retired to Mendip, in Somersetshire, where they established charity schools, and devoted themselves, in other ways, to the religious instruction of the neighbouring poor.

WHITE, (JOSEPH,) the son of a weaver, was born at Stroud, in Gloucestershire, in 1746, and was sent, by a gentieman in the neighbourhood, who had noticed his inclination for reading, to Wadham College, Oxford, were he graduated M. A. in 1773, and obtained a fellowship. Devoting himself particularly to the study of oriental literature, he was, in 1775, appointed Laudian professor of Arabic, and shortly afterwards, editor of the Philoxenian Syriac version of the Four Gospels, which he published in 1778, with a Latin translation and notes. About the same time, he was nominated one of the preachers at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall; and, in 1781, delivered, as preacher of the Bampton lecture, a set of sermons on the evidences of Christianity. They were published in 1784, and procured the subject of our memoir distinguished reputation; which, however, much declined, on the discovery of the share in them which belonged to Dr. Parr. After having been collated to a prebend at Gloucester, and taken the degree of D. D., he married, and obtained a college living in Suffolk, whither he removed about 1790, and set up a printing press in his own house. He died in 1814, having published, in addition to the works before-mentioned, an edition of Major Davey's translation, from the Persian, of the Institutes of Timour; Egyptiaca, with a Latin version of Abdollatiph's account, in Arabic, of Egypt; an edition of the Greek Testament, from the text of Griesbach; and A Harmony of the Four Evangelists, in Greek.

O'KEEFE, (JOHN,) was born in Dublin, in 1746, of catholic parents, and received the chief part of his education under a priest of that persuasion. He appears, at first, to have studied drawing, with some success, at the Royal Academy of his native city; but a defect in his sight, induced him to relinquish all idea of becoming an artist by profession. He then took to dramatic composition and, at the age of sixteen,

wrote a comedy, called The Generous Lovers; but his first production brought on the stage was entitled The She Gallant, acted at Dublin, in 1764. He soon afterwards appeared on the stage himself. and continued to act and compose during a period of twelve years; at the expiration of which he came to London, where he produced several successful plays, chiefly at the Haymarket Theatre. Whatever emolument he might have derived from his dramatic labours was speedily dissipated; and, in 1800, he found himself under the necessity of taking a benefit at Covent Garden Theatre, on which occasion, he drew tears from the whole audience. His benefit produced him a sum with which he purchased an annuity, and shortly afterwards he retired to Chichester, where he composed that very entertaining work, his Recollections. O'Keefe's most popular pieces are, his Wild Oats, The Castle of Andalusia, Fontainbleau, The Poor Soldier, Peeping Tom, and The Highland Reel. Besides these, he wrote The World in a Village, Tony Lumpkin in Town, The London Hermit, Life's Vagaries, and a variety of others, principally farce and opera. The success which most of his productions met with was, in a great measure, owing to the subjects being founded on fact, and the characters drawn, as it were, on the spot, from the author's own observation of them. O'Keefe is said to be a convivial companion, fond of his glass and his jest, though inoffensive in the one, and temperate in the other; and is, by all who know him, much beloved and respected. The part of Dobbin, in The Man Milliner, having been given to Rock instead of Quick, for whom it was designed, O'Keefe induced the manager to follow his own wishes, by sending him the following lines:

As on the wave expose I must
My freight of little wit,
Oh let me to a Quick-sand trust,
Nor on a Rock be split.

SEWARD, (ANNA,) the daughter of a clergyman, was born at Eyam, in Derbyshire, in 1747. She received but an ordinary education, her parents not being anxious to encourage the taste and talent which she early displayed for literature. Her correspondence,

notice, roused his indignation against that crime to such a pitch, that he challenged, to single combat, a nobleman, famous, at the time, for his licentiousness and debauchery; who, however, declined answering him. After returning from a philanthropic tour in France, he selected two girls from the poor-house, at Shrewsbury, with the intention of educating them after the principles of Rousseau, and of making one of them his wife; but their conduct did not answer his expectations, though, on their union with the objects of their choice, he presented them with £500 each. In 1778, he married a Miss Esther Milnes, and retired to his estates in Essex and Surrey, where he took an active part in the public meetings of the time, and was an eloquent speaker in behalf of American independence and parliamentary reform. He also wrote several political pamphlets, in one of which, with reference to negro slavery, he says, "If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot signing resolutions of independence with the one hand, and, with the other, brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves." The work, however, which gained him his chief celebrity, is his Sandford and Merton, one of the most popular ever written for the information of youth, and powerfully inculcating all the manly virtues, and containing no small portion of instruction in the principles of science. With the same end in view, but adapted for lower life, he also wrote The History of Little Jack. This high-minded and benevolent man was killed, by a fall from his horse, on the 28th of September, 1789; and his wife was so afflicted with the intelligence, that she is said to have closed round her the curtains of her bed, and never after suffering the light of the sun to visit them, died, in that melancholy state, about two years afterwards.

