Part 2

_Matthew Henry_ was the son of Philip Henry, an eminent Nonconformist, and he was born at Broad Oak, in Flintshire, in the year 1663. He was early instructed by his father in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, in which he made great proficiency, and being originally intended for the bar, he was entered at Gray’s Inn; but his great predilection for divinity induced him to leave that profession, and for twenty-five years he was the zealous pastor of a Dissenting congregation in Chester. In 1702, he removed to Hackney, where he paid the most sedulous attention to the duties of his ministry; he remained there until his death, which took place in 1714, of a stroke of apoplexy. His numerous works are a proof of his deep learning, and he enjoyed great popularity both as an author and a preacher; his chief work is an Exposition of the Bible, in five volumes, folio, which has gone through numerous editions.

_Edward Herbert_, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, eminent for his character and writings, was the son of Richard Herbert, Esq., of a very ancient family, and was born at Montgomery Castle, in North Wales, in 1581. His proficiency was so great in his early education that he was entered at University College, Oxford, at the age of twelve. In 1600, he came to London, and being introduced at court, he became a Knight of the Bath soon after the accession of James the First. After spending his time in visiting various courts of Europe, and serving for some time under the Prince of Orange in the Low Countries, in 1614, he was sent on an embassy to the court of France; and having been recalled, he was sent ambassador a second time, and while there he printed at Paris his famous book “De veritate prout distinguitur a Revelatione.” In 1625, he returned home, and was created an Irish Peer, and afterwards an English Baron. He afterwards retired from public life, and upon the breaking out of the civil war, he joined the parliamentary party, but he soon quitted it, and joined the royal cause, and consequently he was a great sufferer in his estate. He died in London, in 1648, and was buried in St. Giles’s-in-the-fields. He wrote the Memoirs of his own Life, which were not published until the year 1764, by Lord Oxford. The character of this distinguished nobleman was brave, generous, and disinterested.

_George Herbert_, younger brother of Lord Herbert, distinguished himself as a poet and divine; he also was born at Montgomery Castle, in 1593. He was educated at Westminster School, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship; and in 1619, he was chosen public orator. Having taken orders, he applied himself with great assiduity to the duties of his profession, and the first benefice which he received was a prebend in the diocese of Lincoln, and the parish church connected with it was rebuilt mostly at his own expense. He subsequently obtained the rectory of Bemerton, near Salisbury. His death took place in February, 1633. He published the “Country Parson,” and he was the author of the “Temple,” which contains poems on sacred subjects, besides other minor pieces.

_James Howel_, the author of the popular and interesting “Epistolæ Hoelianæ,” was the son of a clergyman, and born in Caermarthenshire, in 1596. He took his degree of bachelor of arts in Jesus College, Oxford, in 1613. When he left the University, he was appointed, through the interest of Sir Robert Mansel, to superintend a patent glass manufactory in London, which had been established by some men of rank. In 1619, he commenced a tour on the Continent in the service of his employers, and during the three years that he continued abroad, he visited Holland, Spain, France, and Italy; in Venice he engaged some workmen for his manufactory, for the Venetians were at that time very famous for their skill in casting plate-glass. Soon after his return to England he was elected fellow of Jesus College, and travelled abroad again with the son of Lord Altham. He afterwards had the office of secretary to Lord Scrope, then president of the North, and was elected member of parliament for Richmond, and subsequently he was appointed secretary to the English Ambassador, the Earl of Leicester, in Denmark. In 1640, he was made clerk of the council, which he did not long retain by reason of Cromwell’s usurpation. His works are numerous, and he was the first who held the office of Historiographer, which he obtained on the Restoration. He died in 1666.

_William Hughes_, D.D., was a native of Caernarvonshire, and was educated partly at Oxford, whence he removed to Christ’s College, Cambridge. He was chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, and he took his degrees of divinity in Oxford, having been incorporated from Cambridge. He was afterwards rector of Llysfaen in Caernarvonshire, and in 1573, he was consecrated Bishop of St. Asaph. He died in 1600.

_Humphrey Humphreys_, D.D., was born at Penrhyn-dau-draeth, Merionethshire, in 1648. He received his education at the free grammar schools of Oswestry and Bangor, and in 1665, he was admitted a member of Jesus College, Oxford, where he obtained a scholarship, and afterwards a fellowship; he proceeded regularly through his degrees, and became rector of Llanvrothen, which he left in 1672 for the living of Trawsfynydd. Having been made a canon of Bangor, he was installed dean of the same cathedral in 1680, and in 1689, he was raised to the bishopric, from which he was translated to the see of Hereford in 1701. His death took place in 1712. He was a person of excellent virtues during the whole course of his life, and an example of piety, and strictly attentive to the duties of his high station.

