli-
cal letter, condemning the proposed oath
and disapproving the appellation of protest-
ing catholic dissenters. Instead of submit-
ting, however, the committee published a
' protest,' drawn up by Butler, against the
encyclical, and pressed forward the bill con-
taining the condemned oath. At this junc-
ture Dr. Milner was appointed by the two
new vicars-apostolic to act as their agent,
and he exerted himself to the utmost to cir-
cumvent the designs of the committee. His
efforts were crowned with success. Soon
after the bill was introduced the ministry
obliged the committee to drop their new ap-
pellation, and they resumed their proper
name of Roman catholics. The condemned
oath was discarded by parliament, and the
Irish oath of 1778 was substituted for it, as
the bishops had petitioned.
After the passing of the bill on 7 June
1791 the services of the committee were no
longer required, but the members determined
to preserve its principles and spirit in another
association. Accordingly the Cis- Alpine Club
was established (12 April 1792), its avowed
object being ' to resist any ecclesiastical in-
terference which may militate against the
freedom of English catholics.' Eventually
a reconciliation was effected between the
members of the club and the vicars-apostolic,
by means of what was called at the time
' the mediation,' and the catholic board was
founded in 1808. At a later period Butler
was strongly in favour of giving the govern-
ment a veto on the appointment of catholic
bishops, and this led him into another fierce
conflict with Milner, who again achieved a
triumph. Butler was, in fact, an ultra-Galli-
can in regard to his religious views, while
his political opinions coincided with those of
his distinguished friend, Charles James Fox,
and his sympathy was with the French revo-
lution in its civil, though not in its religious,
aspect. Towards the close of his life he re-
tracted some of the opinions contained in his
writings, and, to quote the words of a per-
sonal friend of his, 'he then became a Gallican
within the limits of orthodoxy.' He died at
his house in Great Ormond Street, London,
on 2 June 1832, aged 82. He married Mary,
daughter of John Eyston, of East Hen-
dred, in Berkshire, and left two surviving
daughters. The elder, Mary, married Lieut.-
colonel Charles Stonor, and Theresia, the
younger, became the wife of Andrew Lynch,
of Lynch Castle, in the town of Galway.
His portrait has been engraved by Sievier
from a painting by Barry.
As a lawyer he will be remembered chiefly
on account of his having continued and com-
pleted Hargrave's edition of ' Coke upon Lit-
tleton.' In 1785 Hargrave relinquished his
part of this arduous undertaking, having an-
notated to folio 190, being nearly one half
of the work, which consists of 393 folios.
Butler
47
Butler
The other half was undertaken by Butler,
and published in 1787. The merits of this
edition of Lord Coke's first institute have
been proved by numerous reprints, and But-
ler's notes have been universally considered
the most valuable part of the work. In 1809
he brought out the sixth edition of Fearne's
' Essay on Contingent Remainders.'
His ' Philological and Biographical Works,'
published in 5 vols. in 1817, comprise : In
vol. i. ' Horse Biblicse,' being a connected
series of notes on the text and literary his-
tory of the bibles or sacred books of the Jews
and Christians ; and on the bibles or books
accounted sacred by the Mahometans, Hin-
dus, Parsees, Chinese, and Scandinavians.
This work, published first in 1797, has been
translated into French. In vol. ii., ' History
of the Geographical and Political Revolutions
of the Empire of Germany,' originally pub-
lished in 1806. ' Horse Juridicse Subsecivse,'
or notes on the Grecian, Roman, Feudal, and
Canon Law, published first in 1804. In vol.
iii., ' Lives of Fenelon, Bossuet, Boudon, De
Ranee", Kempis, and Alban Butler. In vol.
iv., ' An Historical and Literary Account of
the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or
Symbolic Books of the Roman Catholic,
Greek, and principal Protestant Churches,'
published originally in 1816; and various
essays. In vol. v., ' Historical Memoirs of
the Church of France.'
Among his works not included in the above
collection are: 1. ' Biographical Account of
the Chancellor 1'Hopital and of the Chancel-
lor d'Aguesseau, with a short historical no-
tice of the Mississippi scheme,' 1814. 2. ' His-
torical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and
Scottish Catholics since the Reformation ;
with a succinct account of the principal events
in the ecclesiastical history of this country
antecedent to that period, and in the histories
of the established church and the dissenting
congregations,'4vols., London, 1819-21, 8vo;
3rd edit., considerably augmented, 4 vols.,
London, 1822, 8vo. This book contains much
useful information, but Butler's statements
should be received with caution. Some of
them are corrected in Bishop Milner's ' Sup-
plementary Memoirs of English Catholics,'
1820. 3. ' Continuation of the Rev. Alban
Butler's Lives of the Saints to the Present
Time,' with some biographical accounts of
the Holy Family, Pope Pius VI, Cardinal
Ximenes, Cardinal Bellarmine, Bartholomew
de Martyribus, and St. Vincent of Paul ; with
a republication of his historical memoirs of
the Society of Jesus, 1823. 4. ' Reminis-
cences,' 4th ed., 2 vols., 1824. 5. ' The
Book of the Roman Catholic Church,' in a
series of letters addressed to Robert Southey,
Esq., on his 'Book of the Church,' 1825.
Southey's rejoinder was entitled ' Vindiciae
EcclesiaeAnglicanae,' 1826, and Dr. Phillpotts,
afterwards bishop of Exeter, answered the
theological part of Butler's book. Altogether
ten replies appeared on the protestant side ;
another reply was composed by the Rev.
Richard Garnett, but this still remains in
manuscript. To these Butler rejoined in the
two following publications : 6. ' A Letter
to the Right Rev. C. J. Blomfield, bishop of
Chester, in vindication of a passage in the
Book of the Roman Catholic Church, censured
in a Letter addressed to the Author, by his
lordship,' 1825. 7. ' Vindication of the Book
of the Roman Catholic Church,' 1826. After
the appearance of the ' Vindication,' six ad-
ditional replies were published by the writers
on the protestant side of the question, in re-
ference to which Butler added an Appendix
to his ' Vindication.' 8. ' The Life of Eras-
mus, with Historical Remarks on the state
of Literature between the tenth and six-
teenth Centuries,' 1825. 9. 'The Life of
Hugo Grotius, with brief Minutes of the
Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of
the Netherlands,' 1826. 10. 'Memoir of the
Life of Henry Francis d'Aguesseau, with an
account of the Roman and Canon Law,' 1830.
His letter-books, containing transcripts of
his correspondence between 1808 and 1818,
are preserved in the British Museum (Addit.
MSS. 25127-25129). These valuable vo-
lumes were presented to the museum by Mr.
William Heslop, who rescued them from de-
struction as waste paper.
[Rev. W. J. Amherst on the Jubilee of Eman -
cipation in Catholic Progress, 1879-84; C. But-
ler's Reminiscences, and his Memoirs of English
Catholics ; Catholic Magazine and Review (Bir-
mingham, 1831-4), i. 571, ii. 262, 448, 451, v.
206 ; Catholicon, iv. 184 ; Dibdin's Literary Re-
miniscences, i. 129 ; Edinburgh Catholic Maga-
zine (1832-3), i. 101, 166; Evans's Cat. of En-
graved Portraits, ii. 65 ; Gent. Mag., N.S., cii.
(ii.), 269, 661; Georgian Era, iii. 568 ; Prefaces
to Hargrave and Butler's edition of Coke upon
Littleton; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 257;
Home and Foreign Review, ii. 536 ; Husen-
beth's Life of Bishop Milner ; Legal Observer,
iv. 113; Addit. MSS. 25127-25129, 28167 ff.
85-87; Martineau's Hist, of England (1850), ii.
190 ; Milner's Supplementary Memoirs of Eng-
lish Catholics ; Moore's Journals and Corrresp.
iv. 261, v. 19; Nichols's Illust. of Lit. v. 615,
618, 680, 692, viii. 333; Notes and Queries
(2nd series), viii. 494 ; Pamphleteer, Nos. 2, 14,
45, 49 ; Parr's Life and Works, viii. 505-12 ;
Southey's Life and Corresp. v. 204, 207, 234 ;
Tablet, 17 April, 1875, p. 493.] T. C.
BUTLER, EDMUND (d. 1551), arch-
bishop of Cashel, illegitimate son of Piers,
Butler
4 8
Butler
eighth Earl of Ormonde, studied at Oxford,
became a canon regular of St. Augustine, and
was appointed prior of the abbey of that order
at Athassel in the county of Tipperary. In
1524 Butler was nominated by the pope to the
archbishopric of Cashel, with permission to
retain the priory of Athassel. The consecra-
tion of Butler took place in 1527. He was
a member of the privy council in Ireland,
held a provincial synod at Limerick in 1529,
and, on the dissolution of religious houses
in Ireland, surrendered the abbey of Athas-
sel to the crown.
Butler was present in the parliament at
Dublin in 1541 which enacted the statute
conferring the title of ' King of Ireland ' on
Henry VIII and his heirs. The communica-
tion addressed to the king on this subject,
bearing the signature of the Archbishop of
Cashel, has been reproduced on plate Ixxi
in the third part of ' Facsimiles of National
Manuscripts of Ireland.' Butler's autograph
and archiepiscopal seal were attached to the
' Complaint ' addressed to Henry VIII in
1542 by 'the Gentlemen, Inheritors, and
Freeholders of the county of Tipperary.'
This document also appears in the same
' Facsimiles.' A letter from Butler to the
Protector, Somerset, in 1548, is preserved
among the state papers in the Public Record
Office, London. In 1549-50 Butler took part
at Limerick with James, Earl of Desmond, and
the king's commissioners, in the enactment
of ordinances for the government of Munster.
References to Butler and his proceedings
concerning public affairs in the districts of
Ireland with which he was connected occur
in the English governmental correspondence
of his time. Butler died in March 1550-1,
and was buried in the cathedral, Cashel,
under an elaborate marble monument which
he had erected, but which does not now exist.
[Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 757 ; Archie-
piscoporum Casselliensium Vitse, 1626; Ware's
Bishops of Ireland, i. 482-3 ; Hibernia Sacra,
1717; State Papers, Ireland; Annals of the King-
dom of Ireland, 1 848 ; Shirley's Original Letters,
1851 ; Brady's Episcopal Succession, 1876.]
j. T. a.
BUTLER, SIK EDWARD GERARD
(1770-1825), one of the heroes of the affair
at Villiers-en-Couche, entered the army by
purchasing a cornetcy in the 15th light dra-
goons in 1792. He was at once sent to Flanders
on the outbreak of the war in 1793, and on
24 April 1794 was one of the officers of the two
companies of his regiment which overthrew
a French army and saved the life of the em-
peror. Landrecy was closely invested by the
Austrian and English armies, when a corps
of 10,000 Frenchmen moved from Caesar's
camp to raise the siege. Their march Avas
so rapid that they were close to the allied
lines, and on the point of taking the emperor
himself prisoner as he was riding along the
road almost unattended, when General Otto
perceived the danger, and ordered the only
cavalry he had at hand, namely, 160 of the
15th light dragoons and 112 Austrian hus-
sars, to charge the French, in order rather to
save the emperor than to defeat the enemy.
They charged, and the French were seized
with an unaccountable panic and fled, leav-
ing three guns behind them. For this gallant
charge the emperor conferred upon every one
of the eight English officers who were present
the order of Maria Theresa, and the king of
England, at the emperor's request, knighted
them all. Butler had been promoted lieutenant
in the llth light dragoons in May 1794, and he
was in 1796 gazetted major without purchase
in the newly raised 87th regiment. With it he
served in the West Indies in 1797 at Trinidad
and Porto Rico, and remained in garrison
there till 1802. In 1804 he was promoted
lieutenant-colonel, and in 1806 the 87th was
ordered to form part of the expedition under
Sir Samuel Auchmuty to Monte Video. In
the attack on Monte Video Butler especially
distinguished himself, and also in White-
locke's attempt on Buenos Ayres, where the
87th had 17 officers and 400 men killed and
wounded. From 1807 to 1810, while the
2nd battalion, under Colonel Hugh Gough,
was distinguishing itself in the Peninsula,
the 1st battalion of the 87th, under Butler,
garrisoned the Cape of Good Hope. In 1810
he was second in command of a force ordered
from the Cape to assist Major-general Aber-
cromby in the reduction of the Mauritius, but
the island was already taken when the contin-
gent arrived. , Nevertheless, though he saw
no more service; Butler was promoted colonel
in 1811 and majors-general in 1814, and made
a C.B. in the latter year. He died in Nor-
mandy in June 1825.
[Royal Military Calendar, ed. 1820, for the affair
of Villiers-en-Couche, and contemporary journals ;
Eecords of 87th Eegiment.] H. M. S.
BUTLER, LADY ELEANOR (1745?-
1829), recluse of Llangollen, was the youngest
daughter of Walter Butler, by Ellen, daughter
of Nicholas Morres of Latargh,Tipperary. Her
father was a collateral descendant and only
lineal representative of James Butler, second
duke of Ormonde, who had been attainted in
1715. Her brother John (1740-1795) claimed
the Irish titles of his family, which had been
forfeited by the act of attainder, and in 1791
he was acknowledged seventeenth earl of Or-
monde by the Irish House of Lords. The rank
Butler
49
Butler
of an earl's daughter was at the same time
bestowed on Eleanor and her sisters. Some
years previously in 1774 according to one
account, and in 1779 according to another
Lady Eleanor and a friend, Sarah Ponsonby,
daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby,
cousin of theEarl of Bessborough, had resolved
to live together in complete isolation from so-
ciety. According to a writer in ' Notes and
Queries,' 4th ser. iv. 12, they were both born
on the same day of the same year at Dublin,
and lost their parents at the same time. But
the obituary notice of Miss Ponsonby in the
' Gentleman's Magazine,' 1831, pt. i. 272, is
probably correct in making her ten years
younger than her companion. Their relatives
dissuaded them from their plan, and, when
they first left their homes, brought them
back. Soon afterwards, however, they made
their way to a cottage at Plasnewydd in the
vale of Llangollen, accompanied by a maid-
servant, Mary Caryll. Their names were not
known in the neighbourhood, and they were
called ' the ladies of the vale.' Here they
lived in complete seclusion for some fifty
years, and neither left the cottage for a single
night until their deaths. Their devotion to
each other and their eccentric manners gave
them wide notoriety. All tourists in Wales
sought introduction to them, and many made
the journey to Llangollen for the special pur-
pose of visiting them. Foreigners of distinc-
tion figured largely among their visitors, and
they received a number of orders from mem-
bers of the Bourbon family. In 1796 Miss
Anna Seward wrote a poem, ' Llangollen
Vale,' in their honour. In September 1802
she addressed a poetical farewell to them.
Madame de Genlis, another visitor, has given
an account of them in her ' Souvenirs de
Felicie.' De Quincey saw them during his
Welsh ramble (Confessions, 1856, p. 121). In
1828 Prince Piickler-Muskau saw them at
their cottage, and wrote a very elaborate de-
scription of them. He says that his grand-
father had visited them half a century before,
that ' the two celebrated virgins ' were ' cer-
tainly the most celebrated in Europe.' Ac-
cording to the prince they were invariably
dressed in a semi-masculine costume. Lady
Eleanor Butler died 2 June 1829, and her
companion, Miss Ponsonby, died 8 Dec. 1831.
With their servant, Mary Caryll, who died
before either of them, they lie buried in Plas-
newydd churchyard under a triangular pyra-
mid inscribed with their names. Portraits of
them and their cottage are often met with. A
painting of them by Lady Leighton has been
engraved by Lane.
[Gent. Mag. 1829, ii. 175-6, and 1832, i. 274 ;
Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iv. 12, 220 (where
VOL. VIII.
Prince Piickler's account is translated from his
Briefe eines Verstorbenen, Stuttgart, 1831, i. 18-
22) ; Burke's Patrician (1841), v. 485; Brit. Mag.
(ed. S. C. Hall), 1830, p. 8 ; Burke's Peerage, s.v.
' Ormonde '; Seward's Letters, iii. 70-80, 345.1
S. L. L.
BUTLER, GEORGE, D.D. (1774-1853),
head master of Harrow and dean of Peter-
borough, was born in Pimlico, London, 5 July
1774, being the second son of the Rev. Wee-
den Butler, the elder [q. v.l, by Anne, daughter
of Isaac Louis Giberne. He was educated in
his father's school, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and
then became a foundation scholar of Sidney
Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was
senior wrangler and senior Smith's prizeman,
January 1794, graduated B.A. in the same
Sjar, took his M.A. 1797, and his B.D. and
.D. in 1804 and 1805. His college elected
him a fellow, and for some years he acted as
mathematical lecturer, and then as classical
tutor. It was also probably during this period
that he commenced keeping his terms at Lin-
coln's Inn. He was elected a public ex-
aminer at Cambridge in 1804, and in 1805 was
nominated one of the eight select preachers
before the university. In April 1805 he
became head-master of Harrow School in
succession to Dr. Joseph Drury. In 1814 he
was presented by his college to the rectory
of Gayton, Northamptonshire. He continued
in his arduous office at Harrow until 1829,
when, after a head-mastership of four and
twenty years, he retired to the living of Gay-
ton, and devoted himself with the same un-
wearied zeal to the duties of a parish priest.
In November 1836 he was named chancellor
of the diocese of Peterborough, and he was
appointed by Sir Robert Peel to the deanery
of Peterborough 3 Nov. 1842. Few men
could compete with Butler in versatility of
mind, and in the variety of his accomplish-
ments. Besides his great mathematical at-
tainments he was also a distinguished clas-
sical scholar, and spoke German, French,
and Italian with correctness and fluency.
He was practically versed in chemistry and
other branches of physical science. He was
a good physician and draughtsman, and he
excelled in all athletic exercises. His affec-
tion for Harrow School, in the service of
which so many of the most active years
of his life had been passed, amounted to a
passion, and he maintained with his suc-
cessors a constant and most friendly inter-
course. On leaving Harrow he was pre-
sented by his pupils and others who had left
the school with a piece of plate of the value
of nearly 5001. His latter years were years
of suffering ; in 1849 disease of the heart de-
clared itself, and a gradual failure of sight
Butler
Butler
ensued, ending in almost total blindness.
His death was quite sudden; while seated
at table with his family he became rapidly
insensible, and in the course of ten minutes
passed away, almost without a struggle, at
the Deanery, Peterborough, 30 April 1853.
He was buried at Gayton church. A mo-
nument by Richard Westmacott, R.A., to
the memory of Butler was erected in Har-
row Church in July 1854. He married,
18 March 1818, Sarah Maria, eldest daughter
of John Gray of Wembley Park, Middlesex.
He lived to see four sons obtain distin-
guished honours at the universities. His
youngest son, Henry Montagu, was also head-
master of Harrow from 1859 to 1885. He
wrote or compiled : 1. ' Extracts from the
Communion Service of the Church,' 1839;
second edition 1842. 2. ' Statutes of Peter-
borough Cathedral, translated by G. Butler,'
1853. 3. ' Harrow, a selection of the Lists
of the School, 1770-1828, with annotations
upon the later fortunes of the scholars,' 1849.
The addition of two sermons preached in
1830 and 1843 completes the short list of his
publications.
[Gent. Mag. xxxix. 662-64 (1853), and xlii.
153-54 (1854); Illustrated London News, xxii.
343, 483 (1853), and XXT. 257 (1854).] G. C. B.
BUTLER, GEORGE SLADE (1821-
1882), antiquary, was the son of Richard
Weeden Butler, a surgeon in large practice
at Rye, Sussex, by his third wife, Rhoda
Jane, only daughter of Daniel Slade, of Lon-
don and Rye. Born at Rye, 4 March 1821,
he was educated at a private school at Brigh-
ton, and, adopting the law as his future pro-
fession, was admitted a solicitor in Hilary
term, 1843. He soon attained considerable
business in his native town, where, among
other valuable appointments, he held the
town-clerkship and the registrarship of the
county court. His ' Topographica Sussexiana,'
which originally appeared in the ' Collections '
of the Sussex Archaeological Society, and was
afterwards reprinted in one volume, is a cre-
ditable attempt towards forming a list of the
various publications relating to the county.
Butler also contributed to the same serial
many papers on the antiquities of Rye, where
he died, 11 April 1882. He had been elected
a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in March
1862.
[Information from Mr. Slade Butler ; Hastings
and St. Leonards Ne-ws, 21 April 1882 ; Hast-
ings and St. Leonards Independent, 13 April
1882; Law List.] G. G.
BUTLER, JAMES, second EARL OF OR-
MONDE (1331-1382), was descended from the
same family as Theobald Butler [q. v.] The
grandfather of the second earl of Ormonde
was created earl of Carrick, but this title,
according to Mr. J. H. Round, was not in-
I herited by the son, who was created earl of
Ormonde after his marriage to Eleanor de
Bohun, granddaughter of Edward I. The se-
cond earl, surnamed the 'noble earl' (because
the son of a princess), was born at Kilkenny
on 4 Oct. 1331. On his father's death in 1377
he was given in ward to Maurice, earl of Des-
mond, and afterwards to Sir John d'Arcy,
whose daughter he married during his mino-
rity. His royal descent, as well as his per-
sonal services, commended him to the favour
of Edward III and Richard II, from whom he
received many grants of lands. On 18 April
1359 he was made viceroy of Ireland as lord
justice, and after a short absence in England,
during which the office was held by Maurice
FitzThomas, earl of Kildare, he was again ap-
pointed on 15 March 1360. When Lionel,
duke of Clarence, was sent to Ireland as vice-
roy in 1361 in order to take more energetic
measures for its reduction, he was appointed
one of the three chief officers of his army at
the pay of 4s. a day. He did great service
in assisting the prince, and, according to re-
cords preserved in the corporation books of
Kilkenny, slew at Teagstoffin, in the county
of Kilkenny, 600 of MacMorrogh's men on
the feast of St. Kenelm, 1362. During
Lionel's absence in 1364-6 he was appointed
deputy along with Sir Thomas Dale. He
was again made lord justice in 1376, and con-
tinued in this office till the first of Richard II.
He died on 18 Oct. 1382 in his castle of Knoc-
topher, and was buried in the cathedral of
St. Canice, Kilkenny. He left one son, James,
who succeeded him as third earl.
[Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormonde (Oxford
ed. 1851), i. Ixx-i ; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland,
iv. pp. 8, 9 ; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland; Genea-
logist, new ser. vol. ii. (1885), p. 188.] T. F. H.
BUTLER, JAMES, fourth EARL OF OR-
MONDE (d. 1452), commonly called the
' white earl,' son of the third earl of Ormonde
[see under BUTLER, JAMES, second earl], and
Anne, daughter of John, Lord Welles, suc-
ceeded his father in September 1405, not
being at that time of full age. Owing to the
care his father had taken in his education, he
excelled in learning most of the noblemen of
his time. While still under age, he was in
1407 appointed deputy during the absence of
Sir Stephen Scrope in England. After the
arrival soon afterwards of Thomas of Lan-
caster, the lord-lieutenant, he contracted
with him an intimate friendship, and in 1412
accompanied him on his travels in France.
Having attended Henry V in his French
wars, he was on his return appointed in 1420
Butler
5 1
Butler
lord-lieutenant. In 1422 lie invaded the ter-
ritory of the O'Mores, and pursued his army
through the red bog of Athy, when, accord-
ing to the chroniclers, the sun favoured him
by miraculously standing still for three
hours. Violent feuds had long existed be-
tween the Butlers and the Talbots, and in
1422 Sir John Talbot arraigned the Earl of
Ormonde for treason, but the crown and
council in 1423 ordered the annulment of
all proceedings connected with the dispute.
After the death of Henry V, the Earl of Or-
monde was replaced in the government of
Ireland by Edmund Mortimer, but on several
occasions he acted as deputy before he was
again appointed viceroy in 1440. Attempts
were again made by the Talbots to overthrow
his influence, and Richard Talbot, archbishop
of Dublin, having been delegated in Novem-
ber 1441 to lay various requests before the
king, took the opportunity of representing
the advantages that would accrue to Ireland
by his removal from office ; but notwith-
standing this he was appointed lord-lieu-
tenant in 1443. Owing, however, to repre-
sentations that he was old and feeble, he was
dismissed in 1446. In 1447 John Talbot,
earl of Shrewsbury, who had succeeded him
as lord-lieutenant, accused him of high trea-
son, but the king dismissed the complaint,
and by patent, 20 Sept. 1448, declared that
' no one should dare, on pain of his indigna-
tion, to revive the accusation or reproach of
his conduct.' He died at Atherdee in the
county of Louth, on 23 Aug. 1452. He spe-
cially interested himself in history and anti-
quities, and bequeathed lands to the College
of Heralds. By his first wife, Johan, daughter
of Gerald, fifth earl of Kildare, he had three
sons successively earls of Ormonde and
two daughters ; but by his second wife,
Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Bergavenny and
widow of Lord Grey, he had no issue.
[Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormonde (Oxford
ed. 1851), i. Ixxiv-viii; Lodge's Peerage of Ire-
land, iv. 11-14; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland.]
T. F. H.
BUTLER, JAMES, fifth EARL OP OR-
MONDE and EARL OF WILTSHIRE (1420-1461),
was the eldest son of James Butler, the fourth
earl [q. v.l, by Johan, daughter of Gerald,
fifth earl of Kildare, and was born on 24 Nov.
1420. He was knighted when very young by
Henry VI, and he attended Richard, duke of
York, regent of France, in his expedition into
that kingdom. On account of his zealous sup-
port of the Lancastrian interest, he was on
8 July 1449, during the lifetime of his father,
created a peer of England by the title of earl
of Wiltshire. In the following year he was
constituted a commissioner, to whom the
town and castle of Calais, with other French
fortresses, were committed for five years. In
1451 he was appointed lord-deputy of Ireland
in the absence of the Duke of York, and on
the death of his father he was in 1453 ap-
pointed viceroy for ten years. In the same
year, along with the Earl of Salisbury and
other great lords, he undertook the guarding
of the seas for three years, receiving the ton-
nage and poundage to support the charge
thereof. On 13 March 1455 he was appointed
lord high treasurer of England, and shortly
afterwards fought for the king at the battle
of St. Albans, when, the Yorkists prevailing,
he fled, casting his armour into a ditch. He
was superseded as lord-lieutenant of Ireland
by the Duke of York, but in 37 Henry VI
was restored to the post of lord-treasurer, and
next year made a knight of the Garter. Soon
afterwards he fitted out a fleet of five ships
at Genoa, with which he sailed to the
Netherlands against the Earl of Warwick,
but returned before the battle of Wakefield
on 31 Dec. 1460, in which he commanded a
wing of the army which enclosed and slew
the Duke of York. On 2 Feb. 1461, along
with the Earl of Pembroke, he suffered a dis-
astrous defeat from Edward, earl of March,
at Mortimer's Cross, and on 29 March was
taken prisoner at the battle of Towton, York-
shire. He is said to have been beheaded at
Newcastle on 1 May following. In the first
parliament of Edward IV he was attainted,
along with his brothers John and Thomas,
and his estates forfeited and resumed. As
he left no issue, the earldom of Wiltshire
lapsed with him, but he was succeeded in
the earldom of Ormonde by his brother, Sir
John de Ormonde.
[Stow's Annals ; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 235 ;
Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iv. 14-16; Carte's
Life of the Duke of Ormonde (Oxford ed. 1851),
i. Ixxix-lxxxi ; The Ormonde Attainders, by
Hubert Hall, in the Genealogist, new ser. i. 76-9 ;
The Barony of Arklow, by J. H. Eound, in
vol. i. of Foster's Collectanea Genealogica.]
T. F. H.
BUTLER, JAMES (fl. 1631-1634), mili-
tary adventurer, was one of the many mem-
bers of the Irish house of Butler who in the
seventeenth century gained reputation as
soldiers. Not less than six officers of the
name appear to be distinguishable in the im-
perial service during the thirty years' war.
The James Butler in question is said to have
belonged to the branch of his house which
traced its origin to the first viscount Mount-
garret, the second son of Pierce, eighth earl of
Ormonde and Ossory [q. v.] He is first met
with in Poland, where he levied at his own
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expense a regiment of not less than fifteen
companies (ten being the usual number in the
imperial army) . Very possibly, since Gustavus
Adolphus is said to have cherished a deadly
hatred against him, he was the Butler who,
after having in 1627 shared in a defeat of
the Poles near Danzig, in the following year
contributed to the Polish success against
the Swedes at Osterode. It was certainly he
who early in 1631 opportunely brought up |
his regiment, which was largely officered I
by Irishmen, including his kinsman Walter i
Butler [q. v.], to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in 1
Silesia, where the imperialists under Tiefen- j
bach were awaiting the approach of Gustavus j
Adolphus at the head of a much superior force.
Before the arrival of the Swedes, James Butler,
in order if possible to obtain more soldiers
and supplies for Frankfort, proceeded to the
camp of Tilly, who was marching upon Mag-
deburg. Butler came too late, but he appears
to have taken part in the siege of Magdeburg,
the result of which terribly avenged the fall
of Frankfort. After the capture of Magde-
burg and before the battle of Breitenfeld he
appears to have rejoined Tiefenbach, who had
invaded Lusatia with such forces as he could
command, but whom the news of the great
defeat of Tilly obliged to retreat into Bohemia,
where he occupied Nimburg on the Elbe, No-
vember 1631. A Saxon army under Arnim
having taken position on the other side of
the river, Butler was with his Irish regiment,
as it is now called, sent across a wooden
bridge to fortify and hold the tete de pont
on the enemy's side ; and his 1 defence, ending
with the burning down of the bridge, was
so vigorous that finally Arnim returned to
Prague.
Not long afterwards, however, the Irish
colonel, who had many adversaries or rivals,
quitted the imperial service, and, making use
of the liberty which he had reserved to him-
self, returned into Poland, where he fought
against the Muscovites in the war which
lasted from 1632 to 1634. He was at least
in so far consistent in his choice of side, that
he served against an enemy who on principle
excluded mercenaries professing the faith of
Rome (HERRMANN, Geschichte des russischen
Reiches, iii. 54). After this nothing certain
is known of him, for there seems no reason
for accepting a conjecture which identifies
him with a Butler said to have fallen at
Ross in March 1642, fighting on the side of
the Irish catholics under General Preston
against the royal troops under the head of
his house James Butler, earl (afterwards mar-
quis and twelfth duke) of Ormonde.
[Carve's Itinerarium, pars i. (1st ed. 1639),
and the Series Butlerianse Prosapise in pars ii.
(1st ed. 1641); La Roche's Der dreissigjahrige
Krieg vom militarischen Standpunkte,&c.,vol. ii.
(1851); Hess's Biographieen &c. zu Schillers
AVallenstein (1859) pp. 392, 396.] A. W. W.
BUTLER, JAMES, twelfth EARL and
first DUKE OF ORMOSTDE (1610-1688), was the
eldest son of Thomas, Viscount Thurles, and
Elizabeth Poyntz, and grandson of Walter
Butler of Kilcash, eleventh Earl of Ormonde
in 1614 [q. v.] He was born on 19 Oct.
1610 at Clerkenwell. His pedigree reaches
back to Theobald Butler [q. v.], hereditary
butler of Ireland. His earliest infancy was
spent at Hatfield under the care of a car-
penter's wife, during his parents' absence, but
in 1613 they sent for him to Ireland. In 1619
his father was drowned at sea, and his mother
then took him back to England and placed
him at school under a Roman catholic tutor
at Finchley. On his father's death he be-
came, by some legal subtlety, a royal ward,
although holding no lands in chief of the
crown. The king, anxious to bring up the
head of so powerful a family as a protestant,
placed him at Lambeth under the tutelage
of Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, where,
however, he appears to have received a very
meagre education, and where, the whole estate
of his family being in sequestration, he was
in great want of money, 40Z. a year being all
that was allowed him. His grandfather [see
BUTLER, WALTER] was released from the
Fleet prison in 1625, and the youth, who was
termed by courtesy Lord Thurles, went to
reside with him in Drury Lane. Here he con-
tinued for two years in the enjoyment of
town life, and in constant attendance on the
court. Upon the occasion of the Duke of
Buckingham's projected expedition to Ro-
chelle, he went to Portsmouth in the hope
of being allowed to volunteer for service, but
the duke refused permission on finding that
he had not secured his grandfather's consent.
Six months later he fell in love with his
cousin, Elizabeth Preston, the sole daughter
and heir of Richard, earl of Desmond, and
Elizabeth Butler, the daughter of his grand-
father's brother, Earl Thomas. She was her-
self a ward of the crown, or rather of the
Earl of Holland, upon whom Charles I had
bestowed the wardship. A marriage between
them appeared a convenient way of putting
an end to the lawsuits between the families,
and of uniting the Ormonde and Desmond
estates. The opportune deaths of the Duke
of Buckingham, who had warmly espoused
the cause of the Desmond family, and of the
Earl of Desmond, the lad's guardian since
1624, removed the chief obstacles to this
step ; while Lord Holland's approval was
purchased for 15,000^. Charles gave his con-
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53
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sent by letters patent of 8 Sept. 1629, and
the marriage took place at Christmas of the
same year. The following year Lord Thurles
spent with his wife at his uncle's, Sir Robert
Poyntz, at Acton in Gloucestershire, where
he studied Latin for the first time, and at
the end of 1630 they went to live with his
grandfather, Earl Walter, at Carrick, until
his death in 1632, when James succeeded to
the earldom of Ormonde and Ossory. In 1631
he made a journey to England, travelling
through Scotland, and showed his activity
by riding from Edinburgh to Ware in three
days. In the beginning of 1633, his grand-
mother too having died, he returned to Ire-
land, accomplishing the whole journey to
Carrick between four in the morning of Satur-
day and three o'clock on Monday afternoon.
Throughout his life he was distinguished for
his physical strength and comeliness, for his
attention to dress, and for the dignity of his
carriage. His own tastes were simple it
is recorded that his favourite dinner was a
boiled leg of mutton (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th
Rep. 486 b) but he was careful always to
observe an almost regal display in the con-
duct of his household. Upon the arrival of
Wentworth in Ireland as deputy in July
1633, Ormonde at once attracted his atten-
tion, as much by his distinguished appearance
as by his readiness to assist in raising the
supplies of which Charles was in need. On
14 July 1634, at the opening of parliament,
he carried the sword before Wentworth.
There shortly occurred a characteristic in-
stance of his independence of spirit. Went-
worth, fearing scenes of violence in the par-
liament, had ordered that none should enter
wearing their swords. Ormonde refusing to
give up his sword, and the usher insisting,
' the earl told him that if he had his sword it
should be in his guts, and so marched on to
his seat, and was the only peer who sat with
a sword that day in the house.' When sent
for by Wentworth he replied that he had
seen the proclamation, but was only obeying
a higher order, inasmuch as his writ sum-
moned him to come to parliament cumgladio
cinctits. It was clear to Wentworth that he
must either crush so independent a man or
make a friend of him ; wisely enough he
determined to take the latter course, and
shortly reported most highly of him to the
king, finishing the eulogium with ' He is
young, but take it from me, a very staid head.'
Ormonde and Wentworth lived on the best
terms until the latter's death. Ormonde ac-
tively supported the deputy in the parliament
of 1640; and when Wentworth left the
country in April to join Charles, he com-
mitted to Ormonde the entire care of levy-
ing and raising the new army. Since 1631
he had been in command of a troop of horse,
and in 1638 had raised a second troop of
cuirassiers. A regiment of cavalry was now
given to him ; he was made lieutenant-general
of the horse, and commander-in-chief of all
the forces in the kingdom during Strafford's
absence. So active was he in his charge
that by the middle of July the troops came
to the rendezvous at Carrickfergus in com-
plete readiness for action. Ormonde was,
however, unable himself to join them in con-
sequence of his wife's illness.
Towards the end of 1640 a remonstrance
against Strafford's government was passed by
the Irish House of Commons and published
in England, but Ormonde successfully opposed
a similar remonstrance in the House of Lords.
On the death of Wandesford, Strafford urged
Charles to make Ormonde deputy ; the oppo-
sition, however, in the Irish Commons, who
were now acting in a great degree under the
inspiration of the English parliament, was
too strong. He supported Strafford against
the attacks made upon him in the parliament
of 1641, and, as chairman of the lords' com-
mittee on privileges, strongly opposed the
commons in the dispute which arose in the
Fitzgerald case (CARTE, Ormond, i. 250, Clar.
Press edit.) Strafford had, it is stated, urged
the king, as one of his last requests, that the
garter which his death left vacant might be
bestowed upon Ormonde. The latter, how-
ever, declined it on the ground that such a
gift might possibly, engage some other person
to the crown, and desired that rewards to
himself might be reserved until all danger
was over. This story is vouched for by Sir
Robert Southwell in his manuscripts, p. 18.
Upon the news of the outbreak of the re-
bellion in Ireland in 1641 reaching Charles,
he at once appointed Ormonde lieutenant-
general of his army. Twice also he sent him
private instructions to gather into one body
the Irish army which was being disbanded,
and to seize Dublin Castle in his name by
the authority of the Irish parliament, hoping
to win the Irish to his cause by the grant of
religious liberty (GARDINER, Hist. Eng. x. 7,
ed. 1884). He does not, however, appear
to have moved in this direction. His pro-
posal to collect immediately all available
forces and march against the rebels was
overruled by the lords justices, who appear
to have been jealous of his power, and who
were in correspondence with the English
commons. Their policy, indeed, appears to
have been to employ him as little as possible
in his military capacity, and the jealousy
with which they regarded him was of tha
greatest disadvantage at the time of the dis-
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54
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affection of the English pale and the insur-
rection of Munster. In January 1641-2,
however, Ormonde made a short expedition
to drive the rebels out of the Naas, and,
fresh forces having arrived from England,
attacked and defeated a body of 3,000 rebels
at Killsalghen, and in March he received
orders from the lords justices to march with
fire and sword into the pale, after the re-
bellion had drawn in the catholic gentry of
English descent. He raised the siege of
Drogheda, but from the further march on
Newry which he proposed he was stopped
by letters of recall from the lords justices.
The success of the expedition was recognised
by the English parliament in a letter written
by the speaker on 9 April. He received their
approbation a second time in a letter drawn
up by Hollis on 20 July, accompanied by a
jewel of the value of 620/., and it is stated that
on 10 May the House of Commons moved
the lords to join in an address to the king
that he should offer Ormonde the garter (Hist.
MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. 147). On 15 March
he had fought and won the bloody battle of
Kilrush with great slaughter of the rebels,
displaying sound generalship and personal
courage. In June of the same year he was
employed in quieting Connaught. A dispute
with Lord Leicester, the lord-lieutenant, on
the subject of the power of appointment in the
army, was ruled by the king in Ormonde's
favour, and a warrant was shortly afterwards
signed under the great seal, 16 Sept., whereby
he was appointed to the lieutenant-general-
ship immediately under the crown instead
of, as heretofore, under the lord-lieutenant.
At the same time he was created a marquis
by the king. His appointment to the inde-
pendent command of the army was of great
importance at this juncture, as endeavours
\vere being made to engage the Irish forces
for the parliament. The continued obstruc-
tions, however, from the lords justices, and
a violent illness which threatened his life,
prevented him from taking an active part in
suppressing the rebellion during the autumn
of 1642. Meantime Thomas Preston had
landed at Wexford with abundant supplies
for the rebel army, a general assembly had
been held at Kilkenny, and a complete politi-
cal organisation established by the rebels.
The catholic nobility and gentry having de-
sired to lay their grievances before Charles,
Ormonde sent their request to the king, and
in January 1642-3 was appointed with others
by him to receive and transmit their state-
ment of grievances. He therefore on 3 Feb.
sent to Kilkenny to request the discontented
lords and gentry to send a deputation to
meet himself and his fellow-commissioners
at Drogheda on the 23rd. The meeting took
place at Trim on 17 March. Meanwhile,
much against the desire of the lords justices,
he insisted upon leading the expedition to
Ross, leaving Dublin on 2 March with 3,000
men. He reached Ross, in which the rebels
were entrenched, on the 12th, but in an as-
sault was beaten off, and through want of
provisions was compelled to raise the siege
on the 17th, and give battle on the 18th to
Preston, who had under his command nearly
7,000 men. In this battle Ormonde showed
considerable generalship, and won an im-
portant victory with slight loss. He returned
to Dublin, where he received from the meet-
ing at Trim the remonstrance of the rebels,
which he at once transmitted to Charles.
The lords justices had taken advantage of his
absence to write a letter to the king urging
him on no account to consent to a peace, but
they refused to accept Ormonde's motion for
sending also an account of the present state
of the country, and Ormonde, to counteract
them, drew up, in conjunction with other
leading loyalists, an account of the desperate
condition of the army and the immediate
need of further help. Charles, however, was
not capable of sending the required assistance,
nor could it be obtained from the English
parliament. On 23 April, therefore, the king
sent Ormonde a commission, ' with all secresy
and convenient expedition,' to treat with the
rebels a^id agree to a cessation of arms.
Meantime, in Leinster, Munster, and Con-
naught the rebels had been carrying all be-
fore them, and it was only in Ulster that
they were severely checked in the rout of
Owen O'Neile by the Scotch forces under
Stewart. The treaty for the cessation began
in June, but, through Ormonde's refusal to
accept the conditions of the rebels, was broken
off" in July. The Scotch had now declared
for the parliament and raised an army against
the king ; peace in Ireland became more than
ever necessary, and on 2 July Ormonde re-
ceived fresh instructions to conclude the
cessation for a year. He reopened the ne-
gotiations at once on 26 Aug., and the
cessation was signed on 15 Sept. The king
now required all the Irish troops that could
be spared for England, and in November,
having first extracted from his officers an
oath of loyalty to the king and the church,
which only two of them, Monck being one,
declined to take, Ormonde managed to send
over some 5,000 men under Lord Byron,
who did good service in Cheshire until routed
by Fairfax, at Nantwich, in January 1644. At
the same time, in obedience to special instruc-
tions, he exerted himself to keep the Scotch
army from joining their fellows in Scotland.
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55
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An attempt by Ormonde to induce the Irish
catholics also to carry out the articles of the
cessation and furnish the king with an army
was entirely futile. Meanwhile the king called
for Lord Leicester's resignation, and made Or-
monde lord-lieutenant by a commission which
he received in January 1643-4. In pursuance
of his instructions he vigorously forwarded
the expedition of the Irish forces, prepared
by the Earl of Antrim, to assist Montrose in
Scotland ; and to prevent a renewal of the war
gave favourable terms to the catholics. He
was not, however, able to prevent many of the
English troops from joining the Scotch forces
in Ulster in taking the covenant, or wholly to
keep the latter, a point much pressed by
Charles, from joining their fellows in Scotland.
In April, Monroe, who commanded in Ulster,
received a commission from the English par-
liament to command in chief all the forces
in Ulster, both Scotch and English. He at
once seized Belfast, and in breach of the ces-
sation marched against the Irish. Ormonde
knew that Monroe was acting in the par-
liament's interest. At the same time the
council of Kilkenny urged him to declare
the Scots rebels, and the council offered him
the command of all their forces. It appeared
therefore that he must either assist the par-
liamentary party or that of the catholic rebels.
He refused to listen to the suggestion of the
Irish, and contented himself with assisting
them to send agents to the king at Oxford
to represent them at the treaty then being
carried on. The demands, both of protestants
and catholics, were referred by the English
council to him for settlement on 26 July,
and negotiations for a definite peace, the
cessation having been renewed, were opened
on 6 Sept. at Dublin. So irreconcilable, how-
ever, were the rival demands, that they were
broken off in October, and not again renewed
until April 1645. Ormonde meanwhile had,
in despair of any favourable settlement, ur-
gently requested to be relieved of his govern-
ment. Charles refused to comply with this
request, and not only appointed a commis-
sion to inquire into the amount of his per-
sonal sacrifices in his service and to arrange
for their repayment, but sent him full dis-
cretionary powers for concluding a peace,
even to the restoring of the rebels, who should
submit, to their estates and possessions ; the
entire repeal of the penal statutes was alone
denied him. Meantime his government was
much harassed by frequent plots among dis-
contented officers. He succeeded, however,
in making a temporary arrangement with
Monroe, the commander of the Scotch forces,
whereby union was established until the ar-
rival in October of Sir R. King and Arthur
Annesley, who came as a commission from
the English parliament. Through great diffi-
culties the treaty of peace gradually drew to
a conclusion. As the weakness of the king
became more apparent the demands of the
rebels increased. On the subject of the penal
laws they insisted upon entire freedom being
granted, and they refused Ormonde's demand
for the restoration of the churches to the
protestant clergy ; while they further insisted
upon the maintenance of their provisional
government until every article had been con-
firmed by act of parliament. These demands
Charles utterly refused, and Ormonde then
drew up a list of the 'concessions' which
he thought proper for the king's considera-
tion. There were exemptions from penalties
and incapacities on the score of religion,
concessions of places of command, honour,
and trust, and the removal of many minor
grievances. It was at this point that the
Glamorgan episode occurred which cut the
ground from Ormonde's feet. On 25 Aug.,
representing himself as empowered by the
king, who had given him merely a roving com-
mission, Glamorgan signed a private treaty
with the Irish agents, by which the catholics
obtained the entire repeal of the penal laws,
the possession of all the churches which they
had seized since 23 Oct. 1641, exemption
from all jurisdiction of protestant clergy, and
the enjoyment of the tithes, glebes, and church
revenues then in their possession. In return
they promised a force of 10,000 men for Eng-
land under Glamorgan's leadership. The
warrant which Glamorgan produced was
utterly repudiated by Charles and his mi-
nisters as a forgery, and Glamorgan was im-
prisoned at Dublin. This naturally excited
the Irish to the utmost, and the difficulties
in the way of the treaty were rendered still
greater by the indefatigable efforts of the
pope's nuncio to defeat it. Nevertheless
Ormonde succeeded in bringing it to a con-
clusion on 28 March 1646, upon the basis of
the above-mentioned ' concessions,' with the
condition that it should not be held of force
until the Irish had despatched 10,000 men
to England by 1 May. Meantime Charles,
now in the hands of the Scots, sent to Or-
monde, through the Prince of Wales, private
assurances of his full confidence; and Digby,
on the king's part, declared that the imme-
diate conclusion of the peace was absolutely
necessary. The peace was therefore pub-
lished, although the conditions had not been
fulfilled, on 29 July. Supported, however, by
the pope's nuncio, the Irish rebels strongly
opposed it, and it seemed probable that Dublin
would fall into their hands. In this extre-
mity Ormonde determined to apply to the
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English parliament for help. By 2 Nov.
Dublin was for a few days besieged by Preston
and O'Neile. On the 14th the parliamentary
commissioners arrived, and a treaty with
them was immediately begun, but conditions
could not be arranged, and the commissioners
were forced to retire to Ulster. The agree-
ment between Preston and the nuncio, how-
ever, and the rejection of the peace by the
general assembly of the catholics at Kilkenny
in February 1646-7, on the nuncio's advice,
determined Ormonde again to approach the
parliament. Dublin was relieved by an English
force in the spring, and on 7 June the com-
missioners of the parliament again arrived.
On the 19th the treaty was concluded. Or-
monde was to give up the sword on 28 July
or sooner, on four days' notice. The pro-
testants were to be secured in their estates ;
all who had paid contributions were to be
protected in person and estate ; all noblemen,
fentlemen, and officers who wished to leave
reland with Ormonde were to have free
passes; popish recusants who had remained
loyal were to be in all respects favourably re-
garded by the parliament ; and the debts he
had incurred in the defence of Dublin were to
be paid. This last condition was very imper-
fectly fulfilled. On the 28th Ormonde de-
livered up the regalia and sailed for England,
landing at Bristol on 2 Aug. Having reached
London, he had an interview with Charles
at Hampton Court, when he received a full
approval of his conduct in Ireland, and where
he had directions to agree, if possible, upon
measures with the Scotch commissioners,
who had just arrived in London. Warned
in February 1647-8 that the parliament in-
tended to seize his person, he escaped to
France, and at Paris found the Irish agents
who had been sent by the Kilkenny assembly
to treat with the queen and Prince of Wales,
with the particular object of inducing the
latter to come over with arms and money,
but also with wide demands for the restora-
tion of the native Irish to their estates.
Under Ormonde's advice an answer was re-
turned that the queen and the prince would
send a representative to treat with the as-
sembly on the spot, and in August he himself
began his journey thither. On leaving Havre
he was shipwrecked and had to wait in that
port for some weeks ; but at the end of Sep-
tember he again embarked, arriving at Cork
on the 29th. At the end of October he re-
ceived full instructions from Charles, who
was in the Isle of Wight. He was ordered
to obey the queen's commands, and to dis-
obey all issued by the king publicly till he
should give him notice that he was free from
restraint. On 6 Oct. Ormonde had published
a declaration against both the rebels and the
independents, promising equal favour to all
who remained loyal. Having pacified the
mutiny which had broken out in the army
under Inchiquin, he succeeded in bringing
about a general peace between the royalists
and the Irish rebels on 17 Jan. 1649.
Upon the death of the king Ormonde at once
proclaimed Charles II, and strongly urged the
young king to come to Ireland. With the
utmost difficulty he collected forces to attack
Dublin. He took Drogheda, and in July
blockaded the capital, but was defeated at
Rathmines, with the loss of all his artillery,
by Jones, who commanded in Dublin, and
who made a determined sally. He there-
upon managed to conclude a treaty with
O'Neile, who had kept aloof from the general
pacification ; but all dreams of reconquering
the country were finally ended by the land-
ing of Cromwell on 15 Aug. On 9 Sept.
Drogheda, which Ormonde had strongly gar-
risoned, was stormed by Cromwell, Ulster
was overrun, Wexford betrayed, and Ross
surrendered. So hopeless were the king's
affairs, that in December Ormonde requested
to be recalled. Charles, meanwhile, had
come to terms with the Scots at Breda, and
Ormonde was commanded to remain until it
was seen whether the alliance would not
bring about a more favourable state of things
in England. Cromwell's uninterrupted suc-
cesses again brought Ormonde to the neces-
sity of leaving the kingdom. To the last,
however, he held haughty language. To
Cromwell, who had sent a pass to him to
leave the kingdom through Dean Boyle, he
replied : ' I have by this trumpeter returned
your papers, and for your unsought courtesy
do assure you that when you shall desire a
pass from me, and I think fit to grant it, I
shall not make use of it to corrupt any that
commands under you ' ( Cal. State Papers,
Dom. Ser. 1650, p. 236). The bishops in
August 1650 requested Ormonde to give
up the government, and raised forces inde-
pendently of him. Under the pressure of
the extreme covenanting party in Scotland,
moreover, Charles had on 16 Aug. unwil-
lingly annulled the Irish peace of 1648 (Hist.
MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. 695 a), and in his
letter announcing this step urged Ormonde to
mind his own safety and withdraw to Hol-
land or France. This advice he repeated in
November. Leaving Clanricarde therefore
as his deputy, Ormonde set sail on 6 Dec.,
and, after delaying to consider some proposals
made by a number of nobles and bishops as-
sembled at Loughreagh, arrived, after a three
weeks' voyage, at Perose in Brittany. He
had left his family at Caen on his return to
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Ireland, and after a short stay with them
joined the queen at Paris on 21 Jan. 1650-1.
In June he was again at Paris waiting upon
the Duke of York. After settling the duke's
household he returned to Caen, and remained
there until the young king's arrival at Paris
after the battle of Worcester (Cal. State
Papers, Dom. Ser. 1-11 Nov. 1651), when,
being at once placed on the privy council
and consulted on all important business, he
took up his permanent residence there. He
was at this time in such dire straits for money
that his wife went over in August 1652 to
England to endeavour to claim Cromwell's
promise of reserving to her that portion of
their estate which had been her inheritance.
After many delays (ib. 1652, 25 May, 1 June,
1 Aug.) she succeeded in getting 500. in
hand and an allowance of 2,0001. a year from
estates around Dunmore House (ib. 1653, p.
145). Ormonde meanwhile had been in con-
stant attendance on Charles, and accompanied
him to Cologne when driven from France by
Mazarin's treaty with Cromwell in 1655.
He probably incurred at this time the queen
mother's enmity by frustrating, at Charles's
request, the attempts which she made to in-
duce the Duke of Gloucester to become a
catholic. During his absence at Paris on this
mission he was reduced to such straits for
money as to be compelled to pawn both his
garter and the jewel presented him by par-
liament (CARTE, but cf. LODGE'S Portraits).
He was employed also in negotiating a treaty
with the Duke of Neuburg. In May he was
at Antwerp (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser.
1656, p. 319). In the end of 1656, when
the king was residing at Brussels, he had the
command of one of the six regiments formed
out of the English and Irish on the continent
for the service of Spain (ib. 1657, p. 5), and in
October 1657 was quartered at Fumes. He
attended Charles when the latter accom-
panied Don John in a reconnaissance on the
works at Mardyke, and had his horse killed
under him by a cannon-shot {Hist. MSS.
Comm. 5th Rep. 149). In 1658, after being
employed in Germany (Cal. State Papers,
Dom. Ser. 1658, p. 259), he volunteered to
go in disguise to England to collect informa-
tion, and landed at Westmarsh in Essex in the
beginning of January (EVELYN, 8 June 1658).
Finding the chances of success in a rising
very small, he persuaded the royalists to risk
nothing at present, and after a month's stay
in London succeeded in reaching Dieppe in
March; thence he went to Paris, where he
lay in strict concealment from Mazarin from
February to April. "With great difficulty
he finally succeeded in joining Charles once
more at Brussels in May. He was con-
tinually employed in all important transac-
tions, such as the correspondence with Mont-
ague, the reconciliation of Charles with his
mother, and the conference with Mazarin in
1659. He afterwards attended Charles at
the treaty of Fontarabia. It was at this time
that Ormonde discovered Charles's change of
religion, and it was his revelation of the fact
to Clarendon and Southampton that led to
the insertion in the act for the security of
the king's person of a clause making it trea-
son to assert that the king was a catholic.
He was actively engaged in all the secret
transactions with the English royalists and
Monck immediately before the Restoration,
upon which event he went in the king's
train to England.
In the distribution of honours which fol-
lowed he had a considerable share ; he was
at once placed on the commission for the
treasury and navy, made lord steward of the
household, a privy councillor, lord-lieutenant
of Somerset, high steward of Westminster,
Kingston, and Bristol, chancellor of Dublin
University, Baron Butler of Llanthony, and
Earl of Brecknock in the English peerage, and
on 30 March 1661 he was created Duke of
Ormonde in the Irish peerage, and lord high
steward of England, carrying the crown in
that capacity at the coronation (see PEPYS,
23 April 1661). At the same time the county
palatine of Tipperary, seized by James I from
his grandfather Walter, was restored to him,
and he recovered his own Irish estates, which
had been parcelled out amongthe adventurers,
as well as those which he had mortgaged, and
the prisage of wines, hereditary in the family,
while large grants in recompense of the for-
tune he had spent in the royal service were
made by the king. In the following year the
Irish parliament presented him with 30,0001.
His losses, however, according to Carte, ex-
ceeded his gains by nearly a million, a sum
incredibly large (CARTE, iv. 418, Clar. Press).
As lord steward he was present at the birth
of the Duchess of York's child. He was
at once engaged in Irish affairs ; the re-
storation of episcopacy was of course a fore-
most aim, and in August he secured the ap-
pointment of the four archbishoprics and
twelve bishoprics, while he did much to im-
prove the condition of the inferior clergy. He
appointed Jeremy Taylor to the vice-chancel-
lorship of the Dublin University to carry out
useful reforms, and aided its prosperity in
every way. He refused, however, to be mixed
up in the disputes over the Bill of Settle-
ment in 1661, until on 4 Nov. he was again
made lord-lieutenant of Ireland . His j ourney
thither was delayed by the king's marriage,
when, as lord steward, he was sent to Ply-
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mouth to meet the infanta, and it was not
until 27 July 1662 that he landed at Dublin
after a journey characterised by the utmost
pomp. He was at once occupied in dealing
with the grievances caused by the Act of
Settlement, in purging the army of its dan-
gerous elements, and in quieting the pres-
byterians after the blow of the Act of Uni-
formity. His office was a most responsible
one. Plots of various kinds were formed
during 1663 for seizing Dublin Castle and
for a general insurrection, but were crushed
with firmness, though without undue severity.
Ormonde had now become the mark of
much jealous intrigue in England. Sir Henry
Bennet plotted against him from private
pique and as the friend of Clarendon ; Lady
Castlemaine hated him for having stopped
the king's grant to her of the Phoenix Park ;
Buckingham was irritated at his backward-
ness in forwarding his ambitious schemes;
and the queen mother was angered at the
firmness of his refusal to regard the case of
her prot6g6 Antrim with favour. Ormonde's
character made him the natural object of the
attacks of all that was base in the court. He
had been noted for purity of life and purpose,
and for unswerving devotion, even when
such qualities were not rare in the court of
Charles I. But in that of Charles II he
was almost the sole representative of the
high-toned virtues of a nobler generation.
By force of what is emphatically called
' character,' far more than by marked ability,
he stood alone. The comrade of Strafford,
one who had willingly sacrificed a princely
fortune for a great cause, he held aloof while
persons like Bennet intrigued and lied for
office, money, or spite. His strict purity of
life was a living rebuke to the Sedleys and
Castlemaines, who turned the court into a
brothel. Compelled to see the councils of
the king guided by dishonour or greed, he
acquired over him the influence which Charles
was always ready to concede to nobility
of character (PEPYS, Diary, 19 May 1668).
Proud of the loyalty of his race, unspotted
through five centuries, he bore in after years
calumny, envy, and his seven years' loss of
court favour, waiting until his master should
be shamed into an acknowledgment of the
wrong. In investigating the careers of other
men of this time we are always face to face
with intrigue and mystery. Ormonde's and
his son Ossory's are unique in their freedom
from any suspicion of double dealing.
Meantime Ormonde was sorely puzzled
how to frame an explanation of the Act of
Settlement which should soothe the prevail-
ing discontent. With this purpose he went
to London in June 1664, and from 29 July
until 26 May 1665 was busily engaged with
a committee of council on the work, in the
course of which he appears (CARTE, iv. 211,
Clar. Press) to have exhibited much self-
sacrifice. This ' explanation ' having received
the seal, he returned to Ireland in August,
but did not make his solemn entry, which
was the occasion of excessive display, until
17 Oct. He succeeded in passing the Act of
Explanation through parliament on 23 Dec.,
which fixed the general rights of the several
parties in Ireland. Ormonde's heart was
thoroughly in his government and the wel-
fare of his country. He vehemently opposed
the bill passed in England prohibiting the
importation of Irish cattle ; and, when it
was passed, he prohibited the import of Scotch
linen, and further obtained leave for a cer-
tain number of Irish vessels to trade with
the foreign enemies of England. In every
way he encouraged native manufactures and
learning, and it was to his efforts that the
Irish College of Physicians owed its incorpo-
ration. He watched carefully over its in-
ternal peace, and promptly suppressed the
disturbance at Carrickfergus, where the garri-
son had mutinied for arrears of pay.
In 1667 and 1668 Buckingham put him-
self at the head of all those who had griev-
ances against Ormonde, and proceeded to
find matter in the few arbitrary acts for
which evidence was forthcoming whereon to
frame an impeachment. In his almost ir-
responsible government of Ireland during
troublous times Ormonde had no doubt acted
now and then in a way which offered ad-
vantages to men eager for his overthrow.
He had, for instance, billeted soldiers on
civilians and executed martial law (PEPTS,
4 Nov. 1667). Ormonde was urgently pressed
to return to England, whence he had in-
telligence that Orrery was secretly plotting
against him. He therefore left Dublin on
24 April, arriving in London amid general
respect on 6 May. An inquiry into the
management of the Irish revenues was at
once set on foot, and Buckingham, probably
with Arlington's assistance, caballed vigo-
rously for Ormonde's removal from the lord-
lieutenancy (ib. 4 Nov. 1668, and 1 Feb.
1669). To this constant insistence Charles
at length unwillingly gave way, and on
14 March 1669 appointed Lord Robarts
in his room. Ormonde received the dis-
missal, which was made with every public
expression of trust and satisfaction in his
services by Charles, with perfect dignity,
and earnestly enjoined all his sons and
friends on no account to quit their posts in
the army or elsewhere, while he continued
to fulfil with dignified persistence all the
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duties of his other offices. He speedily re-
ceived every possible consolation from the
public. He was chosen chancellor of Oxford
on 4 Aug., while in January 1669-70 the city
of Dublin, ignoring the lord-lieutenant, con-
ferred the freedom of the city upon Ossory,
his eldest son, with an address composed
chiefly of compliments to himself. This fol-
lowed immediately upon the publication of
various libellous pamphlets and of a series of
charges, similar to those brought by Buck-
ingham the year before. In 1670 Peter Tal-
bot, the titular archbishop of Dublin, having
come over to oppose the remonstrants, or
loyal catholic gentry and clergy, who were
being persecuted by the ultramontane party,
Ormonde was active in their favour, though
to little avail in the face of the opposition of
Buckingham and Berkeley, who had suc-
ceeded Robarts in the lord-lieutenancy.
In the same year occurred the remarkable
attempt upon his life by the notorious ruffian
Blood [see BLOOD, THOJIAS]. On the night
of 6 Dec. Blood with five accomplices stopped
Ormonde's coach in St. James's Street, dragged
the duke from it, placed him on horseback
behind one of his companions, and rode off
By whom Blood was instigated is not known,
though Ossory publicly before the king laid
the blame on Buckingham, and there de-
clared aloud that should his father come to
his end by violence or poison he would pistol
Buckingham though he stood behind the
king's chair. Nothing appears to have saved
Ormonde's life but the whim of Blood to
hang him at Tyburn. The delay thus caused
and Ormonde's vigorous resistance gave time
to rescue him (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep.
4866). What was the mysterious connec-
tion between Blood and the court has never
been known ; but it is certain that when
Blood was captured Charles himself asked
Ormonde to pardon him.
In January 1670-1 Richard Talbot was
sent by the discontented Irish gentry to
obtain if possible the repeal of the Act of
Settlement. Ormonde was at first placed
on a committee for investigating the petition
which Talbot brought ; but his opposition to
the petitioners led to a second committee
being formed in February for a full revision
of the settlement, from which he was ex-
cluded. This was, of course, at the time
when Charles, by the Declaration of Indul-
gence, was endeavouring to dispense with the
penal laws, and it is noticed that whereas
Ormonde would never permit a papist to be
a justice of the peace, such an appointment
was now allowed. The committee was su-
perseded in July 1673, and the attempt to
upset the settlement fell to the ground.
During the seven years which elapsed be-
tween his dismissal from office and his second
appointment seven years of coldness on the
king's part and enmity from the courtiers
Ormonde bore himself without reproach. At
the end of June, however, tired of his dis-
agreeable position, he returned for a while to
Ireland, and on 14 July waited upon Essex,
the lord-lieutenant, at Dublin, where he was
received with enthusiasm. In April 1675
he returned to London at the special request
of Charles, who wished to consult him about
the course to be pursued in parliament.
During the next two years he was occupied
almost exclusively with refuting the charges
brought against his government by Rane-
lagh, the mischiefs of whose ' undertaking '
he had strongly represented to the king.
For nearly a year Charles had not spoken
to Ormonde, when suddenly he received a
message that his majesty would sup with
him that night. Charles then declared his
intention of again appointing him to Ireland,
saying next day : ' Yonder comes Ormonde ;
I have done all I can to disoblige that man,
and to make him as discontented as others ;
but he will not be out of humour with me ;
he will be loyal in spite of my teeth ; I must
even take him in again, and he is the fittest
person to govern Ireland.' How far this re-
storation was due to the desire of James to
keep Monmouth from obtaining the post is
uncertain.
In the beginning of August 1677 Ormonde
set out for Ireland, passing through Oxford,
where he held a convocation with great cere-
mony, and entering Dublin with royal dis-
play. His first and most important work
was to get the revenue into some sort of
order. On the subject of limiting the royal
grants he seems to have made his own terms
with Charles (CARTE, iv. 532, Clar. Press),
and he took a bold step in insisting that
when the revenue ran short it should be
the pensions and not the civil or military
lists that suffered. He was enabled, more-
over, shortly to increase the army, build a
military hospital at Kilmainham and a fort
at Kinsale, and put many others in repair.
It was now too that he formed the magnifi-
cent collection of manuscripts at his house
of Kilkenny {Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. passim).
Upon the breaking out of the popish terror
in England Ormonde took energetic measures.
On 7 Oct. he was informed that the plot
had extended to Ireland. On the 14th the
council met. A proclamation was issued
banishing all ecclesiastics whose authority
was derived from Rome, dissolving all popish
societies, convents, and schools, requiring
catholics to bring in their arms within twenty
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days, and all merchants and shopkeepers,
both protestants and papists, to make a
return of the amount of powder in their
possession. The militia was put on guard,
arms were sent from England, and Dublin
Castle was jealously guarded. Ormonde was
urged to measures still more severe, and re-
fused to use them, thus raising the bitterest
disappointment among those who hoped to
profit by confiscations, and drawing upon
himself the attacks of Shaftesbury and the
other patrons of the plot. Ossory defended
his father in the Lords with spirit, and
Charles refused to consent to the removal of
his old and tried servant. Ireland kept per-
fectly quiet, and the credit of the plot in Eng-
land suffered in consequence, but a fictitious
plot was concocted to give it support. In
the midst of the trouble that ensued Or-
monde heard of the death of his pure and
gallant son Ossory, between whom and him-
self there had always existed the utmost
affection and confidence. He shortly lost
both his sister and his wife, the latter on
21 July 1685 (ib. vii. 498), and, later, several
of his grandchildren. In the beginning of
May 1682, the country having quieted down
as soon as the king had mastered the exclu-
sionists, Ormonde went to court, where he
was at once employed in furnishing an an-
swer to Anglesey's letter on Castlehaven's
memoirs, in which the memory of Charles I
was reflected on. He was now in constant
attendance on the king, and was particu-
larly active in securing the election of tory
sheriffs for London, which compelled Shaftes-
bury to leave the country. On 9 Nov. an
English dukedom, being vacant by the death
of Lauderdale, was conferred upon Ormonde.
In the following February he was danger-
ously ill (ib. vii. 376 a), but recovered suffi-
ciently to set out again for Ireland in August.
Scarcely had he reached Dublin, however,
before he was recalled to make way for the
Earl of Rochester. This was in October.
The causes of this sudden decision are not
clear, though it is probable that Charles had
made up his mind to favour the catholics
in a manner which he thought Ormonde
would not approve. Before he had time to
hand over his government, however, the king
died, and Ormonde's last act was to cause
James II to be proclaimed in Dublin. His
arrival in London on 31 March 1685 was
signalised by a show of popular respect even
more remarkable than on former occasions.
At the coronation of James he carried the
crown as lord steward, but otherwise lived
as retired a life as possible. In January
1685-6 his second son, Richard, the earl of
Arran, died, and in February Ormonde re-
tired to Cornbury in Oxfordshire, leaving it
only to attend James in August on his pro-
gress in the west. He signalised his loyalty
to protestantism and the church of England
in 1687 by opposing the attempt of James to
assume the dispensing power in the case of
the Charterhouse, and it is to the credit of
James that in spite of Ormonde's refusal to
yield to his solicitation in this matter, or to
listen to endeavours now made to induce
him to turn catholic (CARTE, iv. 685, Clar.
Press), he retained the duke in all his offices
and held him in respect and favour to the
last. The king paid Ormonde two per-
sonal visits when laid up with gout at Bad-
minton. In 1688 he was taken for change
of air to Kingston Hall in Dorsetshire, where
in March he had a violent attack of fever
from which he recovered with difficulty. On
22 June he was seized with ague, and on
Saturday, 21 July, the anniversary of his
wife's death four years before, died quietly
of decay, not having, as he rejoiced to know,
' outlived his intellectuals.' He was buried
in Westminster Abbey on the night of Satur-
day, 4 Aug. He had eight sons and two
daughters, of whom only the two daughters
Elizabeth, married to Philip Stanhope, the
earl of Chesterfield, and Mary, married to
Lord Cavendish, the first duke of Devonshire
survived him. His grandson, James Butler
(1665-1745) [q. v.], son of Thomas Butler,
earl of Ossory [a. v.], his second child, suc-
ceeded him in the title.
[The chief authorities for Ormonde's life are
Carte, especially the letters in the Appendix,
and the Carte Papers in the Bodleian ; Cox's
and Leland's Histories of Ireland ; Pepys's and
Evelyn's Diaries, and the other diaries and me-
moirs of the period ; the article in the Bio-
graphia Britannica ; Burke's Peerage and Lodge's
Portraits ; while Mr. J. T. Gilbert's description
and analysis of the Ormonde manuscripts at Kil-
kenny (which had previously neither been cata-
logued nor arranged), in the Hist. MSS. Comm.
8th Eep., are of the utmost value.] 0. A.
BUTLER, JAMES, second DTJXE OP
ORMONDE (1665-1745), was born in Dublin
Castle, 29 April 1665, the second but eldest
living son of Thomas, Earl of Ossory [q. v.],
and of his wife Emilia, daughter of de Bever-
weert, governor of Sluys. In 1675 he was
sent to France 'to learn the French air and
language, the two things which ' the first
duke his grandfather ' thought the best worth
acquiring in that country' (CARTE). But
his tutor, one de 1'Ange, having ' in a manner
buried ' the boy among the tutor's relations
at Orange, and having otherwise proved un-
satisfactory, the duke summoned his grand-
son home and entered him at Christ Church,
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Oxford, where he resided till Lord Ossory's
death in 1680. From his father he seems to
have inherited some of the personal qualities
which afterwards helped to make him one of
the most popular men of his age. The young
Earl of Ossory now resided with his grand-
father in Ireland till the duke's return to
England in 1682. After this various matches
were proposed for him, and he was married
15 July 1682 to Anne, daughter of Law-
rence, Lord Hyde, afterwards Earl of Ro-
chester. Her premature death, 25 Jan. 1684,
no doubt helped to determine him in April
of the same year to betake himself to the
siege of Luxemburg, of which he witnessed
the surrender in June. In July he was
again summoned home by his grandfather,
whom he accompanied to Ireland, where he
had been appointed colonel of a regiment of
horse. The duke was, however, recalled after
a few months, and on his way back had to
leave his grandson, who had been seized with
small-pox at sea, to recover at Knowsley.
Although the new king James II had treated
the Duke of Ormonde with studied disrespect,
Lord Ossory was soon after his recovery ap-
pointed a lord of the bedchamber, and served
in the army despatched against Monmouth in
the west. In the same year, 3 Aug. 1685, he
married his second wife, Mary, eldest surviv-
ing daughter of the first Duke of Beaufort,
by whom he had a son, who died in infancy,
and five daughters. The death of the Duke of
Ormonde, 21 July 1688, raised his grandson
to the dukedom at a very critical moment ;
for three weeks previously the seven bishops
had been acquitted, and the invitation to
William of Orange despatched. In order at
once to secure a chief whose loyalty to the
church of England could be absolutely de-
pended upon, the convocation at Oxford
without delay elected by a majority the
young Duke of Ormonde successor to his
grandfather in the chancellorship of the uni-
versity. As it proved, they only escaped
Jeffreys by a couple of hours (MACATTLAY ;
and cf. the correspondence in Appendix to
Diary of Henry, earl of Clarendon (1828), ii.
489-92).
Ormonde, who had no reason for loving
James II, and was connected by family
ties with the United Provinces, pursued an
independent course during the brief re-
mainder of the reign. After the landing of
the Prince of Orange he joined in the petition
of 17 Nov. which called upon King James
to summon a free parliament. The king's
ungracious answer may have finally deter-
mined his course. Together with Prince
George he supped at King James's table at
Andover 25 Nov., and then with Lord Drum-
lanrig accompanied the prince in his ride to
the quarters of the Prince of Orange. In the
House of Lords Ormonde afterwards voted in
the minority which approved the proposal of a
regency : but he must have readily acquiesced
in the decision actually arrived at, for at
the coronation of William and Mary he
acted as lord high constable, and declared
defiance against all who should deny the
title of the new sovereigns. In return, he
was gratified by a garter, together with the
offices of gentleman of the bedchamber and
colonel of the second troop of life guards.
His support was above all valuable on ac-
count of the position held by him in Ireland;
and it was in his house in London that the
Irish proprietors met to discuss the situation
and to request King William if possible to
come to terms with Tyrconnel. When the
decision of arms was resorted to, Ormonde
showed no hesitation. His name had been
included in the great Act of Attainder
passed at Dublin in May 1689, and his vast
Irish estates, of which the annual income
was valued at 25,0007., had been declared
confiscate to the crown. In the following
year he served in King William's army at
the head of his life guards, and was present
at the battle of the Boyne. Immediately
afterwards he was despatched with his uncle
Lord Auverquerque to secure Dublin ; and
19 July he had the satisfaction of entertain-
ing King William in his ancestral castle at
Kilkenny, which he had been sent forward
to recover. In January 1691 he accompanied
William to the Hague, and in 1692 took
part, though not as active a part as he de-
sired, in the battle of Steinkirk. At the
battle of Landen, 29 July 1693, after nearly
losing his life amidst the terrible carnage of
the day, he was taken prisoner by the French ;
but after a brief captivity at Namur, where
he found opportunities of munificence to-
wards his fellow-prisoners, he was exchanged
for the Duke of Berwick. His name headed
the list of those specially excepted from the
hope of any future pardon in the declaration
issued by King James in April 1692, on the
eve of the battle of La Hogue (CzAKKE,
Life of James II, ii. 485).
He had thus been consistently loyal to-
wards William III, though, in accordance
with the traditions of his house, he was
reckoned among the tories. A certain inde-
pendence of action marked his conduct on
the occasion of the debates about Fenwick's
attainder in 1696 (MACAULAY, iv. 759-762) ;
and he was in some measure identified with
the popular sentiment of aversion to the
foreigners in the service of the king. In
1699 William promoted his Dutch favourite
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Albemarle over the heads of Ormonde and
Rivers to the command of the first troop
of life guards. Ormonde then resigned his
command of the second troop ; whereupon
not only did fifty members of parliament
join in expressing to him their sympathy,
but there was talk of bringing in a bill to
exclude all foreigners from official employ-
ment. The affair was, however, arranged
by a compromise, and Ormonde magnani-
mously withdrew his resignation (Exopp,
viii. 341-2). It had been further hoped
that of the Irish forfeitures resumed by par-
liament those in Tipperary would be bestowed
upon him ; but instead of this a proviso for-
giving him the debts owed by him to persons
whose property had been confiscated by the
crown was introduced into the abnormal ar-
rangements forced upon both king and lords
by the spleen of the commons. These trans-
actions, however, seem to have occasioned no
personal estrangement between William HI
and Ormonde ; for in March 1702 the latter
was among the Englishmen who stood by
the deathbed of the king.
Such was the popularity of Ormonde, that
when in the new reign war had been actually
declared, general satisfaction was caused by
his appointment, 20 April 1702, to the com-
mand of the English and Dutch land forces
which accompanied Sir George Rooke's fleet
on the expedition against Cadiz (August).
In June he was further gratified by being
made lord-lieutenant of Somersetshire. His
hope to prevail by pleasant words upon the
governor of Cadiz, his former companion in
arms in Flanders, proved as futile as his
grandiloquent proclamation to the inhabi-
tants. His plan for seizing the city by a coup
de main having been outvoted, he assented to
a counter-proposal that the troops should be
landed midway between the towns of Rota
and Puerto de Santa Maria. The former fell
at once into the hands of the allies, and Santa
Maria too was easily taken. Ormonde, whose
headquarters were at Rota, failed to repress
the excesses which followed on the part of his
soldiery, though he held a court of inquiry
into the conduct of his lieutenants. The at-
tempt to capture Fort Matagorda failed, and
discretionary powers having arrived, leaving
it open to Rooke and Ormonde either to winter
in Spain or to send part of the ships and
troops to the West Indies and return home
with the rest, a long series of bickerings en-
sued, which ended in the defeat of the gene-
ral's wish to effect another landing in Spain.
On 30 Sept. the fleet ingloriously weighed
anchor; but a fortunate accident enabled
the commanders before their return home to
cover their discomfiture by a brilliant success.
The land forces under Ormonde had a share
in the operations, which, after the taking of
the batteries at Redondela, ended in the de-
struction of many Spanish and French ships,
and the capture of part of the treasure of the
Plate fleet, in Vigo harbour (12 Oct.) After
this victory Ormonde would gladly have
attempted to seize Vigo and hold it during
the winter, but Rooke refused his co-opera-
tion, and both returned to England. Here
they were most warmly received, and their
achievements joined with Marlborough's in
the vote of thanks from the two houses, and
in the thanksgiving ceremony at St. Paul's,
where Ormonde was hailed with special accla-
mations. He, however, notwithstanding the
objections raised by his friends, insisted upon
and ultimately obtained a parliamentary in-
quiry into the Cadiz miscarriage. It ended
honourably for Rooke, Ormonde generously
abstaining from taking any part in the final
decision. The queen had sought to soothe
him by naming him a privy councillor ; and
in 1703 he was appointed to the government
of Ireland, which his father-in-law, Rochester,
the queen's uncle,had j ust wrathfully resigned.
Ormonde had a kind of ancestral claim to the
lord-lieutenancy, and the history of his house
was closely bound up with the protestant
and loyal interest in Ireland. It is therefore
not wonderful that he should have been en-
thusiastically received by the Irish parlia-
ment, which he opened 21 Sept. and which
speedily voted the necessary supplies. But
the session after all proved an unfortunate
one. The cruel intolerance of the act against
popery was little to the taste of the lord-
lieutenant, though he promised to do his
best for it in England ; here, however, much
to the vexation of the Irish parliament, a
clause devised on the principle of the Test
Act was added which bore hardly upon the
presbyterians. Furthermore, some of Or-
monde's subordinates were believed to have
cooked the public accounts, and he was sup-
posed to have held but a slack rein over the
cupidity of those who surrounded him. The
parliament, which had become violently in-
censed against him, was abruptly prorogued.
In 1705, when a dispute raged between the
commons and the lower house of convoca-
tion, he twice resorted to the same expe-
dient, and in June he embarked for England.
He was in the following year superseded in
the government of Ireland by the Earl of
Pembroke. On the overthrow of the whigs
in 1710 he was reappointed to the same post,
recently held Jby Wharton, but within less
than two years he was called away from the
exercise of its duties. In December 1711
Marlborough had been dismissed from all
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his offices, and soon afterwards Ormonde,
besides being appointed colonel of the first
regiment of foot guards, was appointed to
succeed him in the post of captain-general
and in the conduct of the campaign in
Flanders, for which he took his departure in
April 1712. Burnet declares that he was
' well satisfied both with his instructions
and his appointments ; for he had the same
allowances that had been voted criminal in
the Duke of Marlborough.' His instructions
were to inform the States-General and Prince
Eugene that the queen intended vigorously
to push the war. The coldness of the recep-
tion, however, which he met with from Pen-
sionary Heinsius, was speedily justified by
the conduct of the government, which had
selected an honourable man for the perfor-
mance of a more than dubious task. Within
a fortnight of his landing he was warned by
St. John to be extremely cautious about en-
gaging in any action, and at the end of May,
just after he and Prince Eugene had reviewed
the allied forces near Douai, arrived the
orders, which were afterwards notorious as
the restraining orders, but which he was in-
structed to keep secret, forbidding his join-
ing in any siege or engaging in any action
without further commands. The allies
crossed the Scheldt, while Villars, whose
position had seemed nearly desperate, at
once found a pretext for entering into com-
munications with Ormonde. They greatly
embarrassed the British general, who, in
reply to a pressing invitation from Prince
Eugene, felt himself constrained to avow
that he could not join in any operation be-
fore receiving further instructions from home.
The true nature of his position was now an
open secret, and as such was hotly discussed
both at the Hague and in the houses of
parliament at Westminster. When in June
Prince Eugene gave orders for the siege of
Quesnoy, Ormonde, in accordance with the
declaration of ministers in parliament that
such an operation was within his powers,
consented to cover the siege in conjunction
with the imperialist commander ; but no
sooner had the fall of the place become im-
minent than he informed Prince Eugene
(25 June) that he was instructed to proclaim
a cessation of arms for two months. Ques-
noy, however, capitulated (10 July), and
Ormonde failed to induce the commanders of
the German troops in the queen's pay, headed
by the hereditary Prince of Hesse-Cassel, to
follow him to Dunkirk, which Louis XIV
had agreed provisionally to give up to Great
Britain. Instead of half the allied army,
only the native British troops, 12,000 in
number, now obeyed Ormonde's orders. Hav-
ing proclaimed a cessation of arms, he with-
drew at the head of these troops (16 July)
and marched upon Ghent and Bruges, which
were already in British occupation, and
which nearly alone among the places in Flan-
ders opened their gates to our forces. Here
and hereabouts they spent the winter, while
Dunkirk was also nominally in British oc-
cupation. When the spring came, peace had
been made.
Humiliating as Ormonde's experiences
had been during his command for his own
officers and soldiers had expressed their
share in the indignation excited by the policy
which he was doomed to carry out it does
not seem as if his personal credit had per-
manently suffered from these proceedings.
A general impression, more complimentary
to his integrity than to his intelligence, pre-
vailed that he had been employed because he
did not at first penetrate the motives of his
employers. The government rewarded him for
his services by conferring on him the warden-
ship and admiralty of the Cinque Ports and
the constableship of Dover Castle, together
with a pension of 5,000/. a year upon the Irish
revenues, this last in compensation of the
recent restoration to the crown of some royal-
ties in Tipperary which had formerly been for
a time in his family. Inasmuch as he still held
both the lord-lieutenancy and the captain-
generalship, he was during the last part of
Queen Anne's reign one of the most impor-
tant personages in the state, and one on
whom a large share of responsibility rested
as to the conduct and policy of its govern-
ment. As lord-lieutenant he at least found
occasion for an act creditable both to his
sense of justice and to his moral courage ;
for it was to 'his brother ' Ormonde, in whose
gift the preferment lay, that Swift primarily
owed his appointment to the deanery of
St. Patrick by an arrangement concerted, as
he relates, between the queen, the duke, and
the lord treasurer Oxford (Journal to Stella,
18 April 1713). It is less easy to determine
the more important question, to what extent
Ormonde was prepared to further the Jacobite
designs rife in the last years of the reign. He
was not a man usually capable of acting for
himself, and he seems to have followed the
lead of Bolingbroke rather than that of the
more cautious Oxford, though the former
afterwards explicitly denied having been at
any time ' in his secret ' (Letter to Wind-
ham). As captain-general he co-operated in
the purification of the army from the leaven
of Marlborough ; and though as lord warden
of the Cinque Ports he was specially re-
sponsible for the safety of the south coast,
he was actually engaged in correspondence
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with the Duke of Berwick (Memoires du
Marechal de Berwick, cited in MACKNTGHT'S
Life of Bolingbroke, 392). When Boling-
broke had at last succeeded in ousting
Oxford from office and intended to form an
essentially Jacobite administration of his
own, Ormonde was to have been included in
it (STANHOPE). Instead of this, his name
together with Bolingbroke's figured among
the signatures under the proclamation noti-
fying the death of Queen Anne and the ac-
cession of King George. It was noticed
that at the proclamation of the king, when
Oxford was hissed and Bolingbroke met
with a dubious reception, Ormonde was
lustily cheered by the crowd {Ford to Swift,
5 Aug. 1714, cited by WYON, ii. 529-530).
On the arrival in England of the new
king, it seemed at first as if Ormonde were
to be received into the royal favour. But
18 Sept. he was deprived of the captain-
generalship ; and though 9 Oct. he was named
of the privy council in Ireland and confirmed
in the lord-lieutenancy, he was a few days
afterwards dismissed from both offices, being
however apprised through Lord Townshend
that the king would be glad to see him at
court. When parliament met in March 1715,
Stanhope, who in the debate on the address
hinted at the willingness of ministers to
call their predecessors to account, spoke of
' a certain English general who had acted
in concert with, if not received orders from,
Marshal Villars.' But Ormonde continued
to maintain an attitude of dignity and even
of defiance, holding receptions at Richmond
to which Jacobites were openly admitted,
and enjoying the huzzas of the London mob.
To what extent he was at this time involved
with the Pretender, who, according to Bo-
lingbroke, had conferred upon Ormonde a
commission ' with the most ample powers
that could be given' for the conduct of a
rising in England, will probably never be
known. There seems even now to have existed
among the whigs a wish to avoid prosecuting
him with the other late tory leaders, and to
induce him to recant his errors instead (see
the letter from Cardonnel to Marlborough
cited by STANHOPE, History, i. 122 note).
But it was ultimately determined otherwise.
On 21 June Stanhope moved his impeach-
ment, and after a protracted debate, in which
several known friends of the protestant suc-
cession spoke in his favour, the motion was
carried by a majority of forty-nine. Yet it
was still hoped that an audience with the
king might set matters right, and many of
his Jacobite friends urged him to take a
conciliatory course, which still seemed open
to him. Others wished him to co-operate in
the scheme for an insurrection in the west, to
which he was already privy. But he refused to
accept either advice, and once more following
Bolingbroke's lead fled to France on 8 Aug.
(for the story of his parting interview with
Oxford in the Tower see STANHOPE, i. 127).
He arrived, if Bolingbroke is to be believed,
' almost literally alone,' and for a time the
two exiles lived together in the same house.
On 20 Aug. he was attainted, his estates
were declared forfeited, and his honours ex-
tinguished, and on 26 June followed an act
vesting his estates in the crown. Another
act, however, passed in 1721, enabled his
brother the Earl of Arran to purchase them,
and this was done.
Ormonde, who had not yet lost heart, and
was still, in Bolingbroke's phrase, ' the bubble
of his own popularity,' took a prominent part
in the unfortunate enterprise of 1715. Trust-
ing in the promises of the Jacobites in Eng-
land and in the pretences of the regent
Orleans or his agents, he embarked in Nor-
mandy for the neighbourhood of Plymouth,
where the country was to rise for King
James. But on his arrival he was soon con-
vinced of the futility of his expectations, and
speedily sailed back to France. He never
again returned to this country. In 1719,
when Alberoni had resolved to assist the
Pretender with a Spanish armada sailing
from Cadiz, the conduct of it was offered
to Ormonde, who was to join the fleet at
Corunna, and there assume its command,
with the title of captain-general of the
King of Spain. In Ireland a reward of
10,000/. and in England one of 5,0001. were
proclaimed for his apprehension on landing,
and about the same time his house in St.
James's Square was sold by auction by the
crown. He was himself altogether distrust-
ful of the success of the expedition, which
numbered not more than 5,000 soldiers
(partly Irish), and wrote from Corunna to
Alberoni requesting that it might be post-
poned, which was tantamount to its being
abandoned. But the fleet was dissipated off
Cape Finisterre by a hurricane which lasted
twelve days, and only two frigates reached
the Scottish shore. In 1721, St. Simon found
him resident at Madrid, and in favour with
the queen and the court ; and either there or
later the Spanish government acknowledged
his services, or his distinction, by a pension
of 2,000 pistoles. Many years afterwards
in 1740 he was again in the Spanish capital,
where he and Earl Marischal hoped to take ad-
vantage for the Jacobite cause of the breach
between Spain and England. He was once
more disappointed ; nor could he well have
now participated in any military enterprise.
