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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Adam (d.1846)

​ANDERSON, ADAM, LL.D. (d. 1846), writer on physics, sometime rector of the Perth Academy, afterwards professor of natural philosophy at St. Andrew's University, died 5 Dec. 1846. He contributed original papers on the measurement of the heights of mountains by the barometer, the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, the dew point, and the illuminating power of coal gas, to Nicholson's ‘Journal,’ vol. xxx. 1812, to Thomson's ‘Annals of Philosophy,’ vol. ix. 1817, and to the ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ vols. ii, iv, xi, xii, xiii, &c. The Perth gasworks were originally constructed under his superintendence, and he introduced many improvements leading to the economical production of gas. He wrote the articles ‘Barometer,’ ‘Cold,’ ‘Dyeing,’ ‘Fermentation,’ ‘Evaporation,’ ‘Hygrometry,’ ‘Navigation,’ and ‘Physical Geography’ in Brewster's ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia’ (completed 1830), and the article ‘Gaslight’ in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’
[Gent. Mag. 1847, xxvii. 221; Royal Soc. Cat. Sci. Papers, vol. i.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Christopher

​ANDERSON, CHRISTOPHER (1782–1852), theological writer and preacher, was born at Edinburgh, 19 Feb. 1782, and was the son of William Anderson, a respectable merchant. Christopher began life in an insurance office, but being much interested in missions, and having resolved to become a foreign missionary, he gave up his secular work, and studied for the ministry. His family and friends were deeply imbued with the spirit of Robert and James Haldane, and Anderson's lot was thrown among this class. It was found, however, that his health did not justify his accepting a missionary appointment, and he therefore became minister of a small congelation in Edinburgh, known as ‘English Baptists.’ To this congregation, gathered through his own exertions, Anderson ministered till within a very short period of his death.
Anderson was much interested in the Scottish Highlands, and was a founder of the Gaelic School Society. To him was similarly due the establishment of the Edinburgh Bible Society — an independent association, not a mere branch of the British and Foreign Society. He was a very cordial supporter of the Serampore mission in India, a friend of the missionaries, and undertook many a journey to explain its objects and collect funds in its behalf. He published two memorials on the diffusion of the Scriptures in the Celtic dialects; and, in 1828, a volume of ‘Historical Sketches of the Native Irish.’ His chief work was the ‘Annals of the English Bible.’ On 4 Oct. 1835, being the tercentary of the publication of the first complete English Bible by Coverdale, Anderson published a sermon on ‘The English Scriptures, their first reception and effects, including Memorials of Tyndale, Frith, Coverdale, and Rogers.’ He then undertook his more elaborate ‘Annals,’ and laboured upon it from 1837 to 1845, when it was published in two volumes. The publication of this work brought its author into contact with many new friends, and gave him a leading position in this branch of literature. Another of Anderson's publications was entitled ‘The Domestic Constitution,’ intended to show that the christian home was the main school where the christian character might be expected to be formed and developed. This book was acknowledged to be the work of a devout and powerful mind, and in many quarters exercised a considerable influence. Anderson died on 18 Feb. 1852. He never received any public recognition of his labours. The university of New York would have sent him a diploma, had he not expressed his unwillingness to receive it. At his death he left a considerable collection of early English bibles, including several rare editions.
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ancell, Samuel

​ANCELL, SAMUEL (d. 1802), military writer, entered the army at an early age, and served with the 58th regiment when besieged in Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783. In 1784 he published at Liverpool ‘A Circumstantial Journal of the long and tedious Blockade and Siege of Gibraltar from the 12th of September 1779 (the day the garrison opened their batteries against the Spaniards) to the 23rd day of February 1783.’ The book, which is in the form of letters to a brother of the author, passed through five editions. Ancell apparently retired from active service soon after his return home, and opened a military commission agency at Dublin. In October 1801 he produced there the first part of a monthly military magazine, called the ‘Monthly Military Companion.’ The periodical was continued until Ancell's death on 19 Oct. 1802. To it he contributed not only articles on fortifications, military history, and tactics, but songs set to music of his own composition.
[Gent. Mag. lxxii. 1161; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Alexander (1582-1619?)

