Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/332

Backhouse of the boats, one of them, in fact, being hoisted up when only a few feet from the crest of the solid wave, which held a steady course direct for the quarter, almost over-topping it, and continuing to elevate itself until about twenty-five feet high.' 'On 14 July they beheld the strange and appalling spectacle of what may be fitly termed a submerged berg, fixed low down, with one end to the ship's side, while the other, with the purchase of a long lever advantageously placed at a right angle with the keel, was slowly rising towards the surface. Meantime, those who happened to be below, finding everything falling, rushed or clambered on deck, where they saw the ship on her beam ends, with the lee boats touching the water, and felt that a few moments only trembled between them and eternity. Yet in that awful crisis there was no confusion.' It may be safely said that few sailors ever survived more terrible perils and hardships than Back did in the two expeditions under Franklin, and the two which he commanded himself. 'Arctic work,' as Lord Brougham said of Franklin, 'had got into his blood,' and he could not help going again and again if he had the chance. But the exposure and anxiety of eleven years' service in the northern seas at last told even on his iron frame. For six years he was more or less an invalid, and was never sufficiently restored to resume the ordinary duties of his profession afloat. In 1837 he received from the Geographical Society both its medals. In 1839 he was knighted. He also received the gold medal of the Geographical Society of Paris, and was presented with a service of plate by the subscribers to the Arctic Land Expedition. He was employed by government to report on the harbour of Holyhead, but afterwards lived in retirement on half-pay. He was a vice-president and long on the council of the Geographical Society, and contributed many reports. He was made admiral in 1857, and was also D.C.L. and F.R.S. Of all these honours he was indeed worthy, for in bravery, intelligence, and love of adventure he was the very model of an English sailor. Sir George died 23 June 1878.

 BACKHOUSE, EDWARD (1808–1879), author of 'Early Church History,' was born at Darlington on 8 May 1808. He lived from early boyhood at Sunderland, where he was a partner in collieries and in the bank with which his family had been connected for many years. He took no active part in business, and was a man of cultivated tastes, fond of travel, a good amateur painter, a a student of natural history. He devoted himself chiefly to the promotion of philanthropic and religious purposes. He was most generous and judicious supporter various institutions in Sunderland, and said to have spent over 10,000l. a year charities. In politics he was an energetic liberal, and especially interested in questions bearing directly upon morality. In later life he was a prominent opponent of the Contagious Diseases Acts. He was a devoted member of the Society of Friends, to which his family belonged. He began to preach 1852, and two years later was 'recognised' as a minister. He married Katharine Mounsey in 1856. He had no family, but he always delighted in the society of children and the promotion of their happiness. In 1874 was impressed by the belief that he ought devote himself to writing upon church history. He laboured at this task till his death 22 May 1879. His manuscripts were entrusted to Mr. Charles Tylor, who publish in 1884 'Early Church History to the Death of Constantine; compiled by the late Edward Backhouse; edited and enlarged by Charles Tylor.' The book, which makes no pretense to profound research, is interesting as an account of the early church by an intelligent writer from the quaker point of view.

 BACKHOUSE, WILLIAM (1593–1662), Rosicrucian philosopher, a younger son Samuel Backhouse, Esq., of Swallowfield, Berkshire, was born in that county 17 Jan. 1593, and entered Christ Church, Oxford, a commoner, in 1610, but left the university without taking a degree. At length, settling on his patrimony, he devoted his time to the study of the occult sciences, became a renowned alchemist, Rosicrucian, and astrologer, and gave great encouragement to the who were addicted to similar pursuits, especially, whom he adopted his son, and to whom he freely imparted the arcana of his mysterious lore. The subjoined laconic entries in Ashmole's diary show the intimacy of the friendship subsisting between them:— 26 April 1651: 'Mr. William Backhouse, of Swallowfield, in com. Berks, caused me to call him father thenceforward.' 10 June