Showing 91 results

COWPER, WILLIAM, son of John Cowper (qv), and his first wife; b. 15 Nov 1731; adm. Apr 1742 (Playford's); left 1749; articled to a solicitor 1750-2; adm. Middle Temple 29 Apr 1748, called to bar 14 Jun 1754; fell in love with his cousin Theodora, but the marriage was forbidden by her father; contributed verses to various papers; a member of the Nonsense Club, chiefly composed of Westminster men who dined together weekly; migrated to Inner Temple, adm. there 17 Jun 1757; owned chambers Inner Temple 1757 - still 1781; a Commissioner of Bankrupts (occurs in annual lists 1758-65); Clerk of Journals, House of Lords c. May - Nov 1763; the stress brought on by his acceptance of the appointment caused a suicide attempt and nervous breakdown; an inmate of Nathaniel Cotton’s private lunatic asylum at St. Albans, Dec 1763 - Jun 1765; lived with the Unwins at Huntingdon 1765-7 and subsequently with Mrs Unwin at Olney, where he was employed by the Rev. John Newton as a sort of lay-reader and district visitor; composed hymns, a number of which are printed in Newton’s Olney Hymns, 1779; became engaged to Mrs Unwin; again deranged 1773-5 and for part of that time a guest in Newton’s house; occupied himself in gardening and writing verse; published Anti-Thelypthora, 1781, an anonymous attack on the defence of polygamy written by his cousin Martin Madan (qv) in the previous year; published Poems, Feb 1782; wrote the famous ballad of John Gilpin, first published in The Public Advertiser, Nov 1782; began translating Homer 1784; published The Task, 1785; removed to Weston, Nov. 1786; again became insane 1787; published his translation of Homer, 1791; undertook to edit Milton; removed in 1795 to East Dereham, Norfolk, where Mrs Unwin died in the following year; a complete edition of his works was published in 15 vols. by Robert Southey (qv) in 1834-7; Cowper’s schooldays, to which he frequently refers in his correspondence, were probably the happiest days of his life, and his recollections of them afforded him much pleasure; he appears to have enjoyed playing cricket and football; his favourite friend was Sir William Russell, Bart. (qv), but he was “much intimate” with Walter Bagot (adm. 1739/40, qv); he had a “particular value” for Warren Hastings (qv), to whom he addressed some lines on his impeachment, and he showed his friendly feeling for Robert Lloyd (qv) in the verse epistle which he addressed to him in 1754; his poem Table Talk contains an interesting allusion to the custom in his time of awarding pieces of Maundy Money for a good copy of verses (lines 507-11); d. unm. 25 Apr 1800. Memorial window in baptistery of Westminster Abbey. DNB.

POYNTER, SIR EDWARD JOHN, BART., only son of Ambrose Poynter FRIBA, Park Street, Westminster, architect and Inspector, HM Schools of Design, and his first wife Emma, dau. of Rev. Edward Forster; b. 20 Mar 1836; adm. 3 Jun 1847 (Rigaud's); Min. Can. 1849; left Whitsun 1849; went to Ipswich GS and then to Brighton Coll.; studied art in England 1854-6, Paris 1856-9; a painter; ARA Jan 1869, RA 29 Jun 1876, President Royal Academy 4 Nov 1896-1918; member, Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours 1883; Slade Professor of Art, University Coll. London 1871-5; Director for Art and Principal of National Art Training School, South Kensington 1875-81; Director, National Gallery 1894-1905; FSA 7 Jun 1894; member, Society of Dilettanti 1895; knighted 25 Nov 1896; created baronet 2 Aug 1902; KCVO 3 Jun 1913; GCVO 3 Jun 1918; Hon. DCL Oxford 1898; Hon. LittD Cambridge 1898; author, Ten Lectures on Art 1879; m. 9 Aug 1866 Agnes, dau. of Rev. George Browne Macdonald, Wolverhampton, Staffs., Wesleyan Methodist minister; d. 26 Jul 1919.

FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, brother of William Froude (qv); b. 13 Apr 1818; adm. 15 Jan 1830 (Stelfox's); KS 1830; left 1833; Oriel Coll. Oxford, matr. 10 Dec 1835; Chancellor’s Prize for English Essay 1842; BA 1842; MA 1843; Devon Fellow, Exeter Coll. Oxford, 1842 - 27 Feb 1849, when his book Nemesis of Faith was burnt by Dr Sewell in Exeter College Hall; ordained deacon 1844, but availed himself of the provisions of the Clerical Disabilities Relief Act 19 Jul 1872; after his first marriage he devoted himself to historical and literary work; editor, Fraser’s Magazine, 1860-74; sent as Commissioner to Cape of Good Hope to report upon South African confederation 1874-5; Rector of St. Andrew’s Univ., 1868-71, LLD St. Andrew’s 1869; Hon. Fellow, Exeter Coll. Oxford 1882, Oriel Coll. Oxford 1892; Hon. LLD Edinburgh 1884; Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford Univ., from 18 Apr 1892; author, A History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1856-70, and other works; in his Shadows of the Clouds, 1847, Froude tells the melancholy story of Edward Fowler, a Westminster boy, which may contain reminiscences of his own far from happy school career (Paul, Life of Froude, 1905, 10-1); m. 1st, 3 Oct 1849 Charlotte Maria, fifth dau. of Pascoe Grenfell MP, Taplow Court, Bucks.; m. 2nd, 12 Sep 1861 Henrietta Elizabeth, dau. of John Ashley Warre MP, West Cliff House, Ramsgate, Kent; d. 20 Oct 1894. DNB.

MURRAY, WILLIAM, 1ST EARL OF MANSFIELD, fourth son of David Murray, 5th Viscount Stormont (S), and Margery, only child of David Scott, Scotstarvet, Fifeshire; b. 2 Mar 1704/5; adm. May 1718; for his journey from Scotland to Westminster on back of his pony, and for some curious items in the account of monies disbursed on his behalf before and after admission, see Lord Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices, ii, 313-6; KS (Capt. ) 1719; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1723, matr. 18 Jun 1723, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1723 – void 29 Jun 1737; BA 1727; MA 1730; defeated William Pitt (Earl of Chatham) in competition for prize offered by University for a Latin poem on the death of George I; Grand Tour; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 23 Apr 1724, called to bar 23 Nov 1730, Bencher 15 Dec 1742, Treasurer 1744; practised in Court of Chancery, and within two years of call had appeared in three appeal cases before House of Lords; KC 1742; Solicitor-Gen., 27 Nov 1742 – Apr 1754; MP Boroughbridge 29 Nov 1742 – 8 Nov 1756; his success in the House of Commons was as brilliant as his success at the bar, and he came to be regarded as the ablest government spokesman in the House; to discredit him, an old story was raked up about his toasting the Pretender in the company of James Johnson (adm. 1717/8, qv) and Andrew Stone (qv), but the Privy Council reported that there was no foundation for the charge; it was subsequently the subject of a debate in the House of Lords on 22 Mar 1753, but the Duke of Bedford’s motion for the production of the proceedings before the Privy Council was rejected by 122 votes to 5, and no further enquiry was made (Campbell, ii, 370-6; Walpole, Letters, ed. Toynbee, iii, 148; the papers relating to the charge of toasting are in the British Library, Newcastle MSS 33050, ff. 200-368); Attorney-Gen., 9 Apr 1754 – Nov 1756; defended the Duke of Newcastle’s administration against attacks by Pitt in the House of Commons; on the death in 1756 of Sir Dudley Ryder, Lord Chief Justice, Murray claimed the vacant post and a peerage; Lord Chief Justice of England 8 Nov 1756 – 4 Jun 1788; created Baron Mansfield 8 Nov 1756; Privy Councillor 19 Nov 1756; held seals of Chancellor of the Exchequer Apr – Jun 1757, Sep – Dec 1767; accepted cabinet seat in Duke of Newcastle’s second administration, without office but with disposal of the Scottish patronage, Jul 1757; created Earl of Mansfield 31 Oct 1776, with special remainder to Louisa, wife of his nephew David Murray, 7th Viscount Stormont (S) (qv); owing to his approval of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill of 1778, his house in Bloomsbury Square was sacked and burned by the Gordon Rioters 7 Jun 1780; the loss of his library and MSS was lamented by William Cowper (qv) in some charming verses (Works, ed. Southey, viii, 322-3); spoke for last time in House of Lords 23 Mar 1784; after 1788 lived in retirement at Caen Wood, Highgate; received a new creation as Earl of Mansfield 1 Aug 1792, with special remainder to his nephew David Murray, 7th Viscount Stormont (S) (qv); the position which he held for many years as a Cabinet minister was anomalous; in Feb 1775 he stated in the House of Lords that “he had been a Cabinet Minister part of the late reign, and the whole of the present”, but that he had ceased “to act as an efficient Cabinet minister” shortly before the formation of the Rockingham ministry (Parliamentary History, xviii, 274-5); twice refused post of Lord Chancellor, but acted as Speaker of House of Lords Jan 1770 – Jan 1771 and Feb – Dec 1783; as a parliamentary speaker Pitt was his only rival; by birth a Jacobite and by association a Tory, his politics were more or less dominated by his legal interests; his reputation as a statesman is somewhat blurred by his support of the coercing of the American colonies; as an advocate known as “the silver-tongued Murray”; his ascendancy as Lord Chief Justice is indicated by the claim that during the thirty-two years that he held office there were only two cases in which his opinion was not unanimously adopted by his colleagues, and that only two of his judgments were reversed on appeal (Campbell, ii, 395-6); Mansfield’s charges to juries on the law of libel made him unpopular with contemporary public opinion, and he was violently attacked by Junius; the founder of modern commercial law and one of the greatest of common law judges; as a young man a friend of Pope, who dedicated to him his Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace, and cdelebrated his charms in Book IV, Ode I; Busby Trustee 25 Feb 1741/2; m. 20 Sep 1738 Lady Elizabeth Finch, seventh dau. of Daniel Finch, 6th Earl of Winchilsea and 2nd Earl of Nottingham (qv); d. 20 Mar 1793. Buried North Transept, Westminster Abbey (monument), having expressed a desire in his will to be buried there on account of “the love I bear to the place of my early education”. DNB.

