ons, Reginald and Thomas Cuthbert, commoners of Brazen-nose college. Mr. Heber, the father, although a man of taste and learning, published little. He has, however,
On the death of lord James Beauclerc, who held the
rectory of Hodnet in commendam with the bishopric of
Hereford, Mr. Heber was instituted to that living, of which
he was patron, holding it with Malpas, from which it is
distant about fourteen miles. In March 1303, he succeeded
to the family estate in Yorkshire by the death of his brothers widow, Mrs. Heber of Weston, Northamptonshire,
who held it in jointure. In the summer of that year, retaining still the vigour and faculties of younger days, he
was present at a very interesting sight, when his second
son, Mr. Reginald Heber, who two years before obtained
the chancellor’s prize at Oxford for Latin verse, by his
very spirited and classical “Carmen Sceculare,
” spoke,
with unbounded applause, a second prize poem, the admirable verses on-“Palestine,
” since published,
Mr. Heber died Jan. 10, 1804. In April 1773, he married Mary, third daughter and co-heiress of Martin Baylie,
M. A. rector of Kelsall and Wrentbam in Suffolk. She died
Jan. 30, 1774, leaving an infant son, Richard Heber, esq.
afterwards M. A. of Brazen-nose college, 1797, a gentleman
well known in the literary world, as the judicious collector
of one of the most extensive private libraries in the kingdom, and whose liberality in assisting men of literature
with its valuable contents, has been often publicly acknowledged, and cannot be too highly commended. InJuly
1782, Mr. Reginald Heber married Mary, eldest daughter
of Cuthbert Allanson, D. D. of Brazen-nose, rector of
Wath in Yorkshire, who was for some years before his
death chaplain to the house of commons. By this lady he
left a daughter Mary, and two sons, Reginald and Thomas
Cuthbert, commoners of Brazen-nose college. Mr. Heber,
the father, although a man of taste and learning, published
little. He has, however, some elegant English verses addressed to the king, on his accession to the throne, among
the Oxford poems on that occasion, in 1761. The following year he published, but without his name, tf An Elegy
written among the Tombs in Westminster Abbey," printed
for Dodsley which was afterwards inserted, without his
knowledge, in Pearch’s continuation of Dodsley’s Poems.
The lines are moral, plaintive, and religious.
, a man of taste and learning, was born Nov. 28, 1701, in the parish
, a man of taste and learning, was born
Nov. 28, 1701, in the parish of St. Botolph, Aldersgate.
His father, sir Daniei Wray, was a London citizen, who
resided in Little Britain, made a considerable fortune in
trade (as a soap-boiler), and purchased an estate in Essex,
near Ingatestone, which his son possessed aftr r him. Sir
Daniel served the office of sheriff for that county, and was
knighted in 1708 on presenting a loyal address to queen
Anne. His son was educated at the Charter-house, and
was supposed in 1783 to have been the oldest survivor of
any person educated there. In 1718 he went to Queen’s
college, Cambridge, as a fellow commoner. He took his
degree of B. A. in 1722, after which he made the tour of
Italy, accompanied by John, earl of Morton, and Mr. King,
the son of lord chancellor King, who inherited his title.
How long he remained abroad between 1722 and 1728 is
not precisely ascertained, except by the fact that a cast in
bronze, by Pozzo, was taken of his profile, in 1726, at
Home. It had this inscription upon the reverse, “Nil actum reputans, si quid superesset agendum,
” which line is
said to have been a portrait of his character, as he was in
all his pursuits a man of uncommon diligence and perseverance. After his return from his travels, he became
M.A.-in 1728, and was already so distinguished in philosophical attainments, that he was chosen a fellow of the
Royal Society in March 1728-9. He resided however generally at Cambridge, though emigrating occasionally^ to
London, till 1739, or 1740, in which latter year, January
1740-41, he was elected F. S. A. and was more habitually a
resident in town. In 1737 commenced his acquaintance
and friendship with the noble family of Yorke; and in 1745,
Mr. Yorke, afterwards earl of Hardwicke, as teller of the
exchequer, appointed Mr.Wray his deputy teller, in which
office he continued until 1782, when his great punctuality
and exactness in any business he undertook made the constant attendance of the office troublesome to him. He was
an excellent critic in the English language; an accomplished judge of polite literature, of virtft, and the fine
arts; and deservedly a member of most of our learned societies; he was also an elected trustee of the British Museum. He was one of the writers of the “Athenian Letters
” published by the earl of Hardwicke; and in the first
volume of the Archaeologia, p. 128, are printed “Notes on
the walls of antient Rome,
” communicated by him in Extracts from different Letters from Rome, giving an
Account of the Discovery of a most beautiful Statue of Venus, dug up there 1761.
” He died Dec. 29, 1783, in his
eighty. second year, much regretted by his surviving friends,
to whose esteem he was entitled by the many worthy and
ingenious qualities. which he possessed. Those of his heart
were as distinguished as those of his mind; the rules of religion, of virtue, and morality, having regulated his conduct from the beginning to the end of his days. He was
married to a lady of merit equal to his own, the daughter
of Barrel, esq. of Richmond. This lady died at Richmond, where Mr.Wray had a house, in May 1803. Mr.
Wray left his library at her disposal and she, knowing his
attachment to the Charter-house, made the governors an
offer of it, which was thankfully accepted and a room was
fitted up for its reception, and it is placed under the care
of the master, preacher, head schoolmaster, and a librarian.
The public at large, and particularly the friends of Mr.
Wray, will soon be gratified by a memoir of him written by
the lare George Hardinge, esq. intended for insertion in
Mr. Nichols’s “Illustrations of Literature.
” This memoir,
of which fifty copies have already been printed for private
distribution, abounds with interesting anecdotes and traits
of character, and copious extracts from Mr. Wray’s correspondence, and two portraits, besides an engraving of the
cameo.