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The latter years of his life were spent chiefly
at Avignon, where Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
tagu saw him in 1733, the year of his second
wife's death. He died himself 16 Nov. 1745.
His remains were brought to England and
buried in the family vault in King Henry V II's
chapel in Westminster Abbey. With the
death of his brother Charles, earl of Arran, in
1758 the titles of the family became extinct.
The second Duke of Ormonde, though in a
sense born to greatness, certainly did not con-
trive to achieve it. The exceptional popularity
which he enjoyed in England in the earlier
half of his life is easily accounted for.
Swift, describing the French ambassador to
Stella, says that 'he is a fine gentleman,
something like the Duke of Ormonde, and
just such an expensive man.' He was not
less munificent than he was wealthy, gracious
in manner, and high-church in opinions. In
other respects, too, he fell in with the then
popular ideal of a patriotic English statesman,
though really as little capable in the cabinet
as on the battle-field, where, according to
Prior ( Carmen Seculars), his glory paled nei-
ther before that of his ancestors nor before
that of King William himself. His lofti-
ness of spirit was, however, not altogether
for show, if St. Simon's anecdote be true,
that he refused large domains offered to him
in Spain as the price of conversion to the
church of Rome, while we know that he de-
clined to follow Bolingbroke in attempting
to persuade the Pretender to abandon this
faith. Except by virtue of his rank and
position, he was as a politician throughout
his life what Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
says he was in 1733, quite insignificant. He
never accomplished anything of importance
except when by separating the British troops
from those of the allies in Flanders he enabled
his tory colleagues to conclude peace with
dishonour.
There is a half-length portrait of the duke
by Michael Dahl in the National Portrait
Gallery.
[A useful biographical sketch of the second
Duke of Ormonde is given in Lodge's Peerage
of Ireland, ed. Archdall, 1789, iv. 59-64 note.
Several facts concerning his early days and
family connections will be found in Carte's Life
of [the first] James, Duke of Ormonde, vol. iv.
ed. 1851. Of his proceedings immediately before
and after his flight to France, Bolingbroke gives
an untrustworthy account in the Letter to Sir
William Windham. Other modern authorities
are Lord Macaulay's History of England ; Lord
Stanhope's Reign of Queen Anne (1870), and
History of England from the Peace of Utrecht
(1858); Smollett's History of England; O.Klopp's
Falldes Hauses Stuart (1875-1881); Coxe'sLife
of Marlborough; and, more especially, F. W.
VOL. VIII.
Wyon's History of Great Britain during the
reign of Queen Anne (2 vols. 1876).]
A. W. W.
BUTLER, JAMES ARMAR (1827-
1854), captain in the army, born in 1827, was
the fourth son of Lieutenant-general the Hon.
Henry Edward Butler, who had served in the
27th regiment in Egypt, and afterwards as a
colonel in the Portuguese army at Busaco,
where he was wounded. He was nephew of
Somerset Richard Butler, third earl of Car-
rick. He was educated on the continent and
at Sandhurst, and received his commission as
an ensign in the 90th regiment in 1843. He
served in the Caffre war of 1846-7, was pro-
moted lieutenant in 1847, and purchased his
captaincy in the Ceylon rifle regiment in May
1853. He was in England on furlough in
the summer of 1854, when the war between
Russia and Turkey had just broken out, and
since he could not hope to be ordered with
the expeditionary force, he set out with a
friend, Lieutenant Charles Nasmyth, of the
Bombay artillery, to see the fighting. The two
friends went first to Omar Pasha's camp at
Shumla ; but as he did not seem inclined to
advance, they asked leave to join the garrison
at Silistria, to which the Russian army had
laid siege on 19 May. Butler and Nasmyth
soon obtained over the garrison the same
absolute power that Eldred Pottinger ac-
quired at Herat. The key to the fortress was
believed to be the earthwork known as the
Arab Tabia, and this work was perpetually
bombarded and mined by the Russians, and
attacked by heavy columns at all hours of
the day and night. Mussa Pasha, the Turkish
commandant, was killed, and so was the
Russian commanding engineer ; but still
Omar Pasha would not send help, and when
General Cannon (Behram Pasha) did intro-
duce his brigade, he dared not keep it there,
and retired within two days. On 13 June
Butler had been slightly wounded in the
forehead ; privation and hard work made
the wound dangerous, and on 22 June, two
hours before the Russians retired, the hero
of Silistria who deserves the credit, though
but a young English captain of twenty-seven,
of defeating a whole Russian army died
peacefully without knowing of his triumph.
On 14 July, before the news of his untimely
death arrived, he had been gazetted a major
in the army, and lieutenant and captain in
the Coldstream guards.
[For the siege of Silistria see Nasmyth's letters
to the Times in 1854 ; for a short memoir,
Nolan's Illustrated History of the War against
Russia, 2 vols. 1855-7 ; and generally, for the
effect of the defence, Kinglake's Invasion of the
Crimea, chap. 30.] H. M. S.
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BUTLER, JOHN, sixth EARL OF OE-
MOXDE (d. 1-478), brother of James, fifth earl
[q. v.], was with his brother attainted by the
first parliament of Edward TV, but was soon
afterwards pardoned and restored in blood
by Edward, and to all his estate except his
lands in Essex, which had been granted by
the king to his sister Anne. The attainder
by the Irish parliament at Dublin, 2 Ed-
ward IV, was not however repealed till
16 Edward IV. Previous to succeeding to
the earldom he was known as Sir John de
Ormonde, having been knighted at Leicester
by the Duke of Bedford, the king's uncle,
for adherence to Henry VI. Edward IV
used to say of him that he was ' the good-
liest knight he ever beheld and the finest
gentleman in Christendom ; and that if good
breeding, nurture, and liberal qualities were
lost in the world, they might all be found in
John, earl of Ormonde.' He had a thorough
mastery of every European language, and
had been an ambassador to nearly every
European court. He died in the Holy Land
during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1478.
He was unmarried, and was succeeded in
the earldom by his brother Thomas.
[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iv. 14-16 ; Carte's
Life of the Duke of Ormonde (Oxford ed. 1851),
i. Ixxxi ; The Ormonde Attainders, by Hubert
Hall, in the Genealogist, new ser., i. 769 ;
The Barony of Arklow, by J. H. Round, in vol. i.
of Foster's Collectanea Genealogica.] T. F. H.
BUTLER, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1800), catho-
lic bishop of Cork, styled by courtesy Lord
Dunboyne, was the third son of Edmond
Butler, of Dunboyne, co. Meath, by courtesy
eighth Baron Dunboyne (he died in 1732),
and Anne, daughter of Oliver Grace, of
Shanganagh, co. Tipperary. In his early
days he devoted himself to the service of
the church, but in consequence of his having
lost an eye his ordination was delayed till
the consequent canonical impediment had
been dispensed with at Rome. The dignity
of his birth and the interest of powerful
friends procured his appointment to the see
of Cork by brief of Pope Clement XIII,
dated 16 April 1763, and he was consecrated
in June the same year. After having occu-
pied that see for twenty-three years he re-
signed his position and renounced his creed
under very peculiar circumstances. On the
death in December 1785 of his nephew, Pearce
Edmond Creagh Butler, styled the eleventh
Baron Dunboyne, the title and estates de-
volved on him. He expected from Rome a
dispensation from the obligations of his epi-
scopal character and permission to marry,
"but his application to the Holy See was an-
swered by Pius VI. in language of stern
rebuke. With the hope of perpetuating his
name and family he violated his vow of
celibacy and married at Clonmel a protes-
tant young lady, a cousin of his own, and
daughter of Theobald Butler, of Wilford,
co. Tipperary. On the intelligence being
conveyed to Rome of the bishop's mar-
riage the pope addressed to him a letter
couched in severe terms. The original of
this document, dated 9 June 1787, and an
English translation are printed in England's
1 Life of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary ' (pp. 227,
332). Dr. Butler paid no heed to this docu-
ment, but read his recantation of the distinc-
tive doctrines of Catholicism in the parish
church of Clonmel on 19 Aug. 1787. He
never officiated, however, in the protestant
church. After his apostasy he frequented the
services of the established religion on Sun-
days ; and on one or two occasions, when or-
dinations were held in the chapel of Trinity
College, during his residence in Dublin, he
was invited to assist at the imposition of
hands, but he anxiously declined to do so
(Life of O'Leary, 226). No issue came of his
marriage. Lord Dunboyne, as he was called,
being by courtesy the twelfth baron, died
at his residence, Dunboyne Castle, on 7 May
1800, having been a few days previously
reconciled to the catholic church by William
Gahan, D.D., a celebrated Augustinian friar.
His widow survived him sixty years. She
afterwards married J. Hubert Moore, of
Shannon Grove, King's County, barrister-at-
law, but died without issue in August 1860,
By his will he bequeathed the Dunboyne
estate to Maynooth College for the educa-
tion of youths intended for the priesthood,
devising his other estates to his heir-at-law
and family. The bequest was disputed in
December 1801, in a suit against the trustees
of Maynooth, on the ground that any one
'relapsing into popery from the protestant
religion was deprived of the benefit of the
laws made in favour of Roman catholics,
and was therefore incapable of making a
will of landed property under the penal
laws.' Dr. Gahan was examined at the
assizes at Trim, on 24 Aug. 1802, to elicit
from him whether he administered the last
sacraments to Lord Dunboyne, and, on his
refusing to reveal the secrets of the confes-
sional, was sentenced to imprisonment in
the gaol of Trim for contempt of court by
Lord Kilwarden; but the jury having found,
on a separate issue submitted to them, that
the deceased had died a catholic, the judge
directed the witness's release after a week's
confinement.
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The title of Dunboyne in the peerage of
Ireland was created by Henry VIII in 1541,
but was forfeited in the person of James,
fourth baron, for his implication in the re-
bellion of 1641 ; he was outlawed in 1691
for adherence to the cause of King James II.
The attainder was not reversed till 26 Oct.
1827, when James, thirteenth baron, was
restored by the reversal of the outlawries
affecting the title.
[England's Life of Arthur O'Leary ; Brady's
Episcopal Succession, ii. 95 ; Notes and Queries,
5th series, xi. 8,31, 69 ; Universe, 20 Jan. 1866,
p. 5; Burke's Peerage (1885), 444; Foster's
Peerage (1882), 233; Madden's Kevelations of
Ireland, 61.1 T. C.
BUTLER, JOHN (1717-1802), bishop
of Hereford, was born at Hamburg. As a
young man he was a tutor in the family of
Mr. Child, the banker (CHALMERS). He was
not a member of either university, though
in later life he received the degree of LL.D.
from Cambridge. He married for his first
wife a lady who kept a school at Westmin-
ster ; his second was the sister and coheiress
of Sir Charles Vernon, of Farnham in Surrey,
and this marriage considerably improved his
social standing. Having taken orders he
became a popular preacher in London, and
in 1754 he published a sermon, preached
at St. Paul's before the Sons of the Clergy.
In the title-page he is described as chaplain
to the Princess Dowager of Wales. In the
same year he also published a sermon preached
before the trustees of the Public Infirmary.
He was installed as a prebendary of Win-
chester in 1760. In the title-page of a ser-
mon preached before the House of Commons
at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on the occa-
sion of a general fast in 1758, he is described
as minister of Great Yarmouth and chaplain
to the Princess Dowager. In spite of this
relation to the princess's household, in 1762
he issued a political pamphlet addressed to
the ' Cocoa Tree ' and signed ' A Whig.' In
this pamphlet, which ran to three editions, he
bitterly attacked Bute and the conduct of the
ministry since the a ccession of George III. He
was appointed chaplain to the Bishop of Lon-
don (Dr. Hayter), received the living of Ever-
ley, Wiltshire, and on the recommendation
of Lord Onslow was made one of the king's
chaplains. In 1769 he was made archdeacon
of Surrey. During the American war he
issued a number of political pamphlets, under
the signature of ' Vindex,' in which he strongly
supports the policy of Lord North . He reaped
the reward of his services in 1777, when he
was appointed bishop of Oxford, being con-
secrated at Lambeth on 25 May. Butler had
now adopted strong tory principles, and on
30 Jan. 1787 preached before the House of
Lords on the death of Charles I. While
bishop of Oxford he helped Dr. Woide to
transcribe the Alexandrine MS. of the Bible.
In 1788 he was translated to the bishopric
of Hereford. He died in 1802, in the eighty-
fifth year of his age, leaving no children. At
the advanced age of sixty he had undergone
the operation of cutting for the stone. His
published works are : 1. ' An Answerto the
Cocoa Tree, by a Whig,' 1762. 2. 'A Con-
sultation on the Subject of a Standing Army,'
1763. 3. ' Serious Consideration on the
Character of the Present Administration.'
4. ' Account of the Character of the Rt. Hon.
H. B. Legge.' 5. Sermons and charges of
various dates, republished in a collective
edition, 1801.
[Gent. Mag. Ixxii. pt. i. 233, ii. 1170 ; Letter
to the Cocoa Tree, by a Whig, in Collected Pam-
phlets B. (Brit. Mus.) ; Chalmers's Biog. Diet,
vii. 455; Watt's Bibl. Brit. i. 177; Le Neve's
Fasti Eccl. Angl. ; Nichols's Lit. Anec. ix. 10.]
B. C. S.
BUTLER, JOSEPH (1692-1752), bishop
of Durham, was born at Wantage 18 May
1692. He was the youngest of the eight
children of a well-to-do draper who had
retired from business, and occupied a house
called ' The Priory,' on the outskirts of the
town. The room in which the bishop was
born is still shown. He was first sent to the
Latin school under the Rev. Philip Barton.
Long afterwards, on becoming dean of St.
Paul's, he bestowed one of his first pieces
of patronage, the rectory of Hutton, in Essex,
upon his old schoolmaster. (According to a
statement by G. Lavington in the ' Rawlin-
son MSS.' he was educated at St. Paul's
School. The statement is made on behalf of
Butler, who ' doth not care to fill up ' Raw-
linson's form. He 'likes not to have his life
wrote while he is living.') Butler's father
intended him for the presbyterian ministry.
He therefore sent the boy to a dissenting
academy kept by Samuel Jones at Gloucester,
and afterwards at Tewkesbury. Among
Butler's fellow-pupils were Seeker, after-
wards archbishop, with whom he formed
a lifelong friendship ; Maddox, afterwards
bishop of Worcester ; and a well-known dis-
senting divine, Samuel Chandler. Jones's
academy is described in a letter from Seeker
to Dr. Watts (GIBBONS, Memoirs of Isaac
Watts (1780), p. 346). There were sixteen
pupils who studied logic, Hebrew, mathe-
matics, and classics. Butler's intellectual
development is proved by the correspondence
which he carried on while still at Tewkesbury
with Samuel Clarke, a philosopher frequently
consulted by youthful inquirers. Butler in his
Butler
68
Butler
first letter (4 Nov. 1713) advances two objec-
tions to the arguments by which Clarke in the
Boyle Lectures of 1704-5 sought to demon-
strate the existence and attributes of God.
Butler doubts whether it is a contradiction to
assert the ' self-existence of a finite being,' but
declares himself convinced (in his fourth let-
ter) by Clarke's arguments. He also doubts
whether it is a contradiction to suppose the
existence of two independent self-existing
beings. This latter difficulty, after some dis-
cussion, resolves itself into a question as to the
nature of time and space ; and at the close of
the correspondence Butler is still in doubt.
At a later period he professed himself to be
fully satisfied upon this point also (SxEERE's
Remains, p. 18). Butler did not give his
name, and sent his letters to the post through
his friend Seeker, describing himself to Clarke
as ' a gentleman from Gloucestershire.' [The
letters are given in Butler's 'Works' and
in Clarke's 'Works,' vol. ii. 1738.] He
declares in the fourth that he designs ' the
search after truth as the business of his life,'
and his obvious candour and ability made
a favourable impression upon Clarke, with
whom he soon afterwards corresponded under
his own name. He had decided to conform
to the church of England, and persuaded his
father, after a little trouble, to allow him to
enter at Oriel, March 1714-15, to pursue the
necessary studies. He expresses to Clarke
his dissatisfaction with Oxford. He regrets
that he is obliged to quit his divinity studies
by the want of encouragement to independent
thinkers (STEEEE'S Remains, p. 12). He has
made up his mind (30 Sept. 1717) to migrate
to Cambridge to avoid the 'frivolous lectures '
and 'unintelligible disputations' by which he
is ' quite tired out ' at Oxford (European
Magazine, xli. 9). Meanwhile he had become
intimate with Edward Talbot, son of the
bishop of Salisbury. In 1717 Talbot became
vicar of East Hendred, near Wantage ; and
from entries in the parish registers it ap-
pears that Butler helped him in some of his
duties. Butler took hisB.A. degree on 16 Oct.
1718, and the B.C.L. on 10 June 1721. He
was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop
Talbot at Salisbury in October and December
1718 (Rawlinson MSS. fol. 16, 144), and
was appointed in July, through the influ-
ence of Clarke and Talbot, to the preacher-
ship at the Rolls Chapel. His friend Talbot
died in December 1720, leaving a widow and
a posthumous daughter, who became the in-
timate friend of Mrs. Carter, and speaks with
warmth of Butler's continued courtesy and
kindness to her through his life (Memoirs of
Mrs. Carter, i. 128). Mrs. Talbot and her
daughter became inmates of Seeker's family
after his marriage in 1725. Talbot had on
his deathbed recommended Butler and Seeker
(known to him through Butler) to his father,
the bishop. In 1721 Butler became prebendary
of Salisbury. In the same year Bishop Talbot
was translated to Durham, and in 1722 gave
Butler the rectory of Houghton-le-Skerne,
near Darlington. Butler was still a poor man,
and received money at times from an elder bro-
ther, the last sum paid being 100Z. in January
1725. A taste for building, which he showed
through life, led him to spend more than he
could afford upon repairing the Houghton
parsonage. Meanwhile Bishop Talbot had
ordained Seeker in 1722, and in 1724 pre-
sented him to the rectory of Houghton-le-
Spring. Seeker, we are told, now used his
influence with the bishop, due in the first
instance to Butler's friendship, by inducing
him to bestow upon Butler, in 1725, the
rectory of Stanhope in Weardale, known in
the north as the ' golden rectory.' Butler
then became independent for the first time ;
and in the autumn of 1726 he resigned his
preachership, and published the celebrated
' Fifteen Sermons.' In the preface to the
second edition, dated 6 Sept. 1729, he says
that the selection of these from many others
preached in the same place was ' in great
measure accidental.' Butler led a secluded
life at Stanhope, and little is known of his
pursuits. A tradition, collected by Bishop
Phillpotts, a successor in the living, tells us
that he ' rode a black pony, and rode very
fast' (BAKTLETT'S Sutler, p. 76), though
a remoter tradition adds that he fell into
reveries, and allowed his pony to graze at
will (EGGLESTOKTE). We are also told that
he found it hard to resist the importunity
of beggars, and would try to escape them by
shutting himself up in his house. His main
occupation must have been the composition of
the 'Analogy,' which was published in 1736.
The ' Analogy ' is dedicated to Charles, lord
Talbot, who became chancellor in 1733, ' in
acknowledgment of the highest obligations
to the late Lord Bishop of Durham' (Talbot's
father) ' and himself.' Talbot, on becoming
chancellor, had appointed Butler his chaplain,
and upon this occasion Butler took the D.C.L.
degree at Oxford in December 1733. Talbot
further made him a prebendary of Rochester
(July 1736), and the same month he had
become clerk of the closet to Queen Caroline.
The old connection with the Talbots might
well account for these preferments, to which,
however, we are told that Seeker again con-
tributed. Queen Caroline took great interest
in philosophical discussions. The controversy
between Clarke and Leibnitz had been carried
on through her, and Clarke, Berkeley, Hoad-
Butler
6 9
Butler
ly, and Sherlock had held conversations in
her presence. Butler, as a friend of Clarke's,
may have been introduced at these during
his preachership at the Rolls. Seeker, who in
1733 had become chaplain to the king, men-
tioned his friend soon afterwards to the queen,
who said that she thought he had been dead.
She repeated this to Archbishop Blackburne
of York, who replied, ' No, madame, he is not
dead, but he is buried.' However this may
be, the queen became interested in Butler,
and commanded his attendance, we are told,
every evening from seven till nine. The
queen died next year (20 Nov. 1737), and
just before her death commended Butler to
Potter, the new archbishop of Canterbury.
Butler, according to Lord Hervey (Memoirs,
ii. 529), was the only person whom she re-
commended ' particularly and by name '
during her illness. A month later, as Seeker
told Jekyll, who told Dr. Thomas Wilson,
son of the bishop of Man, he preached a ser-
mon before the king upon profiting by afflic-
tion ; his hearer was much affected, and
promised to ' do something very good for him'
(STEERE'S Remains, p. 5).
George II, in any case, desired to carry out
the queen's wishes. Butler received next
year an offer from Walpole of the bishopric
of Bristol, from which Dr. Gooch was trans-
lated to Norwich. In a letter to Walpole
(dated Stanhope, 28 Aug. 1738) Butler ac-
cepts the offer, but says that it was ' not
very suitable either to the condition of my
fortune or the circumstances of my prefer-
ment, nor, as I should have thought, to the
recommendation ' (that is the queen's) ' with
which I was honoured.' The bishopric was
in fact the poorest in England. Butler was al-
lowed to hold his prebend at Rochester (re-
signing that at Salisbury) and his rectory at
Stanhope in commendam, until 1740, when
he was appointed dean of St. Paul's. He was
installed 24 May, and resigned his other pre-
ferments. Butler spent considerable sums
in improving the bishop's palace at Bris-
tol ; some reports mention from three to five
thousand pounds, others the whole income
of the see for twelve years (BARTLETT'S
Sutler, -p. 89 ; STEERE'S Remains}. The mer-
chants of the town offered a large gift of
cedar, part of which he carried afterwards to
Durham. The few glimpses of Butler's private
life belong to this period. In March 1737
John Byrom was introduced to him by the
famous David Hartley, at whose house they
met. A long argument took place, in which
Butler supported the claims of reason, while
Byrom defended the claims of authority.
Byrom ends by wishing that he had ' Dr.
Butler's temper and calmness, yet not quite,
because I thought he was a little too little
vigorous' (BYROM'S Remains (Chetham Soc.),
ii. 96-9). Byrom dined with Butler 14 Feb.
1749, when the bishop entertained a party of
fifteen, and was ' very civil and courteous '
(ib. p. 486). In August 1739 Wesley had an
interview with Butler. Wesley was at the
beginning of his career as a preacher, and his
sermons had caused some of those phenomena
which to Wesley appeared to be proofs of di-
vine power, while Butler would regard them
with suspicion as symptoms of ' enthusiasm ' in
the bad sense of the word. They had caused
scandal, and the bishop probably felt it a
duty to remonstrate. After some argument
about faith and works, Butler spoke with
horror of claims to 'extraordinary revelations
and gifts of the Holy Spirit ;' he spoke of
people falling into fits at the meetings of the
society, and ended by advising Wesley to
leave his diocese. Wesley declined to give
any promise (TYERMAN'S Life of Wesley, i.
247). At Bristol, Butler made the acquaint-
ance of Josiah Tucker, afterwards the well-
known dean of Gloucester. Butler made
Tucker his domestic chaplain, and gave him
a prebend in the cathedral. Tucker tells us
that Butler used to walk for hours in the
garden behind his palace at night, and upon
one such occasion suddenly asked his chaplain
whether public bodies might not go mad as
well as individuals, adding that nothing else
could account for most of the transactions
in history (TUCKER'S Humble Address and
earnest Appeal to the Landed Interest, p. 20,
note).
On the death of Archbishop Potter in 1747
an offer of the primacy was made to Butler,
who had in 1746 been made clerk of the closet
to the king (on the death of Egerton, bishop
of Hereford). Butler is said to have declined
it on the ground that ' it was too late for him
to try to support a falling church ' (BART-
LETT, p. 96). One of his nephews, John Butler,
a rich bachelor, had previously shown his
appreciation of the ' Analogy ' by exchanging
a presentation copy from his uncle for an iron
vice belonging to a ' shrewd Scotch solicitor '
named Thomson. Hearing, however, that
his uncle had a chance of the archbishopric,
he came up to town prepared to advance
20,000/. to meet his first expenses. In 1741
the bishopric of Durham was offered to Butler.
It was proposed to him that the lord-lieu-
tenancy of the county, previously attached
to the bishopric, should be given to a lay-
man, and that the deanery of St. Paul's to
be vacated by him should be conferred upon
Seeker on condition that Butler should give
the stall at Durham vacated by Seeker to
Dr. Chapman (master of Magdalene, Cam-
Butler
Butler
bridge). Butler declined to allow the dignity
of the see to be diminished by the separation
of the lord-lieutenancy, or to agree to a con-
tract which he thought simoniacal. He was
accordingly appointed to the bishopric un-
conditionally. The arrangement, however,
as to Chapman and Seeker was carried into
effect. The lord-lieutenancy was not sepa-
rated from the bishopric till the next vacancy.
A plan for establishing bishops in the Ame-
rican colonies was suggested at this time by
Butler (Annual Register, 1765, p. 108). It
came to nothing, but was noticed in a later
controversy between Seeker and a Dr. May-
hew, of Boston, in 1763. A contemporary
reference is made in R. Baron's ' Cordial for
Low Spirits ' (1751, preface to vol. iii.) [see
BARON, R.] Butler was translated to Durham
in July 1750, succeeding E. Chandler. He
delivered a charge in 1751 (printed in his
works). In this, after speaking strongly of the
' general decay of religion in the nation,' and
speaking of the evil effects of light conversation
in promoting scepticism, he insists upon the
importance of observing outward forms, of
maintaining churches, and regular services, as
well as impressing the people by proper per-
sonal admonitions. He speaks incidentally of
the influence of outward form in strengthen-
ing the beliefs, superstitions, and religions of
heathens, Mahommedans, and Catholics. This
passage gave very needless offence, and in
1752 Archdeacon Blackburne published an
anonymous pamphlet called ' A Serious En-
quiry into the Use and Importance of External
Religion,' &c., in which Butler was accused
of a tendency to Romanism. This pamphlet
was republished with Blackburne's name by
R. Baron, in a collection called ' The Pillars
of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy shaken,' and is
included in Blackburne's works. It is only
worth notice as partly accounting for the
report afterwards spread, that Butler had
died a catholic. Another circumstance which
aroused the suspicions of his contemporaries
was his erection in the chapel of his palace
at Bristol of a slab of black marble over the
altar, with an inlaid cross of white marble.
It remained till the destruction of the palace
in the Bristol riots of 1831.
The assertion that Butler died a catholic
was made in 1767 in an anonymous pamphlet
called 'The Root of Protestant Errors Ex-
amined ' (attributed to Blackburne or Theo-
philus Lindsey). Seeker replied in a letter
to the ' St. James's Chronicle '(9 May), signed
' Misopseudes,' challenging the author to pro-
duce his authority. ' Phileleutheros,' the
author, replied, giving no reasons beyond
rumour, made probable, as he thought, by the
circumstances of the Bristol cross and the
Durham charge. Seeker on 23 May said that
he regretted the cross, but emphatically de-
nied the truth of the rumour. Other letters
appeared in the same paper, showing only
that the writers were determined to be-
lieve, though without a tittle of evidence.
Seeker in a letter of 21 July replied, ex-
posing sufficiently the utter groundlessness
of the statement. Butler's ' natural melan-
choly ' and his fondness for ' lives of Romish
saints and other books of mystic piety ' are
noticed and apparently admitted by the arch-
bishop. He says that Butler was ' never a
communicant in any dissenting assembly ; '
that he attended the established worship from
his early years, and became ' a constant con-
formist ' from his entrance at Oxford. (A
full account is given in the notes to Halifax's
preface to Butler's Works, i. p. xxxiii.)
Butler does not appear to have taken any
part in politics. He had been wafted to his
see, says Horace Walpole, ' in a cloud of
metaphysics, and remained absorbed in it '
(George II, i. 148). He had, however, a
house at Hampstead, which had once be-
longed to Sir Henry Vane. Butler had filled
the windows with painted glass, including
some figures of the apostles, presented to him
by the pope, according to ' local tradition.'
Miss Talbot describes it to Mrs. Carter as a
' most enchanting, gay, pretty, elegant house '
(Letters of 29 Feb. and 9 April 1751). The
house was sold upon his death (see PARK'S
Hampstead, p. 269 ). During his short tenure
of the see of Durham, Butler showed great
liberality, received the principal gentry three
times a week, subscribed liberally to charities,
and visited his clergy. The story was told
that, in answer to some application for a
subscription, he asked his steward how much
money he had in the house. ' Five hundred
pounds,' was the reply ; upon which the
bishop bestowed the whole upon the appli-
cant, saying that it was a shame for a bishop
to have so much.
Butler's health was failing, and his physi-
cians sent him to Bristol and afterwards to
Bath, where he died on 16 June 1752. He
was buried in the cathedral at Bristol. Bishop
Benson (Seeker's brother-in-law) and Natha-
niel Forster, Butler's chaplain, were in atten-
dance. The last tells Seeker that Butler was
constantly talking of writing to his old friend,
even when unable to express himself clearly.
By his will he left 200J. to Forster, whom
he appointed executor. The balance of his
estate after various bequests, including 500/.
to the 'Newcastle Infirmary and 500/. to the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
was to be distributed among his nephews
and nieces. The total amount left seems to
Butler
Butler
have been between 9,OOOZ. and 10,0001. (BA.KT-
LETT, 277). He also directed that ' all his
sermons, letters, and papers whatever, which
are in a deal box locked, directed to Dr.
Forster, and now standing in the little room
within my library at Hampstead, be burnt,
without being read by any one, as soon as
may be after my decease.' A writer in
Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes ' (ix. 292) says
that he has reason to know that some of
Butler's manuscript sermons ' are still (1815)
in being.'
One portrait of Bishop Butler is in the
Newcastle Infirmary, and was taken during
his last illness. It is engraved in the Oxford
edition of his works. A second was painted
by Hudson for his nephew Joseph, and a
third by Vanderbank in 1732, which is en-
graved in Bartlett's ' Life.' The last two were
both at Kirby House, the residence of his
nephew's grandson.
Butler's position in contemporary specula-
tion was unique. The deist controversy,
which culminated about 1730, is throughout
in his mind, though he designedly abstains
from special references. The method of ab-
stract metaphysical reasoning applied by his
early friend Clarke both to ethical and theo-
logical speculations had led to a system
which tended to reduce the historical ele-
ment of belief to a secondary position or to
eliminate it entirely. Butler, while admit-
ting the validity of Clarke's reasoning, adopts
the different method of appealing to observa-
tion of facts (Preface to Sermons, p. vii).
His ethical system is therefore psychological,
or appeals to the constitution of human
nature, as the ' Analogy ' to the constitution
of the world at large. In the sermons and
the dissertation on ' The Nature of Virtue '
he assails especially the egoistic utilitarianism
of which Hobbes had been the great teacher
in the previous age, and which was main-
tained both on a priori and empirical grounds.
In this he follows Shaftesbury (the only
writer to whom he explicitly refers), who
had endeavoured to show the general har-
mony between virtue and happiness ; but he
tries to fill a gap in Shaftesbury's argument
by showing the natural supremacy of con-
science, and therefore the existence of moral
obligation, even where self-interest is op-
posed to conscience. The main result of the
sermons is therefore the psychological sys-
tem, in which the conscience is represented
as holding a supreme position by its own
self-evidencing authority among the various
faculties which constitute human nature ;
while other passions, and in particular self-
love and benevolence, are independent but
subordinate. The psychology, though some-
what perplexed, shows remarkable acuteness,
and the argument that self-love, instead of
being the sole or supreme faculty, really
presupposes the existence of co-ordinate pas-
sions, is especially noteworthy. Butler greatly
influenced the common-sense school of Hut-
cheson and his followers, who are also allied
to Shaftesbury ; and his influence upon Hume
is perceptible, especially in Hume's admission
of independent benevolent impulses, in con-
nection with a utilitarian principle which
had generally been interpreted as leading to
pure egoism. Hume (it may be noticed)
desired in 1737 to be introduced to Butler,
and sent him a copy of the ' Treatise on
Human Nature ' on its publication in 1739.
He expressed his pleasure in 1742 upon hear-
ing that his first set of essays (which did not
include those offensive to the orthodox) had
been ' everywhere recommended' by Butler
(BURTON'S Hume, i. 6-4, 106, 143).
The famous ' Analogy ' is an endeavour to
show that, as the particular frame of man
reveals a supreme conscience, so the frame
of nature shows a moral governor revealed
through conscience. Assuming the validity
of the a priori arguments for theism and the
immortality of the soul, he maintains that
the facts of observation fall in with the
belief that this life is a probationary state
where men are, as a matter of fact, under
a system of government which encourages
virtue as such and discourages vice, and there-
fore imply the probability that in a future
life there will be a complete satisfaction of
the claims of justice. This leads to a con-
sideration of the problem of free will and
necessity, while the second part argues for
the conformity between the doctrine thus
taught by fact and the nature of the Chris-
tian revelation.
The impressiveness of Butler's argument,
the candour of his reasonings, and the vigour
and originality of his thought have been de-
nied by no one. It is remarkable, indeed,
that the greatest theological work of the time,
and one of the most original of any time,
produced little contemporary controversy.
The only works directed against him during
his life were a short and feeble tract, ' Re-
marks upon Dr. Butler's sixth chapter, &c.,
by Philanthropus ' (Mr. Bott) [see Borr,
THOMAS], in 1737, and ' A Second Vindica-
tion of Mr. Locke, wherein his sentiments
relating to personal identity are cleared up
from some mistakes of the Rev. Dr. Butler,'
&c., 1738, by Vincent Perronet, vicar of
Shoreham. This is a sequel to a vindication
of Locke against Bishop Browne, and includes
an answer to Andrew Baxter. These pamph-
lets are worthless. Butler's contemporaries
Butler
Butler
were perhaps deterred by the fear of ven-
turing into the profundities of his argument.
Hume's writings on theology, indeed, espe-
cially the essay upon ' A Providence and a
Future State,' contain an implicit criticism
of the ' Analogy.' At a later period the
proofs of Butler's influence are abundant.
To some thinkers he appears as the most
profound apologist of Christian theology,
while others have held that his argument
leads to scepticism, because, while conclu-
sive against the optimism of the deists, it
really shows only that the difficulties in re-
vealed theology are equalled by the difficulties
of natural religion. It is a retort, not an
explanation, and therefore sceptical in es-
sence. This was the view taken by James
Mill, in whose mental history the study of
the ' Analogy ' was a turning point, accord-
ing to his son (J. S. MILL'S Autobiography,
p. 38). A similar view is stated by Mr.
James Martineau, who says (Studies of Chris-
tianity, p. 93) that Butler has uninten-
tionally ' furnished . . . one of the most
terrible persuasives to atheism ever pro-
duced.' A different view is expressed by
Cardinal Newman, who says (Apologia, part
iii.) that the study of the ' Analogy ' formed
an ' era in his religious opinions.' He learnt
from it the view that the world is a ' sacra-
mental system ' in which ' material pheno-
mena are both the types and instruments of
the things unseen ; ' and he was deeply im-
pressed by Butler's characteristic doctrine
that ' probability is the guide of life.' Other
references may be found in Mr. Hunt's ' His-
tory of Religious Thought in England ; '
Mr. Pattison's essay on the ' Tendencies of
Religious Thought in England (1688-1750) ; '
Hennell's ' Sceptical Tendency of Butler's
" Analogy," ' 1865 ; Mr. Matthew Arnold's
' Butler and the Zeitgeist ' in ' Last Essays
on the Church and Religion ; ' and Mr. Lucas
Collins's ' Butler ' in Blackwood's ' Philoso-
phical Classics.'
Butler's works are : 1. ' Fifteen Sermons
preached at the Rolls Chapel,' 1726 (dedi-
cated to Sir Joseph Jekyll). 2. ' The Ana-
logy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to
the Constitution and Course of Nature. To
which are added two brief dissertations :
(1) Of Personal Identity ; (2) Of the Nature
of Virtue,' 1736. 3. ' Six Sermons preached
upon Public Occasions,' viz. : (1) before the
Society for Propagating the Gospel, 16 Feb.
1739 ; (2) before the lord mayor, aldermen,
and sheriffs, and the governors of the several
hospitals of the city of London, Monday in
Easter Week, 1740; (3) before the House
of Lords, 30 Jan. 1740-1 ; (4) at the annual
meeting of the charity children at Christ
Church, 9 May 1745 ; (5) before the House
of Lords on the anniversary of his majesty's
accession to the throne, 11 June 1747 ; (6)
before the governors of the London Infirmary,
31 March 1748. 4. ' A Charge delivered to
the Clergy at the Primary Visitation of the
diocese of Durham in the year 1751.'
These, together with the correspondence
with Clarke, form Butler's works. The first
collected edition was published at Edinburgh
in 1804. It contains a Life by Kippis from
the ' Biographia,' and a preface and notes by
Halifax, bishop of Gloucester. It has been
reprinted, at Oxford in 1807 and subsequently.
An edition of the ' Analogy,' with a careful
collation of the first editions, an index, and
a life, was published at Dublin in 1860 by
W. Fitzgerald, bishop of Cork. A sermon
attributed to Butler was first printed in the
appendix to Bartlett's ' Life.' An ' Enquiry
Concerning Faith,' London, 1744, has been
attributed to him, but without probability
(Notes and Queries, 1st series, vi. 198). A
list of writings upon the Bangorian contro-
versy by a Mr. Herne says that ' a letter of
thanks from a young clergyman to the Rev.
Dr. Hare for his visitation sermon at Putney
in 1719 ' was written by the author of some
papers in the 'Freethinker, 'including No. 125
(1 June 1719) upon ' Optical Glasses.' In
the reprint of this list in Hoadly's 'Works'
(1761) this author is identified with Butler.
In all probability this is due to some con-
fusion with Archbishop Boulter of Dublin,
bishop of Bristol, 1719-24, who helped
Ambrose Philips in the ' Freethinker.'
[The first Life of Butler is in the supplement
to the Biog. Britannica (1753), with information
from a nephew ; a further Life by Kippis in his
edition of the Biographia is prefixed to Butler's
Works ; Kawlinson MSS. fo. 16,144, 8vo, v. 221,
vi. 63 ; the Life by Thomas Bartlett (1839) gives
the fullest information and refers to unpublished
documents ; see also Some Remains (hitherto un-
published) of Bishop Butler, 1853 (preface by
E. Steere, chiefly from MSS. in the British Mu-
seum); Stanhope Memorials of Bishop Butler
by W. M. Egglestone, which adds very little ;
Porteus's Life of Seeker ; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy),
ii. 403, 584, 667.] L. S.
BUTLER,, SIR PIERCE or PIERS, eighth
EAEL OF ORMONDE and first EARL OP OSSORY
(d. 1539), was descended from the Butlers,
baronets of Poolestown, and was the son of
Sir James Butler and Sawe (Sabina), daugh-
ter of Donnell Reogh MacMurrough Ca-
venagh, prince of his sept. He succeeded
Thomas, seventh earl of Ormonde, in 1515.
He took a prominent part in suppressing
the Irish rebellions, and when the Earl of
Surrey, who was his intimate friend, left the
Butler
73
Butler
kingdom in 1521, he was appointed lord-
deputy. Owing to the representations of
the Talbots he was removed from the go-
vernment in 1524, but the king, to indicate
his disagreement with the decision of the
commissioners, created him on 13 May lord-
treasurer of Ireland. At the special request
of the king he surrendered the earldom of
Ormonde to Sir Thomas Boleyn (or Bullen),
grandson of the seventh earl of Ormonde and
brother of Anne Boleyn, and in lieu thereof
he was created Earl of Ossory by patent
dated 23 Feb. 1527-8. By Lodge and other
authorities it is stated that the earldom of
Ormonde was restored to Sir Pierce Butler on
22 Feb. 1537-8, on the death of Sir Thomas
Boleyn ; but, as is shown by Mr. J. H. Round
(FosiEE, Collect. Geneal. vol. i.), the grant
of the earldom was made before the death of
Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire and Or-
monde, and that the earldom was a new one
is sufficiently attested by the fact that it was
limited to heirs male of his body. After its
conferment ' the Earl of Wilts,' as is men-
tioned in the ' Carew State Papers,' .' was
content to be so named earl of Ormonde in
Ireland, semblably as the two Lords Dacres
be named the one of the south and the other
of the north ' (Calendar, Carew MSS. 1515-
1574, p. 127). The Earl of Ormonde mani-
fested the sincerity of his loyalty by his
activity in taking measures for crushing
the insurrection of his brother-in-law, Lord
Thomas Fitzgerald, and after the latter's
execution he was rewarded by a large grant,
of lands. He afterwards turned his arms
against the Earl of Desmond, who submitted
and took an oath of fidelity. He died on
21 or 26 Aug. 1539, and was buried in the
chancel of St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny.
He is stated to have been ' a man of great
honour and sincerity, infinitely good-natured.'
He brought over to Kilkenny artificers and
manufacturers from Flanders and the neigh-
bouring provinces, whom he employed in
working tapestry, diaper, Turkey carpets, and
similar industries. By his wife Margaret,
daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Kil-
dare, he had three sons and six daughters.
His second son, RICHARD, created Viscount
Mountgarret, 23 Oct. 1550, was grandfather
of Richard, third Viscount Mountgarret [q.v.]
His eldest son, JAMES, created Viscount
Thurles in 1535, became ninth Earl of Or-
monde, married Lady Joan Fitzgerald, daugh-
ter and heiress of James, eleventh earl of
Desmond, was suspected of hostility to the
English government, and was poisoned while
in London at a supper at Ely House. He
died on 28 Oct. 1546. His son Thomas
(1532-1614) [q. v.j succeeded to the earldom.
[Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormonde (Oxford
ed. 1851), i. Ixxxvi-xciii ; Lodge's Peerage of
Ireland, iv. 19-22; Paper on the Barony of
Arklow by J. H. Eound in Foster's Collectanea
Genealogica, vol. i. ; and on the Ormonde At-
tainders in the Genealogist, new ser., vol. i.
No. 7, 186-9 ; State Papers, Irish Series ;
Calendar of Carew MSS.] T. F. H.
BUTLER, PIERCE, third VISCOTTNT
GALMOY (1652-1740), was descended from
Thomas Butler, tenth earl of Ormonde [q. v.],
and was the son of Edward, second viscount
Galmoy, and Eleanor, daughter of Charles
White of Leixlip, and widow of Sir Arthur
Aston. He was born on 21 March 1652.
On 6 Aug. 1677 he was created D.C.L. of
Oxford. By James II he was appointed a
privy councillor of Ireland, and lieutenant of
the county of Kilkenny. As colonel of a
regiment of Irish horse he was at the siege
of Londonderry, where the protestants ac-
cused him of barbarity and treachery (MAC-
ATTLAY, c. xii.) He fought at Aughrim and
the Boyne, and was afterwards outlawed.
He was Irish commissioner at the capitu-
lation of Limerick, and included in the am-
nesty (3 Oct. 1691). He retired to France,
and was created Earl of Newcastle by
James II. His English estates were forfeited
and he was attainted in 1697. In France
he was named colonel of the second queen's
regiment of Irish horse in the service of that
country, and served with distinction in va-
rious continental wars. He died at Paris on
18 June 1740. His only son, JAMES, by
Elizabeth, daughter of Theobald Matthew,
was killed at Malplaquet. A nephew, James,
assumed the title of third viscount Galmoy.
[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iv. 48, 49 ; O'Cal-
laghan's Irish Brigades in the Service of France ;
List of Oxford Graduates; Burke's Extinct
Peerages, 97.] T. F. H.
BUTLER, RICHARD, third VISCOTTNT
MOTOTGARRET (1578-1651), was the son of
Edmund, second viscount Mountgarret, and
Grany or Grizzel, daughter of Barnaby, first
lord of Upper Ossory, and was born in 1578.
His first wife was Margaret, eldest daughter
of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, and having
joined in his father-in-law's rebellion, he
specially distinguished himself by his de-
fence of the castles of Ballyragget and Culli-
hill. His estates were nevertheless confirmed
to him on the death of his father in 1605,
and he sat in the parliaments of 1613, 1615,
and 1034. At the rebellion of 1641 he was
appointed joint governor of Kilkenny with
the Earl of Ormonde, but being alarmed by
designs said to have been formed against
the lords of the Pale, he, after writing an
explanatory letter to the Earl of Ormonde,
Butler
74
Butler
took possession of Kilkenny in the name of
the confederates. He then detached parties
to secure other adjacent towns, which was
done with such success that in the space of
a week all the fortresses in the counties of
Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary were
in their power. After this he was chosen
general of the confederates ; but the county
of Cork having insisted on choosing a general
of its own, his forces were thereby con-
siderably weakened, and he was defeated by
the Earl of Ormonde at Kilrush, near Athy,
on 10 April 1642 ; but, returning to Kil-
kenny, he was chosen president of the
supreme council formed there in the follow-
ing summer. In 1643 he was at the battle
of Ross, fought by General Preston against
the Marquis of Ormonde, and he took part in
the capture of various fortresses. He died
in 1651, but was excepted, though dead,
from pardon for life or estate by the crown
in the act of parliament for the settlement
of Ireland passed on 12 Aug. 1652. He
was buried in the chancel of St. Canice's
cathedral, Kilkenny, under a monument with
a eulogistic Latin inscription. By his first
wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of Hugh
O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, he had three sons
and six daughters, of whom Edmund became
fourth viscount. He was again twice mar-
ried : to Thomasine (afterwards named Eliza-
beth), daughter of Sir William Andrews of
Newport, and to Margaret, daughter of
Richard Branthwaite, serjeant-at-law, and
widow of Sir Thomas Spencer of Yarnton,
Oxfordshire, but by neither of these mar-
riages had he any issue.
[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iv. 49-66 ; State
Papers, Irish Series ; Carew State Papers ; Cox's
History of Ireland ; Carte's Life of the Duke of
Ormonde.] T. F. H.
BUTLER, RICHARD (d. 1791), major-
general in the United States army,was a native
of Ireland, and went to America some time
before 1760. At the outbreak of the war of
independence he became a lieutenant-colonel
of the Pennsylvania troops, and in 1777 held
that rank in Morgan's rifle corps, with which
he distinguished himself on various occa-
sions. In 1781 he was with Lafayette in
Virginia, and at the close of the war was
lieutenant-colonel of the 9th Pennsylvania
regiment. About 1787 he was agent for In-
dian affairs in Oregon ; and in St. Clair's
expedition against the Indian tribes in 1791
commanded the right wing of the force, with
the rank of major-general. The troops, com-
posed of United States regulars and militia,
were attacked in their camp, about twenty
miles from Miami Towns, by the Indians, on
the morning of 4 Nov. 1791, and defeated
with heavy loss. Butler, after fighting
bravely on foot in the front line, was shot
down just as he mounted his horse, and was
tomahawked and scalped.
[Drake's American Biography (1852) ; Diary
of Colonel Winthrop Sargent, adjutant-general,
U.S. army, in the campaign of 1791, edited by his
grandson (Wormsloe, 1851, 4to).] H. M. C.
BUTLER, SAMUEL (1612-1680), poet,
was the fifth child and the second son of
Samuel Butler, a Worcestershire farmer, and
a churchwarden of the parish of Strensham,
where the poet was baptised on 8 Feb. 1612.
The entry is in his father's handwriting. The
elder Samuel Butler owned a house and a
piece of land, which was still called Butler's
tenement fifty years ago ; the value of this
was about 81. a year (see Notes and Queries,
6th series, iv. 387, 469). According to Au-
brey, however, the poet was not born in this
Strensham house, but at a hamlet called
Bartonbridge, half a mile out of Worcester.
The father, according to Wood, leased of Sir
Thomas Russell, lord of the manor of Strens-
ham, an estate of 3001. a year. The boy was
educated in Worcester free school. He has
been identified, but against probability, with
the Samuel Butler who went up to Christ
Church, Oxford, from Westminster in 1623 ;
another legend, somewhat better supported,
says that he proceeded for a short time, about
1627, to Cambridge. It is probable that the
first of several situations which he occupied
was that of attendant, with a salary of 201.
a year, to Elizabeth, countess of Kent, at
her residence of Wrest in Bedfordshire. The
fact that he found Selden under the same
roof makes it probable that this occurred in
1628. Selden seems to have interested him-
self in Butler's talents, and to have trained
his mind. The young man spent several
years at Wrest, and employed his leisure in
studying painting under Samuel Cooper, or
more probably with him, for Cooper was not
yet illustrious. Butler is said to have painted
a head of Oliver Cromwell from life ; his
pictures were long in existence at Earl's
Coombe in Worcestershire, but were all used,
in the last century, to stop up broken win-
dows. Butler spent some years of his early
life at Earl's Coombe as clerk to a justice of
the name of Jeffereys. He seems to have
served as clerk or attendant to a succession
of country gentlemen. One of these was
Sir Samuel Luke of Cople Hoo, near Bed-
ford, a stiff presbyterian, and one of Crom-
well's generals. This person sat for the cha-
racter of Hudibras,
A Knight as errant as e'er was ;
Butler
75
Butler
but some of the touches are said to be studied
from another puritan employer of Butler's,
Sir Henry Rosewell of Ford Abbey in Devon-
shire. It is supposed that Butler spent some
time in France and Holland, which indeed his
own writings show. He is not known to have
published anything, or to have attained the
smallest reputation, until after the death of
Cromwell. In 1659, at the age of forty-
seven, he first appeared before the public with
an anonymous prose tract, in favour of the
Stuarts, entitled ' Mola Asinaria.' Perhaps
in reward for this service, he was appointed
secretary to Richard, earl of Carbury, when
he was made lord president of Wales in
1660. Lord Carbury made Butler steward
of Ludlow Castle. Some bills in which his
name occurs are published in 'Notes and
Queries' (1st ser. v. 5). He married soon
after this, his wife being differently described
as a spinster of the name of Herbert and as
a widow of the name of Morgan. Whatever
her name was, she was supposed to be well
dowered, and Butler probably had the rash-
ness to resign his appointment at Ludlow on
that account, for he certainly did not hold it
more than a year. He lived comfortably on
his wife's jointure for a time, till the money
was lost on bad securities. The obscurity
which hangs over every part of Butler's life
makes it impossible to say whether he did or
did not succeed in securing the patronage of
George, duke of Buckingham. Wycherley
told a lively story which, if true, shows that
Butler was not so successful ; but Butler has
left a sketch of Buckingham which, though
extremely satirical, seems founded on such
study as a secretary alone would have the
opportunity of making.
At the age of fifty Butler suddenly became
famous. Fifteen years before, in the puritan
houses where he had lived, he had strung his
pungent observations and jingling satirical
rhymes into a long heroi-comic poem. The
times had changed, and this could now be
produced without offence to the ruling powers.
On 11 Nov. 1662 was licensed, and early in
1663 appeared, a small anonymous volume
entitled ' Hudibras : the first part written in
the time of the late wars.' This is the first
genuine edition, but the manuscript appears
to have been pirated, for an advertisement
says that ' a most false and imperfect copy '
of the poem is being circulated without any
Erinter s or publisher's name. Exactly a year
iter a second part appeared, also heralded
by a piracy. The book was introduced at
court early in 1663 by the Earl of Dorset,
and was instantly patronised by the king.
Copies of the first "editions of 'Hudibras'
not very unfrequently have inscriptions show-
ing that they were the gift of Charles II to
their first owner. Butler has himself recorded
this royal partiality for his book :
He never ate, nor drank, nor slept,
But ' Hudibras ' still near him kept ;
Nor would he go to church or so,
But ' Hudibras ' must with him go.
It was, however, the scandal of the age, that
though the king was lavish in promises, he
never did anything to relieve Butler's poverty.
Lord Clarendon also greatly admired him,
and had his -portrait painted for his own
library, but in spite of all his promises gave
him no employment. The neglect of Butler
is one of the commonplaces of literary mo-
rality, but the reader is apt to fancy that
Butler was not easy to help. It is not plain
that he had any talent, save this one of
matchless satire ; and in his private inter-
course he was unpleasing. From childhood
' he would make observations and reflections
on everything one said or did ; ' he had few
friends, and was not careful to retain those
few. He lived in poverty and obscurity for
seventeen years after the first appearance of
' Hudibras,' publishing a third part of that
poem in 1678 (the different forms of which
are described in ' Notes and Queries,' 6th ser.
vi. 108, 150, 276, 311, 370, 454), and two
slight pieces, the ' Geneva Ballad ' in 1674,
and an ' Ode to the Memory of Du-Val ' in
1671. In 1672 he printed an abusive prose
tract against the nonconformists, called ' Two
Letters.' Butler in his later years was much
troubled with the gout, and from October
1679 to Easter 1680 he did not stir out of
his room. He lived in Rose Street, Covent
Garden, until he died of consumption, al-
though he was not yet seventy, on 25 Sept.
1680. His best friend, William Longueville,
a bencher of the Inner Temple, tried to have
Butler buried in Westminster Abbey, but
found no one to second him in this proposal.
He therefore buried the poet at his own ex-
pense, on the 27th, in the churchyard of
St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Aubrey says :
' In the north part, next the church at the
east end ; his feet touch the wall ; his grave
2 yards distant from the pilaster of the door,
by his desire, 6 foot deep.' Wood describes
Butler as ( a boon and witty companion,
especially among the company he knew well.'
Aubrey writes of Butler's appearance : ' He is
of a middle stature, strong set, high coloured,
a head of sorrel hair, a severe and sound judg-
ment, a good fellow.' This writer, who knew
him pretty well, gives us an idea that the
legend of Butler's poverty was exaggerated
in the reaction which began in his favour
soon after his death. A tradition is preserved
Butler
76
Butler
by Granger that Butler was in receipt of a
pension of 1001. a year at the time of his death.
The success of ' Hudibras,' and a rumour
that a large quantity of Butler's unpublished
manuscript was in existence, encouraged the
production of a great many spurious posthu-
mous collections of his verses. For some
reason or other, however, the papers of But-
ler were preserved untouched by William
Longueville, who bequeathed them to his
son Charles, and he in his turn to a John
Clarke of Walgherton in Cheshire. This
gentleman, in November 1754, consented to
allow R. Thyer, the keeper of the public
library in Manchester, to examine them.
The result was the publication in 1759 of two
very interesting volumes, entitled ' The
Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr.
Samuel Butler.' These volumes contain much
that is only second in merit to ' Hudibras '
itself, among others a brilliant satire on the
Royal Society, entitled 'The Elephant in
the Moon,' and a series of prose ' Characters.'
The collection of manuscripts from which
these were selected was sold in London to
the British Museum in 1885, and is now
numbered there (MS8. Addit. 32625-6).
Several of the pieces are still unpublished.
'Hudibras,' which received the honour of
being illustrated by Hogarth in 1726, was
several times carefully edited during the
eighteenth century (for an account of the
illustrated editions see Notes and Queries,
4th series, xi. 352, and 5th series, iii. 456).
The edition of Dr. Grey, which appeared first
in 1744, is still considered the standard one.
' Hudibras ' was translated into French verse
with great skill by John Townley (1697-
1782). In 1721 a monument to Butler was
raised in Westminster Abbey, at the expense
of the lord mayor, John Barber, a graceful act
which Pope rewarded in two spiteful lines :
But whence this Barber ? that a name so mean
Should, join'd with Butler's, on a tomb be seen.
A portrait of Butler by Lely is in the gal-
lery at Oxford ; another by Lely was painted
for Clarendon (see EVELYN'S Diary, BRAT and
WHEATLEY, iii. 444) ; Soest painted a third
portrait, which was engraved for Grey's edi-
tion of ' Hudibras.'
[Very little has been discovered -with regard
to Butler's life beyond what Wood (Athenae
Oxon. (Bliss) iii. '874) reported. That little
was mainly given to the world by Dr. Nash, in
the second volume of his Collections for the His-
tory of Worcestershire, in 1782. There have
been no later discoveries than those made by
Nash more than a century ago. Oldys made
some notes for a life of Butler, which are in Brit.
Mus. MS. Addit. 4221, pp. 198-203. See also
Granger's Biog. Hist. iv. 38-40.] E. G.
BUTLER, SAMUEL (1774-1839), bishop
of Lichfield and Coventry, born at Kenil-
worth 30 Jan. 1774, was the son of William
Butler of that place ; was admitted to Rugby
31 March 1783, and entered St. John's Col-
lege, Cambridge, in 1792. At Cambridge his
career was singularly brilliant. He obtained
three of Sir William Browne's medals, and
in 1793 was elected Craven scholar in com-
petition with Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Keate,
afterwards head-master of Eton, and Chris-
topher Bethell, afterwards bishop of Bangor.
He was a senior optime in the mathematical
tripos of 1796, when he proceeded B.A. He
carried off the chancellor's medals in 1797,
and the member's prizes for 1797 and 1798. He
became fellow of St. John's 4 April 1797, and
in 1798 was appointed head-master of Shrews-
bury School. He held this appointment for
thirty-eight years. Although many ecclesi-
astical beneficeswere conferred on him within
that period, the school occupied most of his
attention, and it acquired a very high repu-
tation during his head-mastership, in which
he was succeeded by his pupil, Dr. Benjamin
Hall Kennedy, in '1836. In 1802 Butler
became vicar of Kenilworth, and in 1811 he
proceeded D.D. In 1807 he was instituted
to a prebend at Lichfield, in 1822 to the arch-
deaconry of Derby, and in June 1836 (when
he left Shrewsbury) to the bishopric of Lich-
field and Coventry. In December 1836 the
archdeaconry of Coventry was annexed to the
see of Worcester, and left Butler bishop of
Lichfield. While holding this office Butler
suffered much ill-health, but he administered
his diocese with great energy, and was popular
with his clergy. He died 4 Dec. 1839, and
was buried in St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury.
He married in 1798 Harriet, daughter of the
Rev. East Apthorp, B.D., vicar of Croydon
and rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, by whom he
had two daughters, Mary and Harriet, and
one son, Thomas. His elder daughter married
Edward Bather [q. v.], and his son became
rector of Langar.
Butler was the author of many educational
works, the chief of which are : 1. An elabo-
rate edition of ' ^Eschylus,' published at the
Cambridge Universitv Press in four volumes
between 1809 and 1826. 2. 'A Sketch of
Modern and Ancient Geography,' Shrews-
bury, 1813 (and frequently reprinted). 3. 'An
Atlas of Ancient Geography. 4. ' An Atlas of
Modern Geography.' He was also the editor
of M. Musuri Carmen in Platonem, Is. Casau-
boni in Josephum Scaligerum Ode. Accedunt
Poemata ,et Exercitationes utriusque linguae,'
1797 ; he wrote ' A Praxis on the Latin Pre-
positions with Exercises,' 1823 ; and several
sermons, one of them being the funeral ser-
Butler
77
Butler
mon on Dr. Parr. Butler's library was rich
in Aldines, and in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek
manuscripts. The latter were purchased for
the British Museum, and are now numbered
there Addit. MSS. 11828-12117.
[Gent. Mag. 1840, pt. i. 203-5; Le Neve's
Fasti Eccl. Angl. ; Baker's Hist, of St. John's
Coll. (ed. Mayor), i. 311.] S. L. L.
BUTLER, SIMON (1757-1797), first
president of the United Irishmen of Dublin,
was the third son of Edmund, tenth Viscount
Mountgarret, and his wife Charlotte, the
second daughter of Sir Simon Bradstreet,
bart. He was born in July 1757. Having
been called to the Irish bar in Michaelmas
term, 1778, he was made a king's counsel
and a bencher of the Honourable Society of
the King's Inns, Dublin, in Trinity term, 1784.
With Wolfe Tone he was a zealous leader of
the United Irishmen, and on 9 Nov. 1791 he
presided at the first meeting of the Dublin
society of that body. He compiled a digest
of the popery laws, which was published in
1792, and made a great impression on the
minds of the people. For this work, and 'for
other professional business,' the 'Catholic
Committee ' voted him 500Z. On 1 March
1793 Butler and Oliver Bond [q. v.], as chair-
man and secretary respectively of the Dublin
Society, were summoned before the Irish
House of Lords on account of a paper which
had been issued by the society, referring to a
committee of secrecy of that house. They
avowed the publication, but submitted that
it contained nothing unconstitutional. The
lords, however, voted it a ' false, scandalous,
and seditious libel; a high breach of the pri-
vileges of this house, tending to disturb the
public peace, and questioning the authority
of this High Court of Parliament,' and there-
upon ordered the defendants to be imprisoned
in Newgate gaol for six months, and to pay a
fine of 500/. each. On the termination of his
imprisonment, Butler went with his friend,
Archibald Hamilton Rowan, another ener-
getic leader of the United Irishmen, to Scot-
land, where they continued to aid in direct-
ing the proceedings of the society, until they
were compelled to fly the country. On 18 Jan.
1795 Butler married Eliza, the daughter of
Edward Lynch of Hampstead, in the county
of Dublin, by whom he had an only son, Ed-
ward. Though his name was erased from
the list of king's counsel in 1793, he remained
a bencher of the King's Inns until his death,
which took place at his lodgings in Bromp-
ton Row on 19 May 1797, in the fortieth year
of his age. An etching of him and his friend
Rowan as they appeared in the streets of
Edinburgh in 1793, by Kay, will be found
in the second volume of ' Original Portraits,'
No. 230.
[Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etch-
ings (1877), ii. 121, 168, 171, 176-7; Plowden's
Historical Review of the State of Ireland (1803),
ii. pt. i. 376-94 ; Sir Eichard Musgrave's Me-
moirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland
(1802), i. 112-54; Gent. Mag. 1797, Ixvii. pt. i.
529; Annual Register, 1797, p. 97.]
G. F. R. B.
BUTLER, THEOBALD (d. 1205-6),
first butler of Ireland, was son and heir of
Hervey (Herveus) Walter of Amounderness
in Lancashire and of Suffolk, by Maud (Ma-
tilda), daughter and coheir of Theobald de
Valoines. Her sister Berthe (Berta), the
other coheiress, married the celebrated Ran-
dulf deGlanville, justiciary of England [q.v.],
who was thus uncle by marriage to Theobald.
This much is certain from his own charters,
as is also the fact that he was elder brother
of Hubert Walter [q. v.], archbishop of Can-
terbury, but beyond this all is obscure. The
various theories of earlier writers, especially
the belief that Theobald was nearly of kin to
Becket (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xii.
30), are exhaustively discussed by Carte in
the introduction to his ' Life of James, Duke
of Ormonde,' in which he has collected much
useful information. Lord A. C. Hervey ar-
gues that he sprang from the family of Her-
vey, while Mr. Glanville-Richards claims his
father as a younger brother of Randulf de
Glanville. But this latter view is doubted
by Mr. Yeatman, who discusses the point in
his introduction to Mr. Glanville-Richards'
work, and it must certainly be rejected.
Theobald's surname appears in the various
forms, LE BOTILLEK, WALTER, WALTERI,
and FITZW ALTER.
Theobald first appears in the ' Liber Niger '
(i.e. circa 1166) as holding Amounderness
' per servicium 1 militis.' The received state-
ment that he accompanied Henry II to Ire-
land (1171-2), and was made by him butler
of Ireland ' soon after 11 70,' though accepted
by Lynch (p. 79), and repeated by Mr. Gil-
bert (p. 31), rests upon no evidence, and
must be dismissed as erroneous, as must also
that of Carte that he appears previously
(1170) with Henry in France. It was pro-
bably in 1182 (EYTOST, p. 248 ; GLANTILLE-
RICHARBS, p. 41) that he witnessed, with
' John the king's son,' Randulf de Glanville's
charter to Leystone, and it was through the
influence of Randulf that, in 1185, he accom-
panied John to Ireland. The freight of his
' harnesium ' thither is charged for in that year
(Rot. Pip. 31 H. II). Landing with John at
Waterford on 25 April, he received a grant
to Randulf and himself of 5i cantreds in
Butler
Butler
Limerick (see CARTE for charter tested at
Waterford) ; and the same year, with the
men of Cork, fought and slew Dermot Mac-
Arthy (Expugnatio, v. 386). He further re-
ceived from John (before 1189) the fief of
Arklow afterwards confirmed to him by Wil-
liam Marshal on becoming jure uxoris lord of
Leinster (see CAKTE for charters, though he
explains them wrongly), where he fixed his
chief residence, and in later days founded an
abbey, as a cell to Furness (Mon. Angl. ii.
1025). It is in virtue of this fief that Lynch
and others have attempted to claim a ' feudal
barony ' for Theobald and his descendants.
Returning to England, he witnessed his
brother Hubert's charter to West Derham
(ib. ii. 624) in 1188, and then accompanied
his uncle Randulf to France, witnessing with
him a charter of Henry II at Chinon (ib. ii.
648) on the eve of his death, July 1189
(EYTON, p. 297).
He now was in constant attendance on
John, witnessing his charters to St. Augus-
tine's, Bristol (ib. ii. 234), and Jeriponte Ab-
bey (ib. 1029), and receiving from him, as
lord of Ireland, the office of his 'butler.' He
first assumes this style (' Pincerna ') when
testing John's charter to Dublin, 15 May
1192, at London (Mun. Doc. p. 55 ; St. Mary's
Chart, i. 266-70) ; and it was apparently
about this time that he received a grant from
the Archbishop of Dublin as ' pincerna
domini comitis Moretonise in Hibernia' (Cot-
ton. MS. fo. 266), a style proving that he was
appointed by John. He now adopted a fresh
seal, adding to his name (Theobald Walter)
the style ' Pincerna Hibernise.' This has
escaped notice. Hence he is occasionally, in
his latter days, spoken of as ' Le Botiller,' or
' Butler,' which latter became the surname
of his descendants. Carte states, on the
authority of Roberts (who professed to have
seen the patent), that he also had a grant of
the prisage of wines, but this is clearly an
error. Towards the end of 1192 he was with
John at Nottingham (see charter in Cotton.
MS. fo. 347), and received from him probably
about this time a fresh grant of Amounder-
ness (ib. fo. 352). John going abroad at the
close of the year 1192, entrusted him with
Lancaster Castle, but on his brother Hubert,
then justiciar, summoning it, in Richard's
name (February 1194), he surrendered it
(HovEDEN, ii. 237), and, making his peace
through Hubert, had a re-grant from Richard
of Amounderness, 22 April 1194 (Rot. Pat.
5 Ric. I. Printed by BAINES, iv. 289), and
was appointed by Hubert in August 1194
collector of the money for his tournament
licenses (HOVEDEN, ii. 268). He was further
made sheriff of Lancashire, and appears to
have remained so till 1 John (Deputy Keeper's
Reports, xxxi. 300). In 1197-8 (9 Ric. I),
I he acted as a justice itinerant, assessing the
! tollage on Colchester (MADOX, i. 733), and
j it was in the course of Richard's reign that
I he founded the abbey of Cokersand (Mon.
i Angl. ii. 631; BAINES, iv. 290).
John, on his accession, soon took ven-
geance for Theobald's defection to Richard.
I He disseised him of Amounderness, deprived
him of his shrievalty (1200), and on 12 Jan.
1201 sold his Limerick fief not, as Hoveden
states (iv. 152-3), all his Irish possessions
to his then favourite, William de Braose
[q. v.] But Theobald, by the influence of his
brother Hubert, effected a compromise in the
matter, and within a year was restored to
favour, Amounderness being re-granted to
him on 2 Jan. 1202 as ' dilecto etfideli nostro'
(Rot. de Lib. p. 25). While out of favour
(1199-1201) numerous complaints were
made against him of past oppressions (Rot.
de Obi. et Fin.} In 1203 or 1204 he with-
drew to Ireland by license (Rot. Pip. 5 John
m. 18 dors.), and busied himself with his re-
ligious foundations in Arklow, Nenagh in
Tipperary (Mon. Angl. ii. 1044), and Wothe-
ney in Limerick (ib. ii. 1034). He also gave
a charter (printed by Carte) to his men of
Gowran. He is said, on the authority of
; Rothe's Register ' (compiled in 1616 from
the Ormonde evidences), to have died in 1206,
and to have been buried at Wotheney ; but
if so, it must have been very early in the
year, as John informs the sheriff as early as
14 Feb. (1206) that he has committed his
widow to her father (Claus. 7 John), and
he is not mentioned as living on the Rolls
later than 4 Aug. 1205 (ib.)
He had married late in life Maud (Ma-
tilda), daughter of Robert le Vavasor, by
whom he left a son Theobald, born about
1200, whom his grandfather was ordered
(2 March 1206) to deliver up to Gilbert Fitz-
Reinfrid (Pat. 7 John, m. 3), and a daughter
Maud, also committed to Gilbert and his son
till 1220 (Rot. Pat. 4 Henry III, m. 5), who
is said by Lodge to have married Thomas de
Hereford, but who seems from an inquisition
of 1251 (Calendar) to have married Gerard
de Prendergast. It is ingeniously suggested
by Carte (pp. xii-xiv), on the strength of a
plea-roll of 1295-6 (Plac. 24 Ed. I, m. 68),
that Theobald had, by a previous marriage,
a daughter Beatrice, who married, firstly,
Thomas de Hereford, and secondly, in her
father's lifetime, Hugh Purcell. This is not
improbable. His widow Maud was given
up, at first, to her father Robert, on payment
of over 1200 marks (Rot. de Obi. et Fin.), but
afterwards (by 1 Oct. 1206) to John's fa-
Butler
79
Butler
vourite, Fulke FitzWarine (Hot. Claus.
John).
[Close Rolls, Patent Eolls, Fine Rolls, and Libe-
rateRolls (Record Commission); PipeRolls; Calen-
dar of Documents relating to Ireland, Giraldus
Cambrensis' Expugnatio, Roger de Hoveden,
Municipal Documents of Ireland, and St. Mary's
Chartulary (Rolls Ser.); Cottonian MSS. Titus
B. xi, containing transcripts of Charters; 31st
Report of Dep. Keeper of the Records ; Madox's
Exchequer; Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum,
1661 ; Carte's Life of James, Duke of Ormonde,
1736 ; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland ; Notes and
Queries, 1st ser. xii ; Lynch's Feudal Baronies in
Ireland ; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland ; Baines's
Lancashire, 1836 ; Lord A. C. Hervey's Family
of Hervey; Glanville-Richards's Records of the
Anglo-Norman House of Glanville ; The Barony
of Arklow (Foster's Collectanea Genealogica,
No. iv.) ; The Barony of Arklow in Ireland (An-
tiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer, vol. i.) ;
Abstract of Roberts's MS. History of the House
of Ormonde, 1648, in Appendix to 8th Report
Hist. MSS. i. 586-8.] J. H. E.
BUTLER, THOMAS, LL.D. (fi. 1570),
catholic writer, graduated B. A. at Cambridge
in 1548, and, afterwards going abroad, took
in some foreign university the degree of doc-
tor of the canon and civil laws. He is the
author of ' A Treatise of the Holy Sacrifice
of the Altar called the Masse : In which by
the Word of God, and testimonies of the
apostles and primitive church, it is proved
that our Saviour Jesus Christ did institute
the Masse, and the apostles did celebrate
the same. Translated out of Italian into
English.' Antwerp, 1570, 8vo.
[Strype's Life of Abp. Parker, fol. 477; Ames's
Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), iii. 1627; Cooper's
Athense Cantab, i. 294.] T. C.
BUTLER, THOMAS, tenth EABL OF
ORMONDE (1532-1614), born in 1532, was
son and heir of James Butler, ninth earl, who
died of poison at Ely House, London, 28 Oct.
1546. His mother was Lady Joan Fitzgerald,
heiress of James, eleventh earl of Desmond.
His grandfather was Sir Pierce Butler, eighth
earl of Ormonde [q. v.] Thomas, who was
called, from his dark complexion, the ' Black
Earl,' succeeded his father in the earldom
and estates at the age of fourteen. He was
brought up at the English court with a view
to alienating his sympathies from Ireland, and
was the first of his family to adopt protes-
tantism. He was knighted on Edward VI's
accession in 1547. After Edward's death in
1553, the priests spread a false report that the
young earl had been murdered in England,
and the Irish on his estates, which were then
managed by English officials, rose in revolt.
In 1554 Ormonde set foot in Ireland amid
great rejoicings on the part of the native
population, and from the first attempted to
act as mediator between the native Irish and
their English rulers. He entered into friendly
relations with Sussex, the lord deputy ; took
the oath as privy councillor in 1559, and
became lord treasurer of Ireland at the same
time ; but his action was unhappily fettered.
The house of Desmond was the hereditary
and implacable foe of the house of Ormonde,
and neither the present earl's relationship
(through his mother) with the then Earl of
Desmond nor his conciliatory disposition could
remove the ancient grudge. A quarrel respect-
ing the ownership of the manors of Clonmel,
Kilsheelan, and Kilfeacle was made in 1560
the pretext for a military demonstration, near
Tipperary. of the retainers of the two houses.
This happily proved abortive, and the English
government tried to bring the rivalry to an end
by a judicial award of the disputed territory
in this case to the Earl of Desmond, but a
permanent settlement was out of the question.
Ormonde, though openly avowing strong
Irish sympathies, resolved to throw the
weight of his influence on the side of law
and order. In 1561 he sought, by means
of his personal influence, to extract from
Shan O'Neill, the virtually independent ruler
of Ulster, an acknowledgment of the supre-
macy of the English crown and a promise to
abstain from further aggression on other
Ulster chieftains. O'Neill treated Ormonde
with consideration, and agreed to visit Eng-
land in his company in order to come to some
settlement with Queen Elizabeth herself. In
the result he was willing to submit all his
differences with his views to a board of ar-
bitration, at which he desired Ormonde to
take a seat. But when in 1562 O'Neill broke
his vague promises and re-opened attack on
the MacDonnells, his chief rivals in Ulster,
it was with great reluctance (6 April 1563)
that Ormonde, fearful of offending Irish feel-
ing, aided Sussex in repressing the powerful
chieftain. Meanwhile his quarrel with Des-
mond grew fiercer, and Munster, where the
chief estates of either house lay, was in con-
stant turmoil. Both leaders were summoned
to London at the close of 1 561, but little came
of their interview with Elizabeth. Ormonde
tried hard for a while to keep the peace in
the face of Desmond's continued aggressions.
Late in 1563 Ormonde complained to Sussex
that Desmond was repeatedly attacking his
relatives and tenants, and that it was only
just that he should retaliate. On 1 July
1564 Ormonde issued a notable proclamation
forbidding, in the interest of his poorer de-
pendents, the exaction of the ancient Irish
customs within his dominions, and he was
Butler i
contemplating other similar reforms, when an
attack byDesmond on his kinsman Sir Maurice
Fitzgerald led (1565) to a pitched battle be-
tween the supporters of the two earls at Affone,
a ford near the river Finisk, a tributary of the
Blackwater. Desmond was wounded by Sir
Edmund Butler,Ormonde's brother, and taken
prisoner. Elizabeth, angered beyond measure
by this act of private war, summoned both
earls again to her presence. The queen's
councillors were divided as to the degrees of
guilt attaching to the offenders, and the court
factions aggravated the local struggle. Sus-
sex insisted that Ormonde was guiltless.
Sir Henry Sidney and the Leicester faction
denied that Desmond had shown disloyalty to
the English cause. Finally, both earls agreed
(September 1565) to enter into their recogni-
sances in 20,OOOZ. to abide such orders as her
majesty might prescribe. Elizabeth evinced
unmistakable sympathy for Ormonde; the at-
tentions she paid him at the time gave rise
to no little scandal, and induced him to linger
at court for the next five years. Meanwhile
Sir Henry Sidney succeeded Sussex as lord
deputy, and he was inclined to favour Des-
mond, but the queen insisted that Ormonde's
claims whenever conflict arose deserved the
higher consideration. In 1567 Sidney visited
Munster and reported that it was absolutely
uncontrolled, and as turbulent as it well
could be. Desmond was ravaging Ormonde's
territory in the earl's absence. A royal com-
mission was nominated in October 1567 to
determine the truth of Ormonde's allegation,
that he had suffered terribly from Desmond's
aggressions ; an award was made in his fa-
vour, and Desmond was mulcted in the sum
of 20,894^. 12s. Bd. Early in 1568 the Earl of
Desmond and his brother John were sent to
the Tower of London. Although Ormonde
(in Sidney's words) still ' politicly kept him-
self in England,' the Butler influence was in
the ascendant during the imprisonment of
the rival earl. Edward and Sir Edmund,
Ormonde's brothers, used their power, as his
representatives in Munster, with the utmost
cruelty and injustice. In June 1569 Sir Ed-
mund, who had a personal hatred of Sidney,
in temporary concert with some members
of the Desmond family, broke into open re-
volt against the lord deputy. Sidney as-
serted that Ormonde's presence was indispen-
sable to the peace of South Ireland, and the
earl returned home with the queen's per-
mission. He landed at Waterford in July
1569, and found Munster in the throes of a
civil war, in which his brother Sir Edmund
was matched against Sidney's lieutenant, Sir
Peter Carew. Ormonde honestly endeavoured
to arbitrate between the combatants, but Sid-
> Butler
ney clearly regarded him at the time with
deep suspicion. Early in 1570, however,
Ormonde wrote to Cecil that he and Sidney
were reconciled, and as proof of his goodwill
he crushed, at Sidney's request, a rebellion of
the Earl of Thomond, one of the Munster
malcontents. In April Ormonde's three bro-
thers, Edmund, Edward, and Piers, were at-
tainted, and Ormonde passionately protested
against the indignity; but though the three
Butlers were pardoned in 1573, and became
loyal subjects, they were not, through some
legal error, restored in blood. In 1571 Or-
monde was busily engaged in repressing fur-
ther tumults in Munster, which the Desmond
influence continued to foment. At the be-
ginning of 1572 Fitzwilliam, the lord deputy,
wrote to Burghley that ' the South was always
the ticklish part of Ireland, and that Ormonde
alone could manage it.'
In 1572 the earl spent several months in
London, and visited his old rival, the Earl
of Desmond, who was still in confinement.
Desmond begged Ormonde to use his in-
fluence to secure his release, and probably
Ormonde recommended the course, which
was soon after adopted, of letting Desmond
return to Ireland under guarantees of good
behaviour. Ormonde's domain grew very tur-
bulent in his renewed absence, and Desmond,
scorning all his promises, resolved on striking
a desperate blow at English rule in South
Ireland. In July 1573 Ormonde entreated
him in vain to abandon his threatening de-
signs. While Ormonde was on another visit
to London, news reached Elizabeth (Decem-
ber 1579) of a rising of the Desmond faction
in Munster, aided and encouraged by papal
envoys and Spanish soldiers. Ormonde was
straightway appointed military governor of
the province, with a commission ' to banish
and vanquish those cankered Desmonds.' In
March 1580 he marched from Kilkenny to
Kerry, ravaging the country with fire and
sword. In the mountains of Kerry he cap-
tured many of the rebel leaders, and in a
report of his services drawn up in July 1580
he claimed to have put to the sword within
three months 46 captains, 800 notorious
traitors and malefactors, and 4,000 other
persons. In September, when the rebels were
encouraged to renew the struggle by the
arrival of a second detachment of Spaniards
at Smerwick, Ormonde showed less activity,
although he still maintained a large army
and supported the movements of the govern-
ment. His conduct gave rise in England to
some groundless suspicions of his loyalty. In
April 1581, when the immediate danger had
passed, he declared himself weary of killing,
and induced Elizabeth to proclaim pardon to
Butler
81
Butler
all the rebels save Desmond and his brothers.
But in 1582 the country was still disturbed.
' They seek,' wrote Sir Henry Wallop of the na-
tive Irish (10 June 1582), ' to have the govern-
ment among themselves,' and Lord Burghley
and Walsiugham thought to conciliate Irish
feeling by appointing Ormonde lord deputy.
Wallop and other English officials, however,
who, like Sidney, were jealous of Ormonde's
influence both at the English court and in
Ireland, protested that ' Ormonde is too great
for Ireland already,' and he was merely con-
firmed in the military government of Mun-
ster. Desmond was still at large in the
Kerry mountains, and a few of his supporters
maintained the old warfare. Ormonde was
inclined to treat the enemy leniently for a
time, but in May 1583 he deemed it prudent
to attack with his former rigour all the
known adherents of Desmond. At the same
time he set a price on Desmond's head, and
in October the rebellious earl was captured
and slain. Ormonde thus succeeded in paci-
fying Munster. In November he insisted on
the grant of an indemnity to all who had
taken part in the revolt, and spoke very
roughly in letters to Burghley of those Eng-
lish officers who advocated further rigorous
measures, or wished him to break faith with
the penitent rebels whom he had taken under
his protection. In 1588 he helped to capture
and kill the Spanish refugees who had escaped
the wreck of the Armada.
In October 1597 Ormonde was appointed
lieutenant-general of the army in Ireland,
and he supported the English troops in their
tedious attempts to repress the rebellion of
O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, in 1598-9. Early in
1599 he became for a second time, in suc-
cession to Sir Henry Wallop, treasurer of
Ireland, but with Essex he was on no friendly
terms (SpEDtixe's Bacon, ii. 93 et seq.)
Ormonde complained that Essex did not
honestly strive to crush Tyrone, and Essex
and his associates retaliated by hinting sus-
picions of Ormonde's loyalty. In 1602 Eliza-
beth granted him much confiscated lands in
Munster, and a pension of 40/. In 1612 he
was vice-admiral of Ireland and sought to
repress piracy. He died 22 Nov. 1614, at the
age of 82.
Ormonde was thrice married : first, to Eliza-
beth, daughter of Thomas, tenth lord Berke-
ley, by whom he had no issue ; secondly, to
Elizabeth, daughter of John, ninth lord Shef-
field, by whom he had two sons, James and
Thomas, anda daughter Elizabeth; and third-
ly, to Helen, daughter of David, viscount
Buttevant. His sons both died before him,
and his title descended to Walter, son of his
brother John of Kilcash. In 1597 Ormonde
VOL. VIII.
conveyed some rich church lands (originally
granted by the crown to his brother James,
and reverting to him on the death of James's
only son without issue) to an illegitimate son,
Piers FitzThomas (b. 1576). This son mar-
ried Katherine, eldest daughter of Thomas,
lord Stone, and was the father of Sir Edward
Butler, created Viscount Galmoy 16 May
1646.
A sonnet in Ormonde's praise is prefixed
by Spenser to the ' Faerie Queene ' (1590).
[Bagwell's History of Ireland under the Tu-
dors, vols. i. and ii. ; Froude's Hist, of England,
vols. vii. and x. ; Burke's Peerage ; Chamberlain's
Letters, temp. Elizabeth (Camden Soc.) ; Cam-
den's Annals ; Cal. State Papers (Irish), 1560-
1614; CarewMSS.; Cal. State Papers (Dom.),
1600-1614.] S. L. L.
BUTLER, THOMAS, EAKL OF OSSORY
(1634-1680), was the eldest son of James,
first duke of Ormonde [q. v.], and was born
in the castle of Kilkenny on 9 July 1634.
Here he remained, and was carefully edu-
cated, throughout the Irish rebellion, until
Ormonde surrendered Dublin to the parlia-
mentary commissioners in 1647, when he ac-
companied his father to England, and shortly
afterwards, in February 1647-8, to France.
He stayed with his brother Richard at Paris
until Ormonde's return to Ireland in Sep-
tember. They were then placed in the house
of a French protestant minister at Caen for
a year, and were subsequently sent to the
academy of M. de Camp at Paris, where
Ossory distinguished himself, as he did
throughout his life, by his skill in all manly
exercises. Evelyn's friendship with Ossory
dates from this time, and on 16 March 1650
he writes that he ' saw a triumph here [i.e.
at Paris], where divers of the French and
English noblesse, especially my lord of Os-
sorie and Richard, sons to the Marquis of
Ormonde, did their exercises on horseback in
noble equipage.' In another entry, on 7 May,
Evelyn gives an early instance of Ossory\
display of temper. In December 1650 the
youth returned to Caen, where his mother was
now residing, and in August 1652 accom-
panied her to England, whither she went to
petition parliament for part of the Ormonde
estates. Having succeeded in her object, she
went to Ireland in the following year, leav-
ing Ossory and his brother in London, and
only returned to England after two years'
absence. The two passages in Carte upon
this point are contradictory (cf. iii. 631 and
iv. 596). The place of residence of the bro-
thers during these two years is uncertain,
but after Lady Ormonde's return to London
they lived with her at Wild House. Os-
sory's character at this time is thus given by
G
Butler
Butler
Sir R. Southwell : ' He is a young man with j
a very handsome face, a good head of hair, a
pretty big voice, well set, and a good round
leg. He pleaseth me exceedingly, being very |
good natured, talking freely, asking many
questions, and humouring the answers. He |
rides the great horse very well; is a good |
tennis player, fencer, and dancer. He under- '
stands music, and plays on the guitar and
lute ; speaks French elegantly, reads Italian
fluently, is a good historian, and so well
versed in romances that if a gallery be full
of pictures or hangings he will tell the stories
of all that are there described. He shuts up
his door at eight o'clock in the evening, and
studies till midnight. He is temperate,
courteous, and excellent in all his behaviour.'
The heir of a great house, with such en-
dowments, soon became the darling of so-
ciety. As late as 20 Feb. 1655 he was at full
liberty, and mixing freely in society ; for on
that day he was at the Swedish ambassador's
(WHITELOCKE, p. 621). But his unconcealed
sympathies with the royal cause roused the
jealousy of Cromwell, who, in March 1655,
sent a guard to secure him. It happened that
he was out at the time, but Lady Ormonde
promised that he should wait upon Cromwell
next morning. This, though offers were
made to assist him in escaping, he did, and
was immediately sent under guard to the
Tower, although Cromwell had only shortly
before given him a pass to travel through
Italy and the Holy Land. Ossory remained
in the Tower eight months, during which his
mother in vain appealed to Cromwell for his
release or for information as to his crime. In
October, however, he fell ill of ague, and was
partially released, but was not finally set at
liberty until the following spring, when he
went with Lady Ormonde to Acton in Glou-
cestershire, and shortly afterwards with his
brother to Flanders, apparently in disguise.
