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NEW GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,

PROJECTED AND PARTLY ARRANGED

BY THE LATE

REV. HUGH JAMES ROSE, B.D.

PRINCIPAL OF KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.'

IN TWELVE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

T. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET; F. & J. RIVINGTON;

E. HODGSON; RICHARDSON, BROTHERS; J. BAIN; G. GREENLAND; A. GREENLAND
F. C. WESTLEY; CAPES & CO.; BOSWORTH AND HARRISON; H. G. BOHN;

H. WASHBOURNE; WILLIS & SOTHERAN; J. DALE;
DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. CAMBRIDGE;

AND J. H. PARKER, OXFORD.
1857

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BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

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ANSON, (Pierre Hubert, 1744-1810,) a French writer, and an able financier. After having practised some time as an advocate, he was taken into the office of the comptroller-general of finance, and occupied, successively, several posts connected with that department. He wrote some historical memoirs; and translated Lady M. W. Montague's Letters, and Anacreon; besides being the author of several short poems and songs. (Biog. Univ.)

ANSPACH and BAREITH, (the Margrave Christian Frederick Charles Alexander of, born 1736,) was nephew of Caroline, queen of George the Second. In 1769 he united to his previous possessions of Anspach, those of Bareith, on the death of his cousin Frederick. In 1790, alarmed at the prospects of war in Germany, which seemed likely to interfere with his life of amusement and pleasure, and having no one to succeed him, he resigned to Frederick William, for an annual consideration of 400,000 rix-dollars, his sovereignty-which, at any rate, would have fallen to the crown of Prussia at his death. He died in England in 1806. (Biog. Univ. Suppl.)

ANSPACH, (Elizabeth, margravine of, 1750-1828.) This lady, known as a writer, was the youngest daughter of Augustus, fourth earl of Berkeley, and was first married to Mr. William Craven, who afterwards succeeded to the title of earl of Craven. After having been married many years, a separation took place, and Lady Craven visited Italy, Austria, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Greece. She lived for some years at Anspach, where she became the principal lady of the court, established a theatre, and wrote several dramatic pieces for the stage. On the death of the margravine she visited Spain and Portugal, in company with the margrave of Anspach; and on the subsequent decease of Lord Craven,

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she was married to his serene highness. On that prince selling his territorial rights to the king of Prussia, he and the margravine came to reside in England, until the death of the former in 1806; after which event the margravine went again abroad, and died at Naples. The following works are from her pen-A Journey through Crimea to England, 4to, 1789; the Princess of Georgia; the Twins of Smyrna; Nourjahad; and Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, formerly Lady Craven, published in 1825. She also composed several pieces of music, principally for the theatrical pieces she had written. It has been judiciously observed, that "the margravine of Anspach claims attention rather from circumstances than talent. She was a light and vivacious woman, of a school which is rapidly going by, and which it is of the least possible consequence to renovate."

ANSPRAND, king of the Lombards, guardian of Lieubert, son of Canibert, in 700. After defeating the army of Aribert, son of the usurper Ragimbert, he became king, and reigned for three months. His son Liutprand, who succeeded him, was one of the greatest of the Lombard kings. (Biog. Univ.)

ANSTEY, (Christopher,) the son of the Rev. Christopher Anstey, was born 1724. He was of King's college, Cambridge, and made himself remarkable there by his resistance to an attempt, on the part of the university, to infringe upon the peculiar privileges of that college in taking degrees. He was a fellow, and continued to reside at college till his mother's death, in 1754, which put him in possession of some, family estates; and he resigned his fellowship to become a country gentleman. He often amused himself with writing small pieces of poetry, and in 1766 published the New Bath Guide, which established his poetical talent, and his peculiar and original

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powers of lively and satirical humour. Few poems have ever been so popular; and Dodsley, the bookseller, who purchased the copyright, acknowledged that the profits on the sale were greater than he had ever made by any other book during the same period, and generously returned it to its author in 1777. He died in 1805, in his eighty-first year. He wrote several other pieces, which were collected and published in 1808.

