John Westby Gibson

“ The voyage was sanctioned by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had an exclusive crown grant of the whole coast. Instead of making the circuitous route by the Canaries, Gosnold steered, as the winds permitted, due west, only southing towards the Azores, and was the first to accomplish a direct course to America, saving 'the better part of a thousand leagues.' By 15 May the voyagers made the headland which they named Cape Cod. Here Gosnold, Brereton, and two others went ashore on 'the white sands,' the first spot in New England ever trodden by English feet. ”

“ In 1735 Blackwell published in London an octavo volume, without bookseller's or author's name, ‘An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer,’ arranged in twelve sections, as an answer to the question, ‘By what fate or disposition of things it has happened that no poet has equalled him for 2,700 years, nor any that we know ever surpassed him before?’ A second London edition in octavo, and also anonymous, came out in 1736, followed soon after by ‘Proofs of the Enquiry into Homer's Life and Writings, translated into English ”

“ In 1822 they removed to Sydney, where the father established a private school, the ‘Sydney Academy.’ In course of time he became principal of the Sydney public school, with his son as assistant-master, and on the resignation of the father, in 1829, the son became head-master—Archdeacon Scott, a friend of the family, being king's visitor. In 1830, however, he reopened the private school in Sydney, but when the high school called ‘Sydney College’ was founded in 1835, he transferred his private pupils to it, and was elected head-master. ”

“ AYRES, JOHN (fl. 1680-1700) , an eminent English penman, was of very humble origin, but the date and place of his birth are unknown. Coming up from the country a poor lad, he became footman to Mr. William Ashurst, alderman of London, then resident at Hornsey', who was knighted in 1689, and lord mayor of London in 1693-4. His master, taking a great liking to him, sent him to school, where he attained great efficiency in writing and arithmetic. ”

“ He is called 'the flower of chivalrie,' 'the prime young man of his age for all arts of both peace and war.' All speak of his connection with the crusades, but if there is truth in this part of his little-known history, he could not have been a young man at the time of his execution.
His lands of Brechin, Rothernay, Kinloch, and Knoegy were given by the king to David of Barclay, who, in 1315, had married his sister Margaret, and from whom the present possessors, the earls of Panmure, are descended. ”

“ In the same year he published ‘The African Committee, by T. E. Bowdich, conductor of the Mission to Ashantee,’ in which he attacked the African Company, and made such an exposure of the management of their possessions that the government was compelled to take them into its own hands. Feeling deficient in several of the requisites of a scientific traveller, he proceeded to Paris to perfect himself in mathematics, physical science, and natural history, and such was his progress that he soon after gained the Cambridge prize of 1,000l. ”

“ John, he started business as a printer under the name of ‘R. Newton,’ and began the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ His intention was to form a collection or ‘magazine’ (the first use of the name in this sense) , ‘to contain the essays and intelligence which appeared in the two hundred half sheets which the London press then threw off monthly,’ and in ‘probably as many more half sheets printed elsewhere in the three kingdoms.’ The periodical was to comprise varieties of all kinds. ”

“ Under dates from 1819 to 1825 there are also five scientific papers by Bowdich in ‘Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine,’ ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ and the ‘Zoological Journal.’
In figure Bowdich was slightly but well formed, and he possessed great activity of body and mind. He was an excellent linguist, a most pleasing and graphic writer, and his conversational powers made him a very agreeable companion. His enthusiastic devotion to science cost him his life. He left a widow and three children, one of them named after the two companions of his Ashantee mission. ”

“ In 1724 Bowyer was a nonjuror; we know nothing more of his religious views except a few traces, in his early life, recorded by Ord in the 'History of Cleveland,' where it is said that he had a controversy with a priest who defended the conduct of his sister, a professed nun of the order of Poor Clares, at Dunkirk. The letters commence October 1696, and end in June 1697, at the time when he was a journeyman printer at Daniel Sheldon's in Bartholomew Close. He seems to have been a very kind-hearted man, and ever ready to show kindness to others. ”

