Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/193

 . In the same capacity he attended Lord Whitworth at the congress of Cambrai, and in 1728 he entered the service of Philip Dormer Stanhope, the celebrated earl of Chesterfield, when he went as ambassador to the Hague. Lord Chesterfield liked and respected him, and wrote with admiration in one of his letters to the Countess of Suffolk of the manner in which Chenevix tried to restrain his wit by saying that 'death was too serious a thing to jest upon' (Lord Chesferfield's Correspondence, ed. Lord Mahon, iii. 87). When Lord Chesterfield returned to England, Chenevix shared his fortunes when in opposition, and when, in 1745, his patron was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Chenevix, who had taken his D.D. degree at Cambridge in 1744, accompanied him as principal domestic chaplain. Chesterfield naturally nominated Chenevix to the first vacant Irish bishopric; but the nomination met with unexpected opposition. The king declared himself ready to appoint any other nominee of Lord Chesterfiela's but Chenevix, on the ground, according to Chenevix himself, that he had written pamphlets against the government; but Chesterfield threatened to resign if his nomination was not carried out, and the government had to give way (ib. iii. 158). On 20 May 1745, therefore, Chenevix was nominated to the see of Killaloe, and he was consecrated at Dublin on 28 July. He only remained a few months at Killaloe, for on 15 Jan. 1746 he was translated to the more lucrative see of Waterford and Lismore, still by the influence of Lord Chesterfield. The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore was, according to Cotton (Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernica), an exemplary prelate, and on his death, which took place at Waterford on 11 Sept. 1779, he left 1,000l. to each of his dioceses — to Waterford for pensions to clergymen's widows, and to Lismore for general purposes. His grand-daughter and heiress, Melesina Chenevix, married, first, Colonel Ralph St. George, and secondly, Richard Trench, brother of the first Lord Ashtown in the peerage of Ireland, by whom she was mother of Richard Chenevix Trench, archbishop of Dublin [q. v.]

 CHENEVIX, RICHARD (1774–1830), chemist and mineralogist, was a native of Ireland, of French extraction. The family of Chenevix was driven to this country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Richard Chenevix's father. Colonel Chenevix, was nephew of Richard Chenevix [q. v.], bishop of Waterford and Lismore. He was probably born in Dublin, and acquired a knowledge of science in the university of that city. His first contribution to chemistry was printed in the 'Annales de Chimie' in 1798. As nine other memoirs appear in later volumes, Chenevix was probably for some time a resident in France. In 1800 he began to publish his researches in England in 'Nicholson's Journal.' His first paper related to an analysis of a new variety of lead ore, the muria-carbonate. In 1801 he made his first communication to the Royal Society, which was printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for that year. In 1801 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1802 he published in the 'Journal de Physique' a paper on 'Columbian,' a metal discovered by Hatchett in the previous year, and now known as niobium. In the same year he contributed to 'Nicholson's Journal' 'Observations on the supposed Magnetic Property of Nickel, and on the Quantity of Sulphur in Sulphuric Acid.' In 1803 Chenevix sent to the Royal Society a paper on 'Palladium,' and in 1804 wrote in 'Nicholson's Journal' upon 'The new Metal contained in Platina.' Platinum had been discovered about this time by Wollaston, and Chenevix gave considerable attention to platina and its combinations. He especially examined the alloys formed by the union of platinum and palladium with other metals, in order to determine the true nature of palladium, and to establish his claim as the discoverer of a new metal. In a communication from Freyberg, dated 3 June 1804, he first published an account of an alloy with mercury, and in January 1805 he sent to the Royal Society a memoir 'On the Action of Platina and Mercury upon each other.' In this he asserted that he had discovered the true composition of palladium. Wollaston had suggested that palladium was an alloy of platinum, and no doubt this led Chenevix to make numerous experiments, leading him to the conclusion that the alloy of platinum and mercury was the new metal required. Wollaston repeated Chenevix's experiments, and successfully isolated the new element palladiiun. Wollaston communicated his results to the Royal Society on 4 June 1804. The chemists of France and Germany confirmed the results of Wollaston. Chenevix, finding the new substance in crude platina, wrote: 'Nothing is more probable than that nature may have formed this alloy, and formed it much better than we can. At all events the amalgamation to which platina is submitted before it reaches Europe is sufficient to account for the small portion of palladium.' Wollaston, in his memoir 'On a New Metal,' wrote: 'We must class it (palladium) with those bodies which we have reason to 