MERRIFIELD, Mrs. Mary Philadelphia. Granted civil list pension of £100, 2 May 1857, in consideration of the valuable services she had rendered to literature and art; translated C. Cennini’s A treatise on painting 1844; author of The art of fresco painting. Brighton 1846; Original treatises on the arts of painting in oil, miniature, mosaic and on glass, of gilding, dyeing and preparation of colours and artificial gems 2 vols. 1849; Practical directions for portrait painting in water colours 1851; Dress as a fine art 1854; Handbook of light and shade with reference to model drawing 1855; Brighton past and present, a handbook 1857; A sketch of the natural history of Brighton 1864. m. John Merrifield of Tavistock, called to bar at M.T. 16 May 1828. d. Brighton 1 May 1877 aged 88.
MERRIMAN, Nathaniel James (3 son of Thomas Merriman of Marlborough). b. 1810; ed. at Winchester and Brasenose coll. Oxf., B.A. 1831, M.A. 1834; V. of Street, Somerset 1847–8; archdeacon of Grahamstown, South Africa 1847–68, the success of mission work among the natives was largely due to his exertions; one of the accusers at the trial of bishop J. W. Colenso 1863; dean of Capetown 1868–71; bishop of Grahamstown 1871 to death, consecrated 5 Dec. 1871; excommunicated Frederick Henry Williams dean of Grahamstown 1880; author of The Kaffir, the Hottentot and the frontier farmer 1854; The bishop’s ride through Independent Kaffraria to Natal and back 1872. d. from effects of a carriage accident 16 Aug. 1882.
MERRIMAN, Samuel (son of Benjamin Merriman, brewer). b. Marlborough 25 Oct. 1771; studied medicine in London from 1784, M.S.A. 1800; partner with Mr. Peregrine in London 1807; hon. M.D. Marischal coll. Aberdeen 1808; phys. accoucheur to Westminster general dispensary 1808–15; phys. accoucheur to Middlesex hospital 17 Aug. 1809 to 7 March 1826; lectured on midwifery 1810–25; practised at 34 Brook st. Grosvenor sq. 1822 to death; treasurer of Royal med. and chir. soc. 1837; examiner to the Apothecaries’ Society 1831–8, one of the court of assistants 1838; author of Dissertation on the retroversion of the womb 1810; A synopsis of the various kinds of difficult parturition 1814, 4 ed. 1826, translated into Italian, German and French; The validity of Thoughts on medical reform 1833. d. 34 Brook st. London 22 Nov. 1852. Lives of British physicians (1857) 342–59; Lancet 30 Nov. 1850 pp. 610–5, 682, portrait, 27 Nov. 1852 p. 498; G.M. Feb. 1853 pp. 207–9; Medical Circular, i 462 (1852).
MERRIMAN, Samuel William John (only son of the preceding). b. 22 Oct. 1814; ed. at Caius coll. Camb., B.A. 1835, M.B. 1836, M.L. 1837, M.D. 1841; M.R.C.P. 1840; physician to Western general dispensary and then physician accoucheur; retired to Sandown 1862; author of Arguments against the indiscriminate use of chloroform in midwifery 1848; resided 34 Brook st. London. d. Marlborough house, Sandown, Isle of Wight 20 Feb. 1873. Medical Times 1 March 1873 p. 238; Proc. of Med. and Chir. soc. vii 228 (1875).
MERRITT, Henry (5 child of Joseph Merritt, tailor). b. Oxford 8 June 1822; ed. at Blue coat school 1833–8; sang the alto and the solo parts in the choir of Carfax church 1833; apprentice to a carver and gilder 1838, a journeyman gilder 1844; a freed man of the city of Oxford; walked to London 1846 where he lived in much poverty working at his trade to 1850; employed by Joseph Parrinton to repair pictures 1851; wrote in The Reasoner under pseudonym of Christopher; published in The Leader 8 Jany. to 26 Feb. 1853 ten chapters on the Works of the old masters, their ruin and renovation; contributed to the Athenæum and the Empire; employed by sir Charles Eastlake on the restoration of the pictures in the National Gallery; wrote art notices for the Morning Star for £25 a year 1855; restored the paintings at Hampton court, and the battle scenes found under the coats of house paint on the staircases at Marlborough house; restored the portrait of Richard II. belonging to Westminster abbey 1865; wrote art notices for The Standard 1865 to death; lived with G. J. Holyoake at Dymoke lodge, Oval road, Regent’s park 1847 and at 1 Woburn buildings to 1866; author of Dirt and pictures separated in the works of the old masters 1854; Robert Dalby and his world of troubles 1865, anon., being his own autobiography; m. April 1877 at St. Pancras ch. Anna M. Lea a painter of domestic subjects, who exhibited 10 pictures at R.A. 1871–6 and 5 more in her married name 1878–80. d. 54 Devonshire st. Portland place, London 10 July 1877. bur. Brompton cemet. body removed to Woking. G. J. Holyoake’s Sixty years of an agitator’s life, ii 232–47 (1892); H. Merritt, art, criticism, and romance 2 vols. (1879), recollections, i 1–65, portrait; The Times 14 July 1877 p. 13; L’ Art. Paris 4 April 1880 pp. 1–8.