Thence he went to Holland, and avoided the
refugee court of Charles, lest he should give
Cromwell a pretence for taking away his
mother's estate. Here he stayed for four
years, became acquainted with the Lord of
Beverwaert, the governor of Sluys, a noble-
man allied in blood to the Prince of Orange,
and married his eldest daughter Emilia on
17 Nov. 1659. Ormonde himself was present
at the wedding, and approved the match. He
hoped that by its agency he might induce De
"Witt, a great friend of Beverwaert, to enter
heartily into the design of the king's restora-
tion. To secure this marriage, Ossory's mother
was compelled to give up 1,200Z. a year out of
the 2,OOOJ. a year settled upon her by Crom-
well. The father of the bride gave 10,0002.
dowry, with which Ormonde's sister was to
have been married and his brother John edu-
cated ; but the money appears to have been
immediately devoted to the necessities of the
royal service. Ossory's relations with his
wife were of the purest kind, and he appears
to have lived without even a suspicion of li-
bertinism. Lady Ossory ' was an excellent
woman, had exceeding good sense, and the
sweetest temper in the world.' Ossory fell
into one of the court follies, that of gam-
bling ; and it is said that when, ' after losing,
he came home thoughtful and out of humour,
and upon her inquiring the reason told her
that he was vexed at himself for playing the
fool and gaming, and that he had lost one
thousand pounds, she still desired him not to
be troubled she would find ways to save it
at home. She was indeed an admirable eco-
nomist, always cheerful, and never known to
be out of humour ; so that they lived together
in the most perfect harmony imaginable.' By
this marriage he became united with Henry
Bennet [q. v.], earl of Arlington, already an
intimate friend, who married Isabella, his
wife's sister, in 1666.
At the Restoration Ossory accompanied
Charles. He was already the valued friend
not merely of young gallants like himself,
but of the best men of the time. On 6 July
1660, for instance, Evelyn speaks of him as
his ' excellent and worthy noble friend, my
Lord Ossory,' and frequently mentions him
in terms of enthusiastic admiration ; while
the confidence reposed in him by James is
shown by the fact that he was one of the
two witnesses to the duke's marriage with
Anne Hyde (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. 159).
On 8 Feb. 1660-1 he was made by patent
colonel of foot in Ireland, on 13 June follow-
ing colonel and captain of horse, and on the
19th of the same month lieutenant-general of
the horse. At the ceremony of the coronation
he was one of the young noblemen appointed
to bear the king's mantle, and as such he
challenged the place before Lord Percy, the
eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland.
His pretension, which gave great offence,
was unjustifiable, as Ormonde's dukedom was
only an Irish one, and it was overruled by
the king (CLARENDON, Life, 194). In the
beginning of 1662 he succeeded the Earl of
Mountrath in various military commands,
and on 1 6 Aug. 1665 was appointed lieutenant-
general of the army in Ireland.
Meantime Ossory had been elected a mem-
ber for Bristol in the parliament which met
on 8 May 1661, and was also in the Irish
House of Commons. On 22 June 1 662 Charles
ordered 'that he should be called to the House
of Peers in that country. By special order
of the commons he was accompanied by Sir
Butler
Butler
Paul Davys and Sir H. Tichborne, with the
body of members, to the bar of the House of
Lords. The lords themselves ordered that
his seat should be above all the earls. The
speaker of the commons gave thanks to the
lords for the honour thus done to Ossory,
who was further complimented by the lord
chancellor. In April 1664 Ormonde left Ire-
land for court, returning in October 1665,
during which interval Ossory acted as his
deputy.
In 1665 he returned to England, and was
on a visit to his future brother-in-law, Ar-
lington, at the latter's seat at Euston, when
the first great battle, lasting for four days,
took place with the Dutch off the Suffolk
coast. Hearing the guns at sea, he, with
Sir Thomas Clifford, managed to get from
Harwich on board the Duke of Albemarle's
ship, and bring him the welcome news that
Rupert was on his way to reinforce him ;
and he remained with the duke, for whom he
had ever afterwards a high opinion, during
two days' fighting. He is stated by his dar-
ing conduct in this fight to have 'become
the darling of the kingdom, and especially
of the seamen, who called him the preserver
of the navy.' He was shortly made a gentle-
man of the king's bedchamber upon his
father's resignation, was placed on the Eng-
lish privy council in June 1666, and on
14 Sept. in the same year was summoned to
the English House of Lords by the title of
Lord Butler of Moore Park, taking his seat
on 18 Sept. The lords were soon treated to
a specimen of his fiery temper. The Duke
of Buckingham, who was busily plotting
against Ormonde, asserted in the house that
none were against the bill then before them,
prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle,
except such as had Irish estates or Irish un-
derstandings (PEPYS, 27 Oct. 1666). Ossory,
on 26 Oct., angrily replied, and delighted to
find an excuse for quarrelling with Bucking-
ham at once challenged him, but on arriving
at the place of meeting was arrested by the
king's guard, Buckingham having, according
to Carte (iv. 270), given notice to Charles.
Clarendon's account differs somewhat from
that of Carte. He says nothing of an arrest,
and mentions that Buckingham went to a
place other than that appointed, pretending
that it was called by the same name (Life,
969). Buckingham having complained of a
breach of privilege, Ossory was released by
the king to make his defence, but was sent
back to the Tower by the lords, the duke too
being taken into custody. On 31 Oct. Ossory
presented a petition to the lords, drawn up
by Arlington, who had vigorously espoused
his quarrel in the house, expressing his regret,
and praying to be released, which was done
two days after the arrest. Pepys states that
the quarrel was between Ossory and Claren-
don ; but this is of course a clerical error,
as Clarendon was one of Ormonde's greatest
friends, and himself rebuked Buckingham
(CARTE, iv. 270). A fresh quarrel, it appears,
broke out on 19 Nov., in which Ossory flatly
gave Buckingham the lie (Hist. MSS. Comm.
8th Rep. 102 a, 102 b). For this, and for a
similar attack upon Ashley, when, after great
provocation, he said that Ashley spoke like
one of Oliver's council, the fiery young man
was compelled by the house to ask pardon of
his opponents.
In 1668 Ormonde asked leave of Charles to
come to court, leaving his son as his deputy.
Ossory accordingly set out in March and re-
mained until his father's deprivation of the
lord-lieutenancy in March of the following
year, 1669, when he returned to England.
He had been put in full possession of the in-
trigues against Ormonde by Arlington, who
was sincerely attached to himself, but who
was at the time engaged in them.
In May 1670 Ossory went in the king's train
to Dover to meet the Duchess of Orleans,
and in the following October was sent with
a fleet of yachts to bring the Prince of Orange
to England, sailing from Harwich about
the 13th (ib. 6th Rep. 367 b}, and returning
with him at the end of the month. It was
in this year that the attempt was made by
Blood upon his father's life. Ossory ascribed
the outrage directly to the Duke of Bucking-
ham before the king's face, and added : ' If
my father comes to a violent end, by sword
or pistol, ... I shall not be at a loss to know
the first author of it. I shall consider you
as the assassin ; . . . and wherever I meet
you I shall pistol you, though you stood be-
hind the king's chair. And I tell it you in
his majesty's presence, that you may be sure
I shall keep my word.'
In February Ossory was again appointed
to attend the Prince of Orange back to the
Hague. Thence he returned by Flanders and
Paris, intending to serve as a volunteer in
the French force destined for Alsace. The
expedition having, however, fallen through,
Ossory once more came to Holland and thence
to England. He had completely won the re-
spect of Orange, who in April sent him as a
present ' a bason and ewer of massy gold.'
In June 1671 Ossory went over to Flanders
to be present at the siege of Brunswick.
Disappointed here, he was, in January 1671-2,
in command of the third-rate king's ship
the Resolution, and was on board of her
when, along with Sir Robert Holmes, he
attacked, on 14 March, the Dutch Smyrna
Butler
8 4
Butler
fleet before any declaration of war had been
issued an action which deeply offended Or-
monde, and which he himself afterwards ac-
counted the one blot upon his life (EVELYN,
12 March 1672, 26 July 1680). In April he
was promoted to the command of the second-
rate the Victory, upon which he fought the
sanguinary action with the Dutch in South-
wold Bay on 28 May. After the action, in
which he further increased his reputation for
courage, he caused the sick and wounded
seamen in the Southwark Hospital to be
visited and relieved at his own cost. It is
stated (Biog. Brit.} that shortly before this he
had lost about 8,0001. at cards, and that from
this difficulty he was relieved by the king with-
out the knowledge of the court. On 30 Sept.
Charles bestowed the garter upon him, and
he was installed at Windsor on 25 Oct. He
was next employed, in November, as envoy
extraordinary to carry formal condolences to
Louis on the death of the Duke of Anjou.
Every honour was shown him while at the
French court, and the most enticing offers,
confidence by choosing him in November 1674
to propose to Orange the marriage with
James's daughter Mary. On 31 May, Trinity
Monday, 1675, he was elected master of the
Trinity House, Evelyn again being present
(ib. 8th Rep. 255 a). In July 1680 there was
a painting of him in the Trinity House, but
it was distrained, along with other property,
for hearth-money, which the corporation
refused to pay, on 29 Sept. 1682 (ib. 257 a,
258 b). In August he was appointed one of
the commissioners of the admiralty. Appa-
rently his affairs were at this time some-
what embarrassed, for on 22 Dec. 1675 he is
mentioned as petitioning the king for a pension
of 2,000/. a year out of the 30,OOOZ. reserved
by him from the new farm of the revenue
of Ireland (ib. 4th Rep. 248). On 18 Nov.
1676 he was made lord chamberlain to the
queen. In June 1677 the Prince of Orange,
when sending over Bentinck to continue the
marriage negotiations, advised him to go,
in the first place, to Ossory and Ormonde.
Ossory now obtained permission to make a
both of place and money, were made him i campaign with Orange, and joined him before
to induce him to take service with Louis,
which he refused on the ground that he was
already serving in the Dutch war. Upon
his taking leave he was presented with a
jewel of the value of 2,0001. On 26 March
1673, along with Evelyn, Ossory was sworn
a younger brother of the Trinity House
(EVELYN, 26 March 1673). In May 1673 he
accepted the command of the first-rate St.
Michael, and was made rear-admiral of the
blue on the 17th. In the great battle which
was fought in June, Admiral Spragge, who
commanded, being slain and his ship disabled,
Ossory defended her from capture during the
day, and at night brought her safely off.
No one was left alive upon his quarter-deck
but himself, his page, and Captain Narborough
(Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. 719 b note).
After this action he was made rear-admiral of
the red, and in September commanded in chief
during Rupert's absence, while the fleet was
lying at the Nore, receiving henceforward,
according to custom, a pension of 250/. a year.
Towards the close of the year Ossory received
intelligence that the harbour of Helvoetsluys,
where, when in Holland, he had noticed
the prizes taken by the Dutch at Chatham,
and which he was now informed was filled
with the Dutch navy, was very insufficiently
guarded. He at once made a design for
attacking it, and haying secured a plan of
the harbour, and having obtained the king's
orders to sail with ten frigates and 2,000
soldiers, was on the eve of setting out when,
from causes never known, the expedition was
countermanded. Charles showed continued
Charleroi ; and upon the raising of the siege,
a battle with Luxembourg being imminent,
he had the post of honour with the command
of 6,000 men conferred upon him (ib. 5th
Rep. 187). He returned to England that
year, for at the beginning of December we
find him and his second, Captain Mackarly,
worsted in a duel with Mr. Buckley and
Mr. Gerard (ib. 7th Rep. 469 a).
In February 1678 he again went to Hol-
land, where he had been appointed general,
by the prince's patent, of the British forces
in the pay of the States. In that capacity
he was present at the battle of Mons, and
distinguished himself greatly, his own life
being saved only by the fact that two shots
which struck him were stopped by his armour.
He returned to England in September 1678
with many testimonies to his reputation. He
was desirous, however, of having his com-
mission of general confirmed by the States,
and in March 1680 sent to demand this,
which, after much difficulty, he obtained
through Orange's personal influence.
Upon his return in 1678 Ossory had been
nominated to command the fleet intended to
put down the pirates of Algiers; his de-
mands for men and ships, however, were
greater than the treasury would grant, and
Narborough went in his stead.
Ossory had an active share in the early
stages of the popish terror. It is stated,
indeed, that on 11 Nov. 1678 he discovered
100,000 fireballs and grenades in Somerset
House (ib. 471 b}, which was, of course, merely
an idle tale. In December he appears to
Butler
Butler
have given in a report concerning Godfrey's
murder (ib. 6th Rep. 778 b), while he pointed
out an evident falsehood in Oates's evidence,
and on 30 Nov. was the first to carry to the
queen the news that the lords had refused
to concur in the vote of the commons of
28 Nov. for an address to the king for her
removal from court. In June 1679 there
was talk of removing Lauderdale from his
commands in Scotland, and of the appoint-
ment of Ossory and another with Monmouth
as a joint commission for governing that
country (ib. 7th Rep. 473 a).
In September he was named envoy ex-
traordinary to carry to the King of Spain
Charles's congratulations on the marriage of
the latter's niece. This expedition, however,
in preparing for which he had incurred much
expense, was stopped by Essex, then at the
head of the treasury, who persuaded Charles
to seek a less expensive method (ib. 6th Rep.
724 b). On 23 Oct. he walked before James
at the artillery dinner given to the duke (ib.
7th Rep. 476 b). When a volunteer force of
young men of position was raised as a body-
guard to the king, Ossory had the command
(ib. 3rd Rep. 270).
During the winter Ormonde was warmly
attacked in the House of Lords by Shaftes-
bury, who saw in his continuance in Ireland
one of the greatest difficulties to the success of
the anti-catholic and exclusion programme.
He was, however, defended with the utmost
spirit by Ossory, who retorted upon Shaftes-
bury himself with telling effect : ' Having
spoke of what he has done, I presume with
the same truth to tell your lordships what he
has not done. He never advised the break-
ing up of the triple league, he never ad-
vised the shutting up of the exchequer, he
never advised the declaration for a tolera-
tion, he never advised the falling out with
the Dutch and joining with the French ; he
was not the author of that most excellent
position of " Delenda est Carthago," that Hol-
land, a protestant country, should, contrary
to the true interest of England, be totally
destroyed. I beg your lordships will be so
just as to judge of my father and of all men
according to their actions and counsels.' This
speech was translated into Dutch, and drew
from Orange a sincere letter of praise.
In April 1680 Ossory was replaced on the
privy council, from which he had been re-
moved at the dissolution of the old council.
In June, greatly to his own dislike, he was
nominated to the governorship of Tangier,
with the generalship of the forces. He took
it greatly to heart, since he was being sent
out with an incompetent force upon what
Sunderland the secretary told the king before
his face was an errand that must fail, even if
it were not intended to fail. The gallant and
high-spirited man appears to have brooded
deeply over this unworthy reward of his own
and his father's services, and he unburdened
his mind to Evelyn. On the evening of the
same day, 26 July, he attended the king at
the sheriffs' supper in Fishmongers' Hall.
There he was taken ill, and was removed to
Arlington House, where Evelyn watched his
bedside. He speedily became delirious, with
short lucid intervals, during which the sacra-
ment was administered, and, in spite of the
efforts of six doctors, died on Friday, 30 July
(EVELYN, 26 July 1680). His body was
placed temporarily in Westminster Abbey,
and afterwards removed to the family vaults
at Kilkenny Castle. The character which
Evelyn gives him is supported by universal
testimony. ' His majesty never lost a worthier
subject, nor father a better or more dutiful
son ; a loving, generous, good-natured, and
perfectly obliging friend, one who had done
innumerable kindnesses to se verall before they
knew it ; nor did he ever advance any that
were not worthy ; no one more brave, more
modest ; none more humble, sober, and every
way virtuous. . . . What shall I add ? He
deserved all that a sincere friend, a brave
souldier, a virtuous courtier, a loyal subject,
an honest man, a bountifull master, and good
Christian, could deserve of his prince and
country.'
Ossory had eleven children, of whom two
sons and four daughters survived him. The
eldest of the sons, James Butler (1665-1745)
[q. v.], became the second duke of Ormonde,
while of the daughters one became Countess
of Derby, another Countess of Grant ham.
[The authorities for Ossory's life are, in the
first place, Carte's Life of Ormonde ; Evelyn
gives much useful information ; one or two anec-
dotes not otherwise mentioned will be found in
Clarendon's Life, while the various notices in
the Keports of the Hist. MSS. Commission, espe-
cially those contained in Mr. Gilbert's most in-
teresting account of the Kilkenny MSS., with the
numerous specimens of Ossory's letters, are of
the greatest value.] 0. A.
BUTLER, THOMAS HAMLY (1762?-
1823), musical composer, the son of James
Butler, a musician, was born in London about
1762. He was for nearly ten years a cho-
rister of the Chapel Royal under Dr. Nares,
and subsequently studied in Italy for three
years under Piccini. On returning to Eng-
land, he was engaged by Sheridan as com-
poser for Covent Garden Theatre ; but owing
to a quarrel the engagement was not renewed.
Butler wrote music to Cumberland's five-act
play, ' The Widow of Delphi,' which was
Butler
86
Butler
produced at Covent Garden 1 Feb. 1780, and
only acted six times. Soon afterwards he
settled at Edinburgh, where he first lived at
Bishop's Land, High Street, and subsequently
at 24 Broughton Street and 3 Catherine Street.
He enjoyed considerable reputation as a
teacher, and wrote a quantity of music for
the pianoforte marches, arrangements of
Scotch airs, sonatas, &c., all of which are now
forgotten. Butler died in Edinburgh in 1823.
[A Dictionary of Musicians, 1827, i. 125 ;
Grove's Diet, of Music, i. 386 a ; Genest's Hist,
of the Stage, vi. 146; British Museum Music
Catalogue.] W. B. S.
BUTLER, WALTER, of Kilcash, eleventh
EARL OF ORMONDE (1569-1633), was the
eldest son of Sir John Butler, the younger
brother of Thomas, tenth earl of Ormonde
and Ossory [q. v.] He was but half a year
old at his father's death, after which he lived
under the guardianship of his uncle. In 1599
he led a portion of the army commanded
by the latter, and defeated Redmond Bourke
at Ormond with the loss of 200 men, and
on another occasion drove him out of the
castle of Drehednefarney. In the former of
these actions he behaved with great gal-
lantry, and was wounded by a pike in the
knee. When, a year later, Owen Grane and
the O'Mores entered Kilkenny, and burnt
his uncle's house at Bowlike, Walter Butler
again fell upon the enemy, killing sixty of
them, with two of their leaders, and recover-
ing a large part of the booty. Upon the
death of Earl Thomas, in 1614, without
legitimate male issue, he succeeded to the
earldom of Ormonde and Ossory. His title
to the estates, however, was contested by
Sir R. Preston, afterwards the Earl of Des-
mond, who had married the sole daughter of
Earl Thomas, and who, under the favour
and with the active interference of James I,
laid claim to a large portion in right of his
wife. After much time and money had
been spent in litigation, James made an
award which Earl Walter refused to submit
to. He was thereupon, in 1617, committed
to the Fleet prison by James, where he re-
mained for eight years in great want, no
rents reaching him from his estate. James
meanwhile brought a writ of quo warranto
against him for the county palatine of Tippe-
rary, which had been vested in the head of
the family for nearly four hundred years, and
which could not therefore under any circum-
stances have belonged to his cousin Elizabeth,
the wife of Preston ; no answer was made to
the writ, if indeed an opportunity was afforded
for answer, and James took the county
palatine into his own hands. It was not
restored until 1663, when Charles II returned
it to the Duke of Ormonde with enlarged
privileges. Earl Walter, however, was set
at liberty in 1625, and a large part of his
estates restored to him. For some while he
lived in a house in Drury Lane, with his grand-
son James, afterwards Duke of Ormonde,
but shortly retired to Ireland. In 1629,
on 5 the projected marriage of his grandson
and Elizabeth Poyntz, Charles I granted
her marriage and the wardship of her lands
to him by letters patent dated 8 Sept. After
the marriage he was recognised, 9 Oct. 1630,
as heir to the lands of Earl Thomas as well
as of Sir John Butler his father. He died
at Carrick on 24 Feb. 1632-3, and was buried
at Kilkenny 18 June 1633.
By his marriage with Ellen Butler, daugh-
ter of Edmund, second Viscount Mountgarret,
he had three sons (Thomas, Lord Thurles, the
father of James Butler, first duke of Ormonde
[q. v.], James and John, who died young,
without issue) and nine daughters.
[Carte's Introduction to his Life of Ormonde,
and a few notices in the Reports of the Hist.
MSS. Com.] 0. A.
BUTLER, WALTER, COUNT (d. 1634),
was the second son of Peter Butler of Ros-
crea, and his wife Catharine de Burgo. His
father was the great grandson of Sir Richard
Butler of Poolestown in Kilkenny, a younger
son of James, third Earl of Ormonde (LODGE'S
Peerage of Ireland, 1789, iv. 17). It is sup-
posed that Walter Butler served on the Li-
guistic side in the battle of Prague (1620),
but he is first mentioned by name as lieuten-
ant-colonel of James Butler's regiment, in
which capacity he accompanied his kinsman
[see BUTLER, JAMES, fl. 1631-1634] on his
march from Poland to Frankfort-on-the-
Oder early in 1631. There seems no satis-
factory evidence of his having before this
time become connected with the Tipperary
priest Thomas Carve, who then or soon after-
wards was appointed chaplain of his regiment,
and to whom Walter Butler is indebted for
the only literary attempt ever made to glorify
his tarnished name (see, however, Preface to
Itinerarium, v). According to the chaplain,
Butler brilliantly distinguished himself at
the siege of Frankfort, having apparently
been left there in command of his absent kins-
man's regiment. Although placed in the most
dangerous position, he successfully resisted
a Swedish attack made when the rest of the
garrison was enjoying itself at table ; and on
the day of the general assault (April 3-13)
stayed the retreat of two imperial regiments.
The latter part of this account is confirmed
by Colonel Robert Monro, whose own regi-
Butler
Butler
ment (Mackay's) was present at the siege on
the Swedish side. He says that Butler's
regiment bravely resisted the onslaught of
the yellow and blue brigades, till most of the
Irishmen fell to the ground ; and Butler,
' being shot in the arm, and pierced with a
pike through the thigh, was taken prisoner '
(MoNRO, His Expedition, London, 1637, ii.
34). Carve gives a list of the Irish officers
who fell. He further relates, with many
surprising details, that after the city had
been taken Gustavus Adolphus ordered the
wounded officer to be brought into his pre-
sence, when, after drawing his sword and
ascertaining that it was the younger and not
the elder Butler who was before him, he de-
clared that had it been the elder he would
have perished by the royal hand. In the same
strain the chaplain goes on to tell how Walter
Butler, having been accused on his own side
of having caused the fall of Frankfort, re-
ceived from the magnanimous king of Sweden
a testimonial of valour, signed and sealed by
all the Swedish generals, which he afterwards
exhibited to the emperor at Vienna, while a
broadsheet vindicating him was also published
at Frankfort.
After remaining in captivity for six months
Butler, from what resources does not appear,
purchased his freedom for 1,000 dollars. He
immediately joined the imperial army in Si-
lesia under Tiefenbach, by whom he was most
honourably received. He paid two visits to
Poland for the purpose of levying troops,
meeting with strange adventures on the way,
and in January 1632 was about to settle down
in remote winter quarters, when he was en-
trusted by Wallenstein, who had just re-
assumed the command, with the defence of his
own duchy of Sagan. According to Carve,
Butler more than justified the choice, and was
rewarded for his deeds of valour against the
Saxons by being assigned the Silesian county
of Jagerndorf (on the Bohemian frontier)
and its appurtenances as his winter quarters.
This is possible, as Jagerndorf had been
recently confiscated by the emperor, and be-
stowed by him upon a catholic magnate.
Here Butler married a countess of Fondana.
The brilliant victory of Eger, in which he
and his cavalry captured twelve standards,
may be identified with a brief stand made
there by the Saxon Colonel von Starschettel
before capitulating (cf. FORSTER, Brief e Wal-
lenstein's, &c. ii. 218). Nothing more is heard
of him till the fatal year 1634 ; nor was it till
at a very late stage in the series of events
which led to the death of Wallenstein that
Butler intervened in the action.
From the narrative of Butler's regimental
chaplain, Patrick Taaffe, which there seems
no reason for distrusting, it appears that at
the beginning of the year 1634 Butler was in
winter quarters at Klatrup (Kladran) on the
Bohemian frontier, his regiment, composed
of about 1,000 excellent soldiers, being posted
about the neighbourhood for the defence of
the passes between Bohemia and the Upper
Palatinate. Though he had received no re-
cent favours from Wallenstein, and had his
suspicions as to the general's ultimate designs,
he seems to have known neither of the steps
which Wallenstein had in vain taken for as-
suring himself of the fidelity of his superior
officers, nor of the imperial rescript of Feb. 18
bidding those officers cease to yield obedience
to the deposed commander-in-chief. When,
therefore, about this time an order from Wal-
lenstein suddenly reached Butler, bidding
him collect his regiment and march at once
to Prague, where it had been the general's
original intention to assemble his forces before
opening the decisive negotiations, Butler
obeyed. But he told his chaplain and con-
fessor that the order confirmed his suspicions
of the general's loyalty, and that he expected
that at Prague death awaited him as a faithful
soldier. Clearly he expected a battle there ;
but in truth the Prague garrison had already
declared for Gallas and the emperor, and Wal-
lenstein, after a design of seizing his person
at Pilsen had been frustrated, had no choice
but to hold Eger and the adjoining frontier
districtwith such troops as still adhered to him.
When, therefore, on 22 Feb., Butler on his
way to Prague reached Mies, near Pilsen, he
was accidentally met by Wallenstein himself,
proceeding from Pilsen to Eger with How,
Terzka, Kinsky, and a small body of troops.
(The statement that these included two hun-
dred of Butler's own dragoons is probably
founded on a mistake.) Butler was told
to spend the night at Mies away from his
soldiery ; and next morning had with his regi-
ment, under certain precautions, to accompany
the duke on his progress to Eger. On the
24th Wallenstein entered into confidential
conversation with him, enlarging on his own
and his army's grievances against the em-
peror, and plying his companion with com-
pliments and promises. Butler in return
assured the duke that he would serve him
rather than any other mortal. On the same
day Eger was reached, and Butler was as-
signed quarters in the town, while his regi-
ment remained outside the gates. Meanwhile
on the 23rd Butler had contrived to despatch
his chaplain to Piccolomini, now at Pilsen,
assuring him that he would be true to the
emperor, and adding that perchance God's
providence designed to force him to do some
heroic deed. Piccolomini bade the chaplain
Butler
88
Butler
tell Butler that if he desired the imperial
favour and promotion, he must deliver -up
Wallenstein dead or alive. The message did
not reach Butler till all was over : but Pic-
colomini is stated to have added that he
would find some other way of letting Butler
know his mind on the subject. If this account
be correct, it results that Butler's presence
at Eger was due to chance ; that after first
mistrusting him Wallenstein believed himself
to have gained him over ; and that Butler did
not enter Eger, as he had certainly not left
his quarters on the frontier, with any set pur-
pose of assassinating the duke. Most as-
suredly he had received no orders to that
effect from the emperor, by whom none were !
given ; nor can we suppose any instructions
to have reached him from Piccolomini. At
the same time, as Ranke says, the idea of
this particular solution was in the air and
had previously suggested itself to various
minds.
On the night of his arrival at Eger, Butler
had an interview with Lieutenant-colonel
Gordon and Major Leslie, two Scotch pro-
testant officers in Terzka's infantry regiment,
which formed the garrison of Eger. Finding
them alarmed at the situation of affairs, he
began to sound them as to what should be
done. Gordon having proposed flight, which
Butler rejected, Leslie was led to declare
that they should kill the traitors. Here-
upon Butler opened to them his design, to
which at last Gordon signified his assent.
Then followed the well-known incidents of
25 Feb. Several officers including Deve-
reux, Geraldine, and de Burgo, possibly a con-
nection of Butler's and about a hundred men
of Butler's regiment, together with nearly
the same number of German soldiers, were
secretly introduced into the town. In the
course of the day the rumour spread that the
Swedes were approaching, and this no doubt
helped to nerve the hands of the conspirators.
In the evening a banquet was held in the
castle, at which Butler's Irish dragoons cut
down How, Terzka, Kinsky, and Neumann,
and then Devereux killed Wallenstein him-
self in his quarters at the burgomaster's
house. Next morning Butler informed the
town councillors of what had happened, and
after making them swear fidelity to the em-
peror, imposed a similar oath upon the regi-
ments encamped outside the town. He also
took measures for the capture of Duke Francis
Albert of Saxe-Lauenburg, who was expected
from across the frontier with tidings from
Duke Bernard of Weimar. Information was
sent to Gallas, and a proclamation to the
army was issued by Butler and Gordon, de-
claring the treason of Wallenstein, and stat-
ing what measures had been taken against
him and his associates. All these proceed-
ings were substantially successful.
The deed of Butler and his fellows may
not have saved the house of Austria and the
Roman catholic cause in the empire from
any grave danger, for Wallenstein had been
abandoned by the great body of his army
before he quitted Pilsen for Eger, and beyond
that frontier fortress hardly anything in Bo-
hemia remained in his power. But the Irish
dragoons had relieved the emperor, Spain,
Bavaria, and the Roman catholic party in
general from a grievous incubus ; and Butler
in especial had done his part of the work
promptly and effectively, and, what was most
acceptable of all, without waiting for definite
orders on the subject! Nor was he left un-
rewarded. Besides receiving the personal
thanks of the emperor, who presented him
with a gold chain and a medal bearing the
imperial portrait, he was made owner of the
regiment of which he held the command,
ennobled as a count, appointed chamberlain,
and endowed with Friedberg, the most con-
siderable of the late duke's domains next to
Friedland itself. He afterwards took part in
the battle of Nordlingen (7 Sept, 1634) ; but
Carve's word must be taken for the statement
that on this occasion Butler fought most va-
liantly under the eyes of the king of Hun-
gary and the Cardinal-Infante without in-
termission for twenty-four hours, not giving
way a single foot's breadth till the Spaniards
and Croats came to his aid. After the victory
Butler was sent with eight regiments to lay
siege to Aurach and Schorndorf, in Wiir-
temberg, both of which places he took. At
Schorndorf he died, 25 Dec. 1634, 'most
placidly,' after duly receiving the last sacra-
ments of his church. Carve arrived in time
to see his hero's coffin and to read his last
will, in which he left 20,000 dollars to a
convent of Franciscans at Prague, specially
devoted to the interests of the faithful and the
con version of heretics in Ireland and Scotland,
besides legacies to Jesuits and other priests,
and to his faithful lieutenant-colonel Walter
Devereux, who succeeded to his regiment.
Butler was sumptuously buried by his widow,
but as he left no children his estate of Fried-
berg passed to a kinsman of the Poolestown
house, whom the Emperor Leopold I con-
firmed in the possession of the title of count.
The family afterwards migrated to Bavaria,
where it still survives.
[The Itinerarium of Thomas Carve, who was
chaplain first to Butler and then to Devereux, and
afterwards called himself head-chaplain to the
English, Scotch, and Irish serving in the imperial
army, contains many more or less trustworthy
Butler
8 9
Butler
particulars as to Butler, more especially in
chaps, vii. viii. ix. and xi. of part i., and in
part ii. concerning his descent. It was reprinted
London, 1859. As to Butler's share in Wallen-
stein's catastrophe, however, the best authority is
the account written in answer to the inquiries of
a Eatisbon priest by Patrick Taaffe, Butler's
regimental chaplain, at the time of the murder,
which is printed by Mailath, Geschichte d.
osterreich. Kaiserstaats (1842), iii. 367-376,
and is in substance accepted by Ranke, for whose
account of the catastrophe see his Geschichte
Wallenstein's (1869), 402-456. Cf. also the ar-
tiale on Walter Butler by Landmann, in Allge-
meine deutsche Biographic, iii. 651-653 ; and
Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (1789), iv. 17.1
A. W. W.
BUTLER, WEEDEN, the elder (1742-
1823), miscellaneous writer, was born at
Margate on 22 Sept. 1742. He was articled
to a solicitor in London, but quitted the
legal profession for the church. He acted
as amanuensis to Dr. "William Dodd from
1764 till his patron's ignominious end in
1777. In 1776 he had succeeded Dodd as
morning preacher at Charlotte Street chapel,
Pimlico, in which fashionable place of wor-
ship he officiated till 1814. In 1778 he was
lecturer of St. Clement's, Eastcheap, and
St. Martin Orgars ; and for more than forty
years he was master of a classical school at
Chelsea. In 1814 he retired to Gayton,
where he acted as curate to his son till 1820,
when, in consequence of increasing infirmi-
ties, he withdrew, at first to the Isle of
Wight, next to Bristol, and finally to Green-
hill, near Harrow, where he died on 14 July
1823. He was father of "Weeden Butler, the
younger [q. v.], and of George Butler, D.D.,
headmaster of Harrow [q. v.] He was chap-
lain to the Duke of ifent and the queen's
volunteers.
His works are: 1. 'The Cheltenham
Guide,' London, 1781, 8vo (anon.) 2. ' Ac-
count of the Life and Writings of the Rev.
George Stanhope, D.D., Dean of Canterbury/
London, 1797, 8vo (anon.) 3. 'Memoirof Mark
Hildesley, D.D., Bishop of Sodor and Man,'
London, 1799, 8vo. 4. 'Plea sing Recollect ions,
or a Walk through the British Museeum. An
interlude of two acts,' Addit. MS. 27276.
5. Poems in manuscript, including ' The
Syracusan,' a tragedy, and ' Sir Roger de
Coverley,' a comedy. He also prepared edi-
tions of Jortin's ' Tracts,' 2 vols. 1790, and
Wilcock's ' Roman Conversations,' 2 vols.
1797.
[Addit. MSS. 27577, 27578 ; Nichols's Illust.
of Lit. v. 130; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 223;
Gent, Mag. xciii. (ii.) 182-4; Cat. of Printed
Books in Brit. Mus. ; Biog. Diet, of Living
Authors (1816), 50.] T. C.
BUTLER, WEEDEN, the younger
(17.73-1831), author, eldest son of the Rev.
Weeden Butler mentioned above, was edu-
cated by his father till 1790, when he entered
Sidney College, Cambridge (B.A. 1794, M. A.
1797). He became afternoon lecturer of Char-
lotte Street Chapel, and evening lecturer of
Brompton in 1811, and was presented to the
rectory of Great Woolston, Buckingham-
shire, in 1816. After having for nineteen
years acted as classical assistant in his
father's school, he succeeded to the superin-
tendence of it on his father's retirement in
1814. He died in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, on
28 June 1831.
He published : ' Bagatelles ; or miscel-
laneous productions, consisting of Original
Poetry and Translations,' London, 1795,8vo ;
and translated ' Prospect of the Political Re-
lations which subsist between the French
Republic and the Helvetic Body,' from the
French of Weiss, 1794; 'The Wrongs of
Unterwalden,' 1799; and 'Zimao, the Afri-
can,' 1800 and 1807.
[Addit. MS. 19209, ff. 1236, 1246; Nichols's
Illust. of Lit.; Gent. Mag. ci. (ii.) 186 ; Cat. of
I Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Biog. Diet, of
1 Living Authors (1816), 51.] T. C.
BUTLER, or BOTELER, WILLIAM
(d. 1410?), a controversial writer against the
Wycliffites, was the thirtieth provincial of
the Minorites in England. At Oxford in
1401 he wrote as his ' Determinatio,' or aca-
demical thesis, a tract against the translation
of the Bible into the vulgar tongue. Pits
says this was in vindication of some public
edict which ordered the burning of English
Bibles, probably deriving the statement from
Bale, who says that Purvey asserts (but Bale
gives no reference for his citation) that such
an order was issued at the instance of the
friars ; but no such injunction is known of so
early a date. It was not until 1408 that
Wycliffe's version was condemned in the pro-
vincial constitutions of Archbishop Arundel,
and owners and readers of the book were
declared excommunicate unless license had
been obtained by them from their diocesans
(WiLKiNS, Concilia, 317). Butler's tract
exists in one manuscript which is preserved
j in Merton College, Oxford ; unfortunately
' the first leaf has been deliberately cut out,
and all information whieh the beginning may
have afforded as to the immediate cause of the
composition of the tract is consequently lost.
The colophon alone gives name, date, place,
and title, as stated above, except that the
first remaining page is also headed 'Buttiler
contra translacionem Anglicanam.' Bale
says that Butler states in this tract that the
Butler
Butler
Psalter was translated by Bede, and other
portions of the Scriptures by an (arch)bishop
of York. This statement must have occurred
in the introductory portion now lost. He
also says (in his manuscript referred to below)
that the book existed in Queen's College,
Oxford, but this is probably a mistake for
Merton College. The tract contains six sec-
tions devoted to as many arguments against
the allowance of the Scriptures in the verna-
cular; and is possibly the earliest extant
statement in English controversy of the op-
ponent's case.
The first argument is that the use of the
vernacular would quickly lead to multiplica-
tion of erroneous copies, while Latin copies,
being written and read in the universities,
are easily corrected. 2. That human under-
standing is insufficient for all the difficulties
of Scripture. The knowledge of God is better
gained by meditation and prayer than by
reading. 3. That in the celestial hierarchy the
angels of lower order depend for illumination
upon angels of higher order, who convey to
them God's revelations, and that the church
militant corresponds to the church triumph-
ant. 4. That the teaching of the apostles
was not by books, but by the power of the
Spirit. And Christ himself in the temple
asked the doctors, and did not read. 5. That
if men were to read Scripture for themselves,
disputes would soon arise. 6. That in Christ's
body each member has its proper office, but if
everyone may read, then the foot becomes the
eye ; and who would offer a book to a joint
of his foot ? Butler also wrote a tract ' De
Indulgentiis,' of which Bale saw a copy which
had belonged to the Minorites at Reading ;
four books of commentary on the Sentences of
Peter Lombard ; one book treating of various
questions ; and several other works which his
biographers do not specify. To Reading he
is said to have removed from Oxford, and
there, according to Pits, he died about 1410.
[Bale's Collectanea de Scriptt. Anglis, a MS.
in the Bodl. Lib., 'Selden supra, 64,' p. 215;
Bale's Scriptt. Brit. Catalogus, Basle, 1557,
p. 537; Merton Coll. MS. 68, ff. 202-4; Pits,
De Angliae Scriptoribus, Par. 1619; Tanner's
Bibl. Brit.-Hib. 1748; Madden's and Forshall's
Pref. to Wycliffe's Bible, Oxford, 1850, i. xxxiii.;
Brewer's Monumenta Franciscana, Lond. 1858,
pp. 538, 561.] W. D. M.
BUTLER, WILLIAM (1535-1618), phy-
sician, was born at Ipswich, and educated at
Clare Hall, Cambridge, of which he became
fellow. He graduated M.A., and was pro-
bably incorporated in that degree at Oxford
in 1563. In October 1572 the university of !
Cambridge granted him a license to practise
physic, he having then been a regent in arts
for six years. He was usually styled Doctor,
though he never took the degree of M.D.
He acquired the most extraordinary reputa-
tion in his profession, and it is said that ' he
was the first Englishman who quickened
Galenical physic with a touch of Paracelsus,
trading in chemical receipts with great suc-
cess.' In October 1612 he was summoned
from Cambridge to attend Henry, prince of
Wales, in his last illness. Although Sir
Edward Peyton has not scrupled to cite
Butler's opinion that the prince was poisoned,
it appears that, in common with the other
physicians, he entertained no such suspicion
(Secret Hist, of the Court of James I, ii. 247,
346). In November 1614 Butler attended
the king at Newmarket for an injury received
in hunting ; and when the king was at Cam-
bridge in May 1615 he visited Butler and
stayed with him nearly an hour. Butler
lived in the house of John Crane, a cele-
brated apothecary of Cambridge, and many
anecdotes are recorded of his eccentricities
and empirical mode of practice. Aubrey
relates : ' The Dr. lyeing at the Savoy in
London, next the water side where was a
balcony look't into the Thames, a patient
came to him that was grievously tormented
with an ague. The Dr. orders a boate to be
in readinesse under his windowe, and dis-
coursed with the patient (a gent.) in the bal-
cony, when on a signall given, 2 or 3 lusty
fellowes came behind the gent, and threw
him a matter of 20 feete into the Thames.
This surprize absolutely cured him.'
Butler died at Cambridge on 29 Jan.
1617-18, and was buried in Great St. Mary's.
On the south side of the chancel of that
church there is a mural monument with his
bust, in the costume of the period, and a
Latin inscription in which he is termed
' Medicorum omnium quos prsesens setas vidit
facile Princeps.'
Butler left his estate to his friend John
Crane, and he was a benefactor to Clare
Hall, to which he bequeathed many of his
books and 2001. for the purchase of a gold
communion cup. Thirty-five years after his
death ' his reputation was still so great, that
many empyrics got credit among the vulgar
by claiming relation to him as having served
him and learned much from him.' In the
reign of Charles II there was in use in Lon-
don ' a sort of ale called Dr. Butler's ale.'
His portrait has been engraved by S. Pass.
[Addit.MSS. 5810, p. 28, 5863, f. 876; Aikin's
Biog. Memoirs of Medicine, 186; Blomefield's
Collectanea Cantab. 92 ; Cambridge Portfolio,
490 ; Cooper's Annals of Camb. iii. 73 n, 94 n,
119-124; Lives of Nicholas Ferrar, ed. Mayor;
Fuller's Hist, of the Univ. of Camb., ed. Prickett
Butler
9 1
Butler
and Wright, 307; Fuller's Worthies (1662),
Suffolk, 67 ; Granger's Biog. Hist, of England
(1824), ii. 119; Harl. MS. 7049, f. 39; Hist.
MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 172, 6th Rep. 269, 7th '
Rep. 188 ; Letters written by Eminent Persons
in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries |
(1813), ii., pt. i., 265 ; Leland's Collectanea, v.
197 ; Parker's Hist, of the Univ. of Camb. 43 ; ,
Peckard's Life of Ferrar, 24 ; Wadd's Nugse i
Chirurgicae, 31 ; Winwood's Memorials, iii. 429 ;
Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 163.] T. C.
BUTLER, WILLIAM ARCHER
(1814 P-1848), professor of moral philosophy
in the university of Dublin, was born of an
old and respectable family at Annerville,
near Clonmel, Ireland. The year of his birth
is uncertain, but it is believed to have been
1814. His father was a member of the
established church of Ireland, his mother a
Roman catholic. Through her influence the
boy was baptized and educated as a mem-
ber of the church to which she belonged.
While Butler was a child his parents re-
moved to Garnavilla, on the river Suir, about
two miles from the town of Cahir. The beau-
tiful landscape made a deep impression on
his feelings and imagination an impression
which lived in his verse. At nine years old
he became a schoolboy at the endowed school
of Clonmel. He was a modest, retiring boy,
a favourite with the master, and beloved by
his companions. Here he was an eager, dis-
cursive reader, already attracted by meta-
physical study, but also giving many leisure
hours to poetry and to music, in which he
acquired considerable skill. He especially
distinguished himself by his public speaking
for ' oratory ' exhibitions. While at school,
about two years before entering college, But-
ler passed over from the Roman catholic to
the established church. It is said that a
shock given to his moral nature by his con-
fessor's dealings with his conscience led him
to examine the grounds of his creed, and that
he found his own way by study and medita-
tion from his early to his later faith.
On entering Trinity College, Dublin, he
was quickly recognised as a youth of bright
intellect, generous feeling, and varied cul-
ture. His prize compositions in prose and
verse attracted the attention of the heads of
the college, and while still an undergraduate
he contributed a considerable body of writ-
ings poems and essays, critical, historical,
and speculative to the ' Dublin University
Review.' In the debates of the College His-
torical Society he took a leading part, and in
1835 delivered, as auditor of the society, an
address which was printed. In November 1834
took place the first examination for the newly
instituted prize of moderatorship in logic and
ethics, and Butler's name stands first upon the
roll of moderators. Having thus obtained
with honours his B.A. degree, he continued
for two years in residence as a scholar. His
friends designed him for the bar, but his
tastes and habits were those of a student and
a man of letters. By the exertions of Pro-
vost Lloyd a professorship of moral philoso-
phy was founded in 1837, and Butler was at
once appointed to the chair. At the same
time, having been ordained a clergyman of
the church of Ireland, he was presented by
the board of Trinity College to the prebend
of Clondehorka, in the diocese of Raphoe,
county of Donegal, where he resided, except
when his professorial duties required his pre-
sence at the university. ' Amongst a large
and humble flock of nearly two thousand, he
was,' says Mr. Woodward, ' the most indefa-
tigable of pastors.' In 1842 he was re-elected
to the chair of moral philosophy, and pro-
moted to the rectory of Raymoghy, in the
same diocese as Clondehorka. His sermon
' Primitive Church Principles not inconsist-
ent with Universal Christian Sympathy '
(1842), preached at the visitation of the united
dioceses of Derry and Raphoe, 1842, was pub-
lished at the request of the bishop and clergy.
In 1844 he visited the English lakes, and made
the acquaintance of Wordsworth. It was on
a walk to Loughrigg Fells, in which Words-
worth was accompanied byButler, Archdeacon
Hare, and Sir William Rowan Hamilton, that
the poet observed the daisy-shadow on a stone,
which he has celebrated in the poem beginning
' So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive.' In 1845
the Roman catholic controversy occupied But-
ler, and beginning in December of that year, he
contributed to the ' Irish Ecclesiastical Ga-
zette ' a series of ' Letters on Mr. Newman's
Theory of Development,' collected after his
death into a volume (' Letters on the Deve-
lopment of Christian Doctrine ; ' a reply to
J. H. Newman, edited by Dean Woodward,
Dublin, 1850). During the Irish famine of
1846-7 Butler's exertions were untiring : ' lite-
rature, philosophy, and divinity were all post-
poned to the labours of relieving officer to his
parish.' During the closing months of 1847
and the first six months of the following year,
Butler was engaged in preparation for a work
on faith, and collected with this object a vast
mass of theological material ; but the work
was never to be completed. On Trinity Sun-
day 1848 he preached the ordination sermon
in the church of Dunboe ; five days later, on
his way home, he was stricken with fever,
the result of a chill following the excessive
heat of midsummer exercise. On 5 July 1848
he died. He was buried in the churchyard
of his own parish. Butler's lectures as pro-
Butt
Butt
fessor were remarkable for the large grasp of
his subject, his aspiring views, and power of
eloquent exposition. A noble person and
countenance added to the impressiveness of
his delivery. The same eloquence appears,
with perhaps more appropriateness, in the
sermons which he addressed to educated
audiences ; with rustic hearers he could be
plain and simple. In his lectures on Plato,
perhaps the most important thought is that
the Platonic idea was no mere mistaken form
of abstract notion, but was Plato's mode of
expressing the fact that there is an objective
element in perception. Butler's ' Lectures
on the Histoiy of Ancient Philosophy,' 2 vols.
were edited after his death with notes, by
W. H. Thomson (Cambridge, 1856). The
second volume, which is chiefly occupied
with Plato, is the more valuable of the two.
Two volumes of ' Sermons Doctrinal and
Practical ' have been published, the first series
edited with a memoir of his life by the Rev.
Thomas Woodward (Dublin, Hodges and
Smith, 1849, 3rd. ed. Cambridge, 1855) : the
second series, edited by J. A. Jeremie (Cam-
bridge, 1856). Besides his many poems and
prose articles contributed to the ' Dublin
University Review,' he published a sermon
on the ' Eternal Life of Christ in Heaven,'
in first series of sermons for Sundays, &c.,
edited by Alex. Watson (Joseph Masters,
1845) ; a sermon on ' Self Delusion as to our
State before God ' (Dublin, 1842) ; a sermon
on the ' Atonement, in a volume of sermons
on that subject published by the Religious
Tract Society (no date) ; and a memoir of
Mrs. Hemans prefixed to her 'National
Lyrics and Songs for Music ' (Dublin, Curry
and Co. 1839).
[Memoir by Woodward, prefixed to the first
series of Butler's Sermons ; article on Butler by
J. T. Ball, afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland,
in Dublin University Review, May 1842 ; article
'The late Professor Butler,' in same Review,
July 1849.] E. D.
BUTT, GEORGE (1741-1795), divine
and poet, was the son of Dr. Carey Butt, phy-
sician, of Lichfield, at whose house it is said
that Dr. Johnson when a boy was a con-
stant visitor (HAWKINS, Life of Johnson, p. 6),
though this must have been before Butt was
born, 26 Dec. 1741. The Butts were of the
same family as Henry VIII's physician, Butts,
though they had dropped the final s. After
receiving his early education at the grammar
school at Stafford, Butt was admitted, through
the influence of his father's friend Thomas
Newton (afterwards bishop of Bristol), on
the foundation at Westminster in 1756, and
was thence elected to Christ Church, Oxford,
in 1761, where he graduated B.A. in 1765,
M.A. in 1768, taking the degrees of B.D.
and D.D. on 29 Oct. 1793. Having received
deacon's orders in 1765, he was appointed
to the curacy of Leigh, Staffordshire, which
he shortly afterwards resigned for the post
of private tutor to the son of Sir E. Win-
nington of Stanford Court, Worcestershire,
and in October 1767 accompanied his pupil
to Christ Church. While acting as young
Winnington's tutor, Butt, his daughter
Mrs. Sherwood says, ' kept company with
the noblemen and gentlemen, commoners
of Christ Church, to whom the vivacity of
his genius rendered his society acceptable,'
though he was careful not to forget what
was due to his profession. In 1771 he was
presented by Sir E. Winnington to the rec-
tory of Stanford and the vicarage of Clifton,
and in 1773 married Martha Sherwood, the
daughter of a London silk merchant . Expen-
sive habits and especially his love of company
had by this time involved him in debt. He
was rescued from his difficulties by the good
management of his wife, who, among other
economical schemes, persuaded him to take
private pupils. With these pupils, mostly
young men of good family, he was popular,
though his desultory mode of imparting in-
struction could not have been of much benefit
to them. In 1778 he was presented by New-
ton, now bishop of Bristol, to the vicarage of
Newchurch, in the Isle of Wight, which he
held along with Stanford, where he continued
to reside. About this time he occasionally
joined the coterie of Lady Miller at Batheas-
ton, and dropped verses into her vase. He ex-
changed the living of Newchurch for the rec-
tory of Notgrove, Gloucestershire, in 1783,
and the same year was appointed chaplain in
ordinary to the king, and gave up taking pupils.
In 1787, on application from Dr. Markham,
his old master at Westminster, he was pre-
sented by Lord Foley to the rich vicarage of
Kidderminster, which he held along with his
other cures. He changed his residence to Kid-
derminster the next year, and lived there on
good terms with the many dissenters of the
town. In 1794 he returned to Stanford, and
used to ride into Kidderminster to do duty.
On 30 June 1795 he was struck with palsy,
and died on 30 September following at Stan-
ford, where he was buried. He left a son,
John Martin Butt, who took orders and be-
came the author of some theological works,
and two daughters, afterwards the well-
known authoresses, Mrs. Cameron and Mrs.
Sherwood. Butt published 'Isaiah versified,'
1784, with a dedication to the king ; several
sermons on special occasions, and in 1791
Sermons ' in 2 vols. dedicated to Dr. Mark-
Butt
93
Butt
ham, archbishop of York; ' Poems 'in 2 vols.
1793, dedicated to the Hon. George Annesley,
afterwards Lord Valentia, one of his former
pupils. Some of these poems had been already
printed. They are devoid of beauty, power,
and originality. One of them, written on the
death of Dr. Johnson, is a dialogue between
Lord Chesterfield and Garrick in the Elysian
fields, and represents Garrick conversing
with ' Avon's bard on those superior minds
that since his day were gifted to produce
their thoughts abroad.' In 1777 Butt sub-
mitted a play entitled ' Timoleon ' to Garrick.
with whom he was on terms of friendship.
Garrick told him that the play could not be
acted as it stood, but professed himself un-
able to point out any faults in it, a declara-
tion that has been taken by Butt's bio-
graphers as a high compliment. ' Timoleon '
does not appear to have been acted or pub-
lished. He published either in or after 1784
a tract entitled ' The Practice of Liberal Piety
Vindicated,' which he wrote in defence of his
friend Richard Valpy of Reading, when a ser-
mon of Valpy's was attacked by certain Cal-
vinists. At the time of his death he was en-
gaged in correcting a religious novel which
he seems to have called '* Felicia.' This book
was edited and published by his daughter,
Mrs. Sherwood, in 2 vols. 1824, under the
title of The Spanish Daughter;' it is a dreary
production.
[Mrs. Sherwood's Biographical Preface to the
Spanish Daughter; Mrs. Sherwood's Autobio-
graphy ; Life of Mrs. Cameron ; some account
of the Rev. G-. Butt in Valpy's Poems spoken at
Eeading, 225-264 ; Nash's Worcestershire, i. 250,
11. 371 ; Welch's Alumni Westmon. 376, where
the Spanish Daughter is incorrectly described as
a play; Gent. Mag. 1795, vol. Ixv. pt. ii. p. 969;
Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 736.] . W. H.
BUTT, ISAAC (1813-1879), Irish poli-
tician, only son of the Rev. Robert Butt,
rector of Stranorlar, county Donegal, by
Berkeley, daughter of the Rev. R. Cox, of
Dovish, county Donegal, was born at Glenfin,
in Donegal, 6 Sept. 1813, and educated at
the Royal School, Raphoe, entered Trinity
College, Dublin, as a scholar in 1832, took
his B.A. 1835, LL.B. 1836, M.A. and
LL.D. 1840. During his collegiate course
he published a translation of the ' Georgics'
of Virgil, and other classical brochures,
which showed a highly finished taste and
scholarship. In 1833 he was one of the ori-
ginal founders of the 'Dublin University
Magazine,' of which he was editor from
August 1834 to 1838. He was for many vears
a contributor to its pages, chiefly of political
articles and reviews ; but he also wrote for it
some tales under the general title of ' Chap-
ters of College Romance.' In 1836 he was
appointed to the chair of political economy,
which was then founded by Archbishop
Whately, and he continued in the chair until
1841. Having been called to the Irish bar
November 1838, the high reputation which
he had already won obtained for him a con-
siderable share of practice. The old cor-
poration of Dublin selected him as the junior
barrister to plead their cause at the bar of
the House of Lords 1840, and although he
failed to induce that assembly to reject the
Municipal Reform Bill, he added to his own
prestige, and returning to Ireland was elected
an alderman of the new corporation. He
took an active part in the politics of the day,
and was regarded as one of the ablest cham-
pions of the conservative cause. He entered
the lists against O'Connell, opposed him in
the corporation debates, and carried on a
counter agitation to that of the Repeal As-
sociation in 1843.
He wrote for the conservative press on both
sides of the Channel, and established in Dublin
a weekly newspaper, called the ' Protestant
Guardian.' This was afterwards amalgamated
with the ' Warder,' with which he then be-
came connected. The lord chancellor, Sir
Edward Sugden, called him to the inner bar
2 Nov. 1844. Butt was retained as counsel
in many great causes, and was one of those
who defended Smith O'Brien and other pri-
soners in the state trials of 1848. On 8 May
1852 he entered parliament as member for
Harwich ; but he was not long in undisturbed
possession of the seat, for in the same year
there was a general election, and he then
offered himself as a liberal-conservative for
the borough of Youghal. This appears to
have been his first divergence from the straight
track of conservatism. He was opposed by
Sir J. M'Kenna, but was elected, and sat from
July 1852 to July 1865. Previously to this,
on 17 Nov. 1859, he had been called to the
English bar at the Inner Temple. About
the year 1864 he returned to Ireland, and
resumed his practice in the Four Courts.
The Fenian prisoners, beset by many and
serious difficulties as to their defence, turned
to him as one whose name alone was a tower
of strength. For the greater part of four
years, 1865-9, sacrificing to a considerable
extent a splendid practice in more lucrative
engagements, he busied himself in the pro-
longed and desperate effort of their defence.
In 1869 he accepted the position of presi-
dent of the Amnesty Association. Another
opportunity of entering parliament now pre-
sented itself. He was chosen to represent the
city of Limerick 20 Sept. 1871, and to take
the leadership of the Home Rule party. He
Butt
94
Butter
soon became the one great figure in Irish
popular politics. Butt was probably the in-
ventor of the phrase Home Rule. He was
certainly the first to use it as an effective
election cry. Soon it was taken up and
echoed by men of all shades of political
opinion throughout the kingdom of Ireland.
Latterly he found himself unable to manage
the party he had created. It would perhaps
be too much to say that the disobedience and
disagreements of his party broke the leader's
heart. A man in his sixty-sixth year, who
had lived hard and worked hard, and who,
besides his many public anxieties, had private
troubles, was not in a fit state to resist a
severe illness. He died at Roebuck Cottage,
near Dundrum, county Dublin, 5 May 1879,
and was buried at Stranorlar 10 May.
The following is a list of writings to which
his name is found appended : 1. 'Ovid's Fasti
Translated,' 1833. 2. ' An Introductory Lec-
ture delivered before theUniversity of Dublin,'
1837. 3. ' The Poor Law Bill for Ireland,
examined in a Letter to Lord Viscount Mor-
peth,' 1837. 4. ' Irish Corporation Bill. A
Speech at the Bar of the House of Lords,'
1840. 5. ' Speech delivered at the Great
Protestant Meeting in Dublin/ 1840. 6. 'A
Voice for Ireland the Famine in the Land :
What has been done and what is to be done ? '
1847. 7. ' Zoology and Civilisation : a Lec-
ture delivered before the Royal Zoological
Society of Ireland,' 1847. 8. ' The Rate in
Aid : a Letter to the Earl of Roden,' 1849.
9. 'The Transfer of Land by means of a
Judicial Assurance : its Practicability and
Advantages,' 1857. 10. 'The History of
Italy, from the Abdication of Napoleon I,
with Introductory References to that of
Earlier Times,' 1860. 11. 'Daniel Manin
and Venice in 1848-49, by B. L. H. Mar-
tin, with an introduction by Isaac Butt.'
12. 'Chapters of College Romance,' 1863.
13. ' The Liberty of Teaching Vindicated :
Reflections and Proposals on the subject of
Irish National Education,' 1865. 14. ' The
Irish People and the Irish Land : a Letter
to Lord Lifford,' 1867. 15. 'A Practical
Treatise on the New Law of Compensation
to Tenants in Ireland, and the other provi-
sions of the Landlord and Tenant Act,' 1871.
16. ' The Irish Deep-Sea Fisheries : a Speech
delivered at a meeting of the Home Go-
vernment Association of Ireland,' 1874.
17. 'Home Government for Ireland Irish
Federalism: its Meaning,' 1874, of which
four editions were printed. 18. 'The Problem
of Irish Education, an Attempt at its Solu-
tion,' 1875.
[Dublin University Magazine, iii. 710-15
(1879) ; Sullivan's New Ireland, ii. 306-10, 319
(1877); Graphic, with portrait, iv. 483, 485
(1871), xix. 499, 508, with portrait (1879); Il-
lustrated London News, with portrait, iv. 40
(1844).] G. C. B.
BUTTER, JOHN, M.D. (1791-1877),
ophthalmic surgeon, was born at Woodbury,
near Exeter, on 22 Jan. 1791. He was edu-
cated at Exeter grammar school, and studied
for his profession at Devon and Exeter Hos-
pital. He obtained the M.D. degree at Edin-
burgh in 1820, and was chosen a member of
the Royal Society in 1822. He was appointed
surgeon of the South Devon Militia, and ulti-
mately settled at Plymouth, where he spe-
cially devoted himself to diseases of the eye.
Along with Dr. Edward Moore, he was the
originator of the Plymouth Eye Dispensary.
He was the author of ' Ophthalmic Diseases,'
1821, ' Dockyard Diseases, or Irritative Fever,'
1825, and of various medical and chirurgical
memoirs. In recognition of his services to
the dispensary he was, in 1854, presented
with his portrait, which hangs in the board
room. He lost one eye through ophthalmic
rheumatism, contracted by exposure while
examining recruits for the Crimea, and in
1856 became totally blind.
[Plymouth Western Daily Mercury, 15 Jan.
1877.]
BUTTER, NATHANIEL (d. 1664), prin-
ter and journalist, was the son of Thomas
Butter, a small London stationer, who died
about 1589. His mother carried on the busi-
ness after his father's death from 1589 to
1594, when she married another stationer
named Newbery. On 20 Feb. 1603-4 Na-
thaniel was admitted a freeman of the Sta-
tioners' Company per patrimonium, and on
4 Dec. 1604 he entered on the company's re-
gisters his first publication ('The Life and
Death of Cavaliero Dick Boyer ') . On 12 Feb.
1604-5 he obtained permission to print ' " The
Interlude of Henry the 8th "... if he get
good allowance for it.' Between 1605 and
1607 Butter published several sermons and
tracts of no great value. On 26 Nov. 1607
he, together with John Busby, undertook the
publication of Shakespeare's ' Lear ; ' in 1609
he printed Dekker's 'Belman of London,'
and in 1611 he published a folio edition of
Chapman's translation of the Tliad.' But
from an early date he turned his attention
to the compilation and publication of pam-
phlets of news, and in this department he
subsequently achieved very eminent success.
He issued in June 1605 an account of two
recent murders, one of them being the famous
' Yorkshire tragedy : ' on 24 Aug. a report
of the trial of the Yorkshire murderer, Wal-
ter Calverley [q. v.], which had taken place
Butter
95
Butterfield
a day or two previously ; on 25 June 1607
' a true and tragical discourse ' of the expe-
dition to Guiana in 1605 ; on 19 May 1608
' Newes from Lough ffoyle in Ireland ; ' on
16 June 1609 ' The Originall Ground of the
present Warres of Sweden ; ' and in 1611
' Newes from Spain.' On 23 May 1622 two
publishers, Nicholas Bourne and Thomas
Archer, issued the first extant copy of ' The
Weekly Newes from Italy, Germanie, &c.,'
and this was continued at weekly intervals
by the same publishers until 25 Sept. of the
same year, when Butter and one William
Shefford produced a rival quarto sheet entitled
' Newes from most parts of Christendom.'
This was Butter's first attempt at a newspaper,
and its immediate success warranted him in
issuing two days later, in conjunction with
Thomas Archer, another budget of news from
the continent, written (probably by himself)
in the form of letters from foreign correspon-
dents. From this date Butter made journal-
ism his chief business, compiling and issuing
reports of news at very frequent intervals,
none of which exceeded a week, and his en-
terprise virtually created the London press.
On 12 May 1623 an extant copy of a publi-
cation of ' The Newes of the present week,'
printed by Butter, Bourne, and Shefford, bore
a number (31) for the first time. The title
of the news-sheet varied very much : some-
times it was headed ' More Newes,' sometimes
' Last Newes,' and at other times ' The Weekly
Newes continued.' All were mainly compiled
from similar sheets published abroad, and gave
little information about home affairs, but un-
fortunately the extant sets are so incomplete
that no very positive statement can be made
about their contents. Butter soon gained no-
toriety as an industrious collector of news,
and was satirised by the dramatists. Ben Jon-
son ridiculed him in 1625 in his ' Staple of
News' under the title of 'Cymbal;' Fletcher
refers to him in the ' Fair Maid of the Tun ; '
and Shirley in his 'Love Tricks.' In 1630 he
began a series of half-yearly volumes of col-
lected foreign news, under such titles as ' The
German Intelligencer,' ' The Swedish Intel-
ligencer,' and so forth. On 20 Dec. 1638
Charles I granted to Butter and Nicholas
Bourne the right of ' printing and publishing
all matter of history or news of any foreign
place or kingdom since the first beginning of
the late German wars to the present, and also
for translating and publishing in the English
tongue all news, novels, gazettes, currantes,
and occurrences that concern foreign parts,
for the term of twenty-one years, they pay-
ing yearly towards the repair of St. Paul's
the sum of IQl.' (Cal. State Papers, Dom.
1638-9, p. 182). At the end of 1639 the li-
censer of the press prohibited Butter's weekly
sheet, and on 11 Jan. 1640 he issued a ' Con-
tinuation of the Forraine Occurrents for 5
weeks last past . . . examined and licensed by
a better and more impartiall hand than here-
tofore.' Butter had varied his news sheets
in his later years with a few plays. In 1630
he issued the second part of Dekker's ' Honest
Whore ; ' but on 21 May 1639 he made over
the copyrights of all plays in his posses-
sion to a printer named Flessher. By 1641
Butter appears to have retired from business ;
he was then more than seventy years old,
and the competition of journalists during the
civil war was intense. In Smith's ' Obituary '
(Camden Soc. p. 60) Butter's death is re-
corded thus : 'Feb. 22 [1663-4] Nath. Butter,
an old stationer, died very poor.'
[Arber's Transcript of the Stationers' Kegis-
ters, ii. 736, iii. 277 et seq. ; F. K. Hunt's The
Fourth Estate (1850), i. 10-54 ; Alex. Andrews's
Hist, of Brit. Journalism, i. 28-38 ; Nichols's
Lit. Anecd. iv. 38-9; Ben Jonson's Works, ed.
Giffard; British Museum Collection of News-
papers.] S. L. L.
BUTTER, WILLIAM (1726-1805), phy-
sician, was a native of the Orkneys, and
studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he
graduated M.D. in 1761. After practising
for some years at Derby, having obtained
some note by his treatises ' On the Kink-
Cough' (hooping cough), London, 1773, and
' On Puerperal Fevers,' London, 1775, he re-
moved to London, where he died on 23 March
1805. He is said to have attempted to open
the carotid artery of a patient at the Edin-
burgh Infirmary, and to have only desisted
when the patient fainted after the first inci-
sion. He is described as 'too much under
the influence of very favourite hypotheses '
(Catalogue of Living English Authors, 1799,
i. 401). Besides the above his writings in-
clude ' A Method of Cure for Stone,' Edin-
burgh, 1754 ; 'Dissertatio de frigore quatenus
morborum causa,' Edinburgh, 1757 ; ' Disser-
tatio de arteriotomia,' Edinburgh, 1761 ; ' A
Treatise on Infantile Remittent Fever,' Lon-
don, 1782 ; ' An Improved Method of Open-
ing the Temporal Artery,' London, 1783 ;
' A Treatise on Angina Pectoris,' London,
1791 ; ' A Treatise on the Venereal Rose/
London, 1799.
[New Catalogue of Living English Authors
(1799), i. 400; Gent. Mag. Ixxv. 294, 580;
Munk's College of Physicians (1878), ii. 360.]
G. T. B.
BUTTERFTELD, ROBERT (/. 1629),
controversialist, received his academical edu-
cation at St. John's College, Cambridge, as a
member of which house he proceeded B.A.
Butterfield
9 6
Butterworth
in 1622-3, M.A. in 1626, and took orders.
When the puritan divine, Henry Burton
[q. v.], attacked Bishop Hall, Butterfield,
with youthful zeal, hastened to champion the
bishop's cause in a pamphlet entitled ' Mas-
chil ; or, a Treatise to give instruction touch-
ing the State of the Church of Rome . . . for
the Vindication of ... the Bishop of Exeter
from the cavills of H. B., in his Book in-
tituled "The Seven Vialls,"' 12mo, 1629.
Burton was not slow to reply ; for the same
year he published his ' Babel no Bethel. . . .
In answer to Hugh Cholmley's Challenge
and Rob. Butterfield's " Masctiil," two mas-
culine Champions for the Synagogue of Rome,'
wherein he retorts, not without point, on
Butterfield's boyish presumption and too evi-
dent desire to parade his classical and pa-
tristic learning, wishing him ' more ripenesse
of yeares, and more soundnesse of judgement,
before he doe any more handle such deepe
controuersies.' Burton was sent to the Fleet
prison for his pamphlet. Another reply was
published about the same time, under the title
of ' Maschil Unmasked,' in which the writer,
Thomas Spencer, gent., author of ' The Art of
Logick,' seeks to supply the defects of his
learning and also logic by versatility of abuse.
[Cooper's New Biographical Dictionary, 334 ;
Brit. Mus. Cat.] G. G-.
BUTTERFIELD, SWITHUN (d. 1611),
miscellaneous writer, is supposed to have
been a member of Pembroke Hall, Cam-
bridge, as by his will, wherein he is de-
scribed as of Cambridge, gentleman, dated
1608, and proved in the university court on
21 Dec. 1611, he gave to that college 101. to
buy books, also his manuscripts which are
enumerated below, and his geometrical in-
struments and other curiosities.
He was author of: 1. 'A Summarie of
the Principles of Christian Religion, selected
in manner of Common-Places out of the
Writings of the best Diuines of our Age,'
London, 1582, 8vo. 2. 'A Catechism, or
the Principles of the true Christian Religion :
breifelie selected out of manie good books,'
London, 1590, 8vo. Licensed also to John
Flasket, 26 June 1600. 3. ' A great Abridge-
ment of the Common Lawes,' MS. 4. ' An
Abridgement of the CivilLawes,' MS. 5. ' Col-
lection of Policies in Peace and War,' MS.,
written in 1604. 6. ' A Book of Physic and
Surgery,' MS. 7. ' A Book of Controversie
out of Bellarmine, &c.,' MS., written in 1606.
8. ' A Book of Common-Place in Religion,'
MS., written in 1606.
[MS. Baker, xxvi. 118 ; Ames's Typogr. An-
tiquities, ed. Herbert, 1108, 1344, 1378; Cooper's
Athense Cantab, iii. 53.] T. C.
BUTTERWORTH, EDWIN (1812-
1848), Lancashire topographer, was the tenth
and youngest child of James Butterworth
[q. v.], and was born at Pitses, near Oldham,
on 1 Oct. 1812. He followed in the foot-
steps of his father, whom he assisted in his later
works, but was more given to statistical re-
search. When Mr. Edward Baines undertook
the preparation of a history of Lancashire, he
found a useful colleague in Edwin Butter-
worth, who visited many parts of the county
in order to collect the requisite particulars.
During the six years in which he was engaged
by Mr. Baines he travelled on foot through
nearly every town and village in the county.
His own notes and those of his father formed a
large mass of manuscript material. So exten-
sive was it that in 1 847 he conceived the idea of
issuing a history of the county in fifty volumes,
each of which, while part of the general series,
should also be complete in itself. This pro-
ject was encouraged by the Earl of Ellesmere.
Overtures were made to Samuel Bamford, as
it was thought that his pleasant style and
Butterworth's facts would make a popular
combination. The suggestion was roughly
treated by the ' Radical,' and Butterworth's
death occurred before such a plan could have
been completed. In addition to his share of
Baines's ' Lancashire ' the following are from
the pen of Butterworth: 1. 'Biography of
Eminent Natives, Residents, and Benefactors
of the Town of Manchester,' Manchester,
1829. 2. ' A History of Oldham in Lanca-
shire,' London, 1832. 3. 'A Chronological
History of Manchester brought down to 1834,'
second edition, Manchester, 1834. The first
edition was the ' Tabula Mancuniensis ' of his
father ; a third edition appeared in 1834.
4. ' An Historical Description of the Town
of Heywood and Vicinity,' Heywood, 1840.
5. ' A Statistical Sketch of the County Pala-
tine of Lancaster,' London, 1841. 6. 'An
Historical Account of the Towns of Ashton-
under-Lyne, Stalybridge, and Dukinfield,'
Ashton, 1842. 7. ' Views of the Manchester
and Leeds Railway, drawn from nature and
on stone by A. F. Tait, with a descriptive his-
tory by Edwin Butterworth,' London, 1845,
folio. 8. 'Historical Sketches of Oldham,
by the late Edwin Butterworth, with an ap-
pendix containing the history of the town to
the present time,' Oldham, 1856. The pre-
vious edition appeared in 1847.
In addition to these labours Butterworth
acted as correspondent for the Manchester
newspapers, and was for a considerable time
registrar of births and deaths for the township
of Chadderton. He is described by those who
knew him as genial and modest. Such of his
books and manuscripts as had not been acci-
Butterworth
97
Butterworth
dentally dispersed were purchased by Messrs.
Platt Brothers, and by them presented to the
Oldham Lyceum. Butterworth died of ty-
phoid fever on 19 April 1848. In 1859 a mo-
nument to his memory was erected by public
subscription in Greenacres Cemetery, Oldham.
His books are now for the most part scarce
and difficult to obtain.
[Local Notes and Queries from the Manchester
Guardian, 1874-5; Index Catalogue of the Man-
chester Free Library, Eeference Department,
Manchester, 1879 ; Historical Sketches of Old-
ham, 1856 ; Fishwick's Lancashire Library, 1875.]
W. E. A. A.
BUTTERWORTH, HENRY (1786-
1860), law publisher, was born at Coventry
28 Feb. 1786, being the son of a wealthy
timber merchant of that place, and grand-
son of the Rev. John Butterworth fq. v.],
baptist minister of Coventry, Warwickshire,
and author of a ' Concordance of the Holy
Scriptures.' Young Henry was educated
first in the grammar school at Coventry, and
afterwards at Bristol. When fifteen years
old he entered the bookselling establishment
of his uncle, Joseph Butterworth [q. v.], in
Fleet Street, London. Living in his uncle's
house he became acquainted with Lord
Liverpool, Lord Teignmouth, William Wil-
berforce, ZacharyMacaulay, Dr. Adam Clarke,
and others, who were frequent guests at his
uncle's table. In 1818 he went into business
on his own account, obtained the appoint-
ment of law publisher to the queen, took a
leading part in the management of the Sta-
tioners' Company, and became the chief
London law publisher. In 1823 he was
elected a member of the city council, but
declined other municipal office. He sup-
ported generously church extension, and
many social and Christian institutions. He
was an active member of the Society of An-
tiquaries. In 1813 Butterworth married
Miss Elizabeth H. Whitehead, daughter of
Captain Whitehead of the 4th Irish dragoon
guards. He died at Upper Tooting, Surrey,
2 Nov. 1860, aged 74. A painted glass
window was placed in the choir of St. Paul's
Cathedral by his friends, as a mark of respect
to his memory.
[Annual Eegister for 1860, p. 400, et seq.]
W. B. L.
BUTTERWORTH,JAMES(1771-1837),
Manchester topographer, was the youngest
of eleven children, and was born on 28 Aug.
1771 in the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne.
His parents were probably handloom weavers.
They sent the boy to school under Mr. John
Taylor of Alt. Taylor allowed him a share
in the instruction of the lower classes. But-
VOL. VIII.
terworth attained some skill in ornamental
penmanship. He married in 1792 Hannah
Boyton, by whom he had ten children ; the
youngest, Edwin, attained, like his father,
some distinction as a topographer. After
many years spent in tuition, Butterworth
acted for some years as postmaster of Old-
ham. He produced a lengthy series of books
and pamphlets on the history of his native
county, which record much that would have
been forgotten but for his personal observa-
tion. He died on 23 Nov. 1837.
His writings are: 1. 'A Dish of Hodge
Podge, or a Collection of Poems by Paul Bob-
bin, Esq., of Alt, near Oldham, Manchester,
printed for the author, 1800.' 2. 'Rocher
Vale,' a poem printed at Oxford 1804. 3. ' An
Historical and Descriptive Account of the
Town and Parochial Chapelry of Oldham,'
Oldham, 1817 ; a second edition appeared in
1826, ' The Rustic Muse, a collection of
poems,' Oldham, 1818. 4. ' A Sequel to the
Lancashire Dialect, by Paul Bobbin, Couzin
German of the famous Tim Bobbin of merry
memory, 'Manchester, 1819; professedly writ-
ten in the local dialects of the parishes of
Ashton and Rochdale. The frontispiece is a
portrait of ' Paul Bobbin,' and represents a
thin, sharp-featured, large-eyed man, with
long and slightly curling hair. The plate is
engraved by Slack from a drawing by But-
terworth. 5. 'The Antiquities of the Town,
and a Complete History of the Trade of Man-
chester,' Manchester, 1822 ; reissued in 1823
as ' A Complete History of the Cotton Trade,
&c., by a person concerned in trade.' 6. ' His-
tory and Description of the Town and Parish
of Ashton-under-Lyne and the Village of
Dukinfield,' Ashton, 1823. 7. ' History and
Description of the Towns and Parishes of
Stockport, Ashton-under-Lyne, Mottram-
Long-Den-Dale, and Glossop, with some me-
morials of the late F. D. Astley, Esq., of Du-
kinfield, and extracts from his poems, with
an elegy to his memory,' Manchester, 1827.
These four works appear also to have been
issued separately ; the ' Memorials of F. D.
Astley ' is dated 1828. 8. ' A History and
Description of the Parochial Chapelry of Sad-
dleworth,' Manchester, 1828. 9. ' An His-
torical and Topographical Account of the
Town and Parish of Rochdale,' Manchester,
1828. 10. ' The Instruments of Freemasonry
Moralised,' Manchester, 1829 ; a pamphlet.
11. ' Tabula Mancuniensis, chronological ta-
ble of the history of Manchester,' Manchester,
1829; this pamphlet is the foundation of Tim-
perley's ' Annals of Manchester,' and the
' Manchester Historical Recorder.' 12. ' A
Gazetteer of the Hundred of Salford,' Man-
chester, 1830 j a pamphlet.
Butterworth
Button
Some of his manuscripts were placed, with
those of his youngest son, Edwin [q. v.], in
the Oldham Lyceum. Many of his books
have become scarce, and in addition to the
list given above he is said to have published
' Mancunium,' a poem. In a letter addressed in
1802 to a Manchester bookseller he complains
of lack of encouragement. ' How would I
exert myself could I find one single friend of
genius amongst all the host of Paternoster
Row factors ! ' He mentions that he has a
work entitled ' A Guide to Universal Manu-
facture, or the web disclosed,' which he may
submit ; ' but, if like the generality of your
tribe, you are not willing to encourage a poor
author, I'll commit the work to the flames
and for ever renounce the business.'
[Biographical Sketch by John Higson ; Ashton
Reporter, 9 Oct. 1869 ; Skeat's Bibliography of
English Dialects, 1 875 ; Axon's Folk-Song and
Folk-Speech of Lancashire, 1870; Fishwick's
Lancashire Library, 1875 ; Local Notes and
Queries from the Manchester Guardian, 1874-5.]
W. E. A. A.
BUTTERWORTH, JOHN (1727-1803),
baptist minister, was the son of Henry But-
terworth, a pious blacksmith of Goodshaw,
a village in Rossendale, Lancashire. He was
one of five sons, of whom three, besides John,
became ministers of baptist congregations.
One of them named Lawrence, a minister at
Evesham, wrote two pamphlets against uni-
tarian views. John was born 13 Dec. 1727,
and went to the school of David Crosley, a
Calvinistic minister who had known John
Bunyan. About the year 1753 he was ap-
pointed pastor of Cow Lane Chapel, Coventry.
With this congregation he remained upwards
of fifty years, and died 24 April 1803, aged 75.
He published, in 1767, 'A New Concord-
ance and Dictionary to the Holy Scriptures,'
which was reprinted in 1785, 1792, and 1809.
The last edition was edited by Dr. Adam
Clarke. He also wrote ' A Serious Address
to the Rev. Dr. Priestley,' 1790.
His son, Joseph, and his grandson, Henry,
are separately noticed.
[Parry's Hist, of Cloughfold Baptist Church,
p. 226 ; Newbigging's Forest of Rossendale,
p. 176 ; Hargreaves's Life of Hirst, pp. 325, 365 ;
Life of Adam Clarke, 1833, ii. 17, iii. 147;
Poole's Coventry, p. 238.] C. W. S.
BUTTERWORTH, JOSEPH (1770-
1826), law bookseller, was son of the Rev.
John Butterworth [q. v.], baptist minister of
Coventry. He was born at Coventry in 1770.
At an early age he went to London, where
he learned the business of a law bookseller,
and founded a large and lucrative establish-
ment in Fleet Street, in which his nephew,
Henry [q. v.], afterwards assisted him. His
bouse became a resort of the leading phil-
anthropists of the day. There Lords Liver-
pool and Teignmouth, William Wilberforce
and the elder Macaulay discussed their bene-
volent schemes, and there the first meetings
of the British and Foreign Bible Society
were held. Butterworth liberally supported
many philanthropic and Christian institutions.
He sat in parliament for several years as
representative of Dover, and gave an inde-
pendent support to the government of the
day. In August 1819 he was appointed
general treasurer of the Wesleyan Methodist
Missionary Society, which office he retained
until his death. For many years he was a
loyal member of the Wesleyan community,
but maintained a generous spirit towards all.
He was author of ' A General Catalogue of
Law Books,' with their dates and prices ; a
work of great value to members of the legal
profession. He died at his house in Bedford
Square, London, 30 June 1826, aged 56.
[Sermon by Rev. Richard Watson, 1826, in
vol. ii. of Watson's Works; Minutes of the
Methodist Conference.] W. B. L.
BUTTEVANT, VISCOUNT. [See BARKY,
DAVID FITZJAMES.]
BUTTON, RALPH (d. 1680), canon of
Christ Church under the Commonwealth, was
the son of Robert Button of Bishopstown,
Wiltshire, and was educated at Exeter Col-
lege, Oxford. He proceeded B.A. in 1630 ;
in 1633 the rector of Exeter, Dr. Prideaux,
recommended him to Sir Nathaniel Brent,
the warden of Merton, for a fellowship in
his college. The fellowship was conferred
on him, and he became famous in the uni-
versity as a successful tutor. Among his
pupils were Zachary Bogan and Anthony a
Wood. On the outbreak of the civil war in
1642, Button, who sympathised with the
parliamentarians, removed to London, and on
15 Nov. 1643 was elected professor of geo-
metry at Gresham College, in the place of
John Greaves. In 1647 he was nominated
a delegate to aid the parliamentary visitors
at Oxford in their work of reform, and ap-
parently resumed his tutorship at Merton.
On 18 Feb. 1647-8 Button was appointed by
the visitors junior proctor ; on 11 April he
pronounced a Latin oration before Philip,
earl of Pembroke, the new chancellor of the
university, and on 13 June he resigned his
Gresham professorship. On 4 Aug. he was
made canon of Christ Church and public orator
of the university, in the room of Dr. Henry
Hammond, who had been removed from those
offices by the parliamentary commission. At
the same time Button declined to supplicate
Button
99
Button
fc'r the degree of D.D. on the ground of the
ex oense ; it appears from Wood that he had
then lately married. Button showed similar
incependence in successfully resisting the
endeavour of the visitors to expel Edward
Poc )ck from the Hebrew and Arabic lecture-
shij on the ground of political disaffection. At
the Restoration Button was ejected from all
his >ffi ces and his place at Christ Church filled
by L>r. Fell. Leaving Oxford, he retired to
Bri ntford, where he kept a school. Baxter
says that he was soon afterwards imprisoned
for six months ' for teaching two knight's sons
in his house, not having taken the Oxford
oa;h.' At the date of the Declaration of
Indulgence (1672) Button removed to Is-
lir gton, and Sir Joseph Jekyll lived with
hii a as his pupil. He died at Islington in
October 1680, and was buried in the parish
church. A son died and was buried at the
st me time. Baxter in ' Reliquiae Baxteri-
a ise ' speaks of him as ' an excellent scholar,
\ at of greater excellency ; a most humble,
worthy, godly man, of a plain, sincere heart
and blameless.' He left a daughter, who
married Dr. Boteler of London.
[Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 508, ii. 107,
158-9 (where a memoir is given); Wood's
Gresham Professors ; Baxter's Beliquise, pt. iii.
pp. 36, 96 ; Palmer's Nonconformist Memorial,
i. 315, iii. 126 ; Brodrick's Memorials of Merton
College ; Burrows's Parliamentary Visitation of
Oxford (Camd. Soc.)] S. L. L.
BUTTON, SIR THOMAS (d. 1634), ad-
miral, fourth son of Miles Button of Worl-
ton, in Glamorganshire, entered the naval
service of the crown about the year 1589. Of
his early career we have no exact informa-
tion, though from casual notices we learn
that, with occasional intervals of wild and
even lawless frolic (Cal. S. P. Dom. 15 Jan.
1600), he served with some distinction in
the West Indies and in Ireland. His good
and efficient service at the siege of Kinsale is
especially reported (Cal. S. P., Carew, 22 Oct.
1601), and won for him a pension of 6s. Sd.
a day, which was confirmed on 25 March
1604. It is not, however, till 1612 that he
comes prominently into notice, and then as
the commander of an expedition to search
for the north-west passage, under the direct
patronage of Prince Henry, in whose name
his instructions were drawn out. As captain
of the Resolution, with the Discovery pin-
nace in company, Button put to sea early in
May, and in the following August explored
for the first time the coasts of Hudson's Bay,
and named Nelson River after the master of
the Resolution, who died there, New Wales,
and Button's Bay, into which the river flows,
and where he wintered. For such severe ser-
vice the ships' companies were but poorly pro-
vided, and great numbers of them perished,
although game was plentiful. In the follow-
ing spring and summer, with much enfeebled
crews, Button succeeded in examining the
west coast of Hudson's Bay, so far as to
render it certain that there was no passage
to the west in that direction, and as autumn
approached he returned to England. He was
shortly afterwards appointed admiral of the
king's ships on the coast of Ireland. This
office he held during the rest of his life, exer-
cising it for the most part on the station im-
plied by the name, frequently also in the
Bristol Channel or Milford Haven, where his
duty was to suppress pirates, which, of dif-
ferent nationalities, and more particularly
French and Turkish, infested those seas. The
only important break in this service occurred
in 1620, when he was rear-admiral of the
fleet which, under the command of his kins-
man, Sir Robert Mansel, made an unsuccess-
ful attack on Algiers. He had already been
knighted at Dublin by his cousin, Sir Oliver
St. John, then lord deputy (Cal. S. P., Ire-
land, 30 Aug. 1616). In 1624 he was a
member of the council of war, and in 1625
was on a commission for inquiring into the
state of the navy. At this time he was neces-
sarily a good deal in London, and appears to
have resided at Fulham. The duties of his
commission and of his command kept him in
continual hot water with the navy board,
against which he was supported by the Duke
of Buckingham and the Earl of Denbigh.
The quarrel reached a climax in February
1627-8. On the 12th Button wrote from
Plymouth to Nicholas : 'All the world will
take notice if I be unhorsed of the ship in
which I have so long served. If dismissed, I
shall shelter myself under the lee of a poor
fortune which, I thank God, will give me
bread, and say as the old Roman did " Votis
non armis vincitur." ' On the 13th Lord
Denbigh wrote to Buckingham that ' he
should be sorry if so able and honest a man
as Sir Thomas Button were neglected ;' and
on the 15th the navy board complained that
Sir Thomas Button would ' take no notice of
any order unless he received the duke's im-
mediate command.' Buckingham's interest,
however, seems to have brought him success-
fully through his difficulties. His later years
were much embittered by a series of disputes
with the admiralty regarding several in-
stances of alleged misconduct on the one
side, and the non-payment of his pension and
allowances on the other. Of the charges
against him, which amounted to neglect of
duty, fraudulent appropriation of prizes, shel-
H2
Button
100
Button
tering of pirates, &c., Button cleared himself
without any serious difficulty ; but to make
good his claim for money due to him was not
so easy, for his accounts had become ex-
tremely complicated, and no one could say
even what pay he was entitled to as admiral
of the Irish seas, the opinions varying from
20. a day to 5*. The question was still un-
determined at his death in April 1634.