SMITH, CHARLOTTE, whose | maiden name was Turner, was born in Sussex, in 1749, and possessed a handsome fortune at the time of her marriage with Mr. Smith, who soon dissipated the whole of it by his extravagance. The state of indigence into which she was thus brought, is said to have called forth the display of those abilities, for

which she subsequently became celebrated, and which enabled her to support her husband and family in tolerable comfort. She passed much of the latter part of her life in Normandy; but died, after her return to England, at Thetford, Surrey, in the autumn of 1806. As a novelist, Mrs. Smith is favourably known to the public by her Romance of Real Life, Emmeline, Desmond, Marchmont, Ethelinda, Celestina, and others; besides which, she wrote some elegiac sonnets, a poem called The Emigrant, and some works well adapted for youth, entitled Rural Walks, Rambles Farther, Minor Morals, and Conversation; all of which display no ordi

nary powers.

HUDDESFORD, (GEORGE,) son of the Rev. William Huddesford, principal of Trinity College, Oxford, was born in 1750, and educated at Winchester, and New College, where he graduated B.A. in 1777, and M.A. in 1780. Having, in the meantime, entered into holy orders, he was presented to the vicarage of Loxley, in Warwickshire, and died in London, in November, 1809. He is known as the author of a variety of comical and satirical pieces, which, in their time, attracted considerable notice, and, as may be guessed from their titles, evinced much originality of style in the author. They consist of Salmagundi, a miscellaneous combination of original poetry; Topsy Turvy, with Anecdotes and Observations Illustrative of the Leading Characters in the Government of France, 1790; Bubble and Squeak, a Galli-maw-fry of British Beef, with chopped Cabbage of Gallic Philosophy and Radical Reform; Crambe Repetita; The Wiccamical Chaplet, a selection of original poetry, comprising smaller poems, serious and comic; Les Champignons du Diable, or Imperial Mushrooms, a mock-heroic poem, in five cantos, including a conference between the Pope and the Devil on his holiness's visit to Paris in 1805.

DALZELL, (ANDREW,) the son of a farmer, in the parish of Ratho, near Edinburgh, was born there about the year 1750. He completed his education at the university of the Scotch metropolis, whence he proceeded to the continent, in the capacity of tutor to

the Earl of Lauderdale. On his return, he was appointed Greek professor at the university, and in that character obtained considerable celebrity, particularly by the publication of his selections from the works of ancient Greek writers, under the titles of Collectanea Græca Minora, and Collectanea Græca Majora. He was subsequently appointed secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, to whose Transactions he was a valuable contributor; keeper of the public library in the university, and principal clerk to the general assembly of the Scottish clergy; and died in 1806. He was one of the most eloquent and affecting lecturers of his day, and at the conclusion of some of his discourses, both himself and his pupils were not unfrequently in tears.

LEE, (SOPHIA,) the daughter of a gentleman bred to the law, but who afterwards became an actor, was born in London, in 1750. She received a good education, which she studied to improve by literary pursuits, and, in 1780, appeared in print as the author of a comedy, entitled The Chapter of Accidents. The success it met with produced her considerable profits, with which she opened a school at Bath; and, in 1784, she published her celebrated novel of The Recess, and in 1787, a ballad, called A Hermit's Tale. Both of them increased her reputation, and the public looked with favourable anxiety for the representation of her tragedy of Almeyda, Queen of Granada, which was performed in 1796, but disappointed the general expectations, although Mrs. Siddons played the heroine. In the Canterbury Tales of her sister, Miss Harriet Lee, the subject of our memoir wrote three tales; from one of which, entitled Krutzner, Lord Byron adapted his tragedy of Werner. In 1803, she relinquished her school, and after having given to the public a novel, called The Life of a Lover, and her comedy of The Assignation, she died at Clifton, near Bristol, on the 13th of March, 1824. Her writings display ingenuity and pathos, and appeal forcibly to the passions, and at once strike, interest, and excite the reader. names of both Sophia and Harriet Lee will, possibly, obtain a permanent record in the annals of literature.

