Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/122

Argyll  of the rolls and judge of the vice-admiralty court, 1841–6; and sometime speaker of the assembly.

Thomas was educated at Pictou Presbyterian College, and in 1837 qualified for practice as attorney and barrister-at-law in Nova Scotia. A visit to Europe, however, in the following year resulted in his settling in England, and on 11 Nov. 1840 he was admitted at the Middle Temple, where, after some years of practice as a certificated special pleader, he was called to the bar on 30 Jan. 1852. He was one of the favourite pupils of Serjeant Petersdorff, whom he assisted in the compilation of his ‘Abridgment.’ At the bar his perfect mastery of the technicalities of pleading (then a veritable black art) stood him in such stead that, though not an especially persuasive advocate, he slowly gained a lead on the home circuit. In 1868 he was appointed junior counsel to the treasury, and on 20 Nov. 1872 he succeeded [q. v. Suppl.] as justice of the queen’s bench, being at the same time invested with the coif. On 5 Feb. 1873 he was knighted. Transferred to the common pleas on 6 Feb. 1875 (vice Sir Henry Singer Keating, resigned), he retained his place and acquired the status of justice of the high court on the subsequent fusion of the courts by the Judicature Act. He died at his residence, Porchester Gate, Hyde Park, on 18 Oct. 1876, leaving a well-merited reputation for sound law, unfailing conscientiousness, and courtesy.

Archibald married, in 1841, Sarah, only daughter of Richard Smith of Dudley Priory, Worcestershire, by whom he left issue.

He was author of ‘Suggestions for Amendment of the Law as to Petitions of Right: a Letter to William Bovill, Esq., M.P.,’ London, 1859, 8vo.

 ARGYLL, eighth [See  1823–1900.]

 ARMITAGE, EDWARD (1817–1896), historical painter, descended from an old Yorkshire family, was the eldest of seven sons of James Armitage of Leeds, and was born in London on 20 May 1817. His education, commenced in England, was completed on the continent, mainly in France and Germany. Having decided to become a painter, he entered at Paris in 1837 the studio of Paul Delaroche, of whom he became a favourite pupil, and who employed him as an assistant in painting portions of his well-known hemicycle in the amphitheatre of the École des Beaux-Arts at Paris. In 1842 he exhibited at the Salon his first large picture, ‘Prometheus Bound,’ which was received with favour. In 1843 he entered into the cartoon competition for the decoration of the new houses of parliament, and obtained a premium of 300l. for ‘Cæsar’s Invasion of Britain,’ the design being placed first on the list. In the competition of 1845 he was again successful, being awarded 200l. for ‘The Spirit of Religion’ (cartoon and coloured design), and in 1847 he carried off a prize of 600l. for a very large oil painting, with life-size figures, of ‘The Battle of Meeanee,’ fought on 17 Feb. 1843, which was purchased by Queen Victoria, and is now at St. James’s Palace. His great success in these competitions was followed by commissions to execute two frescoes on the walls of the upper waiting hall of the House of Lords: ‘The Personification of Thames,’ from Pope, and the ‘Death of Marmion,’ from Scott.

After spending twelve months in study at Rome, Armitage exhibited in 1848 for the first time at the Royal Academy, sending two pictures, ‘Henry VIII and Katherine Parr,’ and ‘Trafalgar,’ representing the death of Nelson. His contributions to the Academy exhibitions continued regularly till his death, with the exception of the years 1855, 1862, 1880, and 1892. The subjects of his pictures were generally biblical, and he seldom sent more than one or two a year. He exhibited ‘Samson’ in 1851 and ‘Hagar’ in 1852. During the Crimean war he visited Russia, and in 1856 exhibited ‘The Bottom of the Ravine at Inkerman,’ and in 1857 a ‘Souvenir of Scutari.’ He also painted large pictures of the ‘Heavy Cavalry Charge at Balaclava,’ and ‘The Stand of the Guards at Inkerman,’ which were not exhibited. In 1858 came ‘Retribution’ (now in the Leeds Museum), a colossal female figure holding a tiger by the throat, allegorical of the suppression of the Indian mutiny, and in 1859 ‘St. Francis and his early Followers before Pope Innocent III,’ a design for a life-size fresco (replaced by an oil painting in 1887) in the catholic church of St. John the Evangelist, Duncan Terrace, Islington. This was followed in 1860 by a design of ‘Christ and the Twelve Apostles’ for the apse of the same church. A head of one of these apostles (St. Simon), in fresco, is in the South Kensington Museum. In 1864 came ‘Ahab and 