Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/235

 destitute of ambition, he was too proud to press his claims. Thus it came about that Lord Palmerston's prediction was unfulfilled.



NEWMAN, FRANCIS WILLIAM (1805–1897), scholar and man of letters, third son of John Newman (d. 29 Sept. 1824), banker, by his wife Jemima (d. 17 May 1836), youngest child of Henry Fourdrinier, and sister of [q. v.], was born in London on 27 June 1805. His father, of Dutch descent, was 'an admirer of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson,' and 'had learned his morality more from Shakspeare than from the Bible;' his mother, of Huguenot extraction, has been incorrectly described as a Calvinist (, Contributions, 1891, p. 62). He followed his brothers to the large private school of the Rev. George Nicholas, D.C.L., at Ealing; in 1821 he was 'captain' of the school, and in the autumn of that year, having been confirmed by [q. v.], then bishop of London, whom he thought ' a made-up man,' he went to Oxford. He lodged with his brother, John Henry Newman [q. yj, the future cardinal, first at Seale's coffee-house, then from Easter 1822 at Palmer's in Merton Lane, with [q. v.], who joined them at breakfast and tea. On 29 Nov. 1822 he matriculated from Worcester College. Going into residence in 1824, he found an 'engraving of the Virgin' on the wall of his room, and, directing its removal, learned that it had come by his brother's order. He notes this as the point at which he began definitely to 'resist' his brother's influence. In 1826 he took his B.A., with a double first in classics and in mathematics, and was elected fellow of Balliol. On his taking the degree, the whole assembly rose to welcome him, an honour paid previously only to Sir Robert Peel on taking his double first. His brother's verses on his twenty-first birthday (1826) show that he expected him to take orders ('shortly thou Must buckle on the sword'). From 1826 he saw no foothold for a doctrine of the future life apart from revelation. He was in Dublin (1827-8) as tutor in the household of 'an Irish peer.' Here he met [q. v.], and attended nonconformist worship for the first time. Returning to Oxford in the autumn of 1828, he aided in looking after the poor at Littlemore. Pusey's first books, on German theology (1828-1830), 'delighted' him by their mixture of pietism and rationalism.

In 1830 he resigned his fellowship, being unable to take his M.A. through unwillingness to subscribe the articles. Through Darby he had become acquainted with [q. v.], whom he followed (September 1830) on a mission to Bagdad with John Vesey Parnell [see under, first ] and Edward Cronin; his 'Personal Narrative' (1856, 12mo) consists of letters (23 Sept. 1830 to 14 April 1833) revised 'to suit the writer's maturer taste.' At Aleppo he fell in with a Mohammedan carpenter, and was impressed by his calm retort that God, in giving to the English great gifts, had withheld the knowledge of the true religion.

Leaving the East in order to obtain more volunteers for missionary enterprise, Newman reached England again in 1833, about the time of his brother's return from Italy, and was received 'kindly, if stiffly;' he had communicated with baptists, and was zealous for intercommunion of all protestants. His non-acceptance of an 'evangelical formula' estranged him from Darby. He became classical tutor (1834) in the Bristol College (an unsectarian institution, existing from 1829 to 1841), and was baptised (7 July 1836) in Broadmead chapel (though he was against making adult baptism a term of communion) and married. At Bristol he lectured also on logic; the 'Lectures' were published (Oxford, 1838, 8vo). In October 1840 he became professor of classical literature in Manchester New College (now Manchester College, Oxford), removed in that year from York to Manchester. His opening address was published in 'Introductory Lectures, Manchester New College' (1841, 8vo). He published an abridged translation of Hubert's 'English Universities' (1843, 8vo). His 'Catholic Union' (1844, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1854, 12mo) was a plea for a 'church of the future' on an ethical basis, leaving theological questions open. In 1846 he was appointed to the chair of Latin in Univer-