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Vizier Ally made his escape into the territory of the Rajah of Berar, a powerful and independent Chief, who refused to deliver him up unless under a promise of his life being spared.

This the English Government considered it expedient to accede to; and he was accordingly given up and brought down to Calcutta, and confined in the garrison of Fort William in a kind of iron cage, where after an imprisonment of seventeen years, three months, and four days, he died in May 1817, at the age of 36.

No. XXXIII.

GENERAL SIR GEORGE OSBORNE, BART.

FORMERLY KNIGHT OF THE SHIRE FOR THE COUNTY OF BEDFORD,

&c. &c. &c.

Tus Baronet, who attained a very considerable age, was born May 19th, 1742. He was the son of Sir Danvers Osborn, the head of a family long settled in Bedfordshire, by Lady Mary Montague, third daughter of George Earl of Hallifax, whom he succeeded in 1753, a period when he was no more than eleven years of age. Notwithstanding the certainty of inheriting a very considerable landed estate, at the conclusion of his minority, yet he chose the army as a profession. Accordingly, having entered on his military career, with the rank of ensign, he passed as usual through all the different gradations of the service, until he finally obtained that of General; together with the colonelcy of the 10th regiment of foot. In addition to this, he was appointed to, and for

many years retained the office of Groom of His Majesty's Bedchamber.

Having determined to settle in life, in 1771, he married Anne daughter of Bannister, Esq. by whom he had issue. But the first Lady Osborne dying a few years after, Sir George took for his second wife, on Aug. 22, 1778, Lady Haneage Finch, daughter of Daniel, seventh Earl of Winchelsea, and third Earl of Nottingham, by Mary daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Palmer of Wingham, in the county of Kent, Bart.

As Sir George constantly resided for many years at his paternal seat, and possessed a large property around; it is not at all surprising that he obtained considerable influence in his native county. Indeed, from a variety of circumstances, he was enabled to cope with the Bedford interest there, and at length to divide the representation of the county with that noble family, which derives its title from it. He sat for some years in Parliament; and was so zealous a supporter of the administrations of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Perceval, &c. that he was included under the denomination of “one of the King's friends,” by the opposition.

Sir George, nearly up to the time of his death, enjoyed “ green old age,” and his longevity is, perhaps, in some measure

, to be attributed, not only to the regularity, but also to the mode and manner of his daily exercise; for even while in town, he spent the greater part of the forenoon on horseback. At length he died at Chicksand Priory, June 29, 1818, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

He is succeeded in his titles and estates by his son, the offspring of his first marriage, who has served as one of the knights of the shire for the county of Bedford, during many successive parliaments, since that convoked in 1790; and who has also been colonel of the Bedfordshire militia for many years.

The family of Osborne, is supposed to have come, originally, from the North, and to have settled at Purleigh, in the county of Essex. Sir John, the first Baronet, obtained his patent February 16, 1660; the second Sir John was born in 1659,

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and Peter, a Captain of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, one of his numerous offspring of seven sons and four daughters, married into the family of Viscount Molyneaux. Sir Danvers Osborne, the third Baronet, born in 1715, suc ceeded his grandfather, the second Sir John in 1720. He married Lady Mary Montague in 1740, who was third daughter of George, Earl of Halifax. This gentleman was, for many years, a representative for the county of Bedford, and died Governor of New York, in America, in 1753. Of his two sons, the elder who was his successor, has been already mentioned. The younger, John, was for many years Colonel of the Bedfordshire militia, before which period he was employed as His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Dresden.

No. XXXIV.

SIR PHILIP FRANCIS, K. B.

The death of this celebrated man occurred at too late a period of the year (22d Dec. 1818.) for a Memoir in the

present volume. One shall certainly appear in the next.

PART II.

NEGLECTED BIOGRAPHY;

WITH,

ORIGINAL LETTERS, PAPERS, &c.

No I.

PETER WALDO, Esq.

AUTHOR OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE LITURGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.*

PETER

ETER WALDO, descended in a direct line from the famous founder of the Waldenses, in the twelfth century, was the son of a wealthy East India Supercargo, by Miss Dubois, a lady of a highly respectable and ancient family. He was born in the vicinity of the Tower of London in the year 1731, and placed at an early age at Cheam, under the tuition of the able Mr. Gilpin, whence he was removed to become a gentlemancommoner of University College, Oxford. Here he formed an acquaintance with Mr. Jenkinson, afterwards Earl of Liverpool, and with Dr. Wetherall, afterwards a dignitary of the Church, and master of his college. Several other distinguished characters, whom he, at a later period of his life, reckoned amongst his most valuable friends, here first became known to him. Upon

VOL III.

* Communicated by a Correspondent,

GG

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of the country.

the decease of his father, Mr. Waldo was put in possession of his estate at Mitcham, in Surrey, together with a handsome fortune, and he now began to dedicate his whole time to the improvement of the condition of the poor in his neighbourhood; and the good of the community at large. The latter he accomplished more effectually by commencing author, and giving to the world his “ Commentary on the Liturgy of the Church of England.” It was dedicated to the son of his college-friend, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Esq. now Earl of Liverpool ; and this publication soon introduced him to a large circle of divines, and other friends to the established Religion

Even Mr. Watson, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff, though a man of very opposite principles, both as to ecclesiastical and political matters, was frequently his companion, and took a delight in his society. Mr. Stevens, author of the Essay on the Christian Church, was a warm admirer of his estimable qualities; and Bishop Horne, and the learned and excellent Jones of Nayland, were in the catalogue of his friends. Becoming a patron of Sunday schools, he established one at his own expense at Mitcham; and for this he wrote his 66 Admonitions,” a work considered of such utility to every person concerned in the education of the children of the poor, that the venerable Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, bas included it, and his “ Essay on the Sacrament,” in its list. With the secretary to that useful establishment, Dr. Gaskin, (whom he considered one of the pillars of our Church,) he was well acquainted. About 1780, he married Hannah, the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Smith, whose portrait is to be seen in the hall of the Coopers' Company, of which he was chaplain. He, about this period, commenced a friendship that terminated only with his existence, with the very worthy chaplain of the Magdalen cbarity, Mr. Prince; and from the great resemblance between the dispositions of these two amiable men, and their conformity of manners, they were thenceforward almost inseparable companions. Upon Mr. Waldo's removal to a villa at Worting, near Basingstoke, their intimaey was by no means impaired; for a most lively correspondence