MERRY, James (son of James Merry, merchant Glasgow). b. New Monkland, Lanarkshire 1805; ed. at univ. of Glasgow; ironmaster in partnership with Mr. Cunningham in counties of Ayr and Lanark; kept a large number of game cocks and continually had cock fights; contested Glasgow 6 March 1857; M.P. Falkirks burghs, Stirlingshire 1 April 1857 but unseated on petition July 1857; M.P. Falkirk burghs 3 May 1859 to 1874; commenced racing at Stirling 1838; kept his horses with George Dawson at Gullane 1842; with Chanticleer won 14 races in 1848; purchased Hobbie Noble for 6500 guineas 1852; won Two thousand guineas with Lord of the Isles 1855 and Macgregor 1870; won the St. Leger with Sunbeam 1855 and with Marie Stewart 1873; the Derby with Thormanby 1860 and with Doncaster 1873; the Ascot cup with Thormanby 1861; and the Oaks and St. Leger with Marie Stewart 1873; retired from the turf 1875; sold Doncaster for 14,000 guineas, the largest price ever given for a racehorse; purchased lord John Scott’s stud 1857; won £46,000 on the Derby of 1860. d. 68 Eaton sq. London 3 Feb. 1877. Illust. sp. and dr. news, vi 512, 518–19 (1877), portrait; Rice’s History of the British turf, ii 332–38 (1879); Illust. sporting news, iv 369 (1865), portrait; Henry Corbet’s Tales of sporting life (1864) 13–25; Baily’s mag. ii 357–63 (1861), portrait; W. Day’s Reminiscences 2 ed. (1886) 301–25; Thormanby’s Famous Racing Men (1882) pp. 100–107, portrait.
MERRYWEATHER, Moses. b. 1791; apprenticed to Hadley, Simpkin and Lott, fire engine makers, Longacre, London 1807, assistant 1822, became sole proprietor of the business 1832; introduced his famous London brigade manual engine shown at Great Exhibition 1851, this machine had patent metal valves and was called the Paxton; opened works in York road, Lambeth, where he built steam fire engines 1859; the house in Longacre was rebuilt 1873 and in 1876 the present works in Greenwich road, Greenwich, covering about three acres were acquired, d. Clapham house, Clapham Common, Surrey 25 Sep. 1872. London Figaro 7 June 1894 pp. 14–16; Times 5 Oct. 1872 p. 6.
MERRYWEATHER, Richard Moses (eld. son of the preceding). b. Longacre, London 1839; partner with his father 1859; invented with Edward Field ‘Field’s boiler’ which he applied to the steam fire engine. d. Clapham house, Surrey, June 1877.
MERYON, Charles Lewis (son of Lewis Meryon of Rye, Sussex). b. Rye 27 June 1783; ed. at Merchant Taylors’ school 1796–1802; Stuart’s exhibitioner St. John’s coll. Oxf. 1803; BA. 1806, M.A. 1809, M.B. and M.D. 1817; studied medicine at St. Thomas’s hospital; medical attendant on lady Hester Stanhope in Sicily and the East 1810–7; candidate of college of phys. 1820, fellow 1821; domestic phys. to sir Gilbert Heathcote 1822–7; attended on lady Hester Stanhope at Mount Lebanon, Syria in 1819, 15 Dec. 1830 to April 1831 and July 1837 to Aug. 1838; practised in London from 1838; author of Memoirs of the lady Hester Stanhope as related by herself in conversations with her physician 3 vols. 1845; Travels of lady Hester Stanhope 3 vols. 1846, with portrait of author. d. The Grove, Hammersmith, London 11 Sep. 1877. Munk’s College of physicians, iii 234 (1878).
Note.—By a ballet dancer at the Paris opera house (Pierre Narcisse Chaspoux) C. L. Meryon had a son Charles Meryon b. Paris 23 Nov. 1821, who was originally a sailor, then a well-known engraver and etcher. He died in a lunatic asylum in Paris on 14 Feb. 1868 and was bur. in the cemetery of Charenton Saint-Maurice. F. S. Ellis’ Descriptive catalogue of drawings and etchings by C. Merion (1880); Exhibition from a selection of the works of C. Meryon. Burlington Fine Arts club (1879); Charles Meryon, sailor, engraver and etcher. By Philip Burty (1879).