_George_, _Lord Jefferies_, _Baron Wem_, was the son of John Jefferies, Esq., of Acton, in Denbighshire, where he was born in the beginning of the seventeenth century. He received his education at Shrewsbury School, and Westminster, and was entered at the Middle Temple to study law. His father’s family being large, his allowance was consequently very scanty, but his industry and ingenuity supplied all deficiencies. On commencing his professional career, he was made a citizen of London through the interest of a relation; and he was subsequently chosen recorder of the corporation. This high station recommended him to the notice of the court, and furthered his advancement. He was appointed successively a Welsh Judge, and Chief Justice of Chester, and created a baronet. Having been appointed Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, he was employed to prosecute the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth, which office he executed with great cruelty, and for his zeal in this service he was rewarded by the vindictive and cold-hearted James with the post of Lord High Chancellor. It is acknowledged, however, that he showed himself an able and impartial judge in cases which were not connected with politics. On the accession of William the Third, he was committed to the Tower, where he died in April, 1689. He was succeeded in his title and estates by his only son, whose daughter was married to Earl Pomfret; and after his death, she presented the noble collection, known by the name of Pomfret marbles, to the University of Oxford.

_William Lleyn_ was a very celebrated Welsh bard, and flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was a native of Llangain in Lleyn, in Caernarvonshire. He excelled all the bards of his time in sublimity of thought and poetic fire, and was much admired for the sprightliness of his wit. His compositions are remarkable for grave sentences, and maxims of policy and wisdom. He had a poetical contest with Owain Gwynedd, a contemporary bard, which is still extant, besides several other pieces which have never been published. He died at Oswestry.

_David Jenkins_ was born at Hensol, in Glamorganshire, in 1586. He was educated at Edmund Hall, Oxford, and entered at Gray’s Inn. Being called to the bar, he was subsequently made a Welsh Judge, and continued in this office until he was taken prisoner by the parliamentary forces at Hereford, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Having rendered himself obnoxious to the parliament, in consequence of his having condemned, when judge, several who had taken arms against the King, he was brought before the House of Commons; whose authority he denied, and called the whole assembly a den of thieves; being provoked by this language, they voted him guilty of high treason, and sentenced him to be hanged; on which he undauntedly observed that he would suffer with the Bible under one arm and Magna Charta under the other. He escaped however this punishment, but was fined 1,000_l._ for contempt, and his estates were confiscated. He was committed to Newgate, where he remained until the Restoration; but it does not appear that he obtained any reward for his courage and fidelity from the forgetful Charles. He died in 1667, at Cambridge.

_Sir Leoline Jenkins_, L.L.D., was born in 1623, at Llantrisaint, in the county of Glamorgan, and was educated at Jesus College, Oxford. When the civil war broke out, he took arms for the King, and upon the failure of the royal cause he left the kingdom. On the Restoration he returned to Jesus College, and was elected fellow, and in 1661, he became the principal. He was afterwards admitted an advocate at Doctors’ Commons; and with other eminent civilians he was appointed to review the maritime laws, and to compile a body of rules for the adjudication of prizes, which became the standard of the Court of Admiralty. He was made judge of the same court in 1665, and in 1668, of the Prerogative Court in Canterbury. He was likewise sent on an embassy to the Dutch. On his return he was chosen member for the University of Oxford, sworn of the privy council, and appointed secretary of state, which office he resigned in 1684. On the accession of James, he was again elected member for Oxford, but was prevented by ill health from sitting in that parliament, and died in 1685. His letters and papers were collected and published by W. Wynne, in two folio volumes; and all his estate was bequeathed by him for charitable uses, and chiefly to Jesus College.

_Thomas Johnes_ was born of an ancient Welsh family in Ludlow, in 1748. He was educated at Eton, and Jesus College, Oxford, where he proceeded to his Master’s degree. He was the proprietor of the estate of Havod, in Cardiganshire, where he built a splendid mansion, and occupied himself there in planting trees, and otherwise improving his property. He also devoted himself to literary pursuits, the fruits of which are elegant editions of the “Chronicles of Froissart and Monstrelet,” and several other works, all of which he himself translated from the French, and printed at his own establishment at Havod. He first obtained a seat in parliament for the borough of Cardigan, and afterwards for the county of Radnor; he was likewise auditor for Wales, and colonel of the Caermarthenshire militia. In 1807, his library, consisting of the finest typographical productions, and containing a number of valuable Welsh manuscripts, was burnt in a fire which nearly destroyed the whole house. He died in 1816.

_Edward Jones_, D.D., was born near the town of Montgomery, and was educated at Westminster School, whence he was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was chosen fellow in 1667. He became master of Kilkenny College, and dean of Lismore, in Ireland, and was made bishop of Cloyne, and in 1692 he was translated to the see of St. Asaph. His translation to this diocese was entirely owing to his being a native of the country. He died at Westminster in 1703.