ANSTIS, (John,) a learned heraldic writer, and garter king-at-arms. He was born in 1669, at St. Neot's, in Cornwall, and was educated at Oxford and at the Middle Temple. As a gentleman of good fortune, he became known in his county, (Cornwall,) and sat in parliament in the reigns of Anne and George I. for St. Germains and Launceston. Anne gave him a reversionary patent for the place of garter; but on its becoming vacant, he was in prison, under suspicion of being a jacobite. He claimed the office, and having cleared himself from the charge brought against him, succeeded in obtaining it against the nomination of the Earl Marshal, and in 1718 was created garter. He died in 1745. He was a most able and indefatigable officer at arms; and published a Letter concerning the Honour of Earl Marshal, 1706; the Form of the Installation of the Garter, 1720; the Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 1724; Observations introductory to an Historical Essay on the Knighthood of the Bath, 1725; besides other laborious works in MS. on Topography, Antiquities, Genealogies, &c. which were dispersed after the death of his eldest son, John Anstis, LL.D., who succeeded him as garter, by virtue of a grant passed in 1727. The son died in 1754.

ANSTRUTHER, (Sir John,) a distinguished member of the English parliament; born 1753, died 1811.

He was

appointed chief justice of Bengal in 1798. At first a partisan of Fox, after the breaking out of the French revolution he joined the opposite party, and was created a baronet shortly before his departure for India.

ANTAGORAS, of RHODES, was a writer of Greek epigrams, of which only two have been preserved. He was contemporary with Antigonus I. as we learn from Plutarch Apophth. ii. p. 182, and Sympos. iv. 4; and such a gourmand that he would not suffer any hands but his own to dress his favourite dish of conger-eels. It appears too, from Ælian,

V. H. xiv. 26, that he was in the habit of abusing the philosopher Arcesilaus, who treated him as he deserved, by leading him to the most frequented places, in order that the greatest number of persons might become acquainted with the intemperance of his language and conduct. The Greek biographer of Aratus has attributed to Antagoras a poem, under the title of Thebais, which, according to Hemsterhuis on Callimach. p. 590, belongs rather to Antimachus. Schneider, however, in Analect. p. 3, agrees with the biographer; while Schellenberg on Antimachus, p. 27, ed. Giles, leaves the question as he found it-in uncertainty; although he confesses that the story told by Cicero, in Brut. 51, that Antimachus, while reading his Thebais at Athens, was deserted by all his auditors but Plato, is very similar to the one related by Stobæus of Antagoras, who was left in like manner by a circle of Boeotians, assembled to hear an epic on the national theme of the Thebais. In one respect, however, the stories do not tally; for while Antimachus consoled himself with having an auditor, whose single judgment could be opposed to the rest, Antagoras exhibited much less of the philosopher in abusing the Boeotians, who he said were rightly called by that name, for they had the ears of kine; a pun that turns in Greek upon the similarity of Boiro and Bowv wτα.

ANTALCIDAS, a Spartan, famous in history for the disadvantageous peace which the Lacedæmonians, jealous of their neighbours at home, employed him to negotiate with the Persians, and by which the Greeks yielded their footing in Asia. This treaty, concluded B. c. 387 (Ol. 98, 2) was, from him, termed the peace of Antalcidas. On his return, Antalcidas was made ephorus. The flattering marks of distinction which had been shown to Antalcidas by King Artaxerxes, encouraged the Lacedæmonians to send him on a second mission, the object of which was a loan of money. But the Spartans had lost their influence in Greece; Artaxerxes treated their envoy with coldness, and denied their request. Antalcidas returned to Lacedæmon, became the derision of his enemies, and in the fear, as it is said, of being pursued by the ephori, starved himself to death.

ANTANDER, the brother of Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, and commander of the troops which he sent to the aid of the Crotoniates. After his

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