Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/114

 reinterred in Kensal Green cemetery on 30 Oct. 1894.

Cusins, who was an excellent pianist, played at the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Berlin, the Philharmonic, Crystal Palace, and other important concerts. His compositions, exclusive of anthems, pianoforte pieces, and songs, include a 'Royal Wedding Serenata' (1863); 'Gideon,' an oratorio (Gloucester festival, 1871); 'Te Deum,' for soli, chorus, and orchestra (Sacred Harmonic Society, 24 Feb. 1882); jubilee cantata, 'Grant the Queen a Long Life' (state concerts, 1887); Symphony in C (St. James's Hall, 18 June 1892); two concert overtures: (l)'Les Travailleurs de la Mer' (1869), and (2) 'Love's Labour's Lost' (1875); a concerto for piano-forte in A minor, and one for violin; Septet for wind instruments and double bass (1891); Trio in C minor (1882); Sonata for piano-forte and violin in A minor (1893). He edited an important collection of songs set to words by Tennyson (1880) and Schumann's pianoforte compositions (1864-5).

Cusins also published an interesting and valuable pamphlet entitled 'Handel's Messiah: an Examination of the Original and some Contemporary MSS.' (1874), and he contributed to Sir George Grove's 'Dictionary of Music and Musicians' an important article on the composer Steffani.

 CUSSANS, JOHN EDWIN (1837–1899), antiquary, born in Plymouth 30 Oct. 1837, claimed descent from the family of De Cusance or Cusancia, settled in Burgundy in the thirteenth century. Upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685, Thomas de Cusance, son of Claude and Isabella de Fontenoy his wife, left France and settled first in Hampshire and then in Jamaica. Cussans, who claimed descent from this Thomas de Cusance, was the fifth child of Thomas Cussans, who had been a lieutenant in the Madras horse artillery, by his wife Matilda Ann (Goodman). After education at North Hill School, Plymouth, he entered a commercial house, in connection with which he visited America (1858) and Russia (1861). After his marriage in 1863 he became a professed author and devoted the best part of his life to heraldic and genealogical studies. In both these departments he achieved work of lasting value. His first work, 'The Grammar of Heraldry, with the Armorial Bearings of all the Landed Gentry in England prior to the Sixteenth Century' (London, 1866, 8vo), was followed in 1869 by his better-known 'Handbook of Heraldry &hellip; with Instructions for tracing Pedigrees and deciphering Manuscripts,' a book remarkable for its attractive clearness (London, 8vo, several editions). In the meantime Cussans, who established his home in the north of London, had commenced those studies into the genealogical and other antiquities of Hertfordshire which resulted, after fifteen years' labour, in the completion of his most important work, 'A History of Hertfordshire, containing an account of the Descents of the various Manors, Pedigrees of Families, Antiquities, Local Customs, &c.' (Hertford, 16 parts forming three folio volumes, 1870-81). Cussans's work is an important supplement to the existing histories of Chauncey and Clutterbuck. The preface was dated from 4 Wyndham Crescent, Junction Road, London, on Christmas day 1880. Cussans subsequently moved to 46 St. John's Park, Upper Holloway, where he died on 11 Sept. 1899. From 1881 to 1897 Cussans had been secretary of the Anglo-Californian Bank in Austin Friars. He married, on 10 March 1863, Emma Prior, second surviving daughter of John Ward of Hackney, by whom he left eight children.

 CYNRIC (d. 560?), king of the Gewissas or West Saxons, the son of [q. v.], is said to have landed with Cerdic at Cerdicsora, at the mouth of the Itchen, in 495, to have taken part in his battles, and with him to have been raised to the kingship in 519. Some genealogies, however, make him the son of Creoda, who is represented as the son of Cerdic, and this would remove the difficulty as to the length of life attributed to him by the generally accepted record. It has been suggested that his name may be 'an abstraction from the establishment of the cynerice' or kingship. He is said to have succeeded his father Cerdic in 534, and to have reigned twenty-six years. After the battle of Mount Badon in 520, the progress landward of the West Saxons has been supposed to have been checked for some thirty years, during which they are pictured lying quiet 'within the limits of our Hampshire' (Green). Be this as it may, in 552 Cynric is said to have fought with the Britons at the place called Searobyrig, or Old Sarum, and to have put them to flight;