[For an account of Edward Jones, Bardd y Brenin,—see _Addenda_.]

_Owen Jones_, the distinguished Welsh antiquary, whose name will be ever associated with the Welsh language, was born in Llanvihangel Glyn-y-myvyr, Denbighshire, in 1741. In early life he removed to London, and entered the employment of an eminent furrier, whom he eventually succeeded. Being enthusiastically interested in the antiquities of his native country, he devoted a great portion of his time to the collecting of Welsh manuscripts; and the result of his disinterested patriotism has been the publication of the “Archaiology of Wales,” in three volumes, entirely at his own expense. He also procured transcripts of ancient Welsh poetry, amounting to fifty volumes, quarto, which invaluable collection is now deposited in the Cymmrodorion Library, in London. He published the works of the famous poet, Davydd ap Gwilym, and also “Dihewyd y Cristion.” In 1772, Mr. Jones, formed the Gwyneddigion Society, for the purpose of patronizing the Bards of Wales, and promoting the study of the Welsh language; and this excellent society annually offers prize medals, and other rewards for compositions on various subjects. After a most useful and active life, this amiable man, whose zeal was only equalled by his private worth, died at his house in Thames-street, London, September, 1814, in the seventy-third year of his age.

_Inigo Jones_, whose proper name was Ynyr, which in his travels in Italy, he Italianized into Inigo, was born at Llanrwst, Denbighshire, about the year 1572. Being originally destined for a mechanical employment, he emerged from obscurity by dint of talent, which recommended him to the Earl of Pembroke, a great patron of the fine arts, who also supplied him with the means of visiting Italy, for the purpose of studying landscape painting. While at Venice, the works of Paladio inspired him with a taste for architecture, in the practice of which he arrived at unrivalled excellence. His reputation recommended him to the notice of Christiern the Fourth, King of Denmark, who bestowed on him the post of first architect. Having returned to England, he was appointed architect to the Queen, and Prince Henry, and afterwards to the Board of Works. His acknowledged taste in classical architecture obtained for him sufficient employment from court, and many of the nobility and gentry, so that he realized a handsome fortune. Many proofs exist of the elegant taste of this great architect; and he was also commissioner for the repairing of St. Paul’s Cathedral, all of which was ruined by the great fire; but it was subsequently rebuilt after Jones’s original design. During the civil war he was forced to pay a fine on account of his known attachment to the royal family; and being distressed at the ruin of the royal cause, and worn down with suffering and old age, he died in July, 1652. He was a good geometrician, and well skilled in various branches of literature and science; but as an author he only published a curious treatise, to attempt to prove that Stonehenge was a Roman temple.

_John Jones_, L.L.D., an eminent divine and philologist, was a native of Caermarthenshire. He was educated at the Dissenting College of Hackney; and he became tutor in several Dissenting academies successively in Wales and England. He finally settled in London, where he spent his time in editing his numerous works; among the most popular of which are his “Greek and English Lexicon,” and his “Grammar,” both Greek and Latin, besides other works on education; and he likewise was held in great esteem as a private tutor. He died in London in 1827.

_William Jones_, an eminent mathematician, was born in the Isle of Anglesey in 1680. At a very early age he applied himself diligently to the study of mathematics; and in his twenty-second year he published a “Compendium of the Art of Navigation,” which was much approved of. He began his career in teaching these sciences on board of a man-of-war; and he was present at the capture of Vigo. On his return to England, he gave instructions in the mathematics in London, and having attracted the notice of some influential men, he was appointed by Lord Hardwicke secretary of the peace. He enjoyed the friendship of the great mathematicians and writers of the age, among whom were Newton, Halley, Head, and Dr. Johnson. He was member of the Royal Society, and then vice-president. He was author of several valuable papers on mathematics, which were published in the Philosophical Transactions. He died of a polypus in the heart in July, 1749.

