Owens

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OWENS, JOHN (1790-1846), merchant, and founder of Owens College, Manchester, the first and for four years the only college of the Victoria University, was born in Manchester in 1790. His father, Owen Owens, a native of Holywell in Flintshire, went to Manchester when a young man, and started in business as a hat-lining maker, ultimately becoming, with the aid of his son John, currier, furrier, manufacturer, and shipper. He married in his twenty-fifth year Sarah Humphreys, who was six years older than himself; and he died in 1844, aged 80. John was the eldest of three children, the other two-also sons-dying in childhood. He was educated at a private school (Mr. Hothersall's) in the township of Ardwick, Manchester. He was admitted early into partnership with his father (1817), and the business greatly increased. According to his principal clerk, he was considered one of the best buyers of cotton in the Manchester market. A keen man of business, it was also his custom to purchase calicoes and coarse woollens, which were packed on his premises and shipped to China, India, the east coast of South America, and New York, importing hides, wheat, and other produce in return. He opened agencies in London and some of the provincial towns, and in Philadelphia, U.S.A. He also speculated in railway and other shares, and lent money on them as security.' Owens's health was delicate, and he led a private and almost secluded life, taking no ostensible part in public questions. He had, however, from his youth upward deeply interested himself in the subject of education, and strongly disapproved of all university tests. Accordingly, when, towards the end of his life, he offered his fortune to his friend and old schoolfellow, George Faulkner (1790 ?-1862) [q. v.] (with whom he was

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Owens

in partnership as a producer of cotton yarns), the latter made the generous suggestion that, instead of leaving it to a man who had more than enough, he should found a college in Manchester where his principles might be carried out. He died unmarried on 29 July 1846, at his house, 10 Nelson Street, Chorlton-upon-Medlock in Manchester, aged 56 years, and was buried in the churchyard of St. John's, Byrom Street, Manchester, where the whole family rest. By his will, dated 31 May 1845, he bequeathed the residue of his personal estate (after bequests to relatives, friends, charities, and servants amounting to 52,0567.) to certain trustees, 'for the foundation of an institution within the parliamentary borough of Manchester, or within two miles of any part of the limits thereof, for providing or aiding the means of instructing and improving young persons of the male sex (and being of an age not less than fourteen years) in such branches of learning and science as are now and may be hereafter usually taught in the English universities, but subject, nevertheless, to the fundamental and immutable rule and condition that the students, professors, teachers, and other officers and persons connected with the said institution shall not be required to make any declaration as to, or submit to any test whatsoever of, their religious opinions; and that nothing shall be introduced in the matter or mode of education or instruction in reference to any religious or theological subject which shall be reasonably offensive to the conscience of any student or of his relations, guardians, or friends under whose immediate care he shall be. . . . Subject as aforesaid, the said institution shall be open to all applicants for admission without respect to place of birth, and without distinction of rank or con

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dition in society.' The net amount realised from the legacy was 96,6547. 118. 6d. Accordingly Owens College was founded, and was opened in 1851. The first premises, which were in Quay Street, Deansgate, had formerly been the residence of Richard Cobden. They were at first let to the college by George Faulkner, the first chairman of the trustees, and were in 1854 presented by him to the institution. In 1871 the Owens College was incorporated by act of parliament, and in 1873 the college was installed in the fine buildings in Oxford Street, which were erected by public subscription from the designs of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A. Owens's generous bequest has been largely increased by later endowments.

[Thompson's Owens College, Manchester, 1886; personal information.]

J. T. K.

OWENS, JOHN LENNERGAN (A.1780), actor, was born in Ireland, to which country his performances seem to have been confined. He succeeded Henry Mossop [q.v.] at Smock Alley theatre, and was held as Zanga in the 'Revenge' to have approached more nearly than any other actor of the time to his original. All that survives concerning him is a reputation for persistent inebriety. Coming on the stage as Polydore in the 'Orphan,' he was hissed for obvious intoxication. Advancing to the front of the stage, he delivered with a scowl the following words in his soliloquy, 'Here I'm alone and fit for mischief,' and put himself in a fighting attitude. This Hibernian form of apology served the desired end, and Owens was allowed to finish his performance. His failing gradually drove him from the stage. On seeing John Kemble announced for Zanga, he begged some money of a stranger, who asked him his name. To this inquiry he answered with tragic solemnity, 'Have six years' cruel absence extinguished majesty so far that nought shines here to tell you I'm the real Zanga? Yes, sir, John Lennergan Owens, successor to Henry Mossop.' The dates of his birth and death are unknown.

