Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/166

 published this and all the subsequent works of his uncle, two of which were posthumous. This was followed by (3) ‘Blagrave’s Astrological Practice of Physick,’ London, 1671, 8vo, already referred to. That it first saw the light in Trinity term for this year is certain; the copies usually met with bear date 1689, being reprints published in Hilary term 1689–90 (cf, infra). His next was (4) ‘Supplement or Enlargement to Mr. Nich. Culpepper's English Physitian, to which is annexed a new Tract for the Cure of Wounds by Gunshot,’ London, 1674, 8vo. The preface to this work is dated ‘From my house called Copt Hall, upon the seven bridges in Reading.' (5) Blagrave's latest and posthumously published work is his ‘Introduction to Astrology,' in three parts, London, 1682, 8vo. The interest attached to this work is that it contains an engraved portrait of our author at the age of seventy-two years, and is dedicated to his friend Elias Ashmole the antiquary. Lowndes ascribes to Joseph Blagrave ‘Planispherium Catholicum.' This is certainly an error, for the work referred to is a revised version of the ‘Mathematical Jewel' of John Blagrave, edited by J. Palmer, and published in London in 1658, 4to (cf., i. 274). Another work also ascribed to Blagrave is a manuscript, now lost, ‘A Remonstrance in favour of Antient Learning against the Proud Pretensions of the Moderns, more especially in respect to the Doctrine of the Stars;’ about 1669–70. It was never published; but from the account of it preserved (Biog. Brit. ii. 804) we should infer from its wide range of subjects, and in point of style, that it was superior to anything that could have been produced by Blagrave. His character appears to have been a curious mixture of earnest piety with a profound belief in the virtues of astrology. Of the various cures which he claims to have effected, one of the most curious is that of casting out a dumb devil from a maid at Basingstoke, where we are quaintly informed that, after invoking the name of the Tetragrammaton with that of the blessed Trinity, ‘the devil came forth, but invisible, with a great cry and hideous noise, raising a sudden gust of wind, and so vanished’ (Astrological Practice of Physick, p. 124). The whole story is a curious study in the demonology of the seventeenth century.

 BLAGRAVE, THOMAS (d. 1688), musician, was a member of an old Berkshire family. Dr. Rimbault and Colonel Chester state that he was the eldest son of Richard Blagrave (eldest son of John Blagrave [q. v.] of Bullmarsh and Reading, Berkshire) by his third wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Mason of Northwood, Isle of Wight; but it is difficult to reconcile this statement with the very detailed family tree of the Blagraves in Berry's ‘County Genealogies of Berkshire’ (145–8). Blagrave's name occurs amongst the gentlemen of the chapel at the coronation of Charles II (23 April 1661), and about 22 Oct. in the following year he was appointed clerk of the cheque. He was also a member of Charles II’s private band, and Wood says that he was ‘a player for the most part on the cornet-flute, and a gentill and honest man.’ Blagrave's name occasionally occurs in Pepys’s ‘Diary.’ On 7 March 1662 by his means Pepys obtained admission to the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, and on 11 Sept. 1664 the same chronicler records that he had been ‘with Mr. Blagrave, walking in the Abbey, he telling me the whole government and discipline of White Hall Chapel, and the caution now used against admitting any debauched persons.’ Blagrave is also mentioned as one of the king's ‘musick’ at whom Pelham Humphreys laughed on his return from France in 1667, saying ‘that they cannot keep time nor tune, nor understand anything.’ On 14 Oct. 1645 Blagrave was married, at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, to Margaret Clarevell or Clairvox of Parson’s Green. He died 21 Nov. 1688, and was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey on 24 Nov. By his will (dated 14 May 1686) he left to his widow his house and lands at Teddington, and bequeathed various sums to his kinsmen, among whom were another Thomas Blagrave, and John Blagrave, ‘my brother Anthony Blagrave's youngest sonne.’ A portrait by J. V. Souman of a Thomas Blagrave, which is preserved in the Music School at Oxford, has always been said to represent the subject of this biography; but this clearly cannot be the case, as the picture represents a boy, and bears the inscription ‘æt. 12, 1702.’ A few songs by him may be found in the publications of Playford and other contemporary collections.

 BLAGROVE, HENRY GAMBLE (1811–1872), musician, was born at Nottingham 20 Oct. 1811. He was the eldest son of