Sir _William Jones_, the celebrated oriental scholar, was the son of the subject of the preceding article, and was born in London, September, 1746. He received his early education at Harrow School, where he was sent in his eighth year. He very soon attracted the notice of the masters by his splendid genius; and in 1764, he was entered at University College, Oxford. While here, he supported, at his own expense, a native of Aleppo, for the purpose of acquiring the true pronunciation of the Arabic. And having undertaken the office of tutor to Lord Althorpe, he went with him to the German Spa, where he perfected himself in the German language; and on his return, he distinguished himself by translating the “Life of Nadir Shah” into French, which language he wrote with much elegance. He obtained a college fellowship, and afterwards entered himself as a law student in the Temple. In 1772, he published some poems, and in the same year was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and in 1774, he was called to the bar; about two years after, he was made commissioner of bankrupts. In the mean time, he published several works, chiefly in oriental literature, which excited the admiration of the world; and at the same time he was advancing rapidly in professional reputation. In an election for the University of Oxford he offered himself as a candidate, where, however, though respectably supported, he did not succeed. On the accession of the Shelburne administration, he obtained what had long been the summit of his ambition—the appointment of Judge in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal, to which he was nominated in 1783, and received the honour of knighthood. He married Miss Shipley, the daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph; and in the same year he arrived at Calcutta. While in India, he wrote numerous translations from the Hindostanee, and formed there a society, similar to the Royal Society of London, of which he was chosen the first president. He next undertook to compile a complete digest of the Hindoo and Mohammedan laws, which was not however completed by him. In 1794, he was seized with an inflammation of the liver, and died on the 27th of April, in the forty-eighth year of his age. Few men have died more respected and lamented than Sir William Jones: his genius and profound learning had attracted the praise of all; and as a linguist, he has not been surpassed, for he knew no less than twenty-nine languages, and most of them critically. All his works were collected and published by his widow, in six volumes, quarto.

_Lloyd_, _Lord Kenyon_, was born in Gredington, Flintshire, in 1732. He was the second son of a gentleman of independent fortune, and was originally intended to be brought up as a solicitor, and he was under the instruction of an eminent lawyer at Nantwich. In consequence of the death of an elder brother, he was entered at the Middle Temple, and after being called to the bar, he attended various circuits before he obtained any practice, which caused him to despair of succeeding in his profession, and think of applying himself to divinity, and taking orders. Active attention, however, and indefatigable industry, brought him at length to notice and extensive practice. He confined himself afterwards entirely to the Court of Chancery, where he obtained the most distinguished celebrity, although he ranked high as a common lawyer. He conducted the defence of Lord George Gordon, when he was tried for high treason. In 1780 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Chester, and he twice filled the office of Attorney-general. On the death of Sir John Sewell, he accepted the office of Master of the Rolls, and in 1788 he succeeded Lord Mansfield as Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, where he gave the greatest satisfaction by his integrity and able administration of justice. He died in 1802, in his seventieth year.

_David Lloyd_, L.L.D., was born at Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, in the year 1603. He was entered at the age of fourteen at All Soul’s College, Oxford, where he afterwards became a fellow. Having taken orders, he obtained the rectory of Trevdraeth, in Anglesea, in 1641, which he resigned on his presentation to Llangynhaval in the following year, and became successively vicar of Llanvair, in Dyfryn Clwyd, and warden of Ruthin, and prebendary of Chester; out of all of which he was ejected after the breaking out of the civil war, and for his loyalty he was a great sufferer. On the accession of Charles the Second, he was restored to his benefices, and promoted to the deanery of St. Asaph in 1660. He was esteemed an ingenious man, and a good poet; and he published several pieces which were prized for their wit. He died at Ruthin in September, 1663.

_David Lloyd_, M.A., was born at Trawsvynydd, Merionethshire, in 1635, and educated at Ruthin School. He removed thence to Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated, and obtained a college living. He subsequently retired to Wales, where he was appointed chaplain to Bishop Barrow, who, besides other preferment, gave him a canonry in the diocese of St. Asaph. He was afterwards vicar of Northop, where he resided for several years; he published several works, of which the principal are “Worthies of the World,” 1665, octavo; “Memories of Statesmen and Favourites of England,” octavo. He was zealous and industrious in the discharge of his clerical duties, and esteemed by all for his charitable disposition. On finding his health decaying, he retired to the place of his nativity, where he died in 1691.

_Henry Lloyd_ was the son of a clergyman in Wales, where he was born in 1729. His early education he received from his father, who instructed him in the classics and mathematics. Being intended for the army, he went abroad, and was at the battle of Fontenoy; he afterwards travelled in Germany, and resided in Austria for some years, where he was appointed aid-de-camp to Marshal Lascy, and received higher promotion. In 1760 he commanded a large detachment of cavalry and infantry, which was destined to observe the motions of the Prussians. He executed this service with great success; but soon after, for some reason, he threw up his commission in disgust. He was next employed by the King of Prussia, and served in two campaigns until the peace. On the breaking out of the war between the Turks and Russians, he offered his services to Catherine the Second, who made him a major-general, and he greatly distinguished himself at the seige of Silistria in 1774, and subsequently he had the command of 30,000 men in the war with Sweden. After his return to England, he published several works on military tactics, which are highly thought of, and placed him in a high rank as a military writer. He died at Huy, in the Netherlands, in 1783.

_Hugh Lloyd_, D.D., was a native of South Wales, where he was born in the year 1589, and having been brought up for the church, and having received an University education, he became rector of Llangatoc, in Breconshire, and archdeacon of St. David’s. In 1660 he was advanced to the bishopric of Llandav, where he continued until his death, which took place in 1667, and he was buried in his cathedral.