Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/223

 the university's judgment. He wrote an interesting account of his reception at court in a letter to Dr. Edwards, master of Peterhouse, which is still preserved in manuscript at Corpus Christi College. Buckmaster asserts that his performance of the duty lost him an important benefice, which was about to be conferred upon him. He signed the well-known articles of religion of 1536 as proctor in convocation of the London clergy; and about 1537 he was consulted by Cromwell, with many other eminent divines, as to the form which certain theological dogmas of the Romish church should take in the Anglican articles. Roger Ascham [q. v.] refers to Buckmaster as one of his Cambridge patrons (, Epist., No. iv. (ed. Giles), I. i. 5).

[Buckmaster's account of the proceedings at Cambridge in 1529, now preserved at Corpus Christi College, has been fully printed in Dr. Lamb's collections from the C. C. C. MSS.; and (very carefully) in Burnet's Reformation (ed. Pocock), vi. 28–34. Portions of it appear in the Brit. Magazine, xxxvi. 72, and in Froude's History, i. 280–3. See also Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 86–7; Strype's Cranmer (1848), i. 178; Burnet's Reformation (ed. Pocock), passim; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Le Neve's Fasti (ed. Hardy).] 

BUCKSHORN, JOSEPH (fl. 1670), painter, a native of the Netherlands, settled in London in 1670, and was much employed by Sir Peter Lely in painting his draperies and accessories. He also painted portraits, imitating his master's manner with no little skill. The copy of the Earl of Strafford and his secretary, Sir John Mainwaring, in the possession of Earl Fitzwilliam at Wentworth Woodhouse, after Vandyck, is by him. According to Walpole's vague statement (Anecdotes of Painting (Wornum), ii. 452), Buckshorn ‘dying at the age of thirty-five, was buried at St. Martin's.’ Thomas Bardwell, in his work ‘The Practice of Painting and Perspective made Easy,’ 1756, p. 21, says ‘Buckshorn was one of the last good copiers we have had in England; the rest that followed him and his master Lely soon dwindled to half-artists.’

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878), p. 60.] 

BUCKSTONE, JOHN BALDWIN (1802–1879), actor and dramatist, was born at Hoxton on 14 Sept. 1802. In his eleventh year he was placed on board a man-of-war; but through the intervention of a relative, who objected to his entering on an arduous career at so tender an age, he was brought back and again sent to school. At the end of his school days he was articled in a solicitor's office, but he soon engaged in theatrical pursuits, and made his first appearance at Peckham, in a building half theatre, half barn, as Captain Aubri in the melodrama called ‘The Dog of Montargis.’ At the age of nineteen he made a successful appearance at Wokingham, Berkshire, in the character of Gabriel in the ‘Children of the Wood.’ His reputation as a low comedian gradually extended. Pursuing the career of a provincial actor for three years, he became acquainted in the course of that period with Edmund Kean, who seems to have appreciated his peculiar humour, and to have encouraged him to persevere in his calling. On 30 Jan. 1823 he made his first appearance in London at the Surrey Theatre in the character of Ramsay the watchmaker in the ‘Fortunes of Nigel.’ The statement that Buckstone made his début as Peter Smink in ‘The Armistice’ is not confirmed. From 18 Oct. 1824 until 1827 he was a member of the Coburg company. He joined in 1827 the company of Mr. D. Terry at the Adelphi, appearing as Bobby Trot in his own drama entitled ‘Luke the Labourer’ on 1 Oct. It appears that a year previously Buckstone had sent this piece to the manager of the Adelphi without any personal knowledge of him, and that the name and address of the dramatist had been lost. Terry, however, perceived the suitability of the drama for his purpose, and had produced it for the first time on 16 Oct. 1826. Buckstone was at length identified as the dramatist, and brought to the theatre to find his piece in rehearsal for a second time, and to take a share in its representation. At the Adelphi Buckstone was introduced by Terry to Sir Walter Scott, an event which gave him ambition for a general literary career. This theatre was also the scene of some of his best known dramas. He was the original Gnatbrain in Jerrold's ‘Black-eyed Susan,’ produced at the Surrey 8 June 1829. At the Haymarket, in 1833, was produced his drama called ‘Ellen Wareham,’ in which Mrs. Yates personated the heroine. Here, between his first appearance on 8 April 1833 and 1839, he also performed in several farces of his own, one of them, ‘Uncle John,’ including in its cast the eminent names of Farren, Webster, Buckstone himself, and Mrs. Glover. But he only performed at the Haymarket during the summer, and returned each winter to the Adelphi. In 1840 he paid a visit to the United States. After his return in 1842 he again connected himself with the Haymarket, fulfilling, however, during his absences from that house, a short engagement with Mr. Bunn at Drury Lane, and another with Madame Vestris at