Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/90

 Ardmillan Arderon's correspondence, formed a very high opinion of his merits as a naturalist, and considered him superior to Gilbert White, the author of the 'Natural History of Selborne.'

Arderon is the author of: 1. Numerous contributions to the 'Philosophical Transactions.' 2. 'Remains,' 1745-60; a folio volume of 351 leaves, preserved in the British Museum, MS. Addit. 27966. The contents of this bulky volume are almost entirely on subjects connected with natural history and microscopical science. 3. 'Journals and Observations on Nature and Art,' 6 vols. 12mo, 1742-64; manuscript formerly in the possession of Dawson Turner. 4. 'Correspondence with Henry Baker, F.R.S.,' 4 vols. 4to, 1744-67; manuscript formerly in the possession of Dawson Turner.

[MS. Addit. 23107 f. 28; Cat. of Dawson Turner's MSS., i. pref. xiii, 4, 5, 10, 11; Gent. Mag. xxxvii. 610; Chambers's Norfolk, 1306, 1307; Index to Philosophical Transactions; MS. Birch 4439, art. 541; Thomson's Hist. of Royal Soc. Appendix 44.] 

ARDMILLAN,. [See .] 

ARGALL, JOHN (fl. 1604), was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford, in the latter part of Queen Mary's reign; took the degree of M.A. in 1565, and was afterwards presented to the living of Halesworth, in Suffolk. 'He was always esteemed,' says Anthony Wood, 'a noted disputant during his stay in the university; was a great actor in plays at Christ Church (particularly when the queen was entertained there, 1566), and, when at ripe years, a tolerable theologist and preacher.' Two tracts of his are extant: 1. 'De vera Pœnitentia,' London, 1604, 8vo; 2. 'Introductio ad artem Dialecticam,' London, 1605, 8vo. He died suddenly at table on the occasion of a feast at Cheston, near Halesworth, and was buried in Halesworth Church on 8 Oct. 1606.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, i. 760-1.] 

ARGALL, RICHARD (fl. 1621), is a very shadowy personage. His name is on the title-page of a unique volume of poems (1621, 4to) in Mr. Christie-Miller's library at Britwell. The contents of this volume are: (1) 'The Bride's Ornament, Poetical Essays upon a Divine Subject;' (2) 'A Funeral Elegy consecrated to the memory of his ever honoured lord, John King, late Bishop of London;' (3) 'The Song of Songs metaphrased in English heroicks.' Anthony a Wood, sub 'John Argall' (Athen. Oxon. vol. i. col, 761, ed. Bliss), writes: 'Now I am got into the name of Argall I must let the reader know that in my searches I find one Richard Argall to be noted in the reign of King James I for an excellent divine poet, having been much encouraged in his studies by Dr. Jo, King, bishop of London, but in what house educated in Oxon, where he spent some time in study, I cannot now tell you.' After enumerating the works mentioned above, he proceeds: 'He also wrote a book of meditations of knowledge, zeal, temperance, bounty, and joy. And another containing meditations of prudence, obedience, meekness, God's word, and prayer. (These latter unpublished.)' But it is very doubtful whether a poet of the name of Richard Argall ever existed. In 1654 the 'Bride's Ornament,' &c., and the 'Meditations' were included in a collection of the poems of Robert Aylett, one of the masters of the high court of Chancery. It is unlikely that the name Richard Argall had been adopted as a nom de plume, and it is equally unlikely that a man in Aylett's position would have had the impudence to reissue another person's verses under his own name. From the fact that only one copy is known of the early edition it might be suggested that Aylett, learning of the attempted fraud, succeeded in calling in the copies that had gone abroad under Argall's name. (A Richard Argall, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, was rector of Roothing-Aythorp, Essex; he married into the family of the Bramstons: vide 'Autobiography of Sir John Bramston,' p. 23, Camden Society Publications, 1845.)

[Wood's Athenæ Oxoniensis, ed. Bliss, i. 761; Hath Library Catalogue, sub 'Aylett, Robert.'] 

ARGALL, SAMUEL (d. 1626), adventurer and deputy-governor of Virginia, was descended from an old Kentish family who afterwards settled at Walthamstow in Essex. His first appearance in history is among the early adventurers to Virginia, where we find him in July 1609 in charge of a small barque lying at anchor off Jamestown, where he was sent to trade on behalf of a Mr, Cornells, and to fish for sturgeon. His next task, after his return home, appears to have been that of conducting Lord Delawarre from England to Virginia, where they arrived on 6 June 1610, in time to prevent the abandonment of Jamestown by the colonists, who, under the guidance of Sir Thomas Gates, the governor, had already embarked on board four vessels for Newfoundland, For further relief of the colony, Argall was despatched with Sir George Somers to the Bermudas for hogs to replace the stock which the colonists had