Bertha Porter

“ After disarming the guard, four men, under pretence of bearing despatches from Cromwell, entered Rainsborough's room and claimed him as their prisoner. Rainsborough, being unarmed, offered no resistance. But, when downstairs, he ‘saw himself, his lieutenant, and his sentinel at his door prisoners to three men and one that held their horses, without any party to second them;’ he cried for arms, and a scuffle ensued, in which Rainsborough was killed. ”

“ His taste in architectural design has been much censured, but he did some good work in the mechanical branches of his art. His strange attempt to remodel Gothic architecture has made 'Batty Langley's Gothic' almost a by-word. He established a school or academy of architectural drawing, in which he was assisted by his brother Thomas, an engraver. Elmes (Lectures, 390) states that all his pupils were carpenters, and gives him credit for having trained many useful workmen. He had a large surveying connection, and was a valuer of timber (advertisement in Langley, London Prices, 1748) . ”

“ After brief experiences as a solicitor's clerk in Bristol, and as an usher in a private school at Honiton, he joined a travelling company of actors in the west of England, and remained on the stage in a humble capacity for some years. ”

“ He was admitted to the schools of the Royal Academy on 8 March 1809, obtained the silver medal in 1810 for an architectural drawing, and the gold medal in 1813 for a ‘design for a nobleman's country mansion.’ In 1812 the Society of Arts awarded him a silver medal for a drawing. In 1818 he was elected Royal Academy travelling student, after which he studied abroad for four years, chiefly in Italy, but also visiting Greece and Asia Minor. On his return to England he exhibited designs at the Royal Academy, and, settling in London, obtained an extensive professional connection. ”

“ The Oxford Five-mile Act necessitated frequent changes of abode, and he laboured in London, Bristol, Pinner, and Torrington, as well as Barnstaple. It is not known how long he presided over his newly gathered congregation, with whom, however, he communicated either in person or by letter to the time of his death. Previous to the building of a meeting-house in 1672, near the castle, the congregation met in a private malthouse or warehouse, where two or three confidential friends were ready to give notice of the approach of informers. Hanmer was a scholar and a man of generous views. ”

“ In 1840 he became professor of the ‘arts of construction, in connection with civil engineering and architecture,’ at King's College, London, a professorship which was altered the following year into the combined one of the ‘principles and practice of architecture’ and of ‘engineering constructions.’ This he held till his death. ”

“ Under the Commonwealth he maintained, without molestation from the authorities, a 'Loyal Lecture,' at which monthly collections were made for the suffering clergy, and he usually preached a funeral sermon on the 'Royal Martyrdom.' In 1660, being one of the ministers deputed to attend the commissioners for the city of London, he went over to the Hague to meet Charles II, and there preached a sermon which gave the king great satisfaction. ”

“ PECKWELL, HENRY (1747–1787) , divine, son of Henry Peckwell of Chichester, was born in 1747. About 1764 he entered the house of an Italian silk merchant in London, with the intention of representing the firm in Italy. But he spent more of his time at Whitefield's Tabernacle than in the counting-house, and before his term was finished gave up his position and matriculated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, on 17 May 1770. He soon attracted the notice of the Countess of Huntingdon, who made him one of her chaplains. Before 1773 he visited Dublin, and drew large congregations in the city. ”

“ GWYNN, GWYN, or GWYNNE, JOHN (d. 1786) , architect, was born 'of a respectable family' in Shrewsbury, probably in the parish of St. Chad's, but the year of his birth is not known. He is said to have left his native town in early childhood. He does not seem to have been educated as an architect. In 1760 he was described as 'till of late of another profession' (Observations on Bridge Building, p. 22) . He became known in London as early as 1734, as a writer on art and a draughtsman. In 1749 (3 Oct.) he published 'A Plan for Rebuilding the City of London after the great fire in 1666 ”

“ He is said to have written the ‘Contemplations upon Life and Death,’ published under Sir John's name in the same year, which provoked the Jacobites by a paragraph condemning the design of assassinating King William.
White's private character was exemplary. In his youth he had been remarkable for his physical strength and agility. There is a story that on one occasion, when accompanying the bishop of Rochester to Dartford to officiate there, a trooper of the guard insulted the two and impeded their progress. White reproved the man, who retaliated by challenging him to fight it out. ”

“ Vulliamy was elected associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 13 March 1838, was auditor for the year 1842, and obtained in 1846 a premium of books for a paper on railway clocks. He was made free of the Clockmakers' Company on 4 Dec. 1809, admitted to the livery in January 1810, and five times filled the office of master. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society on 14 Jan. 1831, and retained his connection with the society till his death. He was a man of refined taste in art, and possessed no small knowledge of architecture, paintings, and engravings. ”

“ HARDWICK, THOMAS (1752–1829) , architect, born in 1752, was son of Thomas Hardwick of New Brentford, Middlesex, who resided on the family property, and carried on first the business of a mason and builder, and subsequently that of an architect. Hardwick became a pupil of Sir William Chambers, and under him worked at the construction of Somerset House. In 1768 he obtained the first silver medal offered by the Royal Academy in the class of architecture. He began to exhibit architectural drawings in the Academy in 1772, and continued exhibiting till 1805. ”

