Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers Part 15

"He'd now give all the shoes in his shop The Parliament's fury for to stop, Whip cobbler like any town-top.

Good people, pity the blind!

"Oliver made him a famous Lord, That he forgot his cutting-board, But now his thread's twisted to a cord.

Good people, pity the blind!

"Sing hi, ho, Hewson!--the state ne'er went upright, Since cobblers could pray, preach, govern, and fight; We shall see what they'll do now you're out of sight.

Good people, pity the blind!"

[113] Quoted in Chambers's "Book of Days," August 15th. W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh.

Having been one of the men who sat in judgment on King Charles I., the Colonel was with other regicides condemned to be hung October 14th, 1660;[114] but he is said to have escaped hanging by flight, and to have died at Amsterdam "in his original obscurity," 1662.[115]

[114] Evelyn's "Diary" of this date.

[115] Pepys, see above.

SIR CHRISTOPHER MYNGS, ADMIRAL OF THE ENGLISH FLEET.

Christopher Myngs (or Minns), "the son of an honest shoemaker in London, from whom he inherited nothing but a good const.i.tution,"[116] is said to have worn the leathern ap.r.o.n for a short time before he went to sea.

Speaking of the men of humble origin who, toward the end of the seventeenth century, made their way to high office by their skill and bravery, Lord Macaulay says: "One of the most eminent of these officers was Sir Christopher Mings, who entered the service as a cabin-boy, who fell fighting bravely against the Dutch, and whom his crew, weeping and vowing vengeance, carried to the grave. From him sprang, by a singular kind of descent, a line of valiant and expert sailors. His cabin-boy was Sir John Narborough, and the cabin-boy of Sir John Narborough was Sir Cloudesley Shovel. To the strong natural sense and dauntless courage of this cla.s.s of men England owes a debt never to be forgotten."[117] Myngs knew how to be familiar and friendly with his men, and yet to keep his position and authority. Seamen learn to love bravery, and of this they saw enough in their gallant Admiral. They had additional reason for their devotion in the care he always took to see them well paid and fed, and the justice he did them in the distribution of prizes. It was in the great four days' fight off the English coast, June 1st-4th, 1666, between the English and Dutch fleets, that this brave man met with his death. The English fleet was commanded by the Duke of Albemarle and Prince Rupert, and the Dutch by De Ruyter and Van Tromp the younger. The battle was one of the most memorable on record, both for its length and the valor displayed on both sides. "On the fourth day of the famous battle that began on the 1st of June, he received a shot in the neck; after which, though he was in exquisite pain, he continued in his command, holding his wound with both his hands for above an hour. At length another shot pierced his throat and laid him forever at rest."[118]

[116] Grainger's "Biographical History of England,"

vol. iii.

[117] "History of England," vol. i. p. 316 (People's Edition).

[118] Grainger's "Biographical History of England,"

vol. iii. Grainger has an interesting note concerning Myngs, which we cannot forbear copying: "I am credibly informed that when he had taken a Spanish man-of-war and gotten the commander on board his s.h.i.+p, he committed the care of him to a lieutenant, who was directed to observe his behavior. Shortly after word was brought to Myngs that the Spaniard was deploring his captivity and wondering what great captain it could be who had made Don----, with a long and tedious string of names and t.i.tles, his prisoner. The lieutenant was ordered to return to his charge, and if the Don persisted in his curiosity, to tell him that 'Kit Minns' had taken him. This diminutive name utterly confounded the _t.i.tulado_, threw him into an agony of grief, and gave him more acute pangs than all the rest of his misfortunes."

The portrait of Sir Christopher Myngs is now in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital. It is a half-length by Sir Peter Lely, and came from Windsor Castle, having been presented by George IV. in 1824.[119]

[119] See the "Descriptive Catalogue of the Portraits of Naval Commanders," etc., in the "Painted Hall, Greenwich Hospital," Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1881, p.

