Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/463

 liberal landowner, contributing 200,000l. towards the extension of railways in Cork and Waterford, where his Irish estate of Lismore was situated. In England his name was particularly associated with the development of Barrow-in-Furness, where he assisted to establish the iron mining and steel producing industries. He was chairman of the Barrow Hæmatite Company on its constitution on 1 Jan. 1866, and with (Sir) James Ramsden promoted the Furness railway and the Devonshire and Buccleuch docks, which were opened in September 1867. He was also closely associated with the growth of both Eastbourne and Buxton, where he owned much property, as watering places.

Devonshire was first president of the Iron and Steel Institute on its foundation in 1868, and was a munificent contributor to the Yorkshire College of Science and to Owens College, Manchester. He was chancellor of the university of London from 1836 to 1856, and on the death of the prince consort in 1861 was chosen chancellor of Cambridge University, an office which he retained till his death. After the foundation of Victoria University in 1880, he became its first chancellor. He was chairman of the royal commission on scientific instruction and the advancement of science, and presented the Cavendish laboratory to Cambridge University. He was one of the original founders of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1839, and was president in 1870. On 26 July 1871 he was nominated a trustee of the British Museum. For fifty years he was a breeder of shorthorns, and his Holker herd had a wide reputation.

Devonshire rarely spoke in the House of Lords. He supported Gladstone's Irish Church Bill in 1869, and remained in harmony with that statesman until the secession of the liberal unionists in 1885 on the question of home rule, when he became chairman of the Loyal and Patriotic Union. He was nominated K.G. on 25 March 1858, and a privy councillsr on 26 March 1876, Devonshire died on 21 Dec. 1891 at Holker Hall, his favourite residence, near Grange in Lancashire, and was buried at Edensor, near Chatsworth, on 26 Dec. He was married on 6 Aug. 1829, at Devonshire House, to Blanche Georgiana (1812-1840), fourth daughter of, sixth earl of Carlisle [q. v.] By her he had three sons—Spencer Compton Cavendish, the present duke, Lord [q. v.], and Lord Edward Cavendish (1838-1891)—and one daughter. Lady Louisa Caroline, married on 26 Sept. 1865 to Rear-admiral Francis Egerton.

Devonshire's portrait, painted by Mr. Henry Tanworth Wells, was presented to the Iron and Steel Institute on 19 March 1872 by a subscription among the members of the institute.



CAYLEY, ARTHUR (1821–1895), mathematician, the second son of Henry Cayley by his wife Maria Antonia Doughty, was born at Richmond in Surrey on 16 Aug. 1821. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1838, and became scholar of the college in 1840. In 1842 he graduated as senior wrangler, and was awarded the first Smith's prize immediately afterwards; and he was admitted to a Trinity fellowship on 3 Oct. in that year. He remained in Cambridge for a few years, giving himself up chiefly to mathematical research, and laying the foundation of several ranges of investigation which occupied him throughout his life. No congenial appointment, however, offered itself which was sufficient to keep him in residence; it thus became necessary to choose some profession. He selected law, left Cambridge in 1846, was admitted student of Lincoln's Inn on 20 April 1846, and was called to the bar on 3 May 1849. He devoted himself strictly to conveyancing; yet, instead of attempting to secure a large practice, he carefully limited the amount of work he would undertake. He made a distinct reputation by the excellence of his drafts, and it was asserted that, had he cared, he might have achieved a high legal position; but during the whole of his legal career he spent his jealously guarded leisure in the pursuit of mathematics.

Cayley remained at the bar for fourteen years. As an indication of his mathematical activity during this period, it may be sufficient to mention that he published more than two hundred mathematical papers, which include some of his most brilliant discoveries. A change made in the constitution of the Sadlerian foundation at Cambridge led to the establishment of the Sadlerian professorship of pure mathematics in that university; and on 10 June 1863 Cayley was elected into the professorship, an office which he held for the rest of his life. Henceforward he lived in the university, often taking an important share in its administration, but finding his greatest happiness in the discharge of his statutory duty 'to explain and teach the principles of pure mathematics, and to apply