Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/185

 of an academy of arts; in 1757 he propounded a scheme of his own for that object. In 1756 he was chosen, with Hogarth and others, by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts to decide on the two first premiums given by the society that year. Cheere had for his pupil and assistant Louis François Roubiliac, and it was through Cheere that Roubiliac laid the foundation of a fame which has eclipsed that of his master. Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, consulted Cheere as to the advisability of employing statues to decorate the gardens. Cheere suggested a statue of Handel, and, there being some difficulty as to expense, introduced Roubiliac as a young foreigner likely to do it on moderate terms. This statue, finished in 1738, first brought Roubiliac into notice. Cheere died in Westminster on 15 Jan. 1781, aged 77, and was buried with his wife at Clapham. He married before 1730 Helen, daughter of Sauvignion Randall, who died on 25 Oct. 1760. He left surviving two sons, of whom William succeeded to the baronetcy, and took holy orders; he exhibited in 1798 a landscape at the Royal Academy, was governor of Christ's Hospital and other public institutions, and died a bachelor on 28 Feb. 1808 at White Roding, Essex, leaving a large fortune to his two nieces, the daughters of his brother Charles, who had predeceased him. One of these ladies married in 1789 Charles Madryll of Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire, who assumed the name of Cheere on the death of Sir William Cheere, with whom the baronetcy expired. John Cheere, brother of Sir Henry, was also a statuary, and probably a partner in his brother's works.

 CHEESMAN, THOMAS (1760–1835?), engraver and draughtsman, was born in 1760, and is recognised as one of the best pupils of [q. v.], in whose manner (dotted) he engraved. In 1798 he resided at No. 40 Oxford Street, and afterwards changed his address to No. 71 Newman Street. His name occurs for the last time, as an exhibitor to the Society of British Artists, in 1834, when he lived at No. 28 Francis Street. He engraved the following plates: ‘The Lady’s last Stake, or Picquet, or Virtue in Danger,’ after Hogarth (a proof before letter is in the British Museum); ‘The Plague stayed on the Repentance of David,’ after West; ‘Heads of Apostles,’ after Giotto; ‘Christ in the Sepulchre,’ after Guercino (engraved in conjunction with P. W. Tomkins); ‘Venus,’ after Titian; portraits of G. Colman, sen., after P. de Loutherbourg; G. Colman, jun., after De Wilde; Lady Hamilton, after G. Romney; a son of the late Lord Hugh Seymour, after R. Cosway; Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Sharpe, Mrs. Gilles, Mr. Fawcett, Madame Catalani, &c. To these may be added ‘Spring and Summer,’ ‘Plenty,' ‘Erminia,’ ‘Nymphs Bathing,' &c.

 CHEFER or CHEFFER, RICHARD (fl. 1400?), theologian, was an Augustinian friar, and the author of the following works: ‘Sermones elegantes,’ ‘De nativitate Christi liber i.,’ ‘De quatuor novissimis liber i.,’ and ‘Collationes lures.’ These particulars were taken by Bishop Bale, ‘ ex reliquiis Thomæ Godsalve’ (see his manuscript note-book in the Bodleian Library, cod. Seld., supra, 64, f. 150 b), a Norwich gentleman, into the possession of whose family the Augustinian priory in that city had passed shortly after its dissolution (see, History of Norfolk, ii. 549, 1745). Hence, apparently, it was a natural inference that Chefer was a member of that house (, Script. Brit. Cat. vii. 33, p. 532). He is further said to ave been a Norfolk man, and it is presumed that he studied for some years at Cambridge; but both these statements seem to be conjectural, and it is probably only the titles of his works that have led his biographers to describe him as an industrious student and a powerful preacher. How little is really known of him appears from the fact that Bale placed him in the reign of Henry IV, while Pits (De Angliæ Scriptoribus, pp. 479, 480) states that he flourished in 1354, and Pamphilus (Chron. Ord. Fratr. Eremit. S. August., f. 70 b, Rome, 1581), who (like Pits) in other respects depends wholly on Bale, gives the date as 1408. The former year (1354) has been given as the date of Chefer's death in Blomefield's ‘History of Norfolk,' ii. 552, and in the 1830 edition of Dugdale's ‘Monasticon,’ vi. 1595, where he is also said to have been prior of his house. The true date remains unknown. 