He was twice married, and left a large
family. At least one of his sons, and two or
three nephews of the name, were at one time
or another captains in the navy, and we may
fairly suppose that the Edmond Button who
commanded the Sampson and was killed in
the battle off Portland was one of these. It
may be noted also that Sir Thomas Button
was a near relation of the St. Johns, and
more distantly of Cromwell himself. His
eldest son Miles, however, after the Restora-
tion, petitioned for compensation for losses
sustained in the cause of royalty ; it does not
appear that he received any.
[Calendars of State Papers, Domestic, 1600-
1635 ; Clark's Glamorgan Worthies (some account
of Admiral Sir Thomas Button), 1883, 8vo ; But-
ton's Journal of his Voyage to Hudson's Bay is
hopelessly lost; -whatever traces of it remain
have been collected in Kundall's Narratives of
Voyages towards the North-West (Hakluyt
Society), 81.] J. K. L.
BUTTON, or BITTON, WILLIAM I
(d. 1264), bishop of Bath and Wells, came of
a family that took its name from Bitton in
Gloucestershire, where a chantry chapel of
great beauty is still to be seen, built on the
north side of the parish church by Thomas
Button, bishop of Exeter, nephew of this
William, and consecrated 1299 (Somerset
Archceol. Society's Proc. xxii. 67). William
was rector of Sowy, sub-dean, and afterwards
archdeacon of Wells. He was elected in the
chapter-house of Bath on 24 Feb. 1247 by the
monks of Bath and the canons of Wells con-
jointly, according to an arrangement made
during the episcopate of his predecessor Roger
for settling the claims of the two capitular
bodies. He was consecrated at Lyons by In-
nocent IV on 14 June. On 21 Dec. his ca-
thedral church was much damaged by an
earthquake. The bishop gave an account of
this event to Matthew Paris, telling him how
fissures appeared in the walls, and how a new
stone spire of great weight fell upon the
church, destroyingthe finials and battlements,
and crushing the capitals of the pillars (MATT.
PARIS, v. 46). During a visit to the Roman
court in 1251 he helped to defeat an attempt
made to deprive Nicholas, the late bishop of
Durham, of a portion of the revenues assigned
to him on his retirement. The reason of his
visit was the necessity of resisting the op-
pressive extension of metropolitan claims, and
on his return to England he brought a le tter
from the pope, forbidding the archbishop to
visit secular non-collegiate churches, and fix-
ing a maximum sum to be paid as procura-
tions. William was present at the parliament
held in April 1253, in which the bishops
vainly petitioned the king to grant the church
freedom in elections [see ATMEK DE VALENCE,
bishop], and joined in the solemn excommu-
nication pronounced by the bishop in West-
minster Hall on 3 May against the violators
of the great charter and the charter of
forests. A document relating the part taken
by William in the ceremony is preserved at
Wells (Chapter Documents, 533). Later in
the year he was sent by Henry III to Al-
fonso X of Castile to ask for his sister Eleanor
in marriage for Edward. In January 1254 he
was with the king in Gascony. He had a long
contention with Roger Forde, abbot of Glas-
tonbury, who sought to recover the posses-
sions and rights which his house had lost to
the bishopric. In the course of these pro-
ceedings the bishop made an unjustifiable and
unsuccessful attempt to deprive the abbot of
his office. This quarrel took the bishop to
Rome to uphold his cause. The king was in
favour of the abbot, and this William thought
hard after the expense he had been put to by
his journey to Spain. He also quarrelled with
his chapter, for he tried to take from them
certain grants made to them by Bishop Jocelin
for their common fund. Against this oppres-
sion the chapter appealed both to Canterbury
and Rome. The matter was finally arranged
by the friendly intervention of the arch-
bishop, who in 1259 decided in their favour
(ib. 464). Another dispute arose in 1262
on account of a trespass committed by the
bishop's pigs in Winscombe wood, a right
of pannage being of no inconsiderable value
in those days ; in this matter also the bishop
appears to have been in the wrong (MS. Reg.
iii. 99). In 1258, in obedience to a letter re-
ceived from the pope, he joined Bishop Giles
of Sarum in investigating the claim of Robert
Chance to the see of Carlisle, and in conse-
crating him on 14 April. He was present at
the dedication of Salisbury Cathedral at Mi-
chaelmas 1258. Among the hangings given
to the church of St. Albans Matthew Paris
mentions a gift from Bishop William (vi. 390).
He found means during his episcopate to ad-
vance the interests of his own family. A
nephew William II [q. v.], afterwards bishop,
was made archdeacon of Wells, another of his
name wasprecentor,one brother was treasurer,
another was provost of Combe, and was sue-
Button
101
Butts
ceeded by Thomas Button, afterwards dean
of Wells and bishop of Exeter. Button died
3 April 1264, and was buried in the chapel of
St. Mary behind the altar ; on his tomb was
his effigy in brass (LELAND, Itin. iii. 108).
[M. Paris, v. 46, 212, 373, 375, 396, 423, 534,
590, vi. 229, 232, 390, ed. Luard ; Annales Bur-
ton., Dunstapl., Theokes. ; Ann. Monast. i. 156,
157, 300, iii. 205 ; Canon of Wells in Anglia
Sacra, i. 565 ; Godwin de Prsesulibus, 372; Cas-
san's Bishops of Bath and Wells, 133 ; Adam of
Domerham, 523, ed. Hearne ; John of Glaston-
bury, 224-34, ed. Hearne ; Eeshanger, 62, Cam-
den Soc. ; Dean and Chapter MSS. at Wells.]
W. H.
BUTTON or BITTON, WILLIAM II
(d. 1274), bishop of Bath and Wells, was
nephew of the former bishop of the same name,
and was also a relation of Walter Giffard, his
immediate predecessor in the see. He was
archdeacon and afterwards dean of Wells.
Giffard having been translated to the see of
York in October 1266, William was elected
bishop in February 1267, and received the tem-
poralities on 4 March of that year. In view of
the fact that the bishops of this see lost even
the right of a seat in their chapter, it is in-
teresting to note that in 1270 William pre-
sided over a meeting of the chapter, in which
several new statutes were, enacted (Ordinale,
57). This bishop was a man of a wholly dif-
ferent stamp from the uncle who preceded
him. Little as we know of his work, he may
be looked on as an example of the influence
exercised by the preaching of the friars ; for
when Robert Kilwardby, the provincial of
the Dominicans, was to be consecrated to the
archbishopric of Canterbury, he declared that
he would have the bishop of Bath to perform
the rite on account of his eminent piety. He
died 4 Dec. 1274, and was buried on the south
side of the choir of his cathedral church.
Though never acknowledged as a saint by the
catholic church, he received the honour of
popular canonisation. Crowds visited his
tomb with prayers and offerings. Little pro-
gress probably had been made of late years in
the work of building the church, and it seems
that the effects of the storm of 1248 [see BUT-
TON, WILLIAM I, d. 1264] had not been re-
paired. The offerings brought to the shrine
of ' Saint ' William enriched the chapter, and
are doubtless to be connected with a convo-
cation held in 1284 ' for finishing the new
work and repairing the old.' Somerset folk
believed that the aid of the good bishop was
especially effectual for the cure of toothache,
and the belief lingered down to the seven-
teenth century. On the capitals of some of
the pillars in the transepts of Wells Cathedral
are figures represent ing people suffering from
toothache, and it may be reasonably believed
that those parts of the church were built from
the offerings made at the saint's tomb soon
after his death.
[Wykes, in Ann. Monast. iv. 194, 261 ; Matt.
Paris Cont. 108; Keynolds's Wells Cathedral,
Ordinale et Statuta ; Somerset Archaeol. Soc.
Proc. xix. ii. 29 ; Godwin, De Prsesulibus, 373 ;
Cassan's Bishops of Bath and Wells, 141.]
W. H.
BUTTON, SIB WILLIAM (d. 1654),
royalist, was descended from the old family
of Bitton or Button, so called from the parish
of Bitton in the county of Gloucester. He
was the eldest son of William Button of Al-
ton, and of Jane, daughter of John Lamb, in
the county of Wiltshire (BEERY, Hampshire
Pedigrees). Lloyd (Memoirs, 649) confounds
him with his son who died in 1660, and the
error is repeated by Jackson (ATTBREY, Col-
lections for Wiltshire. 190). Both state that
he was educated at Exeter College under Dr.
Prideaux, and attended Sir Arthur Hepton
in his embassy through France and Spain,
but the original source of these statements
is the sermon preached on 12 April 1660 by
Francis Bayly in the parish church of North
Wraxall at the funeral of the second Sir
William Button, to whom alone they apply.
The father of this Sir William Button was
raised to the baronetage on 18 April 1621
(BUKKE, History of the Commoners, iv. 370).
During the civil wars he was a staunch
royalist, and on this account his house To-
kenham Court was twice stripped and his
property carried off, the first occasion being
in June 1643 by Sir Ed. Hungerford, when
his loss was 7671., and the second in June
1644 by a party of horse from Malmesbury
garrison, when it amounted to 5261. 6s. In
the November following his estate at Token-
ham was sequestrated, after which he lived
at his manor of Shaw near Overton. In 1646
he was fined 2,380/. for ' delinquency.' He
died on 28 Jan. 1654, and was buried in the
vault in the north aisle of North Wraxall
church. Lloyd, confounding him with his
son, gives the date of his death erroneously as
1660. By his marriage with Ruth, daughter
of Walter Dunche of Avebury, he left four
sons and three daughters.
[Aubrey's Collections for Wiltshire, ed. Jack-
son, 190 ; Burke's History of the Commoners,
iv. 370 ; Berry's Hampshire Pedigrees ; Lloyd's
Memoirs, 649.] T. F. H.
BUTTS, JOHN (d. 1764), painter, was
born and bred in Cork, and with but little
instruction developed extraordinary powers
in landscape. His compositions, in which
he is fond of introducing figures, are Claude-
Butts
IO2
Butts
like in subject and in treatment, but English
in touch and tint, showing great breadth
and harmony of colour. To supply the
wants of a large family of young children,
and, it must be added, his own vicious pro-
pensities, Butts was glad to do anything,
from scene-painting to coach-panels and
signboards. He thus fell an easy prey, when
about thirty years of age, to a dealer in
Dublin, with whom he shared a garret and
squandered his earnings in drink. His
vices brought him to an early grave in 1764.
James Barry, R.A., was a warm admirer of
the genius of Butts, and declared that his
works were his ' first guide ' (see a letter to
Dr. Sleigh, Works, 1809, i. 20-22).
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878),
p. 66 ; Warburton, Whitelaw, and Walsh's His-
tory of Dublin, ii. 1180.] G-. G-.
BUTTS, ROBERT, D.D. (1684-1748),
bishop successively of Norwich 1733-1738,
and of Ely 1738-1748, was the son of the
Rev. William Butts, rector of Hartest, near
Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk, of the elder branch
of the Butts of Shouldham Thorpe in Norfolk,
collaterally connected with SirWilliam Butts,
M.D. [q. v.] Butts was educated at the gram-
mar school at Bury, and Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, where he graduated as B. A. 1 707, M. A.
1711, and D.D. 1728. As an undergraduate he
was famous as a pugilist and a football player,
and excelled in all manly exercises. After his
ordination he served the curacy of Thurlow in
his native county, and in 1703 was chosen
one of the preachers of Bury. Here he ren-
dered political services to the Hervey family.
He was a zealous and unscrupulous party
agent, and useful in elections to John, lord
Hervey, eldest son of the first earl of Bris-
tol, lord privy seal in Sir Robert Wai-
pole's administration. So powerful a patron
secured his steady and rapid preferment.
In 1717 he was appointed by Lord Bris-
tol to the rich family living of Ickworth,
and in 1728 he became chaplain to George II,
receiving his degree of D.D. at the same time
by royal mandate. Three years later, 6 Feb.
1731, he was appointed dean of Norwich, re-
taining the living of Ickworth in commen-
dam, till his succession to the bishopric, on
the death of Bishop Baker, 20 Jan. 1733. He
was consecrated by Bishop Gibson of London,
at Bow Church, 25 Feb. According to Cole
his great and sudden rise was a matter of
surprise to most people, as he was almost
unknown in the ecclesiastical world, and his
merit went very little ' beyond hallooing at
elections, and a most violent party spirit.'
As bishop he is said to have 'shown some
zeal and earnestness' in the management of
his diocese, but coupled with a haughtiness
which rendered him the object of general dis-
like, being, according to Cole, ' universally
hated, not to say detested.' Little pains were
taken to conceal the joy felt when, in four
years' time, he was translated to the much
richer see of Ely, which at that time seems to
have been regarded as the natural apotheo-
sis of the bishops of Norwich. As bishop of
Ely he found his palace in London a far more
agreeable residence than his episcopal city.
He spent little time at Ely, and when there,
if we may believe the spiteful Cole, he was a
far more frequent visitor to the public bowl-
ing-green than to the cathedral services. Ac-
cording to the same authority he took little
care to restrain his language within profes-
sional decorum, having ' sufficient of every
necessary language for his episcopal office but
good language,' being often heard ' swearing
a good round hand,' and using vulgar and
scurrilous expressions. He took no more
care at Ely than at Norwich to make himself
acceptable to his clergy, whom he is charged
with treating with the greatest insolence.
Though paying little regard to his person in
private, and rough and ungentlemanly in his
manners, he knew how to comport himself
with great dignity on public occasions. He
was an excellent speaker, his voice being good,
and his manner dignified. As a preacher also
he displayed superior powers. During the
latter years of his life Butts was crippled
with gout, which did not mollify a temper
never accustomed to be controlled. This
disease flying to his stomach, caused his death
at Ely House, Holborn, 26 Jan. 1748. His
body was buried in the south aisle of the
choir of his cathedral, under a tasteless marble
monument, adorned with a bust and a lauda-
tory epitaph, ascribing to him an ardent love
for true religion : ' zelo B. Petri similis et
sancte quoad licuit semulus.'
The general estimate of this prelate may
be gathered from the following passage in
the 'Political Will and Testament' of Sir
Robert Walpole, a party squib published after
that minister's death in 1745 : ' My eloquence
I leave to that Good Shepherd, the Bishop of
Ely, to persuade the Sheep of his Flock to leave
off their Prophaneness, to turn from the evil of
their Ways, and to follow the pious example
of their Leader.' Butts was twice married.
His first wife was Miss Elizabeth Eyton, of
the old Shropshire family of that name, who
died of consumption in 1734, at the age of
forty-four, leaving two sons and five daugh-
ters. Mrs. Butts was buried in the chapel
of the palace at Norwich, with a fulsome
epitaph expressing the longing of the broken-
hearted widower for ' prseclarus ille dies '
Butts
103
Butts
which would restore her to him for ever. The
bishop, however, consoled himself for his loss
the next year, when, being over sixty, he
married a young lady of twenty-three, the
junior of his eldest daughter, the daughter of
the Rev. Mr. Reynolds of Bury, by whom he
had six more daughters. In 1753 Mrs. Butts
took as her second husband Mr. George Green,
the receiver of the late bishop's rents. The
union was an unhappy one, the parties sepa-
rated, and Mrs. Green retired to Chichester,
where she died 3 Dec. 1781, at the age of
sixty-nine. Butts printed nothing beyond a
few charges and occasional discourses. The
following may be mentioned : 1. A Sermon
preached at Norwich on the day of the acces-
sion of George II, 1719. 2. A Charge at the
primary visitation of the diocese of Norwich,
1735, London, 4to, 1736. 3. Sermon on Ps.
cxxii. 6, preached before the House of Lords
in Westminster Abbey, on the anniversary
of the accession, 11 June 1737, London, 4to,
1737. 4. Charge delivered at the primary
visitation of the diocese of Ely, London, 4to,
1740.
[Cole MSS. xviii. 140, 233 ; Bentham's His-
tory of Ely; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 80.] E. V.
BUTTS, SIR WILLIAM (d. 1545), phy-
sician to Henry VIII, was born in Norfolk,
and educated at Gonville Hall, Cambridge,
being admitted to the degrees of B. A. in 1506,
M.A. 1509, and M.D. 1518. In the follow-
ing year he applied for incorporation into
the university of Oxford, but Wood could
find no record of his incorporation. In 1524
he took a lease of St. Mary's Hostel, and
was therefore probably principal of the house
(Athence Cantab.) ; but he was at the same
time practising his profession among the
nobility, and from that time to his death he
was constantly employed as physician at the
court. The king, his queens, Anne Boleyn
and Jane Seymour, the Princess Mary, after-
wards Queen Mary, the king's natural son,
Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, Cardinal
Wolsey, the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Thomas
Lovell, George Boleyn, and Lord Rochford, are
all known to have been his patients. As phy-
sician to the king his salary was 100Z. a year,
afterwards increased by forty marks, and an
additional 20/. for attending on the young
Duke of Richmond. He was also knighted.
As physician to the Princess Mary he received
a livery of blue and green damask for himself
and two servants, and cloth for an apothe-
cary. His wife was also in the princess's
service as one of her gentlewomen, and her
portrait was painted by Holbein . The finished
picture was exhibited in 1866 at the Royal
Academy, and the sketch is at Windsor. It
is engraved by Bartolozzi in ' The Court of
Henry VIII.' It may fairly be said that
the princess owed her life to her physician.
Not only did he exert his professional skill
in her behalf, but having good reason to sus-
pect that there were plots to poison her, he
frightened her governess, Lady Shelton, by
telling her that it was commonly reported in
London that she was guilty of this crime, and
so made her doubly careful of her charge for
her own sake. Some writers have spoken of
him as being one of the founders of the Col-
lege of Physicians, but this is an error. The
college was founded in 1528, and he did not
join till 1529. He does not seem to have held
any collegiate office, but he was held in such
esteem that he is entered in their books as
< vir gravis, eximia literarum cognitione, sin-
gular! judicio, summa experientia et prudent!
consilio doctor.'
This praise refers more particularly to his
medical life ; but he was a patron of other
branches of learning, and a man whose influ-
ence with the king was invariably directed
to good purposes. When Wolsey was in dis-
grace Butts tried to reconcile the king to him,
and his interposition in favour of Archbishop
Cranmer is well known to readers of Shake-
speare (If en. VIII. act v. sc. ii.) In religious
matters his sympathies were with the refor-
mation. He attempted in person to convert
some of the monks of Sion who refused to
acknowledge the king's supremacy, and two
men, both prominent reformers, one on the
side of religion and the other on the side of
learning, Hugh Latimer and Sir John Cheke,
both owed their advancement to him. He
died 22 Nov. 1545, and was buried at Fulham
church. His tomb was against the south
wall, close to the altar, and formerly pos-
sessed a brass representing him in armour,
with a shield bearing his arms : azure, three
lozenges gules on a chevron or, between three
estoiles or, and a scroll inscribed with the words
' Myn advantage.' Beneath it was a Latin
epitaph in elegiacs by his friend Cheke. The
tomb and brass are destroyed, but a slab with
Cheke's verses, and an inscription stating that
it was restored by Leonard Butts of Norfolk
in 1627, is inserted in the wall of the tower.
The epitaph gives the date of death as 17 Nov.,
22 Nov. being found in both inquisitions. The
figures had perhaps become nearly illegible and
were wrongly restored. All the authors who
mention the date of death copy this mistake.
He married Margaret Bacon, of Cambridge-
shire, and left three sons : Sir William, of
Thornage, Norfolk; Thomas, of Great Riburgh,
Norfolk, and Edmund, of Barrow, Suffolk. Sir
William, junior, was not killed at the battle of
Musselburgh, as Blomefield says, but lived till
Buxhull
104
Buxhull
1583. The epitaphs on him were collected
and printed by R. Dallington. Edmund
alone had issue, one daughter, who married
Sir Nicholas Bacon, eldest son of Sir Nicholas,
keeper of the great seal. His will at Somerset
House and the inquisitions taken after his
death show that he possessed houses at Ful-
ham, and on the site of the "White Friars,
London, the manors of Thornage, Thornham,
Edgefield, and Melton Constable, in Norfolk,
and Panyngton, in Suffolk. Other lands with
which the king rewarded him had been dis-
posed of before his death. Sir William Butts
was twice painted by Holbein. The portrait
in the possession of Mr. W. H. Pole Carew,
of Antony, Cornwall, which was exhibited at
Burlington House in 1866, ranks among the
very best of the genuine works of the painter.
The National Portrait Gallery possesses a
copy of it. The other portrait of him is in
the picture of the delivery of the charter to
the barber surgeons, engraved by Baron.
Many of his prescriptions, some devised in
consultation with Drs. Chambers, Cromer,
and Augustine, are preserved in Sloane MS.,
No. 1047, in the British Museum. There are
three epigrams on him (Nos. 48, 49, 100) in
Parkhurst's collection.
[Gal. of State Papers of Hen. VIII, vols. iv.-
vii. ; State Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 299, 311, 572,
ix. 170, xi. 59; Strype's Cranmer, 179; Eccl.
Mem i. ii. 461, i. i. 261, in. i. 514 ; Cheke, 166 ;
Wood's Athen.Oxon. i. 244, Fasti, i. 50; Wright's
Suppression of the Monasteries, 49 (CamdenSoc.);
Madden's Privy Purse Expenses of Princess Mary ;
Blomefield's Norfolk ; Foxe's Acts and Mons. (ed.
1838), v. 605, vii. 454-, 461, 773, viii. 25-34 ;
Cooper's Athenae Cantab, i. 87, 535 ; Goodall's
Koyal College of Physicians; Munk's Coll. of
Phys. ; Granger's Biog. Hist. i. 76, 109 ; Inq.
p. m. 37 Hen. VIII, pt. i. Nos. 50, 75 ; Patent
Kolls, 28-38 Hen. VIII.] C. T. M.
BUXHULL, SIK ALAN (1323-1381),
constable of the Tower, was the son of Alan
Bokeshull, or Buxhull, the tenant in capite
of a messuage now known as Bugzell, in the
parish of Salehurst, Sussex, and of other
lands in the same county, and who also held
the manor and church of Bryanstone, in Dor-
setshire, all of which were, upon his death in
1325, inherited by his son Alan, then an in-
fant two years old. In 1355 he was a knight
in the expedition of Edward III to succour
the King of Navarre ; and some years later,
in 1363, he attended the king to welcome the
King of Cyprus on his landing at Dover. The
year following he was sent with the Lord
Burghersh and Sir Richard Pembrugge to
render similar honours to King John of
France, when by reason of the inability of
his subjects to ransom him he was obliged to
return to captivity in England. In 1369 Sir
Alan, then the king's chamberlain, was sent
with certain nobles to swear to the fulfil-
ment of the treaty with Scotland, and in the
same year he held a command under John of
Gaunt at Tournehem. In 1370 he succeeded
Sir John Chandos as captain and lieutenant
of the king in the territory and fortress of
St. Sauveur le Vicomte, near Valognes, in
Normandy, where, as Froissart tells us, he
bore himself as a right valiant knight, ' appert
homme durement.' Soon afterwards he took
part, with Sir Robert Knolles, in the expedi-
tion against the French near Le Mans. It was
during his stay in Normandy that Sir Alan
received a writ from the king addressed to
his 'dear and faithful Aleyn de Buxhull,'
commanding him to proceed into the district
of Cotentin to redress the outrages alleged to
have been committed by the king's subjects
there against those of the King of Navarre.
Upon the death of the Earl of Stafford, one
of the founders of the order, in October 1372,
Buxhull was created a knight of the garter,
being the fifty-third person promoted to that
distinction. He had been elected in 1365-6
successor to Sir Richard la Vache, K.G., in the
office of constable of the Tower of London for
life, and was also made custos of the forest and
park of Clarendon and other forests in Wilt-
shire. Towards the close of his life Sir Alan
was a party to the murder, under peculiarly
atrocious circumstances, of Robert Hauley and
John Schakell, two esquires who had escaped
from the Tower and taken sanctuary at West-
minster. To effect their capture, Sir Ralph
Ferrers and Buxhull were despatched with
fifty men, and, meeting with some resistance,
slew their unhappy prisoners within the very
j precincts of the abbey. This deed happened on
j 11 Aug. 1378. The power of John of Gaunt,
however, effectually screened the perpetrators
from punishment. Buxhull did not long sur-
vive, for dying on 2 Nov. 1381, he was buried,
according to Weever, in Jesus' chapel, under
old St. Paul's, near the shrine of St. Ercken-
wald. He was twice married. By his first
wife, whose name is unknown, he left two
daughters : Elizabeth, the wife of Roger
Lynde, and Amicia, the widow of John Bever-
ley. He took to his second wife Maud, the
daughter of Adam Franceis, citizen of Lon-
don, and relict of John Aubrey, who subse-
quently married John de Montacute, after-
wards third earl of Salisbury and K.G. She
gave birth to a posthumous son, who also re-
ceived the name of Alan, and in due time
the honour of knighthood.
[Beltz's Memorials of the Order of the Garter,
pp. 188-92, and authorities cited ; Lower's Wor-
thies of Sussex, pp. 147-9 ; Weever's Ancient
Buxton
105
Buxton
Funerall Monuments, p. 380 ; Hutchins's Dorset-
shire, 3rd ed. i. 249, 251 ; Archaeologia, xx. 152
n., where the writer asserts, but without giving
any authority, that Buxhull was excommunicated
for his share in the murder.] G. G.
BUXTON, BERTHA H. (1844-1881),
novelist, was born on 26 July 1844, and
when only a girl of eleven years amused her-
self by writing stories for her schoolfellows
at Queen's College, Tufnell Park, London.
Both her parents were Germans, her mother
being Madame Therese Leopold, well known
in musical circles, and with them she travelled
in America, Germany, and Holland during
her fourteenth and fifteenth years. At six-
teen she was married to Henry Buxton, club
manager and author, but still pursued her
literary work as an amusement, translating
a German operetta into English, and writ-
ing a modest one-volume novel, which was
published at her husband's expense, under
the title of 'Percy's Wife.' In 1875 she
suddenly found herself poverty-stricken, and,
becoming entirely dependent on her own ex-
ertions, she turned to writing for a living.
In 1876 appeared her novel, ' Jennie of the
Prince's, by B. H. B.,' dealing with theatrical
life, which she had studied as a walking lady
on the stage at Exeter. The book was a
success. She wrote a serial for the ' World '
during the following year, bringing out during
the same period ' Won ! By the Author of
" Jennie of the Prince's," ' and a story for
children entitled ' Rosabella,' published under
the name of ' Auntie Bee.' From this period
she wrote under her own name, and the fol-
lowing Christmas brought out another child's
book, entitled ' More Dolls,' illustrated by Mr.
T. D. White, and dedicated to the Princess
of Wales. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Buxton
met with an accident which rendered work
impossible. Somewhat recovering, she pro-
duced 'Fetterless though Bound together'
(1879); 'Great Grenfell Gardens' (1879);
'Nell On and Off the Stage ; ' and ' From
the Wings' (1880). The last two novels
first appeared in ' Tinsley's Magazine.' Her
other books were ' Many Loves ' (1880), ' Little
Pops, a nursery romance ' (1881), and ' Sceptre
and King' (1881). In collaboration with
William Willhem Fenn she brought out
'Oliver Gay, a Rattling Story of Field,
Fright, and Fight,' in 1880, and a tale called
' A Noble Name ' in a volume published by
him in 1883. She died very suddenly from
heart disease, at Claremont Villa, 12 St.
Mary's Terrace, Kensington, London, on
31 March 1881.
[Tinsley's Magazine, xxviii. 499-500 (1881) ;
The Carisbrooke Magazine, with portrait, April
1881.] ' G. C. B.
BUXTON, CHARLES (1823-1871), poli-
tician, was the third son of Sir Thomas Fowell
Buxton [q. v.], and was born on 18 Nov. 1823.
Educated at home until the age of seventeen,
he was then placed under the charge, succes-
sively, of the Rev. T. Fisher, at Luccombe, and
the Rev. H. Alford (afterwards dean of Can-
terbury) at Wymeswold. In 1841 he went
to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gra-
duated M.A. in 1843. At the close of his
university career he became a partner in the
well-known brewery of Truman, Hanbury,
Buxton, & Co. His father dying in 1845,
Charles Buxton was entrusted with the task
of preparing his biography. This work speedily
passed through thirteen editions, and was
translated into French and German.
In 1852 Buxton visited Ireland. He pur-
I chased an estate in county Kerry, and made
! it a model of cultivation in the course of a few
i years. In 1853 he published a pamphlet on
! national education in Ireland, in which he
j recommended for Ireland ' the system which
had answered so admirably in England
that of encouraging each denomination to
! educate its own children in the best way
[ possible.' In 1854 Buxton delivered a series
of lectures on the theory of the construction
of birds. In 1855 he published in the ' North
British Review ' an article on the sale and
use of strong drink, which attracted much
attention as coming from a partner of a
great brewing house.
Buxton was returned to the House of Com-
mons for Newport in 1857 ; for Maidstone
in 1859 ; and for East Surrey in 1865, for
which constituency he sat until his death.
Buxton made an eloquent appeal in favour of
referring the Trent question to arbitration :
he frequently advocated the principle of the
protection of private property during war,
and the general amendment of international
law in the interests of peace. In 1860 he
published a work entitled ' Slavery and Free-
dom in the British West Indies,' in which
he endeavoured to prove that England had
secured the spread of civilisation in West
Africa, as well as the permanent prosperity
of the West India islands.
Buxton advocated the unpopular policy of
clemency after the suppression of the Indian
mutiny, and in the case of Governor Eyre
and the Jamaica massacres. He declined
to concur in the Jamaica committee's reso-
lution to prosecute Governor Eyre on a charge
of murder, and on 31 July 1866 brought for-
ward in the House of Commons four resolu-
tions, the first declaring that the punishments
inflicted had been excessive ; that grave ex-
cesses of severity on the part of any civil, mili-
tary, or naval officers ought not to be passed
io6
Buxton
over with impunity ; that compensation ought
to be awarded to those who had suffered un-
justly ; and that all further punishment on ac-
count of the disturbances ought to be remitted.
The government accepted the first resolution,
and the others were withdrawn on the under-
standing that inquiries should be made with
the object, if possible, of carrying out the
resolutions. Buxton, however, felt it incum-
bent upon him subsequently to call for an
effectual censure and repudiation of the con-
duct of Mr. Eyre and his subordinates.
Buxton was an advocate of church reform,
of disestablishment, and of security of tenure
in Ireland. In general politics an independent
liberal, he strongly advocated the system of
cumulative voting ; took a deep interest in
the volunteer movement, but condemned all
wars except those of defence.
Buxton inherited his father's intense affec-
tion for animals and his passion for outdoor
sports. To these he added a love for archi-
tecture. He was the architect of his own
beautiful seat of Fox Warren, in Surrey, and
he gained a prize of 100/. in the competitive
designs for the government offices in 1856,
being placed sixth in the list of competitors.
He was an admirer of Gothic architecture
for modern buildings, and he designed the
fountain near Westminster Abbey, built by
himself in 1863, as a memorial of his father's
anti-slavery labours. In 1866 Buxton pub-
lished ' The Ideas of the Day on Poficy,'
and a pamphlet in 1869 on self-government
for London.
On 9 April 1867 Buxton was thrown from
his horse in the hunting-field, and suffered
concussion of the brain. During his illness
he studied the subject of anaesthetics, and
offered a prize of 2,000/. for the discovery of
an anaesthetic agent which should satisfy
certain conditions.
Buxton's health began to fail rapidly to-
wards the close of 1870. He died while he
was staying at Lochearnhead, on 10 Aug.
1871. In 1850 Buxton married the eldest
daughter of Sir Henry Holland, bart., M.D.,
by whom he had a family.
[Buxton's Survey of the System of National
Education in Ireland, 1853; Buxton's Slavery
and Freedom in the British West Indies, 1 860 ;
Buxton's Ideas of the Day on Policy, 1866;
Buxton's Self-Government for London, a letter
to the Eight Hon. H. A. Bruce, M.P. (Home
Secretary), 1869; Annual Eegister, 1871; Bux-
ton's Notes of Thought, preceded by a biogra-
phical sketch by the Kev. J. Llewelyn Davies,
MA., 1873.] G.B. S.
BUXTON, JEDIDIAH (1707-1772), an
untaught arithmetical genius, was born at
Elmton, Derbyshire, on 20 March 1707. His
grandfather was vicar of Elmton, and his
father schoolmaster of the same parish. Not-
withstanding his father's profession, Jedi-
diah never learned to write, and continued
throughout his life to be employed as a
farm-labourer. His inability to acquire the
rudiments of education seems to have been
caused by his absorbing passion for mental
calculations, which occupied his mind to the
exclusion of all other objects of attention,
and in which he attained a degree of skill
that made him the wonder of the neigh-
bourhood. He was first brought into more
general notice by a letter in the 'Gentle-
man's Magazine' for February 1751, signed
G. Saxe (probably a pseudonym), which was
shortly followed by two further communica-
tions from a Mr. Holliday, of Haughton
Park, Nottinghamshire, who seems to have
been the writer of the first letter. Among
the many examples of Buxton's arithmetical
feats which are given in these letters may be
mentioned his calculation of the product of
a farthing doubled 139 times. The result,
expressed in pounds, extends to thirty-nine
figures, and is correct so far as it can be
readily verified by the use of logarithms.
Buxton afterwards multiplied this enormous
number by itself. It appears that he had
invented an original nomenclature for large
numbers, a ' tribe ' being the cube of a mil-
lion, and a ' cramp ' (if Mr. Holliday's state-
ment can be trusted) a thousand ' tribes of
tribes.' In the spring of 1754 he walked to
London, where he was entertained by ' Syl-
vanus Urban 'at St. John's Gate. He was
introduced to the Royal Society, before
whom he gave some illustrations of his cal-
culating powers. He was also taken to see
Garrick in ' Richard III,' but paid no atten-
tion to the performance except to count the
words spoken by the actors. In the ' Gentle-
man's Magazine ' for June 1754 is a memoir
of Buxton, accompanied by a portrait. His
age is there given as forty-nine, which does
not agree with the date of his birth as above
stated on the authority of Lysons's ' Magna
Britannia.' After spending some weeks in
London he returned contentedly to his native
village, where he was buried on 5 March
1772.
[G-ent. Mag. xxi. 61, 347, xxiii. 557, xxiv.
251 ; Lysons's Magna Britannia, v. (Derbyshire),
157.] ' H. B.
BUXTON, RICHARD (1786-1865), bo-
tanist, was born at Sedgley Hall Farm,
Prestwich, on 15 Jan. 1786. His father, John
Buxton, was a farmer, and both parents were
from Derbyshire. Richard was the second
son of a family of seven, but his father, re-
Buxton
107
Buxton
duced to giving up his farm within two years
of his son's birth, came to live in Manchester
as a labourer. As a child his education was
almost entirely neglected, but his chief amuse-
ment was picking wild flowers in the fields
and brickyards near Great Ancoats. At
twelve he was apprenticed to a bat-maker
that is, a manufacturer of children's small
leather shoes. When sixteen he determined
to teach himself to read, and did so. Among
his books he numbered some of the old her-
balists, but found their indications quite in-
adequate to find out plant-names. He then
fell in with Jenkinson's Flora, alsoRobson's,
and the first edition of Withering. For seve-
ral years he plodded on, without making any
botanical friends ; but in 1826 he encountered
a kindred spirit in the person of John Horse-
field, another of the keen Lancashire work-
ing-men botanists, who introduced Buxton to
their meetings. He afterwards botanised in
Derbyshire, North Wales, and the Craven
district of Yorkshire. When his ' Botanical
Guide ' was published, and for many years
afterwards, he was living unmarried with a
sister in Manchester, where he died on 2 Jan.
1865. He published only one book, entitled
' Botanical Guide to the Flowering Plants,
Ferns, Mosses, and Algae found . . . within
16 miles of Manchester,' Lpnd. 1849 (2nd ed.
1859) ; but he is frequently cited by Dr. Wood
in his ' Flora Mancuniensis ' as the authority
for many localities of the rarer plants.
[Autobiography in Guide, iii-xv ; Cash's
Where there's a Will, 94-1 07; Seemann's Journ.
Bot. iii. (1865), 71-2.] B. D. J.
BUXTON, SIB THOMAS FOWELL
(1786-1845), philanthropist, was the eldest
son of Thomas Fowell Buxton, of Earl's
Colne, Essex, by a daughter of Osgood Han-
bury, of Holfield Grange, in the same county.
His mother, who was a member of the Society
of Friends, was a woman of great intelligence
and energy. He was born 1 April 1786, and
at a very early age was sent to a school at
Kingston, where he suffered severely from ill-
treatment. His health gave way, and he
was removed to Greenwich, and placed under
the care of Dr.Burney, the brother of Madame
d'Arblay. From his earliest youth he took
great delight in all kinds of country sports.
At the age of fifteen he left school, and was
thrown much into the society of the Gurneys,
at Earlham Hall, Norwich. In October 1803
he was entered at Trinity College, Dublin.
He passed all the thirteen examinations at
Dublin (with a single exception) with the
most distinguished success, and received the
university gold medal, which is given only to
men who have obtained in succession all the
previous prizes. Before he had attained the
age of twenty-one he was pressed to stand as
a candidate for the representation of the uni-
versity. He was extremely gratified by the
offer, but declined it in consideration of his
approaching marriage to Hannah, daughter
of Mr. John Gurney, of Earlham Hall, sister
to Mrs. Fry, and of the business career for
which he was intended. He returned to
England, and his marriage took place on
13 May 1807.
Buxton joined the well-known firm of
Truman, Hanbury, & Co., brewers, of Spital-
fields,in 1808. Though his business engage-
ments were very arduous, he found time to
study English literature and political eco-
nomy. Nor did he neglect those philan-
thropic efforts which had been pressed upon
him by his mother, and in which he was
encouraged by William Allen. Between
1808 and 1816 he interested himself in all
the charitable undertakings in the distressed
district of Spitalfields, especially in those
connected with education, the Bible Society,
and the sufferings of the weavers. He took
an energetic part in defending the Bible So-
ciety when it was the subject of a violent
controversy, initiated by Dr. Marsh, after-
wards bishop of Peterborough.
In 1816 almost the whole population in
Spitalfields was on the verge of starvation.
A meeting was called at the Mansion House,
and Buxton delivered a forcible speech. He
narrated the results of his personal investi-
gations ; the sum of 43,369/. was raised at
this one meeting, and an extensive and well-
organised system of relief was established.
Buxton joined the committee of the newly
formed Society for the Reformation of Prison
Discipline. He had previously gone through
the gaol at Newgate, and the results of this
and other visitations were afterwards col-
lected and published in a volume, entitled
' An Inquiry whether Crime and Misery are
produced or prevented by our present system
of Prison Discipline' (London, 1818). In
the course of one year this work went through
five large editions, and it had led to the
formation of the Prison Discipline Society
already mentioned. In the House of Com-
mons, Sir James Mackintosh spoke highly of
the book, which was translated into French,
distributed over the continent, and reached
India. There it indirectly led to a searching
inquiry into the scandalous management of
the Madras gaols.
In 1818 Buxton was returned to parlia-
ment at the head of the poll for Weymouth,
and continued to represent the borough until
1837. He also devoted himself at this time
to the preparation of a work on prison dis-
Buxton
1 08
Buxton
cipline, the foundation of a savings bank in
Spitalfields, the establishment of a salt fish
market in the same district, an investigation
into the management of the London Hos-
pital, and the formation of a new Bible Asso-
ciation. During his first session in parliament
he paid close attention to the operation of
the criminal laws. He seconded the motion
made by Sir James Mackintosh for a com-
mittee on this subject. He sat on two select
committees appointed to inquire into the
penal code, and in consequence of the re-
ports of the respective committees the go-
vernment brought in a bill for consolidating
and amending the prison laws then in ex-
istence. In 1820 Buxton lost his eldest son
and three other children. A few months
afterwards he removed from his house at
Hampstead, and went to reside at Cromer
Hall, Norfolk. In 1820 he supported Mackin-
tosh's motion for abolishing the penalty of
death for forgery.
In May 1824 Wilberforce, who had long led
the anti-slavery party in the House of Com-
mons, formally requested Buxton to become
his successor. Buxton had been an active
member of the African Institution. In 1822
he had begun his anti-slavery operations with
vigour, being supported by Zachary Macau-
lay, Dr. Lushington, Lord Suffield, and others.
In March 1823 Mr. Wilberforce issued his
' Appeal on behalf of the Slaves,' and imme-
diately afterwards the Anti-Slavery Society
was formed. On 15 May following Buxton
feeling, after mature deliberation, that he
could not decline the important charge
pressed on him by Wilberforce brought
forward a resolution in the House of Com-
mons for the gradual abolition of slavery.
It was carried, with the addition of some
words proposed by Canning in reference to
the planters' interests. The government
issued a circular to the various colonial au-
thorities, recommending the adoption of cer-
tain reforms; but the planters indignantly
rejected them, and denounced the attack
upon their rights.
Buxton laboured on, fortifying himself
with facts concerning slave operations, and
preparing documents charged with irrefrag-
able statistics. Public meetings were held
throughout the country in denunciation of the
slave trade, and on 15 April 1831, the govern-
ment having declined to take up the case,
Buxton brought forward his resolution for
the abolition of slavery. He showed that
in 1807 the number of slaves in the West
Indies was 800,000, while in 1830 it was only
700,000. In other words, the slave popula-
tion had suffered a decrease in twenty-three
years of 100,000. The necessity for emanci-
pation was conceded, and at the opening of the
session of 1833 Lord Althorp announced that
the government would introduce a measure.
Eventually, on 28 Aug., the bill for the total
abolition of slavery throughout the British
dominions received the royal assent.
In spite of some forebodings, the colonial
legislatures duly carried the Act into effect.
On emancipation day, 1 Aug. 1834, a large
number of friends assembled at the house of
Buxton, and presented him with two hand-
some pieces of plate. On 22 March 1836
Buxton moved for a committee of the House
of Commons to inquire into the working of
the apprenticeship system. He spent much
time and labour in his investigation of this
question, and adduced a mass of statistical
information, ' proving, on the one hand, that
the negroes had behaved extremely well, and,
on the other, that they had been harassed by
vexatious by-laws and cruel punishments.'
The committee was granted, and subsequently
the under-secretary for the colonies intro-
duced a bill for enforcing in Jamaica mea-
sures in favour of the negroes.
In June 1837 the death of the king neces-
sitated the dissolution of parliament, and
Buxton lost his seat at Weymouth. He had
refused beforehand to lend money ' a gentle
name for bribery ' to the extent of 1,0001.
Proposals were made from twenty-seven
boroughs to Buxton to stand as a candidate,
but he declined them all.
He now sought to deliver Africa from the
slave trade, and published in 1839 ' The Afri-
can Slave Trade and its Remedy.' He re-
commended the concentration upon the coast
of Africa of a more efficient naval force ; the
formation of treaties with the native chiefs ;
the purchase by the British government of
Fernando Po, as a kind of headquarters and
mart of commerce ; the despatch of an ex-
pedition up the Niger for the purpose of
setting on foot preliminary arrangements ;
and the formation of a company for the intro-
duction of agriculture and commerce into
Africa.
The Society for the Extinction of the Slave
Trade and the Civilisation of Africa was es-
tablished ; and the government resolved to
send a frigate and two steamers to explore the
Niger, and if possible to set on foot com-
mercial relations with the tribes on its banks.
Sir Edward Parry, the comptroller of steam
machinery, was appointed to prepare the ves-
sels. Meantime Buxton's health had given
way, and he was ordered complete rest. To-
wards the close of 1839 he made a tour through
Italy, where he engaged in a close investiga-
tion into the crimes of the banditti. He
fully exposed the deeds of a notorious band,
Buxton
109
Byam
headed by Gasparoni. He also conducted
a minute examination into the state of the
Roman gaols.
On his return to England, Buxton eagerly
threw himself into his previous plans. A
baronetcy was conferred upon him 30 July
1840. For a brief period all went well with
the Niger expedition, but at length there re-
mained no doubt of its failure ; and of the
three hundred and one persons who composed
the expedition, forty-one perished from the
African fever. Sir Fowell Buxton was almost
prostrated by this failure of his plans, and his
health rapidly gave way.
In January 1843 the African Civilisation
Society was dissolved. At its closing meet-
ing Sir Fowell Buxton defended himself from
the charge of imprudence. The ill-fated Niger
expedition ultimately proved to be far from
fruitless. It gave a new impulse to the African
mind, and induced the emigration from Sierra
Leone, which opened the way into Yoruba
and Dahomey, and placed even Central Africa
within the reach of British influences. The
communication established between the river
Niger and England opened up an important
trade in cotton and other articles.
Sir Fowell Buxton now devoted himself
to the cultivation of his estates. He esta-
blished model farms and extensive plantations
at Runton and Trimingham, near Cromer,
and executed various plans of land-improve-
ment. An essay upon the management of
these estates gained the gold medal of the
Royal Agricultural Society in 1845.
In the spring of 1843 Sir Fowell, whose
health was failing, was recommended to try
the Bath waters. He died 19 Feb. 1845, and
was buried in the ruined chancel of Over-
strand church, near his family seat of North-
repps Hall, Norfolk. His benevolence, his
complete devotion to whatever was practical,
his humility, his affection for children, and
his love of animals were well known. He
was eminently a religious man. Although
attached to the church of England, Sir Fowell
Buxton never allowed sectarian differences to
interfere with his friendships and labours. The
education of the poor and their social improve-
ment were the especial objects of his endea-
vours. The prince consort headed a move-
ment for a public tribute to the memory of
Sir Fowell Buxton, and it took the form of a
statue by Thrupp, which is erected near the
monument to Wilberforce, in the north tran-
sept of Westminster Abbey. Lady Buxton,
by whom he had three sons and two daughters,
died 20 March 1872.
[Memoirs of Sir T. F. Buxton, Bart., edited by
his son, Charles Buxton, M.P., 1872 ; Times,
February 1845; Annual Eegister, 1845; the
African Slave Trade, 1839; An Inquiry whether
Crime and Misery are produced or prevented by
our present system of Prison Discipline, 1818;
Bead's Sir T. F. Buxton and the Niger Expedi-
tion, 1840 ; The Kemedy, being a Sequel to the
African Slave Trade, 1840; Binuey's Sir T. F.
Buxton, a Study for Young Men, 1845.]
G. B. S.
BYAM, HENRY, D.D. (1580-1669),
royalist divine, was born 31 Aug. 1580, at
Luckham, Somerset, the eldest of four sons
of Lawrence Byam, presented to the rectory
of Luckham 19 June 1575, and married 26 May
1578 to Anne or Agnes, daughter of Henry
Ewens or Yewings of Capton in the parish of
Stogumber. Henry matriculated at Exeter
College, Oxford, 10 June 1597, and was elected
student of Christ Church 21 Dec. 1599. He
graduated B.A. 30 June 1602, M.A. 9 June
1605, B.D. 9 July 1612, D.D. 31 Jan. 1643.
Wood praises him as ' one of the greatest
ornaments of the university,' and ' the most
acute and eminent preacher of his age.' He
succeeded his father (whose will was proved
in the middle of July 1614) in the rectory
of Luckham with Selworthy. On 17 March
1632 he was made prebendary of Exeter. His
D.D. was given him by command of the king,
just after he had escaped from the custody of
Blake, Byam's family being the first to take
up arms for the king in those parts. His
living was sequestered in 1656. He accom-
panied Charles II to Scilly when he fled from
England, and was chaplain in the isle of
Jersey until the garrison surrendered. Hence-
forth he lived in obscurity till the restoration,
when he was made prebendary of Wells, in
addition to his prebend at Exeter. He died
16 June 1669 at Luckham, and was buried
29 June in the chancel of his church. Byam's
wife and daughter were drowned in attempt-
ing to escape to Wales by sea during the
troubles. He had five sons, four of whom
were captains in the royalist army. He pub-
lished : 1. ' A Returne from Argier : a sermon
preached at Minhead, 16 March 1627-8 at
the readmission of a lapsed Christian to our
church,' 1628, 4to. Posthumously appeared
2. ' Xni Sermons : most of them preached
before his majesty King Charles II in his
exile,' &c., 1675, 8vo (edited, ' with the tes-
timony given of him at his funeral,' by Ham-
net Ward, M.D. ; two of the sermons are in
Latin, being a visitation sermon at Exeter,
and a sermon for his B.D. degree). A bust
of Byam has been placed in the Shire Hall
at Taunton.
JOHN, second son of Lawrence Byam, was
born about 1583, matriculated at Exeter
College 12 Oct. 1599, and graduated B.A.
30 June 1603, M.A. 25 May 1606. He
Byer
no
Byers
married a daughter of William Mascall
(d. 1609), rector of Clot worthy, Somerset,and
succeeded to the rectory on Mascall's death.
In May 1625 he received a dispensation to
hold also the vicarage of Dulverton, Somerset.
His living of Clotworthy was sequestered,
and he was imprisoned at Wells for loyal
correspondence. He died in 1653, and is
said to have left a manuscript account of his
sufferings.
EDWARD, third son of Lawrence Byam,
was born at the end of September 1585, ma-
triculated at Exeter College 31 Oct. 1600,
chosen demy at Magdalen 1601 (tiU 1610),
graduated B.A. 12 Dec. 1604, M.A. 13 July
1607, took priest's orders 7 April 1612, and
was presented 4 Aug. 1612 to the vicarage
of Dulverton, Somerset, which he resigned,
May 1625 to his brother John. On 30 April
1637 he was collated to the precentorship
of Cloyne, and the vicarage of Castle Lyons,
in Ireland. On 17 April 1639 he received the
prebend of Clashmore in the diocese of Lis-
more. He died at Kilwillin 6 June 1639,
and was buried at Castle Lyons. He married
22 July 1613, at Walton, Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Anthony Eaglesfield, formerly fellow
of Queen's, then vicar of Chewton Mendip,
rector of Walton-cum-Street, and prebendary
of Wells. His widow, Elizabeth Byam,
was among the despoiled and impoverished
protestants of 1642. His son William was
lieutenant-general, and governor of Guiana
and Surinam. Edward Byam wrote ' Lines
on the death of Q. Elizabeth ' in ' Acad. Ox.
Funebre Officium in mem. Eliz. Reginse,'
Oxford, 1603.
[Chronological Memoir of the three clerical
brothers, &c. Byam, by Edward S. Byam, Kyde,
n. d. (dedication 5 Aug. 1854), 2nd ed. Tenby,
1862 ; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 29,
207; Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 836;
Fasti, i. 296, &c. ; Bloxam's Eegister of Mag-
dalen College, the Demies, vol. ii. 1876, p. 1.]
A. G.
BYER, NICHOLAS (d. 1681), painter,
was a native of Drontheim in Norway. He
practised portrait and historical painting, and
on coming to England found a steady patron
in Sir William Temple, at whose seat at
Sheen, in Surrey, he lived for three or four
years (WALPOLE, Anecdotes of Painting, ed.
Wornum, ii. 479). His reputation as a face-
painter must have been considerable ; several
persons of distinction, including some mem-
bers of the royal family, sat to him. Dying
at Sheen in 1681 he is said to have been the
first person buried at St. Clement Danes after
the rebuilding of the church (REDGRAVE,
Dictionary of Artists, 1878, p. 66).
[Authorities as above.] G-. G.
BYERLEY, THOMAS (d. 1826), jour-
nalist and compiler of the ' Percy Anecdotes,'
was the brother of Sir John Byerley. Devoting
himself to literary pursuits, he became editor
of the ' Literary Chronicle ' and assistant editor
of the ' Star ' newspaper. He was also editor
of ' The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
and Instruction,' from 1823 till his death, on
28 July 1826. Under the pseudonym of Ste-
phen Collet he published 'Relics of Literature,'
London, 1823, 8vo, a collection of miscel-
lanies, including a long article, reprinted in
1875, on the art of judging the character of
individuals from their handwriting ; but his
chief claim to remembrance rests on ' The
Percy Anecdotes,' 20 vols., London, 1821-3,
12mo. These volumes, which came out in
forty-four monthly parts, were professedly
written by ' Sholto and Reuben Percy, bro-
thers of the Benedictine monastery of Mount
Benger.' Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerley,
and Sholto Percy was Joseph Clinton Robert-
son, who died in 1852. The name of the
collection of anecdotes was taken, not from
the popularity of the ' Percy Reliques,' but
from the Percy coffee-house in Rathbone
Place, where Byerley and Robertson were
accustomed to talk over their joint work.
Lord Byron insisted that ' no man who has
any pretensions to figure in good society
can fail to make himself familiar with the
" Percy Anecdotes ; " ' but in spite of this
commendation the work is now acknow-
ledged to be a compilation of no real value
or authority. The ' Anecdotes ' were re-
printed in 2 vols. in the ' Chandos Library,'
with four pages of preface by John Timbs,
F.S.A. The ' Brothers Percy ' also compiled
' London, or Interesting Memorials of its
Rise, Progress, and Present State,' 3 vols.,
London, 1823, 12mo.
[Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 214, 3rd ser.
ix. 168; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus. ;
Preface to reprint of Percy Anecdotes ; Gent.
Mag. N.S. xxxviii. 548.] T. C.
BYERS or BYRES, JAMES(1733-1817),
architect and archaeologist, died at his seat
Tonley, in the parish of Tough, Aberdeen-
shire, on 3 Sept. 1817, in the eighty-fourth
year of his age (Scots Mag. N.S. 1817, i. 196).
During a residence of nearly forty years at
Rome, from 1750 to 1790, he assiduously
collected antique sculpture. At one time he
possessed the Portland vase, which he parted
with to Sir William Hamilton. Bishop
Percy, for whom Byers procured old Ita-
lian roniances, calls him ' the pope's anti-
quary at Rome ' (NICHOLS'S Illustr. of Lit.
iii. 726, vii. 718-19). Byers also gave lec-
tures for many years on the favourite objects
Byfield
of his study, and Sir James Hall, who has
occasion in his ' Essay on Gothic Architec-
ture ' (1813) frequently to refer to his au-
thority, bears testimony to ' the very great
success with which he contributed to form
the taste of his young countrymen.' In 1767
he proposed to publish by subscription ' The
Etruscan Antiquities of Corneto, the antient
Tarquinii' (Gent. Mag. xlix. 288); but for
some not very satisfactory reason the book
never appeared, a circumstance which gave
rise to many complaints on the part of de-
luded subscribers (ibid. vol. Ixii. pt. i. pp. 201,
317, vol. Ixvi. pt. i. p. 222). Long after his
death forty-one drawings from his collection
were published with the title ' Hypogsei, or
Sepulchral Caverns of Tarquinia, the capital
of antient Etruria; edited by Frank Howard,'
folio, London (1842). Byers was elected^n
honorary fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
on 24 Feb. 1785, and was also a corresponding
member of the Society of Arts and a fellow
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His
profile is given at p. 101 of T. Windus's
' Description of the Portland Vase,' and there
is a portrait of him by Sir H. Raeburn.
[New Statistical Account of Scotland, xii. 614 ;
Thorn's History of Aberdeen, ii. 193-4.] G-. G-.
BYFIELD, ADONIRAM (d. 1660), pu-
ritan divine, the third son of Nicholas By-
field [q. v.], was probably born before 1615.
He was educated at Emmanuel College,
Cambridge, and does not appear to have had
any profession except the ministry, though
Zachary Grey styles him ' a broken apothe-
cary.' In 1642 he was chaplain to Sir Henry
Cholmondeley's regiment. On 6 July 1643
he was appointed one of the two scribes to
the "Westminster Assembly, the other being
Henry Roborough. Their amanuensis or as-
sistant was John Wallis, afterwards Savilian
professor of geometry. The scribes were not
members of the assembly of which they kept
the record, nor were they at first allowed,
like the members, to wear their hats. (For a
minute account of the way in which Byfield
discharged the public part of his duties see
Baillie's ' Letters and Journals,' ii. 107 sq.)
In common with the other divines the scribes
were entitled ito the allowance (irregularly
paid) of four shillings a day. For their spe-
cial trouble they received the copyright of
the 'Directory' (ordered to be published
13 March 1645), which they sold for 400J. ;
the anticipated circulation must have been
large, as the selling price was threepence per
copy. It was during the sitting of the as-
sembly that Byfield obtained first the sine-
cure rectory, and then the vicarage of Ful-
ham. Isaac Knight succeeded him in the
i Byfield
rectory in 1645, and in the vicarage in 1657.
At some unknown date between 1649 and
1654 Byfield received an appointment to the
rectory of Collingbourn Ducis, Wiltshire,
from which Christopher Prior, D.D., had been
removed. Prior died in 1659, when Byfield
was probably duly instituted, for he was not
disturbed at the Restoration. In 1654 he
was nominated one of the assistant commis-
sioners for Wiltshire, under the ordinance of
29 June for ejecting ' scandalous, ignorant,
and insufficient ministers and schoolmasters,'
and was the most active among them. Walker
gives very full details of his procedure in the
case against Walter Bushnell, vicar of Box
(ejected in 1656). Byfield's assembly prac-
tice had made him as sharp as a lawyer in
regard to all the catches and technical points
of an examination. We hear little more
about him. He died intestate in London, in
the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, at the
end of 1660 or very beginning of 1661. His
wife, Katharine, survived him, and adminis-
tered to his effects on 12 Feb. 1661. Granger
describes a portrait of Byfield ' with a wind-
mill on his head and the devil blowing the
sails.' Butler has canonised him in ' Hudi-
bras' (pt. iii. canto ii.) as a type of those
zealots for presbytery whose headstrong tac-
tics opened the way to independency. Walker
has immortalised the tobacco-pipe which By-
field flourished in his satisfaction at the judg-
ment on Bushnell.
Byfield's most important work consists of
the manuscript minutes, or rather rough
notes, of the debates in the assembly, which
are almost entirely in his very difficult hand-
writing. They are preserved in Dr. Williams's
library, and were edited by Mitchell and
Struthers in 1874. According to Mitchell
( Westminster Assembly, pp. 409, 419), Byfield
had published a catechism some years before
the assembly met. In 1626 he edited his
father's ' Rule of Faith,' a work on the
Apostles' Creed. To Byfield is ascribed ' A
Brief View of Mr. Coleman his new modell
of Church Government,' 1645, 4to. He also
assisted Chambers in his ' Apology for the
Ministers of the County of Wiltshire, . . .'
1654, 4to.
[Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, i.
178 sq., ii. 68 ; Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss),
iii. 670, &c. ; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 1802,
ii. 447 ; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii.
374 ; authorities cited above.] A. Or.
BYFIELD, JOHN (/. 1830), wood en-
graver, held a high position in his profes-
sion, but no details of his life are recorded.
He and his sister Mary cut the illustrations
for an edition of Holbein's ' Icones Veteris
Byfield
112
Byfield
Testament!,' published in 1830, and he exe-
cuted with great skill and fidelity, in con-
junction with Bonner, the facsimiles of Hol-
bein's ' Dance of Death,' published by Francis
Douce in 1833. He also engraved the illus-
trations for an edition of Gray's ' Elegy,' pub-
lished in 1835.
[Kedgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the Eng-
lish School, 8vo, 1878.] L. F.
BYFIELD, NICHOLAS (1579-1622),
puritan divine, a native of Warwickshire, son
by his first wife of Richard Byfield, who be-
came vicar of Stratford-on-Avon in January
1597. Nicholas was entered at Exeter Col-
lege, Oxford, in Lent term 1596, as ' aged 17
at least,' which gives 1579 as the latest date
for his birth ; and this answers to the original
inscription on his portrait, ' An Dni 1620
^Etatis suse 40,' thus making 1579 the earliest
date. The second inscription (see below)
shows that he was born in the last third of
the year. He was four years at the univer-
sity, but though a severe student did not
graduate. Taking orders he intended to exer-
cise his ministry in Ireland ; but on his way
thither he preached at Chester, and was
prevailed upon to remain as one of the city
preachers, without cure. He lectured at St.
Peter's church, and was extremely popular.
John Bruen [q. v.] was one of his hearers,
and a kind friend to him. In 1611 he got
into a controversy on the sabbath question in
a curious way. A Chester lad, John Brere-
wood, was one of his catechists, and had been
trained by Byfield in strict Sabbatarian habits.
Consequently, when the lad went to London
to serve as an apprentice, he refused to do his
master's errands on Sundays, such as fetching
wine and feeding a horse, and obeyed only
under compulsion. The lad wrote to Byfield
with his case of conscience, and was told to
disobey. His uncle, Edward Brerewood [q.v.],
first professor of astronomy in Gresham Col-
lege, noticed the lad's depression, and, learn-
ing its cause, gave him contrary advice, taking
the ground that the fourth commandment was
laid only upon masters. Brerewood opened
a correspondence with Byfield on the subject.
The discussion was not published till both
Brerewood and Byfield had been long dead.
It appeared at Oxford as 'A Learned Treatise
oftheSabaoth, . . .' 1630, 4to; second edition,
1631, 4to. Byfield's part in it is curt and harsh ;
his manner roused Brerewood, who charges
his correspondent with ' ignorant phantasies '
[see BYFIELD, RICHARD]. On 31 March 1615
Byfield was admitted to the vicarage of Isle-
worth, in succession to Thomas Hawkes.
It appears from his own statement in a dedi-
cation (1615) to Edward, earl of Bedford,
whose chaplain he was, that his reputation
had suffered from ' unjust aspersions.' What
he means by saying that he had been cleared
' by the mouth and pen of the Lord's anointed,
my most dread soveraigne,' is not evident.
At Isleworth he was diligent in preaching
twice every Sunday, and in giving expository
lectures every Wednesday and Friday. He
kept up his public work till five weeks before
his death, though for fifteen years he had been
tortured with the stone. He died on Sunday,
8 Sept. 1622. His portrait, painted on a
small panel, hangs in Dr. Williams's library.
The face is lifelike and rather young for his
years, with a pleasing expression. Painted
over the lower part of the panel is a porten-
tous figure of the calculus from which he suf-
fered, accompanied by this inscription : ' Mr.
Nicholas Byfield, minister some times in the
Citty of Chester, but last of Isleworth, in the
county of Midellsex, where he deceased on
the Lord's day September the 8, anno domini
1622, aged neer 43 years. The next day after
his death he was opened by Mr. Millins, the
chirurgion, who took a stone out of his blad-
der of this forme, being of a solid substance
16 inches compasse the length way, and 13
inches compass in thicknesse, which weighed
35 ounces auerdupois weight.' This corre-
sponds closely with the account given in
William Gouge's epistle prefixed to Byfield's
' Commentary upon the second chapter of the
First Epistle of Saint Peter,' 1623, 4to.
Gouge, who was present at the autopsy, makes
the measurements of the calculus 15 inches
about the edges, above 13 about the length,
and almost 13 about the breadth. By his
wife, Elizabeth, Byfield had at least eight
children, of whom the third was Adoniram
[q.v.]
Byfield's works were numerous, and most
of them went through many editions, some
as late as 1665. His expository works, which
are Calvinistic, have been praised in modern
times. His first publication was ' An Essay
concerning the Assurance of God's Love and
of Man's Salvation,' 1614, 8vo. This was
followed by ' An Exposition upon the Epistle
to the Colossians . . . being the substance
of neare seaven yeeres weeke-dayes sermons,'
1615, fol. Brook gives abridged titles of
fourteen works (eight being posthumous),
adding ' several sermons,' but these are in-
cluded in one or other of the collections
previously enumerated in the list. The date
of ' The Beginning of the Doctrine of Christ,'
&c., is not 1609, as given by Brook, but 1619,
12mo. ' The Marrow of the Oracles of God,'
1620, 12ino (the last thing published by By-
field himself), is a collection of six treatises,
which includes one separately enumerated by
Byfield
Byles
Brook, ' The Promises ; or a Treatise showing
how a godly Christian may support his heart,'
&c., 1618, 12mo. Brook does not fully spe-
cify the issues of separate parts of Byfield's
exposition of 1 Peter, nor does he give any
indication of the later editions of the works.
[Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 323;
Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, ii. 297.;
Cox's Literature of the Sabbath Question, 1865,
i. 159 ; authorities cited above ; extracts from
registers of St. Peter's, Chester, and Isleworth.]
A. G.
BYFIELD, RICHARD (1598 P-1664),
ejected minister, was a native of Worcester-
shire, according to Wood ; yet as he is said
to have been sixteen years of age in 1615
(WooD) and ' setat. 67 ' (CALAMY) at his
death in December 1664, he was probably
born in 1598 ; and since his father became
vicar of Stratford-on-Avon in January 1597,
it is reasonable to conclude that, like his
elder half-brother Nicholas Byfield [q. v.], he
was a Warwickshire man, though his bap-
tism is not to be found in the Stratford-on-
Avon register. He was a son of Richard
Byfield by his second wife. In Michaelmas
term 1615 he was entered either as servitor or
batler at Queen's College, Oxford. He gradu-
ated B.A. 19 Oct. 1619, M.A. 29 Oct. 1622.
He was curate or lecturer at Isleworth, pro-
bably during his brother's incumbency (i.e.
before 8 Sept. 1622), and had some other
' petite employments ' before being presented
(prior to 1630) by Sir John Evelyn to the
rectory of Long Ditton, Surrey. He sat in
the Westminster Assembly, but was not one
of the divines nominated in the original ordi-
nance of 12 June 1643, being appointed, per-
haps through the influence of his nephew
Adoniram [q. v.], to fill the vacancy caused by
the death of Daniel Featley, D.D. (d. 17 April
1645). During the protectorate he quar-
relled with Sir John Evelyn, his patron, about
the reparation of the church, and Calamy re-
counts their amicable reconciliation through
the intervention of Cromwell. In 1654 he
was appointed one of the assistant commis-
sioners for Surrey, under the ordinance of
29 June for the ejection of scandalous, &c.
ministers and schoolmasters. He held his
rectory, with a high character for personal
piety and zeal in the ministry, until the
passing of the Uniformity Act. At his ejec-
tion he was the oldest minister in Surrey,
i.e. probably in seniority of appointment, for
he was not an old man. Leaving Long
Ditton, he retired to Mortlake, where he was
in the habit of preaching twice every Sun-
day in his own family, and did so the very
Sunday before his death. He died suddenly
VOL. VIII.
in December 1664, and was buried in Mort-
lake church.
Some of the works of his brother Nicholas
have been assigned to Richard ; he edited a
few of them. His own works are : 1. ' The
Light of Faith and Way of Holiness,' 1630,
8vo. 2. < The Doctrine of the Sabbath Vin-
dicated, in Confutation of a Treatise of the
Sabbath written by Mr. Edward Brerewood
against Mr. Nicholas Byfield,' 1631, 4to [see
BREREWOOD, EDWARD, and BYFIELD, NICHO-
LAS], Byfield attacks the spelling ' Sabaoth '
adopted by Brerewood. 3. ' A Brief Answer
to a late Treatise of the Sabbath Day,' 1636 ?
(given to Byfield by Peter Heylin, in ' The
History of the Sabbath,' 2nd edit. 1636, 4to ;
it was in reply to ' A Treatise of the Sabbath
Day,' &c., 1635, 4to, by Francis White, bishop
of Ely, who rejoined in ' An Examination and
Confutation,' &c. 1637, 4to). 4. 'ThePowerof
the Christ of God,' &c. 1641, 4to. 5. 'Zion's
Answer to the Nation's Ambassadors,' &c.
1645, 4to (fast sermon before the House of
Commons on 25 June, from Is. xiv. 32).
6. ' Temple Defilers defiled,' 1645, 4to (two
sermons at Kingston-on-Thames from 1 Cor.
iii. 17 ; reissued with new title-page ' A short
Treatise describing the true Church of Christ,'
&c., 1653, 4to, directed against schism, ana-
baptism and libertinism). 7. 'A message
sent from . . . Scotland to ... the Prince
of Wales,' 1648, 4to (letter from Byfield).
8. ' The Gospel's Glory without prejudice to
the Law,' &c., 1659, 8vo (an exposition of
Rom. viii. 3, 4). 9. ' The real Way to good
Works: a Treatise of Charity,' 12mo (not
seen ; mentioned by Calamy ; Palmer makes
two works of it).
[Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 668, &c. ;
Calamy's Account, 1713, 664 ; Palmer's Nonconf.
Memorial, 1803, iii. 301 ; Cox's Literature of the
Sabbath Question, 1865, i. 160, &c. ; Minutes of
the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly, 1874,
pp. 90, 126; information from Eev. Gr. Arbuth-
not, Stratford-on-Avon.] A. Gr.
BYLES, JOHN BARNARD (1801-
1884), judge, was eldest son of Mr. Jeremiah
Byles, timber-merchant, of Stowmarket in
Suffolk, by his wife, the only daughter of
William Barnard, of Holts in Essex. He
was born at Stowmarket in 1801 . He became
a member of the Inner Temple, and, after
reading as a pupil in the chambers of Chitty,
the great pleader, and for a time practising as
a special pleader himself, at 1 Garden Court,
Temple, was called to the bar in November
1831. He joined the Norfolk circuit and
attended sessions in that county. In 1840
he was appointed recorder of Buckingham,
and in 1843 was raised to the degree of
Byles
114
Bylot
serjeant-at-law. When in 1846 the court of
common pleas was opened to all the members
of the bar, Byles received a patent of pre-
cedence in all courts. He rapidly acquired
a large and leading practice both on his own
circuit, which he led for many years after
Sir Fitzroy Kelly became solicitor-general,
and also in London. About 1855 he resigned
his recordership, and in 1857 was appointed
queen's Serjeant, along with Serjeants Shee
and Wrangham. This was the last appoint-
ment of queen's Serjeants, and he was the
last survivor of the order (see PULLING,
Order of the Coif, 41, 182). Though he
never sat in parliament, he was always a
strong and old-fashioned conservative. He
was once a candidate for Aylesbury, but
being a rigid Unitarian, and constant at-
tendant at a Unitarian chapel, was unac-
ceptable to the church party. Nevertheless
he was selected by Lord Cranworth in June
1858, though of opposite politics, for promo-
tion to the bench, and when Sir Cresswell
Cresswell retired, he was made a knight and
justice of the common pleas. He proved a
very strong judge, courteous, genial and hu-
morous, and of especial learning in mercan-
tile affairs ; he was one of the judges who
won for the court of common pleas its high
repute and popularity among commercial
litigants. Nevertheless, both as an advocate
and a judge his mind was marked by a defect
singular in one of his indubitable ability.
He displayed a serious want of readiness in
his perception of the facts of a case. What,
however, he lacked in rapidity of mind, he
made up for by extreme accuracy. He was
an expert shorthand writer. In January 1873
failure of health and memory and inability
any longer to sustain the labour of going
circuit compelled him to resign his judgeship.
He received a pension, and along with Baron
Channell became, on 3 March, a member of
the privy council, and for some time, when
his presence was required, he continued to
attend the sittings of the judicial committee.
He continued to reside at Hanfield House,
Uxbridge, where and in London he was a
well-known figure on his old white horse,
and was occupied largely with literary in-
terests until his death, which occurred on
3 Feb. 1884, in his eighty-third year. In the
course of his lifetime he published a consider-
able number of works. Before he was called
he delivered a series of lectures on commer-
cial law in the hall of Lyons Inn, and the
first of these, delivered 3 Nov. 1829, he pub-
lished at the request and risk of friends, and
without alteration, under the title of ' A
Discourse on the Present State of the Law
of England.' About the same time he pub-
I lished ' A Practical Compendium of the Law
of Bills of Exchange,' which has since be-
come the standard work on this branch of
law, and has reached a fourteenth edition.
j The sixth edition he dedicated to Baron
j Parke, and in the preparation of the ninth he
I was assisted by his son Maurice. During the
long vacation of 1845, while absent from
London, he composed a pamphlet called ' Ob-
servations on the Usury Laws, with sugges-
tions for Amendment and a Draft Bill,' which
he published in the October following. A
keen protectionist, he wrote in 1849 a work
called ' Sophisms of Free Trade,' which at
once ran through eight editions, and was
reprinted by his permission, but without his
name, in 1870, with his notes brought up to
date, by the Manchester Reciprocity Associa-
tion. The book expressly disclaims party
motives and displays considerable and wide
reading. In 1875, after his retirement, he
published ' Foundations of Religion in the
Mind and Heart of Man.' It is non-contro-
versial and didactic, and was written at dif-
ferent times and at considerable intervals.
He was twice married, first in 1828 to a
daughter of Mr. John Foster, of Biggleswade,
who died very shortly after the marriage ;
second in 1836 to a daughter of Mr. James
Webb, of Royston, who died in 1872. He
had several children ; the eldest son, Walter
Barnard, was called to the bar in 1865, the
second, Maurice Barnard, in 1866, and was
appointed a revising barrister in 1874.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges ; Davy's Athenae
Suffolcienses, iv. 35 ; Davy's Suffolk Collections ;
Add. MS. 19121, pp. 351-2 ; Men of the Time,
ed. 1879 ; Law Journal, viii. 33 ; Solicitors'
Journal, 9 Feb. 1884; Serjeant Ballantine's Re-
miniscences, p. 190.] J. A. H.
BYLOT, ROBERT (fi. 1610-1616), navi-
gator, is first mentioned as a seaman of the
Discovery, in the expedition to the North-
West under Hudson in 1610-11. His being
rated as master's mate, and the jealousy
which this promotion excited, were among
the causes of the mutiny of the ship's com-
pany and the death of the captain [see
HUDSON, HENRY]. No blame seems to have
been attributed to Bylot; and in 1612-13
he was again employed under Button, who
completed the exploration of Hudson's Bay
[see BUTTON, SIR THOMAS]. It seems pro-
bable that in 1614 he was employed with
Gibbons, and in 1615 he was appointed to the
command of the Discovery, with Baffin as
his mate. The accounts of the voyages' in
this and the following year were written by
Baffin, who was unquestionably the more
scientific navigator, and whose name has
Byng i
rightly been associated with the principal
results [see BAFFIN, WILLIAM]. Bylot's
name appears in the list of the company of
the merchants-discoverers of the North- West
Passage ( Calendar of State Papers, Colonial
East Indies, 26 July 1612), but nothing
further is known concerning him. Even the
spelling of his name is quite uncertain. It
appears in the different forms of Bylott,
Bilot, and Byleth.
[Eundall's Voyages towards the North-West
(Hakluyt Society), p. 97.] J. K. L.
BYNG, ANDREW, D.D. (1574-1651),
Hebraist, was born at Cambridge, and edu-
cated at Peterhouse in that university. He
was elected regius professor of Hebrew in
1608, and died at Winterton in Norfolk in
1651. Byng was one of the translators em-
ployed in the authorised version of the Bible.
About 1605 we find a decree of the chapter
of York to keep a resident iary's place for him,
as he was then occupied in this business.
[Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 448; Brit.
Mus. Cat. ; Drake's Eboracum, app. p. Ixxvii ;
Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 228.] J. M.
BYNG, GEORGE, VISCOUNT TOERINGTON
(1663-1733), admiral, eldest son of John
Byng, of a family settled for many centuries
at Wrotham in Kent, was born on 27 Jan.
1662-3. In 1666 his father, having got into
pecuniary difficulties, was obliged to part
with the Wrotham estate, and went over to
Ireland, where he would seem to have en-
gaged in some speculations which were so
far from fortunate that he lost what money
had remained to him, and in 1672 he re-
turned to England, flying, apparently, from
his creditors. In 1678, by the interest of
Lord Peterborough with the Duke of York,
George Byng entered the navy as a king's
letter-boy on board the Swallow. On 28 Nov.
he was transferred to the Reserve, and again
in June 1679 to the Mary Rose. The Mary
Rose was paid off in June 1680, and in the fol-
lowing April young Byng was entered as a
volunteer on board the Phoenix, commanded
by Captain Blagg. The Phoenix was imme-
diately afterwards sent to Tangier, where
Byng's maternal uncle, Colonel Johnstone,
was in garrison and on friendly terms with
General Kirk, who, understanding that the
boy complained of his captain's ' ill-temper,'
offered him a cadetship in the grenadiers.
This he gladly accepted, and was discharged
from the Phoenix on 10 May 1681. In six
months' time he was appointed as ensign,
and early in 1683 was promoted to a lieu-
tenancy. As this was held to be a grievance
by his seniors, over whose head he had been
Byng
promoted, Kirk appointed him as lieutenant
of a galley which attended on the garrison,
and shortly afterwards to the acting com-
mand of the Deptford ketch. From this,
however, he was superseded at the end of
the year by order of Lord Dartmouth, who
consented at Kirk's request to give him a
commission as ' lieutenant in the sea-service,'
and appointed him (February 1683-4) to the
Oxford. On the arrival of the fleet in England
the officers and men of the Oxford were turned
over to the Phcenix, fitting for a voyage to
the East Indies, on which she finally sailed
from Plymouth, 28 Nov. 1684. Byng had
had his commission in the army confirmed by
the king, and was at this time lieutenant of
Charles Churchill's company of grenadiers,
from which he received leave of absence to
attend to his duty on board the Phoenix.
The work at Bombay consisted chiefly
in suppressing European 'interlopers' and
native pirates. These last were rude ene-
mies and fought desperately when attacked.
On one occasion Byng was dangerously
wounded. The service against the ' inter-
lopers ' required tact, energy, and moral,
rather than physical, courage, and Captain
Tyrrell's views of it differed much from those
held by Sir Josiah Child, the representative
of the Company. It was thus that during
an illness of Tyrrell's, Byng, being for the
time in command, had an opportunity, by
entering more fully into his designs, of cul-
tivating Child's goodwill, with, as it would
seem, very profitable results. Afterwards,
on their return to England, 24 July 1687,
Sir Josiah offered him the command of one
of the Company's ships, which Byng declined
' as being bred up in the king's service ; ' and
when the Phoenix was paid off he rejoined
his regiment, then quartered at Bristol.
In May 1688 Byng, still a lieutenant, was
appointed to the Mordaunt, and in Septem-
ber to the Defiance. While serving in this
subordinate employment, he was, on Kirk's
suggestion and recommendation, appointed as
an agent for the Prince of Orange, with the
special work of winning over certain captains
in the fleet. He was afterwards deputed by
these captains to convey their assurances of
goodwill and obedience to the prince. He
found William at Sherborne : the prince ' pro-
mised that he would take particular care to
remember him,' and entrusted him with a
reply to the officers of the fleet, and a more
confidential letter to Lord Dartmouth, which
may be said to have fixed his wavering mind
(Brit. Mus. Addl. MS. 31958, ff. 15-21;
DALKTMPLE'S Memoirs, appendix to pt. i.,
314 et seq.) This was the turning-point of
Byng's fortune ; he had judiciously chosen
i2
Byng
116
Byng
the winning side, and on 22 Dec. 1688 was
appointed captain of the Constant Warwick,
from which in April 1689 he was removed
to the Reserve, and on 15 May to the Dover,
in which he served during the summer in
the main fleet under the Earl of Torrington,
and was employed during the autumn and
winter in independent cruising. On 20 May
1690 he was appointed to the Hope of 70
guns, which was one of the red squadron in
the unfortunate action off Beachy Head. In
September he was moved into the Duchess,
which, however, was paid off a few weeks
afterwards. His career afloat being now well
established, in November he resigned his
commission in the army to his brother John,
and in January 1690-1 was appointed to the
Royal Oak of 70 guns, in which he continued
till the autumn of 1692 ; but, having been at
the time delayed in the river refitting, he
had no share in the glories of Barfleur and
La Hogue. In September Sir John Ashby
hoisted his flag on board the Albemarle, to
which Byng was appointed as second-captain
(Admiralty Minute, 12 Sept.), and which he
paid off in the following November. In the
spring of 1693 he was offered the post of first-
captain to the joint admirals, but refused it
out of compliment to his friend Admiral Rus-
sell, then in disgrace [see RTJSSELL, EDWARD,
Earl of Orford] ; but accepted a similar offer
made him in the autumn of the same year by
Russell, then appointed commander-in-chief
in the Mediterranean. He continued on this
station for the next two years, and in 1696
was appointed one of the commissioners for
the registry of seamen, which office he held
till its abolition in 1699.
In 1701, when the Earl of Pembroke was
appointed lord high admiral, Byng was nomi-
nated as his secretary and first-captain if, as
he intended, he took the command in person.
This would have made Byng virtually com-
mander-in-chief ; for Lord Pembroke was
neither sailor nor soldier, and had no experi-
ence in commanding men ; but before the
nomination took effect the king died, and
the Churchills, who came into power, visited,
it was believed, on Byng, the old grudge
which they bore to Admiral Russell, whose
follower and partisan Byng was. He asked
for a flag, which he considered due to him
after having been so long first-captain to the
admiral of the fleet ; it was refused him. He
applied to be put on the half-pay of his rank ;
this also was refused him ; and he was told
plainly that he must either go to sea as a
private captain or resign his commission.
As his means did not permit him to quit his
profession, he, under this constraint, accepted
the command of the Nassau, a 70-guu ship
(29 June 1702), and in the course of July
joined the fleet under Sir Clowdisley Shovell,
which, after cruising off Brest for two months,
looking out for the French under Chateau-
Renaud, went south towards Cape Finisterre.
On 10 Oct. Byng, having been separated from
the fleet, fell in with Sir George Rooke, but
was at once despatched in search of Sir
Clowdisley, with orders to him to join the
admiral at once. Knowing that the attack
on Vigo was imminent, Byng tried to excuse
himself from this duty, but without success ;
and though he made all haste to send the
orders to Shovell, he rejoined the fleet only
on the evening of the 12th, after the attack
had been successfully made, and nothing re-
mained but to complete the work of destruc-
tion.
On 1 March 1702-3 Byng was promoted
to be rear-admiral of the red, and was sent
out to the Mediterranean in the Ranelagh as
second in command under Shovell. While
there he was detached with a small squadron
to Algiers, where he succeeded in renewing
the treaty for the protection of English com-
merce ; and towards the end of the year he
returned to England, arriving in the Channel
just in time to feel some of the strength of
the great storm, though not in its full fury,
and happily without sustaining any serious
damage. In 1704, still in the Ranelagh, he
commanded, as rear-admiral of the red squa-
dron, in the fleet under Sir George Rooke in
the Mediterranean ; he had the immediate
command of the detachment of the fleet
actually engaged in the bombardment and
capture of Gibraltar ; and from his position in
the centre of the line of battle, had a very
important share in the battle of Malaga. On
his return home he was (22 Oct.) knighted by
the queen, ' as a testimony of her high appro-
bation of his behaviour in the late action.'
On 18 Jan. 17045 he was advanced to the
rank of vice-admiral, and during the summer
of that year commanded a squadron in the
Channel for the protection of trade. In
March 1705-6 he sailed in the Royal Anne
for Lisbon and the Mediterranean, where he
took part in the operations on the Spanish
coast and in the siege of Toulon, under the
command of Sir John Leake and Sir Clow-
disley Shovell, which last he accompanied
on his homeward voyage, and narrowly es-
caped being lost with him on 22 Oct. 1707.
On 26 Jan. 1707-8 Sir George Byng was
raised to the rank of admiral of the blue,
and appointed to command the squadron in
the North Sea for the protection of the coast
of England or Scotland, then threatened
with invasion from France in the cause of
the Pretender But jealousy and disputes
Byng
117
Byng
between the French officers frittered away
much valuable time ; and when just ready
to sail the titular king of England was inca-
pacitated by a sharp attack of measles. All
these delays were in Byng's favour, and
when the expedition put to sea in the midst
of a gale of wind on 10 March the English
fleet was collected and intercepted it oft' the
entrance of the Firth on 13 March, captured
one ship, the Salisbury, and scattered the
rest, which eventually got back to Dunkirk
some three weeks afterwards (Memoires du
Comte de Forbin, 1729, ii. 289 et seq.*) In
England the question was at once raised
whether Byng had done all that he might.
A parliamentary inquiry was demanded. It
was said that he could have captured the
whole French fleet as easily as he had cap-
tured the one ship, by some that his ships
were foul, and by others the fault lay with
the lord high admiral. Finally the discontent
subsided, and the house passed a vote of
thanks to Prince George for his promptitude ;
Edinburgh presented Byng with the freedom
of the city ; and the queen offered to appoint
him as one of the prince's council, which,
however, he declined. In October he carried
the Queen of Portugal to Lisbon, and during
the following year, 1709, commanded in chief
in the Mediterranean. In November he was
appointed one of the lords commissioners of
the admiralty under his old chief Russell,
now Earl of Orford. Orford's term of office
at that time was short, but Byng continued
at the admiralty till early in 1714, and re-
turned to it in the following October, after
the accession of George I. In 1715 he was
appointed to command the fleet for the de-
fence of the coast, and succeeded so well in
stopping and preventing all supplies to the
adherents of the Pretender, that the collapse
of the insurrection was considered to be
mainly due to his efforts, in acknowledgment
of which the king created him a baronet,
and gave him a diamond ring of considerable
value. In 1717, on information that a new
movement in support of the exiled Stuarts
was meditated by Charles XII of Sweden,
Sir George Byng was sent into the Baltic
with a strong squadron.
On 14 March 1717-18 he was advanced to
the rank of admiral of the fleet, and was
sent to the Mediterranean in command of a
fleet ordered to restrain the Spanish attack
on Sicily, in contravention of the treaty of
Utrecht. He sailed from Spithead on 15 June
1718, and on 21 July anchored before Naples.
Having conferred with the viceroy, and re-
ceived more exact intelligence of the move-
ments of the Spaniards, at that time besieging
the citadel of Messina by sea and land, he
sailed from Naples on the 26th, and on the 29th
arrived off the entrance of the Straits. From
this position he wrote to the Spanish general,
proposing ' a cessation of arms in Sicily for
two months, in order to give time to the
several courts to conclude on such resolu-
tions as might restore a lasting peace,' adding
that if he failed in this desirable work 'he
should then hope to merit his excellency's
esteem in the execution of the other part of
his orders, which were to use all his force to
prevent farther attempts to disturb the do-
minions his master stood engaged to defend,'
to which the general replied that ' he could
not agree to any suspension of arms,' and
' should follow his orders, which directed
him to seize on Sicily for his master the king
of Spain.' Historically, this correspondence
is important, for it was afterwards asserted
' that the English fleet surprised that of Spain
without any warning, and even contrary to
declarations in which Spain confided with
security ' (CORBETT, 5).