See also EB1911
​ANDERSON, ALEXANDER (1582–1619?), mathematician, was native of Aberdeen. Little is certainly known about him; ​but the year 1582 is assigned as that of his birth on the authority of a print representing him in 1617 as of the age of thirty-five. He taught mathematics in Paris early in the seventeenth century, and appears to have been a friend of Vieta, who died in 1603, and whose posthumous writings he edited with great ability, developing much that was only indicated, and demonstrating much that was barely stated. He alludes more than once to the poverty of his circumstances; abstruse studies and the neglect of common and easy life brought him, he tells us, more wisdom than riches (Vindiciæ Archimedis, Dedication). He is not heard of after 1619, the date of his last publication, and is accordingly believed to have died about that time. The celebrated James Gregory was, on the mother's side, connected with his family. His works are as follows:—
* ‘Supplementum Apollonii Redivivi,’ Paris, 1612, in which he displays a remarkable command of the ancient analysis, and supplies the deficiencies in Ghetaldi's attempted restoration of the lost book of Apollonius Περὶ νεύσεων
* ‘Αὶτιολογία pro Zetetico Apolloniani Problematis à se jam pridem edito in supplemento Apollonii Redivivi,’ Paris, 1615, an addition to the preceding.
* ‘Francisci Vietæ de Equationum recognitione et emendatione tractatus duo,’ Paris, 1615, contain Vieta's improvements in the transformation and reduction of algebraical equations, with an appendix by Anderson, showing that the solution of cubic equations can be made to depend upon the trisection of an angle.
* ‘Ad Angularium Sectionum Analyticen Theoremata καθολικώτερα,’ Paris, 1615, dedicated to Charles, Prince of Wales, adds to Vieta's theorems on angular sections demonstrations subsequently incorporated in the edition of the French algebraist's works published by Schooten, at Leyden, in 1646.
* ‘Vindiciæ Archimedis,’ Paris, 1616, refutes the claim of Lansberg, a Belgian astronomer, to have solved the problem of the quadrature of the circle, and criticises Kepler's ‘Stereometria.’
* ‘Animadversionis in Franciscum Vietam à Clemente Cyriaco nuper editæ brevis Διάκρισις,’ Paris, 1617.
* ‘Exercitationum Mathematicarum Decas Prima,’ Paris, 1619. Two works of Anderson on stereometry seem to have perished. One is mentioned by himself (Ex. Math.), and copies of both (the second entitled ‘Stereometria Triangulorum Sphæricorum’) were in possession of Sir Alexander Hume until long after the middle of the seventeenth century.
[Correspondence of Scientific Men (Rigaud), ii. 178, 515; Montucla, Hist. d. Math. (1799–1802), i. 606, ii. 5; Hutton, Phil. and Math. Dict. (1815), i. 90, 115; De Morgan in S.D.U.K. Dictionary (1842–4), ii. 577; Abstract of Geom. Writings of A. A. (T. S. Davies), App. to Ladies' Diary, 1840.]
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Alexander (d.1811)

​ANDERSON, ALEXANDER (d. 1811), botanist, was appointed in 1785 superintendent of the government botanic garden at St. Vincent, where he showed much activity. He was a correspondent of Sir Joseph Banks, through whom he contributed to the Royal Society in 1789 an account of a bituminous lake in St. Vincent, which was afterwards published in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. In 1791 he went into Guiana on a botanising expedition; the plants he obtained being sent to Banks, are now in the herbarium of the British Museum. The Society of Arts voted him a silver medal in 1798 for a paper upon the plants in the garden at St. Vincent. He contemplated the production of a flora of the Caribee islands, some sheets of which he sent to Banks; but this project was never carried out. He resigned his post in July 1811, and died on 8 Sept. in the same year.
[Loudon's Gardener's Mag. i. 194 (1826); Banks, Correspondence (MS.), 3 May 1789, and 30 March 1796.]
J. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anarawd