“ On crossing the Forth the highlanders were intent on plunder, but a summary act of justice by Cameron on a marauder, coupled with his just and humane orders as to discipline, gave his miscellaneous army an honourable character for forbearance. The insurgents were unopposed in their march to Edinburgh. Some leading citizens were returning from a mission to the prince, and as they were entering the West Port in a coach, Cameron poured in his men, disarmed the guards, and captured the city on the morning of 17 Sept. Other successes followed, mainly due to Cameron. ”

“ Queen Anne gave him the management of her private estate, and the king appointed him governor of the king's eldest son Henry in 1603. He had to form the household into what the king called ‘a courtly college,’ and no gentleman could take the prince out without his consent. For his services as the head official of the 420 servants of the prince his ‘wages and diet’ were 66l. 13s. 4d. a year. In 1605 he attended the prince to Oxford—Magdalen College being chosen out of respect to him—and there, along with forty-two noblemen, gentlemen, and esquires, he was made a master of arts. ”

“ Allan was of a kindly nature, and the only shadow resting on the story of his life is a long-standing quarrel with his father, which continued until the death of the latter in 1789; but the literary correspondence of the time seems to imply that the fault was not with the son. He retired from the law in 1790, and died suddenly of a second paralytic stroke, 18 May 1800. ”

“ The ‘London Magazine’ and ‘Scots Magazine’ followed the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ The ‘London Magazine,’ which lasted from 1732 to 1781, was his most successful rival. In April 1738 occurred the debate on the publication of proceedings in parliament, in consequence of Cave having given the king's answer to an address of parliament before it had even been reported from the chair, and the commons passed a resolution of ‘high indignation.’ The ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ and ‘London Magazine’ hit upon very similar evasions. ”

“ He taught himself drawing during his service, and in 1839 left the army with a high character. He next obtained an appointment as master-at-arms in the Albert, which with the Wilberforce and the Soudan sailed on the Niger expedition in 1842. On the voyage out he was wounded by a poisoned arrow in a conflict with the natives at the Cape de Verde Isles. Duncan held a conspicuous position in all the treaties made with the native chiefs. He was selected to march at the head of his party, in the cumbrous uniform of a lifeguardsman, when the heat was fearful even to the natives themselves. ”

“ The king selected Durel to translate the English prayer-book into French, and ordered his book to be used in all the parish churches of Guernsey and Jersey and at the Savoy Chapel. The right of sole printing was granted 6 Oct. 1662, the Bishop of London's chaplain sanctioned it in 1663, but the work did not appear until 1667, the title being ‘La Liturgie, c'est à dire Le Formulaire des Prieres publiques,’ &c., London, 8vo. Kennett says this translation was accepted with great favour by the reformed church in France. ”

“ When at Egga, the highest point reached by the Albert on the Niger, he ventured upon an exploration further up, taking a few natives only, but sickness compelled the abandonment of the project. On reaching Fernando Po Duncan was attacked by fever, the effects of which were aggravated by his previous wound. Of three hundred in the Niger expedition, only five survived, and Duncan reached England in a most emaciated condition. As soon as his health improved Duncan proposed to penetrate the unknown land from the western coast to the Kong mountains, and between the Lagos and Niger rivers. ”

“ In the same year an eminent printer, John Watts, recognised Caslon's skill in cutting binding-punches and employed him for that purpose as well as to cut type-punches. He also gave him the means to fit up a small foundry, and introduced him to other printers. Grover in Aldersgate Street, James in Aldermanbury, and the Clarendon House at Oxford were then the only good type-founders. Caslon now married, and in 1720 his first child, named William, was born. ”

“ The great living of Witney, Oxfordshire, was soon afterwards granted him by the king, his chief recommendation to royal favour being that ‘he was not only a good scholar but a perfect courtier, skilful in the arts of getting into the favour of great men.’
In his ‘View of the Government’ (p. 14) Durel mentions an intention to collect the liturgies of all the protestant churches, but nothing more is known of the matter. He died 8 June 1683, and is buried in the north aisle adjoining Windsor Chapel choir. ”