10. The editor of the catalogue states that "this portrait and those numbered 7, 8, 47-49, 102, 105, 107, 110-112 form the series of valuable pictures mentioned in Pepys' 'Diary,' as follows:--'To Mr. Lilly's the painter's, and there saw the heads--some finished and all begun--of the flagg-men in the late great fight with the Duke of York against the Dutch. The Duke of York hath them done to hang in his chamber, and very finely they are done indeed. Here are the Prince's (Rupert), Sir George Askue's, Sir Thomas Teddiman's, Sir Christopher Myngs', Sir Joseph Jordan's, Sir William Berkeley's, Sir Thomas Allen's, and Captain Harman's, as also the Duke of Albemarle's; and will be my Lord Sandwich's, Sir W. Penn's, and Sir Jeremy Smith's.'"

ASTROLOGERS AND OTHERS.

DR. PARTRIDGE, ASTROLOGER, PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY, ETC.

In the same age lived another noteworthy man, whose connection with the gentle craft was much more intimate, and, indeed, of almost life-long duration. This man was an astrologer, and blended with his study of the subtle influences of the stars over human affairs the study of medicine.

What relation there is between these two things it were hard to tell; but certain it is, that for many years men who were not otherwise fools and knaves believed in this relation; and, combining the two "professions," found very often that success in the one gave them a certain prestige in the other. A lucky hit in "casting the nativity" of a notable person, brought the "astrologer and physician" endless patients and no small fortune. Probably an appointment as physician to the king was due to no better cause; and, with such an appointment, of course the pract.i.tioner's position was secure for life. This seems to have been pretty much the case with _John Partridge_, who is spoken of as a shoemaker in Covent Garden in 1680, and in 1682 is styled _physician to His Majesty Charles II._ Here is a case, then, of a cobbler who ventured _ultra crepidam_ to some purpose, and who might very well have taken James Lackington's motto for his own.[120]

Partridge, it must be allowed, was a scholar of no mean attainments, whatever he may have been as a physician, and his scholars.h.i.+p was self-acquired. During his apprentices.h.i.+p to a shoemaker he began the study of Latin with a copy of Lilye's Grammar, Gouldman's Dictionary, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and a Latin Bible. Having got a sufficient knowledge of Latin to read astrological works, he betook himself to the study of Greek and Hebrew. Then came _physic_, with the grand result of royal patronage. Partridge was a considerable author or editor, and the list of his works shows the strong bent of his mind toward the occult science. He published a "Hebrew Calendar" for 1678; "Vade Mec.u.m," 1679; "Ecclesilegia, an Almanac," 1679; the same for 1680; "The King of France's Nativity;" "A Discourse of Two Moons;" "Mercurius Coelestis,"

being an almanac for 1681; "Prodomus, a Discourse on the Conjunction of Saturn and Mars;" "The Black Life of John Gadbury," in which a brother astrologer is roundly abused; and shown to be, as a matter of course, a rogue and impostor; and a "Translation of Hadria.n.u.s a Mynsicht's Treasury of Physic," 1682.

[120] Sutor ultra crepidam feliciter ausus. See Lackington's Life, p. 45.

The inscription over Partridge's tomb is in Latin, as becomes the memorial of so learned a man and so eminent a physician! The visitor to the churchyard of Mortlake in Surrey may still learn--if the great destroyer has dealt gently with the record--how

JOHANNES PARTRIDGE, ASTROLOGUS ET MEDICINae DOCTOR,

was born at East Sheen, in Surrey, on the 18th January, 1644, and died in London, 24th June, 1715; how he made medicine for two kings and one queen, _Carolo scilicet Secundo, Willielmo Tertio, Reginaeque Mariae_; and how the Dutch University of Leyden conferred on him the diploma _Medicinae Doctor_.