[Thespian Dictionary; Doran's Annals of the Stage, ed. Lowe.]

J. K.

OWENS, OWEN (d. 1593), divine. [See under OWEN, JOHN, 1580-1651, bishop of St. Asaph.]

OWENSON, ROBERT (1744-1812), actor, was born in the barony of Tyrawley, co. Mayo, in 1744. His parents were poor people named MacOwen, which their son afterwards englished into Owenson. He was primarily educated at a hedge-school, and acted for a short time as steward to a

neighbouring landowner. Having acquired a taste for theatricals, he communicated to Oliver Goldsmith his desire to go on the stage, and the latter introduced him to Garrick about 1771. He had a handsome and commanding figure and sang well, having received tuition from Worgan and Arne, and was quite successful when he appeared in the provincial theatres. Of his many parts the best was Teague in the Committee and Major O'Flaherty in the West Indian,' and he was already popular when he made his London début at Covent Garden in 1774. He was admitted a member of the famous 'Literary Club' on Goldsmith's recommendation, and in 1774 married Jane Mill, the daughter of a tradesman of Shrewsbury, and a distant relative of the Mills of Hawkesley in Shropshire. The first child of the marriage was Sydney, the afterwards celebrated Lady Morgan [see MORGAN, SYDNEY]. Owenson appeared on the Dublin stage in October 1776, and remained there some years, becoming part-proprietor of Crow Street Theatre. In 1785, after a quarrel with his manager, he opened the Fishamble Street Theatre, but returned in less than a year. Subsequent attempts to carry on theatres at Kilkenny, Londonderry, and Sligo were failures, and in 1798 he retired from the stage. He died in Dublin at the house of his son-in-law, Sir Arthur Clarke, at the end of May 1812, and was buried at Irishtown, outside the city. He has been placed only a little lower than John Henry Johnstone [q. v.] as an Irish comedian, and he was also a capable composer, the well-known airs of ' Rory O'More and My Love's the Fairest Creature' being attributed to him. His kindness of heart is illustrated by the generosity he extended to Thomas Dermody [q.v.] His only literary productions are a song preserved in T. C. Croker's Popular Songs of Ireland' and 'Theatrical Fears' (12mo, Dublin, 1804), a long poem, after the manner of the Rosciad,' published under the signature of 'R. N. O.'

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[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Thespian Dictionary; Fitzpatrick's Lady Morgan, 1860; Barrington's Personal Sketches, ii. 207; O'Keeffe's Recollections, i. 354; Life of Dermody, 1806.] D. J. O'D.

OWENSON, MISS SYDNEY (1783?1859), novelist and traveller. [See MORGAN, SYDNEY, LADY.]

OWTRAM, WILLIAM, D.D. (1626– 1679), divine, son of Robert Owtram, was born at Barlow, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on 17 March 1625-6 (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xi. 205). On 13 May 1642 he was admitted a sizar of Trinity Čollege, Cambridge,

where he graduated B.A. in 1645. He was afterwards elected to a fellowship at Christ's College, where he graduated M.A. in 1649. In 1655 he held the university office of junior proctor, and in 1660 he was created D.D. (LE NEVE, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 624). His first church preferment was in Lincolnshire, and he subsequently obtained the rectory of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, which he resigned in 1666. He stayed in London during the plague in 1665 (Addit. MS. 5810, p. 290). On 30 July 1669 he was installed archdeacon of Leicester. On 30 July 1670 he was installed prebendary of Westminster, and he was also for some time rector or minister of the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster. He died on 23 Aug. 1679, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument, with a Latin inscription, was erected to his memory (DART, Westmonasterium, ii. 620). His will, dated 5 Nov. 1677, was proved in London 3 Sept. 1679 (P. C. C. 119, King). He bequeathed lands in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, and left legacies to the children of his brother Francis Owtram, deceased, and of his sisters Barbara Burley and Mary Sprenthall, both deceased, and Jane Stanley, then living. An elaborate catalogue of his library was compiled by William Cooper, London, 1681, 4to. Owtram's widow lived forty-two years after him, until 4 Oct. 1721 (CHESTER, Westminster Abbey Registers, pp. 197, 304).