​ANARAWD (d. 915?), a Welsh prince of the ninth century, was the son of Rhodri Mawr, or Roderick the Great, King of Gwynedd, or North Wales, who, having succeeded to the sovereignty of South Wales in right of his wife, became the supreme sovereign of all Wales. Rhodri was killed in battle A.D. 877, fighting against the Saxon invaders of Anglesea, and in accordance with his directions his dominions were divided among his three sons, Anarawd, Cadell, and Mervyn, Anarawd succeeding to Gwynedd, with authority over his brothers, and bearing the title of ‘Brenin Cymru oll,’ or king of all Wales. Cadell and Mervyn obtained respectively South Wales and Powys; Powys being a district corresponding roughly with Montgomeryshire and Herefordshire. Rhodri's conflict with the Saxons was continued by Anarawd, who completely defeated them at Cymryd, near Conway, in the year 880. This battle was called ‘Dial Rhodri,’ or the avenging of Rhodri. Subsequently the Britons of Strathclyde, being hard pressed by the Saxons, were received into Wales by Anarawd, who granted them the land between the Dee and the Conway, on condition of their expelling the Saxons. In 894 according to the ‘Annales Cambriæ,’ or 893 according to the ‘Brut,’ Anarawd ‘cum Anglis’ devastated Cardigan, that is, the territory of his brother Cadell, for the purpose, probably, of enforcing payment of tribute due from the younger to the elder. The ‘Annales Cambriæ’ record Mervyn's death in the year 903, Cadell's in 909, and Anarawd's in 915. The ‘Brut’ assigns Anarawd's death to 913. Anarawd was succeeded as king of Gwynedd by his son Idwal Foel, or ‘the Bald;’ but the dignity of ‘Brenin Cymru oll’ devolved upon his nephew Hywel, son of Cadell, famous in Welsh history as the great lawgiver, Hywel Dda.
One of the Triads (Myv. Arch., Gee's ed., p. 405, No. 43) speaks of Anarawd and his brothers as ‘Tri theyrn taleithiog Ynys Prydain,’ or ‘Tri thywysog taleithiog,’ ‘the three diademed princes of the Isle of Britain.’
[Brut y Tywysogion and Annales Cambriæ, both published in the Rolls Series.]
A. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderdon, John Lavicount

​ANDERDON, JOHN LAVICOUNT (1792–1874), the third son of John Proctor Anderdon, was born at Bristol 5 April 1792. After passing some time in the preparatory school of Dr. Nicholas at Ealing, he was removed to Harrow, but was taken from that establishment at a comparatively early age for office life in the business of Manning & Anderdon, in which firm he became a partner about 1816 on his marriage with Anna Maria, the second daughter of Wm. Manning, M.P. At the general election of 1818 he contested the borough of Penryn, in Cornwall, but was defeated, probably more to the regret of his friends than of himself. Mr. Anderdon was an enthusiastic fisherman, and a walking tour through Dovedale, the country of Charles Cotton, one of the earliest professors of the art of angling, suggested the compilation of a volume (printed at first in 1845 for private circulation, but subsequently in 1847 for sale) on ‘The River Dove: with some quiet Thoughts on the happy Practice of Angling.’ Written in the orthodox dialogue of fishing literature, it contained many anecdotes of Cotton and his country life, with hints on the best mode of following his favourite pursuit. A series of views of Cotton's seat and the river Dove were taken under Anderdon's instructions and issued with a preface by his brother-in-law, Mr. F. Manning, in 1866. His next work was a sympathetic life of Bishop Ken, which was published under the pseudonym of ‘A Layman’ in 1851, and reprinted in 1854. He followed up this memoir of the saintly Ken with a selection, entitled ‘Approach to the Holy Altar’ (1852), from Ken's two devotional works, and a reprint (1852) of his ‘Exposition of the Apostles' Creed.’ For many years he was engaged in preparing, with copious ​extracts from divines of all kinds, a narrative of the life of our Lord. It was published anonymously in 1861 under the title of ‘The Messiah,’ and the substance of the work was reissued in 1866 in ‘The Devout Christian's Help to Meditation on the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Mr. Anderdon died 8 March 1874. A posthumous work (‘Geron, the Old Man in Search of Paradise’), a collection of short discourses on a holy life, was published in 1877, with a biographical notice by Rev. George Williams.
[Memoir prefixed to Geron; Works of J. L. Anderdon; Westwood & Satchell's Bibl. Piscatoria, pp. 1 and 66.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Andrew