Partridge seems to have given his MS. of the "Conjunction of Saturn and Mars" to Elias Ashmole, who presented it in 1682, with other curiosities, to the University of Oxford, where it may still be seen in the Ashmolean Museum.[121]

[121] Elias Ashmole appears to have been given to astrology and alchemy; see his "Way to Bliss," a work on the Philosopher's stone, published 1658.

Partridge is alluded to in Pope's "Rape of the Lock," where the poet speaks of Belinda's "wavy curl," which has been stolen and placed among the stars--

"This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies, When next he looks through Galileo's eyes; And hence the egregious wizard shall foredoom The fate of Louis and the fall of Rome."

"What sacrifices," says the author of "The Book of Days," "would many a sage or poet have made to be connected through all time with Pope and the charming Belinda! Yet here, in this case, we find the almanac-making shoemaker enjoying a companions.h.i.+p and a celebrity for qualities which, morally, have no virtue or endurance in them, but quite the reverse."

Swift, whose satire stung many an abuse to death, made endless fun of Partridge and his absurd prophecies based on astrology. In 1708 Swift published a burlesque almanac containing "predictions for the year,"

etc., etc., the first of which was about Partridge himself. Fancy the astrologer's feelings when he read the following awful announcement:--"I have consulted the star of his nativity by my own rules, and find he will infallibly die on the 29th of March next of a raging fever; therefore I advise him to consider it and settle his affairs in time!"

After the 29th of March was past, Partridge positively took the trouble to inform the public that he was _not_ dead! This he did in his almanac for 1709. Whereupon the cruel Dean took the matter up again and tried to show Partridge his error. He was dead, argues Swift, if he did but know it; but then there is no accounting for some men's ignorance! He says, "I have in another place and in a paper by itself sufficiently convinced this man that he is dead; and if he has any shame, I don't doubt but that by this time he owns it to all his acquaintance."[122] Not content with this, Swift wrote an "Elegy on the supposed Death of Partridge, the Almanac-maker," and wound up the _painful_ business by writing his epitaph too.

[122] _The Tatler_, April 11, 1709. Steele and Congreve a.s.sisted in the joke. Congreve pretended to take the side of Partridge by defending him against the charge of "sneaking about without paying his funeral expenses!" See Timb's "Anecdote Biog." vol. i. pp. 24 and 154.

THE EPITAPH.

"Here, five foot deep, lies, on his back, A cobbler, starmonger, and quack, Who to the stars, in pure good-will, Does to his best look upward still.

Weep, all ye customers, that use His pills, or almanacs, or shoes; And you that did your fortunes seek, Step to his grave but once a week.

This earth, which bears his body's print, You'll find has so much virtue in't, That I durst p.a.w.n my ear 'twill tell Whate'er concerns you full as well, In physic, stolen goods, or love, As he himself could when above."

THE BROTHERS SIBLY.--EBENEZER SIBLY, M.D., F.R.C.P., ASTROLOGER, ETC.

Here also may be mentioned the once famous _Dr. Ebenezer Sibly_, the physician and astrologer, and his brother Manoah, who by turns was shoemaker, shorthand reporter, and preacher of the "heavenly doctrines"