ATTERBURY, FRANCIS, brother of Lewis Atterbury (qv); b. 6 Mar 1662/3; adm.; KS 1674; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1680, matr. 17 Dec 1680, aged 17, Westminster Student 18 Dec 1680-94 (void, perhaps on marriage), Tutor 1687-90; BA 1684; MA 1687; BD and DD 5 May 1701; replied to Obadiah Walker’s attack upon the Reformation 1687; assisted his pupil Hon. Charles Boyle in his defence of the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris against Bentley; ordained; Lecturer, St. Bride’s, London 1701; Chaplain in Ordinary to William III and Queen Mary, subsequently to Queen Anne; warmly opposed Erastianism and protested against the suppression of Convocation; Archdeacon of Totnes 11 Jun 1701-13; Prebendary of Exeter 6 May 1704; Dean of Carlisle 2 Oct 1704; Prolocutor of Lower House of Convocation 1710; Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, 28 Sep 1711-3; installed Dean of Westminster 16 Jun 1713 and consecrated Bishop of Rochester 15 Jul 1713; although he took part officially in the coronation of George I, he refused to sign the declaration of confidence in the government after the rebellion of 1715, and subsequently was in direct communication with the Jacobites; arrested and imprisoned in the Tower 24 Aug 1722, for his alleged connection with an attempt to restore the Stuarts; a bill of pains and penalties was passed through the House of Commons, and carried in the House of Lords by 83 votes to 43; deprived of all his ecclesiastical preferments 1 Jun 1723, and banished from the kingdom; visited in the Tower by some of the senior King’s Scholars before his departure; resided first at Brussels and afterwards in France as general adviser to the Old Pretender; a man of marked attainments, but cursed with an imperious and aggressive temper, and possessed of “a rare talent for fomenting discord”; his old friend George Smalridge (qv), who succeeded him both at Carlisle and at Christ Church, used to say that “Atterbury comes first and sets everything on fire, and I follow with a bucket of water”; regarded as one of the leading preachers of his day, and in Addison’s opinion was “one of the greatest geniuses of his age”; much to the annoyance of Old Westminsters, Atterbury removed the Election in 1718 from the School to the Jerusalem Chamber, and put down the Election Dinner (HMC Portland MSS, v, 561, vii, 275); owing to his insistence the new Dormitory was built on its present site, the first stone being laid 24 Apr 1722; Busby Trustee from 27 Feb 1705/6; m. c. 1695 Catherine Osborne; d. in exile in Paris 22 Feb 1731/2 and buried privately in the south aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey 12 May 1732. DNB.

