Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/307

 he was married to Ellen, daughter of T. M. Phillips, and in the November following he was called to the bar, and began practising as a chancery barrister at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn. As his private means, though small, were sufficient to relieve him from any pressing pecuniary anxieties, he felt at liberty to devote his leisure hours to philological studies Sanscrit, the northern tongues, and particularly the language and literature of celand, being his chosen field of study. These interests naturally led to the formation of many congenial acquaintances. In February 1857 he was elected a member of the Philological Society, and contributed two papers on diminutives in 'let' and the Latin words 'ploro' and 'explore,' which were read at their March and May meetings. The society was then engaged on a proposal for remedying the acknowledged deficiencies of the two standard dictionaries of Johnson and Richardson by issuing a supplement, which soon developed into a scheme for a complete new English dictionary. Into this project Coleridge threw himself with his characteristic enthusiasm, and was appointed hon. secretary of a special committee 'formed for the purpose of collecting words and idioms hitherto unregistered,' a post for which he was well fitted by his learning and literary facility, no less than by his methodical habits. His new duties, practically constituting a general editorship of the work, involved a large correspondence with the numerous volunteer helpers. The results of his researches are embodied in his 'Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the Thirteenth Century' (1859), which he describes as 'the foundation-stone of the proposed English dictionary. The scheme developed into the 'New English Dictionary' now being published by the Clarendon Press.

His efforts were necessarily relaxed, though never entirely relinquished, in consequence of a failure of health, which ended in consumption. Yet, in spite of increasing weakness, he continued to communicate papers on various philological topics, as well as reports of the progress of work; and during the last fortnight of his life, while confined to bed, he still sometimes dictated notes for the dictionary. An essay on King Arthur was printed by the Philological Society after his death, which took place on 23 April 1861 at 10 Chester Place, Regent's Park.

 COLERIDGE, JAMES DUKE (1788–1857), divine, eldest son of James Coleridge of Heath's Court, Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, by Frances Duke Taylor, one of the coheiresses of Robert Duke of Otterton, was the elder brother of Sir John Taylor Coleridge [q. v.] and of Henry Nelson Coleridge [q. v.] He went to Balliol College, Oxford, and became B.C.L. on 27 Jan. 1821 and D.C.L. on 5 March 1835. Having determined on taking orders in the English church, he sought and obtained work in his native county, and within the limits of the diocese of Exeter all his curacies and preferments were situate. In 1817 he was curate of the small parish of Whimple, near Exeter, and a year or two later he was working energetically as curate in the city benefice of St. Sidwell's, Exeter. By his diocesan he was advanced in 1823 to the vicarage of the then united parishes of Kenwyn and Kea, Cornwall where he laboured until 1828. During this period the church of Chacewater.with seating for fifteen hundred persons, and the smaller church of St. John, Kenwyn, were built in the parish, and became the centres of separate work. One of Coleridge's printed sermons was ' On the Funeral of the late Mr. William Gill of Chacewater ' (1827), his most active assistant in the erection of that church. From 1826 to 1839 he held the rectory of Lawhitton, and from 1831 to 1841 he was vicar of Lewannick, both of which livings are situate in the county of Cornwall. In 1839 he was appointed to the vicarage of Thorverton, Devonshire, and he died there on 26 Dec. 1857, aged 69. He held the post of official to the archdeacon of Cornwall, and in August 1825 the honour of a prebendal stall in Exeter Cathedral was conferred upon him. Coleridge married on 9 June 1814 Sophia, daughter of Colonel Stanhope Badcock, and at his death he left behind him two daughters.

Coleridge's religious views were those of the old-fashioned high-church school, and he laboured zealously, both by personal instruction and by printed works, to promote the opinions which he had adopted. His publications were numerous. Many of them were ephemeral sermons intended for his parishioners, but some were prepared for a wider circle. In the latter class came: 1. 'Observations of a Parish Priest in scenes of sickness and death,' 1825, the substance of which was reprinted in the sixth volume of the religious tracts of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. 2. 'A Selection of Family Prayers,' 1820; 2nd edition, 1824; 3rd edition, 1831. 3. A Companion to First Lessons for the Services of the Church on Sundays and the Fasts and Festivals,' 1838. The last was dedicated to his brother, John Taylor Coleridge, in language touching from its affectionate simplicity. The titles of many of his publications are printed in the 'Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.' 