​ANDERSON, ANDREW (d. 1861), the ‘champion draught-player of Scotland,’ was a stocking weaver by trade, and continued to work at his business until within a short period of his death, which occurred at Braidwood, near Carluke, Lanarkshire, 1 March, 1861 . He published ‘The Game of Draughts simplified and illustrated with practical diagrams,’ Lanark, 1848; second edition, Glasgow, 1852—a work which is regarded as an authority on the subject of which it treats. A third edition, revised and extended by Robert McCulloch, was published at Glasgow and New York in 1878.
[Gent. Mag. ccx. 472; Introduction to third edition of the Game of Draughts.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Anthony

​ANDERSON, ANTHONY (d. 1593), theological writer and preacher, was, according to Tanner, a native of Lancashire, and was for many years rector of Medbourne, in Leicestershire. According to the parish register he was presented to the benefice in 1573, and held it until 1593, the date of his death. Early in 1587 Anderson was appointed to the vicarage of Stepney near London, and to the rectory of Denge in Essex, both of which he appears to have held in conjunction with his living in Leicestershire (Newcourt, Repertorium (1708), i. 740, ii. 212). ​In July 1592 he was promoted to the office of subdean of the Chapel Royal, after having held for some years previously the post of ‘gospeller’ there; and his name is found appended to many documents, relating to the management of the Chapel Royal, still preserved among its archives. Anderson died on 10 Oct. 1593. His published works, which are of a puritanic character, consist of sermons, prayers, and expositions of scriptural passages. From the fact that he dedicated one of his publications to ‘Edmund Anderson, Esq., sergeant-at-law to the queen’ [see Anderson, Sir Edmund], it is possible that he was related to the lord chief justice of that name. The following is a list of his writings : 1. ‘An Exposition of the Hymne commonly called Benedictus, with an ample and comfortable application of the same to our age and people, by Anthony Anderson, preacher.’ A dedication to the Bishop of Lincoln is dated from Medbourne, 15 Jan. 1573–4. 2. ‘A Godlie Sermon, preached on New Yeares Day last before Sir William Fitzwilliam, Knt., late Deputie of Ireland, at Burghley. Hereto is added a very profitable Forme of Prayer, good for all such as passe the Seas,’ London, 1576, 8vo. 3. ‘A Sermon of Sure Comfort preached at the Funerall off Master Robert Keylwey, Esq., at Exton, in Rutland, the 18th of March 1580–1,’ London, 1581, 12mo. 4. ‘A Sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, the 23rd of Aprile, being the Lords Day, called Sunday,’ London, 1581. This sermon is again dedicated to Sergeant Anderson. 6. ‘The Shield of oure Safetie, set foorth by the Faythfull Preacher of Gods holye Worde, Anthony Anderson, upon Symeons sight in hys Nunc Dimittis,’ 1581. It is dedicated to the Bishop of London. 6. ‘Godlye Prayers made by Anthonie Anderson.’ License to print this work, under the hand of the Bishop of London, was granted to John Wolfe 3 Aug. 1591 (Arber's Transcript of the Stationers' Company Register, ii. 692).
S. L. L.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 14/Letter: Pope to Swift - 23

