Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/347

Rh METCALF, Mason Jerome, inventor, b. in Fairfax, Me.. 16 Oct., 1807; d. in Monmouth. Me.. 23 July, 1888. When a boy he removed to Zanes- ville, Ohio, with his father, who was a teacher. Afterward he returned to Litchfield. Me., was edu- cated in the academy at Monmouth, and settled there. He was for several years a manufacturer of stencils in Boston, Mass., alternately residing in Monmouth, where he owned and operated three mills. His most important invention was a method of producinjj letter-stencils by means of dies, which he was the first to practise and bring into use. Up to that time such stencils had been made entirely with chisels. He also invented a form of fence, often made of slabs from saw-mills, which by rea- son of its simplicity and cheapness came widely into use, and may still be seen on many farms at the west. His other inventions included a fan-wheel for ventilation. He made many experiments with models for flving-machines, all of them involving the use of a fan- wheel or propeller. He held that men would fly, by the use of spiral wheels, as soon as an engine could be invented that was at once sufficiently light and powerful. He also experi- mented with a plough that was designed to turn up the soil and pulverize it at the same time by means of a revolving cylinder with curved teeth. None of his inventions were ever patented.- — His son, Lorettus Sutton, editor, b. in Monmouth, Kennebec co.. Me., 17 Oct., 1837, was educated at Monmouth academy, in the Boston public schools, and by private tutors. He early became a contribu- tor to periodicals, and at one time was editor and proprietor of five newspapers near Boston. In 1876 he became connected with " The North American Review," and from 1880 till 1885 he performed the editorial duties of that publication. In March, 1886, he issued the first number of the " Forum," [lublished in New York, a monthly magazine for the discussion of current questions, which he founded and still edits (1888).

METCALF, Ralph, governor of New Hamp- shire, b. in Charlestown, N. H., 21 Nov., 1798; d. in Claremont, N. H., 26 Aug., 1858. He worked on a farm until 1816, and was graduated at Dart- mouth in 1823, after which he studied law, which he practised in Newport in 1826. He was secre- tary of state for several years, afterward held a clerkship in Washington in 1838-'40, was register of probate for Sullivan county in 1845, and chair- man of the committee for compiling the laws of the state in 1852. He was a member of the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1852-'3, and governor of the state in 1855-'6.

METCALF, Richard, clergyman, b. in Providence, R. I., 19 Aug., 1829; d. in Winchester, Mass., 30 June, 1881. He was graduated at Brown in 1851, and at Harvard divinity-school in 1854. From this year till 1857 he was pastor of a Unitarian church in Bath, Me., and in 1858 he preached in a Unitarian church in Detroit, Mich. In 1860-'5 he was pastor of a Congregational church in Meadville. Pa., and from 1866 till 1881 held charge of a Unitarian society in Winchester, Mass. He was the author of the "Letter and Spirit" (Boston, 1870) and " The Abiding Memory," sermons from 1866 till 1881, with a brief memoir (1883).

METCALF, Theron, jurist, b. in Franklin, Mass., 16 Oct., 1784; d. in Boston, Mass., 12 Nov., 1875. He was graduated at Brown in 1805. In 1839 he was appointed reporter of the Massachusetts supreme court, and he sat on the bench of that court from 24 Feb., 1848, till 1865. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1844, and Harvard the same in 1848. His annotations were considered valuable

for their philosophical investigation and discriminating analysis. Judge Metcalf gave to Brown a set of fifty volumes of ordination sermons that he had collected. His publications include &ldquo;A Digest of the Cases decided in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1816 to 1823, including the Five last Volumes of Tyng's and the first of Octavius Pickering's Reports&rdquo; (Boston, 1825); &ldquo;Reports from 1840 till 1849&rdquo; (13 vols., 1840-'51); the first volume of &ldquo;Digest of Decisions of Courts of Common Law and Admiralty in the United States&rdquo; (1840); and a &ldquo;Supplement to the Revised Statutes of Massachusetts till 1844,&rdquo; with Luther S. Cushing (1844). He edited &ldquo;The General Laws of Massachusetts till 1822,&rdquo; by Asahel Stearns and Lemuel Shaw (2 vols., 1823); George Maule and William Selwyn's &ldquo;Reports&rdquo;; Russell on &ldquo;Crimes&rdquo;; Starkie on &ldquo;Evidence&rdquo;; and Yelverton's &ldquo;Reports.&rdquo; Judge Metcalf contributed able articles to the &ldquo;American Jurist&rdquo; on the &ldquo;Law of Contracts,&rdquo; and delivered an oration at Dedham, 4 July, 1810, and an address before the Phi Beta Kappa society of Brown in 1832.

METCALFE, Charles Theophilus, Baron, British statesman, b. in Calcutta, India, 30 Jan., 1785 ; d. in Malshanger, near Basingstoke. England, 5 Sept., 1846. He was the second son of Theophi- lus Metcalfe, of Berkshire, an officer in the army, who afterward became a director of the East India company, and was made a baronet in 1802. Charles was taken to England by his parents in infancy, edu- cated at Eton, and at the age of fifteen sent to In- dia as a writer in the East India company's service. In 1801 he was appointed assistant to the British resident at the court of Dowlut Row Sindia, at Oojein, in 1811 resident at Delhi, in 1819 political secretary at Calcutta, and in 1820 resident at Hy- derabad. In 1823 he succeeded to the baronetcy, on the death of his brother, in 1827 became a member of the supreme council of India, and in February, 1835, after he had for some time been governor of Agra, he provisionally succeeded Lord William Bentinck in the governor-generalship, the duties of which he discharged till 28 March, 1836. In the latter year the grand cross of the bath was conferred upon him, and in 1845 he was raised to the peerage. He was appointed governor of Ja- maica in 1839, and shortly afterward succeeded in removing the difficulties that followed upon the passage of the Negro emancipation act. In 1842 illness compelled him to resign the governorship, in which he was succeeded by Lord Elgin. The legislature of Jamaica subsequently ordered his statue to be erected in the public square of Spanish Town. He was then appointed governor-general of Canada and sworn into office at Kingston, 29 March, 1843. Although he was experienced in the administration of colonial governments, it cannot be claimed that he was altogether successful in Canada. He could not divest himself of the idea that he ought to be the moving power in the state. His appointment to office of persons that were politically opposed to the administration, without consulting his ministers, was regarded as extremely arbitrary, and not in accordance with the princi- ples of responsible government, which had been recently established in Canada. An incurable dis- ease, from which he had long suffered, forced him to resign in November, 1845, after which he re- turned to England. His epitaph, written by Lord Macaulay, terms him " a statesman tried in many high offices and difficult conjunctures, and found equal to all." See " The Life and Correspondence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe," by Sir John William Kaye (new ed., 2 vols., London, 1858).