Early on the morning of 30 July the Eng-
lish fleet entered the Straits ; before noon their
advanced ships had made out the Spaniards
far to the southward; the English followed;
the chase continued through the night, the
Spaniards retiring in long, straggling line, the
English in no order, but according to their
rates of sailing. About ten o'clock the next
morning (31 July 1718), being then some three
leagues to the east of Cape Passaro, the leading
English ships came up with the sternmost of
the Spaniards. They would have passed, for
Byng's orders were to push on to the van ; but
the Spaniards opening fire, they were com-
pelled to engage, and the action thus took the
form necessarily most disastrous to the Spa-
niards ; for, as successive ships came up, the
Spaniards were one by one overpowered by
an enormous superiority of force, and almost
the whole fleet was captured without a possi-
bility of making any effective resistance. So
little doubt was there of the result from be-
ginning to end, that in the words of Cor-
bett, the historian of the campaign ' the
English might be rather said to have made a
seizure than to have gotten a victory.' The
English had indeed a considerable superiority
of numbers, but not to an extent commensu-
rate with the decisive nature of their suc-
cess ; this was solely due to the measures
adopted by the Spaniards, which rendered
their defeat inevitable. There was little
room for any display of genius on the part
of Byng, though he was deservedly com-
mended for the advantage he had taken of
the enemy's incapacity ; and to the world at
large the issue appeared, as broadly stated,
that the English fleet of twenty-one sail had
Byng
118
Byng
utterly destroyed a Spanish fleet of eighteen
ships of the line beside a number of smaller
vessels. The king wrote his congratulations
to the admiral with his own hand ; so also
did the emperor ; and the Queen of Denmark,
who claimed a personal acquaintance with
him, sent friendly messages through the
master of her household.
With the destruction of the Spanish fleet
the purely naval work of the expedition was
accomplished, but for the next two years
Byng continued in Sicilian and Neapolitan
waters, keeping the command of the sea and
co-operating with the German forces so far
as possible. In August 1720 the Spaniards
evacuated Sicily and embarked for Barce-
lona ; and Byng, having convoyed the Pied-
montese troops to Cagliari, acted as the
English plenipotentiary at the conferences
held there for settling the surrender of Sar-
dinia to the Duke of Savoy, who, in acknow-
ledgment of his services, presented him with
his picture set in diamonds. On his return
home, immediately after these events, he was
appointed rear-admiral of Great Britain and
treasurer of the navy ; in the following Janu-
ary he was sworn in as member of the privy
council ; and on 9 Sept. 1721 was raised to
the peerage with the titles of Baron Southill
and Viscount Torrington. In 1724 he re-
signed the treasurership of the navy in favour
of his eldest son ; in 1725 he was installed
as a knight of the Bath ; and on the acces-
sion of George II was appointed first lord of
the admiralty, 2 Aug. 1727. He held this
office till his death on 17 Jan. 1732-3. He
was buried at Southill in Bedfordshire.
The victory which Byng won off Cape
Passaro, by its extraordinary completeness,
gave him a perhaps exaggerated reputation
as a naval commander ; but independently
of this, his uniform success in all his under-
takings sufficiently bears out Corbett's eulo-
gium of him as a man who devoted his whole
time and application to any service entrusted
to him ; who ' left nothing to fortune that
could be accomplished by foresight and ap-
plication.' He describes him also as a man
firm and straightforward in his dealings, im-
partial and punctual in the performance of
whatever he engaged in. He was accused
by his enemies of meanness, greediness, and
avarice, and several of his letters show that
he was in the habit of looking closely after
his pecuniary interests ; but to one brought
up as he had been, the value of money may well
have been unduly magnified, and lessons of
parsimony must have been inculcated till it
became almost a second nature.
He married on 5 March 1691 Margaret,
daughter of James Master of East Langden
in Kent, who survived him by many years,
dying at the age of eighty-seven in 1756. He
had a numerous family, consisting of eleven
sons and four daughters.
His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller is in
the Painted Hall at Greenwich, to which it
was presented by George IV. There is also
another portrait by J. Davidson, a bequest of
Mr. Corbett in 1751 ; and a picture of the
action off Cape Passaro, by Richard Paton,
presented by William IV, but of no historical
value.
[Brit. Mus. Addl. MS. 31958 (this is the
manuscript Life of Lord Torrington -which has
been quoted or referred to by Collins, Dalrymple,
and others as in the Hardwicke Collection, and
being undoubtedly what it claims to be, "written
from Byng's own journals and papers, is of the
very highest authority, though of course its
views are very partial ; it ends abruptly in 1705) ;
Charnock's Biog. Nav. ii. 194; Collins's Peerage
(1779), vi. 100; An Account of the Expedition
of the British Fleet to Sicily in the years 1718,
1719, and 1720, under the command of Sir
George Byng, Bart., &c. (published anonymously,
dedication signed T. C.), by Thomas Corbett,
secretary of the admiralty ; Letters and other
documents in the Public Kecord Office, more
especially Home Office Eecords (Admiralty), No.
48.] J. K. L.
BYNG, JOHN (1704-1757), admiral, was
the fourth son of George Byng, viscount Tor-
rington [q. v.] He entered the navy in March
1718 on board the Superb, commanded by
his maternal uncle, Streynsham Master,
served in her for eighteen months in the
Mediterranean, and was present at the defeat
of the Spaniards off Cape Passaro, in which
the Superb had a very prominent share [see
ARNOLD, THOMAS]. After serving in the Or-
ford, the Newcastle, and the Nassau, he was
moved into the Torbay. He passed his ex-
amination on 31 Dec. 1722, and continued in
the Torbay, with the rating of able seaman,
till 26 Feb., when he was removed, with the
same rating, to the Dover, and on 20 June
was promoted into the Solebay. On 11 April
1 724 he was appointed to the Superb as second
lieutenant ; and when that ship was ordered
to the West Indies, he was superseded from
her at his own request on 29 March 1726.
On 23 April he was appointed to the Burford
as fourth lieutenant, continued in her on the
home station as third and as second lieutenant,
and at Cadiz, on 26 May 1727, was discharged
to the Torbay for a passage to England. On
8 Aug. 1727 he was promoted to the com-
mand of 'the Gibraltar frigate in the Medi-
terranean ; in the summer of 1728 he was
moved into the Princess Louisa, also in the
Mediterranean, and continued in her for
Byng
119
Byng
three years, when she was paid off at Wool-
wich. He was immediately appointed to the
Falmouth, and commanded her in the Medi-
terranean for the next five years. The details
of this service present no interest : nothing
could be more uneventful ; but it is note-
worthy on that very account. The son of
Lord Torrington, admiral of the fleet and
first lord of the admiralty, could pretty well
choose his own employment, and he chose to
spend his time for the most part as senior or
sole officer at Port Mahon. This may have
been very pleasant, but it was not exercising
him in the duties of his rank, or training
him for high command. In June 1738 he
was appointed to the Augusta; in April
1739 was moved into the Portland ; and in
the following October was transferred to the
Sunderland, in which he joined Vice-admiral
Haddock off Cadiz. Early in 1742 he was
appointed to the Sutherland, and went in her
for a summer cruise to Newfoundland, com-
ing home again in the autumn. In 1743 he
was appointed to the St. George, and com-
manded her in the fleet under Sir John Norris
in February 1743-4. He continued in her
in the spring of 1744, when Sir Charles
Hardy hoisted his flag on board for the
voyage to Lisbon. On 8 Aug. 1745 he was
promoted to be a rear-admiral, and was im-
mediately appointed to command in the
North Sea under Admiral Vernon, then com-
mander-in-chief in the Downs, and after his
resignation under Vice-admiral Martin. Dur-
ing the period of this service he was, in 1746,
a member of the courts-martial on Vice-
admiral Lestock and on Admiral Mathews.
In 1747 he went out to the Mediterranean as
second in command ; on 15 July he was ad-
vanced to the rank of vice-admiral of the
Blue ; and by the death of Vice-admiral
Medley, on 5 Aug., became commander-in-
chief in the Mediterranean, where he con-
tinued till after the conclusion of the peace.
When war again broke out in 1755, Byng
was appointed to command a squadron in the
Channel ; in the autumn he relieved Sir
Edward Hawke in the Bay of Biscay ; and
in the following March was promoted to be
admiral of the blue, and was ordered to pro-
ceed to the Mediterranean with a small
squadron intended for the defence of Minorca,
which, by the concurrent testimony of every
agent in those parts, was then threatened by
a French armament from Toulon. The govern-
ment was very slow to believe this, and was
rather of opinion that the armament was
destined for North America, or for some opera-
tions in the west, perhaps against Ireland. The
squadron sent out with Byng was therefore
by no means so large as it might easily have
been made ; and the admiral's instructions
laid most stress on the probability of the
enemy passing the Straits. They were, how-
ever, perfectly explicit on the possibility of an
attack on Minorca, in the event of which he
was, in so many words, ordered ' to use all
possible means in his power for its relief.'
At Gibraltar he received intelligence that
the enemy had landed on Minorca, had over-
run the island, and was laying siege to Fort
St. Philip. This was exactly the contingency
which his instructions specially and positively
provided for. But the governor of Gibraltar
refused to part with the troops which he was
ordered to send, alleging that they could not
be spared from the garrison ; and Byng, who
from the first had shown himself very ill
satisfied with the condition and force of his
squadron, accepted his refusal without pro-
test, and sailed from Gibraltar on 8 May.
On the 19th he was off Port Mahon, and
sent in the frigates to see what was the
position of affairs, and to communicate with
the acting-governor, General Blakeney. But
before they could get near enough, the
French squadron came in sight, and Byng,
afraid that the frigates might be cut off,
hastily recalled them. The wind, however,
fell light, and the two fleets did not get
near each other that day, nor till the after-
noon of the next, 20 May, when, the enemy
having yielded the weather-gage, about two
o'clock Byng made the signal to bear down,
and some twenty minutes after the signal to
engage. In point of numbers the two fleets
were equal ; but the French ships were
larger, carried heavier guns and more men.
A comparison of the two shows that the
English flagship Ramillies, of 90 guns, threw
a broadside of 842 Ibs., while the French
flagship Foudroyant, of 80 guns, threw a
broadside of 1,000 Ibs. The difference through-
out was in favour of the French, but by no
means so much as was afterwards said ; and
in point of fact, the difference, whatever it
was, in no way affected the result ; for the
French stood entirely on the defensive. This
was their great advantage ; for while the
English were running down to the attack
from the position to windward, Byng insisted
on stopping to dress his line, which was thus
iinduly exposed. The van, under Rear-
admiral West, did, indeed, bear down as or-
dered, and engage at very close quarters ;
but the rear, under the commander-in-chief,
backed their topsails, got thrown into dis-
order, and never came within effective gun-
shot. The ships in the van, thus unsupported,
sustained great loss, and the whole French
line, which had been lying by with their
main topsails square, filled, and passing slowly
Byng
120
Byng
the disabled English ships, fired their broad-
sides into them, then wore in succession and
reformed on the other tack. When Byng
extricated his rear from the confusion into
which he had himself thrown it, he found
his van so shattered as to be incapable of
forming line and renewing the action. The
French, on their side, remained as before on
the defensive, and as they were not attacked,
there was no further fighting. During the
night the fleets separated ; and after waiting
four days to refit, Byng summoned a council
of war, the resolutions of which seemed to
him to warrant his leaving Minorca to its
fate, and he accordingly returned with the
fleet to Gibraltar. When the news of the
defeat reached England the wrath of the
ministry and the fury of the populace were
excessive. Hawke was at once sent out to
supersede Byng, and send him home under
arrest. He arrived at Spithead on 26 July.
He was forthwith conveyed to Greenwich,
and kept there, in a room in the hospital,
under close and ignominious arrest. He was
ordered to be tried by court-martial, and the
court accordingly met at Portsmouth on
28 Dec. After continuous sitting till 27 Jan.
1757 this court pronounced that Admiral
Byng had not done his utmost to relieve St.
Philip's Castle, which it was his duty to re-
lieve ; had not done his utmost to take,
seize, and destroy the enemy's ships which
it was his duty to engage, or to assist those
of his majesty's ships which it was his duty
to assist. For this neglect of duty the court
adjudged him to fall under part of the 12th
article of war, and according to the stress of
that article sentenced him to death. To this
sentence they added an earnest recommenda-
tion to mercy, on the grounds that they did
not believe the admiral's misconduct arose
either from cowardice or disaffection, and
that they had passed the sentence only be-
cause the law, in prescribing death, left no
alternative to the discretion of the court.
The king refused to entertain this recom-
mendation, and the sentence was duly carried
out. Admiral Byng was shot on the quarter-
deck of the Monarque, in Portsmouth Har-
bour, on 14 March 1757.
The strife of parties was at the time ex-
ceedingly bitter, and it suited the opponents
of the ministry, past and present, to urge
that Byng was being executed as a cloak to
ministerial neglect. They thus made com-
mon cause with the personal friends of Byng,
and a furious outcry was raised, not so much
against the sentence as against the execution,
which was roundly denounced as ' a judicial
murder.' And this phrase, having caught
the popular fancy, has been repeated over
and over again with parrot-like accuracy.
Another statement, less sweeping but wholly
incorrect, has also been often repeated, and
has been accepted by even serious historians :
it is said that Admiral Byng was shot for
' an error in judgment,' a fault which, as Lord
Macaulay has properly shown, may be a very
good reason for not employing a man again,
but does not amount to a crime. It is right,
therefore, to point out that neither in the
charge against Admiral Byng, nor in the
article of war under which he was found
guilty, nor in the sentence pronounced on him,
is there a single word about 'error in judg-
ment.' The language of the article is perfectly
clear and explicit, limiting its scope to those
persons who shall commit the offences detailed
' through cowardice, negligence, or disaffec-
tion.' When, therefore, the court found Byng
guilty under this article, and at the same
time acquitted him of cowardice and disaf-
fection, it did really, and with all the plain-
ness of which the English language is
capable, find him guilty of negligence of
negligence so gross as to be in the highest
degree criminal. This being the decision of
the court, the only question is, Should the
sentence have been carried out ? But the fact
is that the court did not and could not give
any reason for its recommendation except the
severity of the law ; and to this point the most
rational of Byng's friends applied themselves.
Admiral West, urging it on his cousin, Lord
Temple, the first lord of the admiralty, wrote :
' The court have convicted him, not for cowar-
dice nor for treachery, but for misconduct, an
offence never till now thought capital, and
now, it seems, only made so because no alter-
native of punishment was found in that
article they bring him under.' On this .it
may be remarked that West, and all Byng's
supporters, insisting on the novelty, the un-
heard-of nature of the sentence, and the
severity of the law which permitted no alter-
native, or the absurdity of the law which took
all discretionary power from the court, lost
sight of the fact that it was the gross abuse of
this discretionary power in a score of instances
during the last war which had forced the par-
liament to abolish it ; that absolute necessity
had led to the passing of this stringent act
only eight years before, and that, as these had
been years of peace, it was still in effect new.
It was unfortunate for Byng that he should
be the first to feel its severity and its strin-
gency : it was unfortunate for the country
that it should have been goaded to an act so
severe and stringent : but having passed
that act, to have shrunk from the first occa-
sion of giving it effect would have been im-
becile.
Byng
121
Byng
When parliament refused to interfere, and
the king finally rejected the recommendation
to mercy, the admiral was left for execution,
and in face of the inevitable walked to his
death with a calm and noble bearing. His
misconduct might be due to a want of reso-
lution, to an unnerving sense of responsibility,
or possibly, even probably, to a feeling of
disgust at the government which had sent
him out with a command so limited when it
might have given him a force that would
have swept the Mediterranean. But this
want of temper, of confidence, of resolution,
though leading to criminal misconduct, was
not cowardice, certainly not that type of
cowardice of which the court acquitted him,
that cowardice which regards death or per-
sonal danger as the most terrible of evils.
Of this, in his last moments, Admiral Byng
showed himself entirely free. His demea-
nour on the Monarque's quarter-deck has
been the theme of many a panegyrist ; and
though panegyric on Admiral Byng seems
strangely misplaced, it may be most truly
said of him
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.
Admiral Byng was never married. His
remains were buried in the family vault at
Southill, with a monumental inscription in
which even the usual license is somewhat
exceeded.
[Official Documents in the Public Kecord
Office; Brit. Mus. Addl. MS. 31959, a statement
of the case against Byng, prepared, apparently,
for Lord Chancellor Hardwicke ; Minutes of the
Court-martial (published by order, fol. 1757).
The copy of this in the British Museum (5805,
g 1 (2)) is bound up with many other papers
of great interest, including a series of plans of
the engagement, a picture of the execution, and
a portrait ; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs,
vol. i. ; Walpole's Mem. of George II, vol. ii.
The literature on the subject of Byng's execution
is most voluminous. The list under Byng's name
occupies four pages in the British Museum printed
Catalogue, and this is a very small portion of
the whole. The number of contemporary pamph-
lets on each side of the question, for the most
part equally scurrilous, is very great ; but they
have no historical value, and the same may be
said of most modern criticisms. Sir John Bar-
row, in his Life of Anson, discusses the subject
at some length, but with so little care that he
bases a grave objection to the court-martial on
the junior rank of the president, Vice-admiral
Smith, and names as the three from whom the
selection ought to have been made Admiral
Steuart, who was at the time on his deathbed,
and died on 30 March 1757, Admiral Martin,
who died 17 Sept. 1756, two months before the
convening of the court, and the Hon. George
Clinton, who had retired from active service for
more than sixteen years.] J. K. L.
BYNG, SIE JOHN, EARL OF STRAFFORD
(1772-1860), general, was the third son of
Major George Byng of Wrotham Park, Mid-
dlesex, andM.P. for that county, a grandson of
Admiral Sir George Byng, first Viscount Tor-
rington [q. v.], by Anne Connolly, daughter of
Lady Anne Wentworth, who was eventually
co-heiress of the last Earl of Strafford of the
second creation. He was born in 1772, and
entered the army as ensign in the 33rd regi-
ment on 30 Sept. 1793, and was promoted
lieutenant on 1 Dec. 1793 and captain on
24 May 1794. With the 33rd, then com-
manded by Colonel Wellesley, he served in
the disastrous campaigns in Flanders of
1793-5 and throughout the retreat to Bremen,
and was wounded at the skirmish of Gelder-
malsen. In 1797 he was appointed aide-de-
camp to General Vyse, then commanding the
southern district of Ireland, and was much
engaged in the suppression of the rebellion of
1798 in Ireland, when he was again wounded.
In 1799 he became major in the 60th regi-
ment, and in 1800 lieutenant-colonel of the
29th, and in 1804 he exchanged into the
3rd guards, with which he served in Hanover
in 1805, at Copenhagen in 1807, and in the
Walcheren expedition in 1809. In 1810 he
was promoted colonel, and in 1811 ordered to
]oin the army under Lord Wellington in
Portugal. On 7 July 1811 the Duke of York
wrote to Lord Wellington recommending
him warmly ( Wellington Supplementary Des-
patches, vii. 177), and shortly after Colonel
Byng's arrival in Portugal in September 1811
he was posted to the command of a brigade
in the second division under General Hill,
and retained it until the end of the Peninsular
war.
He was with Hill's corps in Estremadura
and Andalusia, and so was not present at the
battle of Salamanca. In 1813 his brigade
was hotly engaged at Vittoria, and was at-
tacked by Soult at the pass of Roncesvalles,
when that marshal tried to break through
Wellington's lines, and though Byng had to
fall back on Sorauren, his heroic resistance
enabled Wellington to concentrate enough
troops to beat the French. He was engaged
in the attack on the entrenched camp on
the Nivelle, where he was wounded, at the
passage of the Nive at Cambo, before
Bayonne. For his conduct at this battle he
was afterwards ' permitted to bear as an
honourable augmentation to his arms the
colours of the 31st regiment, which he planted
in the enemy's lines, as an especial mark in
appreciation of the signal intrepidity and
Byng
122
Bynneman
heroic valour displayed by him in the action
fought at Mougerre, near Bayonne, on 18 Dec.
1813.' Major-general Byng, as he had been
promoted on 4 June 1813, continued to com-
mand his brigade on the right of the army
throughout the advance on Toulouse, and
was present at the actions at Espellette and
Garris, at the battle of Orthes, the storming
of the camp of Aire, and the battle of Tou-
louse, and on the conclusion of the war was
made a K.C.B. and K.T.S. and governor of
Londonderry and Culmore. Byng commanded
the second brigade of the first or guards
division under General Cooke at Waterloo,
and after the battle his brigade headed the
advance into France, took Peronne, occupied
the heights of Montmartre, and formed part
of the army of occupation.
Byng saw no more service. In 1819 he
received the command of the northern dis-
trict, in 1822 the colonelcy of the 2nd West
India regiment, in 1825 he was promoted
lieutenant-general, and in 1828 received the
colonelcy of the 29th regiment. In 1828 he
became commander-in-chief of the forces in
Ireland and was sworn a privy councillor of
that kingdom, but resigned his command in
1831 to enter the House of Commons as
M.P. for Poole. As one of the very few
distinguished generals who supported the
Reform Bill, he was looked upon with especial
favour by Lord Melbourne, and was created
by him in 1835 Baron Strafford of Har-
mondsworth, county Middlesex. His elder
son held office under Lord Melbourne and
Lord John Russell, and his services were
recompensed by his father, the old general,
being created Earl of Strafford and Viscount
Enfield in 1847. He had been made a G.C.B.
in 1828, a G.C.H. in 1831, and a Knight of
Maria Theresa of Austria and of St. George
of Russia after the battle of Waterloo, and in
1841 he was promoted full general. In 1850
he succeeded the Duke of Cambridge as
colonel of the Coldstream guards, in 1855 he
was made a field-marshal, and on 3 June
1860 he died at his residence in London, at
the age of eighty-eight.
[Wellington Despatches ; Koyal Military Ca-
lendar ; Obituary Notice in the Times.]
H. M. S.
BYNG, THOMAS (d. 1599), master of
Clare Hall, Cambridge, matriculated as a
sizar at Peterhouse in May 1552 ; proceeded
B.A. in 1556, was admitted fellow of his
college 7 Feb. 1557-8, and commenced M.A.
1559, and LL.D. 1570. In 1564, when Eliza-
beth visited Cambridge, Byng made a Latin
oration in her presence on the excellence of
a monarchical government; the speech is
printed in Nichols's ' Progresses ' (iii. 63).
He was proctor in the same year, and on
2 March 1564-5 became public orator. He
was incorporated M.A. of Oxford on 6 Sept.
1566, while Queen Elizabeth was on a visit
to that university. Byng became prebendary
of York 18 Jan. 1566-7 ; master of Clare
Hall, Cambridge, 1571 ; vice-chancellor of
the university 1572 ; a member of the college
of civilians 21 April 1572 ; regius professor
of the civil law at Cambridge 18 March
1573-4 ; a special commissioner for the vi-
sitation of St. John's College, Cambridge,
13 July 1576; visitor of Ely Cathedral
6 Sept. 1593, and dean of the peculiars of
Canterbury and dean of arches 24 July 1595.
On 27 July 1578, with other dignitaries of
the university, he visited the queen at Audley,
and for a second time read a Latin oration
in her presence. He died in December 1599,
and was buried 23 Dec. at Hackney Church,
Middlesex. By his wife, Catherine (1553-
1627), he had ten sons and two daughters.
Besides writing the orations mentioned above
Byng edited Carr's translations from Demo-
sthenes (1571), and contributed Latin and
Greek verses to Wilson's translation of De-
mosthenes(1570), and to the university collec-
tions issued on the restoration of Bucer and
Fagius (1560), and on the death of Sir Philip
Sidney (1587). Many of Byng's official letters
and publications are preserved among the
university archives at Cambridge.
[Cooper's Athenae Cantab, ii. 279-80, 551 ;
Coote's Civilians, 49 ; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, i.
173 ; Le Neve's Fasti Angl. Eccl.] S. L. L.
BYNHAM, SIMON. [See BINHAM.]
BYNNEMAN, HENRY (d. 1583), prin-
ter, was apprenticed to Richard Harrison,
printer, on 24 June 1560. His master died
in 1562, and he apparently served the re-
mainder of his apprenticeship with Reginald
Wolfe. He became a liveryman of the Sta-
tioners' Company 30 June 1578. He seems
to have opened a shop in Paternoster Row as
early as 1566. He afterwards moved to the
sign of the Mermaid in Knightrider Street,
and finally to Thames Street, near Baynard's
Castle. Archbishop Parker encouraged him
in many ways, allowed him to open a shed
at the north-west door of St. Paul's, at the
sign of the 'Three Wells,' and asked Burgh-
ley to allow him to print ' a few usual Latin
books for the use of grammarians, as Terence,
Virgil, Tulley's offices, &c., a thing not done
here in England before or very rarely '(SXRYPB,
Parker, i. 552). In 1580 Bynneman was
called to the bar of the House of Commons
for having published in behalf of Arthur Hall,
M.P. for Grantham, a libel on Sir Robert Ball,
Byrd
123
Byrd
the late speaker of the house, and on other
members. The book was suppressed. Byn-
neman gave his testimony against Hall. Hall
alone was punished (D'EwES, Journals of
Parliaments under Elizabeth, pp. 291-309).
Bynneman died in 1583.
Bynneman's publications were very nume-
rous and of varied character. His name first
appears in print on the title-page of Robert
Crowley's ' Apologie or Defence,' in 1566.
The ' Manuall of Epictetus ' in English was
his second publication, followed by the second
volume of Paynter's ' Palace of Pleasure ' in
the same year. Bynneman was the publisher
of George Turberville's ' Booke of Faulconrie '
(1575) and 'Noble Arte of Venerie' (1575) ;
of George Gascoigne's ' Poems' (1575-6), and
of Gabriel Harvey's Latin works (1577-8).
He printed the first edition of Holinshed's
' Chronicles ' in 1574, and had licenses for
printing several Latin and Greek books. In
1583 'the first foure bookes of Virgil's
" ^Eneis," ' by Richard Stanihurst, bears his
imprint.
His usual device is a mermaid in an oval
cartouch, with the motto ' Omnia tempus
habet ; ' but he often employed in his earlier
publications the device of a brazen serpent,
which was the property of his master, Regi-
nald Wolfe; in his later books he often
used ' a doe passant on a half wreath,' with
the motto ' Cerva charissima et gratissima
hinnulus prod.'
[Ames's Typographical Antiquities (ed. Her-
bert), ii. 965 et seq. ; Arber's Transcript of Sta-
tioners' Eegisters, i. passim ; Bullen's Cat. of
Books in Brit. Mus. before 1640; Bigmore and
Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, 96.]
S. L. L.
BYRD, WILLIAM (1538 P-1623), mu-
sical composer, is generally supposed to have
been the son of Thomas Byrd, a gentleman
in the Chapel Royal under Edward VI and
Mary. This statement is pure conjecture;
there were several families who bore the
same name at this period. The only evi-
dence corroborative of it is that William
Byrd's second son was named Thomas, pos-
sibly after his grandfather. Similarly it has
been said that ' in the year 1554 he was
senior chorister of St. Paul's, and conse-
quently about fifteen or sixteen years old ;
and his name occurs at the head of the school
in a petition for the restoration of certain
obits and benefactions which had been seized
under the Act for the Suppression of Col-
leges and Hospitals in the preceding reign '
(RIMBAULT, Some Account of William Byrd
and his Works, prefixed to the reprint of
Byrd's Mass, published by the Musical An-
tiquarian Society in 1841) ; but even this
detailed statement cannot be verified, as the
petition is not to be found in the Public Re-
cords, and the proceedings referring to the
pensions in the exchequer ( Queen's Remem-
brancer, Memoranda Rolls, 1 and 2 Phil, and
Mary, 232, 238, 262 b) do not contain the
name of William Byrd, though two other
choristers named John and Simon Byrd are
mentioned. It is more probable that he was
a native of Lincoln and a descendant of Henry
Byrd or Birde, mayor of Newcastle, who died
at Lincoln 13 July 1512, and was buried in
the cathedral. All that is known for certain
of Byrd's early life is that he was 'bred up to
musick under Thomas Tallis ' (WooD, Bod-
leian MS. 19 D. (4), No. 106), and was ap-
pointed organist of Lincoln probably as early
as 1563. On 25 Jan. 1569 Robert Parsons,
gentleman of the Chapel Royal, was drowned
at Newark-upon-Trent, and on 22 Feb. follow-
ing Byrd was sworn in his place. The entry
in the Chapel Royal Cheque Book records that
he was from Lincoln. It was in all probability
during his residence in Lincoln that he mar-
ried Julian (or, as her name otherwise appears,
Ellen), daughter of one ' M. Birley of Lin-
colnshire ' ( Visitation of Essex, 1634, Harl.
Soc. Publications, vol. xiii.) It is possible that
immediately on his appointment at the Chapel
Royal Byrd did not leave Lincoln. At all
events he must have kept up some sort of
connection with the place, for on 7 Dec. 1572
the Chapter Records chronicle the appoint-
ment of Thomas Butler as master of the
choristers and organist, 'on y e nomination
and commendation of Mr. William Byrd.'
In London Byrd seems rapidly to have made
his way, sharing with Tallis the honorary
post of organist of the Chapel Royal. On
22 Jan. 1575 Elizabeth granted the two com-
posers and the survivors of them a license to
print and sell music, English or foreign, and
to rule, print, and sell music-paper for twenty-
one years, all other printers being forbidden
to infringe this patent under a penalty of
forty shillings (AKBEK, Transcript of the
Stationers 1 Registers, ii. 15). This monopoly
has generally been considered to have been
very productive to the patentees, but that it
was not so regarded by contemporary printers
is proved by a passage in a petition relating
to these vexatious restrictions, which was
written in 1582 : 'Bird and Tallys, her maies-
ties servauntes, haue musike bokes with note,
which the complainantes confesse they wold
not print nor be furnished to print though
there were no preuilege' (ib. p. 775). The
first work which Byrd published (if the un-
dated masses are excepted) was a collection
of motets, ' Cantiones, quse ab argumento
Byrd
124
Byrd
sacrse vocantur, quinque et sex partium.' Part
of these were written by Byrd and part by
his master, Tallis. The book was dedicated
to Elizabeth and printed by Thomas Vau-
trollier ; it appeared in 1575. Prefixed are
eulogistic verses by Richard Mulcaster and
Ferdinando Richardson, and at the end is an
epitome of the patent granted to the authors.
In 1578 Byrd was living at Harlington in
Middlesex, where he had a house until 1588,
and possibly for longer. Like most of the
members of the Chapel Royal, although out-
wardly he had conformed to the state reli-
gion, yet he remained throughout his life a
catholic at heart. The first evidence we have
of this is a quotation given by Dr. Rimbault
(GROVE, Diet, of Music, i. 287 6) from a list
of places frequented by recusants near Lon-
don, in which his name occurs as living at
Harlington in 1581, and ' in another entry
he is set down as a friend and abettor of
those beyond the sea, and is said to be re-
siding with Mr. Lister, over against St. Dun-
stan's, or at the Lord Padgette's house at
Draighton.' It was probably on account of
his religion that he lived all his life some
way out of London, where he would be less
likely to attract attention. About 1579 Byrd
set a three-part song, ' Preces Deo fundamus,'
in Thomas Legge's Latin play ' Richardus III '
(Harl. MS. 2412). In 1585 Tallis died,
and under the terms of the patent the mo-
nopoly of printing music became Byrd's sole
property. Accordingly, during the next few
years he seems to have been unusually active
in composition. His first important work
was entitled ' Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of
Sadnes and Pietie, made into Musicke of fiue
parts : whereof, some of them going abroade
among diuers, is vntrue coppies, are heere
truely corrected, and th' other being Songs
very rare and newly composed, are heere
published, for the recreation of all such as
delight in Musicke.' This work (consisting
of five part-books) was published by Thomas
Easte, ' the assigne of W. Byrd,' in 1588.
Himbault (Bibliotheca Madrigaliana, p. 1)
mentions another edition without date ; pro-
bably this is the one referred to in an entry
in the Stationers' Company's Registers (Ait-
BER, Transcript, ii. 477) as being already in
print on 6 Nov. 1587. The work is dedicated
to Sir Christopher Hatton ; at the back of
the title are eight quaint ' Reasons briefely
set downe by th' auctor to perswade euery
one to learne to sing.' In the same year
(1588) Byrd contributed two madrigals to a
collection made by one N. Yonge, entitled,
' Musica Transalpina. Madrigals translated
out of foure, fiue, and sixe parts, chosen out
of diuers excellent Authors, with the first
and second part of La Verginella, made by
Maister Byrd, vpon two Stanz's of Ariosto,
and brought to speake English with the rest.'
By this it will be seen that he was the com-
poser of the first English madrigal. In the
following year Byrd published two important
works. The first was entitled ' Songs of
sundrie natures, some of grauitie, and others
of mirth, fit for all companies and voyces.'
This consists of six part-books, and is dedi-
cated to Sir Henry Gary, lord Hunsdon. It
was published by Thomas Easte, and a second
edition appeared in 1610, published by Easte's
widow, Lucretia, ' the assigne of William
Barley.' The second work was the ' Liber
Primus Sacrarum Cantionum quinque vo-
cum,' which was published by Easte on 25 Oct.,
and dedicated to the Earl of Worcester. An
edition in score of this was published by the
Musical Antiquarian Society in 1842. In
1590 Byrd contributed two settings of ' This
sweet and merry month of May ' to Thomas
Watson's 'First Sett of Italian Madrigalls
Englished,' and in 1591 (4 Nov.) he pub-
lished the ' Liber Secundus Sacrarum Can-
tionum,' dedicated to Lord Lumley. These
printed books do not by any means represent
all that Byrd produced at this period of his
career. As a composer of music for the vir-
ginals the English equivalent for the spinet
he was indefatigable, and fortunately many
collections of these characteristic pieces are
still in existence, though but few of them
have been printed. The most important are
the manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, wrongly known as ' Queen Eliza-
beth's Virginal Book,' which contains an im-
mense number of Byrd's compositions, and
the beautiful manuscript ' Ladye Novell's
Booke,' belonging to the Marquis of Aber-
gavenny, which consists entirely of Byrd's
virginal lessons, and was copied by John
Baldwin, a singing-man of Windsor, who
finished the volume on 11 Sept. 1591 (GROVE,
Diet, of Music, iii. 305 et seq.) Somewhere
about this time, certainly in 1598, and pro-
bably earlier, Byrd and his family were living
at Stondon Place, Essex, where for several
years he was involved in a curious dispute.
This estate belonged to a member of the
Shelley family who in 1598 was committed
to the Fleet for taking part in a popish plot.
The property was sequestrated, and a lease
for three lives was granted to Byrd by the
crown. William Shelley, the rightful owner,
died about 1601, and his heir paid a large
sum for the restoration of his lands in 1604,
whereupon Shelley's widow attempted to
oust Byrd from Stondon, which formed part
of her jointure. This drew from James I a
letter of remonstrance (State Papers, Dom.
Byrd
125
Byrd
James 1, Add. Ser. vol. xxxvi.), commanding
her to permit Byrd quietly to enjoy the pos-
session of the property ; but in spite of this
Mrs. Shelley persevered, and four years later
(27 Oct. 1608) she presented a petition to
the Earl of Salisbury, praying for the resto-
ration to her of Stondon Place, and setting
forth in an enclosure eight grievances against
Byrd. The chief of these are that Byrd
in 1698 began a suit against Mrs. Shelley to
force her to ratify the lease he had from
Elizabeth; but being unsuccessful, he com-
bined with the individuals who held her
other jointure lands to maintain suits against
her, and when all these had submitted ex-
cept 'one Petiver,' who also finally sub-
mitted, ' the said Bird did give him vile and
bitter words ; ' that when told that he had
no right to the property, he replied ' that yf
he could not hould it by right, he would
holde it by might ; ' that he had cut down
much timber, and for six years had paid no
rent (ib. vol. xxxvii.) What the end of the
dispute was does not transpire. Mrs. Shelley
in 1608 was seventy years old, and as both
Byrd's son and grandson occupied the same
property, it is probable that she did not live
much longer. While Byrd was in the posses-
sion of lands belonging to a recusant, and
was actively engaged in performing his duties
in the Chapel Royal, where he was present
at the coronation of James I, he was not
only being presented with his family for
popish practices before the archidiaconal court
of Essex, but he had actually been excom-
municated since 1598. From the year 1605
until 1612, and probably later, it was regu-
larly recorded that the Byrd family were
' papisticall recusants.' Mrs. Byrd in parti-
cular, if the reports of the minister and
churchwardens of Stondon are to be believed,
seems to have been very zealous in making
converts. Apart from these incidents, the
particulars of Byrd's life consist chiefly of
the list of his published works. In 1600 he
contributed some instrumental music to ' Par-
thenia,' a collection of virginal lessons by
Bull, Orlando Gibbons, and Byrd. On 15 Oct.
1603 Easte published a work bearing the
following title : ' Medulla Musicke. Sucked
out of the sappe of Two [of] the most famous
Musitians that euer were in this land, namely
Master Wylliam Byrd . . . and Master Al-
fonso Ferabosco . . . either of whom having
made 40 tie severall waies (without conten-
tion), shewing most rare and intricate skill
in 2 partes in one vpon the playne songe
" Miserere." The which at the request of a
friend is most plainly sett in severall distinct
partes to be sunge (with moore ease and vn-
derstanding of the lesse skilfull), by Master
Thomas Robinson,' &c. (ARBER, Transcript of
Stationers' Registers, iii. 247). All copies of
this work seem to have disappeared, and its
existence was only revealed by the publica-
tion of the entry in the Stationers' Registers.
Thomas Morley {Introduction, ed. 1608, p.
115) mentions how Byrd (' never without
reverence to be named of musicians') and
Ferabosco had a friendly contention, each
one judging his rival's work, and he adds
that they both set a plain song forty different
ways ; but it was not previously known
that the result of their labours had been
printed. In 1607 appeared the first and se-
cond books of ' Gradualia, seu Cantionum
Sacrarum,' &c., of which the first book was
dedicated to the Earl of Northampton in
terms which seem to imply that the author
had received some special protection or bene-
fit from that nobleman : ' Te habui, atque
etiam (ni fallor) habeo, in afliictis familise
meae rebus benignissimum patronum.' In
the same dedication Byrd alludes to the in-
crease in the salaries of the gentlemen of the
chapel which was obtained by the earl's help
in 1604. A second edition of this book ap-
peared in 1610. The second book of the
' Gradualia ' is dedicated to Lord Petre ; a
second edition was issued by the author in
1610. In 1611 appeared 'Psalmes, Songs,
and Sonnets : some solemne, others joyfull,
framed to the life of the Words : Fit for
Voyces or Viols, &c.' This work was dedi-
cated to Francis, earl of Cumberland, and
contains a quaintly written address by the
author ' to all true louers of musicke.' The
last work which Byrd contributed to was
Sir Thomas Leighton's ' Teares or Lamenta-
cions of a Sorrowfull Soule ' (1614), in which
four of his sacred vocal compositions are
contained. Byrd's death took place (pro-
bably at Stondon) on 4 July 1623. It is re-
corded in the ' Chapel Royal Cheque Book '
as that of a ' father of musicke,' a title which
refers as much to his age as to the venera-
tion in which he was held by his contempo-
raries, a feeling which was expressed by
Peacham (Compleat Gentleman, ed. 1622,
p. 100) as follows : ' In Motets, and Musicke
of pietie and deuotion, as well for the honour
of our Nation, as the merit of the Man, I
preferre aboue all other our Phoenix, M.
William Byrd, whom in that kind, I know
not whether any may equall. I am sure,
none excell, euen by the iudgement of France
and Italy. . . . His Cantiones Sacrce, as also
his Gradualia, are meere Angelicall and
Diuine ; and being of himselfe naturally dis-
posed to Grauitie and Pietie, his veine is not
so much for light Madrigals or Canzonets,
yet his Virginella, and some others in his
Byrhtferth
126
Byrhtferth
first set, cannot be mended by the best Italian
of them all.' In addition to the works already
mentioned, Byrd wrote three masses, for
three, four, and five voices respectively. These
were all printed, but the copies of the two
former (although they have been traced in
sale catalogues from 1691 to 1822) disap-
peared. The third mass is in existence,
but seems to have been published without
a title-page (possibly owing to theological
reasons); it was reprinted in score by the
Musical Antiquarian Society in 1841. Manu-
script compositions by Byrd are to be found
in the British Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum,
Buckingham Palace, Lambeth Palace, Music
School (Oxford), Christ Church (Oxford),
and Peterhouse (Cambridge) collections. Ac-
cording to an old tradition (alluded to in
some prefatory verses to Blow's ' Amphion
Anglicus ') a canon by Byrd is preserved
in the Vatican, engraved on a golden plate ;
this has generally been supposed to be the
well-known 'Non nobis, Domme,' the author-
ship of which is usually ascribed to Byrd.
Byrd's arms were three stags' heads ca-
boshed, a canton ermine, and not those en-
graved in the Musical Antiquarian Society's
edition of the mass. By his wife, Ellen Bir-
ley, he had five children : 1. Christopher,
who married Catherine, daughter of Thomas
Moore of Bamborough, Yorkshire, and had a
son named Thomas , who was living at Stondon
in 1634 ; 2. Thomas, who was a musician,
and lived at Drury Lane ; he acted as deputy
to John Bull [q. v.] at Gresham College ;
3. Elizabeth, who married twice (her hus-
bands' names were John Jackson and Bur-
dett) ; 4. Rachel, who married Ed ward Biggs ;
and 5. Mary, who married Thomas Falcon-
bridge. A portrait of him which was pro-
bably imaginary was engraved by Vander-
gucht for a projected ' History of Music ' by
N. Haym, a work which never appeared.
[The documents quoted above from the State
Papers and Archidecanal Records were printed
by the writer in the Musical Review (1883),
Nos. 19, 20, 21 ; Cheque Book of the Chapel
Royal (Camden Soc. 1872), pp. 2, 10, 183; in-
formation from the Rev. A. R. Maddison and Mr.
W. H. Cummings ; Registers of Harlington ;
authorities quoted above.] W. B. S.
BYRHTFERTH, less correctly written
BRIDFERTH (Jl. 1000), mathematician,
was a monk (in priest's orders) of the abbey
of Ramsey, and studied under the cele-
brated Abbo of Fleury, who taught there for
two years. Leland mentions that Byrht-
ferth was described by some as a monk of
Thorney, and it has been conjectured that he
may have originally belonged to that monas-
tery, and migrated to Ramsey soon after the
foundation of the abbey there about 970.
He subsequently became the head of the
Ramsey school, and his extant works have
for the most part the appearance of being
notes of his lectures to his pupils. From a
passage in his commentary on Bseda's work,
' De Temporum Ratione,' it appears that he
had travelled in France, as he mentions an
observation on the length of shadows which
he had made at Thionville (' in Gallia in loco
qui Teotonis villa dicitur ').
The only undisputed writings of Byrht-
ferth which have hitherto been printed are
his commentaries on four treatises of Bseda
(' De Temporum Ratione,' ' De Natura Rerum,'
' De Indigitatione,' and ' De Ratione Uncia-
rum '), which may be found in the edition
of Baeda published at Cologne in 1612. Con-
sidering the age in which they were written,
these commentaries display a surprising de-
gree of scientific knowledge, and the wide
range of classical reading which they exhibit
is perhaps still more remarkable. Some in-
teresting extracts from them are given in
Wright's ' Biographia Britannica Literaria.'
Bale ascribes to Byrhtferth two works,
entitled respectively, ' De Principiis Mathe-
maticis ' and ' De Institutione Monachorum.'
Of these writings no trace is known to exist ;
but a manuscript in the Bodleian Library
(Ashmole, 328) contains a treatise of Byrht-
ferth's, bearing the title ' Computus Lati-
norum ac Grsecorum Hebrseorumque et
^Egyptiorum necnon et Anglorum. This
work is written in Latin, with an Anglo-
Saxon translation at the foot of each page.
From the account given of this manuscript
by Dr. Stubbs in the introduction to his
' Memorials of St. Dunstan,' it would appear
to be well worthy of publication, as affording
valuable information respecting the state
of scientific knowledge among the Anglo-
Saxons, and the methods of teaching adopted
in their schools. It contains the following
couplet, which is interesting as being probably
the earliest attempt at imitating the classical
hexameter in English :
Cum nu, Halig Gast! Biitan the ne bist thu
gewurthod.
Gyf thine gyfe thsere tungan the thu gyfst gyfe
on gereorde.
From the terms in which Abbo is mentioned
(' Abbo dignse memorise '), it may be inferred
that this work was not written until after
his death, which occurred in 1004 ; and the
reference to ' Eadnoth the bishop ' (of Dor-
chester) seems to point to a date a few years
later.
Another work which is usually attributed
Byrne
127
Byrne
to Byrhtfertli is a life of St. Dunstan, the
writer of which calls himself ' B. presbyter.'
The conjecture that this initial stands for
Byrhtferth is due to Mabillon, who had seen
the ' Life,' but did not consider it worth
while to print it. He gives, however, some
extracts from it in his preface and notes to
the ' Life of Dunstan ' by Osbern, and it has
been published in the ' Acta Sanctorum ' of
the Bollandists, and in Dr. Stubbs's ' Memo-
rials of St. Dunstan.' Mabillon's suggestion
appears at first sight highly plausible, as
Byrhtferth in the ' Computus ' describes
himself as ' presbyter,' and his master Abbo
had intimate relations with Dunstan. The
wretched Latinity and the bombastic style
of the ' Life,' how ever, cannot easily be re-
conciled with the supposition of Byrhtferth's
authorship. Dr. Stubbs has furnished some
other arguments, which appear to be decisive
against Mabillon's conjecture, although his
attempt to show that the author of the ' Life '
was a continental Saxon can scarcely be con-
sidered successful.
[Bale's Script. 111. Maj. Brit. (Basle edition),
138; Pits, De Angliae Scriptoribus, 178; Tan-
ner's Bibl. Brit. 125 ; Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit.
i. 174 ; Memorials of St. Dunstan (ed. Stubbs),
introd. p. xix ; Baeda's Works (Cologne edition,
1612), ii. 103 et al."| H. B.
BYRNE, ANNE FR ANCES(1775-1837),
flower-painter, was born in 1775 in London,
and was the eldest daughter of William
Byrne, engraver [q. v.] She early became one
of her father's pupils and assistants, etching
for him and preparing his work. She also
had some proficiency in fruit-painting, and
exhibited a fruit-piece at the Academy in her
twenty-first year, 1796, after which date pic-
tures of hers appeared there from time to
time, and at the British Institute, and Suffolk
Street, down to 1832 (GRAVES'S Diet, of Ar-
tists, p. 38). In 1805 Miss Byrne's father
died. In 1806 she was elected associate-
exhibitor at the Water Colour Society, which
was followed by her election to full mem-
bership in 1809. Miss Byrne died 2 Jan.
1837, aged 62.
[Redgrave's Diet, of Artists of British School,
ed. 1878.] J. H.
BYRNE, CHARLES (1761-1783), Irish
giant, was born in Ireland in 1761. His father
was an Irishman, and his mother a Scotch-
woman, but neither of them was of extra-
ordinary size. In August 1780 he ' measured
exactly eight feet ; in 1782 he had gained two
inches, and after he was dead he measured
eight feet four inches' {Gent. Mag. liv. pt. i.
541). He travelled about the country for ex-
hibition ; at Edinburgh he alarmed the watch-
men on the North Bridge one morning by
lighting his pipe at one of the lamps without
standing even on tiptoe. In London he cre-
ated such a sensation, that the pantomime at
the Haymarket, produced on 18 Aug.1782, was
entitled, with reference to him, ' Harlequin
Teague, or the Giant's Causeway.' He died
(of, it is said, excessive drinking and vexation
at losing a note for 700) at Cockspur Street,
Charing Cross, on 1 June 1783, aged 22. His
skeleton, which measures exactly 92| inches,
is to be seen in the museum of the College
of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where
there is also a portrait of him. Two sketches
of the giant by Kay will be found in the first
volume of ' Original Etchings,' Nos. 4 and
164. Byrne has often been confused with
Patrick Cotter, another Irish giant, who took
the name of O'Brien, and died at Bristol in
1806.
[Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etch-
ings (1877), i. 10-11, 417 ; Chambers's Book of
Days (1864), ii. 326-7; Buckland's Curiosities of
Natural History, 4th ser. pp. 19-21 ; Scots Mag.
1783, xlv. 335 ; Annual Register, 1783, app.
pp. 209-10 ; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 369,
396, 476, xii. 59 ; 5th ser. iv. 132-3.]
G. F. R. B.
BYRNE, LETITIA (1779-1849), en-
graver, was born 24 Nov. 1779, presumably in
London, being the third daughter of William
Byrne, engraver [q. v.l, and the sister of Anne
Frances Byrne [q. v.] ( Gent. Mag. vol. Ixxv.
pt. ii. p. 1071). As a pupil of her father, she
exhibited landscape-views at the Academy
when she was only twenty, in 1799. In 1810
she etched the illustrations for ' A Descrip-
tion of Tunbridge Wells,' and among other
work entrusted to her were four views for
Hakewill's ' History of Windsor.' She ex-
hibited ' From Eton College Play-fields ' at
the Academy in 1822 ; and had other pic-
tures there (twenty-one in all) down to 1848
(GRAVES'S Diet, of Artists, p. 38). She died
2 May 1849, aged 70, and was buried at
Kensal Green.
[Redgrave's Diet, of Artists of British School,
ed. 1 878, p. 66 ; Graves's Diet, of Artists, p. 38.1
J.H.
BYRNE, MILES (1780-1862), member
of the Society of United Irishmen, and after-
wards chefde bataillon in the service of France,
was the son of a farmer, and was born at Mona-
seed, in the county of Wexford, Ireland, on
20 March 1780. In 1796 he agreed to join a
corps of yeomanry cavalry on condition of ob-
taining the renewal of a lease of land for his
mother; but his father, who was then ill,
dying shortly afterwards, he was absolved
Byrne
128
Byrne
from serving, and thus, in his own words,
' never wore a red coat.' Having in the spring
of 1797joined the Society of United Irishmen,
he entered into their plans with ardour, and
took a leading part in organising the confede-
ration in Wexford. On 3 June 1798 he united
with the insurrectionists encamped at Corri-
grua, and, after the defeat at Vinegar Hill
on the 21st, rallied a number of pikemen,
with whom he took part in a variety of minor
skirmishes. An attack was made on Castle-
comer, but without success, and after the
battle of Ballygullen on 4 July he joined
Holt in the Wicklow mountains, where for
some months he kept up a faint show of re-
sistance in the vain hope of obtaining aid from
France. On All Hallows eve Byrne paid a
visit to his mother and sister, when, finding
that he was in imminent danger of arrest, he
made his escape to Dublin in the disguise of
a car-driver. There for some years he was
employed as clerk in a timber-yard. In the
spring of 1803 he was introduced to Robert
Emmet, who found him ready to devote him-
self with enthusiasm to his new enterprise
for a rising, and who entrusted him with some
of the most difficult of the arrangements con-
nected with it. He supplied Emmet with a
list of persons for the three counties of Car-
low, Wicklow, and Wexford, ' who had ac-
quired the reputation of being good patriots
in 1798,' and he also made contracts with the
gunmakers, arranged for the manufacture of
pike-handles, and procured the necessary war
material. In the scheme for the capture of
Dublin Castle on 23 July he was entrusted
with the command of the Wexford and Wick-
low men, who were to seize on the entrance
to the castle from the side of Ship Street, but
as Emmet was prevented from keeping his
agreement to attack the main entrance, the
whole affair proved abortive. On returning
from the Wicklow mountains, Byrne was
commissioned by Emmet to go to Paris to
communicate with Thomas Addis Emmet, the
agent of the United Irishmen to the first con-
sul, regarding help from France. Succeeding
with some difficulty in reaching Bordeaux in
an American vessel, he helped in composing a
report on the state of Ireland, which was pre-
sented to Napoleon, who, in view of a contem-
plated expedition at no distant date, decreed
in November 1803 the formation of the Irish
legion in the service of France. In this le-
gion Byrne obtained the commission of lieu-
tenant of infantry, and served in the cam-
paigns of Napoleon from 1804 to 1815. At
an early period he was promoted captain, and
in 1810 he was chosen to command a bataillon
cf elite of the Irish troops. On 18 June 1813
he was made a chevalier of the Legion of
Honour. Shortly before the abdication of Na-
poleon he was named to be promoted chef de
bataillon,})ut not soon enough to permit of the
formality of signing the commission. After
the revolution of 1830 he was appointed chef
de bataillon in the 56th regiment of the line,
then commanded by Bugeaud, afterwards
marshal, and in 1832 he received the cross of
the Legion of Honour from Louis-Philippe. In
1835 he resigned his commission, and took up
his residence in Paris, where his tall and to
the last straight figure, thin bronzed face,
and mobile yet keen features were during the
latter period of his life well known to fre-
quenters of the avenue of theChamps-Elys^es.
He retained strong sympathies in behalf of
freedom throughout the world, and his de-
voted attachment to Ireland was of course
rendered only more intense by his enforced
exile. He died on 24 Jan. 1862, and was in-
terred in the cemetery at Montmartre, where
there is a monument to his memory.
[The Memoirs of Miles Byrne, published at
Paris in 1863 in 3 vols. edited by his widow,
contain many interesting details regarding the
conspiracies in Ireland, the campaigns of Napo-
leon, and the Irish officers in the service of
France.] T. F. H.
BYRNE, OSCAR (1795 P-1867), ballet-
master, was the son of James Byrne, an actor
and a ballet-master. His first appearance, ac-
cording to one authority, was made in 1803
at Drury Lane Theatre in a ballet arranged
by his father from ' Ossian,' and called ' Oscar
and Elwina,' which had been first presented
twelve years previously at Covent Garden. A
second authority states that he played his
first part at Covent Garden 16 Nov. 1803 as
Cheerly in Hoare's ' Lock and Key.' Much
of Byrne's early life was passed abroad or in
Ireland. In 1850 Charles Kean, in his me-
morable series of performances at the Prin-
cess's Theatre, engaged Oscar Byrne, who
arranged the ballets for the principal revivals.
In 1862 Byrne went to Drury Lane, then
under Falconer and Chatterton. His last
engagement was at Her Majesty's Theatre,
when Mr. Falconer produced his ill-starred
drama of ' Oonah.' In his own line Oscar
Byrne showed both invention and resource.
He died rather suddenly on 4 Sept. 1867 at
the reputed age of seventy-two, leaving a
young wife and seven children.
[Oxberry's Dramatic Chronology ; private in-
formation.] J. K.
BYRNE, WILLIAM (1743-1805), land-
scape engraver, was born in London in 1743.
He studied for some time under his uncle, a
Birmingham engraver of arms, and at the
Byrnstan
129
Byrom
age of twenty-two gained the Society of Arts
medal for a plate of the ' Villa Madama,'
after Richard Wilson. He then went to
Paris and became a pupil of Aliamet and
afterwards of J. G. Wille. He was a mem-
ber of the Incorporated Society, and exhi-
bited in Suffolk Street between 1760 and
1780. He died in Titchfield Street, London,
on 24 Sept. 1805, and was buried at Old St.
Pancras Church. His works, which are nume-
rous, display much skill in aerial perspective
and beauty in the finish of the skies. Among
them are ' The Antiquities of Britain,' after
Hearne ; ' The View of the Lakes of Cumber-
land and Westmoreland,' after Joseph Faring-
ton; 'Apollo watching the Flocks of King
Admetus,' after Lauri ; ' The Flight into
Egypt,' after Domenichino; 'The Death of
Captain Cook ; ' 'The Waterfall of Niagara,'
after Wilson, &c. Byrne had a son and
three daughters, who all became artists, two
of the latter, Anne Frances [q. v.] and Letitia
[q. v.], following their father's profession with
great ability and success.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the Eng-
lish School, 1878, 8vo; MS. notes in British
Museum.] L. F.
BYRNSTAN, BIRNSTAN,orBEORN-
STAN (d. 933), bishop of Winchester, was
in early life a king's thegn or minister of
Eadward the Elder, in which capacity he
attests charters of the years 900-2 (Codex
Diplomaticus, mlxxvi. and mlxxvii. ; cf. Liber
de Hyda, pp. 97, 101, 116). In 902 he be-
came a priest, and very probably a secular
canon in the new minster of Winchester,
which ^Elfred the Great had projected, and
Eadward himself established under the head-
ship of Grimbald. Between 902 and 910
Byrnstan frequently appears as attesting
charters, including especially the series of
grants made by the king to the churches of
Winchester (Cod. Dipt, mlxxxiv-mccvi. ;
Liber de Hyda, p. 105). After this we have
no trace of his activity for twenty years.
Whether an increasing fervour of devotion
drove him from the court to those ascetic
practices for which he became celebrated, and
whether, as the later monastic writers assert,
he forsook the secular life of a canon for the
regular obligations of a monk, cannot be de-
termined. The fact that the most zealous
champion of the monks revived his cultus
makes the latter very probable. The charters
of the twenty years are too few to enable us
to base any inference upon them ; but in 931
the resignation of the bishopric of Winchester
by the saintly Frithestan was succeeded by
the election of Byrnstan to rule over the
diocese with which he had been so long
vol. Till.
connected. On 29 May he was consecrated
by Frithestan, but he only ruled over the
church two years and a half, dying on All
Saints' day 933 (Anglo-Saxon Chron. s. a.)
Florence puts his death in 934, and his con-
secration in 932 ; but the attestation of a
charter of 933 by Bishop J^lfheah, his succes-
sor (Cod. Dipl. mcix.), and the definite state-
ment of the chronicle as to the length of his
government of his bishopric, make the earlier
date preferable. The only acts of Byrnstan
as bishop that have survived are his attes-
tation of a few charters (ib. mciii-viii.)
Byrnstan had been bishop so short a time
that his saintliness and charity were almost at
once forgotten, until his memory was revived,
a generation later, by Bishop ^Ethelwold.
Henceforward he received the honours due to
one of the holiest of the early bishops of Win-
chester. William of Malmesbury commends
his sanctity, his humility, and his care for the
poor, whose feet he daily washed, and whose
needs he supplied with a lavish hand. He
also tells how Byrnstan said every day a mass
for the repose of the souls of the dead, and
how by night, regardless of the terrors that
haunt churchyards, he perambulated the ceme-
tery in the midst of which the new minster
was built, reciting psalms for the same pious
purpose. In 1150 his relics were translated
to a nobler sepulchre, along with those of
Birinus, of Swithun, and the most famous of
the occupants of the see.
[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Florence of Wor-
cester ; Annales de Winton (Annales Monastici,
vol. ii. in Rolls edition); William of Malmes-
bury's De Gestis Pontificum ; Liber Monasterii de
Hyda ; Rudborne's Historia Major Wintoniensis
in Anglia Sacra ; Codex Diplomaticus, vol. v. ;
Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. ii.] T. F. T.
BYROM, JOHN (1692-1763), poet and
stenographer, was born 29 Feb. 1691-2 at
Kersall Cell, Broughton, near Manchester.
He was the second son and seventh of the
nine children of Edward Byrom, by his wife
Sarah Allen. The Byroms of Manchester
were a younger branch of the Byroms of
Salford, themselves a younger branch of the
Byroms of Byrom. The last representative
of the parent stem was Samuel, commonly
called ' Beau Byrom,' a spendthrift, who sold
his estates (some of which were bought by
John Byrom's father and uncle), got into the
Fleet prison, and there published (in 1729) an
'Irrefragable argument fully proving that to
discharge great debts is .... more reason-
able than to discharge small.' It was sold
for the benefit of the author, and was, in
reality, a covert appeal for charity. The
' beau ' got out of prison, and John Byrom
helped him to obtain support.
Byrom
130
Byrom
The Byroms of Manchester had been pro-
sperous merchants and linendrapers. John
Byrom's father, Edward, was son of another
Edward (1627-1668), and had a younger
brother, Joseph, whose daughter, Elizabeth,
was thus John's cousin, and afterwards be-
came his wife (see pedigrees appended to
Byrom's Remains). John's name is in the
register of Merchant Taylors' School in March
1707. He was entered at Trinity College,
Cambridge, on 6 July 1708 ; was elected
scholar in May 1709 ; became B.A. in 1712 ;
M.A. in 1715, and was elected fellow of his
college at Michaelmas 1714. He had many
scruples as to taking the oath of abjuration.
While at college he contributed two papers
on dreams to the ' Spectator ' (Nos. 586, 593,
and perhaps 597), and a playful pastoral,
caUed ' Colin and Pho3be (No. 605, 6 Oct.
1714). Joan or ' Jug ' Bentley, then only
eleven years old, daughter of the master, and
afterwards mother of Richard Cumberland,
is said to have been his Phoebe (MONK'S
Bentley, i. 200, ii. 113). The poem was very
popular. In 1716 Byrom travelled abroad
and studied medicine for a time at Montpelier.
He was afterwards called ' doctor ' by his
friends, but never took the degree. He de-
clined a proposal to practise at Manchester
(Remains, i. 267), and his journey may pos-
sibly have had rather a political than a pro-
fessional purpose. He showed strong Jaco-
bite leanings through life.
He returned to London in 1718, and on
14 Feb. 1721 married his cousin, with the
consent of her parents (Remains, i. 43), though
the contrary has been alleged as an explana-
tion of his subsequent poverty. His father
had died in 1711, and the estates had gone
to his elder brother, Edward. Byrom now
resolved to increase his income by teaching
shorthand. He had invented a new system
at Cambridge, in concert, it is said, with
Thomas Sharp, a college contemporary, son
of the archbishop of York. He issued pro-
posals for publishing his system, dated 27 May
1723. During many years he made visits to
London, where he often stayed for months,
and occasionally to Cambridge, in order to
give lessons in his art. His pupils paid five
guineas and took an oath of secresy. Byrom
was soon challenged to a trial of skill by a
ri val teacher named Weston, whom he treated
with good-humoured ridicule. In June 1725
he acted as moderator between Weston and
one Clayton at the Chapter Coffee-house.
His pupils formed a kind of society; they called
him grand master, and upon opening his 'ses-
sions ' he delivered addresses upon the history
and utility of shorthand. His occupation
brought him many distinguished acquain-
tance. On 17 March 1724 he became a fellow
of the Royal Society, and contributed two
papers upon shorthand to the ' Philosophical
Transactions' (No. 488). In June 1727 he
had a sharp dispute at the society with Sir
Hans Sloane. Byrom seems to have opposed
an address to the king, and was accused of
Jacobitism. He unsuccessfully supported
Jurin against Sloane in the election of the
president on 30 Nov. 1727.
Byrom's diary, with many letters, published
by the Chetham Society, are full of lively
accounts of meetings with distinguished con-
temporaries during these years. He was
intimate with Bentley and his family ; with
Bishop Hoadly's son, whose father he occa-
sionally met ; he reports interesting conversa-
tions with Bishop Butler and Samuel Clarke;
David Hartley was a pupil and a very warm
friend ; he saw something of Wesley ; and
took a great interest in all the religious spe-
culations of the time. He meets Whiston,
the Arian ; the deist Collins ; the heretical
Elwal ; and discusses Chubb and Woolston.
His own leaning was towards mysticism.
He is said to have become acquainted with
the writings of Malebranche and Antoinette
Bourignon in France. One of his liveliest
poems describes his buying a portrait of
Malebranche (9 March 1727), whom he calls
' the greatest divine that e'er lived upon
earth.' In this he sympathised with Wil-
liam Law, whom he first went to see at
Putney, 4 March 1729, in consequence ap-
parently of having bought the ' Serious Call,'
then just published. Law was at this time
tutor to Gibbon's father, whom he accom-
panied to Cambridge, where Byrom met him
again. Byrom became an ardent disciple of
Law, whom he calls his master. When Law
became a student of Behmen, Byrom fol-
lowed, with a modest confession of partial
comprehension. He versified several passages
of Law's writings, hoping that his verse
would cling to the prose ' like ivy to an oak '
(Remains, ii. 521), and when Law settled at
Bang's Cliffe, Byrom visited him in his re-
tirement. He corresponded with Law's dis-
ciple, Dr. Cheyne, and defended his master
against Warburton's brutality. Warburton,
who tells Hurd (2 Jan. 1752) that Byrom is
' not malevolent but mad,' treated his new
antagonist with unusual courtesy (see letters
in Remains, ii. 522-39).
Byrom's uncle and father-in-law, Joseph,
died in 1733, leaving his property to a son,
Edward, on whose death, in 1760, it came to
John Byrom's family (Remains, ii. 93). The
death of his own elder and unmarried brother,
Edward (12 May 1740), put him in posses-
sion of the family estates, and relieved him
Byrom
Byrom
from the necessity of teaching shorthand.
He had printed new proposals for publishing
his system by subscription (dated 1 Nov.
1739). Difficulties arose, and he obtained
an act of parliament, passed 011 5 May 1742, I
giving him the sole right both of publishing
and teaching the system for twenty-one years.
A list of persons testifying to its merits is
appended to the proposals, and includes the
Duke of Queensberry, Bishop Hoadly and his
son, Hartley, R. Smith, the Cambridge as-
tronomer, and other university authorities.
The third Duke of Devonshire, Lord Dela-
warr, Horace Walpole, Gibbon (the histo-
rian's father), and, it is said, Lord Chester-
field, were also among his pupils.
At Manchester, Byrom was known as a
warm supporter of the high church and Jaco-
bite party. He acted as agent in a successful
opposition to a bill for establishing a work-
house in Manchester in the early months of
1731. The objection was that the proposed
board of guardians was so constituted as to
give a majority to whigs and dissenters
(BAINES, Lancashire, ii. 293, and WAKE'S Col-
legiate Church of Manchester, ii. 79). Byrom
was in Manchester during the Pretender's
entry in 1745. His daughter's journal (.Re-
mains, ii. 385 seq.) shows that, in spite of his
strong Jacobite sympathies, he avoided com-
mitting himself, though two sons of his inti-
mate friend Dr. Deacon, physician and non-
juring clergyman, joined the regiment raised
by the Pretender. A strong party feeling
distracted the town for some years after-
wards. Jacobites were insulted at public
assemblies (ib. ii. 509), and Byrom, with his
friend Dr. Deacon, contributed various essays
and epigrams to the ' Chester Courant,' which
were collected in a small volume, called
'Manchester Vindicated' (Chester, 1749),
and form a curious illustration of the time.
The correspondence of later years is chiefly
theological. Byrom died, after a lingering
illness, on 26 Sept. 1763. A fine of 5/. was
levied on his estate because he was not buried
in woollen.
Byrom's poems were collected for the first
time and published at Manchester in 1773.
They were republished with a life and notes
in 1814. To the last is prefixed a portrait,
showing a man of great height and a strongly
marked face. The poems are also (with
some exceptions) given in Chalmers's ' Eng-
lish Poets.' Byrom had an astonishing fa-
cility in rhyming. Some of his poems are
discussions on points of classical or theologi-
cal criticism (e.g. against Conyers Middleton's
reply to Sherlock), and scarcely better than
clever doggerel. One is an argument to prove
that St. George was really Gregory the
Great. Pegge, who is challenged in the poem,
replied to Byrom and Pettingall in the fifth
volume of the ' Archseologia.' Others are
versifications of Behmen, Rusbrochius, and
Law (e.g. the ' Enthusiasm ' is from Law's
' Appeal,' p. 30 et seq. and the < Pond ' from
the same writer's ' Serious Call,' chap, xi.),
and there are a few hymns. Byrom can be
forcible, but frequently adopts a comic metre
oddly inappropriate to his purpose. Some
occasional poems in which his good-humoured
sprightliness finds a natural expression have
been deservedly admired, especially ' Colin to
Phoebe' (see above), the 'Three Black Crows,'
' Figg and Sutton,' printed in the sixth
volume of Dodsley's collection and turned
to account in Thackeray's ' Virginians,' chap,
xxxvii. ; the ' Centaur Fabulous ' upon War-
burton's ' Divine Legation,' and the epilogue
to ' Hurlothrumbo.' Samuel Johnson, the
author of this play, was a favourite object
of Byrom's playful satire. Some epigrams
are still familiar, ' Handel and Bononcini '
(see Remains, i. 136), often erroneously given
to Swift ; ' Bone and Skin,' which refers to
the mills belonging to the Manchester gram-
mar school, and the well-known
God bless the king, God bless our faith's defender,
God bless no harm in blessing the Pretender ;
But who pretender is, and who is king,
God bless us all ! that's quite another thing.
Byrom's system of shorthand was not
printed until four years after his death, when
it was explained in a volume illustrated with
thirteen copper-plates, and entitled ' The
Universal English Shorthand; or the way
of writing English in the most easy, concise,
regular, and beautiful manner, applicable to
any other language, but particularly adjusted
to our own,' Manchester, 1767, second edit.
1796. The method is in appearance one of
the most elegant ever devised, but it cannot
be written with sufficient rapidity, and con-
sequently it was never much used by pro-
fessional stenographers. For reporting pur-
poses it is decidedly inferior to the systems
of Mason, Gurney, Taylor, Lewis, and Pit-
man. Still its publication marks an era in
the history of shorthand, and there can be
no doubt that the more widely diffused sys-
tem published by Samuel Taylor in 1786
was suggested by and based upon that of
Byrom. Thomas Molineux of Macclesfield
issued several elegantly printed manuals of
instruction in Byrom's system between 1796
and 1824, but the best exposition of the
method is to be found in the ' Practical In-
troduction to the Science of Shorthand,' by
William Gawtress, Leeds, 1819, third edit.
London, 1830.
K2
Byron
132
Byron
[The chief authority for Byrom is The Private
Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom, ,
related by Richard Parkinson, D.D., for the I
Chetham Society, in two vols., 1854-7; some
account is given of an unpublished fragment
of the journal from 1731 to 1733 by Mr. J. E.
Bailey in the Palatine Note-book for May 1882,
also printed separately ; Chalmers's Life in the
Collection of Poets, and Life prefixed to Works ;
Baines's County Palatine of Lancaster, ii. 79,293;
Hibbert Ware's Collegiate Church of Manchester,
ii. 79, 129, 142, &c. ; Case in relation to an Act
of Parliament, 1731 ; Case of Petitioners, &c.,
1731, for the Manchester Workhouse question.]
L. S.
BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, sixth lord
(1788-1824), poet, descended from John, first
Lord Byron [q. v.], who was succeeded by
his brother Richard (1605-1679). Richard's
son, William (d. 1695), became third lord,
and wrote some bad verses. By his wife,
Elizabeth, daughter of Viscount Chaworth,
he was father of William, fourth lord (1669-
1736), gentleman of the bedchamber toPrince
George of Denmark. The fourth lord was
father, by his wife, Frances, daughter of Lord
Berkeley of Stratton, of William, fifth lord,
John, afterwards Admiral Byron [q. v.], and
Isabella, wife of the fourth and mother of the
fifth earl of Carlisle. The fifth lord (1722-
1798) quarrelled with his cousin Mr. Cha-
worth (great grandson of Viscount Cha-
worth) at a club dinner of Nottinghamshire
gentlemen, 26 Jan. 1765, and killed him after
a confused scuffle in a room to which they
had retired by themselves after dinner. Byron
was convicted of manslaughter before the
House of Lords, 16 April 1765 (State Trials,
xix. 1175), and, though exempted from pun-
ishment by his privilege as a peer, became a
marked man. He lived in seclusion at New-
stead Abbey, ill-treated his wife, was known
as the ' wicked lord,' encumbered his estates,
and made a sale of his property at Rochdale,
the disputed legality of which led to a pro-
longed lawsuit. His children and his only
grandson (son of his son by the daughter of
his brother, the admiral) died before him.
Admiral Byron had two sons, John and
George Anson (ancestor of the present peer),
and three daughters, one of whom became
wife of her cousin, son of the fifth lord ; an-
other of Admiral Parker; the third of Colonel
Leigh, by whom she was mother of another
Colonel Leigh, who married his cousin, Au-
gusta, daughter of John Byron, the admiral's
eldest son. This John Byron (born 1756) was
educated at Westminster, entered the guards,
was known as ' mad Jack,' and was a hand-
some profligate. He seduced the Marchioness
of Carmarthen, who became Baroness Conyers
on the death of her father, fourth earl of
Holderness. He married her (June 1779)
after her divorce, and had by her in 1782 a
daughter, Augusta, married to Colonel Leigh
in 1807. Lady Conyers's death in France,
26 Jan. 1784, deprived her husband of an in-
come of 4,000/. a year. He soon afterwards met
at Bath a Miss Catherine Gordon of Gicht,
with a fortune of 23,000/., doubled by rumour.
The pair were married at St. Michael s Church,
Bath, 13 May 1785 (parish register). John
Byron took his second wife to France, squan-
dered most of her property, and returned to
England, where their only child, George Gor-
don, was born in Holies Street, London,
22 Jan. 1788. John Hunter saw the boy
when he was born, and prescribed for the in-
fant's feet (Mrs. Byron's letters in Add. MS.
31037). A malformation was caused, as Byron
afterwards said, by his mother's ' false deli-
cacy.' Trelawny (Records, ii. 132) says that
the tendo Achillas of each foot was so con-
tracted that he could only walk on the balls
of the toes, the right foot being most dis-
torted and bent inwards. Injudicious treat-
ment increased the mischief, and through life
the poet could only hobble a few paces on
foot, though he could at times succeed in
concealing his infirmity.
John Byron's creditors became pressing.
The daughter, Augusta, was sent to her
grandmother, the Dowager Countess Holder-
ness. Mrs. Byron retired to Aberdeen, and
lived upon 1501. a year, the interest of 3,000.
in the hands of trustees, the sole remnant of
her fortune. She took lodgings in Queen
Street, Aberdeen, and was followed by her
husband, who occupied separate lodgings and
sometimes petted the child, who professed in
later years to remember him perfectly (MED-
WIN, p. 58). With money got from his wife
or his sister, Mrs. Leigh, he escaped to France
in January 1791, and died at Valenciennes,
2 Aug. 1791, possibly by his own hand
(JEAFFRESON, i. 48 ; HARNESS, p. 33 ; Letter
No. 460 in MOORE'S Life of Byron implicitly
denies suicide). Mrs. Byron's income, re-
duced to 1351. by debts for furniture and by
helping her husband, was raised to 190/. on
the death of her grandmother, and she lived
within her means. Capricious and passionate
by nature, she treated her child with alter-
nate excesses of violence and tenderness.
Scott (MooEE, ch. xxiv.) says that in 1784 she
was seized with an hysterical fit during Mrs.
Siddons's performance in Southern's ' Fatal
Marriage,' and carried out screaming, ' Oh, my
Biron, my Biron ' (the name of a character
in the play). She was short and fat, and would
chase her mocking child round the room in
impotent fury. To the frank remark of a
Byron i
schoolfellow, ' Your mother is a fool,' he re-
plied, ' I know it.' Another phrase is said to
have been the germ of the ' Deformed Trans-
formed.' His mother reviling him as a ' lame
beast,' he replied, ' I was born so, mother.'
The child was passionately fond of his nurse,
May Gray, to whom at the final parting he
gave a watch and his miniature afterwards
in the possession of Dr. Ewing of Aberdeen
and by whose teaching he acquired a fami-
liarity with the Bible, preserved through life
by a very retentive memory. At first he went
to school to one ' Bodsy Bowers,' and after-
wards to a clergyman named Ross. The son
of his shoemaker, Paterson, taught him some
Latin, and he was at the grammar school from
1794 to 1798 (BAIN, Life of Arnott, in the
papers of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society,
gives his places in the school). He was re-
garded as warm-hearted, pugnacious, and idle.
Visits to his mother's relations and an excur-
sion to Ballater for change of air in 1796
varied his schooldays. In a note to the ' Is-
land' (1813) he dates his love of mountainous
scenery from this period ; and in a note to
' Don Juan ' (canto x. stanza 18) he recalls
the delicious horror with which he leaned
over the bridge of Balgounie, destined in an
old rhyme to fall with ' a wife's ae son and
a mare's ae foal.' An infantile passion for a
cousin, Mary Duff, in his eighth year was so
intense that he was nearly thrown into con-
vulsions by hearing, when he was sixteen, of
her marriage to Mr. Robert Cockburn (a well-
known wine merchant, brother of Lord Cock-
burn). She died 10 March 1858 (Notes and
Queries, 2nd series, iii. 231 ; she is described
in Mr. Ruskin's ' Praeterita ').
In 1794, by the death of the fifth Lord By-
ron's grandson at the siege of Calvi in Corsica,
Byron became heir to the peerage. A Mr.
Ferguson suggested to Mrs. Byron that an
application to the civil list for a pension
might be successful if sanctioned by the ac-
tual peer (Letters in Morrison MSS.) The
grand-uncle would not help the appeal, but
after his death (19 May 1798) a pension of
3001. was given to the new peer's mother
(warrant dated 2 Oct. 1799). In the autumn
Mrs. Byron with her boy and May Gray left
Aberdeen for Newstead. The house was
ruinous. The Rochdale property was only
recoverable by a lawsuit. The actual income
of the Newstead estate was estimated at
1,1001. a year, which might be doubled when
the leases fell in. Byron told Medwin (p. 40)
that it was about 1,5001. a year. Byron was
made a ward in chancery, and Lord Carlisle,
son of the old lord's sister, was appointed his
guardian.
Mrs. Byron settled at Nottingham, and
Byron
sent the boy to be prepared for a public school
by Mr. Rogers. He was tortured by the re-
medies applied to his feet by a quack named
Lavender. His talent for satire was already
shown in a lampoon on an old lady and in an
exposure of Lavender's illiteracy. In 1799
he was taken to London by his mother, ex-
amined for his lameness by Dr. Baillie, and
sent to Dr. Glennie's school at Dulwich, where
the treatment prescribed by Baillie could be
carried out. Glennie found him playful, ami-
able, and intelligent, ill-grounded in scholar-
ship, but familiar with scripture, and a de-:
vourer of poetry. At Glennie's he read a
pamphlet on the shipwreck of the Juno in
1795, which was afterwards worked up in
' Don Juan ; ' and here, about 1800, he wrote
his first love poem, addressed to his cousin Mar-
garet Parker. Byron speaks of her transpa-
rent and evanescent beauty, and says that his
passion had its ' usual effects ' of preventing
sleep and appetite. She died of consumption
a year or two later. Meanwhile Mrs. Byron's
tempers had become insupportable to Glennie,
whose discipline was spoilt by her meddling,
and to Lord Carlisle, who ceased to see her.
Her importunity prevailed upon the guardian
to send the boy to Harrow, where (in the
summer of 1801) he became a pupil of the
Rev. Joseph Drury.
Drury obtained the respect and affection
of his pupil. A note to ' Childe Harold '
(canto iv.), upon a passage in which he de-
scribes his repugnance to the ' daily drug ' of
classical lessons, expresses his enthusiastic re-
gard for Drury, and proves that he had not
profited by Drury's teaching. His notes in
the books which he gave to the school library
show that he never became a tolerable scholar.
He was always ' idle, in mischief, or at play,'
though reading voraciously by fits. He shone
in declamation, and Drury tells how he quite
unconsciously interpolated a vigorous passage
into a prepared composition. Unpopular and
unhappy at first, he hated Harrow (MooRE,
ch. iv.) till his last year and a half ; but he
became attached to it on rising to be a leader.
Glennie had noticed that his deformity had
increased his desire for athletic glory. His
strength of arm made him formidable in spite
of his lameness. He fought Lord Calthorpe for
writing ' d d atheist ' under his name
(MEDWIN, p. 68). He was a cricketer (Notes
and Queries, 6th ser. viii. 245), and the late
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe remembered seeing
him playing in the match against Eton with
another boy to run for him. Byron was one
of the ringleaders in a childish revolt against
the appointment of Dr. Butler (March 1805)
as Drury's successor, and in favour of Mark
Drury. Byron said that he saved the hall from
Byron
134
Byron
burning by showing to the boys the names of
their ancestors on the walls (MEDWIN, p. 68).
He afterwards satirised Butler as ' Pompo-
sus ' in ' Hours of Idleness,' but had the sense
to apologise before his first foreign tour.
' Sly school friendships,' says Byron, 'were
with me passions.' Byron remonstrates with
a boyish correspondent for calling him ' my
dear ' instead of ' my dearest Byron.' His
most famous contemporary at Harrow was
Sir Robert Peel, for whom he offered to take
half the thrashing inflicted by a bully. He
protected Harness, his junior by two years,
who survived till 1869. His closest intimates
were apparently Lords Clare and Dorset and
John Wingfield. When he met Clare long
afterwards in Italy, he was agitated to a pain-
ful degree, and says that he could never hear
the name without a beating of the heart. He
had been called at Glennie's 'the old English
baron,' and some aristocratic vanity perhaps
appears in his choice of intimates and depen-
dents.
His mother was at Bath in 1802 (where
he appeared in Turkish costume at a masque-
rade) ; at Nottingham in 1803 ; and at South-
well, in a house called Burgage Manor, in
1804. Byron visited Newstead in 1803, then
occupied by Lord Grey de Ruthin, who set
apart a room for his use. He was often at
Annesley Hall, the seat of his distant cousins
the Chaworths. Mary Anne Chaworth was
fifth in descent from Viscount Chaworth, and
her grandfather was brother to the William
Chaworth killed by the fifth Lord Byron. A
superstitious fancy (duly turned to account
in the ' Siege of Corinth,' xxi.), that the family
portraits would descend from their frames to
haunt the duellist's heir, made him refuse to
sleep there ; till a ' bogle ' seen on the road
to Newstead or some less fanciful motive
induced him to stay for the night. He had
fallen desperately in love with Mary Anne
Chaworth, two years his senior, who natur-
ally declined to take him seriously. A year
later Miss Pigot describes him as a ' fat bash-
ful boy.' In 1804 he found Miss Chaworth
engaged to John Musters. The marriage took
place in 1805. Moore gives a report, proba-
bly inaccurate (see JEAFFRESON, i. 123), of
Byron's agitation on hearing of the wedding.
He dined with her and her husband in 1808,
and was much affected by seeing her infant
daughter. Poems addressed to her appeared
in 'Hours of Idleness' and Hobhouse's ' Mis-
cellany.' He told Medwin (p. 65) that he had
found in her ' all that his youthful fancy could
paint of beautiful.' Mrs. Musters's marriage
was unhappy; she was separated from her
husband ; her mind became affected, and she
died in 1832 from a shock caused by riots at
Nottingham. This passion seems to have left
the most permanent traces on Byron's life ;
though it was a year later (if his account is
accurate) that the news of Mary Duff's mar-
riage nearly caused convulsions.
In October 1805 Byron entered Trinity
College, Cambridge, as a nobleman. A youth
of ' tumultuous passions ' (in the phrase of
his college tutor), he was exposed to the
temptations of his rank, yet hardly within
the sphere of its legitimate ambition. He
rode, shot with a pistol, and boxed. He made
a friend of the famous pugilist, Jackson, paid
for postchaises to bring ' dear Jack ' to visit
him at Brighton, invited him to Newstead,
and gave him commissions about dogs and
horses. He was greatest at swimming. The
pool below the sluice at Grantchester is still
called by his name. Leigh Hunt first saw
him (HUNT, Byron, &c. p. 1) swimming a
match in the Thames under Jackson's super-
vision, and in August 1807 he boasts to Miss
Pigot of a three miles swim through Black-
friars and Westminster bridges. He tra-
velled to various resorts with a carriage, a
pair of horses, a groom and valet, besides a
bulldog and a Newfoundland. In 1806 his
mother ended a quarrel by throwing the
poker and tongs at his head. She followed
him to his lodgings in London, whither he
retreated, and there another engagement re-
sulted in the defeat of the enemy his mother.
On a visit to Harrogate in the same summer
with his friend Pigot he was shy, quiet,
avoided drinking, and was polite to Profes-
sor Hailstone, of Trinity. On some of his
rambles he was accompanied by a girl in boy's
clothes, whom he introduced as his younger
brother. He tells Miss Pigot that he has
played hazard for two nights till four in the
morning ; and in a later diary (MooEE, chap,
viii.) says that he loved gambling, but left off
in time, and played little after he was of age.
It is not surprising to find him confessing in
1808 (Letter 25) that he is ' cursedly dipped,'
and will owe 9,000/. or 10,000/. on coming of
age. The college authorities naturally looked
askance at him ; and Byron symbolised his
opinion of dons by bringing up a bear to
college, and declaring that the animal should
sit for a fellowship.
Byron formed friendships and had pursuits
of a more intellectual kind. He seems to
have resided at Cambridge for the Michaelmas
term 1805, and the Lent and Easter terms
1806 ; he was then absent for nearly a year,
and returned to keep (probably) the Easter
term of 1807, the following October and Lent
terms, and perhaps the Easter term of 1808,
taking his M.A. degree on 4 July 1808 (in-
formation kindly given by Cambridge autho-
Byron
135
Byron
rities). In the first period of residence,
though sulky and solitary, he became the ad-
miring friend of W. J. Bankes, was intimate
with Edward Noel Long, and protected a
chorister named Eddlestone. His friendship
with this youth, he tells MissPigot(Julyl807),
is to eclipse all the classical precedents, and
Byron means to get a partnership for his friend,
or to take him as a permanent companion.
Eddlestone died of consumption in 1811, and
Byron then reclaimed from Miss Pigot a cor-
nelian, which he had originally received from
Eddlestone, and handed on to her. References
to this friendship are in the ' Hours of Idle-
ness,' and probably in the ' Cornelian Heart '
(dated March 1812). Long entered the army,
and was drowned in a transport in 1809, to
Byron's profound affliction. He became in-
timate with two fellows of King's Henry
Drury and Francis Hodgson, afterwards pro-
vost of Eton. Byron snowed his friendship
for Hodgson by a present of 1,000/. in 1813,
when Hodgson was in embarrassment and
Byron not over rich (HODGSON, Memoirs, L
268). In his later residence a closer ' coterie '
was formed by Byron, Hobhouse, Davies, and
C. S. Matthews (Letter 66). John Cam
Hobhouse, afterwards Lord Broughton, was
his friend through life. Scrope Berdmore
Davies, a man of wit and taste, delighted
Byron by his ' dashing vivacity,' and lent
him 4,800/., the repayment of which was
celebrated by a drinking bout at the Cocoa
on 27 March 1 814. Hodgson reports (i. 104)
that when Byron exclaimed melodramatically
' I shall go mad,' Davies used to suggest
' silly ' as a probable emendation. Matthews
was regarded as the most promising of the
friends. Byron described his audacity, his
swimming and boxing, and conversational
powers in a letter to Murray (20 Nov. 1820),
and tells Dallas (Letter 61) that he was a
' most decided ' and outspoken ' atheist.'
Among these friends Byron varied the
pursuit of pleasure by literary efforts. He
boasts in a juvenile letter (No. 20) that he
has often been compared to 'the wicked' Lord
Lyttelton, and has already been held up as
' the votary of licentiousness and the disciple
of infidelity.' A list (dated 30 Nov. 1807)
shows that he had read or looked through
many historical books and novels ' by the
thousand.' His memory was remarkable (see
e.g.GAMBA,p.!48 ; LADYBLESSINGTON,P. 134).
Scott, however, found in 1815 that his read-
ing did ' not appear to have been extensive,
either in history or poetry ; ' and the list does
not imply that he had strayed beyond the
highways of literature.
At Southwell, in September 1806, he took
the principal part (Penruddock, an ' amiable
misanthrope ') in an amateur performance of
Cumberland's ' Wheel of Fortune,' and ' spun
a prologue ' in a postchaise. About the same
time he confessed to Miss Pigot, who had
been reading Burns to him, that he too was
a poet, and wrote down the lines ' In thee I
fondly hoped to clasp.' In November 1806
Ridge, a Newark bookseller, had privately
printed for him a small volume of poems,
entitled ' Fugitive Pieces.' His friend Mr.
