LAPORTE, George Henry (son of John Laporte, water-colour painter 1761–1839). Animal painter; exhibited 9 sporting subjects at R.A., 21 at B.I. and 18 at Suffolk st. gallery 1821–50; an original member of Institute of painters in water-colours 1831, where he also exhibited; some of his works were engraved in the New Sporting Mag.; animal painter to the king of Hanover. d. 13 Norfolk sq. Hyde park, London 23 Oct. 1873.
LAPPIN, James. b. 1824; partner with Job May and then with Richard A. Webster as stockbrokers, Liverpool; chairman of Liverpool stock exchange; a correspondent of The Times on forged transfers of railway stock; ran to catch his train and died in a carriage between Seaforth and Liverpool 25 Oct. 1890. bur. St. James’ cemet. 28 Oct. The Times 27 Oct. 1890 p. 10.
LAPWORTH, James. b. Warwick 1798; clerk in office of Gregory and Adlington, 1 Bedford row, London 1820–37; admitted attorney 1831; private sec. to Sir Wm. Follett 1837–46; clerk to the Home Office 1846–7; librarian to the Incorporated Law Society, Chancery lane, London, March 1847 to Dec. 1877 when he retired on pension of £300; compiled catalogues of the books in the library of the Law Society 1851 and 1869. d. 7 Blenheim road, Bedford park, London 21 June 1888.
LARBUSCH, Frederick. Claimed to have been b. London 9 March 1766, probably b. Germany 1786; ensign 60 foot 16 Nov. 1809; lieut. as F. Lahrbusch 29 Oct. 1810; known as F. De Lahrbusch 1815; cashiered in 1819 as lieut. De Lahrbush of 60 foot; resided in New York from 1848; entertained at a breakfast in New York to celebrate what he called his 107th birthday 9 March 1873. W. J. Thoms’ Longevity of man (1879) 207–24; Historical Mag. and American Notes and Queries, April 1867 pp. 211–12.
LARCOM, Sir Thomas Aiskew (2 son of Joseph Larcom 1764–1843, captain R.N.). b. 22 April 1801; 2 lieut. R.E. 1 June 1820, lieut.-col. 17 Feb. 1854 to 1 April 1858 when placed on retired full pay with rank of M.G.; assistant in the central organisation of the Irish ordnance survey at Mountjoy, Phœnix park near Dublin 1828–46; the beauty of his county maps of Ireland has never been exceeded; a census comr. in Ireland 1841; a comr. of public works in Ireland 1846; chief director of the public relief works 1846; deputy chairman of Irish board of works 1850; under sec. of state for Ireland Feb. 1853 to Nov. 1868; C.B. 5 March 1858, K.C.B. 19 June 1860; cr. baronet 7 Dec. 1868; P.C. Ireland 1868; edited Sir W. Petty’s The history of the survey of Ireland, for the Irish Archæological soc. 1851; Memoirs of life of Capt. Drummond, in Papers of Corps of Royal Engineers vol. 4 pp. ix–xxiv (1850) and Memoir of city of Londonderry, in Ordnance Survey of Ireland 1837. d. Heathfield, Fareham, Hants. 15 June 1879. Proc. of royal society, xxix 10–15 (1879).
LARDNER, Dionysius (son of Wm. O’B. Lardner of 88 Marlborough st. Dublin, solicitor, who d. 1808). b. Dublin 3 April 1793; ed. at Trin. coll. Dublin, B.A. 1817, M.A. 1819, LLB. and LLD. 1827; took holy orders, chaplain of his college; professor of natural philosophy and astronomy in London univ. 1827 to 1832; published the Cabinet Cyclopædia 133 vols. 1829–46, in which he wrote the treatises on hydrostatics and pneumatics, arithmetic and geometry; published Dr. Lardner’s Cabinet Library 9 vols. 1830–2; edited the Edinburgh Cabinet Library 38 vols. 1830–44; The Museum of science and art 12 vols. 1856; lectured in the United States and Cuba 1840–5, cleared £40,000; lived at Paris 1845 to death; Paris correspondent of Daily News; is satirised by Thackeray in his Miscellanies as Dionysius Diddler, and in his Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush as Doctor Diolesius Larner, Doctor Athanasius Lardner and Doctor Ignatius Loyola. d. Naples 29 April 1859. W. Bates’s Maclise portrait gallery (1883) 122–5, portrait; A.R. (1849) 289 and (1859) 446; The works of W. M. Thackeray, xii 404–14 (1869).
Note.—He married in the parish church of St. Paul, Dublin 19 Dec. 1815 Cecilia dau. of Henry Flood of Dublin, barrister, she left him 20 Oct. 1820 and lived near Dublin with Samuel Booth Williams Murphy to 20 Jany. 1829 when he died. Lardner obtained a sentence of divorce in consistory court of Dublin 1832 and his marriage was dissolved by 2 and 3 Vict. cap. 53, 14 June 1839. On 13 March 1840 he eloped with Mary wife of captain Richard Heaviside of Brighton, who obtained £8000 damages against him in an action tried at town hall, Lewes 1 Aug. 1840. Heaviside obtained a sentence of divorce in consistory court of London 3 March 1841 and his marriage was dissolved by 8 and 9 Vict. cap. 35, 31 July 1845. Lardner married the lady 2 Aug. 1846 at Paris, where she resided until her death about 30 April 1891.
LARDNER, Leopold James. b. Holland 1816; private tutor in family of Jacob van Lennep poet in Holland many years; entered British Museum 1846 where he superintended the transcription of the catalogue of books extending to 300 volumes to his death; frequently employed by the Foreign Office in translating from the Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Danish; threw himself from the window of his residence 9 Cornwall villas, Kentish Town, London 27 Nov. 1855. Times 3 Dec. 1855 p. 6 col. 6.
LARKIN, Nathaniel John. b. London 5 Dec. 1781; the first sec. of society of civil engineers 1825; manufacturer of mathematical models at 29 Baker st. Spa Fields, London 1829; author of An essay on a mosaic pavement formed of right angled triangles of different colours 1818; An introduction to solid geometry 1820; The rudiments of linear, plane and solid geometry 1820. d. 21 Oct. 1855.
LARKING, John Wingfield (son of John Larking 1755–1838). b. Clare house 1801; English consul in Egypt; negotiated terms of peace between Mehemet Ali and the Sultan and probably prevented a war between France and England 1839; the first Englishman who acquired influence in Egypt, a favourite with Mehemet, Said and Ismail; received order of Medjidie; at his expense Dr. Henry Holman Drake re-wrote and published the Hundred of Blackheath, a portion of Hasted’s History of Kent 1886; resided at The Firs, Old road, Lee, Kent from 1858, d. there 18 May 1891. Times 21 May 1891 p. 7; Blackheath Local Guide 23 May 1891 pp. 10, 13.