of the New Jerusalem Church. However great a figure these men may have made in their day, they have managed to drop so completely out of notice that no encyclopaedia, biographical dictionary, or magazine[123] the writer has met with contains any account of them. They are said to have been born in Bristol, and to have been brought up to the gentle craft.[124] The first edition of Ebenezer Sibly's "Astrological Astronomy" was published in 1789, in three vols. 8vo, and was ent.i.tled "Astronomy and Elementary Philosophy," being a translation of Placidus de t.i.tus. The various editions of this work contain a collection of remarkable nativities, and among them Sibly includes that of Thomas Chatterton, "the marvellous boy" of Bristol.[125] Of course the astrologer sees in the horoscope of Chatterton sure signs of remarkable genius. Sibly was frequently consulted both for astrological and medical purposes, the two professions, astrology and medicine, being regarded as having a certain necessary relation. At all events, it answered the purposes of men like Sibly and Partridge to a.s.sociate them in their practice. Human credulity dies hard, the race of fools seems to be endowed with wondrous vitality; even as late as 1826 Sibly's "Celestial Science of Astrology," in two bulky 4to vols., was published in a twelfth edition, and at that time there must have been many readers of his costly works[126] on the "Occult Sciences, comprehending the Art of Foretelling Future Events and Contingencies by the Aspect and Influences of the Heavenly Bodies." This work was accompanied by a key to physic and the occult sciences. "Many of my readers," says the author of "Crispin Anecdotes," "otherwise indebted to Dr. Sibly, may remember his solar and lunar tinctures, and may probably have experienced their efficacy in trans.m.u.ting gold coin into AURUM POTABILE!" In his astrological works and his edition of "Culpepper's Herbal," Sibly signs himself "M.D.," "Fellow of the Royal Harmonic Philosophical Society at Paris," "Member of the Royal College of Physicians in Aberdeen," etc., etc. The "Herbal" is dated in the year of Masonry 5798, and is written from No. 1 Upper Tichfield Street, Cavendish Square, London. We have no record of the death of this ill.u.s.trious son of Crispin, who, perhaps, had better have stuck to his last. He is called "_the late_ E. Sibly, M.D.," in the 1817 edition of his "Celestial Science."

[123] In regard to Manoah Sibly, see below.

[124] "Crispin Anecdotes," p. 85. The plates in E.

Sibly's works are by Ames, a Bristol name a century ago. His portrait in the 1790 edition is by Roberts.

[125] His birth is set down as occurring 20th November, p.m., 1752.

[126] They were published at _two guineas_.

MANOAH SIBLY, SHORTHAND WRITER, ETC.

Manoah Sibly appears to have been a man of more varied and certainly of much more useful gifts than his brother "the doctor;" but it may well be doubted if he made as much capital out of them. He was born August 20th, 1757.[127] If the writer above quoted be correct in saying that Manoah was a shoemaker, he must have made good use of his spare time, and even of his working hours, for at the age of nineteen he is said to have been teaching Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac. During the greater part of his life he was a prominent preacher in connection with the New Jerusalem or Swedenborgian community. For fifty-three years, from the time of his ordination in 1790, he held the pastorate of the congregation for which the Friars Street Chapel, London, was built in 1803. This congregation is now represented by the well-known Argyle Square Church, King's Cross, where a tablet to his memory has been erected. Manoah Sibly does not seem at any time to have been wholly occupied with the work of preaching, although he delivered two sermons a week for forty-three years, and one a week for the remaining ten of his ministry. "Whether he dabbled in the muddy waters of astrology or no, it is rather hard to tell; probably he left the task of reading the stars, for the most part, to his more astute brother, Ebenezer. At any rate, a translation of Placidus de t.i.tus is set down in certain lists as having been published in his name in 1789;[128] and when he opened a shop as a bookseller, he dealt chiefly in works on occult philosophy. In 1795 he is styled shorthand writer to the City of London on the t.i.tle-page of the published reports from his own notes of the trial of Gillman and of Thomas Hardy, the political shoemaker, whose trial and acquittal created so great an excitement throughout the country. Two years after this he obtained a situation in the Bank of England, which he held for no less than forty-three years. In addition to all this multifarious work, he found time for writing and slight editorial duties. In 1796 a volume of sermons preached in the New Jerusalem Temple appeared in his name, and in 1802 he edited a liturgy for his own church, and wrote a hymn-book.

If in no other way, his memory will be perpetuated among his coreligionists by the hymns that bear his name. His first published work was a critical essay on Jeremiah 38:16, issued in 1777; and his last, a discourse on "Jesus Christ, the only Divine object of Praise," delivered on the forty-fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the "heavenly doctrines," appeared fifty-six years after, viz., in 1833. Manoah Sibly's long life of fourscore and three years came to an end December 16th, 1840.