Becher, a Southwell clergyman [see BECKER,
JOHN], remonstrated against the license of
one poem. Byron immediately destroyed the
whole impression (except one copy in Becher's
hands and one sent to young Pigot, then
studying medicine at Edinburgh). A hun-
dred copies, omitting the offensive verses, and
with some additions, under the title ' Poems
on Various Occasions,' were distributed in
January 1807. Favourable notices came to
the author from Bankes, Henry Mackenzie
('The Man of Feeling'), and Lord Wood-
houselee. In the summer of 1807 Byron
published a collection called ' Hours of Idle-
ness, a series of Poems, original and trans-
lated, by George Gordon, Lord Byron, a
minor,' from which twenty of the privately
printed poems were omitted and others added.
It was praised in the ' Critical Review ' of
September 1807, and abused in the first
number of the ' Satirist.' A new edition,
with some additions and without the prefaces,
appeared in March 1808 (see account of these
editions in appendix to English translation
of ELZE'S Byron (1872), p. 446). In January
1808 the famous criticism came out in the
' Edinburgh ' (Byron speaks of this as about
to appear in a letter (No. 24) dated 26 Feb.
1808). The critique has been attributed both
to Brougham and Jeffrey. Jeffrey seems to
have denied the authorship (see MEDWIK,
p. 174), and the ponderous legal facetiousness
is certainly not unlike Brougham, whom
Byron came to regard as the author (see Notes
and Queries, 4th ser. vi. 368, 480). The se-
verity was natural enough. Scott, indeed,
says that he remonstrated with Jeffrey, think-
ing that the poems contained ' some passages
of noble promise.' But the want of critical
acumen is less obvious than the needless
cruelty of the wound inflicted upon a boy's
harmless vanity. Byron was deeply stung.
He often boasted afterwards (e.g. Letter 420)
that he instantly drank three bottles of claret
and began a reply. He had already in his
desk (Letter 18), on 26 Oct. 1807, 380 lines
of his satire, besides 214 pages of a novel,
560 lines in blank verse of a poem on Bos-
worth Field, and other pieces. He now care-
fully polished his satire, and had it put in
type by Ridge.
Byron
136
Byron
On leaving Cambridge he had settled at
Newstead, given up in ruinous condition by
Lord Grey in the previous April, where he
had a few rooms made habitable, and cele-
brated his coming of age by some meagre
approach to the usual festivities. A favour-
able decision in the courts had given him
hopes of Rochdale, and made him, he says,
60,000/. richer. The suit, however, dragged
on through his life. Meanwhile he had to
raise money to make repairs and maintain his
establishment at Newstead, with which he de-
clares his resolution never to part (Letter of
6 March 1809). The same letter announces
the death of his friend Lord Falkland in a
duel. In spite of his own difficulties Byron
tried to help the widow, stood godfather to
her infant, and left a 5QQI. note for his god-
child in a breakfast cup. In a letter from
Mrs. Byron (Athenceum, 6 Sept. 1884) this
is apparently mentioned as a loan to Lady
Falkland. On 13 March he took his seat
in the House of Lords. Lord Carlisle had
acknowledged the receipt of ' Hours of Idle-
ness,' the second edition of which had been
dedicated to him, in a ' tolerably handsome
letter,' but would take no trouble about in-
troducing his ward. Byron was accompanied
to the house by no one but Dallas, a small
author, whose sister was the wife of Byron's
uncle, George Anson, and who had recently
sought his acquaintance. Byron felt his iso-
lation, and sulkily put aside a greeting from
the chancellor (Eldon). He erased a com-
pliment to Carlisle and substituted a bitter
attack in his satire which was now going
through the press under Dallas's superinten-
dence. ' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers '
appeared in the middle of March, and at once
made its mark. He prepared a second edition
at the end of April with additions and a
swaggering prose postscript, announcing his
departure from England and declaring that
his motive was not fear of his victims' anti-
pathies. The satire is vigorously written and
more carefully polished than Byron's later
efforts ; but has not the bitterness, the keen-
ness, or the fine workmanship of Pope. .The
retort upon his reviewers is only part of a
long tirade upon the other poets of the day.
In 1816 Byron made some annotations on
the poem at Geneva, admitting the injustice
of many lines. A third and fourth edition
appeared in 1810 and 1811 ; in the last year
he prepared a fifth for the press. He sup-
pressed it, as many of his adversaries were
now on friendly terms with him, and destroyed
all but one copy, from which later editions
have been printed. He told Murray (23 Oct.
1817) that he would never consent to its
republication.
Byron had for some time contemplated
making his ' grand tour.' In the autumn of
1808 he got up a play at Newstead ; he buried
his Newfoundland, Boatswain, who died of
madness 18 Nov. 1808, under a monument
with a misanthropical inscription; and in
the following spring entertained his college
friends. C. S. Matthews describes their amuse-
ments in a letter published by Moore. They
dressed themselves in theatrical costumes of
monks (with a recollection, perhaps, of Med-
menham), and drank burgundy out of a
human skull found near the abbey, which
Byron had fashioned into a cup with an ap-
propriate inscription. Such revelries sug-
gested extravagant rumours of reckless orgies
and ' harems ' in the abbey. Moore assures
us that the life there was in reality ' simple
and inexpensive,' and the scandal of limited
application.
Byron took leave of England by some
verses to Mrs. Musters about his blighted
affections, and sailed from Falmouth in the
Lisbon packet on 2 July 1809. Hobhouse
accompanied him, and he took three servants,
Fletcher (who followed him to the last), Rush-
ton, and Joe Murray. From Lisbon he rode
across Spain to Seville and Cadiz, and thence
sailed to Gibraltar in the Hyperion frigate
in the beginning of August. He sent home
Murray and Rushton with instructions for
the proper education of the latter at his own
expense. He sailed in the packet for Malta
on 19 Aug. 1809, in company with Gait,
who afterwards wrote his life, and who was
rather amused by the affectations of the youth-
ful peer. At Malta he fell in with a Mrs.
Spencer Smith with a romantic history (see
Memoirs of the Duchesse cCAbrantes (1834),
xv. 1-74), to whom he addressed the verses
' To Florence,' ' stanzas composed during a
thunderstorm,' and a passage in ' Childe Ha-
rold ' (ii. st. 30-3), explaining that his heart
was now past the power of loving. From
Malta he reached Prevesa in the Spider,
brig of war, on 19 Sept. 1809. He thence
visited Ali Pasha at Tepelen, and was nearly
lost in a Turkish man-of-war on his return.
In November he travelled to Missolonghi
(21 Nov.) through Acarnania with a guard
of Albanians. He stayed a fortnight at Patras,
and thence left for Athens. He reached
Athens on Christmas eve and lodged with
Theodora Macri, widow of the English vice-
consul, who had three lovely daughters. The
eldest, Theresa, celebrated by Byron as the
Maid of Athens, became Mrs. Black. She
fell into poverty, and an appeal for her support
was made in the ' Times ' on 23 March 1872.
She died in October 1875 (Times, 21, 25,
27 Oct. 1875). He sailed from Athens for
Byron
137
Byron
Smyrna in the Pylades, sloop of war, on
5 March 1810 ; visited Ephesus ; and on
11 April sailed in the Salsette frigate for
Constantinople, and visited the Troad. On
3 May he repeated Leander's feat of swim-
ming from Sestos to Abydos. In February
1821 he wrote a long letter to Murray, de-
fending his statements against some criticisms
in W. Turner's ' Tour in the Levant ' (see
Appendix to MOORE). Byron reached Con-
stantinople on 14 May, and sailed in the
Salsette on 14 July. Hobhouse returned to
England, while Byron landed at Zea, with
Fletcher, two Albanians, and a Tartar, and
returned to Athens. Here he professed to
have met with the adventure turned to account
in the ' Giaour ' about saving a girl from being
drowned in a sack. A letter from Lord Sligo,
who was then at Athens, to Byron (31 Aug.
1813), proves that some such report was cur-
rent at Athens a day or two later, and may
possibly have had some foundation. Hobhouse
( Westminster Review, January 1825) says that
Byron's Turkish servant was the lover of the
girl. He made a tour in the Morea, had a
dangerous fever at Patras (which left a lia-
bility to malaria), and returned to Athens,
where he passed the winter of 1810-11 in the
Capuchin convent. Here he met Lady Hester
Stanhope, and formed one of his strong attach-
ments to a youth called Nicolo Giraud. To
this lad he gave a sum of money on parting,
and left him 7,000/. in a will of August 1811.
From Athens Byron went to Malta, and sailed
thence for England in the Volage frigate on
3 June 181 1 . He reached Portsmouth at the
beginning of July, and was met by Dallas at
Reddish's Hotel, St. James's Street, on 15 July
1811.
Byron returned to isolation and vexation.
He had told his mother that, if compelled to
part with Newstead, he should retire to the
East. To Hodgson he wrote while at sea
(Letter 51) that he was returning embar-
rassed, unsocial, ' without a hope and almost
without a desire.' His financial difficulties
are shown by a series of letters published in
the 'Athenaeum ' (30 Aug. and 6 Sept. 1884).
The court of chancery had allowed him 50QI.
a year at Cambridge, to which his mother had
added as much, besides incurring a debt of
1,000/. on his behalf. He is reduced to his
last guinea in December 1807, has obtained
loans from Jews, and expects to end by suicide
or the marriage of a 'golden dolly.' His
mother was put to the greatest difficulties
during his travels, and he seems to have been
careless in providing for her wants. The
bailiffs were at Newstead in February 1810 ;
a sale was threatened in June. Byron writes
from Athens in November refusing to sell
Newstead. While returning to England he
proposed to join the army, and had to borrow
money to pay for his journey to London.
News of his mother's illness came to him in
London, and before he could reach her she
died (1 Aug. 1811) of 'a fit of rage caused
by reading the upholsterer's bills.' The loss
affected him deeply, and he was found sob-
bing by her remains over the loss of his one
friend in the world. The deaths of his school-
friend Wingfield (14 May 1811),of C. S. Mat-
thews, and of Eddlestone, were nearly simul-
taneous blows, and he tells Miss Pigot that
the last death ' made the sixth, within four
months, of friends and relatives lost between
May and the end of August.' In February
1812 he mentions Eddlestone to Hodgson
(Memoirs, i. 221) as the ' only human being
that ever loved him in truth and entirely.'
He adds that where death has set his seal
the impression can never be broken. The
phrase recurs in the most impressive of the
poems to Thyrza, dated in the same month.
The coincidence seems to confirm Moore's
statement that Thyrza was no more than an
impersonation of Byron's melancholy caused
by many losses. An apostrophe to a ' loved
and lovely one' at the end of the second canto
of ' Childe Harold ' (st. 95,96) belongs to the
same series. Attempts to identify Thyrza
have failed. Byron spoke to Trelawny of a
passion for a cousin who was in a decline
when he left England, and whom Trelawny
identifies with Thyrza. No one seems to
answer to the description. It may be added
that he speaks (see MOORE, chap, iv.) of a
' violent, though pure love and passion ' which
absorbed him while at Cambridge, and writes
to Dallas (11 Oct. 1811) of a loss about this
time which would have profoundly moved
him but that he ' has supped full of horrors,'
and that Dallas understands him as referring
to some one who might have made him happy
as a wife. Byron had sufficient elasticity of
spirit for a defiance of the world, and a vanity
keen enough to make a boastful exhibition of
premature cynicism and a blighted heart.
At the end of October 1811 he took lodg-
ings in St. James's Street. He had shown
to Dallas upon his return to England the first
two cantos of ' Childe Harold ' and ' Hints
from Horace,' a tame paraphrase of the ' Ars
Poetica.' According to Dallas, he preferred
the last, and was unwilling to publish the
' Childe.' Cawthorn, who had published the
' English Bards,' &c., accepted the ' Hints '
(which did not appear till after Byron's death),
but the publication was delayed, apparently
for want of a good classical reviser ( To Hodg-
son, 13 Oct. 1811). The Longmans had re-
fused the ' English Bards,' which attacked
Byron
138
Byron
their friends, and Byron told Dallas to offer
' Childe Harold ' elsewhere. Miller objected
to the attack upon Lord Elgin (as the de-
spoiler of the Parthenon), for whom he pub-
lished ; and it was ultimately accepted by
Murray, who thus began a permanent con-
nection with Byron. ' Childe Harold ' ap-
peared in March 1812. Byron had meanwhile
spoken for the first time in the House of
Lords, 27 Feb. 1812, against a bill for sup-
pressing riots of Nottingham frameworkers,
and with considerable success. A second
and less successful speech against catholic
disabilities followed on 21 April 1812. He
made one other short speech in presenting a
petition from Major Cartwright on 1 June
1813. Lord Holland helped him in provid-
ing materials for the first, and the speeches
indicate a leaning towards something more
than whiggism. The first two are of rather
elaborate rhetoric, and his delivery was cri-
ticised as too theatrical and sing-song. Any
political ambition was extinguished by the
startling success of ' Childe Harold,' of which
a first edition was immediately sold. Byron
' woke one morning andf ound himself famous.'
Murray gave 600/. for the copyright, which
Byron handed over to Dallas, declaring that
he would never take money for his poems.
The two cantos now published are admit-
tedly inferior to the continuation of the
poem ; and the affectation of which it set
the fashion is obsolete. Byron tells Murray
(3 Nov. 1821) that he is like a tiger. If he
misses his first spring, he goes 'grumbling
back to the jungle again.' His poems are
all substantially impromptus ; but the vigour
and descriptive power, in spite of all blemishes,
are enough to explain the success of a poem
original in conception and setting forth a type"!
of character which embodied a prevailing!
sentiment.
Byron became the idol of the sentimental
part of society. Friends and lovers of noto-
riety gathered round this fascinating rebel.
Among the first was Moore, who had sent
him a challenge for a passage in ' English
Bards' ridiculing the bloodless duel with
Jeffrey. Hodgson had suppressed the letter
during Byron's absence. Moore now wrote
a letter ostensibly demanding explanations,
but more like a request for acquaintance.
The two met at a dinner given by Rogers,
where Campbell made a fourth. Byron sur-
prised his new friends by the distinction of
his appearance and the eccentricity of his
diet, consisting of potatoes and vinegar alone.
Moore was surprised at Byron's isolation.
Dallas, his solicitor, Hanson, and three or
four college friends were at this time (No-
vember 1811) his only associates. Moore
rapidly became intimate. Byron liked him
as a thorough man of the world and as an
expert in the arts which compensate for in-
feriority of birth, and which enabled Moore
to act as an obsequious monitor and to
smother gentle admonition in abundant flat-
tery. In his diary (10 Dec. 1813) Byron
says that Moore was the best-hearted man
he knew and with talents equal to his feel-
ings. Byron was now at the height of his
proverbial beauty. Coleridge in 1816 speaks
enthusiastically of the astonishing beauty
and expressiveness of his face (GTLLMAN,
p. 267). Dark brown locks, curling over
a lofty forehead, grey eyes with long dark
lashes, a mouth and chin of exquisite sym-
metry are shown in his portraits, and were
animated by an astonishing mobility of
expression, varying from apathy to intense
passion. His head was very small ; his nose,
though well formed, rather too thick ; look-
ing, says Hunt (i. 150), in a front view as if
' grafted on the face ; ' his complexion was
colourless ; he had little beard. His height,
he says (Diary, 17 March 1814), 5ft. 8$in.
or a little less (MEDWIN, p. 5). He had a
broad chest, long muscular arms, with white
delicate hands, and beautiful teeth. A ten-
dency to excessive fatness, inherited from
his mother, was not only disfiguring but
productive of great discomfort, and increased
the unwieldiness arising from his lameness.
To remedy the evil he resorted to the in-
jurious system of diet often set down to
mere affectation. Trelawny (ii. 74) observes
more justly that Byron was the only human
being he "knew with self-restraint enough
not to get fat. In April 1807 he tells Pigot
that he has reduced himself by exercise, phy-
sic, and hot baths from 14st. 71bs. to 12st. 71bs. ;
in January 1808 he tells Drury that he has
got down to lOst. 71bs. When last weighed
at Genoa he was lOst. 91bs. (TRELAwmr).
He carried on this system at intervals through
life ; at Athens he drank vinegar and water,
and seldom ate more than a little rice ; on
his return he gave up wine and meat. He
sparred with Jackson for exercise, and took
hot baths. In 1813 he lived on six biscuits
a day and tea ; in December he fasts for
forty-eight hours ; in 1816 he lived on a thin
slice of bread for breakfast and a vegetable
dinner, drinking green tea and seltzer-water.
He kept down hunger by chewing mastic
and tobacco (HUNT, i. 65). He sometimes
took laudanum (Diary, 14 Jan. 1821 ; and
Lady Byron's Letter, 18 Jan. 1816). He
tells Moore (Letter 461) in 1821 that a dose
of salts gave him most exhilaration. Occa-
sional indulgences varied this course. Moore
describes a supper (19 May 1814) when he
Byron
139
Byron
finished two or three lobsters, washed down
by half a dozen glasses of strong brandy,
with tumblers of hot water. He wrote ' Don
Juan' on gin and water, and Medwin (p.
336) speaks of his drinking too much wine
and nearly a pint of hollands every night
(in 1822). Trelawny (i. 73), however, de-
clares that the spirits was mere ' water be-
witched.' When Hunt reached Pisa in 1822,
he found Byron so fat as to be scarcely re-
cognisable. Medwin, two or three months
later, found him starved into ' unnatural
thinness.' Such a diet was no doubt in-
jurious in the long run ; but the starvation
seems to have stimulated his brain, and Tre-
lawny says that no man had brighter eyes or
a clearer voice.
In the spring of 1813 Byron published
anonymously the ' "Waltz/ and disowned it
on its deserved failure. Various avatars of
' Childe Harold/ however, repeated his pre-
vious success. The ' Giaour ' appeared in
May 1813 ; the ' Bride of Abydos' in Decem-
ber 1813 ; the ' Corsair ' in January 1814.
They were all struck off at a white heat.
The ' Giaour ' was increased from 400 lines
in the first edition to 1,400 in the fifth, which
appeared in the autumn of 1813. The first
sketch of the ' Bride ' was written in four
nights (Diary, 16 Nov, 1813) ' to distract
his dreams from . . . / and afterwards in-
creased by 200 lines. The ' Corsair,' written
in ten days, or between 18 and 31 Dec.,
was hardly touched afterwards. He boasted
afterwards that 14,000 copies of the last were
sold in a day. With its first edition appeared
the impromptu lines, ' Weep, daughter of a
royal line ; ' the Princess Charlotte having
wept, it was said, on the inability of the
whigs to form a cabinet on Perceval's death.
The lines were the cause of vehement attacks
upon the author by the government papers.
A satire called ' Anti-Byron/ shown to him
by Murray in March 1814, indicated the rise
of a hostile feeling. Byron was annoyed by
the shift of favour. He had said in the dedi-
cation of the 'Corsair' to Moore that he
should be silent for some years, and on 9 April
1814 tells Moore that he has given up rhym-
ing. The same letter announces the abdica-
tion of Napoleon, and next day he composed
and sent to Murray his ode upon that event.
On 29 April he tells Murray that he has re-
solved to buy back his copyrights and sup-
press his poetry, but he instantly withdrew the
resolution on Murray's assurance that it would
be inconvenient. By the middle of June he
had finished ' Lara/ which was published in
the same volume with Rogers's ' Jacqueline '
in August. The 'Hebrew Melodies/ written
at the request of Kinnaird, appeared with
music in January 1815. The ' Siege of Co-
rinth/ begun July 1815 and copied by Lady
Byron, and ' Parisina/ written the same au-
tumn, appeared in January and February
1816. Murray gave 700J. for ' Lara ' and 500
guineas for each of the others. Dallas wrote
to the papers in February 1814, defending his
noble relative from the charge of accepting
payment; and stated that the money for
' Childe Harold ' and ' The Corsair ' had been
given to himself. The sums due for the other
two poems then published were still, it seems,
in the publisher s hands. In the beginning
of 1816 Byron declined to take the 1,000
guineas for ' Parisina ' and the ' Siege of Co-
rinth/ and it was proposed to hand over the
money to Godwin, Coleridge, and Maturin.
The plan was dropped at Murray's objection,
and the poet soon became less scrupulous.
These poems were written in the thick of
many distractions. Byron was familiar at
Holland, Melbourne, and Devonshire Houses.
He knew Brummell and was one of the dan-
dies ; he was a member of Watier's, then a
' superb club/ and appeared as a caloyer in a
masquerade given by his fellow-members in
1813 ; of the more literary and sober Alfred;
of the Union, the Pugilistics, and the Owls,
or ' Fly-by-nights.' He indulged in the plea-
sures of his class, with intervals of self-con-
tempt and foreboding. Scott and Mme. de
Stael (like Lady Byron) thought that a pro-
found melancholy was in reality his domi-
nant mood. He had reasons enough in his
money embarrassments and in dangerous en-
tanglements. Fashionable women adored the
beautiful young poet and tried to soothe his
blighted affections. Lady Morgan (ii. 2) de-
scribes him as 'cold, silent, and reserved/
but doubtless not the less fascinating. Dal-
las (iii. 41) observed that his coyness speedily
vanished, and found him in a brown study
writing to some fine lady whose page was
waiting in scarlet and a hussar jacket. This
may have been Lady Caroline Lamb, a woman
of some talent, but flighty and excitable to
the verge of insanity. She was born 23 Nov.
1785, the daughter of the Earl of Bessboroup-h,
and in June 1805 married William Lan>tf,
afterwards Lord Melbourne. The women, as
she says, ' suffocated him ' when she first saw
him. On her own introduction by Lady West-
morland, she turned on her heel and wrote
in her diary that he was 'mad, bad, and
dangerous to know.' The acquaintance was
renewed at Lady Holland's, and for nine
months he almost lived at Melbourne House,
where he contrived to ' sweep away ' the
dancing, in which he could take no part.
Lady Caroline did her best to make her pas-
sion notorious. She ' absolutely besieged
Byron
140
Byron
him,' says Rogers ( Table Talk, p. 235) ; told
him in her first letter that all her jewels were
at his service ; waited at night for Rogers in
his garden to ask him to reconcile her to
Byron ; and would return from parties in
Byron's carriage or wait for him in the street
if not invited. At last, in July 1813 (see
JACKSON, Bath Archives, ii. 146), it was ru-
moured in London that after a quarrel with
Byron at a party Lady Caroline had tried to
stab herself with a knife and then with
the fragments of a glass (the party was on
5 July ; HAYWARD, Eminent Statesmen, i.
350-3). Her mother now insisted upon her
retirement to Ireland. After a farewell in-
terview, Byron wrote her a letter (printed
from the original manuscript in JEAFFRESON,
i. 261), which reads like an attempt to use
the warmest phrases consistent with an ac-
ceptance of their separation, though ending
with a statement of his readiness to fly with
her. She corresponded with Byron from Ire-
land till on the eve of her return she received
a brutal letter from him (printed in ' Glenar-
von,' and apparently acknowledged by Byron,
MEDWIN, p. 274), saying roundly that he was
attached to another, and telling her to cor-
rect her vanity and leave him in peace. The
letter, marked with Lady Oxford's coronet
and initials, threw Lady Caroline into a fit,
which involved leeching, bleeding, and bed
for a week.
Lady Caroline's mother-in-law, Lady Mel-
bourne, was sister of Sir R. Milbanke, who,
by his wife, Judith Noel, daughter of Lord
Wentworth, was father of an only daughter,
Anne Isabella Milbanke, born 17 May 1792.
Miss Milbanke was a woman of intellectual
tastes ; fond of theology and mathematics,
and a writer of poems, one or two of which
are published in Byron's works (two are
given in Madame Belloc's ' Byron,' i. 68).
Byron described her to Medwin (p. 36) as
having small and feminine, though not re-
gular, features ; the fairest skin imaginable ;
perfect figure and temper and modest manners.
She was on friendly terms with Mrs. Siddons,
Miss Baillie, Miss Edgeworth, and other li te-
rary personswho frequented her mother's house
(see HARNESS, p. 23). A strong sense of duty,
shown in a rather puritanical precision, led
unsympathetic observers to regard her as
prudish, pedantic, and frigid. Her only cer-
tain fortune was 10,CKXW. Her father had
injured a considerable estate by electioneering.
Her mother's brother, Lord Wentworth, was
approaching seventy. His estate of some
7,000/. a year was at his own disposal, and
she was held to be his favourite ; but he had
illegitimate children, and his sister, Lady
Scarsdale, had sons and a daughter. Miss
Milbanke was therefore an heiress with
rather uncertain prospects. Byron, from what-
ever motives, made her an offer in 1812, which
was refused, and afterwards opened a corre-
spondence with her (CAMPBELL, New Monthly,
xxviii. 374, contradicts, on Lady Byron's au-
thority, Medwin's statement (p. 37), that she
began the correspondence), which continued
at intervals for two years. On 30 Nov. 1813 he
notices the oddness of a situation in which
there is ' not a spark of love on either side.'
On 15 March 1813 he receives a letter from
her and says that he will be in love again if
he does not take care. Meanwhile he and
his friends naturally held that a marriage
might be his salvation. Lady Melbourne,
whom on her death in 1818 he calls (Letter
316) the 'best, kindest, and ablest female'
he ever knew, promoted a match with her
niece, possibly because it would effectually
bar the intrigue with her daughter-in-law.
In September 1814 he made an offer to Miss
Milbanke in a letter, which, according to a
story told by Moore, was the result of a mo-
mentary impulse. Byron may be acquitted
of simply mercenary motives. He never acted
upon calculation, and had he wished, he
might probably have turned his attractions to
better account. The sense that he was drift-
ing into dangerous embarrassments, which
(see Diary, 10 Dec. 1813) suggests hints of
suicide, would no doubt recommend a match
with unimpeachable propriety, as the lady's
vanity was equally flattered by the thought
of effecting such a conversion. Byron was
pre-eminently a man who combined strange
infirmity of will with overpowering gusts
of passion. He drifted indolently as long
as drifting was possible, and then acted im-
petuously in obedience to the uppermost
influence.
Byron's marriage took place 2 Jan. 1815 at
Seaham, Durham, the seat of Sir R. Milbanke.
The honeymoon was passed at Halnaby,
another of his houses in the same county.
The pair returned to Seaham 21 Jan. ; in
March they visited Colonel and Mrs. Leigh
at Six Mile Bottom, Newmarket, on their way
to London, where they settled, 18 March 1815,
at 13 Piccadilly Terrace for the rest of their
married life. Byron, in ' The Dream,' chose
to declare that on his wedding day his thoughts
had been with Miss Chaworth. He also told
Medwin (p. 39) that on leaving the house he
found the lady's-maid placed between him-
self and his bride in the carriage. Hobhouse,
who had been his ' best man,' authoritatively
contradicted this ( Westminster Revieiv, No.
5), and the statement of Mrs. Minns (first
published in ' Newcastle Chronicle,' 23 Sept.
1869), who had been Lady Byron's maid at
Byron
141
Byron
Halnaby and previously, is that Lady Byron
arrived there in a state ' buoyant and cheer-
ful ; ' but that Byron's ' irregularities ' began
there and caused her misery, which she tried
to conceal from her mother. Lady Byron
also wrote to Hodgson (15 Feb. 1816) that
Byron had married her ' with the deepest de-
termination of revenge, avowed on the day
of my marriage and executed ever since with
systematic and increasing cruelty' (Byron
contradicts some report to this effect to Sled-
win, p. 39). The letters written at the time,
however, hardly support these statements.
Byron speaks of his happiness to Moore,
though he is terribly bored by his ' pious
father-in-law ' (see a reference to this in TEE-
LAWNY, i. 72). Lady Milbanke speaks of their
happiness at Seaham (Bland-Burgess Papers,
p. 339). Mrs. Leigh tells Hodgson that Lady
Byron's parents were pleased with their son-
in-law, and reports favourably of the pair on
their visit to Six Mile Bottom. In April Lord
Wentworth died. The bulk of his property
was settled upon Lady Milbanke (who, with
her husband, now took the name of Noel) and
Lady Byron. On 29 July 1815 Byron executed
the will proved after his death. He left all
the property of which he could dispose in trust
for Mrs. Leigh and her children, his wife and
any children he might have by her being now
amply provided for. Lady Byron fully ap-
proved of this provision, and communicates
it in an affectionate letter to Mrs. Leigh.
Harness says that when the Byrons first
came to London no couple could be appa-
rently more devoted (HARNESS, p. 14) ; but
troubles approached. Byron's expenses were
increased. He had agreed to sell Newstead
for 140,00(V. in September 1812 ; but two
years later the purchaser withdrew, forfeit-
ing 25,000/., which seems to have speedily
vanished. In November 1815 Byron had to
sell his library, though he still declined Mur-
ray's offers for his copyrights. Creditors (at
whose expense this questionable delicacy must
have been exercised) dunned the husband of
an heiress, and there were nine executions in
his house within the year. He found dis-
tractions abroad. He was a zealous playgoer ;
Kean's performance of Sir Giles Overreach
gave him a kind of convulsive fit a story
which recalls his mother's at the Edinburgh
theatre, and of the similar effect afterwards,
produced upon himself by Alfieri's ' Mirra
(MooRE, chap, xxii.) He became member of
the committee of management of Drury Lane,
and was brought into connections of which
Moore says that they gave no real cause of
offence, though the circumstances were dan-
gerous to the ' steadiness of married life.'
We hear, too, of parties where all ended in
' hiccup and happiness ; ' and it seems that
Byron's dislike of seeing women eat led to a
separation at the domestic board. The only
harsh action to which he confessed was that
Lady Byron once came upon him when he
was musing over his embarrassments and
asked ' Am I in your way ? ' to which he
replied ' Damnably ' (MEDWIN, p. 43).
On 10 Dec. 1815 Lady Byron gave birth
to her only child, Augusta Ada. On 6 Jan.
1816 Byron gave directions to his wife ' in
writing ' to leave London as soon as she was
well enough. It was agreed, he told Medwin
(p. 40), that she should stay with her father
till some arrangement had been made with
the creditors. On 8 Jan. Lady Byron con-
sulted Dr. Baillie, ' with the concurrence of
his family,' that is, apparently, Mrs. Leigh
and his cousin, George Byron, with whom
she constantly communicated in the following
period. Dr. Baillie, on her expressing doubts
of Byron's sanity, advised her absence as an
' experiment.' He told her to correspond
with him on ' light and soothing ' topics.
She even believed that a sudden excitement
might bring on a ' fatal crisis.' 'She left Lon-
don on 15 Jan. 1816, reaching her parents at
Kirkby Mallory on the 16th. She wrote
affectionately to her husband on starting and
arriving. The last letter, she says, was circu-
lated to support the charge of desertion. It
began, as Byron told Medwin, ' Dear Duck,'
and was signed by her pet name ' Pippin '
(HtrNT, Autobiogr. 1860, pp. 247, 254). She
writes to Mrs. Leigh on the same day that
she has made ' the most explicit statement '
to her parents. They are anxious to do
everything in their power for the ' poor suf-
ferer.' He was to be invited at once to
Kirkby Mallory, and her mother wrote ac-
cordingly on the 17th. He would probably
drop a plan, already formed, for going abroad
with Hobhouse on her parents' remonstrance.
On 18 Jan. she tells Mrs. Leigh that she
hopes that Byron will join her for a time and
not leave her till there is a prospect of an
heir. Lady Noel has suggested that Mrs.
Leigh might dilute a laudanum bottle with
water without Byron's knowledge. She still
writes as an affectionate wife, hoping that
her husband may be cured of insanity. An
apothecary, Le Mann, is to see the patient,
and Lady Noel will go to London, consult
Mrs. Leigh, and procure advice.
The medical advisers could find no proof
of insanity, though a list of sixteen sym-
ptoms had been submitted to them. The
strongest, according to Moore, was the dash-
ing to pieces of a ' favourite old watch ' in. an
excess of fury. A similar anecdote (HoDG-
SON, ii. 6) was told of his throwing a jar of
Byron
142
Byron
ink out of window, and his excitement at the
theatre is also suggested. Lady Byron upon
hearing the medical opinion immediately de-
cided upon separation. Dr. Baillie and a
lawyer, by Lady Noel's desire, ' almost forced
themselves upon Byron' (MEDWIN, p. 46),
and confirmed Le Mann's report. On 25 Jan.
1816 Lady Byron tells Mrs. Leigh that she
must resign the right to be her sister, but
hopes that no difference will be made in their
feelings. From this time she consistently
adhered to the view finally set forth in her
statement in 1830. Her letters to Mrs. Leigh,
to Hodgson, who had ventured to intervene,
and her last letter to Byron (13 Feb. 1816),
take the same ground. Byron had been
guilty of conduct inexcusable if he were an
accountable agent, and therefore making sepa-
ration a duty when his moral responsibility
was proved. She tells Mrs. Leigh and Hodg-
son that he married her out of revenge ; she
tells Hodgson (15 Feb.) that her security
depended on the ' total abandonment of every
moral and religious principle,' and tells Byron
himself that to her' affectionate remonstrances
and forewarnings of consequences he had re-
plied by a ' determination to be wicked though
it should break my heart.'
On 2 Feb. 1816 Sir R. Noel proposed an
amicable separation to Byron, which he at
first rejected. Lady Byron went to London
and saw Dr. Lushington, who, with Sir S.
Romilly, had been consulted by Lady Noel,
and had then spoken of possible reconcilia-
tion. Lady Byron now informed him of facts
' utterly unknown,' he says, ' I have no doubt,
to Sir R. and Lady Noel.' His opinion was
' entirely changed.' He thought reconciliation
impossible, and should it be proposed he could
take no part, 'professionally or otherwise,
towards effecting it.' Mrs. Leigh requested
an interview soon after, which Lady Byron
declined ' with the greatest pain.' Lushing-
ton had forbidden any such interview, as
they ' might be called upon to answer for the
most private conversation.' In a following
letter (neither dated) Lady Byron begs for
the interview which she had refused. She
cannot bear the thought of not meeting, and
the ' grounds of the case are in some degree
changed' (Addit. MS. 31037, ff. 33, 34).
According to Lady Byron's statement (in
1830) Byron consented to the separation
upon being told that the matter must other-
wise come into court. We may easily be-
lieve that, as Mrs. Leigh tells Mr. Horton,
Byron would be happy to ' escape the ex-
posure,' whatever its precise nature. He after-
wards threw the responsibility for reticence
on the other side. He gave a paper to Mr.
Lewis, dated at La Mira in 1817, saying that
Hobhouse had challenged the other side to
come into court ; that he only yielded because
Lady Byron had claimed a promise that he
would consent to a separation if she really de-
sired it. He declares his ignorance of the
charges against him, and his desire to meet
them openly. This paper was apparently
shown only to a few friends. It was first
made public in the ' Academy ' of 9 Oct.
1869. Hobhouse (see Quarterly Review for
October 1869, January 1870, and July 1883)
also said that Byron was quite ready to go
into court, and that Wilmot Horton on Lady
Byron's part disclaimed all the current scan-
dals. It would seem, however, Byron could
have forced an open statement had he really
chosen to do so. This paper shows his con-
sciousness that he ought to have done it if
his case had been producible. Lady Byron
tells Hodgson at the time (15 Feb. 1816) he
' does know, too well, what he affects to in-
quire.'
The question remains, what were the speci-
fic charges which decided Lady Byron and
Lushington? A happy marriage between
persons so little congenial would have sur-
prised his best friends. So far we might well
accept the statement which Moore assigns
to him : ' My dear sir, the causes were too
simple to be easily found out.' But this will
not explain Lady Byron's statements at the
time, nor the impression made upon Lushing-
ton by her private avowal. Lady Byron only
exchanged the hypothesis of insanity for that
of diabolical pride. Byron's lifelong habit
of ' inverse hypocrisy ' may account for some-
thing. Harness reports (p. 32) that he used
to send paragraphs to foreign papers injurious
to his own character in order to amuse himself
by mystifying the English public. Some of
Lady Byron's statements may strengthen the
belief that she had taken some such foolish
brags too seriously.
Other explanations have been offered. In
1856 Lady Byron told a story to Mrs. Beecher
Stowe. She thought that by blasting his
memory she might weaken the evil influence
of his writings, and shorten his expiation in
another world. Lady Byron died in 1860.
I After the publication of the Guiccioli me-
moirs in 1868, Mrs. Stowe thought it her
; duty to publish the story in ' Macmillan's
I Magazine' for September 1869 and the 'At-
lantic Monthly.' Her case is fully set forth,
with documents and some explanations, in
' Lady Byron Vindicated ; a History of the
Byron Controversy,' 1 870. According to Mrs.
Stowe, Lady Byron accused her husband to
Lushington of an incestuous intrigue with
Mrs. Leigh. An examination of all that is
known of Mrs. Leigh (see Quarterly Review,
Byron i
July 1869), of the previous relations between
brother and sister, and especially of Lady
Byron's affectionate relations to Mrs. Leigh
at the time, as revealed in letters since pub-
lished, proves this hideous story to be abso-
lutely incredible. Till 1830 Mrs. Leigh con-
tinued to be on good terms with Lady Byron,
and had conveyed messages between Byron
and his wife during his life. The appoint-
ment of a trustee under Byron's marriage set-
tlements in 1830 led to a disagreement. Lady
Byron refused with considerable irritation a
request made by Mrs. Leigh. All acquain-
tance dropped, till in 1851 Lady Byron con-
sented to an interview. Mrs. Leigh was
anxious to declare that she had not (as she
supposed Lady Byron to believe that she
had) encouraged Byron's bitterness of feeling
towards his wife. Lady Byron replied simply,
'Is that allP' No further communication
followed, and Mrs. Leigh died 18 Oct. 1851.
It can only be surmised that Lady Byron had
become jealous of Byron's public and pointed
expressions of love for his sister, contrasted
so forcibly with his utterances about his wife,
and in brooding over her wrongs had deve-
loped the hateful suspicion communicated to
Mrs. Stowe, and, as it seems, to others. It
appears too, from a passage in the Guiccioli
memoirs, that at a time when Byron was
accused of ' every monstrous vice,' his phrases
about his pure fraternal affection suggested
some such addition to the mass of calumny
(' Reminiscences of an Attach^,' by Hubert
Jerningham (1886), contains a curious state-
ment by Mme. Guiccioli as to Byron's strong
affection for his sister).
Another suggestion made by Mr. Jeaffreson,
that the cause was a connection formed by
Byron about the time of the first separation
with Jane Clairmont, daughter, by a previous
marriage, of William Godwin's second wife,
seems quite inadmissible. It entirely fails to
explain Lady Byron's uniform assertions at
the time and in 1830 (see ante, and letter
to Lady Anne Barnard, published by Lord
Lindsay in the ' Times ' in September 1869)
that Byron had been guilty of conduct ex-
cusable only on the ground of insanity, and
continued during their whole cohabitation.
Byron's extreme wrath against a Mrs. Cler-
mont (a former governess of Lady Byron's),
whom he accused (MEDWIN, p. 43) of break-
ing open a desk, seems to suggest that some
discovery was made subsequently to Lady
Byron's departure from London, but affords
no confirmation of this hypothesis.
The problem must remain unsolved. The
scandal excited a general explosion of public
indignation. In some ' Observations upon
an article in "Blackwood's Magazine" ' (dated
3 Byron
15 March 1820, but not published till after
Byron's death) Byron describes the state of
feeling ; he was accused of ' every monstrous
vice ; ' advised not to go to the theatre or to
parliament for fear of public insults, and his
friends feared violence from the mob when he
started in his travelling carriage. This indig-
nation, perhaps exaggerated (see HOBHOTJSE
in Westminster Review), has been ridiculed ;
and doubtless included mean and hateful
elements love of scandal and delight in
trampling on a great name. Yet it was not
unnatural. Byron's very guarded sceptical
utterances in ' Childe Harold ' frightened
Dallas into a formal and elaborate protest,
and shocked a sensitive public extravagantly.
He had been posing as a rebel against all
the domestic proprieties. So long as his
avowed license could pass for a literary af-
fectation, or be condoned in the spirit of the
general leniency shown to wild young men
in the era of the prince regent, the protest
was confined to the stricter classes. But
when a Lara passed from the regions of fancy
to 13 Piccadilly Terrace, matters became more
serious. Byron was outraging a woman of
the highest character and with the strongest
claims on his tenderness ; and a feeling arose
such as that which, soon afterwards, showed
itself when the prince regent passed from
simple immorality to the persecution of a
wife with infinitely less claims to respect
than Lady Byron's. Lady Caroline Lamb
claimed her part in the outcry by her wild
novel of ' Glenarvon,' published at this time.
The separation was signed, and Byron left
his country for ever. Some friends still
stood by him. Lady Jersey earned his last-
ing gratitude by giving an assembly in his
honour ; and Miss Mercer (afterwards Lady
Keith) met him therewith marked cordiality.
Leigh Hunt in the ' Examiner ' and Perry in
the ' Morning Chronicle ' defended him. Mrs.
Leigh's affection was his chief comfort, when
even his cousin George took his wife's part
(MEDWIN, p. 49). Two poems appeared in the
papers, through the 'injudicious zeal of a
friend,' says Moore, in the middle of April.
' A Sketch ' (dated 29 March) is a savage
onslaught upon Mrs. Clermont. ' Fare thee
well ' (dated 17 March), written with tears,
it is said, the marks of which still blot the
manuscript, expostulates pathetically with
his wife for inflicting a 'cureless wound.'
On 8 March Byron told Moore that there
was ' never a brighter, kinder, or more ami-
able and agreeable being ' than Lady Byron,
and that no blame attached to her. He ap-
peals to Rogers (25 March) to confirm his
statement that he had never attacked her.
In 1823 he repeated this statement to Lady
Byron
144
Byron
Blessington (p. 117). In fact, however, he
oscillated between attempts to preserve the
air of an injured yet forgiving husband and
outbursts of bitterness. At the instance of
Mme. de Stae'l he made some kind of over-
ture for reconciliation in 1816, and (appa-
rently) upon its failure wrote the ' Dream,'
intended to show that his love had always
been reserved for Mary Chaworth ; and a
novel upon the ' Marriage of Belphegor,' re-
presenting his own story. He destroyed it,
says Moore, on hearing of her illness ; but a
fragment is given in the notes to ' Don Juan.'
In a poem written at the same time, ' On
hearing that Lady Byron was ill,' he attacks
her implacability, and calls her a ' moral Cly-
temnestra.' He never met Lady Blessington
without talking of his domestic troubles.
He showed an (unsent) conciliatory letter,
and apologised for public allusions in his
works. Some angry communications were
suppressed by his friends, but the allusions
in the last cantos of ' Childe Harold ' and
in ' Don Juan ' were unpardonable. While
Byron was bemoaning his griefs to even
casual acquaintance with a strange inconti-
nence of language, and circulating letters
and lampoons, his occasional conciliatory
moods were of little importance. Lady Bles-
sington remarks on his curious forgetfulness
of the way in which he had consoled him-
self when he complained of his wife's impla-
cability. Her dignified reticence irritated
and puzzled him, and his prevailing tone only
illustrates the radical incompatibility of their
characters.
Byron sailed for Ostend (24 April 1816)
with a young Italian doctor, Polidori, a Swiss
and two English servants, Rushton and
Fletcher, who had both started with him in
1809. Byron's good nature to his servants
was an amiable point inhis character. Harness
describes the ' hideous old woman' who had
nursed him in his lodgings and followed him
through all his English establishments, and
speaks of his kindness to an old butler, Murray,
at Newstead. Byron travelled in a large
coach, imitated from Napoleon's, carrying bed,
library, and kitchen, besides a caleche bought
at Brussels. His expenses were consider-
able, and his scruples about copyright soon
vanished. In 1817 he was bargaining sharply
with Murray. He demanded 600 for the
' Lament of Tasso' and the last act of ' Man-
fred' (9 May 1817). On 4 Sept. 1817 he
asks 2,50W. instead of 1,500J. for the fourth
canto of 'Childe Harold,' accepting ultimately
2,000 guineas. The sums paid by Murray
for copyrights to the end of 1821 amounted
to 15,455/., including the amounts made over
to Dallas. He must have received at least
12,500^. at this period, and the 1,100Z. for
' Parisina' and the ' Siege of Corinth' was in
Murray's hands. In November 1817 he at
last sold Newstead for 90,000 guineas. Pay-
ment of debts and mortgages left the 60,000^.
settled upon Lady Byron, the income of which
was payable to Byron during his life. He
was aggrieved by the refusal of his trustees
in 1820 to invest this in a mortgage on Lord
Blessington's estates {Diary, 24 Jan. 1821 ;
Letter 374) . Hanson, Byron's solicitor, went
to Venice to obtain his signature to the
necessary deeds in November 1818 (HoDG-
SON, ii. 53). Byron declared that he would
receive no advantage from Lady Byron's pro-
perty. On the death of Lady Noel in 1 822, how-
ever, her fortune of 7,0001. or 8,000/. a year
was divided equally between her daughter
and Byron by arbitrators (Sir F. Burdett
and Lord Dacre) ; and such a division had,
it seems, been provided for in the deed of
separation (HoBHOtrsE in Westminster Re-
view, January 1825). Byron then became a
rich man for his Italian position, and grew
careful of money. He spent much time in
settling his weekly bills (TRELAWNT, ii. 75),
and affected avarice as a ' good old gentle-
manly vice.' But this must be taken as partly
humorous, and he was still capable of mu-
nificence.
From Brussels Byron visited Waterloo, and
thence went to Geneva by the Rhine, where
(June 1816) he took the Villa Diodati, on the
Belle Rive, a promontory on the south side
of the lake (see Notes and Queries, 5th ser.
viii. 1, 24, 115). Here Byron met the Shel-
leys and Miss Clairmont. Miss Clairmont
came expressly to meet him, but it is autho-
ritatively stated that the Shelleys were not
in her confidence. The whole party became
the objects of curiosity and scandal. Tourists
1 gazed at Byron through telescopes (see letter
| from Shelley, GTJICCIOLI, i. 97). When he
visited Mme. de Stae'l at Cappet, a Mrs. Her-
vey thought proper to faint. Southey was in
Switzerland this year, and Byron believed
that he had spread stories in England im-
puting gross immorality to the whole party.
They amused themselves one rainy week by
writing ghost stories ; Mrs. Shelley began
' Frankenstein,' and Byron a fragment called
' The Vampire,' from which Polidori ' vamped
up ' a novel of the same name. It passed as
Byron's in France and had some success.
j Polidori, a fretful and flighty youth, quarrelled
with his employer, proposed to challenge Shel-
ley, and left Byron for Italy. He was sent
out of Milan for a quarrel with an Austrian
officer, but afterwards got some patients.
Byron tried to help him, and recommended
him to Murray (Letters 275, 285). He com-
Byron
Byron
mitted suicide in 1821. Byron and Shelley
made a tour of the lake in June (described in
Shelley's ' Six Weeks' Tour'), and were nearly
lost in a storm. Two rainy days at Ouchy
produced Byron's ' Prisoner of Chillon ; ' and
about the same time he finished the third
canto of ' Childe Harold.' Shelley, as Byron
told Medwin (p. 237), had dosed him with
Wordsworth ' even to nausea,' and the in-
fluence is apparent in some of his ' Childe
Harold ' stanzas (see Wordsworth's remarks
in MOOEE'S Diary (1853), iii. 161). In Sep-
tember Byron made a tour in the Ber-
nese Oberland with Hobhouse, and, as his
diary shows, worked up his impressions of the
scenery. At the Villa Diodati he wrote the
stanzas 'To Augusta' and the verses addressed
to ' My sweet sister/ which by her desire were
suppressed till after his death. Here, too, he
wrote the monody on the death of Sheridan,
and the striking fragment called ' Darkness.'
On 29 Aug. the Shelley party left for Eng-
land. In January 1817 Miss Clainnont gave
birth to Allegra, Byron's daughter. The in-
fant was sent to him at Venice with a Swiss
nurse, and placed under the care of the
Hoppners. Byron declined an offer from a
Mrs. Vavasour to adopt the girl, refusing to
abdicate his paternal authority as the lady de-
sired. He afterwards sent for the child to Bo-
logna in August 1819, and kept her with him
at Venice and Ravenna till April 1821, when
he placed her in a convent at Bagna-Cavallo
(twelve miles from Ravenna), paying double
fees to insure good treatment. He wished
her, he said, to be a Roman catholic, and left
her 5,000/. for a marriage portion. The mother
vehemently protested against this (Eg. MS.
2332), but the Shelleys approved (ToHopp-
ner, 11 May 1821 ; To Shelley, 26 April
1821). The child improved in the convent,
and is described by Shelley as petted and
happy (GABNETT, Select Letters of Shelley,
p. 171, 1882). She died of a fever 20 April
1822. Byron was profoundly agitated by the
news, and, as the Countess Guiccioli says,
would never afterwards pronounce her name.
He directed her to be buried at Harrow, and
a tablet to be erected in the church, at a spot
precisely indicated by his school recollections
(Letter 494). Of the mother he spoke with
indifference or aversion (BLESSINGTON,P. 164).
Byron and Hobhouse crossed the Simplon,
and reached Milan by October. At Milan
Beyle (Stendhal) saw him at the theatre, and
has described his impressions (see his Letter
first published in Mme.BELLOc's%rora, i. 353,
Paris, 1824). He went by Verona to Venice,
intending to spend the winter in this ' the
greenest island,' as he says, ' of my imagina-
tion.' He stayed for three years, taking as a
VOL. VIII.
summer residence a house at La Mira on the
Brenta. April and May 1817 were spent in
a visit to Rome, whence, 5 May, he sent to
Murray a new third act of ' Manfred,' having
heard that the original was thought unsatis-
factory.
On arriving at Venice he found that his
' mind wanted something craggy to break
upon ' (Letter 252), and he set to work learn-
ing Armenian at the monastery. He saw
something of the literary salon of the Coun-
tess Albrizzi. Mme. Albrizzi wrote a book of
portraits, one of which is a sketch of Byron,
published by Moore, and not without interest.
He became bored with the Venetian ' blues,'
and took to the less pretentious salon of the
Countess Benzoni. He soon plunged into
worse dissipations. He settled in the Palazzo
Mocenigo on the Grand Canal. And here, in
ostentatious defiance of the world, which
tried to take the form of contempt, he aban-
doned himself to degrading excesses which
injured his constitution, and afterwards pro-
duced bitter self-reproach. ' I detest every
recollection of the place, the people, and my
pursuits,' he said to Medwin (p. 78). Shelley,
whose impressions of a visit to Byron are
given in the famous ' Julian and Maddalo/
says afterwards that Byron had almost de-
stroyed himself. He could digest no food,
and was consumed by hectic fever. Daily
rides on the Lido kept him from prostration.
Moore says that Byron would often leave his
house in a fit of disgust to pass the night in
his gondola. In the midst of this debasing
life his intellectual activity continued. He
began the fourth canto of ' Childe Harold '
by 1 July 1817, and sent 126 stanzas (after-
wards increased to 186) to Murray on 20 July.
On 23 Oct. he states that ' Beppo,' in imitation,
as he says, of ' Whistlecraft ' (J. H. Frere),
is nearly finished. It was sent to Murray
19 Jan. 1819, and published in May. This
experiment led to his greatest performance.
On 19 Sept. 1818 he has finished the first
canto of ' Don Juan.' On 25 Jan. 1819 he
tells Murray to print fifty copies for private
distribution. On 6 April he sends the second
canto. The two were published without au-
thor's or publisher's name in July 1819, The
third canto was begun in October 1819. The
outcry against its predecessors had disconcer-
ted him, and he was so put out by hearing that
a Mr. Saunders had called it 'all Grub Street/
as to lay it aside for a time. The third canto
was split into the third and fourth in Feb-
ruary 1820, and appeared with the fifth, still
anonymously and without the publisher's
name, in August 1821.
A new passion had altered his life. In April
1819 he met at the Countess Benzoni's Teresa,
146
Byron
daughter of Count Gamba of Ravenna, re-
cently married at the age of sixteen to a rich
widower of sixty, Count Guiccioli, also of Ra-
venna. Her beauty is described by Moore, an
American painter West, who took her portrait,
Medwin, and Hunt. She had regular features,
a fine figure, rather too short and stout, and was
remarkable among Italians for her fair com-
plexion, golden hair (see JEAFFKESON, ii. 80),
and blue eyes. She at once conceived a pas-
sion for Byron, and they met daily at Venice.
Her husband took her back to Ravenna in
the same month, and she wrote passionate
letters to Byron. She had fainted three
times on her first day's journey ; her mother's
death had deeply affected her ; she was ill,
and threatened by consumption ; and she told
him in May that her relations would receive
him at Ravenna. In spite of heat and irre-
solution, Byron left La Mira on 2 June 1819,
and moved slowly, and after some hesitation,
to Ravenna, writing on the way ' River that
rollest by the ancient walls ' (first published by
Medwin). Here he found the countess really
ill. He studied medical books, she says, for
her benefit, and sent for Aglietti, the best
physician in Venice. As she recovered,
Byron felt rather awkward under the polite
attentions of her husband, though her own
relations were unfavourable. His letters to
her, says Moore, show genuine passion. His
letters to Hoppner show a more ambiguous
interest. He desired at times to escape from
an embarrassing connection ; yet, out of ' wil-
fulness,' as Moore thinks, when she was to go
with her husband to Bologna, he asked her
to fly with him, a step altogether desperate
according to the code of the time. Though
shocked by the proposal, she suggested a
sham death, after the Juliet precedent. Byron
followed the Guicciolis to Bologna, and
stayed there while they made a tour of their
estates. Hence (23 Aug.) he sent off to Mur-
ray his cutting ' Letter to my Grandmother's
Review.' Two days later he wrote a curious
declaration of love to the countess in a volume
of ' Corinna ' left in her house. A vehement
quarrel with a papal captain of dragoons for
selling him an unsound horse nearly led to
an impromptu duel like his granduncle's. On
the return of the Guicciolis the count left for
Ravenna, leaving his wife with Byron at
Bologna ' on account of her health.' Her
health also made it expedient to travel with
Byron to Venice by way of the Euganean
Hills ; and at Venice the same cause made
country air desirable, whereupon Byron po-
litely ' gave up to her his house at La Mira,'
and ' came to reside there ' himself. The whole
proceeding was so like an elopement, that Ve-
netian society naturally failed to make a dis-
tinction. Moore paid a visit to Byron at this
time, was cordially received at La Mira, and
lodged in the palace at Venice. Hanson had
described Byron in the previous year as ' enor-
mously large ' (HODGSON, ii. 2), and Moore
was struck by the deterioration of his looks.
He found that his friend had given up, or
been given up by, Venetian society. English
tourists stared at him like a wild beast, and
annoyed him by their occasional rudeness.
It was at this time that Byron gave his me-
moirs to Moore, stipulating only that they
should not appear during his lifetime. Moore
observed that they would make a nice legacy
for his little Tom. Moore was alarmed at
Byron's position. The Venetians were shocked
by the presence of his mistress under his roof,
especially as he had before ' conducted him-
self so admirably.' A proposed trip to Rome,
to which Byron had almost consented, was
abandoned by Moore's advice, as it would look
like a desertion of the countess. The count
now wrote to his wife proposing that Byron
should lend him 1,000., for which he would
pay 5 per cent. ; the loan would otherwise be
an avvilimento. Moore exhorted Byron to
take advantage of this by placing the lady
again under her husband's protection, a re-
sult which would be well worth the money.
Byron laughingly declared that he would
' save both the lady and the money.' The
count himself came to Venice at the end of
October. After a discussion, in which Byron
declined to interfere, the lady agreed to re-
turn to her husband and break with her
lover. Byron, set free, almost resolved to
return to England. Dreams of settling in
Venezuela under Bolivar's new republic oc-
casionally amused him, and he made serious
inquiries about the country. The return to
England, made desirable by some business
affairs (Letters 346, 359, 367), was appa-
rently contemplated as a step towards some
of these plans, though he also thought a year
later (Letter 403) of settling in London to
bring out a paper with Moore. In truth, he
was restless, dissatisfied, and undecided. He
shrank from any decided action, from tearing
himself from Italy, and, on the other hand,
from such a connection with the countess as
would cause misery to both unless his pas-
sion were more durable than any one, he least
of all, could expect. The journey to England
was nearly settled, however, when he was
delayed by an illness of Allegra, and a touch
of malaria in himself. The countess again
wrote to him that she was seriously ill, and
that her friends would receive him. While
actually ready for a start homewards, he sud-
denly declared that if the clock struck one
before some final preparation was ready, he
Byron
147
Byron
would stay. It struck, and he gave up the
journey. He wrote to the countess that he
would obey her, though his departure would
have been best for them all. At Christmas
1819 he was back in Ravenna.
He now subsided into an indolent routine,
to which he adhered with curious pertinacity.
Trelawny describes the day at Pisa soon after-
wards, and agrees with Moore, Hunt, Med-
win, and Gamba. He rose very late, took a
cup of green tea, had a biscuit and soda-water
at two, rode out and practised shooting, dined
most abstemiously, visited the Gambas in
the evening, and returned to read or write
till two or three in the morning. At Ra-
venna previously and afterwards in Greece he
kept nearly to the same hours. His rate of
composition at this period was surprising.
Medwin says that after sitting with Byron
till two or three the poet would next day
produce fresh work. He discontinued ' Don
Juan ' after the fifth canto in disgust at its
reception, and in compliance with the request
of the Countess Guiccioli, who was shocked
at its cynicism. In February 1820 he trans-
lated the ' Morgante Maggiore ; ' in March
the ' Francesca da Rimini ' episode. On
4 April he began his first drama, the ' Marino
Faliero,' finished it 16 July, and copied it out
by 17 Aug. It was produced at Drury Lane
the next spring, in spite of his remonstrance,
and failed, to his great annoyance. ' Sarda-
napalus,' begun 13 Jan. 1821, was finished
13 May (the last three acts in a fortnight).
The 'Two Foscari' was written between
11 June and 10 July; 'Cain/begun onlGJuly,
was finished 9 Sept. The ' Deformed Trans-
formed ' was written at the end of the same
year. ' Werner,' a mere dramatisation of
Harriet Lee's ' Kruitzner ' in the ' Canterbury
Tales,' was written between 18 Dec. 1821 and
20 Jan. 1822. The vigorous, though perverse,
letters to Bowles on the Pope controversy
are also dated 7 Feb. and 25 March 1821. No
literary hack could have written more rapidly,
and some would have written as well. The
dramas thus poured forth at full speed by a
thoroughly undramatic writer, hampered by
the wish to preserve the ' unities,' mark (with
the exception of * Cain ') his lowest level, and
are often mere prose broken into apparent
verse.
Count Guiccioli began to give trouble. Byron
was warned not to ride in the forest alone for
fear of probable assassination. Guiccioli's
long acquiescence" had turned public opinion
against him, and a demand for separation on
account of his ' extraordinary usage ' of his
wife came from her friends. On 12 July a
papal decree pronounced a separation accord-
ingly. The countess was to receive 200/. a
year from her husband, to live under the pa-
ternal roof, and only to see Byron under re-
strictions. She retired to a villa of the Gambas
fifteen miles off, where Byron rode out to see
her ' once or twice a month,' passing the in-
tervals in ' perfect solitude.' By January
1821, however (Diary, 4 Jan. 1821), she seems
to have been back in Ravenna. Byron did
all he could {Diary, 24 Jan. 1821, and Letter
374) to prevent her from leaving her husband.
Political complications were arising. Italy
was seething with the Carbonaro conspiracies.
The Gambas were noted liberals. Byron's
aristocratic vanity was quite consistent with
a conviction of the corruption and political
blindness of the class to which he boasted of
belonging. The cant, the imbecility, and im-
morality of the ruling classes at home and
abroad were the theme of much of his talk,
and inspired his most powerful writing. His
genuine hatred of war and pity for human
suffering are shown, amidst much affectation,
in his loftiest verse. Though no democrat
after the fashion of Shelley, he was a hearty
detester of the system supported by the Holy
alliance. He was ready to be a leader in the
revolutionary movements of the time. The
walls of Ravenna were placarded with ' Up
with the republic ! ' and ' Death to the pope ! '
Young Count Gamba (Teresa's brother) soon
afterwards returned to Ravenna, became in-
timate with Byron, and introduced him to the
secret societies. On 8 Dec. 1820 the com-
mandant of the troops in Ravenna was mor-
tally wounded in the street. Byron had the
man carried into his house at the point of
death, and describes the event in ' Don Juan '
(v. 34). It was due in some way to the ac-
tion of the societies. A rising in the Romagna
was now expected. Byron had offered a sub-
scription of one thousand louis to the consti-
tutional government in Naples, to which the
societies looked for support. He had become
head of the Americani, a section of the Car-
bonari (Letter 450), and bought some arms
for them, which during the following crisis
were suddenly returned to him, and had to
be concealed in his house {Diary, 16 and
18 Feb. 1821). An advance of Austrian troops
caused a collapse of the whole scheme. A
thousand members of the best families in the
Roman states were banished (Letter 439),
and among them the Gambas. Mme. Guic-
cioli says that the government hoped by exil-
ing them to get rid of Byron, whose position
as an English nobleman made it difficult to
reach him directly for his suspected relations
with the Carbonari. The countess helped, per-
haps was intentionally worked upon, to dis-
lodge him. Her husband requested that she
should be forced to return to him or placed
L2
Byron
148
Byron
in a convent. Frightened by the threat, she
escaped to her father and brother in Florence.
A quarrel in which a servant of Byron's
proposed to stiletto an officer made his rela-
tions with the authorities very unpleasant.
The poor of Ravenna petitioned that the
charitable Englishman might be asked to re-
main, and only increased the suspicions of
the government. Byron fell into one of his
usual states of indecision. Shelley, at his
request, came from Pisa to consult, and re-
ports him greatly improved in health and
morals. He found Byron occupying splen-
did apartments in the palace of Count Guic-
cioli. Byron had now, he says, an income
of 4,000/. a year, and devoted 1,OOOJ. to
charity (the context seems to disprove the
variant reading 100/.), an expenditure suffi-
cient to explain the feeling at Ravenna
mentioned by Mme. Guiccioli. Shelley, by
Byron's desire, wrote to the countess, ad-
vising her against Switzerland. In reply
she begged Shelley not to leave Ravenna
without Byron, and Byron begged him to
stay and protect him from a relapse into his
old habits. Byron lingered at Ravenna till
29 Oct., still hoping, it seems, for a recall of
the Gambas. At last he got in motion, with
many sad forebodings, and preceded by his
family of monkeys, dogs, cats, and peahens.
He met Lord Clare on the way to Bologna,
and accompanied Rogers from Bologna.
Rogers duly celebrated the meeting in his
poem on Italy ; but Trelawny (i. 50) tells
how Byron grinned sardonically when he
saw Rogers seated upon a cushion under
which was concealed a bitter satire written
by Byron upon Rogers himself (it was
afterwards published in ' Fraser,' January
1833). Byron settled in the Casa Lanfran-
chi at Pisa, an old ghost-haunted palace,
which Trelawny contrasted with the cheer-
ful and hospitable abode of the Shelleys (i.
85). The Gambas occupied part of the same
palace (HUNT, Byron, i. 23). Byron again
saw some English society. A silly Irishman
named Taaffe, author of a translation of Dante,
for which Byron tried to find a publisher,
with Medwin, Trelawny, Shelley, and Wil-
liams, were his chief associates. Medwin, of
the 24th light dragoons, was at Pisa from
30 Nov. 1821 till 15 March 1822, and again
for a few days in August. Trelawny, who
reached Pisa early in 1822, and was after-
wards in constant intercourse with Byron,
was the keenest observer who has described
him. Trelawny insists upon his own supe-
riority in swimming, and regards Byron as
an effeminate pretender to masculine quali-
ties. Byron turned his worst side to such
a man; yet Trelawny admits his genuine
courage and can do justice to his better quali-
ties.
Mme. Guiccioli had withdrawn her prohi-
bition of ' Don Juan ' on promise of better
behaviour (Letter 500). On 8 Aug. 1822
he has finished three more cantos and is
beginning another. Meanwhile ' Cain ' (pub-
lished December 1821) had produced hostile
reviews and attacks. Scott had cordially
accepted the dedication. Moore's timid re-
monstrances showed the set of public opinion.
When Murray applied for an injunction to
protect his property against threatened pi-
racy, Eldon refused ; holding (9 Feb. 1822)
that the presumption was not in favour of
the innocent character of the book. Murray
had several manuscripts of Byron in hand,
including the famous ' Vision of Judgment;'
and this experience increased his caution.
Byron began to think of a plan, already sug-
gested to Moore in 1820, of starting a weekly
newspaper with a revolutionary title, such
as ' I Carbonari.' In Shelley's society this
plan took a new shape. It was proposed to
get Leigh Hunt for an editor. In 1813 Byron
had visited Hunt when imprisoned for a libel
on the prince regent. Hunt had taken
Byron's part in the 'Examiner' in 1816, and
had dedicated to him the ' Story of Rimini.'
Shelley and Byron now agreed (in spite of
Moore's remonstrances against association
with ill-bred cockneys) to bring Leigh Hunt
to Italy. They assumed that Hunt would
retain his connection with the ' Examiner,'
of which his brother John was proprietor (see
TEELAWNT, ii. 53). Hunt threw up this
position without their knowledge, and started
for Italy with his wife and six children.
Shelley explained to Hunt (26 Aug. 1821)
that he was himself to be 'only a sort of
link,' neither partner nor sharer in the profits.
He sent 150/., to which Byron, taking Shel-
ley's security, added 200/. to pay Hunt's
expenses. Hunt reproaches Byron as being
moved solely by an expectation of large
profits (not in itself an immoral motiA^e).
The desire to have an organ under his own
command, with all consequent advantages,
is easily intelligible. When Hunt landed at
Leghorn at the end of June 1822, Byron
and Shelley found themselves saddled with
the whole Hunt family, to be supported by
the hypothetical profits of the new journal,
while Hunt asserted and acted upon the
doctrine that he was under no disgrace in
accepting money obligations. Hunt took up
his abode on the ground-floor of the palace.
His children, says Trelawny, were untamed,
while Hunt considers that they behaved
admirably and were in danger of corruption
from Byron. Trelawny describes Byron as
Byron
149
Byron
disgusted at the very start and declaring
that the journal would be an ' abortion.'
His reception of Mrs. Hunt, according to
Williams, was ' shameful.' Mrs. Hunt natu-
rally retorted the dislike, and Hunt reported
one of her sharp sayings to Byron, in order,
as he says, to mortify him. No men could
be less congenial. Byron's aristocratic lofti-
ness encountered a temper forward to take
offence at any presumption of inequality.
Byron had provided Hunt with lodgings,
furnished them decently, and doled out to
him about 100/. through his steward, a pro-
ceeding which irritated Hunt, who loved a
cheerful giver. Shelley's death (8 July) left
the two men face to face in this uncomfortable
relation.
The ' Liberal,' so named by Byron, survived
through four numbers. It made a moderate
profit, which Byron abandoned to Hunt
(HUNT, i. 87, ii. 412), but he was disgusted
from the outset, and put no heart into the
experiment. He told his friends, and pro-
bably persuaded himself, that he had engaged
in the journal out of kindness to the Hunts,
and to help a friend of Shelley's ; and takes
credit for feeling that he could not turn the
Hunts into the street. His chief contribu-
tions, the ' Vision of Judgment' and the letter
H To my Grandmother's Review,' appeared in
the first number, to the general scandal.
' Heaven and Earth ' appeared in the second
number, the ' Blues ' in the third, the ' Mor-
gante Maggiore ' in the fourth, and a few epi-
grams were added. Hunt and Hazlitt, who
wrote five papers {Memoirs of Hazlitt, ii. 73),
did most of the remainder, which, however,
had clearly not the seeds of life in it. The
' Vision of Judgment ' was the hardest blow
struck in a prolonged and bitter warfare.
Byron had met Southey, indeed, at Holland
House in 1813, and speaks favourably of him,
calls his prose perfect, and professes to envy
his personal beauty (Diary, 22 Nov. 1813).
His belief that Southey had spread scandalous
stories about the Swiss party in 1816 gave
special edge to his revived antipathy. In
1818 he dedicated 'Don Juan' to Southey in
' good simple savage verse ' (Letter 322),
bitterly taunting the poet as a venal renegade.
In 1821 Southey published his ' Vision of
Judgment,' an apotheosis of George III, of gro-
tesque (though most unintentional) profanity.
In the preface he alludes to Byron as leader
of the ' Satanic school.' Byron in return de-
nounced Southey's ' calumnies ' and ' cowardly
ferocity.' Southey retorted in the ' Courier '
(11 Jan. 1822), boasting that he had fastened
Byron's name ' upon the gibbet for reproach
and ignominy, so long as it shall endure.'
Medwin (p. 179) describes Byron's fury on
reading these courtesies. He instantly sent
off a challenge in a letter (6 Feb. 1822) to
Douglas Kinnaird, who had the sense to
suppress it. His own ' Vision of Judgment,'
written by 1 Oct. 1821, was already in the
hands of Murray, now troubled by ' Cain.'
Byron now swore that it should be published,
and it was finally transferred by Murray to
Hunt,
Byron meanwhile had been uprooted from
Pisa. A silly squabble took place in the
street (21 March 1822), in which Byron's
servant stabbed an hussar (see depositions in
MEDWIN). Byron spent some weeks in the
summer at Monte Nero, near Leghorn (where
he and Mme. Guiccioli sat to the American
painter West), and returned to Pisa in July.
About the same time the Gambas were ordered
to leave Tuscan territory. Byron's stay at
Pisa had been marked by the death of Allegra
(20 April) and of Shelley (8 July). Details
of the ghastly ceremony of burning the bodies
of Williams and Shelley (15 and 16 Aug.)
are given by Trelawny, with characteristic
details of Byron's emotion and hysterical
affectation of levity. Shelley, who exagge-
rated Byron's poetical merits (see his enthu-
siastic eulogy of the fifth canto of ' Don Juan '
on his visit to Pisa), was kept at a certain
distance by his perception of Byron's baser
qualities. Byron had always respected Shelley
as a man of simple, lofty, and unworldly cha-
racter, and as undeniably a gentleman by birth
and breeding. Shelley, according to Tre-
lawny (i. 80), was the only man to whom
Byron talked seriously and confidentially.
He told Moore that Shelley was ' the least
selfish and the mildest of men,' and added to
Murray that he was ' as perfect a gentleman
as ever crossed a drawing-room ' (Letters 482
and 506). He was, however, capable of be-
lieving and communicating to Hoppner scan-
dalous stories about the Shelleys and Claire,
and of meanly suppressing Mrs. Shelley's
confutation of the story (see Mr. Froude in
Nineteenth Century, August 1883 ; and Mr.
Jeaffreson's reply in the Athen&um, 1 and
22 Sept. 1883).
Trelawny had stimulated the nautical
tastes of Byron and Shelley. Captain Ro-
berts, a naval friend of his at Genoa, built an
open boat for Shelley, and a schooner, called
the Bolivar, for Byron. Trelawny manned
her with five sailors and brought her round
to Leghorn. Byron was annoyed by the
cost ; knew nothing, says Trelawny, of the
sea, and could never be induced to take a
cruise in her. When Byron left Pisa, after
a terrible hubbub of moving his household
and his baggage, Trelawny sailed in the
Bolivar, Byron's servants following in one
I
Byron
Byron -
felucca, the Hunts in another, Byron travel-
ling by land. They met at Lerici. Byron
with Trelawny swam out to the Bolivar,
three miles, and back. The effort cost him
four days' illness. On his recovery he went
to Genoa and settled in the Casa Salucci
at Albaro ; the Gambas occupying part of
the same house. Trelawny laid up the Boli-
var, afterwards sold to Lord Blessington for
four hundred guineas (TRELAWNY, i. 62), and
early next year went off on a ramble to Rome.
Lord and Lady Blessington, with Count
d'Orsay, soon afterwards arrived at Genoa ;
and Lady Blessington has recorded her con-
versations with Byron. His talk with her was
chiefly sentimental monologue about himself .
Trelawny says that he was a spoilt child ;
the nickname ' Baby Byron ' (given to him,
says HUNT, i. 139, by Mrs. Leigh) ' fitted him
to a T ' (TRELAWNY, i. 56). His wayward-
ness, his strange incontinence of speech, his
outbursts of passion, his sensitiveness to all
that was said of him come out vividly in these
reports.
His health was clearly enfeebled. Resi-
dence in the swampy regions of Venice and
Ravenna had increased his liability to malaria
(see Letter 311). His restlessness and in-
decision grew upon him. His passion for
Madame Guiccioli had never blinded him to
its probable dangers for both. This experience
had made him sceptical as to the durability
of his passions ; especially for a girl not yet
of age, and of no marked force of intellect
or character. Hunt speaks of a growing
coldness, which affected her spirits and which
she injudiciously resented. Byron's language
to Lady Blessington (BLESSINGTON, pp. 68 and
117) shows that the bonds were acknow-
ledged but no longer cherished. He talked
of returning to England, of settling in Ame-
rica, of buying a Greek island, of imitating
Lady Hester Stanhope. He desired to restore
his self-esteem, wounded by the failure of the
' Liberal.' He had long before (28 Feb. 1817)
told Moore that if he lived ten years longer
he would yet do something, and declared that
he did not think literature his vocation. He
still hoped to show himself a man of action
instead of a mere dreamer and dawdler. The
Greek committee was formed in London in
the spring of 1823, and Trelawny wrote to
one of the members, Blaquiere, suggesting
Byron's name. Blaquiere was soon visiting
Greece for information, and called upon Byron
in his way. The committee had unanimously
elected him a member. Byron was flattered
and accepted. His old interest in Greece in-
creased his satisfaction at a proposal which
fell in with his mood. He at once told the
committee (12 May) that his first wish was
to go to the Levant. Though the scheme gave
Byron an aim and excited his imagination,
he still hesitated, and with reason. Weak
health and military inexperience were bad
qualifications for the leader of a revolt. Cap-
tain Roberts conveyed messages and counter
messages from Byron to Trelawny for a time.
At last (22 June 1823) Trelawny heard
from Byron, who had engaged a ' collier-built
tub' of 120 tons, called the Hercules, for
his expedition and summoned Trelawny's
help. Byron had taken leave of the Bles-
singtons with farewell presents, forebodings,
and a burst of tears. He took 10,000 crowns
in specie, 40,000 in bills, and a large supply
of medicine; Trelawny, young Gamba, Bruno,
an ' unfledged medical student,' and several
servants, including Fletcher. He had pre-
pared three helmets with his crest, ' Crede
Byron,' for Trelawny, Gamba, and himself;
and afterwards begged from Trelawny a negro
servant and a smart military jacket. They
sailed from Genoa on Tuesday, 15 July ; a
gale forced them to return and repair damages.
They stayed two days at Leghorn, and were
joined by Mr. Hamilton Browne. Here, too,
Byron received a copy of verses from Goethe,
who had inserted a complimentary notice of
Byron in the ' Kunst und Alterthum,' and
to whom Byron had dedicated ' Werner.' By
Browne's advice they sailed for Cephalonia,
where Sir C. J. Napier was in command and
known to sympathise with the Greeks. Tre-
lawny says that he was never ' on shipboard
with a better companion.' Byron's spirits
revived at sea ; he was full of fun and prac-
tical jokes ; read Scott, Swift, Grimm, Roche-
foucauld ; chatted pleasantly, and talked of
describing Stromboli in a fifth canto of
' Childe Harold.' On 2 Aug. they sighted
Cephalonia. They found that Napier was
away, and that Blaquiere had left for Eng-
land. Byron began to fancy that he had
been used as a decoy, and declared that he
must see his way plainly before moving.
Napier soon returned, and the party was
warmly received by the residents. Informa-
tion from Greece was scarce and doubtful.
Trelawny resolved to start with Browne,
knowing, he says, that Byron, once on shore,
would again become dawdling and shilly-
shallying. Byron settled at a village called
Metaxata, near Argostoli, and remained there
till 27 Dec.
Byron's nerve was evidently shaken. 'He
showed a strange irritability and nervous-
ness (TRELAWNY, ii. 116). He wished to hear
of some . agreement among the divided and
factious Greek chiefs before trusting himself
among them. The Cephalonian Greeks, ac-
cording to Trelawny, favoured the election
Byron
of a foreign king, and Trelawny thought
that Byron was really impressed by the possi-
bility of receiving a crown. Byron hinted
to Parry afterwards of great offers which
had been made to him. Fancies of this kind
may have passed through his mind. Yet his
general judgment of the situation was re-
markable for its strong sense. His cynical
tendencies at least kept him free from the
enthusiasts' illusions, and did not damp his
zeal.
In Cephalonia Byron had some conversa-
tions upon religious topics with Dr. Kennedy,
physician of the garrison. Kennedy reported
them in a book, in which he unfortunately
thought more of expounding his argument
than of reporting Byron. Byron had, in fact,
no settled views. His heterodoxy did not rest
upon reasoning, but upon sentiment. He
was curiously superstitious through life, and
seems to have preferred Catholicism to other
religions. Lady Byron told Crabb Robinson
(5 March 1855) that Byron had been made
miserable by the gloomy Calvinism from
which, she said, he had never freed himself.
Some passages in his letters, and the early
' Prayer to Nature ' an imitation of Pope s
' Universal Prayer ' seem to imply a revolt
from the doctrines to which Lady Byron re-
ferred. ' Cain,' his most serious utterance,
clearly favours the view that the orthodox
theology gave a repulsive or a nugatory an-
swer to the great problems. But, in truth,
Byron's scepticism was part of his quarrel
with cant. He hated the religious dogma as
he hated the political creed and the social
system of the respectable world. He dis-
avowed sympathy with Shelley's opinions,
and probably never gave a thought to the
philosophy in which Shelley was interested.
Trelawny was now with Odysseus and the
chiefs of Eastern Greece. Prince Mavro-
cordato, the most prominent of the Western
Greeks, had at last occupied Missolonghi.
Byron sent Colonel Stanhope (afterwards
Lord Harrington), a representative of the
Greek committee, with a letter to Mavrocor-
dato and another to the general government
(2 Dec. and 30 Nov. 1823), insisting upon
the necessity of union ; and on 28 Dec. sailed
himself, on the entreaty of Mavrocordato
and Stanhope. The voyage was hazardous.
Gamba's ship was actually seized by a Turkish
man-of-war, and he owed his release to the
lucky accident that his captain had once saved
the Turkish captain's life. Byron, in a ' mis-
tico,' took shelter under some rocks called the
Scrophes. Thence, with some gunboats sent
to their aid, they reached Missolonghi, in
spite of a gale, in which Byron showed great
coolness. Byron was heartily welcomed.
; i Byron
Mavrocordato was elected governor-general.
Attempts were made to organise troops.
Byron took into his pay a body of five hundred
disorderly Suliotes. He met thickening diffi-
culties with unexpected temper, firmness, and
judgment. Demands for money came from
all sides ; Byron told Parry that he had been
asked for fifty thousand dollars in a day. He
raised sums on his own credit, and urged the
Greek committee to provide a loan. His in-
dignation when Gamba spent too much upon
some red cloth was a comic exhibition of his
usual economy hardly unreasonable under
the circumstances. His first object was an
expedition against Lepanto, held, it was said,
by a weak garrison ready to come over. At
the end of January he was named com-
mander-in-chief. His wild troops were ut-
terly unprovided with the stores required for
an assault. The Greek committee had sent
two mountain guns, with ammunition, and
some English artisans under William Parry,
a ' rough burly fellow ' (TRELAWNY, ii. 149),
who had been a clerk at Woolwich. Parry
after a long voyage reached Missolonghi on
5 Feb. 1824. In the book to which he gave
his name, and for which he supplied materials,
he professes to have received Byron's confi-
dence. Byron called him ' old boy,' laughed
at his sea slang, his ridiculous accounts of
Bentham (one of the Greek committee), and
played practical jokes upon him. Parry
landed his stores, set his artisans to work,
and gave himself military airs. The Suliotes
became mutinous. They demanded commis-
sions, says Gamba, for 150 out of three or four
hundred men. Byron, disgusted, threatened
to discharge them all, and next day, 15 Feb.,
they submitted. The same day Byron was
seized with an alarming fit the doctors dis-
puted whether epileptic or apoplectic; but
in any case so severe that Byron said he
should have died in another minute. Half
an hour later a false report was brought that
the Suliotes were rising to seize the magazine.
Next day, while Byron was still suffering from
the disease and the leeches applied by the
doctors, who could hardly stop the bleeding,
a tumultuous mob of Suliotes broke into his
room. Stanhope says that the courage with
which he awed the mutineers was ' truly
sublime.' On the 17th a Turkish brig came
ashore, and was burned by the Turks after
Byron had prepared an attack. On the 19th
a quarrel arose between the Suliotes and the
guards of the arsenal, and a Swedish officer,
Sasse, was killed. The English artificers,
alarmed at discovering that shooting was, as
Byron says, a ' part of housekeeping' in these
parts, insisted on leaving for peaceable re-
gions. The Suliotes became intolerable, and
Byron
152
Byron
were induced to leave the town on receiving
a month's wages from Byron, and part of
their arrears from government. All hopes of
an expedition to Lepanto vanished.
Parry had brought a printing-press, though
he had not brought some greatly desired
rockets. Stanhope, an ardent disciple of
Bentham's, started a newspaper, and talked
of Lancasterian schools, and other civilising
apparatus, including a converted blacksmith
with a cargo of tracts. Byron had many
discussions with him. Stanhope produced
Bentham's ' Springs of Action' as a new pub-
lication, when Byron ' stamped with his lame
foot,' and said that he did not require lessons
upon that subject. Though Trelawny says
that Stanhope's free press was of eminent ser-
vice, Byron may be pardoned for thinking
that the Greeks should be freed from the
Turks first, and converted to Benthamism
afterwards. He was annoyed by articles in the
paper, which advocated revolutionary prin-
ciples and a rising in Hungary, thinking that
an alienation of the European powers would
destroy the best chance of the Greeks ( To
Barff, 10 March 1824). He hoped, he said,
that the writers' brigade would be ready be-
fore the soldiers' press. The discussions, how-
ever, were mutually respectful, and Byron
ended a talk by saying to Stanhope, ' Give
me that honest right hand,' and begging to
be judged by his actions, not by his words.
Other plans were now discussed. Stan-
hope left for Athens at the end of February.
Odysseus, with whom was Trelawny, pro-
posed a conference with Mavrocordato and
Byron at Salona. Byron wrote agreeing to
this proposal 19 March. He had declined to
answer an offer of the general government to
appoint him ' governor-general of Greece ' until
the meeting should be over. The prospects
of the loan were now favourable. Byron was
trying, with Parry's help, to fortify Misso-
longhi and get together some kind of force.
His friends were beginning to be anxious
about the effects of the place on his health.
Barff offered him a country-house in Cepha-
lonia. Byron replied that he felt bound to
stay while he could. ' There is a stake worth
millions such as I am.' Missolonghi, with
its swamps, meanwhile, was a mere fever-
trap. The mud, says Gamba, was so deep in
the gateway that an unopposed enemy would
have found entrance difficult. Byron's de-
parture was hindered by excessive rains. He
starved himself as usual. Moore says that he
measured himself round the wrist and waist
almost daily, and took a strong dose if he
thought his size increasing. He rode out when
he could with his body-guard of fifty or sixty
Suliotes, but complained of frequent weak-
ness and dizziness. Parry in vain commended
his panacea, brandy. Trelawny had started
in April with a letter from Stanhope, en-
treating him to leave Missolonghi and not
sacrifice his health, and perhaps his life, in
that bog.
Byron produced his last poem on the morn-
ing of his birthday, in which the hero is
struggling to cast off the dandy with partial
success. He had tried to set an example of
generous treatment of an enemy by freeing
some Turkish prisoners at Missolonghi. A
lively little girl called Hato or Hatage, who
was amongst them, wished to stay with him,
and he resolved to adopt her. A letter from
Mrs. Leigh, found by Trelawny among his
papers, contained a transcript from a letter
of Lady Byron's to her with an account of
Ada's health. An unfinished reply from By-
ron (23 Feb. 1824) asked whether Lady Byron
would permit Hatagee to become a companion
to Ada. Lady Byron, he adds, should be
warned of Ada's resemblance to himself in
his infancy, and he suggests that the epilepsy
may be hereditary. He afterwards decided
to send Hatagee for the time to Dr. Kennedy.
On 9 April he received news of Mrs. Leigh's
recovery from an illness and good accounts
of Ada. On the same day he rode out with
Gamba, was caught in the rain, insisted upon
returning in an open boat, and was seized
with a shivering fit. His predisposition to
malaria, aided by his strange system of diet,
had produced the result anticipated by Stan-
hope. He rode out next day, but the fever
continued. The doctors had no idea beyond
bleeding, to which he submitted with great
reluctance, and Parry could only suggest
brandy. The attendants were ignorant of
each other's language, and seem to have lost
their heads. On the 18th he was delirious.
At intervals he was conscious and tried to
say something to Fletcher about his sister,
his wife, and daughter. A strong ' antispas-
modic potion ' was given to him in the even-
ing. About six he said, 'Now I shall go
to sleep,' and fell into a slumber which, after
twenty-four hours, ended in death on the
evening of 19 April. Trelawny arrived on
the 24th or 25th, having heard of the death
on his journey. He entered the room where
the corpse was lying, and, sending Fletcher
for a glass of water, uncovered the feet. On
Fletcher's return he wrote upon paper, spread
on the coffin, the servant's account of his
master's last illness.
Byron's body was sent home to England,
and after lying in state for two days was
buried at Hucknall Torkard (see Edinburgh
Review for April 1871 for Hobhouse's account
of the funeral). The funeral procession was
Byron
153
Byron
accidentally met by Lady Caroline Lamb and
her ' husband. She fainted on being made
aware that it was Byron's. Her mind became
more affected; she was separated from her
husband ; and died 26 Jan. 1828, generously
cared for by him to the last. (For Lady
Caroline Lamb see LADY MORGAN, Memoirs,
i. 200-14 ; Annual Obituary for 1828 ; Mr.
TOWNSHEND MAYER in Temple Bar for June
1868; Lord LYTTON, Memoirs, vol. i. ; PAUL,
Life of Godwin, vol. ii.)
Lady Byron afterwards led a retired life.
Her daughter Ada was married to the Earl of
Lovelace 8 July 1835, and died 29 Nov. 1852.
She is said to have been a good mathematician.
A portrait of her is in Bentley's 'Miscellany'
for 1853. Lady Byron settled ultimately at
Brighton, where she became a warm admirer
and friend of F. W. Robertson. She took an
interest in the religious questions of the day,
and spent a large part of her income in charity.