MR. POPE TO DR. SWIFT.
JAN. 6, 1733-4.
I NEVER think of you and can never write to you, without drawing many of those short sighs of which we have formerly talked: the reflection both of the friends we have been deprived of by death, and of those from whom we are separated almost as eternally by absence, checks me to that degree, that it takes away in a manner the pleasure (which yet I feel very sensibly too) of thinking I am now conversing with you. You have been silent to me as to your works? whether those printed here are, or are not genuine? but one I am sure is yours; and your method of concealing yourself puts me in mind of the Indian bird I have read off, who hides his head in a hole, while all his feathers and tail stick out. You will have immediately by several franks (even before it is here published) my Epistle to lord Cobham, part of my Opus Magnum, and the last Essay on Man; both which I conclude will be grateful to your bookseller on whom you please to bestow them so early. There is a woman's war declared against me by a certain lord; his weapons are the same which women and children use, a pin to scratch, and a squirt to bespatter: I writ a sort of answer, but was ashamed to enter the lists with him, and after showing it to some people, suppressed it: otherwise it was such as was worthy of him, and worthy of me. I was three weeks this autumn with ​lord Peterborow, who rejoices in your doings, and always speaks with the greatest affection of you. I need not tell you who else do the same, you may be sure almost all those whom I ever see, or desire to see. I wonder not that B—— paid you no sort of civility while he was in Ireland: he is too much a half wit to love a true wit, and too much half honest, to esteem any entire merit. I hope and think he hates me too, and I will do my best to make him: he is so insupportably insolent in his civility to me when he meets me at one third place, that I must affront him to be rid of it. That strict neutrality as to publick parties, which I have constantly observed in all my writings, I think gives me the more title to attack such men, as slander and belie my character in private, to those who know me not. Yet even this is a liberty I shall never take, unless at the same time they are pests of private society, or mischievous members of the publick, that is to say, unless they are enemies to all men as well as to me. — Pray write to me when you can: if ever I can come to you, I will: if not, may Providence be our friend and our guard through this simple world, where nothing is valuable, but sense and friendship. Adieu, dear sir, may health attend your years, and then may many years be added to you.
P. S. I am just now told a very curious lady intends to write to you to pump you about some poems said to be yours. Pray tell her, that you have not answered me on the same questions, and that I shall take it as a thing never to be forgiven from you, if you tell another what you have concealed from me.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 14/Letter: Pope to Swift - 26

MR. POPE TO DR. SWIFT.
TO answer your question as to Mr. Hughes, what he wanted as to genius he made up as an honest man: but he was of the class you think him.
I am glad you think of Dr. Rundle as I do. He will be an honour to the bishops, and a disgrace to one bishop, two things you will like: but what you will like more particularly, he will be a friend and benefactor even to your unfriended, unbenefitted nation; he will be a friend to the human race, wherever he goes. Pray tell him my best wishes for his health and long life: I wish you and he came over together, or that I were with you. I never saw a man so seldom, whom I liked so much, as Dr. Rundle.
Lord Peterborow I went to take a last leave of, at his setting sail for Lisbon: no body can be more wasted, no soul can be more alive. Immediately after the severest operation of being cut into the bladder for a suppression of urine, he took coach, and got from Bristol to Southampton. This is a man that will neither live nor die like any other mortal.
Poor lord Peterborow! there is another string lost, that would have helped to draw you hither! he ordered on his deathbed his watch to be given me (that which had accompanied him in all his travels) with this reason, "That I might have something to put me every day in mind of him." ​It was a present to him from the king of Sicily, whose arms and insignia are graved on the inner case; on the outer, I have put this inscription. "Victor Amadeus, rex Siciliæ, dux Sabaudiæ, &c, &c. Carolo Mordaunt, comiti de Peterborow, D. D. Car, Mor. com. de Pet. Alexandro Pope moriens legavit. 1735."
Pray write to me a little oftener: and if there be a thing left in the world that pleases you, tell it one who will partake of it. I hear with approbation and pleasure, that your present care is to relieve the most helpless of this world, those objects which most want our compassion, though generally made the scorn of their fellow creatures, such as are less innocent than they. You always think generously; and of all charities, this is the most disinterested, and least vainglorious, done to such as never will thank you, or can praise you for it.
God bless you with ease, if not with pleasure; with a tolerable state of health, if not with its full enjoyment; with a resigned temper of mind, if not a very cheerful one. It is upon these terms I live myself, though younger than you; and I repine not at my lot, could but the presence of a few that I love be added to these. Adieu.
* ↑ Victor Amadeus, king of Sicily, duke of Savoy, &c. &c. to Charles Mordaunt, earl of Peterborow, made a present of this watch. Charles Mordaunt, earl of Peterborow, on his deathbed bequeathed it as a legacy to Alexander Pope.
* ↑ Ideots.