“ Her published poems were only fitted to win a little local popularity, and her only passport to fame is the claim so persistently asserted for her of the authorship of the ‘Song of the Mariner's Wife,’ or ‘There's nae Luck aboot the House!’ a simple, humorous, and touching lyric, one of the sweetest in any language. This may have been an old and favourite song that she used to recite to her pupils; but it is unlikely that such a strain of home and married love could have been written by this wayward and unwedded woman. ”

“ CHILMEAD, EDMUND (1610–1654) , miscellaneous writer (erroneously mentioned as Edward in several books) , was born in 1610 at Stow-in-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. He became one of the clerks of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1625, and copied out music-books for the college choir in 1632 and 1634. He graduated B.A. in 1628, and M.A. in 1632, and became in the latter year one of the chaplains of Christ Church, Oxford. He was ejected in 1648 as a royalist, and came to London in great necessity. Here he took lodgings with Thomas Este, the musician and printer of music. ”

“ CAVE, EDWARD (1691–1754) , printer, born at Newton, near Rugby, 27 Feb. 1691, was son of Joseph, a younger son of Edward Cave of the lone house on the Watling Street Road, called Cave's Hole. The entail of the family estate being cut off, Joseph Cave was reduced to follow the trade of a cobbler at Rugby. The son had a right of admittance to Rugby grammar school, which he entered in 1700. Dr. Holyoke, the principal, thought him fit for a university education ”

“ He was exceedingly fond of natural history and philosophical inquiry, and showed unusual method and reasoning in his experiments. While at Puteoli he visited the pope's alum works, and noticed the similarity of the surrounding vegetation to that of some parts of Guisborough on his own Yorkshire estate, and on his return, about 1600, made the discovery of alum-stone at Belman Bank, Guisborough, and opened there the first alum mines in England. Workmen from Rochelle were brought over to the work. ”

“ William Chapman, curate of Wareham, Dorsetshire, then rector of Strathfieldsay, Hampshire, was born in 1704, probably at the latter place. He was educated at Eton, and elected to King's College, Cambridge, where he became A.B. 1727, and A.M. 1731. While tutor of his college, Pratt (first Lord Camden) , Jacob Bryant, and, for a short time, Horace Walpole were amongst his pupils. He became chaplain to Archbishop Potter, and was made, in 1739, rector of Alderton, with the chapel of Smeeth, also rector of Salt wood in 1741, but resigned Saltwood in 1744 to become rector of Mersham, Kent. ”

“ In the French chronicles of the time we read of Cameron attending the ‘young chevalier’ on his visit to Versailles as his ‘master of the horse.’ His father died at Nieuport in Flanders, after a long exile of thirty-three years, in 1748. In the same year Cameron died. By his wife, Anne, daughter of Sir James Campbell, fifth baron Auchinbreck, he had three sons and four daughters: John, who succeeded to his father's Albany regiment, and was afterwards captain of Royal Scots in the French service, died 1762 ”

“ In 1610, when the young prince was created Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, and Chaloner was made his chamberlain, the scheme of M. Villeforest to extract silver from lead was entrusted by the prince to him and Sir William Godolphin for trial. In 1608 he recommended the making of water-pipes of earthenware, of which he asserted eight thousand could be made in a day, safer and stronger than metal ones. On Pette's trial for insufficiency as a shipwright, the king chose Chaloner to make the experiments on the powers and capacities of ships. ”

“ ANDERSON, JOHN (1789–1832) , genealogist, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, was born, 6 June 1789, at Gilmerton House, Midlothian, became a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and while passing the college examinations was appointed by the Duke of Hamilton (then Marquis of Douglas) first surgeon to the Lanarkshire Militia, and afterwards his own medical adviser, positions which he held to the time of his death. ”

“ He was formerly of Brancepeth, but at the age of thirty-two he removed to Neswick farm, under the late John Grimston, Esq. In the East Riding he was considered to be the best authority on farming. He was not only a clever writer and a good mathematician, but he possessed considerable mechanical information. ”

“ He was a man of strong muscular frame, and of sound constitution, His private life was distinguished by unsullied piety and kindliness. A lady member of his church once left him a handsome legacy, but on finding there were poor relations of hers existing, he quietly went to the Bank of England and transferred the whole amount to them. ”