ROBINSON, RICHARD, 1ST BARON ROKEBY (I), sixth son of William Robinson, Rokeby, Yorks., and Merton Abbey, Surrey, and Anne, dau. of Robert Walters, Cundall, Yorks.; b.; adm. (aged 9) Oct 1720; Min. Can. 1721; KS 1722; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1726, matr. 13 Jun 1726, Westminster Student 22 Dec 1726 – void 18 Apr 1740 (expiry year of grace as R. Etton from 16 Apr 1739); BA 1730; MA 1733; BD and DD 1748 (incorp. BD Dublin 1751); ordained deacon (Winchester) 2 Mar 1734, priest (Oxford) 23 Dec 1735; Curate, Cowley, Oxfordshire 1737; Chaplain to Most Rev. Lancelot Blackburne (qv), Archbishop of York, 1738; Prebendary of York 4 May 1738 – Nov 1751; Rector of Etton, Yorks., 20 Apr 1739-52; Rector of Hutton Bushel, Yorks. 22 Apr 1742; Chaplain to Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (qv), Lord Lieut. Ireland, 1751; consecrated Bishop of Killala 19 Jan 1751/2; translated to Ferns and Leighlin 19 Apr 1759 and to Kildare 13 Apr 1761; installed Dean of Christ Church, Dublin 16 Apr 1761; Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland from 8 Feb 1765; Privy Councillor (I) 22 Feb 1765; Vice-Chancellor, Dublin Univ., 1765-91; created Baron Rokeby (I) 26 Feb 1777; first Prelate, Order of St. Patrick, from the Order’s foundation in 1783; succ. brother as 3rd baronet 1785; financed the building of Canterbury Quadrangle, Christ Church, Oxford 1773-83; FSA 6 Jun 1776; spent large sums of money on improvement of his diocese, and left a bequest for the establishment of an university in Ulster; d. unm. 10 Oct 1794, aged 86. DNB.

Adrian, Edgar Douglas, 1st Baron Adrian; brother of Harold Douglas Adrian (q.v.); b. Nov. 30, 1889; adm. Sept. 24, 1903; K.S. (non-resident) Sept. 22, 1904 (G); elected head to Trin. Coll. Camb. (with Samwaies) July 1908, scholar 1908, fellow Oct. 9, 1913; St class Nat. Science Trip., part 1, 1910, part 2 (Physiology), 1911; B.A. 1911; M.A. 1915; M.B. and B.C. 1915; M. D. 1919; represented Camb. in the Inter-University Foils Competition 1912; joint Coutts Trotter student 1912; Walsingham Gold Medal for Physiology 1912; Gedge Prize 1914; Rolleston Memorial Prize 1916; Horton-Smith Prize 1919; Lecturer at Trin. Coll. 1919; University Lecturer in Advanced Physiology 1920; was a student at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, M.R.C.P. (London), 1916; F.R.S. 1923; F.R.C.P. 1924; a Governor of the School March 1926; Foulerton Research Professor of the Royal Society 1929-37; Nobel Prize 1932; Hon. D.Sc. Oxon. 1936; various degrees later from British and foreign universities; Professor of Physiology, Cambridge, 1937-51; Master of Trinity Coll. Camb. since 1951; Vice-Chancellor 1957-59; first Chancellor of Univ. of Leicester 1958; Copley Medal of the Royal Soc. 1946; Foreign Secretary of the Royal Soc. 1946-50, and President 1950-55; President of the British Association 1954; President, Royal Society of Medicine, 1960-62; O.M. June 11, 1942; created Baron Adrian 1955; a Busby Trustee 1949; elected a Trustee of the Rockefeller Institute 1962; temp. Lieut. R.A.M.C. Jan. 1, 1916, Capt. Jan. 1, 1917-19; m. June 14, 1923, Hester Agnes, daughter of Hume Chancellor Pinsent, of Boar's Hill, Oxford; d. 4 Aug. 1977.

PEARCE, ZACHARY, son of John Pearce, St. Giles in the Fields, Holborn, Middlesex, distiller; b. 8 Sep 1692; adm. 12 Feb 1704; QS 1707; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1710, adm. pens. 8 Jun 1710, scholar 14 Apr 1711; BA 1713/4; MA 1717; DD Lambeth 1 Jun 1724; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 29 Sep 1716, Major Fellow 1 Jul 1717; ordained deacon 22 Dec 1717, priest 8 Jun 1718 (both Ely); Chaplain to Earl of Macclesfield, Lord Chancellor; Rector of St. Bartholomew’s by the Exchange, London 19 Mar 1719/20-4; FRS 30 Jun 1720; Chaplain in Ordinary to George I and II 1721-39; Vicar of St. Martin in the Fields, London 10 Jan 1723/4-56; Dean of Winchester 2 Aug 1739; consecrated Bishop of Bangor 21 Feb 1747/8; Dean of Westminster 4 May 1756 – 24 Jun 1768, res.; translated from Bangor to Rochester 9 Jul 1756, holding see to death; edited Longinus, 1721, and other works; bequeathed his library to Dean and Chapter of Westminster; m. Feb 1721/2 Mary, dau. of Richard Adams, Holborn, distiller; d. 29 Jun 1774. Monument, South Aisle, Westminster Abbey. DNB.