Miss Martineau (Biographical Sketches, 1868)
speaks of her with warm respect, and some
of her letters will be found in Crabb Robin-
son's diary. Others (see HOWITT'S letter in
Daily News, 4 Sept. 1869) thought her pe-
dantic and over strict. She died 16 May
1860. Mme. Guiccioli returned to her hus-
band ; she married the Marquis de Boissy in
1851 and died at Florence in March 1873.
The following appears to be a full list of
original portraits of Byron (for fuller details
see article by Mr. R. EDGCTJMBE and Mr. A.
GRAVES in Notes and Queries, 6th series, vi.
422, 472, vii. 269). Names of proprietors
added : 1. Miniature by Kaye at the age of
seven. 2. Full-length in oils by Sanders ; en-
graved in standard edition of Moore's life
(Lady Dorchester). 3. Miniature by same
from the preceding (engraving destroyed at
Byron's request). 4. Half-length by Westall,
1814 (Lady Burdett-Coutts). 5. Half-length
by T. Phillips, 1814 (Mr. Murray) ; engraved
by Agar, R. Graves, Lupton, Mote, Warren,
Edwards, and C. Armstrong. 6. Miniature
by Holmes, 1815 (Mr. A. Morrison) ; en-
graved by R. Graves, Ryall, and H. Meyer.
7. Bust in marble by Thorwaldsen, 1816
(Lady Dorchester) ; replicas at Milan and
elsewhere. 8. Half-length by Harlowe,
1817 ; engraved by H. Meyer, Holl, and
Scriven. 9. Miniature by Prepiani, 1817, and
another by the same ; given to Mrs. Leigh.
10. Miniature in water-colours of Byron in
college robes by Gilchrist about 1807-8 ; at
Newstead. 1 1 . Half-length in Albanian dress
by T. Phillips, R. A. (Lord Lovelace) ; replica
in National Portrait Gallery; engraved by
Finden. 12. Pencil Sketch by G. Cattermole
from memory (Mr. Toone). 13. Medallion
by A. Stothard. 14. Bust by Bartolini, 1822
(Lord Malmesbury) ; lithographed by Fro-
mentin. 15. Half-length by West (Mr.
Horace Kent) ; engraved by C. Turner, En-
gleheart, and Robinson. 16. Three sketches
by Count d'Orsay, 1823 ; one at South Ken-
sington. 17. Statue by Thorwaldsen, finished
1834. This statue was ordered from Thor-
waldsen in 1829 by Hobhouse in the name of
a committee. Thorwaldsen produced it for
1,OOOZ. It was refused by Dean Ireland for
Westminster Abbey, and lay in the custom-
house vaults till 1842, when it was again re-
fused by Dean Tinton. In 1843 Whewell,
having j ust become master of Trinity, accepted
it for the college, and it was placed in the
library (Correspondence in Notes and Queries,
6th ser. iv. 421). 18. A silhouette cut in
paper by Mrs. Leigh Hunt is prefixed to
' Byron and some of his Contemporaries.'
Byron's works appeared as follows :
1. ' Hours of Idleness ' (see above for a notice
of first editions). 2. ' English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers ' (Cawthorne) (for full de-
tails of editions see Notes and Queries, 5th.
ser. vii. 145, 204, 296, 355). 3. ' Imitations
and Translations, together with original poems
never before published, collected by J. C. Hob-
house, Trinity College, Cambridge' (1809)
(contains nine poems by Byron, reprinted in
works, among ' occasional pieces,' 1807-8 and
1808-10). 4. ' Childe Harold, a Romaunt,'
4to, 1812 (an appendix of twenty poems,
including those during his travels and those
addressed to Thyrza). 5. ' The Curse of Mi-
nerva' (anonymous; privately printed in a
thin quarto in 1812 (Lowndes) ; at Phila-
delphia in 1815, 8vo; Paris (Galignani),12mo,
1818 ; and imperfect copies in Hone's ' Do-
mestic Poems ' and in later collections).
6. ' The Waltz ' (anonymous), 1813 (again in
Works, 1824). 7. ' The Giaour, a Fragment
of a Turkish Tale,' 1813, 8vo. 8. ' The Bride
of Abydos, a Turkish Tale,' 1813, 8vo. 9. ' The
Corsair, a Tale,' 1814, 8vo (to this were added
the lines, ' Weep, daughter of a royal line,'
omitted in some copies (see Letters of 22 Jan.
and 10 Feb. 1814). 10. 'Ode to Napoleon Buo-
naparte ' (anonymous), 8vo, 1814. 11. ' Lara,
a Tale,' 1814, 8vo (originally published with
Rogers's ' Jacqueline '). 12. ' Hebrew Melo-
dies,' 1815 (lines on Sir Peter Parker ap-
pended); also with music by Braham and
Nathan in folio. 13. Siege of Corinth,' 1816,
8vo. 14. 'Parisina,' 1816, 8vo (this and
the last together in second edition, 1816).
15. ' Poems by Lord Byron ' (Murray), 1816,
8vo (' When all around,' ' Bright be the place
of thy soul,' ' When we two parted,' ' There's
not a joy,' ' There be none of beauty's daugh-
ters,' ' Fare thee well ; ' poems from the
French and lines to Rogers). The original
Byron
154
Byron
of ' Bright be the place of thy soul,' by Lady
Byron, corrected by Lord Byron, is in the
Morrison MSS. 16. ' Poems on his Domes-
tic Circumstances by Lord Byron,' Hone,
1816 (includes a ' Sketch,' and in later edi-
tions a ' Farewell to Malta ' and ' Curse of Mi-
nerva ' (mutilated) ; a twenty-third edition in
1817. It also includes ' Shame to thee, Land
of the Gaul,' and ' Mme. Lavalette,' which,
with an ' Ode to St. Helena,' ' Farewell to
England,' ' On his Daughter's Birthday,' and
' The Lily of France,' are disowned by Byron
in letter to Murray 22 July 1816, but are re-
printed in some later unauthorised editions.
17. ' Prisoner of Chillon, and other Poems,'
1816, 8vo (sonnet to Lake Leman, ' Though
the day of my destiny's over/ 'Darkness,'
' Churchill's Grave,' the ' Dream,' the ' In-
cantation' (from Manfred), 'Prometheus').
18. ' Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,' canto iii.,
1816, 8vo. 19. 'Monody on the Death of
Sheridan '(anonymous), 1816, 8vo. 20. 'Man-
fred, a Dramatic Poem,' 1817, 8vo. 21. ' The
Lament of Tasso,' 8vo, 1817. 22. 'Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage,' canto iv., 1818 (the
Alhama ballad and sonnet from Vittorelli
appended). 23. ' Beppo, a Venetian Story'
(anonymous in early editions), 1818, 8vo.
24. ' Suppressed Poems ' (Galignani), 1818,
8vo (' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,'
' Land of the Gaul,' ' Windsor Poetics, a
Sketch'). 25. Three Poems not included
in the works of Lord Byron (Effingham
"Wilson), 1818, 8vo ('Lines to Lady
J[ersey] ; ' ' Enigma on H.,' often erroneously
attributed to Byron, really by Miss Fan-
shawe ; ' Curse of Minerva,' fragmentary).
26. ' Mazeppa,' 1819 (fragment of the ' Vam-
pire' novel appended). 27. ' Marino Faliero,'
1820. 28. ' The Prophecy of Dante,' 1821
(with ' Marino Faliero '), 8vo. 29. ' Sarda-
napalus, a Tragedy ; ' ' The Two Foscari, a
Tragedy ; ' ' Cain, a Mystery ' (in one volume,
8vo), 1821. 30. ' Letter ... on the Rev.
"W. L. Bowles's Strictures on Pope,' 1821.
31. 'Werner, a Tragedy' (J. Hunt), 1822,
8vo. 32. ' The Liberal ' (J. Hunt), 1823, 8vo
(No. I. ' Vision of Judgment,' ' Letter to the
Editor of my Grandmother's Review,' ' Epi-
grams on Castlereagh.' No. II. ' Heaven and
Earth.' No. III. 'The Blues.' No. IV. 'Mor-
gante Maggiore '). 33. ' The Age of Bronze '
(anonymous) (J. Hunt), 1823, 8vo. 34. ' The
Island ' (J. Hunt), 1823, 8vo. 35. ' The De-
formed Transformed' (J. & H. L. Hunt),
1824, 8vo. 36. 'Don Juan' (cantos i. and
ii. ' printed by Thomas Davison,' 4to, 1819 ;
cantos iii., iv., and v. (Davison), 8vo, 1821 ;
cantos vi., vii., and viii. (for Hunt &
Clarke), 8vo, 1823 ; cantos ix., x., and xi.
(for John Hunt), 8vo, 1823; cantos xii.,
xiii., and xiv. (John Hunt), 8vo, 1823 ;
cantos xv. and xvi. (John & H. L. Hunt),
8vo, 1824), all anonymous. A 17th canto
(1829) is not by Byron ; and ' twenty sup-
pressed stanzas ' (1838) are also spurious.
Murray published from 1815 to 1817 a
collective edition of works up to those dates
in eight volumes 12mo ; other collective edi-
tions in five volumes 16mo, 1817 ; and an
edition in eight volumes 16mo, 1818-20.
In 1824 was published an 8vo volume by
Knight &' Lacy, called vol. v. of Lord
Byron's works, including ' Hours of Idle-
ness,' ' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,'
the ' Waltz,' and various minor poems, several
of the spurious poems mentioned under Hone's
domestic pieces, and ' To Jessy,' a copy of
which is in Egerton MS. 2332, as sent to
' Literary Recreations.' In 1824 and 1825
the Hunts also published two volumes uni-
form with the above and called vols. vi. and
vii. of Lord Byron's works, including the
poems (except 'Don Juan') published by
them separately as above, and in ' The Libe-
ral.' In 1828 Murray published an edition
of the works in four volumes 12mo. Uni-
form with this were published two volumes
by J. F. Dove, including ' Don Juan ' (the
whole) and the various pieces in Knight &
Lacy's volume, with ' Lines to Lady Caroline
Lamb,' ' On my Thirty-sixth Birthday,' and
the lines ' And wilt thou weep ? '
There are various French collections : in
1825 Baudry & Amyot published an 8vo
edition in seven volumes at Paris, with a
life by J. W. Lake, including all the recog-
nised poems, the letter to Bowles, and the
parliamentary speeches (separately printed
in London in 1824). Galignani published
one-volume 8vo editions hi 1828 (with life
by Lake), in 1831 (same life abridged), and
1835 (with life by Henry Lytton Bulwer,
M.P.) To the edition of 1828 were appended
twenty-one ' attributed poems,' including' Re-
member thee, remember thee,' the ' Triumph
of the Whale' (by Charles Lamb, GRABS
ROBINSON, Diary (1872), i. 175), and ' Re-
mind me not, remind me not.' Most of these
were omitted in the edition of 1831, which
included (now first printed) the ' Hints from
Horace,' of which fragments are given in
Moore's ' Life ' (1830).
The collected ' Life and Works ' published
by Murray (1832-5), 8vo, includes all the
recognised poems, and adds to the foregoing
works a few 'published for the first time'
(including the second letter to Bowles, and
the ' Observations on Observations '), and
several poems which had appeared in other
works : ' River that rollest,' &c., from Medwin
(1824) ; 'Verses on his Thirty-sixth Birthday,'
Byron
155
Byron
from Gamba (1824) ; ' And thou wert sad 'and
' Could love for ever/ from Lady Blessing-
ton ; ' I speak not, I wail not ; ' ' In the
valley of waters ; ' ' They say that hope is
happiness,' from Nathan's ' Fugitive Pieces,'
&c. (1829); 'To my son,' 'Epistle to a
friend,' ' My sister, my sweet sister,' ' Could
I lament,' the ' Devil's Drive,' and many trifles
from Moore's 'Life' (1830). This edition,
which has been reprinted in the same form
and in one volume royal 8vo, is the most
convenient.
[Moore had sold the Memoirs given to him by
Byron to Murray (in November 1821) for 2,000^.
(or guineas), with the agreement that they were
to be edited by Moore if Byron died before him.
Byron (1 Jan. 1820) offered to allow his wife to
see the Memoirs, in order that she might point
out any unfair statements. She declined to see
them, and protested against such a publication.
Byron afterwards became doubtful as to pub-
lishing, and a deed was executed in May 1822,
by which Murray undertook to restore the ma-
nuscript on the repayment of the 2,000^. during
Byron's life. On Byron's death, the power of re-
demption not having been acted upon, the right
of publication belonged to Murray. Byron's
friends, however Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh
were anxious for the destruction. Lady Byron
carefully avoided any direct action in the matter
which would imply a desire to suppress her hus-
band's statement of his case. Moore hesitated ;
but at a meeting held in Murray's house (17 May
1824) he repaid the money to Murray, having
obtained an advance from the Longmans (Moore's
Diary, iv. 189), and the manuscript was returned
to him and immediately destroyed. It was pro-
posed at the time that Lady Byron and Mrs.
Leigh should repay the 2,0001. ; but the arrange-
ment failed for some unexplained reason, and
Murray ultimately paid off Moore's debt in 1828,
amounting with interest to 3,020/., besides pay-
ing him 1,6001. for the Life. Many charges
arose out of this precipitate destruction of the
Memoirs ; but there is no reason to regret their
loss. Moore showed them to so many people
that he had them copied out (Diary, 7 May 1820),
for fear that the original might be worn out.
Lady Burghersh destroyed, in Moore's presence,
some extracts which she had made (Diary, v. 1 1 1 ).
Giffard, Lord and Lady Holland, and Lord John
(afterwards Earl) Eussell read them. Lord
John gives his impressions in his edition of
Moore's Diary (iv. 192), and seems to express the
general opinion. There were some indelicate
passages. There were also some interesting de-
scriptions of early impressions ; but for the
most part they were disappointing, and contained
the story of the marriage, which Moore (who
was familiar with them) gives substantially in
the Memoir (see Jeaffreson's Eeal Lord Byron,
ii. 292-330, Moore's Diary, Quarterly Keview
(on Moore) for June 1853 and for July 1883,
Jeaffreson in Athenaeum for 18 Aug. 1883). The
first authoritative life was that by Moore, first
published in 2 vols. quarto, London, 1830. It
forms six volumes of the edition of the Life and
Works, 17 vols. 12mo, 1837, and in one volume,
8vo. Other authorities are : Lady Blessington's
Journals of the Conversations of Lord B. with
Lady Blessington (1834 and 1850); Correspon-
dence of Lord Byron with a Friend, and Eecollec-
tions by the late E. C. Dallas, by Eev. A. E. C.
Dallas, Paris, 1825, Galignani; Life of Byron,
by John Gait, 2nd edit. 1830 ; Life, Writings,
Opinions, &c., by an English Gentleman in the
Greek Service, 1825, published bylley ; Narrative
of a Second Visit to Greece, by Edward Blaquiere,
London, 1825 ; Narrative of Lord Byron's Last
Journey to Greece, by Count Peter Gamba, 1825 ;
Conversations on Eeligion with Lord Byron at
Cephalonia, by the late Jas. Kennedy, M.D., 1830 ;
Lady Morgan's Memoirs, 1862 (for Lady C.
Lamb) ; Conversations of Lord Byron at Pisa, by
Thomas Medwin, 1824 ; Guiccioli, Comtesse de,
Lord Byron juge par les temoins de sa vie, 1868,
| and in English as Guiccioli's My Eecollections of
i Lord Byron, 2 vols. 1869 ; Eecords of Shelley,
' Byron, and the Author, by E. J. Trelawny, 1858,
| 2nd edit. 1878 ; Life of Eev. W. Harness, by
i A. G. L'Estrange, 1871 ; Memoirs of Eev.
i Francis Hodgson, by Eev. James T. Hodgson,
2 vols. 1878 ; Parry, William, Last Days of Lord
I Byron, 1825 ; Hobhouse's Travels in Albania
; (1855, 3rd edit.), and 'Byron's Statue ; ' Greece
in 1823 and 1824, by Colonel Leicester Stanhope
(1825), new edition, contains reminiscences by
George Finlay and Stanhope, reprinted in the
| English translation of Elze ; Elze, Karl, Lord
Byron (English translation), 1872 (first German
edition 1870); The Eeal Lord Byron, by John
Cordy Jeaffreson, 2 vols. 1883 ; also articles in
Athenaeum, 4 and 18 Aug. 1883; Lady Byron
Vindicated, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, London,
1870 ; Lord Byron and his Contemporaries, by
Leigh Hunt, 2 vols. 1826, and Leigh Hunt's
Autobiography, 1850 and 1860. See also articles
in the London Mag. for 24 Oct. ; Blackwood's
Mag., June 1824; Westminster, July 1824 and
January 1825 (Hobhouse); Quarterly, October
1869, January 1870, July 1883 ( Hay ward );
New Monthly, January 1830 (T. Campbell);
New Monthly for 1835, pt. iii. 193-203, 291-302,
Conversations with an American ; MSS. in Bri-
tish Museum and in possession of Mr. A. Morrison,
who has kindly permitted their inspection. Two
small collections called ' Byroniana ' are worth-
less. The Byroniana referred to in the one-
volume edition of Moore was a collection pro-
jected by John Wright, but never carried out.]
L. S.
BYRON, HENRY JAMES (1834-1884),
dramatist and actor, was born in Manchester
in January 1834. His father, Henry Byron,
was for many years British consul at Port-
au-Prince. Placed first with Mr. Miles
Morley, a surgeon in Cork Street, W., and
afterwards with his maternal grandfather,
Byron
156
Byron
Dr. Bradley of Buxton, Byron conceived a
dislike for the medical profession, and joined
a ' provincial ' company of actors. A mono-
logue of his entitled ' A Bottle of Champagne
uncorked by Horace Plastic,' produced at the
Marionette Theatre, London, into which the
old Adelaide Gallery had been turned, was
his earliest literary venture. He entered on
14 Jan. 1858 the Middle Temple. His taste
for the stage interfered with his pursuit of
law. He had produced unsuccessfully at the
Strand Theatre in 1857 a burlesque entitled
' Richard Coeur de Lion.' Better fortune
attended his next burlesque, ' Fra Diavolo,'
given the next year at the same theatre, which
had then passed from the hands of Payne
into those of Miss Swanborough. A series
of pieces, chiefly of the same class, followed
at the Strand, Adelphi, Olympic, and other
west-end theatres. Byron wrote for ' Temple
Bar ' a novel entitled ' Paid in Full,' after-
wards reprinted in 3 vols. London, 1865, into
which he introduced some of his experiences
as a medical student. He was the first editor
of ' Fun,' and originated a short-lived paper,
the 'Comic Times.' On 15 April 1865 he
ioined Miss Marie Wilton in the management
of the Prince of Wales's Theatre, formerly the
Queen's, in Tottenham Street, contributing to
the opening programme a burlesque on the sub-
ject of La Sonnambula. ' War to the Knife/
a comic drama in three acts, was given at the
same house, 10 June 1865, and 'A Hundred
Thousand Pounds,' also in three acts, 5 May
1866. His terms of partnership included
an engagement to write for no other house.
In 1867 he resigned his connection with this
theatre, and began the management of the
Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool, to which soon
afterwards he added also the management of
the Theatre Royal and the Amphitheatre.
At one or other of these houses he produced
some of his best works. The result was,
however, disaster. These painful experi-
ences did not prevent him from undertaking
seven years later the management of the
Criterion Theatre, which opened on 21 May
1874 with his three-act comedy, ' An Ame-
rican Lady.' On 16 Jan. 1875 he gave to the
Vaudeville Theatre ' Our Boys,' a three-act
domestic drama, which is noticeable as having
had the longest run on record, not having
been withdrawn till 18 April 1879.
Byron's first appearance in London as an
actor took place at the Globe, 23 Oct. 1869,
as Sir Simon Simple in his own comedy, 'Not
such a Fool as he looks,' a part originally
designed for Mr. Sothern. He had previously
played in the country as Isaac of York in his
own burlesque of ' Ivanhoe.' Subsequently
in his own comedies he appeared as FitzAl-
tamont in 'The Prompter's Box,' Adelphi,
1870 ; Captain Craven in ' Daisy Farm,'
Olympic, 1871 ; Lionel Levert in ' Old Sol-
diers,' Strand, 1873 ; Harold Trivass in ' An
American Lady,' Criterion, 1874; Gibson
Greene in ' Married in Haste,' Haymarket,
1875 ; and Dick Simpson in ' Conscience
Money,' Haymarket, 1878. In 1881 he
played, at the Court Theatre, Cheviot Hill in
Mr. Gilbert's comedy of 'Engaged.' This
was his last engagement, and, so far as is
known, the only one in which he played in
a piece by another author. Shortly after
this period, in consequence of ill-health, he
retired from the stage. The same cause
drove him into comparative seclusion. He
died at his house in Clapham Park on 11 April
1884, and was buried at Brompton.
Byron's serious dramatic work is original
in the sense that the plot is rarely taken
from a foreign source. It displays ingenuity
rather than invention, and abounds in the
kind of artifice to be expected under arrange-
ments by which no more than one scene is
allowed to an act. The distinguishing cha-
racteristics of Byron's plays are homeliness
and healthiness. He revelled in pun and
verbal pleasantry, and in a certain cockney
smartness of repartee. Character and proba-
bility were continually sacrificed to the strain
after a laugh. In his dramatic works he met
with many rebuffs, but few failures. ' Cyril's
Success' is generally, and correctly, held to
be his best play. As an actor Byron at-
tempted little. A quiet unconsciousness in
the delivery of jokes was his chief recom-
mendation to the public. Byron had, before
his retirement, an enviable social reputation.
Many spoken witticisms, more indeed than
he is entitled to claim, are associated with
his name.
A complete list of Byron's plays can
scarcely be attempted. The following list,
in which e stands, perhaps too comprehen-
sively, for extravaganza, burlesque, or panto-
mime, f for farce, c for comedy, and d for
drama, omits little of importance : ' Bride
of Abydos,' e, no date ; ' Latest Edition
of Lady of Lyons,' e, 1858 ; ' Fra Diavolo,'
e, 1858 ; ' Maid and Magpie,' e, 1858 ; ' Ma-
zeppa,' e, 1858; ' Very Latest Edition of Lady
of Lyons,' e, 1859 ; ' Babes in the Wood,' e,
1859; 'Nymph of Lurleyburg,' e, 1859;
' Jack the Giant- Killer,' e, 1860 ; ' The Mil-
ler and his Men,' e (written with F. Talfourd),
1860 ; ' Pilgrim of Love,' e, 1860 ; ' Robinson
Crusoe,' e, 1860; 'Blue Beard,' e, 1860;
' Garibaldi's Excursionists,' f, 1860 ; ' Cin-
derella,' e, 1861 ; < Aladdin,' e, 1861 ; ' Esme-
ralda,' e, 1861; 'Miss Eily O'Connor,' e,
1861 ; ' Old Story,' c, 1861 ; < Puss in a New
Byron
157
Byron
Pair of Boots/ e, 1862 ; 'Rosebud of Sting-
ing-nettle Farm,' e, 1862 ; ' George de Barn-
well,' e, 1862 ; ' Ivanhoe,' e, 1862 ; ' Beautiful
Haidee,' e, 1863 ; ' Ali Baba,' e, 1863 ; ' Ill-
treated II Trovatore,' e, 1863 ; ' The Motto,'
e, 1863 ; ' Lady Belle-belle,' e, 1863 ; ' Or-
pheus and Eurydice,' e, 1863 ; ' Mazourka,'
e, 1864; 'Princess Springtime,' e, 1864;
'Grin Bushes,' e, 1864; 'Timothy to the
Rescue,' /, 1864 ; ' Pan,' e, 1865 ; ' La Son-
nambula,' e, 1865 ; ' Lucia di Lammer-
moor,' e, 1865 ; ' Little Don Giovanni,' e,
1865 ; ' War to the Knife,' c, 1865 ; ' Der
Freischutz,' e, 1866 : ' Pandora's Box,' e,
1866 ; ' A Hundred Thousand Pounds,' c,
1866 ; ' William Tell.' e, 1867 ; ' Dearer
than Life,' d, 1867 ; ' Blow for Blow,' d,
1868; 'Lucrezia Borgia, M.D.,' e, 1868;
' Cyril's Success,' c, 1868 ; ' Not such a Fool
as he looks,' d, 1868 ; ' Robinson Crusoe,'
e, 1868 ; ' Minnie, or Leonard's Love,' d,
1869; 'Corsican Brothers,' e, 1869; 'Lost
at Sea ' (with Dion Boucicault), d, 1869 ;
'Uncle Dick's Darling,' d, 1869; 'Yellow
Dwarf,' e, 1869 ; ' Lord Bateman,' e, 1869 ;
< Whittington,' e, 1869; 'Prompter's Box,'
d, 1870; 'Robert Macaire,' e, 1870; 'En-
chanted Wood,' e, 1870 ; ' English Gentle-
man,' d, 1870; 'Wait and Hope,' d, 1871;
' Daisy Farm,' d, 1871 ; ' Orange Tree and
the Humble Bee,' e, 1871 ; < Not if I know
it,' e, 1871 ; ' Giselle,' e, 1871 ; ' Partners for
Life,' c, 1871 ; ' Camaralzaman,' e, 1871 ;
' Blue Beard,' e, 1871 ; ' Haunted Houses,' d,
1872; 'Two Stars,' d (altered from the
' Prompter's Box '), 1872 ; ' Spur of the Mo-
ment,'/, 1872 ; ' Good News,' d, 1872 ; ' Lady
of the Lake,' e, 1872 ; ' Mabel's Life,' d, 1872 ;
< Time's Triumph,' d, 1872 ; ' Fine Feathers,'
d, 1873; 'Sour Grapes,' c, 1873; ' Fille de
Madame Angot,' op. bouffe, 1873 ; ' Old Sol-
diers,' c, 1873; ' Chained to the Oar,' d, 1873;
'Don Juan,' e, 1873 ; 'Pretty Perfumeress,'
op. bouffe, 1874 ; ' Demon's Bride,' op. bouffe,
1874 ; ' American Lady,' c, 1874 ; ' Nor-
mandy Pippins,' e, 1874; 'Robinson Crusoe,
e, 1874 ; ' Oil and Vinegar,' c, 1874 ; ' Thumb-
screw,' d, 1874 ; ' Old Sailors,' c, 1874; 'Our
Boys,' c, 1875 ; ' Married in Haste,' c, 1875 ;
' Weak Woman,' c, 1875 ; ' Twenty Pounds
a Year,'/, 1876 ; ' Tottles,' c, 1876 ; ' Bull by
the Horns,' c d, 1876 ; ' Little Don Caesar de
Bazan,' e, 1876 ;' Wrinkles,' d, 1876 ; ' Widow
and Wife,' d, 1876 ; ' Pampered Menials,' /
1876 ; ' Little Doctor Faust,' e, 1877 ; ' Olc
Chums,' c, 1877 ; ' Bohemian Gyurl ' (second
version), e, 1877 ; ' Guinea Gold,' d, 1877
' Forty Thieves,' e (written in conjunction
with F. C. Burnand, W. S. Gilbert, and
R. Reece), 1878 ; ' La Sonnambula ' (seconc
version), e, 1878; 'Young Fra Diavolo,' e
1878; 'A Fool and his Money,' c, 1878;
Crushed Tragedian,' c, 1878 ; ' Hornet's
Nest,' c, 1878 ;' Conscience Money,' d, 1878 ;
Uncle,' 1878; 'Courtship,' c, 1879; 'Jack
the Giant-Killer,' e, 1879; 'Pretty Esme-
ralda,' e, 1879 ; ' Handsome Hernani,' e, 1879;
The Girls,' c, 1879 ; ' Upper Crust,' c, 1880;
Light Fantastic,'/, 1880; 'Gulliver's Tra-
vels,' e, 1880; 'Trovatore,' e, 1880; 'Bow
Bells,' d, 1880; 'Without a Home,' c, 1880;
Michael Strogoff,' d (translated from the
French), 1881; 'Punch,' c, 1881; 'New
Broom,' c, 1881 ; ' Fourteen Days,' c (trans-
lated from the French), 1882; 'Pluto,' e,
1882; 'Frolique,' c (with H. B. Farnie),
1882 ; ' Auntie,' c, 1882 ; ' Villainous Squire,'
. 1882. The following pieces may be added:
'Dundreary,' ' Married and Done for,' 'Sen-
sation Fork,' ' Our Seaside Lodging,' ' Rival
Othellos,' and ' My Wife and I,' farces, the
xact date of production of which it is diffi-
cult to fix. Under the head c are ranked
various slight productions put forth as farci-
cal comedies, farcical dramas, &c.
[Private information; Era Almanack; Era
Newspaper, 19 April 1884 ; Athenaeum ; Dutton
Cook's Nights at the Play ; Men of the Time,
10th ed. ; Pascoe's Dramatic List.] J. K.
BYRON, JOHN, first LORD BYRON (d.
1652), was descended from Sir John Byron
of Clayton, Lancashire, who obtained the
abbey of Newstead, Nottinghamshire, at the
dissolution of the monasteries. He was the
eldest son of Sir John Byron, K.B., by Anne,
daughter of Sir Richard Molineux of Sefton,
Lancashire. He sat in the last parliament
of James I and in the first of Charles I for the
borough, and in the parliament of 1627-8 for
the county of Nottingham. He had been
knighted in the interval. He was high sheriff
of Nottinghamshire in 1634. His name is not
in the list of either the Short or the Long-
parliament of 1640. In that year he brought
his military experience and reputation, ac-
quired in the Low Country wars, to the expe-
dition against the Scots. On its failure, he
looked eagerly to the projected great council of
the peers at York (August 1640). Writing on
the very day of meeting, he expresses his confi-
dent hope that ' the vipers we have been too
ready to entertain will be driven out,' and that
the Scotch general Leslie's exaction of 350/. a
day from Durham ' will prove a fruitful pre-
cedent for the king's service, that hereafter
ship-money may be thought a toy' {State
Papers, Dom., 24 Sept. 1640).
Byron was appointed to the lieutenancy
of the Tower after Lunsford's dismissal
(26 Dec. 1641). He was sent for as a de-
linquent by the lords (12 Jan. 1641-2),
Byron
158
Byron
and examined as to the stores lately con-
veyed into the fortress. 'He gave so full
answers to all the questions asked of him,
that they could not but dismiss him ' (Claren-
don Rebellion, 154 a), but he refused to
leave the Tower without the king's order.
The peers refused to concur in the address
for his removal, and it was therefore pre-
sented by the commons alone (27 Jan.)
The king at first declined to comply, but
Byron himself begged to be set free ' from
the vexation and agony of that place.' On
11 Feb. 1641-2 Charles sent a message to
the House of Lords consenting to the ap-
pointment of Sir John Conyers in Byron's
place.
When the war broke out, Byron was among
the first to join the king at York, and marched
with him to summon Coventry (20 Aug.
1642, DTTGDALE, Diary, p. 17). Thence he
was despatched by Charles to protect Oxford.
At Brackley (28 Aug.), while refreshing his
troop after a long march, he was surprised,
and forced to make a speedy retreat to the
heath. In the confusion a box containing
money, apparel, and other things of value
was left in a field of standing corn. He
wrote to a Mr. Clarke of Croughton for its
restitution, which he said he would represent
to the king as an acceptable service ; if not,
he continued, ' assure yourself I will find a
time to repay myself with advantage out of
your estate.' The houses took notice of this
letter, in a joint declaration, retorting on
Byron 'the odious crime and title of traitor'
(Declaration of the Lords and Commons,
11 Sept. 1642). In a contemporary tract
(Brit. M. E. 117, 11) the value of the spoil
taken is estimated at not less than 6,000/.
or 8,0001., and the prisoners taken by the
parliamentarians are said to have been
searched, despoiled, and thrown into the
Tower, where they might have starved but
for charity (cf. BAILEY, Nottinghamshire, ii.
669, 672).
Byron reached Oxford 28 Aug., and re-
mained there till 10 Sept. After leaving
Oxford he arrived at Worcester about 17 Sept.
He had been pursued by Lord Say, and had
to fight on the road. He gained a victory
over the parliamentarians at Powick Bridge
(22 Sept.), but found it necessary to evacuate
Worcester, which he had not fortified, on the
following day.
At Edgehill (23 Oct. 1642), when Rupert's
charge had scattered the enemy, Byron joined
in the chase with the reserve of the right
wing his own regiment of horse. When
Rupert returned he ' found a great alteration
in the field, and the hope of so glorious a
day quite vanished ' ( Clarendon, 309 a). For
Byron had left the foot, whom he had been
posted to protect, to be taken in rear by the
enemy.
After Edgehill, Byron's regiment quartered
a while at Fawley Court. His orders against
plunder were disregarded, and the owner,
Bulstrode Whitelocke, laments the wanton
destruction of property, the writings of his
estates, and many excellent manuscripts
(Memorials, p. 65). Byron's regiment of horse
was quartered at Reading in December 1642
(Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. pt. ii. 433 b), and
he probably commanded the horse of the gar-
rison there. Reading not long after (26 April
1643) capitulated to Essex, but Byron was
in Oxfordshire during the spring of this year.
On 6 May he defeated a party of roundheads
at Bicester, and on 12 July was sent west
with Prince Maurice to relieve Devizes. The
great victory of Roundway Down, near De-
vizes, on 13 July, was chiefly the work of
Byron, whose charge turned to flight the
' impenetrable regiment ' of Haslerig's cuiras-
siers. But his men were always ready to
desert or to mutiny for plunder's sake, and
on the day of the surrender of Bristol to
Rupert, Byron writes in haste to beg the
prince to give them assurance that they shall
have their share ' some benefit from your
highness's great victory.' On 20 Sept. Byron
commanded the horse of the right wing at
the first battle of Newbury, and Lord Falk-
land fell fighting in the front rank of Byron's
regiment. Byron wrote a full account of
this battle for Lord Clarendon's use, and long
extracts from his original manuscript are
given by Mr. Money in his ' Battles of New-
bury' (pp. 44, 51, 56). He himself received
what reward the king had to bestow, being
created Baron Byron of Rochdale (24 Oct.
1643), with limitation of the title, after his
own issue, to his six loyal brothers, Richard,
William, Thomas, Robert, Gilbert, and Philip.
He willingly accepted Rupert's offer of the
sole command in Lancashire, if the county
would agree thereto (7 Nov.), but wished
first to make sure of the appointment of go-
vernor to the Prince of Wales, ' an employ-
ment likely to continue to my advantage
when this war is ended ' (Add. MS. 18980,
f. 147; WAKBTTKTON, Prince Rupert, ii. 329).
By the cessation of arms granted by Or-
monde, the troops raised for the king's service
against the Irish rebels were set free for
other employment, and detachments came
over at intervals to join the force under the
command of Byron, whose whole army is
described as < rolling like a flood ' up to the
walls of Nantwich, the only parliament gar-
rison left in Cheshire. Byron defeated Brere-
ton at Middle wick, and captured Crewe House.
Byron
159
Byron
But the tide soon turned. Byron failed in
an assault on Nantwich 18 Jan. 1643-4;
the besiegers confidently awaited the ap-
proach of Fairfax with his Yorkshire horse
and Manchester foot, soon to he joined by the
Staffordshire and Derbyshire levies of Sir
"William Brereton. A sudden thaw, swell-
ing a little river that ran between the divi-
sions of the royal army, gave the signal of
disaster. The part under Byron's command
had to march four or five miles before it could
join the other, which had meanwhile been
broken by Fairfax (28 Jan. ) The chief officers,
1,500 soldiers, and all their artillery were
taken, and Byron sadly retired to Chester.
Prince Rupert now took separate command
of the royal forces in Cheshire and the ad-
jacent counties, with Byron as his lieutenant.
Sir Abraham Shipman was made governor of
Chester. Lands belonging to roundhead ' de-
linquents ' were to be sold, and the admini-
stration of this fund was vested in Byron, who
not long after was made governor by special
commission from Rupert (Sari. MS. 2135,
f. 30). It was a slippery and thankless post.
There had been talk of appointing one Alder-
man Gamul, and Byron had successfully
fought off the proposal on the ground that
' if he be admitted the like will be attempted
by all the corporations in England ' (Add.
MS. 18981, f. 51). In October 1644 he com-
plains that he has not as heretofore the sole
command in Rupert's absence, ' but there are
independent commissions granted without
any relation to me ' (ib. 287). He disclaims
any envy at the power Rupert had given
William Legge, who appears to have super-
seded him for a while as governor of the city
but demurs to command being also given
him over the counties of Cheshire, Flint, and
Denbigh. Though Legge has ' ever been hii
good friend,' Byron feels the slight so keenly
that he begs to be recalled 'if I be not
worthy of the command I formerly had.'
Chester was in a sad condition. The mer-
chants had been impoverished. To improve
the fortifications the suburbs had been burnt,
and their inhabitants were forced into the
already crowded city. The soldiers lived al
free quarters, and their hosts often fled from
their houses, for the men (against orders) wore
their weapons at all times. They plundered
the houses of citizens when the owners were
at church, and pawned the goods. They
robbed in the highway, killed cattle in the
fields, and wantonly ripped open the corn
sacks on their way to market (Harl. MS
2135). The troops sent by Ormonde hac
an evil reputation. . Impressment was an
other grievance. Notwithstanding the claim
(allowed by Rupert) of exemption from
all service outside the city by special privi-
ege granted by Henry VIII, ' the garrison
was divers times drawn forth, and threatened
iO be hanged if they did not go, though most
of them were sworn citizens.'
In July 1644 Byron repeated his error of
Edgehill at Marston Moor. He was in the
Tont rank of Prince Rupert's division on the
right wing. Stationed by a ditch, he charged
across it, instead of waiting for the enemy
x> reach his own position (SABTFOED, Studies,
599 ; MAEKHAM, Fairfax, 163-7). ' By the
improper charge of Lord Byron much harm
was done 'is the comment in Prince Rupert's
diary.
In August Byron had his share in the
defeat of Sir Marmaduke Langdale's northern
dorse, near Ormskirk, on their march south-
ward. He had come from Liverpool ' on a
pacing nag, and thinking of nothing less than
fighting that day.' He had narrowly escaped
capture as he tried to rally the flying rout.
He lays the blame on the brigade of Lord
Molyneux, which fled at the first charge, and
fell foul with such fury on his regiment
that they utterly routed it. Legge, however,
writes (22 Aug. 1644) that ' my Lord Byron
engaged the enemy when he needed not,' and
gives Langdale credit for saving Byron,
bringing off his own men, and retreating
without the least disturbance '(WABBUETON,
Prince Rupert, iii. 21). Both agree that the
fatal selfishness of the Lancashire men in
resolutely diverting the war from themselves
had lost the north. After the surrender (in
September 1644) of Montgomery Castle by
Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Byron tried to
help Sir Michael Ernly to regain it. But
Sir William Brereton came to its relief, and
the governor of Chester returned thither.
Byron was defeated by Brereton at Mont-
)mery 18 Sept. 1644 (RTJSHWOETH, v. 747).
yron now found that many who heretofore
were thought loyal upon this success of the
rebels had either turned neuter or had wholly
revolted to them. Liverpool was threatened.
The officers were ready to endure all extre-
mities rather than yield, but the soldiers, for
want of pay, ' are grown extreme mutinous,
and run away daily ' the old story.
In May 1645 the king marched to the re-
lief of Chester; Byron met him at Stone,
Staffordshire, with the news that the rebels
had retired, and Charles turned back and
took Leicester, his last success. That sum-
mer came Naseby, and the autumn brought
Rupert's loss of Bristol (10 Sept.) and Mont-
rose's defeat at Philiphaugh (23 Sept.) The
king again made his way into Chester with
some provision and ammunition, but from
the Phoenix tower of the city wall he beheld
Byron
160
Byron
the rout of his forces by Poyntz (24 Sept.
1645). He wandered back to Oxford, bidding
Byron keep Chester for eight days longer
(WALKER, Hist. Discourses, p. 140). It was
actually kept for some twenty weeks. The
enemy was closing round. Byron's appeal
to Rupert for help (6 Oct.) was published
with virulent comments on the writer's sup-
posed leanings to popery and the Irish rebels.
Booth, fresh from the capture of Lathom,
had joined the b'esiegers. Byron's brother
was taken while marching to his rescue. A
relief party from Oxford had been forced to
return. The citizens urged surrender. Byron
invited the chief malcontents to dine with
him, and gave them his own fare of boiled
wheat and spring water. Brereton repeatedly
urged Byron to surrender, but the cavalier
insisted on terms ' granted by greater com-
manders than yourself no disparagement
to you.'
Chester at last surrendered (6 Feb. 1646).
The citizens were not to be plundered, the sick
and wounded were cared for, and Byron, with
his whole army, were to march under safe-
conduct to Conway (PHILLIPS, Civil War in
Wales, p. 354). He fared better in Cheshire
than in London, where the commons resolved
to exclude him from pardon a vote in which
the lords refused to concur.
He had meanwhile taken the command of
Carnarvon Castle, which he held till May
1646, when the king ordered all his fortresses
to be given up. It was surrendered upon
articles dated 4 June (WHITELOCKE, p. 208).
Byron joined the queen's court at Paris,
and was appointed superintendent-general of
the house and family of the Duke of York
(30 April 1651). In 1648 he lent his as-
sistance to the royalist invasion of England
by Hamilton and the Scotch (cf. two letters
from Byron to the Earl of Lanerick in the
Hamilton Papers, Camd. Soc. ; Byron's own
relation of his actions in the summer of 1648
appears in Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 418).
His main task was to seize Anglesea and
to raise North "Wales for the king. [For
his failure and its causes see BTTLKELEY,
RICHARD.] In January 1648-9 Ormonde sent
Byron to Charles II with a copy of the treaty
he had made with the Irish confederates in
behalf of the royalists, and a pressing in-
vitation to the prince to come to Ireland
(CARTE, Ormonde, bk. v. 98 ; CARTE, Orig.
Letters, i. passim). He was now included
by the houses among the seven persons who
were to expect no pardon.
Byron's after life was passed in exile. He
returned to Paris to find himself supplanted
in the confidence of his pupil, who arranged
a visit to Brussels without his knowledge or
the permission of the queen. At her request,
nevertheless, Byron attended on the duke
during that j ourney , and another to the Hague
to see the Princess of Orange, as well as in
James's first campaign under Turenne.
Byron differed from Hyde, the king's oldest
adviser, on such critical matters as the ac-
ceptance by Charles of the invitation of the
Scotch (1650). Byron wished the prince to
accept it (CAKTE, Orig. Letters, i. 338). Hyde
wrote, ' If Lord Byron has become a presby-
terian, he will be sorry for it.' But Hyde
did full justice to his opponent's fidelity,
writing to Nicholas of Byron's death as ' an
irreparable loss ' (23 Aug. 1652).
Byron died childless, though twice married :
(1) to Cecilia, daughter of the Earl of Dela-
ware, and widow of Sir Francis Bindloss,
knt. ; and (2) to Eleanor, daughter of Robert
Needham, viscount Kilmurrey, Ireland, and
widow of Peter Warburton of Arley, Che-
shire. Byron's second wife was, according
to Pepys (Diary, 26 April 1676), 'the king's
seventeenth mistress abroad.' A portrait of
Byron by Cornelius Jansen was in the Na-
tional Portrait Exhibition of 1866 (No. 688).
Byron's title was inherited by his brother
Richard (1605-1679), whose exploits as go-
vernor of Newark are recorded in Hutchin-
son's ' Memoirs.' He held the office from
the spring of 1643 till about January 1645.
In September 1643 he surprised the town of
Nottingham and held it for five days ; and
on 27 Nov. 1643 surprised the committee of
Leicestershire at Melton Mowbray (Mereu-
rius Aulicus, p. 690). He resided in Eng-
land during the protectorate, and in 1659
rose to support Sir George Booth. He died
on 4 Oct. 1679, aged 74, having married
(1) Elizabeth, daughter of George Rossel ;
and (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George
Booth. Four other brothers served in the
civil wars on the royalist side. William
was drowned at sea. Robert commanded a
regiment at Naseby, served in Ireland, and
was for a time imprisoned for sharing in a
royalist plot in Dublin (GILBERT, Contem-
porary History, ii. 158-60) ; he was alive
in 1664 (HTJTCHINSON, Memoirs, ii. 310).
Gilbert was commander of Rhuddlan Castle,
North Wales, in 1645 (SYMOIODS, Diary, p.
247) ; he was taken prisoner at Willoughby
Field on 5 July 1648, and died on 16 March
1656. Philip was killed in defending York
on 16 June 1644 ; a curious character of him
is in Lloyd's ' Memoirs of Excellent Per-
sonages ' (p. 489).
Much of Byron's correspondence remains.
It has no literary charm ; but it exhibits
persistent cheerfulness in the face of gather-
ing disaster, unwearied effort to conquer un-
Byron
161
Byron
toward circumstance with patience and con-
trivance, and dogged pathetic loyalty.
[Information kindly supplied by Mr. C. H.
Firth of Oxford ; authorities as above ; Warbur-
ton's Prince Rupert ; Clarendon State Papers ;
Carte's Collection of Original Letters and Papers.]
E. C. B.
BYRON, JOHN (1723-1786), vice-ad-
miral, second son of William, fourth lord
Byron, was born on 8 Nov. 1723. The date
of his entry into the navy has not been traced.
In 1740 he was appointed as a midshipman
to the Wager storeship, one of the squadron
under Commodore Anson, and sailed from
England in her. After rounding Cape Horn
the Wager was lost, 14 May 1741, on the
southern coast of Chili, a desolate and incle-
ment country. The survivors from the wreck
separated, Byron and some few others remain-
ing with the captain. After undergoing the
most dreadful hardships, they succeeded in
reaching Valparaiso, whence, in December
1744, they were permitted to return to Europe
by a French ship, which carried them to
Brest. They arrived in England in February
1745-6. Many years after, in 1768, Byron
published a ' Narrative, containing an ac-
count of the great distresses suffered by
himself and his companions on the coast of
Patagonia.' It has often been republished,
and supplied some hints for the shipwreck
scene in ' Don Juan,' whose author compares
the sufferings of his hero ' to those related in
my grand-dad's " Narrative," ' though, in-
deed, the fictitious sufferings of Juan were
trifling in comparison with those actually
recorded by John Byron.
During his absence he had been promoted
to be lieutenant ; immediately on his arrival
he was made commander, and on 30 Dec. of
the same year was made captain and ap-
pointed to the Syren frigate. After the peace
he commanded the St. Albans, one of the
squadron on the coast of Guinea ; in 1753 he
commanded the Augusta, guardship at Ply-
mouth ; and in 1755 the Vanguard. In 1757
he commanded the America of 60 guns in the
futile expedition against Rochefort ; he after-
wards cruised with some success on the coast
of France, and in the following year, still in
the America, served in the fleet off Brest under
Anson. In 1760 he was sent in command of
the Fame and a small squadron to superin-
tend the demolition of the fortifications of
Louisbourg, and while the work was in pro-
gress had the opportunity of destroying a
quantity of French shipping and stores in
the bay of Chaleur, including three small
men-of-war. He returned to England in
November, but continued in command of the
VOL. VIII.
Fame until the peace, being for the most
part attached to the squadron before Brest.
Early in 1764 he was appointed to the
Dolphin, a small frigate which, with the
Tamar, was ordered to be fitted for a voyage
to the East Indies. The Dolphin was sheathed
with copper, and her rudder had copper braces
and pintles ; she was the first vessel in the
English navy so fitted. Byron did not go
on board her till 17 June. The Dolphin,
with the Tamar in company, sailed from
Plymouth on 2 July, when Byron hoisted a
broad pennant, being appointed commander-
in-chief of all his majesty's ships in the East
Indies. At Rio they met Lord Olive, on his
way out in the Kent, East Indiaman. Olive
was anxious to take a passage in the Dolphin,
as likely to get to India long before the In-
diaman, but Byron managed to refuse him,
possibly by secretly telling him the true state
of the case ; for in fact his commission for
the East Indies and the orders which had
been publicly sent were all a blind, and the
real destination of the two ships was for a
voyage of discovery in the South seas. The
jealousy of the Spaniards seemed to render
this elaborate secrecy a necessary condition
of success. No one on board the ships had a
suspicion of what was before them till after
they had stood much further to the south than
a passage to the Cape seemed to require. The
true object of the voyage was then divulged ;
it was at the same time announced that the
men were to have double pay, with such
good effect that when shortly afterwards an
opportunity occurred by a returning store-
ship, only one man accepted the commodore's
permission for any one that liked to go home.
In passing through the Straits of Magellan
they had frequent intercourse with the natives
of Patagonia, and they have recorded, as
simple matter of fact, that these people were
of very remarkable size and stature. Modern
travellers, having been unable to find these
giants, have assumed that the former ac-
counts were false, either by intention or by
misconception, and have spoken, on the one
hand, of Munchausen-like stories, and, on the
other, of the deceptive appearance of long
robes and of the mistakes that may arise
from seeing men at a distance on horseback.
In the case of the officers of the Dolphin
with which alone we are now concerned
this last explanation is impossible ; the
statements are so explicit that they must be
either true or wilfully false. The commo-
dore, himself six feet high, either stood along-
side of men who towered so far above him
that he judged they could not be much less
than seven feet, or he deliberately wrote
a falsehood in his official journal, and his
M
Byron
162
Byron
officers with one consent lied to the same
effect (Byron's ' Journal ' in HAWZESWORTH'S
Voyages, i. 28; A Voyage round the World
in His Majesty's Ship the Dolphin ... by an
Officer on board the said ship, pp. 45, 51 n).
From the Straits of Magellan the Dolphin
and Tamar proceeded westward across the
Pacific, skirting the northern side of the Low
Archipelago and discovering some few of the
northernmost islands. It now seems almost
wonderful how these ships could have sailed
through this part of the ocean without making
grander discoveries ; but they appear to have
held a straight course westward, intent only
on getting the voyage over. Not only the
Low Archipelago but the Society Islands
must have been discovered had the ships, on
making the Islands of Disappointment, zig-
zagged, or quartered over the ground, as ex-
ploring ships ought to have done. And the
necessary inference is that Byron was want-
ing in the instinct and the hound-like per-
severance which go to make up the great
discoverer. Having passed these islands, the
ships fell in with nothing new ; they seem
indeed to have gone out of the way to avoid
the possibility of doing so, and to have crossed
the line solely to get into the track which
Anson had described. Many of the seamen
were down with scurvy, and Byron knew
that the Centurion's men had found refresh-
ment at Tinian ; so to Tinian he went, and,
after staying there for a couple of months,
pursued his way to Batavia, the Cape of
Good Hope, and so home. The Tamar was
sent to Antigua, her rudder having given
way ; but the Dolphin arrived in the Downs
on 9 May 1766, after a voyage of little more
than twenty-two months. 'No navigator
ever before encompassed the world in so
short a time,' is Beatson's questionable com-
mendation of what was primarily meant as
a voyage of exploration (Nav. and Mil. Mem.
vi. 458).
In January 1769 Byron was appointed
governor of Newfoundland, an office he held
for the next three years. On 31 March
1775 he was advanced to be rear-admiral,
and on 29 Jan. 1778 to be vice-admiral. A
few months later he was appointed to the
command of a squadron fitting out at Ply-
mouth for the North American station, or
nominally to intercept the Count d'Estaing,
who, with twelve ships of the line, had sailed
from Toulon on 13 April. The delays con-
sequent on maladministration prevented By-
ron sailing till 9 June, and even then his
ships were wretchedly equipped and badly
manned. The rigging was of second-hand
or even twice-laid rope, and the ships' com-
panies were largely made up of draughts
from the gaols. Under these circumstances
it is not surprising that the first bad weather
should have scattered the ships and dismasted
several, that gaol fever and scurvy should have
raged among the crews, and that the com-
ponents of the squadron should have singly
reached the American coast in such a state
that they must have fallen an easy prey to
any enterprising enemy. Fortunately D'Es-
taing retired from before Sandy Hook just in
time to leave the passage open to the first of
Byron's ships, on 30 July. Others arrived
later. Byron himself, in the Princess Royal,
made Halifax with difficulty, so did two
others ; one got to Newfoundland, one was
driven back to England, all were more or less
shattered, and all more or less disabled by the
sickness of their men. It was 26 Sept. before
the squadron was collected at Sandy Hook,
and it was not till 18 Oct. that it could put
to sea to look for the enemy It was imme-
diately overtaken by a tremendous storm,
which reduced the ships to their former con-
dition of helplessness. One was wrecked,
one was driven off the coast and had to
make for England, the others got to Rhode
Island and there refitted ; but it was 13 Dec.
before they were again ready for sea. The
delay had permitted D'Estaing to appear in
the West Indies with a strong force, and with
the first news of Byron's approach he sheltered
himself and his squadron under the guns of
Fort Royal of Martinique. For several months
the English, being in superior strength, kept
the French shut up in Martinique. In June
Byron went to St. Christopher's to see the
trade safely ofi' for England, and D'Estaing,
taking advantage of his absence, and having
been reinforced by ten ships of the line, went
south, and without difficulty, almost without
opposition, made himself master of Grenada,
brutally handing over the town to be pillaged
(BAEROW, Life of Lord Macartney, i. 62).
Byron had meanwhile returned to St. Lucia,
and having learned that D'Estaing had gone
to Grenada, at once followed to protect the
town, which he had believed able to hold out
for some time. He had no intelligence of
D'Estaing having received a considerable re-
inforcement, and took for granted that in
point of numbers his fleet was the stronger.
At daybreak on 6 July 1779 he was off Gre-
nada with twenty-one sail of the line and
a large number of transports carrying the
soldiers designed to co-operate with Lord
Macartney. As he advanced the French got
under way and stood out, and Byron, under
the idea that there were not more than six-
teen of them, made the signal for a general
chase, and to engage as they came up with
the enemy ; nor did he make any alteration
/]
Byron
163
Byron
in his orders when the French, having ex-
tended in line of battle, could be seen to
number twenty-five sail of the line instead
of sixteen. The attack was thus made in
a scrambling, disorderly manner, in which
several of the leading ships, being com-
paratively unsupported, were very roughly
handled. The English afterwards succeeded
in forming their line of battle parallel to the
French, and for a short time the action be-
came general ; but D'Estaing had no wish
to fight it out. He had got Grenada, and
the result of the first shock of the battle, by
disabling several of the English ships, seemed
sufficient to prevent any serious attempt at
its recapture. So the French wore and stood
back into the bay. That they had had the
best of the fighting, so far as it went, was
certain ; but their neglecting to push their
advantage and their hasty withdrawal left
them with no claim to victory. The solid
gain, however, remained with them, for Byron
found himself too weak to attempt to regain
the island, and with the greater part of his
shattered fleet went back to St. Christopher's.
He was lying there, in Basseterre Roads, on
22 July, when D'Estaing made his appearance.
The French fleet was more numerous by one-
fourth than the English ; but D'Estaing having
stood in within random gunshot, wore, stood
out again, and disappeared. After this there
seemed no immediate prospect of any further
operations, and Byron, being in a weakly
state of health, and suffering from ' a nervous
fever,' availed himself of a provisional per-
mission to return home, turning the command
over to Rear-admiral Parker. He arrived
in England on 10 Oct. 1779.
Byron was beyond question a brave man,
a good seaman, and an esteemed officer ; but
nature had not given him the qualifica-
tions necessary for a great discoverer, and the
peculiar service in which so much of his time
was passed gave him no experience in the con-
duct of fleets. It is very doubtful whether
he ever saw a fleet extended in line of battle
before he saw the French fleet on the morning
of 6 July 1779. Any knowledge which he
may have had of naval tactics was purely
theoretical, and when wanted in practice
lost itself, giving place to the untrained com-
bative instinct. That he was not thoroughly
beaten at Grenada was due to the incapacity
of his antagonist, and not to any skill on his
part. It is said that, after the peace, he was
offered the command in the Mediterranean,
but declined it. He had thus no further
employment, and died vice-admiral of the
white on 10 April 1786. A fine portrait
by Reynolds, painted in 1759, the property
of William Byron, was exhibited at the
Grrosvenor Gallery in the loan collection of
Reynolds's works, 1883-4.
He married in August 1748 Sophia, daugh-
ter of John Trevannion of Carhays in Corn-
wall, by whom he had two sons and seven
daughters, three of whom died in infancy.
Of the sons, the eldest, John, was father of
Lord Byron the poet ; the second, George
Anson, captain in the navy, while in com-
mand of the Andromache frigate, had the
honour of bringing to Sir George Rodney
intelligence of the sailing of the French fleet
from Martinique on 8 April 1782, and of
thus contributing to the decisive victory off
Dominica four days later.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 423 ; Ealfe's Nav.
Biog. i. 60 ; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs ;
Chevalier's Hist, de la Marine Fran$aise pendant
la Guerre de ITndependance Americaine.]
J. K. L.
BYRON, SIB THOMAS (d. 1644), com-
mander of the Prince of Wales's regiment
during the civil war, was fifth son of Sir
John Byron of Newstead, Nottinghamshire,
by Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Molineux
of Sefton, Lancashire, and brother of John,
first Lord Byron [q. v.] Clarendon, who
characterises him as a 'very valuable and
experienced officer,' states that the Prince
of Wales's regiment, ' the titular command
whereof was under the Earl of Cumberland,'
was ' conducted and governed ' by him (His-
on/(1849), App. 2, n. 5). Wood mentions
that a degree was conferred on him at Oxford
in 1642, but ' of what faculty ' he ' knows
not.' While in command of his regiment at
the battle of Hopton Heath, near Stafford,
19 March 1642-3, he was so severely wounded
by a shot in the thigh as to be compelled to
leave the field (CLARENDON, History, vi. 281).
' Sir Thomas Byron, at the head of the prince's
regiment, charging their foot, broke in among
them, but they having some troops of horse
near their foot fell upon him, and then he
received his hurt, bleeding so that he was not
able to stay on the field' (' The Battaile on
Hopton Heath'). On 7 Dec. 1643 he was
attacked in the street at Oxford by Captain
Hurst of his own regiment, owing to a dispute
about pay (DTJGDALE, Diary ; CARTE, Letters,
i. 27, Trevor tells the story to Ormonde).
Hurst was shot on 14 Dec. Byron died of the
wound on 5 Feb. 1643-4 (DTJGDALE, Diary).
He was buried on 9 Feb. 1643-4 in Christ
Church Cathedral, Oxford, ' on the left side of
the grave of Wm. Lord Grandison in a little
isle joyning on the south side of the choir '
(WooD, Fasti, ii. 42). By his wife Catherine,
daughter of Henry Braine, he had two sons,
who predeceased him. His wife was buried
in Westminster Abbey on 11 Feb. 1675-6.
M 2
Byrth
164
Bysshe
[Thoroton's Nottinghamshire (1797), ii. 284 ;
Collins's Peerage, ed. 1779, vii. 128-9 ; Wood's
Fasti (Bliss), ii. 42 ; Foster's Peerage of the
British Empire (1882), p. 106 ; information
kindly supplied by Mr. C. H. Firth.] T. F. H.
BYRTH, THOMAS, D.D. (1793-1849),
scholar and divine, was the son of John
Byrth, of Irish descent, who married Mary
Hobling, a member of an old Cornish family.
He was born at Plymouth Dock (now called
Devonport) on 11 Sept. 1793, and received
his early education in that town and at
Launceston, under Richard Cope, LL.D. For
five years (1809-14) he served his appren-
ticeship to the Cookworthys, well-known
chemists and druggists in the west of Eng-
land, and during that period started, with
other young men, the ' Plymouth Magazine,'
which expired with its sixth number on
19 Nov. 1814. After this he passed some
years as a schoolmaster, but in 1818 he
matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford.
Hitherto he had been in sympathy with the
Society of Friends, but on 21 Oct. 1819 he
was baptised into the church of England at
St. Andrew's Church, Plymouth. He took
his degrees of B.A. and M.A. in the spring
of 1826, and was ordained to the curacy of
Diptford, near Totnes, in April 1823, remain-
ing there until 1825. After that he was at
Oxford as a tutor, but this occupation ceased
in 1827, when he became the incumbent of
St. James, Latchford, near Warrington. In
1834 he was appointed to the more important
and more lucrative rectory of Wallasey in
Cheshire, where he died on Sunday night,
28 Oct. 1849, having preached two sermons
that day. Dr. Byrth he became B.D. on
17 Oct. 1839 and took his degree of D.D. two
days later was an evangelical in religion
and a whig in politics. His scholarship was
thorough, and he was possessed of poetic taste
and antiquarian enthusiasm. He published
many sermons and addresses, and was engaged
in controversy with the Rev. J. H. Thorn on
the Unitarian interpretation of the New Testa-
ment. In 1848 he edited the sermons of the
Rev. Thomas Tattershall, D.D., incumbent of
St. Augustine's Church, Liverpool, and pre-
fixed to them a memoir of the author. His
own ' Remains,' with a memoir by the Rev.
G. R. Moncreiff, were published in 1851, and
a sermon on his death, preached by the Rev.
John Tobin in St. John's Church, Liscard, on
4 Nov. 1849, was published in the same year.
He married on 19 June 1827 Mary Kingdom,
eldest daughter of Dr. Stewart, and after
Byrth's death a sum of 4,000/. was collected
for the widow and their seven children. She
died 20 Feb. 1879, aged 80 The west window
in the present Wallasey Church is filled with
stained glass in memory of Byrth.
[Memoir by Rev. G. E. Moncreiff; Gent. Mag.
(March 1850), p. 324 ; Ormerod's Cheshire (new
ed.), ii. 478.] W. P. C.
BYSSHE, SIB EDWARD (1615 P-
1679), Garter king of arms, the eldest son of
Edward Bysshe of Burstow, Surrey, a bar-
rister of Lincoln's Inn, by Mary, daughter
of John Tumor of Ham, in the parish of
Bletchingley in the same county, was born at
Smallfield, in the parish of Burstow, in or
about 1615. His ancestors were lords ol
the manors of Burstow and Home, and
some of them owners also of the manor of
Bysshe, or Bysshe Court, in Surrey. In 1633
he became a commoner of Trinity College,
Oxford, but before he took a degree he en-
tered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the
bar. He was elected M.P. for Bletchingley
to the parliament which met at Westmin-
ster on 3 Nov. 1640, and afterwards taking
the covenant, he was about 1643 made Garter
king of arms in the place of Sir John Borough,
who had followed the king to Oxford. On
20 Oct. 1646 votes were passed in the House
of Commons that Bysshe should be Garter
king of arms, and likewise Clarenceux king
of arms, that William Ryley should be Nor-
roy king of arms, and that a committee
should be appointed to regulate their fees
(WHITELOCKE, Memorials, 229). In 1654 he
was chosen burgess for Reigate, Surrey, to
serve in ' the little parliament ' which met
at Westminster on 3 Sept. 1654, and he was
returned as member for Gatton in the same
county to the parliament which assembled on
27 Jan. 1658-9.
After the Restoration he was obliged to
quit the office of Garter in favour of Sir Ed-
ward Walker, but with difficulty he obtained
a patent dated 10 March 1660-1 for the office
of Clarenceux king of arms. The latter office
was void by the lunacy of Sir William Le
Neve, and was given to Bysshe in considera-
tion of his having during the usurpation pre-
served the library of the College of Arms.
The appointment was made in spite of the
remonstrances of Sir Edward Walker, who
alleged that Bysshe had not only usurped,
but maladministered the office of Garter, and
that if he were created Clarenceux it would
be in his power to confirm the grants of
arms previously made by him (Addit. MS.
22883).
He received the honour of knighthood on
20 April 1661 (P. LE NEVE, Pedigrees of
the Knights, 135), and he was elected M.P.
for Bletchingley to the parliament which
met at Westminster on the 8th of the fol-
Bysshe
165
Bythner
lowing month. During that parliament,
which lasted seventeen years, he is said to
have become a pensioner, and to have re-
ceived 1001. every session. Wood, who speaks
very harshly of Bysshe, says that after obtain-
ing his knighthood ' he did nothing but de-
turpate, and so continued worse and worse
till his death,' which occurred in the parish
of St. Paul, Covent Garden, on 15 Dec. 1679.
He was obscurely buried late at night in
the church of St. Olave, Jewry. He mar-
ried Margaret, daughter of John Green of
Boyshall, Essex, serjeant-at-law. She sur-
vived him. He edited: 1. ' Nicolai Vptoni
de Studio Militari Libri Quatuor. lohan. de
Bado Aureo Tractatus de Armis. Henrici
Spelmanni Aspilogia. Edoardus Bissseus e
Codicibus MSS. primus public! juris fecit,
notisque illustravit,' Lond. 1654, fol. Dedi-
cated to John Selden. The notes, originally
written in English by Bysshe, were trans-
lated into Latin by David Whitford, an
ejected student of Christ Church, Oxford.
2. ' Palladius, de Gentibus Indiae et Brag-
manibus. S. Ambrosius, de Moribus Brach-
manorum. Anonymus, de Bragmanibus,'
Lond. 1665, 4to. In Greek and Latin. Dedi-
cated to Lord-chancellor Clarendon. At one
time he contemplated writing the ' Survey or
Antiquities of the County of Surrey,' but the
work never appeared. Even Wood is con-
strained to admit that Bysshe was during
the Commonwealth period a 'great encourager
of learning and learned men,' and that^ he
understood arms and armoury very well,
though he ' could never endure to take pains
in genealogies.' A modern and less preju-
diced writer remarks that the praise of being
a profound critic in the science of heraldry
cannot justly be denied him. He is more
learned and more perspicuous than his pre-
decessors, and was the first who treated the
subject as an antiquary and historian, en-
deavouring to divest it of extraneous matter
(DALLAWAY, Science of Heraldry in England,
342).
[Berry's Sussex Genealogies, 199; Brayley's
Surrey, iv. 295, 296 ; Publications of the Kar-
leian Soc. viii. 135 ; Manning and Bray's Surrey,
i. 292, ii. 285, 318, 319; Harl. MS. 813, art. 40;
Addit. MSS. 22883, 26669,26758, f. 13 b- Lansd.
MS. 255, ff. 55, 58 ; Moule's Bibl. Heraldica ;
Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 612 ; Noble's College of
Arms, 236, 239, 248, 260, 261, 264, 280; Lists
of Members of Parliament (official return), i.
502, 510, 529 ; Surrey Archaeological Collections,
iii. 381 ; Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria, iii. 236,
250, 266, 293; Wood's Athense Oxon. (Bliss), iii.
1218.] ' T. C.
BYSSHE, EDWARD Q0. 1712), miscel-
laneous writer, describes himself as 'gent.
on the title-pages of his books. He probably
belonged to the Surrey family of the name
[see BYSSHE, SIB EDWARD], but all that is
positively known about him is that he sought
a livelihood as a literary hack in London. In
1702 appeared the book by which he is re-
membered. Its title runs : ' The Art of Eng-
lish Poetry : containing I. Rules for Making
Verses. II. A Dictionary of Rhymes. III. A
collection of the most Natural, Agreeable,
and Noble Thoughts, viz. Allusions, Similes,
Descriptions, and Characters of Persons and
Things : that are to be found in the best
English Poets.' Bysshe addresses his dedi-
cation to ' Edmund Dunch, Esq., of Little
Wittenham in Berkshire.' The first part of
the volume is a business-like treatise on the
laws of English prosody, with illustrations
which prove Bysshe to have been an enthu-
siastic admirer of Dryden. The work was
extraordinarily popular ; a fifth edition was
issued in 1714; a seventh, 'corrected and
enlarged,' in 1724 ; an eighth is dated 1737.
In 1714 the second and third parts were
published separately under the title of ' The
British Parnassus ; or a compleat Common
Place-book of English Poetry ' (2 vols.), and
this was reissued in 1718 with a new title-
page ('The Art of English Poetry, vols. the
iii d and iv th '). Thomas Hood the younger
reprinted Bysshe's ' Rules ' as an appendix
to his ' Practical Guide to English Versifi-
cation ' in 1877. Bysshe also edited in 1712
Sir Richard Bulstrode's 'Letters,' with a
biographical introduction and a dedication
addressed to George, lord Cardigan. In the
same year there appeared a translation by
Bysshe of Xenophon's ' Memorabilia,' which
was dedicated to Lord Ashburnham from
' London, 24 Nov. 1711,' and was reissued in
1758.
[Bysshe's Works.] S. L. L.
BYTHNER, VICTORINUS (1605 P-
1670 ?), Hebrew grammarian, was a native
of Poland. He became a member of the
university of Oxford about 1635, and lec-
tured on the Hebrew language in the great
refectory at Christ Church until the out-
break of the civil war. When Charles I
fixed the headquarters of his army at Oxford
in 1643, Bythner removed to Cambridge.
He afterwards lived in London, but in 1651
we find him again professor of Hebrew at
Oxford. About 1664 he retired into Corn-
wall, and there practised medicine. The
date of his death is unknown. Bythner's
grammatical works, though written in curi-
ously faulty Latin, are models of lucid and
compact arrangement, and continued long in
use. His Hebrew grammar, published in
Cabanel
166
Cabot
1638 under the title ' Lingua Eruditorum,'
was several times reprinted. An edition of
this work was published by Dr. Hessey in
1 853, accompanied by the author's ' Insti-
tutio Chaldaica ' (first printed in 1650). Of
Bythner's other writings, the most important
is his ' Lyra Prophetica Davidis Regis ' (Lon-
don, 1650), which is a grammatical analysis
of every word in the Hebrew psalter. An
English translation of this book, by T. Dee,
was published in 1836, and a second edition
of this translation appeared in 1847.
[Wood's Athenae Oxon., ed. Bliss, iii. 675 ; MS.
Egerton 1324, f. 106.] H. B.
c
CABANEL, RUDOLPH (1762-1839),
architect, was born at Aix-la-Chapelle in
1762. He came to England early in life, and
settled in London, where he was employed
in the construction of several theatres. He
designed the arrangements of the stage of
old Drury Lane Theatre, the Royal Circus,
afterwards called the Surrey Theatre, 1805
(burnt down 30-1 Jan. 1865), and the Co-
bourg Theatre, 1818. He was the inventor of
the roof known by his name, besides a number
of machines, &c. He died in Mount Gardens,
Lambeth, on 5 Feb. 1839.
[Redgrave's Diet, of Artists; Gent. Mag.
(1839), i. 329.] C. M.
CABBELL, BENJAMIN BOND (1781-
1874), patron of art, fourth son of George
Cabbell, apothecary, of 17 Wigmore Street,
London, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Bliss,
astronomer royal, was born in Vere Street,
London, in 1781, educated at Westminster
School, and matriculated from Oriel College,
Oxford, 19 June 1800, 'aged 17;' thence
he migrated to Exeter College on 25 Feb.
1801, but left the university in 1803 without
a degree. He was called to the bar, at the
Middle Temple, 9 Feb. 1816, when he went
the Western and Somerset circuits. In 1850
he became a bencher of his inn. On 11 Aug.
1846 he entered parliament, in the conserva-
tive interest, as member for St. Albans, and
in the following year, on 11 July, was re-
turned for Boston, which he represented till
21 March 1857. He was a staunch sup-
porter of protestant principles, and was in
favour of very great alterations in the then
existing poor laws ; he opposed the grant to
Maynooth, and, according to Dod's 'Parlia-
mentary Companion,' ' was anxious to pro-
mote the improvement of the social, moral,
and mental condition of the industrious
classes.'
Cabbell was elected a fellow of the Royal
Society 19 Jan. 1837, was a magistrate for Nor-
folk, Middlesex, and Westminster, and served
as high sheriff for the first-named county in
1854. He was president of the City of Lon-
don General Pension Society, a vice-president
of the Royal Literary Fund, treasurer to the
Lock Hospital, and sub-treasurer to the Infant
Orphan Asylum. He was also a zealous and
influential mason, being a trustee of the
Royal Masonic Institution, and provincial
and master of the freemasons of Norfolk.
is country residence was at Cromer Hall,
Norfolk, and to Cromer and its neighbour-
hood he was a munificent benefactor, having
defrayed the cost of building a lifeboat for
the town, besides presenting a considerable
piece of land for the purposes of a cemetery.
He was widely known as an art patron.
He became a member of the Artists' Benevo-
lent Fund, 1824, aided in obtaining a charter
of incorporation for the society in 1827, and
contributed 20/. towards the preliminary
expenses. He died at 39 Chapel Street,
Marylebone Road, London, 9 Dec. 1874, in
his 94th year.
[Solicitor's Journal, 19 Dec. 1874, p. 128 ; Law
Times, 19 Dec. 1874, p. 124 ; Pye's Patronage of
British Art, 1845, pp. 358, 365, with portrait ;
Times, 11 Dec. 1874, p. 10.] G. C. B.
CABOT, SEBASTIAN (1474-1557), cos-
mographer and cartographer, was the second
son of John Cabot, a Venetian pilot, who
afterwards settled in Bristol as a merchant,
probably as early as 1472, and who, after
having made discoveries on the east coast of
North America, assisted by his sons Sebastian,
Lewes, and Sancto, is supposed to have died
in Bristol about 1498.
Sebastian Cabot has recently been described
as the ' Sphinx of North American history
for over three hundred years ' (WiNSOR, iii.
32). A confusion between himself and his
father on the part of many of his recent bio-
graphers has been the main cause of their
perplexity. This error can be avoided by a
cautious use of the materials found in the
pages of Peter Martyr (Anglerius), Ramusio,
Eden, and Hakluyt, checked by comparisons
with the letters patent granted by Henry VH
to the elder Cabot and his sons, 1496-8.
Recent writers have injudiciously rejected
the old tradition that referred Sebastian
Cabot's birthplace to Bristol in favour of a
Cabot
167
Cabot
comparatively new but suspicious story which
removes it to Venice. One of the dreams
of Sebastian's life, inherited from his father
was the finding of ' a new passage ' to Cathay
or Tanais, perhaps Tainsu, by the north o:
north-east (WEISE, p. 193). At the age o
forty-eight years or thereabout, having re-
ceived no encouragement in Spain, Sebastian
endeavoured to secure the attention of Gaspar
Contarini, the Venetian ambassador, whom
he met at Valladolid in 1522, in order that
the scheme should be brought before the
council of ten in Venice. If we are to be-
lieve the ambassador, Cabot at a secret in-
terview by night endeavoured to gain his ear
by saying, ' Signer ambassator, per dirve i]
tuto io naqui a Venetia, ma sum nutrito in In-
gelterra ' (HARRISSE, p. 348). Assuming Con-
tarini's report to be correct, Cabot's motive for
ingratiating himself is so obvious that the
interview must be regarded as a mere display
of diplomatic finesse. Although negotiations
were reopened as late as 12 Sept. 1551, Cabot
never ventured to Venice in the interval of
twenty-nine years to substantiate his claims
as a citizen or his statements. In short, it
is now shown and admitted by his latest
biographer * that all the alleged facts were
used as a pretext and a blind was on both
sides avowed' (WrxsOR, iii. 31). The old
tradition is in favour of Bristol, which Cabot
had no motive for claiming falsely. Eden,
the old friend of Cabot, while translating
fol. 404 of vol. i. of G. B. Ramusio's < II
Navigatione ' of 1550 for his own ' Decades '
in 1555, two years before Cabot's death, went
out of his way to refute a similar story to
Contarini's which he found in his text. In
a marginal note Eden writes : ' Sebastian
Cabot tould methathewas borne in Bry stowe,
and that at iiii. yeare owld he was carried
with his father to Venice, and so returned
agayne into England with his father after
certayne yeares, wherby he was thought to
have bin born in Venice ' (fol. 255).
There are two interesting accounts of Sebas-
tian Cabot's early years which read as follows :
1. ' Sebastian Cabote, a Venetian borne, whom
beingyet but in maner an infante,his parentes
caryed with them into England, havying
occasion to resort thither for trade of mar-
chandies, as is the maner of the Venetians
too leave no parte of the worlde vnsearched
to obteyne richesse ' (PETER MARTYR (ANGLE-
RITJS), 3 Dec. bk. vi. Eden's trans, fol. 118).
2. ' When my father departed from Venice
many yeares since to dwell in Englande to
follow the trade of marchaundies, he took me
with him to the citie of London whyle I
was very yong, yet having neverthelesse sum
knowledge of letters of humanitie and of the
sphere' (RAMtrsio, Eden's trans, fol. 255)
A glance at the movements of John Cabot
in Spain and Italy after 1476 serves to show
that these two accounts refer to the last
journey of his parents (about 1493) from
Venice to Bristol via London while Se-
bastian was a minor in his eighteenth year
(cf. Fox BOURNE, i. 28).
Early in 1496 we find the name of Sebas-
tian Cabot associated with those of his father
and two brothers in the following petition
to Henry VII : ' Please it your highness of
your moste noble and haboundant Grace to
grant unto John Cabotto, citezen of Venes,
Lewes, Sebastyan, and Sancto, his sonneys,
your gracious letteres patentes . . . according
to the tenour hereafter ensuyng,' which was
to commission them to sail for the discovery
of islands, countries, &c., which were then
unknown to all Christians. These letters
patent were granted on 5 March 1496.
With this commission John Cabot and his
sons set sail from Bristol in the spring of
the following year with two ships, one of
which was named the Matthew, which re-
sulted in the discovery of the new-found
lands of Cape Breton Island and Nova
Scotia on St. John's day 1497. On 3 Feb.
1498 letters patent were granted, in the name
of John Cabot only, for a second expedition
to the field of his first discoveries ; the fleet
of five ships set sail early in the summer
and was expected to return towards Septem-
ber. According to Raimondo di Soncino,
who wrote on 18 Dec. 1497, these discoveries
were recorded by John Cabot on a map, and
also on a globe, which are now lost (WEISE,
p. 192). Nothing is known of the termination
of this second voyage, and from this period
the history of John Cabot ceases.
It is much to be feared, from the am-
biguous and often contradictory accounts of
the voyages of 1497 to 1499 in contemporary
chronicles, that nearly if not all the dis-
coveries that are usually assigned to Sebas-
tian Cabot are really those of his father.
According to Stow (p. 862) Sebastian (?)
Dabot ' made a voyage with two ships in the
14th yeare of Henry VII,' or 1499. If this
s the voyage referred to by Peter Martyr
^EDEN, p. 119), Lopez de Gomara (ib, 318),
and Galvano, he, or more probably his father,
must have sailed along the coast of Labrador
almost up to latitude 60 north and have re-
urned along the coast of Baccalos, or New-
bundland, thence almost out of sight of
and down to latitude 30, whence he steered
or England. The descriptions of the regions
sxplored apply to no portion of the United
States, but only to the coasts of Cape Breton
sland and Nova Scotia, as laid down upon
Cabot
168
Cabot
the famous map of 1544 noticed below (cf.
WEISE, p. 202). Of the nature of these
discoveries nothing is known. There were
other expeditions to Newfoundland set forth
by the Bristol merchants Nicholas Thorn the
elder and Eliot, assisted by Portuguese, from
1501 to 1505, but there is no evidence that
Sebastian Cabot was in any way connected
with them ; on the contrary, according to a
contemporary manuscript hitherto unnoticed
by Cabot's biographers, ' Sebastyan . . . was
never in that land [i.e. Newfoundland] him-
self, and made report of many things only
as he heard his father and other men speke
in times past ' (HERBERT, i. 411). We hear
nothing more of him for the next dozen
years, during which period he was doubtless
well employed in the study of the accounts
of the discoveries of Columbus and his fol-
lowers. His fame as a cartographer had
already attracted the notice of Henry VIII,
for we read in the king's exchequer accounts
in May 1512: 'Paid Sebastian Tabot (sic
Cabot), making of a carde of Gascoigne and
Guyon (Guienne), 20s.' (Brit. Mm. AM.
MS. 21481). Feeling, however, dissatisfied
at the want of encouragement from the king,
at the instance of Lord Willoughby he went
to Spain in the following autumn, and en^
tered the service of King Ferdinand the
Catholic as cartographer, and a member of
the council of the New Indies, with the rank
of captain, at a yearly salary of 50,000 mara-
vedis. He was ordered to remain in Seville
in readiness for any work that might be
assigned to him. Before the close of the year
he married Catalina Medrano, evidently a
Spaniard (NAVARRETE, ii. 698). On 18 Nov.
1515 Cabot figures as one of the cosmogra-
phers who met to define the rights of the
Spanish crown to the Moluccas (ib. iii. 319).
About this period he was directed to prepare
for a voyage of discovery towards the north-
west. According to Peter Martyr, 'this
voyage ' was ' appointed to bee begunne in
March in the yeare next followynge, being
the yeare of Chryst, 1516' (EDEN, p. 119).
But this and other projects were frustrated
by the death of Ferdinand on 23 Jan. pre-
vious, and by the jealous conduct of Cardinal
Ximenes as regent, which led to Cabot's re-
turn to England towards the end of the
year (Fox BOTTRKE, i. 42).
This brings us to the well-known story
of the disputed voyage of Cabot with Sir
Thomas Perte about the year 1517. The
sole authority for this voyage is Eden, in his
'Treatyse of Newe India. In the dedication
he writes : ' Kyng Henry the VTII about the
same yere of his raygne, furnished and sent
forth certen shippes under the gouernance
of Sebastian Cabot, yet living (1553), and
one Syr Thomas Perte, whose faynt heart
was the cause that that viage took none
iffect.' Hakluyt in 1589, in his eagerness to
:onfirm Eden's story, had the misfortune,
through a printer's error in ' Ramusio ' (iii.
204), to associate it with an incident in a
voyage now known to be that of John Rut
(Rotz ?), correctly recorded in Oviedo's earlier
work of 1535 (cap. xiii. fol. 161) under its true
date of 1527. Hence the confusion, which
has led not only to the rejection of Eden's
story, but also of Cabot's own statement that
he was in England in 1517 or thereabouts.
In Contarini's despatch quoted above, Cabot,
on the Christmas eve of 1522, is reported to
have said, ' Now it so happened that when in
England some three years ago, unless I err,
Cardinal Wolsey offered me high terms if I
would sail with an armada of his on a voy-
age of discovery; the vessels were almost
ready, and they had got together 30,000
ducats for their outfit.' Observing that he
could not do so without the emperor's leave,
he adds : ' I wrote to the emperor by no
means to give me leave to serve the King of
England . . . and that on the contrary he
should recall me forthwith ' (Miscell. Philo-
-biblon Soc. ii. 15). Although Cabot may
have exaggerated the purport of a chance
conversation with Wolsey, there can be no
reasonable doubt that he was in England
probably tiU the close of 1519. That he
knew Perte is also probable, as the latter
was of an old Bristol family (cf. Brit. Mus.
Add. MS. 29866). A careful review of all
the known facts relating to this much-dis-
puted voyage serves to show that it is highly
probable that Henry VIII, through Wolsey,
took advantage of Cabot's temporary stay in
England at this period to request him to
organise a small ^pedition, which ' tooke
none effect,' or perhaps did not even leave
our shores, either through the timidity or
jealousy of Perte, who at this period was a
yeoman of the crown and overseer of ballast-
ing ships in the Thames (BREWER, vol. ii.
pt. ii. p. 110, and NORDEN, p. 39). A second
visit by Cabot, and a second failure of a voy-
age in 1519,as suggested by Harrisse (p. 116),
evidently refer to the same story. On 6 May
1519 Cabot was appointed pilot-major to
Charles V when he returned to Spain. From
this period up to the time of his interview
with Contarini in 1522 he appears to have
been employed in making researches in refe-
rence to the variation of the needle first ob-
served by Columbus. In the spring of 1524
he attended the conference of Bada^os as an
expert on behalf of the emperor, which ter-
minated in assigning the Moluccas to Spain,
Cabot
169
Cabot
and Brazil to Portugal. In April 1526 he
was appointed to the command of an expe-
dition to Brazil. He visited the river and
adjoining district of La Plata, and founded
a fort at San Salvador, spending nearly four
years in attempting to lay the foundations
of the Spanish conquest of South America.
The attempt was such a failure, that on his
return to Spain in August 1530 he was im-
prisoned for nearly a year, and afterwards
condemned by the council of the Indies to
two years' banishment to Oran in Africa for
mismanagement and excesses committed
during the course of the expedition. He,
however, returned to Seville in June 1533,
and was soon reinstated in his former posi-
tion. As remarked by Oviedo, Cabot was
' a good person, and skilful in his office of
cosmography, and making a map of the
whole world in plane or in a spherical form,
but it is not the same thing to command and
govern people as to point a quadrant or an
astrolabe' (ii. 169). For the next eleven
years his duties as examiner of pilots in the
Contractation House at Seville were varied
by several voyages too unimportant to dwell
upon (EDEN, p. 256), and in compiling mate-
rials for his famous mappemonde. The ori-
ginal of this famous map was drawn on
parchment, and illuminated with gold and
colours. The last that was heard of the
manuscript was the sale of it at the decease
of Juan de Ovando, president of the Council
of the Indies, in September 1575. Another
draft of it was afterwards engraved, appar-
ently in three different states ; the first in
1544 ; the second edition, dated 1549, and
seen by Nicholas Chytraeus (Kochhoff) in
1566 ; a third one, ' cut by Clement Adams
[q. v.], which in his day was to be seen in
the privie gallery at Westminster, and in
many other ancient merchants' houses.' Of
these the only one preserved to us is the
unique example which was discovered in
Germany in 1844, and which is now so distin-
guished an exhibit in the Galerie de Gogra-
phie of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
It is projected in piano on an ellipse with a
longitudinal axis of 39 inches, and a parallel
axis of 44 inches, engraved and coloured.
It bears the following inscription : ' Sebas-
tian Caboto capitan, y piloto mayor de la
S.c.c. m. del Imperador don Carlos quinto . . .
hizo esta figura extensa en piano, anno de
. . . J.C. 1544.' There are legends on the
map both in Latin and Spanish, the latter
being corrupted at the hands of a Fleming.
It was probably printed at Antwerp, the
great centre of the production of geographi-
cal works at this period. It embodies not
only Cabot's discoveries in South America,
and those of his father in North America,
but also those of the Portuguese and
Spaniards down to his day. It served as
the model for all the general maps of the
world afterwards published in Italy, and also
for the well-known ' Typus orbis terrarum '
by Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp, so often
reproduced by Hakluyt and others down to
the end of the sixteenth century. Cabot's
last official act as pilot-major to Charles V
was the exercise of his censorship upon
Pedro Medina's ' Arte de Nauegar,' Vallado-
lid, 1544, fol.
Shortly after the death of Henry VIII
(28 Jan. 1547), Cabot received tempting offers
from friends in England to transfer his ser-
vices to the country of his birth. That no
time was lost in accepting them is proved by
the following minute of the privy council of
Edward VI under date of 9 Oct. 1547 : < Mr.
Peckham had warrant for 100 li for the
transporting of one Shabot (sz'c), a pilot, to
come out of Hispain to serve and inhabit in
England.' According to Strype (n. i. 296),
he once more settled in his native town, Bris-
tol. In the following January he was awarded
a pension of 166/. 13s. 4d. by the year during
his life (RxMEE, xv. 181). No sooner had
this news reached the ears of the Emperor
Charles at Brussels, than he somewhat im-
periously, through the English ambassador
there, conveyed to the privy council in Eng-
land his desire that ' Sebastian, grand pilot
of the emperor's Indies, then in England, be
sent over to Spain as a very necessary man
for the emperor, whose servant he was, and
had a pension of him ' (STETPE, loc. cit.) On
21 April 1550 the privy council in England
replied, ' that as for Sebastian Cabot, he of
himself refused to go either into Spain or to
the emperor, and that he being of that mind,
and the King of England's subject, no reason
or equity would that he should be forced or
compelled to go against his will ' (Harl. MS.