“ The family was of Swiss origin. Justin Vulliamy, an ancestor, coming to England in 1704 to study the construction of English clocks and watches, under one Benjamin Gray, finally succeeded to his master's business at 68 Pall Mall, after having married his daughter. The old shop was situated where the Marlborough Club now stands (view in Cassell's Old and New London, iv. 139) . The firm obtained the appointment of clockmakers to the crown in 1742, which it held for 112 years. Benjamin, the father of the subject of this article, was the first to sink an artesian well in England. ”

“ In Sydney William was apprenticed to a general builder and surveyor, and for nearly four years he worked with his own hands ‘in actual constructions, which involved most of the handicrafts employed by the engineer and architect’ (Introductory Lecture at King's College, 1841, p. 9) . In 1819 he returned with his parents to England, and in 1820 was articled for three years to W. Jenkins, architect, of Red Lion Square. He subsequently travelled for a year in Italy and Sicily, studying for his profession and making drawings. ”

“ In almost every competition for a building of any importance, drawings were sent in by Goodwin, in the preparation of which he spared no expense. He designed a scheme for an extensive cemetery in the vicinity of the metropolis, with buildings from the best examples in Athens, and exhibited his drawings gratuitously in an office taken for the purpose in Parliament Street. ”

“ As an engineer Gough made surveys in 1845, partly on his own account and partly in conjunction with R. L. Roumieu, for the Exeter, Dorchester, and Weymouth Junction Coast railway; for the Direct West-End and Croydon railway; and for the Dover, Deal, Sandwich, and Ramsgate Direct Coast railway. From 1846 to 1848 he was occupied in numerous surveys for compensation claims against the South-Eastern railway, the Great Northern, the London and North-Western, and the Eastern Counties railways. He was a man of great industry, and most precise and methodical in his manner of working. ”

“ The four dissenting congregations had each a license for its place of worship and its pastor, but the licenses to dissenters were made void in February 1675. On Sunday the 14th Hardcastle and others were taken while preaching, and the following day committed to Newgate prison in the town. In May Hardcastle was removed under a writ of habeas corpus to London, and was tried at Westminster on the 15th of the month, returning on 4 June to Bristol, where he remained in prison till 2 Aug. ”

“ LEE, SAMUEL (1625–1691) , puritan divine, born in 1625, was the only son of Samuel Lee, haberdasher of small wares in Fish Street Hill, London. He was probably connected with the Lees of Cheshire, for which county he entertained 'an exuberant and natural love' (see Chron. Cestrense, p. 1) . He was educated at St. Paul's School under Dr. Gill, entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1647, and was created M.A. by the parliamentary visitors on 14 April 1648. ”

“ Holland was district surveyor of Hatton Garden Liberty, Ely Rents, Saffron Hill, St. Mary-le-Strand with the Duchy of Lancaster, and precincts of the Savoy. On 17 July 1789 he, with nine other architects, including Robert Adam, George Dance, and John Soane, was appointed by a committee of the House of Commons to inspect and report upon the buildings of the houses of parliament with the offices attached. ”

“ Already in 1637, when Scituate was petitioning for more land, Vassall had managed to quarrel with his surroundings, and a new tract of land was granted to the place on the condition that a township was founded and that the differences with Vassall were composed. In 1638 he took the oath of fidelity. Though a public-spirited man, his usefulness was much restricted by his inability to agree with those around him. He became one of the richest settlers in Plymouth colony. ”

“ On 22 Sept. 1771 he was ordained priest, and on 21 Aug. 1772 was presented to the living of Aveley in Essex through the interest of Thomas Barrett-Lennard, seventeenth baron Dacre. In March 1773 he took the curacy of Wennington, also in Essex, which he held with his living. In December 1775 he was made chaplain to Lord Dacre, and in 1777 he graduated LL.B. at Cambridge. At Aveley Patrick performed his clerical duties irregularly. He was frequently employed by Lord Dacre, to the neglect of his parochial work, in the examination of old deeds or in the manufacture of genealogy. ”

“ For the preparation of the study Hardwick had received permission to excavate. The model was presented to the British Museum by his son Philip in 1851. He was an original member of the Architects' Club in 1791. J. W. M. Turner, R.A., was in Hardwick's office for a time studying architecture, but was advised by him to abandon his notion of becoming an architect, and to devote himself to landscape-painting. Hardwick died 16 Jan. ”

“ On leaving the university he passed at once to Whitehall, and became domestic chaplain to Cromwell and preacher to the council of state. His attractive person and witty conversation soon made him popular. His position in the household of the Protector brought him into close relationship with his family, and White allowed his ambition to go so far as to aspire to the hand of Cromwell's youngest daughter Frances. ”

“ From Chester he was released without bonds by order of the king, upon which he went to London, was baptised, and joined Henry Jessey's baptist congregation. In 1670 he was imprisoned for six months in London under the Conventicle Act. The congregation at Broadmead, Bristol, meanwhile sought his services as pastor. His London congregation had only appointed him upon trial, but the suggestion that he should go to Bristol caused disputes between the two congregations, which lasted some years. ”

“ The Propylæum, or architectural gateway, with its lodges, separating the station from the public street, is remarkable for its magnitude and its strictly classical character. A drawing was in the Academy in 1837 (see Bourne and Britton, Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway, p. 14, and drawing ii. engraving by C. F. Cheffins; plate in Companion to the Almanack, 1839, p. 233) . The great hall at Euston station was afterwards added, from designs by Hardwick's son, Mr. P. C. Hardwick. ”