Owtram was a nervous and accurate writer,' and an excellent preacher, and he was reputed to have extraordinary skill in rabbinical learning. Baxter speaks of him as one of the best and ablest of the conformists. His principal work is ' De Sacrificiis libri duo; quorum altero explicantur omnia Judæorum, nonnulla Gentium Profanarum Sacrificia; altero Sacrificium Christi. Utroque Ecclesiæ Catholicæ his de rebus Sententia contra Faustum Socinum, ejusque sectatores defenditur,' London, 1677, 4to, dedicated to Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby. An English translation, entitled 'Two Dissertations on Sacrifices,' with additional notes and indexes by John Allen, was published in 1817. After his death Joseph Hindmarsh published under his name six Sermons upon Faith and Providence, and other subjects,' London, 1680, 8vo. It was stated that these discourses had been taken down in shorthand, but they are not genuine. In order to do justice to his memory, his relatives caused "Twenty Sermons preached upon several occasions' to be published from the author's own copies,' by James Gardiner, D.D., afterwards bishop of Lincoln (2nd ed., corrected, London, 1697, 8vo). Prefixed to the volume is a portrait of Owtram, engraved by R. White.

[Biogr. Brit. v. 3289; Cooke's Preachers' Assistant, ii. 254; Life of Thomas Firmin, p. 14; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 5th ed. v. 41; Kennett MS. 52, f. 228; Kennett's Register and Chronicle, p. 813; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 93, iii. 361; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 463, 922; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 466; Autobiography of Symon Patrick, 1839, pp. 82, lib. xiv. pp. 5, 37; Sharp's Life of Archbishop 245, 246; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. Sharp, i. 16; Silvester's Life of Baxter, iii. 19, 78, 131; Ward's Life of Dr. Henry More, p. 78; Hist. of Westminster, ii. 52; information kindly supplied by W. Aldis Wright, esq., LL.D.]

T. C.

OXBERRY, WILLIAM (1784-1824), actor, the son of an auctioneer, was born on 18 Dec. 1784 in Moorfields, facing Bedlam. According to a memoir supplied to Oxberry's Dramatic Biography,' he was well educated, and placed at the age of fourteen under the care of Stubbs, declared to be an artist of eminence.' Showing no aptitude for design, he was transferred to a bookseller's shop kept by one Ribeau, and thence to the office in Tottenham Court Road of a printer named Seale, an amateur actor. Here his disposition for the stage was fostered, and he is depicted studying Douglas in one corner, while in another his master was rehearsing Glenalvon. At a stable near Queen Anne Street, and subsequently at the theatre in Berwick Street, he took parts such as Hassan in the 'Castle Spectre' and Rosse in 'Macbeth.' After he had made a public appearance in a malthouse in Edgware his indentures were in 1802 cancelled, and he appeared under Jerrold, at the Watford theatre, as Antonio in the Merchant of Venice.' A performance of Dan in 'John Bull' revealed some talent in low comedy, and, after appearing at Sheerness, and playing Richard III at Godalming, he joined, as low comedian, the company of the Worthing, Hythe, and Southend theatres, under Trotter. For some time subsequently he made an occasional appearance in Shylock, Hassan, and other characters. More frequently he was seen in parts such as Lope Tocho in the Mountaineers,' and Old Frost in the 'Irishman in London.' In 1806 he married, at Southend, a young actress playing subordinate parts in the company, named Catherine Elizabeth Hewitt. In the following year he attracted the attention of Henry Siddons [q.v.], by whom he was recommended to the Kemble management at Covent Garden. At a salary rising from 51. to 81. a week, he made his first appearance on 7 Nov. 1807 as Robin Roughhead in Fortune's Frolic.' His performance was cold, constrained, and

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