523, fol. 6). This application was renewed
in the reign of Queen Mary on 9 Sept. 1553,
but without result. Hakluyt records (iii.
pref.) that King Edward, in addition to his
pension, advanced him to be grand pilot of
England. This, however, is an error, as no
mention is made of it in either of the three
patents relating to his pension. This hono-
rary office was first created for Stephen
Borough [q. v.] in 1563. Important work
was soon found for Cabot, in addition to
a general supervision of the maritime af-
fairs of the country. He was called upon to
settle the long growing disputes that had
almost reached their height between the mer-
chants of the steelyard, a colony of German
traders of the Hanseatic League, and the mer-
Cabot
170
Cabot
chants of London, who for a long period had
suffered from the monopolies exercised by
the former. For his good offices on this
occasion Cabot was awarded by the crown
in March 1551 a further gratuity of 200/.
(STRYPE, u. ii. 76).
This brings us to the crowning work of
Cabot's career. He was not the discoverer
of North America an honour never claimed
for him by his contemporaries or the chronicles
of the sixteenth century but he was the first
governor of the Merchant Adventurers, and
founder of a new era in the history of com-
merce and British merchant shipping. Hav-
ing brought to so successful an issue the
steelyard grievances, Cabot's further advice
was sought by ' certain grave citizens of Lon-
don ' for the removal of the great stagnation
in trade resulting from the disturbed and
warlike state of the continent. ' After much
speech and conference together,' the mer-
chants were induced by him to make an effort
' for the searche and discoverie of the northern
part of the world by sea to open a way and
passage to Cathay by the North-East.' Cabot's
advice was adopted, and the Company of
Merchant Adventurers was formed and in-
corporated on 18 Dec. 1551, with Cabot as
governor for life. In May 1553 a fleet of three
vessels was prepared, and set forth under the
supervision of Cabot, with Sir H. Willoughby
for admiral, and R. Chancellor for chief pilot.
The first results of this expedition were the
accidental discovery of Russia by the latter
in the following August, and the opening up
five years later by Ant. Jenkinson of the first
English trade across the Caspian Sea to Cen-
tral Asia. Although Cabot's pension had been
renewed to him by Queen Mary on 27 Nov.
1555, the tide in Cabot's affairs appears to have
reached its height in the latest sketch of him
afforded us in the account of the setting forth
of the Searchthrift in the adventurers' third
voyage to Russia in May 1556. Stephen
Borough writes : ' The good old gentleman,
Master Cabot, accompanied with divers gen-
tlemen and gentlewomen,' went to Gravesend
to inspect the ship previous to its departure.
' Master Cabot,' adds Borough, ' gave to the
poor most liberal alms, wishing them to pray
for the good fortune and prosperous success
of the Searchthrift ; and then, a,t the sign of
the Christopher, he and his friends ban-
queted, and made me and them that were in
the company great cheer; and, for very joy
that he had to see the towardness of our in-
tended discovery, he entered into the dance
himself among the rest of the young and
lusty company ; which being ended, he and
his friends departed, most gently commend-
ing us to the governance of Almighty God '
(HAKLTJYT, i. 274). Within a week of King
Philip's entry into London on 27 May 1557,
Cabot was called upon to resign his pension,
only to be allowed to share it two days later
with William Worthington, perhaps out of
royal spite for withdrawing himself from the
service of Spain. Concerning the date and
place of Cabot's death we have no informa-
tion, but there is evidence of a negative
character from which it may safely be in-
ferred that he was already dead soon after
the middle of 1557. The only account of
Cabot's death on record is by his friend Eden,
who writes : ' Sebastian Cabot, on his death-
bed, told me that he had the knowledge [of
the art of finding longitude] by divine reve-
lation, yet so that he myght not teach any
man. But I think that the goode olde man,
in that extreme age, somewhat doted, and
had not yet, even in the article of death,
vtterly shaken of (sic) all worldly vayne
glorie ' (J. TAISNTERTJS, Book concerning Na-
vigation. Translated by R. Eden, London, t
n. d. circa 1574).
With the exception of the engraved map of
1544 and its facsimile, natural size, executed
by M. Jomard, no literary relics of Cabot are
extant. All that Bristol has to show as a relic
is what is known as the Dun Cow, the rib of a
cow whale preserved in the western entrance
of St. Mary Redclifie Church, supposed to
have been placed there in 1497 as a trophy of
Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland (ARROW-
SMITH, pp. 100, 255). A street near the church
is still known as Cathay. There was formerly
a portrait of Cabot in the time of James I in
the king's private gallery at Whitehall. This,
or another copy of it, was discovered in Scot-
land in 1792 by Mr. C. J. Harford of Bristol,
who purchased it some years later. It was
afterwards purchased by Mr. R. Biddle, the
author of the memoir of Cabot, but was de-
stroyed by fire with his mansion at Pitts-
burg in 1845. It bore the following inscrip-
tion : ' Effigies Sebastiani Caboti filii Johanis
Caboti Veneti, militis aurati primi invetoris
Terrse Novse sub Henrico VII, Anglise Rege.'
An engraving of it was made for Seyers's
' Memoirs ' (ii. 208). Cabot is here repre-
sented with a pair of compasses and a globe,
dressed in his fur robe and gold chain, be-
lieved to be his official dress as governor of
the Merchant Adventurers. To this day, in
the Saba della Scudo in the ducal palace
(Venice), there is a full-length portrait of
Sebastian Cabot, copied (in the year 1763)
apparently from a picture attributed to Hol-
bein. It bears an additional inscription as
follows : ' Henricus VII Anglise Rex Joannem
Cabotam et Sebastianum Filium . . . Hac
spe amissa eo tamen navigatore Terra nova
Caddick
171
Cade
detecta et Florida promontorium ' (Philo-
biblon Soc. Miscell. ii. 25).
[Arber's First Three English Books on Ame-
rica, 1885; Arrowsmith and Spear's Dictionary
of Bristol, 1884; Biddle's Memoir of Sebastian
Cabot, 1831 ; Bourne's English Seamen under
the Tudors, 1868; Brewer's Letters and Papers
of Henry VIII, 1870; Eden's Treatyse of Newe
India, 1553; Eden's Decades of the Newe
Worlde, 1555 (see also Taisnier infra); Hakluyt's
Voyages and Navigations, 1599-1600 ; Harrisse's
Jean et Sebastien Cabot, Paris, 1882 ; Herbert's
Twelve Livery Companies of London, 1837; Jo-
mard's Les Monuments de la Geographic, Paris,
1842, No. xx. ; Navarrete's Biblioteca Maritima
Espaiiola, Madrid, 1851 ; Nicholls's Remarkable
Life of Sebastian Cabot, 1869; Norden's Specu-
lum Britannise, Middlesex, 1593; Oviedo's His-
toria General de Indias, Seville, 1535; Kamu-
sio's Navigation!, vol. i. Venice, 1550 ; Rymer's
Fcedera, 1741, vol. xv. ; Seyers's Memoires of
Bristol, 1821-3; Stevens's Sebastian Cabot-
John Cabot = ! Boston, 1870 ; Strype's Eccles.
Mem. Oxford, 1822; Taisnier's Book concerning
Navigation, trans, by Eden, n.d. (circa 1574);
Weise's Discoveries of America to 1525, New
York, 1884 ; Winsor's Narrative and Critical
History of America, vols. ii. iii. iv. Boston, 1885;
Major, in Archseologia, vol. xliii. 1870; Notes
and Queries, 2nd ser. v. 1, 154, 193, 263, 285,
3rd ser. i. 48, 125, 366, 5th/ser. iii. 468, iv. 54,
v. 405 ; Penny Cyclopaedia ; Twiss, in Nautical
Mag. vol. xlv. 1876 ; Cheney, in Philobiblon Soc.
Miscellanies, vol. ii. 1856 ; Brit. Mus. Add. MSS.
21481, 29866, Harl. 525. For a few additional
French and Italian authorities cf. Harrisse, pp.
369, 375.] C. H. C.
CADDICK, RICHARD, D.D. (1740-
1819), Hebraist, was educated at Christ
Church College, Oxford, and took the degree
of B.A. on 5 June 1776, and that of MA.
on 20 June 1799. In the latter year he pub-
lished a small Hebrew grammar, which is
very inaccurate and inconveniently arranged.
From an advertisement prefixed to this vo-
lume, it appears that he had previously is-
sued an edition of the gospels in Hebrew.
In 1799-1800 he published an edition of the
Hebrew New Testament, in 3 vols. This
was a corrected reprint of the translation
published by G. Robertson in 1641, which
is substantially identical with Hutter's ver-
sion of 1599. Caddick's edition was issued
simultaneously in two forms, viz. separately,
and interleaved with the authorised English
translation. In 1805 it was reprinted, inter-
leaved with the Greek and the Latin Vulgate
texts as well as the English. In 1802 Cad-
dick published three sermons, the titles of
which are 'True Christianity,' 'Peace the
Christian's Happiness,' and 'Counsel for
Christians.' In 1805 he issued proposals for
printing by subscription a Hebrew and Eng-
lish edition of the Book of Common Prayer,
an annotated edition of the Old and New
Testaments in Hebrew and English, and ' A
Volume of Sermons preached in the Parish
Churches in and about the Cities of London
and Westminster from 1780 to 1804.' It
does not appear, however, that any of these
works were actually published. During the
last forty years of his life he resided in or
near London in Whitehall, at Islington, and
at Fulham, where he died on 30 May 1819.
The obituary in the ' Gentleman's Magazine '
gives him the title of D.D., hut he did not
obtain this degree either from his own uni-
versity or from that of Cambridge.
[Gent. Mag. Ixxxix. pt. i. 587, 655 ; List of
Graduates of Oxford University.] H. B.
CADE, JOHN (d. 1450), rebel, commonly
called Jack Cade, was an Irishman by birth,
and is spoken of as a young man at the time
of his rebellion ; but nothing is known of his
personal history till a year before that date.
He was then living in the household of Sir
Thomas Dacre in Sussex, but was obliged
suddenly to leave it and abjure the realm
for the murder of a woman who was with
child. He fled to France and served for a
short time in the war against England, but
within a few months ventured to return, and
apparently settled in Kent, taking the name
of Ay liner to conceal his identity, and giving
himself out as a physician. In this cha-
racter he gained so much credit as to marry
a squire's daughter, ' of Taundede,' which may
perhaps be Tandridge, in Surrey ; and the
next thing we know of him is that in 1450,
' gaily beseen in scarlet,' he became leader
of the commons in Kent when they rose in
rebellion against the extortions practised by
the king's officers.
Recent researches have shown that this
rebellion was a much more formidable thing
than older historians lead us to suppose. It
was by no means an outbreak of ' the filth
and scum of Kent.' No nobleman, indeed,
appears openly to have taken part in it, and
only one knight ; but apparently the greater
part of the gentry, with the mayors of towns
and the constables of the different hundreds,
rose along with the rebels. The men were
summoned as if by lawful authority, and in
many districts it is clear that all who were
capable of bearing arms joined in the move-
ment. It was not a democratic rising. Ac-
cording to Fabyan the people chose a captain
to whom they gave the name of Mortimer,
and professed to consider him as the cousin
of the Duke of York ; ' but of most,' says
the chronicler, 'he was named Jack Cade.'
Cade
172
Cade
Gascoigne, another writer of that age, says
he was descended from Roger Mortimer, a
bastard (Loti e Libra Veritatum, p. 190). It
is, however, by no means certain that Cade
was the captain originally chosen ; for one
contemporary authority recently brought to
light distinctly says that he was not (GRE-
GORY, Collections of a London Citizen, p. 191,
Camden Soc.) In any case it is clear that
the ringleaders desired to give the movement
the appearance of being supported by men
of distinguished birth, and to suggest that
their captain was connected with the family
of the Duke of York. It is, moreover, ad-
mitted by the chroniclers that the captain
chosen performed his part so far well that he
established good discipline, and, as it is said,
' kept the people wondrously together.' This
we should scarcely expect of an audacious
adventurer such as we have described, and
as a matter of fact Cade certainly did not
do so after he entered London. So that we
are the more inclined to believe that the
original leader disappeared before the insur-
gents reached the capital, and that the cool
audacity of Cade served the purpose of the
other leaders well in concealing his defection
or loss.
The rebellion first broke out about Whit-
suntide in the latter part of May. The rebels
encamped upon Blackheath on 1 June, where
they 'made a field diked and staked well
about, as it had been in the land of war.'
The king (Henry VI) suddenly dissolved
parliament, which had been holding its sit-
tings before him at Leicester, and came to
London on the 6th. He sent a deputation of
lords, spiritual and temporal, to know the
demands of the rebels, who replied by their
captain that they desired the removal of cer-
tain traitors who had too much influence in
his council. On this orders were sent that
every loyal man should avoid the field, and
the king prepared to march against them in
person. The host obeyed the proclamation
so far that they retreated to Sevenoaks in
the night. Next morning the king and his
lords rode through London in their best array,
and set out against the retreating host with
a following of 10,000 men. They encamped
on the ground vacated by the insurgents,
against whom they sent on a detachment
under Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother
William. But the result was disastrous ; for
after a severe conflict these forces were de-
feated, and both the Staffords slain. The
news spread consternation in the royal camp
at Blackheath. Many of the king's council
had previously urged that a favourable answer
should be given to the insurgents, and they
now protested that they would openly take
part with them unless Lord Say were placed
in custody. The king was obliged to yield.
Lord Say was committed to the Tower, and
the royal army returned to London. A few
days later the king thought it prudent to re-
move to Kenilworth, and all resistance to the
rebels was abandoned. They accordingly pre-
pared to enter the city. And this was the time,
according to Gregoiy, that another captain
took the place of the first, pretending to be
the same. If so, the first may have been slain
at Sevenoaks, and the fact of his death con-
cealed. Indeed, the first action recorded of
the leader which seems really characteristic of
an adventurer occurred on the field of Seven-
oaks itself; where, as we learn from Fabyan,
the captain arrayed himself in the apparel of
the vanquished knight, Sir Humphrey Staf-
ford, ' and did on him his bryganders set with
gilt nails, and his salet and gilt spurs.' Under
him the host again occupied Blackheath from
St. Peter's day, 29 June, to 1 July, when
they entered Southwark. At Blackheath he
kept up the reputation for discipline which
the captain had already established by be-
heading a petty captain named Parys for
disregard of his orders. Meanwhile a party
within the common council had opened ne-
gotiations with him, and he had given a pass-
port under his sign-manual to Thomas Cooke,
draper, to come and go between them. He
also made use of Cooke as his agent in the
city, and gave him written instructions to
compel the Lombards and other foreign mer-
chants to furnish him with armour and wea-
pons, six horses fully equipped, and 1,000
marks of ready money. 'And if this our
demand be not observed and done/ so ran
the instructions, ' we shall have the heads of
as many as we can get of them.'
Cade was doubtless encouraged by the
knowledge that the citizens were mostly in
his favour. The common council had just
ventured to depose an alderman by name
Philip Malpas, whom they had been com-
pelled to elect two years before at the re-
commendation of the court. On 2 July they
were convoked by the mayor to take mea-
sures for resisting the rebels; but a large ma-
jority voted that they should be received into
the city, and an alderman named Robert
Home, fishmonger, who strongly opposed the
proposal, was committed to prison. Cade
had taken up his quarters at the White Hart
in Southwark ; but that same afternoon he
and his followers entered the city. After
they had passed the drawbridge on London
Bridge he hewed the ropes asunder. He rode
in procession through the streets and struck
his sword on London stone, saying, ' Now
is Mortimer lord of this city ; ' but still keep-
Cade
173
Cade
ing up his character for good discipline he
issued proclamations in the king's name
against robbery and extortion, ' showed his
mind to the mayor for the ordering of his
people,' and returned to Southwark for the
night. Next day (Friday, 3 July) he again
entered the city, caused Lord Say to be
sent for from the Tower, and had him ar-
raigned before the mayor and other justices
at the Guildhall. The unfortunate nobleman
claimed to be tried by his peers ; but a body
of men sent by the captain took him from
the officers and hurried him to the standard
in Cheap, where they beheaded him before
he was fully shriven. About the same time
William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, Say's
son-in-law, who was execrated as the instru-
ment of extortionate taxation, was seized
and brought to- Mile End, where he was be-
headed in Cade's presence. The heads of
Say and Crowmer were then carried through
the streets upon poles and made to kiss each
other. Another victim, named Bailey, who
was also beheaded that day on a charge of
necromancy, was believed to have been put
to death by Cade's orders simply because he
was an old acquaintance, who might have
proclaimed his imposture.
It was but a trifling addition to these ex-
cesses that Cade also robbed the house of
the unpopular Philip Malpas. That night
he returned again to Southwark, and next
morning came back as before, dined in a
house in the parish of St. Margaret Pattens,
and robbed his host. The better class of
citizens were now seriously alarmed for the
security of property ; and the mayor and
aldermen took counsel with Lord Scales and
Matthew Gough, to whom the king, when
he retired to Kenilworth, had entrusted the
keeping of the Tower. As Cade withdrew
once more into Southwark for the night, it
was determined not to let him enter the city
again. Next day, 5 July, was a Sunday, and
he apparently made no effort to do so, though
there was no open show of opposition. He
seems to have had some difficulties with his
own men, and caused one, William Hawar-
den, a common thief, who had been his chief
councillor, to be beheaded in Southwark
(William Worcester says in Smithfield, but
evidently by mistake. Compare FABYAN).
In the evening the mayor and citizens, with
a force under Matthew Gough, occupied Lon-
don Bridge to prevent the Kentish men re-
entering the city. Cade at once called his men
to arms, and set upon the citizens so furiously
that he drove them from the Southwark end
of the bridge to the drawbridge in the centre.
After midnight the drawbridge was set on
fire by the insurgents, and many of the
citizens were slain or drowned. The vete-
ran Matthew Gough himself perished in the
conflict. Before this Cade had broken open
the King's Bench and Marshalsea prisons,
and the released prisoners came gladly to his
aid. All night the battle raged between the
drawbridge and the bulwark at the bridge
foot in Southwark, till about nine in the
morning the Kentish men gave way, and both
sides being exhausted a truce was agreed on
for some hours.
The opportunity was seized by the leading
members of the council to terminate disorders
by an amnesty. Cardinal Kemp, archbishop of
York, the chancellor, with Archbishop Staf-
ford of Canterbury, who had only recently
resigned the chancellorship, and Waynfleet,
bishop of Winchester, held a conference with
Cade in St. Margaret's Church, Southwark, at
which terms were arranged, and two general
pardons were afterwards sent by the chan-
cellor, one for Cade himself and the other
for his followers. The men eagerly availed
themselves of the general pardon ; but unfor-
tunately the other, being made out in the name
of Mortimer, was invalid. It was not, how-
ever, till about a week later that the captain's
real name appears to have been discovered ;
and meanwhile, trusting to the security of his
pardon, he seems to have remained in South-
wark till the 8th. He had, however, taken
care to secure a quantity of booty in a barge,
and have it conveyed by water to Rochester,
whither he himself repaired on the 9th, pass-
ing on his way through Dartford, and rais-
ing new commotions as he went. He con-
tinued at Rochester for two days, and went
on to Queenborough, where he and his fol-
lowers attempted to capture the castle, but
were resisted by Sir Roger Chamberlain.
On the 12th a proclamation was issued
against him, in which he was for the first
time named John Cade, and a reward of
1,000 marks was offered to any one who
would bring him to the king alive or dead.
He now perceived that the game was de-
sperate, and escaped in disguise towards the
woody country about Lewes. But one Alex-
ander Iden, ' a squire of Kent,' who had
either already been, or more probably was
soon after, appointed sheriff of Kent in the
place of the murdered Crowmer, pursued him
to the neighbourhood of Heathfield in Sussex,
where he found him on 12 July in a garden,
and took him prisoner, but not without a
struggle, in which Cade received a mortal
wound. He was put into a cart by his captor
and conveyed up to London, but died by the
way. On the following morning, Monday
the 13th, his naked body was identified by
the hostess of the White Hart in Southwark.
Cade
Cade
It was taken to the King's Bench prison,
where it lay from that day till the evening
of Thursday the 16th. Then it was beheaded
and quartered, and the remains were conveyed
upon a hurdle through the streets, the head
rest ing between the breasts. First from the
king's bench they made the round of South-
wark, then passed over London Bridge to
Newgate. Finally the head was taken and set
up on London Bridge, and of the four quarters
one was delivered to the constable of the
hundred of Blackheath. The other three
were sent to the cities of Norwich, Salis-
bury, and Gloucester for public exhibition.
Many questions have arisen in connection
with Cade's rebellion, and especially with
regard to his personality, which it is not
easy to answer with confidence. One recent
writer questions the fact of his supposed low
birth, on the ground that an act of attainder
was passed against him after the rebel-
lion. But his marriage with the daughter
of an English squire might have given him
some landed property, or at least some rever-
sionary interest, which would fully account
for the passing of such an act. It is remarked
also that the name of Cade was not uncom-
mon in Sussex, in the neighbourhood of
Heathfield, where he was taken. There is
no certainty, however, that the name of Cade
descended to him from his father any more
than that of Mortimer. In official records
as well as chronicles he is declared to have
been an Irishman, and his real origin was
probably obscure. A point of more impor-
tance as regards the political significance of
the rising is whether there was any under-
standing, as commonly supposed, between
Cade and the Duke of York. If there was,
it must be owned that Cade was a most un-
faithful ally, for among the booty which he
seized during the rebellion were jewels be-
longing to the duke, for which the king
afterwards ordered the latter to be recom-
pensed to the value of 114/. (DEVON, Issue
Rolls, 467-8).
[Fabyan's Chronicle ; "Worcester's Annales,
470-2 (at end of Hearne's Liber Niger) ; English
Chronicle, ed. J. S. Davies (Camd. Soc\), 64-7;
Collections of a London Citizen (Camd.Soc.), 1 90-
194 ; Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles (Camd.
Soc.), 66-8, 94 ; Paston Letters (Gairdner's ed.),
i. 132-5; Kolls of Parliament, v. 224; Devon's
Issue Kolls, 466-72, 476 ; Hall's Chronicle (ed.
1809), 220-2; Holinshed (ed. 1587), iii. 632;
Ellis's Letters, 2nd series,!. 113 ; Orridge's Illus-
trations of Jack Cade's Rebellion.] J. G.
CADE, JOHN (1734-1806), antiquary,
was born in January 1734, at Darlington,
where he was educated at the free grammar
school. Entering the house of a wholesale
linendraper in London, he in a few years
was promoted to the first position in the
counting-house, and subsequently became a
partner in a branch of the concern at Dublin.
Having obtained a sufficient competency, he
retired from business, and occupied himself
with antiquarian studies. He collected il-
lustrations for a copy of Bishop Gibson's edi-
tion of Cam den's ' Britannia,' and also sup-
plied Gough with many corrections for his
edition. He sent to Nichols ' Some Conjec-
tures on the Formation of Peat-mosses in the
mountainous parts of the Counties of Durham,
Northumberland, &c.,' printed in the ' Gentle-
man's Magazine,' lix. 967. Though not a
member of the Society of Antiquaries, he
contributed several papers to their ' Archaeo-
logia,' including ' Conjectures concerning some
undescribed Roman Roads and other Anti-
quities in the County of Durham,' vii. 74 ;
' A Letter from Rev. Dr. Sharp, Archdeacon
of Northumberland, to Mr. Cade,' ib. 82;
' Conjectures on the name of the Roman
Station Vinovium or Birchester,' ib. ix. 276 ;
and ' Some Observations on the Roman Sta-
tion of Cataractonium, with an account of
the Antiquities in the neighbourhood of Piers-
bridge and Gainford ; in a letter to Richard
Gough, Esq.,' ib. x. 54. He died at Gainford
10 Dec. 1806, and was buried at Darlington.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 313-28 ; Gent.
Mag. vol. Ixxvi. pt. ii. p. 1252.] T. F. H.
CADE or CADDY, LAURENCE (fl.
1583), a catholic seminarist, was a gentleman
of a good family, and received his education
at Trinity College, Cambridge, but does not
appear to have graduated. On becoming a
Roman catholic he went abroad, and was
admitted into the English College of Douay
on 11 June 1578. Soon after his return to
England he was apprehended, and being un-
willing to answer such questions as were
put to him, he was committed to the Tower.
His relatives and friends brought him back
to the church of England, and in 1581 he
recanted at St. Paul's Cross and regained his
liberty, but before long he returned to the
catholic religion, and in April 1583 he was
preparing himself for admission among the
Carmelites at Paris. The ' Palinodia ' which
he published at this period is printed in
Bridgewater's ' Concertatio Ecclesiae Catho-
licse in Anglia.' Dodd states that he ' was
very instrumental in moderating the fury of
John Nicols, who, having also been a student
at Rome, had prevaricated, and not only pub-
lished several scandalous libels against the
catholics abroad, but was contriving to do
that party all the mischief he could by turn-
ing priest-catcher.'
Cade
175
Cadell
[Bridge-water's Concertatio (1589-94), iii. 223,
234-8 ; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 157 ; Report
of the Apprehension and Imprisonment of John
Nicols, 18, 24 ; Addit. MS. 5865, f. 104; Cooper's
Athense Cantab, i. 451 ; Diaries of the English
College, Douay, pp. 142, 323-5, 358 ; Letters
and Memorials of Card. Allen, 177, 182, 186,
188.] T. C.
CADE, SALTJSBTJRY, M.D. (1660?-
1720), physician, was born in Kent about
1660. He was of Trinity College, Oxford,
and graduated M.D. in 1691, having been
admitted a licentiate of the College of
Physicians three years previously. He was
elected a fellow in 1694, and was twice
censor. He was appointed physician to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital on 14 Oct. 1708,
and held the office till his death, on 22 Dec.
1720. He lived at Greenwich till he obtained
this appointment, and thenceforward in the
Old Bailey. A Latin letter of Cade's, dated
8 Sept. 1716, on the treatment of small-pox,
is printed in Robert Freind's folio edition of
Dr. John Freind's ' Works ' (London, 1733).
It shows him to have had a large experience
of the disease. He makes the interesting ob-
servation that he had never known a case of
hsematuria in small-pox survive the sixteenth
day from the eruption, and his remarks on
treatment are enlightened. His name is met
with as giving official sanction to books pub-
lished during his censorship, and in the ' Phar-
macopoeia Pauperum' of 1718 a prescription
of his for a powder to be taken internally
for skin diseases is preserved. It was called
Pulvis ^Ethiopicus, and consisted of one part
of sethiopic mineral to two of crude antimony.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i- 510 ; Manuscript
Journals St. Bartholomew's Hospital; original
printed lists of fellows at College of Physicians ;
St. Bartholomew's Hospital Eeports, xx. 287-]
N. M.
CADELL (d. 909), king of Ceredigion and
afterwards of Powys, was one of the six war-
like sons of Rhodri Mawr, the most powerful
of the early Welsh kings. If we can trust
a late authority, he was Rhodri's eldest son,
and received as his patrimony Ceredigion,
with the palace at Dinevwr, and an overlord-
ship over his other brothers. In 877 Rhodri
was slain by the Saxons, and Cadell entered
upon his turbulent reign. In conjunction
with his brothers he ravaged and devastated
the neighbouring states of Dyved and Brech-
einiog to such purpose that the latter gladly
accepted the help of King Alfred against a
nearer and more terrible foe ( ASSEK, M. H. B.
488 B.C.) Not long after the sons of Rhodri
were compelled themselves to become Alfred's
men (? 885. Mr. J. R. Green's ' Conquest of
England,' p. 183, dates the submission of the
house of Rhodri in 897). The harmony
between the brothers did not long survive
their defeat. In 894 Anarawd, the king of
Hwynedd, joined the English in a devastating
inroad into Cadell's territory, and burnt re-
morselessly all the houses and corn in Dyved
and Ystrad Towy (Annales Cambrice, Gwen-
tian Brut). ' Soon after Rhodri's death Cadell
is said to have driven his brother Mervyn out
of Powys and added it to his possessions
( Gwentian Brut, 876) ; but as Mervyn con-
tinued alive until 903 (An. Cambr. MS. B),
and was still styled king of Powys (Gwentian
Brut, which puts his death in 892), it is very
improbable that a lasting conquest was ef-
fected. Anyhow, as Anarawd continued to
reign in Gwynedd, Cadell certainly was not,
as the ' Gwentian Brut ' asserts, thus made
king over all Wales. Indeed, it is quite pro-
bable that Anarawd was the elder of the sons
of Rhodri. Besides civil feuds and Saxon
invasions the period of Cadell's reign was sig-
nalised by repeated invasions of the ' black
pagans,' as the Welsh called the Irish Danes,
which culminated in 906 in the destruction
of St. David's. Three years afterwards Cadell
died (909 A. C. MS. A, 907 B. y T., 900 Gwen-
tian B.~) Three of his sons are mentioned by
the chronicles, Howel, Clydog, and Meurug.
Of these the eldest became Cadell's successor,
and was celebrated as Howel Dha, the wisest
and best of the Welsh kings.
[Annales Cambrias ; Brut y Tywysogion ;
Asser's Vita ^Elfredi ; and the later and less
trustworthy Gwentian Brut (Cambrian Archaeo-
logical Association).] T. F. T.
CADELL (d. 943), a Welsh prince, was
the son of Arthvael, the son of Hywel. He
appears to have been lord of some portion of
Morganwg, and perhaps, like Arthvael, of
seven cantreds of Gwent as well. He died
of poison in 943, according to the ' Annales
Cambrise ; ' in 941 according to the ' Brut y
Tywysogion.' The less trustworthy ' Gwen-
tian Brut,' which speaks with some authority
for the part of Wales governed by Cadell,
gives several other particulars about him.
It also asserts that two of his immediate
predecessors attained the patriarchal age of
120. In 933 King ^Ethelstan subdued all
the Welsh princes, and on his death in 940
Cadell joined Idwal Voel and his brother in
their effort to throw off the English yoke.
On this account Cadell was slain by the
Saxons ' through treachery and ambush.' It
is quite clear that South-east Wales was
during this period closely subject to the West
Saxon kings, and there is nothing improbable
in the story. Cadell, son of Arthvael, king
Cadell
176
Cadell
of Gwent, is mentioned in the ' Liber Landa-
vensis' (p. 481) as approving and consenting
to the pardon of a certain Llywarch, son of
Cadwgan, by Bishop Gulfrid of Llandaff.
[Authorities cited in the text.] T. F. T.
CADELL (d. 1175), a South Welsh prince,
the son of Gruffudd, the son of Rhys, the son
of Tewdwr, succeeded, though perhaps jointly
with his younger brothers, Anarawd, Mare-
dudd, and Rhys, to the limited and precarious
rule of those parts of Ceredigion and the vale
of Towy which his father had managed to
save from the Norman marchers (1137). Fa-
voured by the anarchy of Stephen's reign,
which prevented the possibility of direct Eng-
lish intervention, and involved Robert of
Gloucester, the lord of Glamorgan, in weigh-
tier business than the extension of his Welsh
dominions, Cadell's rule commenced under
fortunate auspices. The return of Gruffudd
to the old palace of the kings of Deheubarth
at Dinevwr prepared the way for this, and his
own assumption of the title of king after it
had become unusual among the South Welsh
reguli illustrates his importance. The silence
of the chroniclers suggests that the first years
of Cadell's government were peaceful. They
were marked by an alliance with Owain Gwy-
nedd. This alliance led in 1138 to a joint
expedition of Cadell and his brother Anarawd,
and of Owain and his brother Cadwaladr, with
a fleet of Irish Danes against Aberteiv (Car-
digan), a town in the possession of the Nor-
mans. Even the murder of Anarawd by Cad-
waladr could not break the alliance, as Owain
expelled his brother from Ceredigion to punish
the crime (1143). In 1145 (Annales Cam-
bria ; 1147 Brut y Tywysogion) Cadell and
his brothers ventured on a general attack on
the French castles which dominated the vale
of Towy. The capture of Dinweileir, Earl
Gilbert of Clare's stronghold (Dinevwr itself,
according to the ' Gwentian Brut '), was fol-
lowed by the conquest, after a severe struggle,
of the important fortress of Carmarthen.
While the young Maredudd repulsed an at-
tempt of the colonists of South Pembroke-
shire to regain that castle, the capture of
Llanstephan, commanding the mouth of the
Towy, and the seizure of Gwyddgrug by a
night surprise, completed the conquest of the
valley. Next year (1148 A. C. ; 1146 B. y T.)
the brothers marched against the castle of
Gwys ; but the intervention of Howel, son of
Owain Gwynedd, in favour of the Normans,
sufficiently accounted, as the native chronicler
thought, for the failure of the assailants (B.
y T., MS. D). But the continued possession
of Carmarthen, ' the ornament and strength
of CadeU's kingdom,' in 1152 (1153 A. C. ;
1149 B. y T.) shows that the ' French ' were
permanently checked by the Welsh king's ex-
ploits. In the same year Cadell's devastation
of Kidwelly threatened the English settle-
ments in Gower ; but soon afterwards his arms
were diverted to the reconquest of Ceredigion,
the old patrimony of the lords of Dinevwr,
from Owain Gwynedd and his house. The
first attack resulted in the capture of the
country south of the Aeron, and next year
the three brothers completed its entire con-
quest, save one castle. Llanrhystyd, Cad-
waladr's lately built stronghold, was taken
after a severe struggle, but soon after regained
by Howel, son of Owain (1153), though the
neighbouring castle of Ystradmeurig was re-
paired and held for the sons of GrufFudd ap
Rhys. This was the last of Cadell's exploits.
Not long after he fell, when out hunting, into
an ambush prepared by the French or Fle-
mings of Tenby, and was left by them ' half
dead and cruelly bruised ' (the ' Gwentian
Brut ' says the English of Gower laid\the
snare). This disaster apparently incapaci-
tated him for the wild life of a Welsh chief-
tain. Henceforth Maredudd and Rhys alone
carried on the war with French and North
Welshmen. A few years later Cadell left
his dominions to his brothers and went on
pilgrimage to Rome (1152 B. y 7 1 .; 1157
A. (?.) He returned in safety and continued
a life remarkably long for his age and coun-
try until 1175 (B. y T. ; 1177 Gwentian B.),
when he died in the abbey of Strata Florida,
where he had already assumed the monastic
habit.
[Annales Cambrise (Kolls Ser.); Brut y Ty-
wysogion (Eolls Ser.) ; Gwentian Brut (Camb.
Arch. Soc.)] T. F. T.
CADELL, FRANCIS (1822-1879), Aus-
tralian explorer, son of H. F. Cadell, was born
at Cockenzie, near Prestonpans, February
1822, and, after a somewhat brief education
in Edinburgh and Germany, became in his
fourteenth year a midshipman in the service
of the East India Company. The vessel in
which he sailed being afterwards chartered
by government as a transport, the lad took
an active part in the first Chinese war, 1840-
1841, being present at the siege of Canton, the
capture of Amoy, Ningpo, &c., and winning
honours as well as prize-money. When only
twenty-two he obtained the command of a
ship. He devoted the intervals between his
voyages to obtaining a practical knowledge
of shipbuilding and of the construction of
the marine steam-engine in the shipbuilding
yards of the Tyne and the workshops of the
Clyde. On paying a visit to Australia in
1848, his attention being directed to the
Cadell
177
Cadell
navigation of the Murray, a subject then
uppermost in the colonial mind, he carefully
examined the mouth of that river and satis-
fied himself of the practicability of the
scheme. Sir Henry Young, then governor
of South Australia, offered a bonus of 4,OOOZ.
for the first two iron steamers, of not less
than 40 horse-power and of not more than
2 ft. draught of water when loaded, that
should successfully navigate the Murray
from the town of Goolwa to the junction of
the Darling river. Cadell, returning to Aus-
tralia in 1850, and being encouraged by Sir
Henry Young, set about determining the
question of the opening up of the Murray.
He started from Melbourne with a canvas
boat carried on a packhorse, and, arriving
at Swan Hill station, on the Upper Murray,
launched his bark upon the waters of the
great stream, and, with four gold-diggers as
his companions, commenced a voyage of many
hundred miles. His examination of the river
convinced him that there would be little
difficulty in navigating it with steamers, and
his representations on this subject on his
arrival in Adelaide led to the formation of
the Murray Steam Navigation Company,
chiefly promoted by himself and Mr. William
Younghusband, for some years chief secretary
of South Australia. The first steamship of
the company's fleet was called the Lady
Augusta, after the wife of the governor.
On her voyage up the Murray, 25 Aug. 1853,
accompanied by the Eureka barge, she was
commanded by Cadell, and had as visitors
Sir Henry and Lady Young. The Lady Au-
gusta reached Swan Hill on 17 Sept., a dis-
tance of 1,300 miles from her starting-point,
and returned thence with the first cargo of
wool that had been floated on the Murray.
At a banquet given to Sir Henry Young in
Adelaide, a gold candelabrum of the value of
900 guineas, with a commemorative inscrip-
tion, was handed to Cadell. At the same
time three gold medals were struck by order
of the legislature of South Australia, and one
of them given to Cadell (Illustrated London
News, 24 Feb. 1855, p. 173, and 11 Aug.
1855, p. 176). He continued for some time
to run his vessel on the Murray, a higher
point on the river being attained at each
successive trip. His company then purchased
two other steamers, the Albury and the
Gundagai. In one of these, in October
1855, he reached the town of Albury, on the
Upper Murray, a point 1,740 miles from the
Goolwa. In 1856 he explored the Edward
river, which, branching out of the Murray,
rejoins it lower down after a course of 600
miles. During 1858 he succeeded, after a
month's voyage, in reaching the town of
VOL. VIII.
Gundagai, on the Murrumbidgee river, a
spot distant 2,000 miles from the sea and in
the very heart of New South Wales. In the
following year he proceeded up the Darling
river as far as Mount Murchison. Largely
as CadelTs labours contributed to the de-
velopment of the resources of the colony of
Australia, he himself derived very little sub-
stantial reward from them. The sums granted
in aid of his explorations were utterly inade-
quate to cover the expenses incurred, and in
his eagerness to serve the public his attention
was distracted from commercial pursuits. The
Murray Steam Navigation Company, never a
commercial success, was dissolved, and its
founder, having lost all his money, retired
into the bush and began life again as a settler
on a small station near Mount Murchison, on
the Darling.
In November 1867, when exploring in
South Australia, he discovered the mouth of
the river Roper and a tract of fine pastoral
country, in latitude 14 S. The concurrence
of bad seasons and misfortunes induced him
at last to undertake a trading voyage to the
Spice Islands. In his schooner, the Gem,
fitted with auxiliary steam-power, he was on
a passage from Amboyna to the Kei Islands,
when he was murdered by his crew, who
afterwards sank the vessel. This tragic event,
which put an end to the career of one of
the most enterprising and honourable of men,
took place in the month of June 1879.
[Anthony Forster's South Australia (1866),
pp. 68-74 ; Heaton's Australian Dictionary of
Dates, p. 30, and part ii. p. 96 ; Once a "Week
(1863), viii. 667-70 ; Times, 7 Nov. 1879, p. 5.1
G. C. B.
CADELL, JESSIE (1844-1884), no-
velist and orientalist, was born in Scotland
23 Aug. 1844, and at an early age accom-
panied her husband; an officer in the army,
to India. She resided chiefly at Peshawur,
and embodied her observations of frontier
life in a pleasing novel, ' Ida Craven ' (1876).
One of the principal characters in this work,
a loyal Mahommedan officer, is drawn from
personal observation, and is an instructive
as well as an interesting study. To while
away the tedium of cantonment life, Mrs.
Cadell made herself mistress of Persian, and
upon her return to England after the death
of her husband devoted herself especially to
the study of Omar Khayyam, the astronomer-
poet of Persia. Without seeking to compete
with Mr. Fitzgerald's splendid paraphrase in
its own line, Mrs. Cadell contemplated a com-
plete edition and a more accurate transla-
tion. She visited numerous public libraries in
quest of manuscripts, and embodied a portion
Cadell
178
Cadell
of her researches in an article in ' Eraser's
Magazine ' for Mayl879, on which Bodenstedt,
when publishing his own German translation,
bestowed the highest praise, without any idea
that he was criticising the production of a
female writer. It is to be hoped that her
collections may yet be made serviceable. She
was prevented from carrying out her inten-
tion by the decline of her health, and she
died at Florence on 17 June 1884. 'She
was,' the ' Athenaeum ' truly said, ' a brave,
frank, true woman, bright and animated in
the midst of sickness and trouble, disinte-
restedly attached to whatever was good and
excellent, a devoted mother, a staunch and
sympathising friend.'
[Athenaeum, 28 June 1884; private informa-
tion.] E. G.
CADELL, ROBERT (1788-1849), pub-
lisher, was a cadet of the family of Cadell of
Cockenzie, East Lothian, and born there on
16 Dec. 1788. About the age of nineteen he
entered the publishing house of Archibald
Constable & Co., of Edinburgh see CON-
STABLE, ARCHIBALD], becoming in 1811 a
partner, and in 1812 the sole partner of Con-
stable, whose daughter he married in 1817.
She died a year afterwards (he married a se-
cond time in 1821), and with her death began
frequent disagreements between the two part-
ners, Cadell being cautious and frugal, Con-
stable lavish and enterprising to rashness.
They agreed, however, as to the value of the
firm's connection with Walter Scott, to whom
Cadell, in the absence of his partner, once
offered 1,000/. for an unwritten drama
' Halidon Hill.' During the commercial crisis
of 1825-6, which brought the house of Con-
stable to the ground, each partner desired to
separate from the other, and to retain for
himself the connection with Scott, in whose
'Diary' for 24 Jan. 1825 occurs the remark,
' Constable without Cadell is like getting the
clock without the pendulum, the one having
the ingenuity, the other the caution of the
business.' Cadell's advice led Scott to reject
a proposal of Constable's for the relief of the
firm from its difficulties, which would have
involved him in heavy pecuniary liabilitie
without averting either the ruin of the firm
or Scott's consequent bankruptcy. In his
' Diary,' 18 Dec. 1825, Scott speaks gratefully
of Cadell, who had brought good news and
shown deep feeling. After the failure of the
firm, Constable and Cadell dissolved partner-
ship. Scott adhered to Cadell, who was the
sole publisher of his subsequent novels, and
their relationship became one of confiden-
tial intimacy. They resolved to unite in
purchasing the property in the novels, from
' Waverley ' to ' Quentin Durward,' with a
majority of the shares in the poetical works,
and determined to issue a uniform edition of
the 'Waverley Novels,' with new prefaces
and notes by the author. The copyrights
were purchased for 8,5001. The publication
of the 'author's edition' began in 1827, and
was most successful. Cadell persuaded Scott
not to issue a fourth 'Malachi Malagrowther '
letter against parliamentary reform, partly
on the ground that it might endanger the
success of that edition of the novels. Scott
made his will in Cadell's house in Edinburgh,
and entrusted it to Cadell's keeping. Lock-
hart speaks of Cadell's ' delicate and watch-
ful attention ' to Scott during his later years.
He accompanied Scott in his final journey
from London to Edinburgh and Abbotsford
in July 1832.
After Scott's death, the balance of his
debts, through his partnership with the Bal-
lantynes, was 30,000/. In 1833 Cadell made
(' very handsomely,' Lockhart says) the
offer, which was accepted, to settle at once
with Scott's creditors on receiving as his sole
security the right to the profits accruing from
Scott's copyrights and literary remains until
this new liability to himself should be dis-
charged. Restricting his operations almost
exclusively to the publication of Scott's
works, he issued, with great success, an edi-
tion of the 'Waverley Novels,' 48 vols. 1830-
1834, and in 1842-7 (12 vols.) the Abbots-
ford edition,which was elaborately illustrated,
and on the production of which he is said to
have expended 40,000/. Of a cheap ' people's '
edition 70,000 copies, it is said, were sold.
In 1847 there remained due to Cadell a con-
siderable sum, and to other creditors on
Scott's estate the greater part of an old
debt for money raised on the house and lands
of Abbotsford. Cadell offered to relieve
the guardians of Sir Walter Scott's grand-
daughter from all their liabilities to himself
and to the mortgagees of Abbotsford, on the
transfer to him of the family's remaining
rights in Scott's works, together seemingly
with the future profits of Lockhart's ' Life of
Scott.' Another stipulation was that Lock-
hart should execute for him an abridgment
of that biography, and only gratitude to
Cadell for his conduct in the whole business
induced Lockhart to perform the task. The
possessor of a handsome estate in land, and
of considerable personal property, Cadell died
on 20 Jan. 1849 at Ratho House, Midlothian,
from which he was driven to his place of
business in St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh,
every morning at nine, with such punctuality,
that the inhabitants of the district traversed
knew the time by the appearance of 'the
Cadell
179
Cadell
Ratho coach.' Lockliart characterises him.
as ' a cool, inflexible specimen of the na-
tional character,' and (Ballantyne Humbuy
handled, 1837) as 'one of the most acute
men of business in creation.'
[Lockhart's Life of Scott, ed. 1860, and the
1871 reprint of his abridgment of it, 1848;
Thomas Constable's Archibald Constable and
his Literary Correspondence, 1873; K. Chambers's
Biog. Diet, of Eminent Scotsmen, 1868, art.
'Archibald Constable;' Anderson's Scottish Na-
tion, 1863 ; Athenaeum, 27 Jan. 1849.] F. E.
CADELL, THOMAS, the elder (1742-
1802), bookseller and publisher, was born of
poor parents in Wine Street, Bristol, in 1742.
In 1758 he was apprenticed to the great
London bookseller and publisher, Andrew
Millar, of the Strand. Cadell soon proved
his capacity ; in 1765 he became Millar's part-
ner, and in 1767 took over the business alto-
gether. He followed Millar's example of
treating authors liberally, fully maintained
the reputation of the publishing house, and
brought out the best books of the day. Ro-
bertson, Gibbon, and Blackstone were among
the writers whose works he published, and
Cadell was intimate with Dr. Johnson, to
whom he offered a large sum of money for a
volume of ' Devotional Exercises,' which was
declined ' from motives of the sincerest mo-
desty' (NICHOLS, Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 552).
Cadell was one of the original members of the
famous dining club of booksellers which met
monthly at the Shakespeare Tavern in Wych
Street, Strand, and he was popular among his
rivals in trade, whom he treated with unvary-
ing fairness. For some years William Strahan
(M.P. for Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, from
1780 to 1784) was Cadell's partner in his busi-
ness, and subsequently Strahan's son Andrew
took his father's place. Cadell retired from
business in 1793 with a fortune, and was suc-
ceeded by his only son, Thomas Cadell the
younger [see below]. His generous tempera-
ment is attested by his kindness to his own
and Millar's chief assistant, Robin Lawless.
On his retirement Cadell had Lawless's por-
trait painted by Sir William Beechey, and
' always showed it to his friends as the chief
ornament of his drawing-room.' On the death,
in 1788, of Millar's widow, who had married
Sir Archibald Grant, Cadell acted as one of
her executors. Subsequently Cadell was
elected (30 March 1798) alderman of Wai-
brook ward in the city of London, and served
the office of sheriff, 1800-1. During his
shrievalty he was master of the Stationers'
Company, and presented a stained glass win-
dow to the Stationers' Hall. He died on
27 Dec. 1802 at his house in Bloomsbury
Place. He was treasurer of the Foundling
Hospital and governor of many public chari-
ties. His portrait, by Sir William Beechey,
still hangs in the court room of the Sta-
tioners' Company. His wife died in January
1 786, but his son and a daughter survived him.
The latter married Dr. Charles Lucas Edridge,
rector of Shipdam, Norfolk, and chaplain to
George III, and died on 20 Sept. 1829 (Ni-
CHOL8, Lit. Illustrations, viii. 552).
THOMAS CADELL the younger (1773-1836),
one of the court of assistants of the Sta-
tioners' Company, conducted the publishing
business with all his father's success from
1793 till his death on 23 Nov. 1836. His
father chose William Davies as his son's
partner, and the firm was styled Cadell &
Davies until the latter's death in 1819. In
the ' Percy Correspondence,' printed in Ni-
chols's ' Illustrations,' vols. vii. and viii., are
many references to the dealings of this firm
with Bishop Percy and his friends. Cadell
married in 1802 a daughter of Robert Smith
and sister of the authors of the ' Rejected
Addresses.' By her he had a large family,
but the business was not continued after his
death. Mrs. Cadell died on 11 May 1848
(Gent. Mag. 1837, pt. i. p. 110; NICHOLS,
Lit. Illustrations, viii. 110).
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes is crowded with
references to Cadell. A memoir is printed (vi.
441-3) from Gent. Mag. (1802), pt. ii. pp. 1173,
1222. A few additional facts are given in the
last volume (viii.) of Nichols's Lit. Illustrations.]
S. L. L.
CADELL, WILLIAM ARCHIBALD
(1775-1855), traveller and mathematician,
was the eldest son of William Cadell, the
original managing partner and one of the
founders of the Carron ironworks, by his
wife Katherine, daughter of Archibald Inglis
of Auchendinny in Midlothian. He was
born at his father's residence, Carron Park,
near Falkirk, on 27 June 1775, and, after re-
ceiving his education at Edinburgh Univer-
sity, became, about 1798, a member of the
Scottish bar. He did not practise, being
possessed of private means and of the estate
of Banton in Stirlingshire, but spent his
time in scientific and antiquarian research at
home and abroad. His acquirements won
him the friendship of Sir Joseph Banks, at
whose instance Cadell was elected a fellow
of the Royal Society on 28 June 1810. He
was also a fellow of the Geological Society,
a member of the now defunct Wernerian
Natural History Society of Edinburgh, and
a fellow of the Royal Society of the same
city. To the ' Transactions ' of the latter he
contributed a paper 'On the Lines that
divide each Semidiurnal Arc into Six Equal
N2
Cademan
180
Cademan
Parts ' (viii. i. 61-81) ; in the ' Annals of
Philosophy' (iii. 351-3) he wrote an 'Ac-
count of an Arithmetical Machine lately
discovered in the College Library of Edin-
burgh.' While travelling on the continent
during the war with France he was taken
prisoner, and only escaped after a detention
of several years by feigning to be a French-
man, a feat which his very perfect knowledge
of the language enabled him to accomplish
successfully. On his return he gave some
account of his wanderings in ' A Journey in
Carniola, Italy, and France in the years
1817, 1818,' 2 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1820,
which, although somewhat dry in treatment,
is to be commended for its scrupulous ac-
curacy. Cadell died unmarried at Edinburgh
on 19 Feb. 1855.
[Information from Mr. H. Cadell.] G. G.
CADEMAN, SIR THOMAS (1590?-
1651), physician, born in Norfolk about
1590, was educated at Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, and proceeded B.A. 1605-6, M.A.
1609. He then studied abroad, and took the
degree of M.D. at Padua March 1620. In
May and June 1623 he passed his examina-
tion before the censors of the Royal College
of Physicians of London, and ' at the comitia
majora of 25 June was ordered to get incor-
porated at one of our own universities' (MtnrK,
i. 200). This he does not appear to have
done. In 1626 he is returned to the parlia-
mentary commission by the college as a pa-
pist. He was then residing in Fetter Lane.
Two years afterwards he is noted as a ' recu-
sant ' residing in Westminster. He after-
wards is mentioned as living at St. Martin's-
in-the-Fields. It is supposed that his religion
delayed his admission to the college. It was
not till 3 Dec. 1630 that he became licentiate.
On 22 Dec. he was admitted fellow. His re-
ligion probably helped him to another honour,
for previously, it would seem, to 16 Dec. 1626
(Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1626, p. 24), he
was appointed physician in ordinary to Queen
Henrietta Maria. He signs himself medicus
regineus after this. His name appears with
some frequency in the State Papers for nearly
twenty years. Thus on 24 May 1634 Thomas
Reynolds, a secularpriest, confinedin Newgate
for some years, petitions for release, and ap-
pends a certificate from Cademan and others.
Cademan and Sir William Brouncker [q. v.]
had a patent for stilling and brewing in a house
at the back of St. James's Park, and this patent,
they note in 1633, they had exercised for many
years. On 4 Aug.1638, on consideration of a pe-
tition to government presented in March pre-
vious, Sir Theodore de Mayerne [see MAYERNE,
SIR THEODORE DE], Cademan, and others
' using the trade of distilling strong waters
and making vinegar in London, were incor-
porated as distillers of London.' Cademan
and Mayerne were directed to approve of
a set of suitable rules ' for the right making
of strong waters and vinegars according to
art,' which the masters, warden, and assist-
ants are to compose. The Company of Apo-
thecaries, alarmed at this scheme, petitioned
against it in September as infringing their
monopoly. To this petition Mayerne, Brounc-
ker, and Cademan replied, denying the state-
ments made, and urging that the apotheca-
ries should be admonished to confine their
attention to their shops and their patients,
and to speak in a more ' respective ' fashion
of the physicians. The undertaking was al-
lowed to proceed, and in 1639 was published
' The Distiller of London, compiled and set
forth by the speciall Licence and Command of
the Bang's most Excellent Majesty for the sole
use of the Company of Distillers of London,
and by them to bee duly observed and prac-
tized.' This is explained in the preface (p. ii)
' to be a book of rules and directions con-
cerning distillation of strong waters and
making vinegars. ' The name of Thomas Cade-
man as first master of the company is ap-
pended. Another edition of the ' Distiller,'
with ' the Clavis to unlock the deepest secrets
of that mysterious art,' was ' published for
the publicke good ' in 1652. Cademan was
also physician to Francis Russell, fourth earl
of Bedford, of whose death he wrote an ac-
count in a curious little pamphlet of six pages,
' The Earle of Bedford's passage to the High-
est Court of Parliament, 9 May 1641, about
tenne a clock in the morning ' (1641). This
was to prove that the earl ' died of too much
of his bed, and not of the small-pox ' (p. 5),
as usually asserted.
In 1649 Cademan was chosen anatomy lec-
turer to the College of Physicians, but he
performed the duties of this office in a most
inefficient manner. He became an elect
25 June 1650, and died 2 May 1651. A manu-
script work of his, entitled ' De signis Mor-
borum Tractatus, cura Thomse Clargicii,' of
date 1640, dedicated to Queen Henrietta
Maria, is in the library of the Royal Medico-
Chirurgical Society (Catalogue of Library,
i. 205). From the State Papers, 13 April
1641 (Cal. Dom. Ser.), it appears that Cade-
man had at that date a grown-up son. He
was probably John Cademan, M.D., recom-
mended on 22 June 1640 by the College of
Physicians for appointment to the office of
physician to the army (MTrra, i. 228).
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 199, with quotation
from Baldwin Hamey'sBustorum aliquot reliquiae,
1676 ; Sloane MS. 2149 ; Cal. State Papers (Dom.
Cadoc
181
Cadogan
Ser.), Charles I ; Brit. Mus. Cat. Cademan's
name variously appears as Cademan, Caddiman,
Cadiman, and Cadyman ; identification is easy.]
F. W-T.
CADOC, called the WISE, in Welsh
CATTWG DDOETH (d. 570 ?), a Welsh saint,
the early lives of whom are so contradictory
that it must be supposed that there was
more than one person of the name, is said
to have been the son of Gwynllyw Filwr
(Latinised into Gundlseus), lord of Gwynllwg
in Glamorganshire, by Gwladys, daughter of
Brychan, a chieftain of Talgarth in Breck-
nockshire. This Brychan, it may be said,
gave his name to Brecknock, in Welsh Bry-
cheiniog. Another Cadoc is said to have been
son of this same Brychan, and according to
some accounts Cadoc the Wise was his great-
great-grandson. Cadoc the Wise was cousin
to St. David of Menevia, and nephew to St.
Canoe of Gallen. He voluntarily devoted
himself to a religious life from his earliest
years, and miracles are ascribed to him while
yet in his boyhood. He was educated by
an Irish anchoret, Menthi ; declined to suc-
ceed his father in his principality ; went to
Gwent or Caerwent, Monmouthshire, and
studied under the Irish saint, Tathai. He
made repeated visits to Rome and Jerusalem,
and also to Ireland and Scotland, in search
of the best instruction of his time. Of the
numerous foundations ascribed to St. Cadoc
the most famous was the abbey of Llancar-
van in Glamorganshire, of which he was the
first abbot. This, like other monastic insti-
tutions of the age, was as much a place of
secular and religious instruction as the home
of a religious community. At Llancarvan
St. Cadoc enjoyed the friendship of Gildas,
also surnamed the Wise, who taught in his
school, and he had among his pupils Talie-
sin, the most famous of the early Welsh
poets. Among the earliest monuments of
the Welsh language figures the ' Doethineb
Catwg Ddoeth,' or ' Wisdom of Cadoc the
Wise,' printed in vol. iii. of the ' Myvyrian
Archaiology ' of Owen Jones ; this consists
of proverbs, maxims, and triads, prose and
verse ; and in the ' lolo MSS.' of Edward
Williams are printed ' Dammegion Cattwg
Ddoeth,' or 'Fables of Cadoc the Wise.'
The second of these fables is entitled ' Dam-
meg y gwr a laddwys ei filgi,' ' the story
of the man who killed his greyhound.' This
is in fact the well-known story of Bedd-
gelert, told without names ; it ends by say-
ing that ' as sorry as the man who killed
his greyhound' has passed into a proverb.
The old life, printed in Rees's 'Lives of
Cambro-British Saints,' after recording the
many miraculous feats of St. Cadoc, goes on
to tell how, having been previously warned
in a vision, he is carried off in a cloud to
Beneventum, where he is immediately chosen
abbot and named Sophias, and on the bishop's
death is chosen to succeed him. Being asked
in a dream what form of death he preferred,
he chose martyrdom, and accordingly was
killed by a soldier while saying mass on the
following day. Cadoc was buried at Bene-
ventum, and over his grave was built a church
which no Briton was allowed to enter for
fear of the saint's body being carried off.
Colgan and Lanigan assign his death to 570 ;
the former argues that he was martyred at
Beneventum, but the latter represents him
as dying at Llancarvan. The following
churches are said to be of St. Cadoc's founda-
tion : Llangattock and Crickhowel in Breck-
nockshire ; Porteinion, Gelligaer, Cadox-
ton-juxta-Barry and Cadoxton-juxta-Neath,
Llancarvan, Pendenlwyn, Pentyrch, and
Llanmaes in Glamorganshire ; Llangattock-
upon-Usk, Llangattock Lenig, and Llangat-
tock Lingoed in Monmouthshire. He is
commemorated on 14 Jan. The extant ma-
nuscript lives of Cadoc are described in
Hardy's ' Descriptive Catalogue,' i. 146-51.
[Bollandi Acta Sanctorum, Jan. ii. 602 ; W. J.
Eees's Lives of Cambro-British Saints ; Kice
Eees's Essay on Welsh Saints; Colgan's Acta
Sanctorum, 158-61; lolo MSS. (1848); Lani-
gan's Eccles. Hist. Irl. i. 439 ; Diet, of Christian
Biog.] A. M.
CADOGAN. [See also CADWGAN.]
CADOGAN, HENRY (1780-1813), colo-
nel, was one of the children of Charles Sloane,
third baron Cadogan and first earl (second
creation, 1800), by his second wife, and was
born on 26 Feb. 1780. His granduncle was
William, earl Cadogan [q.v.] He was edu-
cated at Eton, and on 9 Aug. 1797 became en-
sign, by purchase, in the 18th royal Irish foot,
which corps he joined at Gibraltar after its
return from Tuscany, and obtained his lieu-
tenancy therein in 1798. In 1799, having pur-
chased a company in the 60th, he exchanged
as lieutenant and captain to the Coldstream
guards, and served therein until promoted
to a majority in the 53rd foot in 1804. On
22 Aug. 1805 he became lieutenant-colonel
in the 2nd battalion (afterwards disbanded)
of his old corps, the 18th royal Irish, having
purchased every step. After serving with
the battalion in Scotland and the Channel
Islands, he left it when it proceeded to the
island of Curacoa, and exchanged, in 1808,
to the 71st Highlanders at home. During
the early part of the Peninsular war, Cado-
gan served as aide-de-camp to Sir Arthur
Wellesley, and after the passage of the
Cadogan
182
Cadogan
Douro was selected by him to proceed to
the headquarters of the Spanish general,
Cuesta, to make arrangements for the co-
operation of the English and Spanish armies
in the forthcoming campaign on the Tagus.
He was afterwards present at the battle of
Talavera. When the 71st Highlanders, then
recently transformed into a light infantry
corps, arrived out in Portugal in the sum-
mer of 1810, Cadogan joined it at Mafra and
assumed command in succession to Colonel
Peacocke. At its head he distinguished him-
self on various occasions during the sub-
sequent campaigns, particularly at Fuentes
de Onoro, 5 May 1811, when he succeeded
to the command of a brigade consisting of
the 24th, 71st, and 79th regiments (GuR-
WOOD, iv. 797-8), at Arroyo dos Molinos
28 Oct. 1811 (ib. v. 13, 354-6), and at Vit-
toria, 21 June 1813, where he fell. On the
latter occasion the 71st was ordered to storm
the heights above the village of Puebla,
whereon rested the French left. While ad-
vancing to the charge at the head of his men
Cadogan was mortally wounded. At his re-
quest he was carried to a neighbouring emi-
nence, whence he witnessed the success of
the charge before he expired. The incident
is represented on the public monument by
Chantry, erected to the memory of Cadogan
in St. Paul's, for which the House of Com-
mons voted the sum of 1,5751. Monuments
were also erected to him in Chelsea parish
church and in Glasgow cathedral. Cadogan,
who was in his thirty-fourth year and un-
married, was much esteemed both in private
life and professionally, and Lord Wellington,
although an intimate personal friend, simply
expressed the general feeling of the army when
he wrote of his great merit and tried gallantry
in his Vittoria despatch (ib. vi. 539, 545-6).
[Burke's Peerage ; Army Lists and War Office
Muster-Rolls; Hildyard's Hist. Rec. 71st High.
Light Inf. (London. 1877); Gurwood's Welling-
ton Despatches, iii. iv. v. vi.] H. M. C.
CADOGAN, WILLIAM (1601-1661),
major of horse under the Commonwealth and
governor of Trim, was eldest son of Henry
Cadogan of Llanbetter, and great-grandson
of Thomas Cadogan of Dunster, Somerset-
shire, who in his will, dated 12 June 1511,
styles himself ' valectus corone,' and is cre-
dited by many genealogists with descent from
the ancient princes of Wales [see CADWGAN].
William Cadogan was born at Dunster in 1601 ,
and accompanied the Earl of Strafford to Ire-
land, where he was serving as a captain of
horse in 1641 . In 1649 he reappears as a major
of horse in Cromwell's army in Ireland, and
for his services in the revolted districts round
Dublin, and especially against the Irish chief-
tains Phelim O'Neill and Owen O'Rowe, was
rewarded with the governorship of the castle
and borough of Trim, co. Meath, which he
held until his death, 14 March 1661. A
monument to him, stated by some writers to
be at Trim and by others in Christ Church,
Dublin, bears or bore a lengthy Latin in-
scription, transcribed in Collms's ' Peerage,'
vol. v., which sets forth these and other par-
ticulars of him. Cadogan had a son Henry,
a barrister settled in Dublin, who married
Bridget, daughter of Sir Hardress Waller,
and by her had three children. The eldest of
them, William, became a distinguished sol-
dier, and was Marlborough's most trusted lieu-
tenant [see CADOGAN, WILLIAM, first earl].
[Collins's Peerage (edit. 1812), vol. v. ; Burke's
Peerage; Foster's Peerage.] H. M. C.
CADOGAN, WILLIAM, first EARL CADO-
GAN (1675-1726), general, colonel 1st foot
guards, was eldest son of Henry Cadogan,
counsellor-at-law, of Dublin, and grandson
of Major William Cadogan, governor of Trim
[see CADOGAN, WILLIAM, major]. He was
born in 1675 (see DOYLE, Baronage), and is
said to have fought as a boy cornet in King
William's army at the passage of the Boyne.
He obtained a commission in one of the regi-
ments of Inniskilling dragoons, afterwards
known as the 5th royal Irish dragoons (re-
vived in 1858 as the 5th royal Irish lancers),
with which he served under King William in
the Irish and Flanders campaigns, and at-
tracted the notice of Marlborough, who was
twenty-five years his senior. When troops
were sent from Ireland to Holland in 1701,
Cadogan, then a major in the royal Irish dra-
goons, accompanied them as quartermaster-
general. He was employed on special duty at
Hamburg and elsewhere later in the same year,
in connection with the movement of the
Danish and Wurtemburg troops into Holland
(Hist.MSS. Comm. 3rd Eep. 189-90). In April
1702, a month after King William's death,
Marlborough was appointed generalissimo of
the confederate armies, and fixed his head-
quarters at the Hague, taking as his quarter-
master-general Cadogan, who became his
most trusted subordinate. Cadogan's ser-
vices in the ensuing campaign, ending with
the fall of Liege and the retreat of the
French behind the Mehaigne, were rewarded,
on 2 March 1703, with the colonelcy of the
regiment with which his name is chiefly
identified, the 6th (later 2nd Irish) horse,
(the present 5th dragoon guards), which be-
came famous as ' Cadogan's Horse.' In the
winter of 1703-4 Cadogan was in England
organising reinforcements. He returned to
Cadogan
183
Cadogan
Holland in advance of Marlborough, and as
quartermaster-general conducted the historic
march into Bavaria, ending with the great
victory at Blenheim, 13 Aug. 1704, and the
no less admirably managed return movement
of the army with its huge convoys of pri-
soners and wounded. During the campaign
he was wounded and had his horse shot
under him at the attack on Schellenburg,
but was on the field at Bltenheim in attend-
ance on Marlborough. He was promoted
brigadier-general on 25 Aug. 1704, and his
name figures in the distribution-list of the
queen's bounty for Blenheim, for the sums
of 90 as brigadier-general, 601. as quarter-
master-general, and 123/. as colonel of a
regiment of horse and captain of a troop
therein (Treasury Papers, xciii. 79). In the
following year Cadogan's Horse won great
distinction at the forcing of the enemy's
lines between Helixem and N eerwinden. Big
men mounted on big horses, they drove the
famous Bavarian horse-grenadier guards off
the field, capturing four of their standards
(CANNON, Hist. Rec. 5th Draff. Gds. p. 28).
Popular accounts relate that the charge was
led by Cadogan in person. After fulfilling
special missions at Vienna and in Hanover,
Cadogan was present at the victory at Ra-
millies on 23 May 1706. A plan of the
order of battle, now in the British Museum
(Brit. Mus. Maps, -|ff-), shows that he held
no separate command on that day. But
immediately afterwards he was sent with a
body of horse and foot to occupy Ghent and
to summon Antwerp, services speedily ac-
complished. The garrison of the latter city,
consisting of six French and six Spanish
regiments, was permitted to march out, and
the keys of the city were handed to Cadogan,
their first surrender since they were delivered
up to the Duke of Parma, after a twelve-
month's leaguer, two centuries before. Cado-
gan was promoted to major-general on 1 June
1706. The supply of the army was then in-
cluded among the multifarious duties of
Cadogan's department, and on 16 Aug. fol-
lowing, while making a forage near Tournay,
in the combined capacities of a cavalry com-
mander and quartermaster-general, he was
captured by the enemy, but released on
parole three days later and soon afterwards
exchanged. Later in the year he was en-
gaged in the delicate task of quartering the
confederate troops of different nationalities
for the winter (see Marlb. Desp. iii. 175).
In February 1707 he was entrusted on his
return from London with the task of ex-
plaining to the Dutch deputies the English
view of the next campaign (ib. p. 369).
Later in the year he was accredited envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
to the States of Holland in the absence of
Mr. Stepney, whom he succeeded in the post,
retaining his military appointments. He
arrived at Brussels in that capacity on 29 Nov.
1707 (London Gazette, No. 4390). On 11 May
1705 he had been returned for the borough of
New Woodstock, Oxfordshire probably on
Marlborough's nomination in the parliament
which (after the union with Scotland) was
proclaimed on 29 April 1707, the first par-
liament of Great Britain (see Lists of Mem-
bers of Parliament). He was re-chosen for
the same place in four succeeding parliaments.
In February 1708 Cadogan was at Ostend,
superintending the embarkation of ten regi-
ments for home, in view of the rumoured
French descent on Scotland from Dunkirk
(Marlb. Desp. iii. 680, 689). He commanded
the van of the army in the operations which
led up to the great battle at Oudenarde on
11 July 1708, on which occasion he com-
menced the action by crossing the Scheldt and
vigorously attacking the village of Hayem,
which was carried and four out of seven
opposing battalions made prisoners. After-
wards he was employed in convoying sup-
plies from Ostend to the army during the
siege of Lille. He was promoted to lieu-
tenant-general on 1 Jan. 1709. Early in
that year Cadogan was sent by Marlborough
to see that the troops in Flanders were ready
for the forthcoming campaign. In a list of
general officers of the confederate armies,
forwarded by Marlborough to the French
headquarters in July, Cadogan's name ap-
pears at the end of the lieutenant-generals
of cavalry (ib. iv. 538). His services during
the year included the siege of Menin, where
an incident occurred which has been variously
told. The version given by the historian of
the Grenadier guards who says that it is
commemorated by a centrepiece of plate in
possession of the present Earl Cadogan is
that Marlborough, attended by Cadogan and a
numerous staff, was reconnoitring the enemy's
position at close quarters, and having dropped
his glove requested Cadogan to dismount and
pick it up, which was instantly done. Re-
turned to camp and the staff dismissed, he
asked Cadogan if he remembered the inci-
dent, adding that he wished a battery to be
erected on the spot, but did not like to speak
of it openly. Cadogan replied that he had
already given the order, and on Marlborough
expressing surprise rejoined that he knew
his chief to be too much a gentleman to
make such a request without good hidden
reason (HAMILTON, Hist. Gren. Gds. ii. 48).
Cadogan was present at the battle of Mal-
plaquet on 11 Sept. 1709, and was sent after
Cadogan
184
Cadogan
the battle to confer with the French com-
manders respecting provision for the wounded.
Immediately afterwards he was detached
with a corps of infantry, two hundred guns,
and fifty mortars to commence the siege of
Mons, where he was dangerously wounded in
the neck and his aide-de-camp killed by his
side while the troops were breaking ground.
The lieutenancy of the Tower of London
was conferred on him in December of the
same year. In January 1710 he was present
at a conference with the Dutch deputies at
the Hague, after which he was again at
Brussels. A volume of correspondence re-
lating to affairs in 1709-10, chiefly autograph
letters from Brussels in Cadogan's large,
plain hand, is among the Foreign Office Re-
cords in the Public Record Office, London
(F. O. Rec. Flanders, Nos. 132-5), in one of
which he expresses his intention of ' follow-
ing the fortunes, good or bad, of the great
man to whom I am under such infinite obli-
gations ; ' adding, ' I would be a monster if I
did otherwise.' Marlborough's influence was
at this time fast declining. Cadogan shared
his leader's unpopularity, and by the end of the
year was removed from his diplomatic post, to
Marlborough's great displeasure. Swift, who
appears to have known Cadogan's family,
mentions in a ' Letter to Stella,' in December
1710, that there was a rumour of his being
dispossessed of the lieutenancy of the Tower
to make way for Jack Hill, brother of the
queen's new favourite, Mrs. Masham (SwiFT,
Works, ii. 477). Cadogan was lieutenant of
the Tower from December 1709 to December
1715 (see DB Ros, Memorials of the Tower
of London, App.) Returning to his staff
duties Cadogan rendered important services
at the siege of Douay. At the head of some
squadrons of his cuirassiers cuirasses, laid
aside at the peace of Ryswick, had by this
time been resumed by Cadogan's and other
regiments of horse he took a prominent
part in manoeuvring the enemy out of their
lines at Arlieux, and so preparing the way
for the important siege of Bouchain, the
details of which were entrusted by Marl-
borough to Cadogan. The place capitulated
in September 1711. Bouchain was Marl-
borough's last victory. When the Duke of
Ormonde succeeded to the command of the
army, Cadogan found his name omitted from
the list of lieutenant-generals appointed to
divisional commands; but, at his own re-
quest, he made the campaign of 1712 as
quartermaster-general. When the troops
reached Dunkirk on their homeward route,
Cadogan retired to Holland. Marlborough
followed him into exile in November 1712.
For his share in the reception accorded to
his old chief on setting foot upon Dutch
soil Cadogan was called upon to resign his
offices and employments under the crown.
He appears to have sold the colonelcy of his
regiment to Major-general Kellum, a veteran
who had served with the regiment since its
first formation in 1685, for the sum of 3,000.
(CANNON, Hist. Rec. 5th Drag. Gds.} As
the recognised medium of communication
between the English whigs and the German
states interested in the Hanoverian succes-
sion, Cadogan was busily engaged in the
political intrigues and counter-intrigues at
home and abroad which marked the next
two years.
Before the death of Queen Anne, on 1 Aug.
1714, he had returned to London. With
the customary issue of commissions under
the new sign-manual Cadogan was reinstated
in his former rank as lieutenant-general.
The commission, with the date left blank,
probably by design, is still extant (Home
Office, Mil. Commissions, i.) He was ap-
pointed master of the king's robes, lieutenant
of the ordnance, which post he retained
until 1718, and colonel of the Coldstream
guards, the latter appointment bearing date
11 Aug. 1714. He was re-chosen for the
fifth time for the borough of Woodstock,
and was accredited as envoy extraordinary
and minister plenipotentiary to the States
General of Holland. On 15 Nov. (new style)
1715 he signed at tho Hague the (third) bar-
rier treaty between England, Holland, and
Germany, whereby the empire recognised the
Hanoverian succession to the British crown.
When the exceptionally severe winter of that
year brought news of the rising in the north
in favour of the Pretender, Cadogan obtained
from the States a contingent of 6,000 Dutch
troops, with which he embarked and pushed
on to Scotland, to serve as second in com-
mand under the Duke of Argyll, whose forces
had driven the rebels back, but whom Cado-
gan found unwilling to act vigorously. On
the urgent representations of Marlborough
Argyll was recalled, and Cadogan appointed
to the chief command. The vigorous mea-
sures which followed speedily ended the re-
bellion, and early in May 1716 Cadogan
handed over the command to Brigadier Sa-
bine and proceeded to London, where, on
29 June, he was invested with the order of
the Thistle at a chapter held at St. James's
Palace. Next day, 30 June, he was raised to
the peerage as Baron Cadogan of Reading.
The preamble of the patent, setting forth
Cadogan's many services, is given in Collins's
' Peerage ' (2nd ed. v. 412). In September
Cadogan was appointed governor of the Isle
of Wight. The same year he became high
Cadogan
185
Cadogan
steward of Reading (CoATES, Hist, of Reading,
i App.) Returning to hia poofe at the Hague,
%"he signed, on 15 Sept. (new style) 1716, the
treaty of defensive alliance between Great
Britain, France, and Holland. After attend-
ing George I on a visit to Hanover, the
diplomatic duties at the Hague being mean-
while performed by Mr. Leathes, secretary
at Brussels, Cadogan came to England with
the king, and was sworn of the privy council
on 17 March 1717, and on 12 July following
was promoted to general ' of all and singular
the foot forces employed or to be employed
in our service ' (Home Office, Mil. Entry
Books, xi. 219). About the same time a vexa-
tious indictment was brought against him
in the lower house, in the shape of charges
of fraud and embezzlement in connection
with the transport of the Dutch troops to
the Thames and Humber during the rising
in the north. These were preferred by cer-
tain Jacobite members, to whom his success
in Scotland had made him particularly ob-
noxious. The spiteful attack was urged with
grotesque vehemence by Shippen, who was
supported by Walpole and Pulteney, and
opposed by Stanhope, Craggs, Lechmere, the
new attorney-general, and others, and evi-
dence in vindication of Cadogan was given
at the bar of the house (see BOYEK, Political
State, i. 697-794). But the motion was only
lost by a majority of ten. Cadogan resumed
his diplomatic duties in Holland during the
year, and on his return home, 8 May 1718,
was elevated to an earldom, with the titles
of Earl Cadogan, Viscount Caversham, and
Baron Cadogan of Oakley, the last title with
remainder, in default of male issue, to his
brother Charles [see below]. After this he
was again engaged at Brussels and the Hague
in negotiations with the imperialist minis-
ters and the Dutch representatives relative
to the working of the (third) barrier treaty.
Writing to Lord Stair, under date 10 March
1709, Lord Stanhope says : ' Good Lord Cado-
gan, though he has made the utmost profes-
sions of friendship and deference to other
people's measures, has certainly blown the
coals ; he has a notion of being premier mi-
nistre, which I believe you will with me
think a very Irish idea ' (Hist. MSS. Comm.
2nd Rep. 189). In February 1720 Cadogan was
despatched to Vienna, where, in conjunction
with the representatives of the contracting
powers, he arranged the terms of the acces-
sion of Spain to what was thenceforward
known as the quadruple alliance.
Upon the death of the Duke of Marl-
borough in June 1722, Cadogan succeeded
to the posts of commander-in-chief of the
army and master-general of the ordnance.
' On 1 7 July he received new
credentials and instructions as ambassador,
He became colonel of 1st foot guards from
18 June 1722 ; and was appointed a com-
missioner of Chelsea Hospital. His detractors
accused him of appearing at Marlborough's
funeral pageant indecorously dressed and be-
traying his want of sympathy by his looks
and gestures. This was probably a malicious
invention ; but it gave the point to some
savagely sarcastic lines by Bishop Atterbury,
which are quoted by Horace Walpole (Let-
ters, vii. 230). Atterbury having heard that
at the time of his committal to the Tower
Cadogan had declared that he ought to be
flung to the lions, retorted in a letter to
Pope with the lines describing Cadogan as
' ungrateful to th' ungrateful man he grew
by, A big, bad, bold, blustering, bloody, blun-
dering booby.' The year that witnessed the
death of Marlborough saw likewise a revival
of the Jacobite plots, including schemes for
tampering with the Tower garrison and seiz-
ing on the Tower and Bank. Apprised of
these projects, the government prevailed on
the king to postpone an intended visit to
Hanover, and to retire to Kensington Palace,
an encampment of the whole of the guards
being formed for his protection close by, in
Hyde Park, under the personal command of
Cadogan. In November 1722 the camp was
broken up. When the king embarked for
Hanover, Cadogan was appointed one of
the lords justices. The military records of
his rule as commander-in-chief and master-
general of the ordnance present little of inte-
rest. The chief event of his remaining years
was his litigation with the widowed Duchess
of Marlborough respecting a sum of 50,000/.,
which the duke at the time of his exile had
entrusted to him to place in the Dutch funds.
Cadogan, with the best intentions, had in-
vested the money in Austrian securities, which
at the time appeared more advantageous.
These, however, had greatly depreciated, and
the duchess, whose letters betray a querulous
feeling towards Cadogan, having insisted on
reimbursement, Cadogan, who had not ap-
plied the money to the specific purpose for
which it was entrusted to him, was obliged
to make good the deficiency at heavy loss.
In his early days at the Hague, Cadogan
married Margaretta, daughter of William
Munter, counsellor of the court of Holland,
and niece of Adam Tripp of Amsterdam,
by whom he had two daughters, the Lady
Sarah, afterwards married to the second
duke of Richmond, and the Lady Margaretta,
who married Count Bentinck, second son of
William, earl of Portland. The countess
long survived her husband, and died at the
Hague in October 1749, aged 75.
Cadogan died at his house at Kensington
Cadogan
186
Cadogan
Gravel Pits, then a rural village, on Sunday,
17 July 1726. In accordance with a wish
expressed in his will he was buried privately
at night in Henry VII's Chapel in West-
minster Abbey, on the Thursday following
his decease. A notice of his death appears
in ' Lettres Historiques ' for September 1726
(Hague), and some memoranda relating to
his Dutch estates are among the Portland
papers in the British Museum (Egerton MS.
1708, f. 43).
Personally Cadogan was a big, burly Irish-
man. A portrait, painted by Laguerre, re-
presenting him in a light-coloured wig and
a suit of silver armour worn over his scarlet
uniform, is in the National Portrait Gallery.
Horatio, lord Walpole, who was associated
with him in some of his diplomatic missions
at the Hague, describes him as rash and
impetuous as a diplomatist, lavish of pro-
mises when a present difficulty was to be
removed, and prone to think that pen and
sword were to be wielded with equal fierce-
ness. He also says that Cadogan needlessly
irritated the Dutch republic by his zeal in
promoting the election of the Prince of
Orange to the Stadtholdership of Groningen,
and affronted the citizens of Antwerp by
threatening in convivial moments to make
them follow their neighbours' example (CoxE,
Life of Lord Walpole, pp. 9-10). Upon oc-
casions he seems to have displayed much
magnificence. The papers of the period
speak of the splendour of some of his enter-
tainments when ambassador in Holland, and
a news-letter of 1724 mentions his appear-
ance at the drawing-room on the prince's
birthday ' very rich in jewels.' As a soldier
Cadogan must be ranked among the ablest
staff officers the British army has produced.
The confidence reposed in his judgment by
Marlborough and the high opinions expressed
of him by Prince Eugene and other foreign
officers of note bespeak his high capacity ;
he brought energy and skill to bear upon the
details of his great leader's plans, and showed
eminent administrative ability in performing
the multifarious duties of a quartermaster-
general.
General CHARLES CADOGAN, who succeeded
his brother as Baron Cadogan of Oakley,
entered the army in 1706, in the Coldstream
guards. He served in some of Marlborough's
later campaigns and in Scotland in 1715.
He sat in several parliaments for Reading,
and afterwards for Newport, Isle of Wight.
He purchased the colonelcy of the 4th ' king's
own' foot in 1719, and in 1734 became
colonel of the 6th Inniskilling dragoons.
He married a daughter of Sir Hans Sloane,
with which alliance commenced the connec-
tion of the Cadogan family with the borough
of Chelsea. At his death, which occurred
at his residence in Bruton Street, on 24 Sept.
1776, at the age of 85 (see FOSTER, Peerage),
Charles, lord Cadogan, was a general, colonel
of the 2nd troop of horse guards, governor of
Gravesend and Tilbury Fort, a F.R.S., and a
trustee of the British Museum. His only
son, Charles Sloane, was created Viscount
Chelsea and Earl Cadogan 27 Dec. 1800.
[EarlCadogan's name has not been found in the
early volumes of Irish Military Entry Books in
the Dublin Eecord Office, odd volumes of which
go back to 1697. His later commissions and
appointments, subsequent to 1715, appear in the
Home Office Military Entry Books and the
Treasury and Ordnance Warrant Books, under
date, in Public Record Office, London. Notices
of his services occur incidentally in Lediard's
Life of Marlborough ; in Coxe's Life of Marl-
borough, the preface to which indicates various
sources of information ; in the Marlborough
Despatches, edited by Sir George Murray; in
the London Gazettes of the period ; in Lettres
Historiques, published at the Hague, of which
there is a complete series in the British Museum ;
in the published records of various regiments of
cavalry and infantry which served in Marl-
borough's campaigns and can be traced through
the Army List ; in Correspondence of Sarah,
Duchess of Marlborough, 1834 ; and in Lord Ma-
hon's History of England, vol. i., where is a very
impartial account of the campaign in Scotland in
1715. The statements in the Stuart and Hanover
papers, in Original Papers, by Macpherson, must
be received with much reservation. Clode's ob-
servations on the military expenditure of the
period, in Military Forces of the Crown, i.
118-24, deserve attention, and many of the mili-
tary entries in the printed Calendars of Treasury
Papers for the period indirectly illustrate the
impecunious condition of the service at home
at the time. The British Museum Cat. Printed
Books, which has over 120 entries under the
name of the first Duke of Marlborough, has but
one under that of the first Earl Cadogan a
printed copy of a diplomatic note respecting a
British vessel pillaged by the Dutch at Cura90a
in 1715. Among the biographical notices of
Cadogan which have appeared, mention may be
made of those in Collins's Peerage, 2nd ed., v.
450, &c. ; Grainger's Biog. Hist. vol. iii. ; Timbs's
Georgian Era, vol. ii. ; General Sir Frederick
Hamilton's Origin and Hist. 1st or Grenadier
Gds. vol. ii. ; Cannon's Hist. Eec. 5th Drag. Gds.
A memoir which appeared in Colburn's United
Service Mag. January- April 1872, headed 'Marl-
borough's Lieutenants,' is chiefly noticeable for
its numberless errors and misstatements. Ma-
nuscript information is more abundant. Among
the materials in the Public Records are : Fo-
reign Office Records Flanders, Nos. 1 32-5, cor-
respondence from Brussels in 1709-10 ; ditto,
Flanders, No. 146, similar correspondence in
Cadogan
187
Cad roe
1714-15 ; ditto, Holland, Nos. 368, 372, 375,379,
381-2, 386-8, 391-4, 400-1 ; correspondence of
various dates relating to Cadogan's services in
Holland ; ditto, Germany, Nos. 214-15, 216, the
first two containing Cadogan's correspondence
during his embassy at Vienna with M. St. Saporta,
secretary of the Venetian Republic. Home Office
Papers, besides the information in the Military
Entry Books, contain in the Warrant and
Letter Books sundry entries relative to Cado-
gan's diplomatic services. In British Museum
manuscripts may be noted : Add. MSS. 21494,
ff. 64, 68, 72, letters dated 1703 ; 22196, a large
volume of correspondence, chiefly diplomatic, be-
tween Cadogan and Lord Raby, British repre-
sentative at Berlin, covering the period 1703-10,
where in one letter Raby incidentally recalls
early days in Dublin, ' when you was really a
poet,' and in another bespeaks Cadogan's inter-
cession for a prisoner at Spandau, an artillery
officer known to them both at the siege of King-
sale ; 28329, correspondence with Lady Seaforth
during the Scottish campaign in 1715 (see also
Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 445) ; 20319,
f. 39, letter on embassy to the Hague in 1718 ;
28155, f. 299, letter to Admiral Sir John Norris
in 1719; 29315, f. 35, letter to the Duke of
Grafton in 1721. Also Add. Ch. 16154, patent
of barony of Oakley, and 6300, appointment as
plenipotentiary at Vienna. Cadogan's corre-
spondence and other papers preserved in private
manuscript collections will be found indexed in
Hist. MSS. Comm. Reps., vol. ii., under ' Cado-
gan,' vol. iii, under ' Cadogan ' with various pre-
fixes, and under ' the Hague,' in vols. vi. and vii.
under ' Cadogan,' in vol. viii., where the Marl-
borough MSS., containing a mass of unpublished
material, are reported upon, although Cadogan's
name figures once only in the in