The

BUTLER, (CHARLES,) nephew to the Rev. Alban Butler, author of the Lives of the Saints, and son of a linen-draper, was born in Pall Mall, London, on the 15th of August, 1750. He was educated at the Roman catholic academy at Hammersmith, and at the English College of Douay, on leaving which he was placed with an eminent conveyancer, of the name of Holliday. He studied his profession with zeal, notwithstanding his attachment to classical literature, and ultimately became one of our most eminent equity draughtsmen, besides attaining considerable fame as a writer. He was not called to the bar until 1791, when he was the first Roman catholic who had that honour, after the passing of the relief bill in that year. He never, however, argued any case, except the celebrated one of Cholmondeley v. Clinton, before Sir Thomas Plumer and the house of lords. His first publication, which attracted particular notice, was his Horæ Biblicæ, first printed in 1797, and of which five editions have appeared, besides a French translation. It was followed by his Hora Juridica Subsecivæ, a valuable and learned work, reprinted in 1807. His writings in behalf of the catholics are numerous and valuable, and involved him in occasional controversy with some eminent men of letters. principal are his Historical and Literary Account of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or Symbolic Books of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant Churches, octavo; the Book of the Roman Catholic Church; and A Vindication of the same against the Reverend George Townshend's Accusations. It gave rise to no less than six replies on the protestant side, all of which Mr. Butler answered in an Appendix to the Vindication. His professional works are, An Essay on the Legality of Impressing Seamen; Hargrave's edition, completed, of Coke upon Lyttleton, in which he has given an admirable annotation on feuds; and the sixth edition of Fearne on Contingent Remainders. His other works are too numerous to specify; they consist chiefly, of a continuation of Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints; separate Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Lawyers and Divines; History of the Geographical and Political Revolutions of

The

Germany; Reminiscences of Himself; and a variety of tracts relative to the Roman catholic church and doctrines.

WAKEFIELD, (PRISCILLA,) was born at Tottenham, on the 31st of January, 1751. Sir Richard Phillips, in his biographical collection, says, that her maiden name was Trewman; but a writer in The New Monthly Magazine describes her as the eldest daughter of Daniel Bell, and grand-daughter of the celebrated Robert Barclay, who wrote the Apology for the Quakers. She was married, in January, 1771, to Mr. Edward Wakefield, a merchant of London, by whom she has two sons and one daughter. Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, who has for many years been a great sufferer from bodily infirmity, is favourably known to the public as the author of a variety of popular works for youth, and is said to have been the original promoter of those institutions, now so general, under the name of Savings' Banks. Her publications are entitled Juvenile Improvement, Leisure Hours, An Introduction to Botany, Mental Improvement, Reflections on the Condition of the Female Sex, The Juvenile Traveller, A Familiar Tour through the British Empire, Domestic Recreation, &c. &c.

LOFFT, (CAPEL,) the son of a barrister, was born in London, in November, 1751, and received his education at Eton and Peter-house College, Cambridge, where he was distinguished for his classical attainments, and produced a Latin poem in praise of Shakspeare, which procured him the notice of Garrick, whose friendship proved, at a subsequent period, very serviceable to him. After having gone through the usual forms, he was, in 1775, called to the bar, and practised till 1781; when, succeeding to the Capel estates, he retired to Tuston, in Suffolk, and acted, with great credit, as a magistrate, for several years. In 1800, however, being dismissed from his office, for a humane but mistaken interference in behalf of a young woman under sentence of death, he resumed the practice of his profession, and was chosen recorder of Aldborough in 1810. He subsequently quitted England, to reside with his family on the continent, and died at Montcallier, on the

VOL. III.

26th of May, 1824. Mr. Lofft is not only favourably known as an author, but as the encourager of merit in others; and, in particular, of the genius of Bloomfield, as we have already noticed in our memoir of that poet. The principal of his literary productions are, Timoleon, a tragedy; Eudosia, a poem, in blank verse; a translation of the two first Georgics of Virgil; Laura, or an Anthology of Sonnets; and a volume of Aphorisms from Shakspeare. His professional works are, A Collection of Common Law Cases, from 1772 to 1774; two volumes of law maxims, entitled Principia tum Juris Universalis tum præcipue Anglicani; Essay on the Law of Libel; and an edition of Gilbert's Law of Evidence. Mr. Lofft also wrote several political pamphlets, and contributed largely to most of the periodical publications of his day.

He

In

NOTT, (JOHN,) born at Worcester, on the 24th of December, 1751, was brought up as a surgeon, and studied under Sir Cæsar Hawkins, and at Paris. afterwards went to China, in a medical capacity; and whilst there, learnt the Persian language, from which he translated some of the odes of Hafiz. 1788, he took his degree of M. D.; became, afterwards, family physician to the Duchess of Devonshire, with whom he travelled on the continent; and, on his return, settled at Bristol Hot-wells, where he died, in 1826. Mr. Nott was the author of numerous works, which gained him some reputation as a scholar and philological writer, and as an elegant, if not a profound, poet. His principal literary productions are, Alonzo, a poetic tale; Leonora, an elegy; translations of the first book of Lucretius, and the odes of Horace; an edition of Catullus, with the Latin text rendered into English verse; besides some professional tracts, and a variety of manuscripts, among which was a translation of Silius Italicus.

KNOX, (VICESIMUS,) the son of a clergyman, was born on the 8th of December, 1752, and received his education at Merchant Tailors' School, and King's College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow. After having entered the church, he succeeded his father as head master of the grammar-school at