Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/399

 Dallam family. In 1615 he received 4l., and in 1624 2l. for repairs to the organs. In 1632 2l. 13s. was paid for tuning, and in 1637 Dallam and Yorke were paid 2l. 7s. 6d. for repairs. Repairs in 1661, 1664, and 1665, which cost 25l., 40l., and 20l. respectively, must have been paid to one of Thomas Dallam's sons. On 29 Sept. 1626, at a court of the Blacksmiths' Company, Dallam was appointed one of the stewards at the annual feast on lord mayor's day. This office was always held by a liveryman previous to his becoming a member of the court. Dallam, however, did not appear at the meeting, and accordingly, on 12 Oct. following, he was fined 10l. for refusing to hold the stewardship, and it was resolved that if he neither acted as steward nor paid his fine on that day twelvemonth he should lose his place in the livery. On 29 Sept. 1627 Dallam appeared in person before the court, and prayed to be excused from the stewardship. He paid down 5l. on account of his fine and offered to pay the remainder by instalments of 1l., 2l., and 2l. during the three following years. This offer was accepted, and Dallam signed the record of it in the minute book. From this signature the correct form of his name has been ascertained. It is variously written by his contemporaries as Dalham, Dallum, Dallan, Dallans, Dalhom, Dullom, and Dallom. The date of his death is unknown. His arms, as recorded on his son Robert's tombstone, were ermine, two flanches, each charged with a doe passant.

[Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, ed. Gutch, p. 213; Ecclesiologist for 1859, p. 393; Willis's and Clark's Cambridge, i. 518–21; Rimbault and Hopkins's The Organ, 2nd ed.; Chapter Records of Worcester Cathedral, communicated by Mr. J. H. Hooper; Minute Books of the Blacksmiths' Company; assistance and information from Mr. W. B. Garrett.]  DALLAN, (fl. 600), commonly called in Irish writings, in Latin Forcellius, was of the race of Colla Uais, and was born about the middle of the sixth century in the district of Teallach Eathach, which was then included in Connaught, but now forms the north-western part of the county of Cavan. He was famous for learning in the reign of Aedh mac Ainmere, who became king of Ireland in 571, and he survived St. Columba. Three poems are attributed to him, a panegyric on St. Columba, one on Senan, bishop of Inis Cathaig, and one on Conall Coel, abbot of Iniskeel in Donegal. The two first are extant in manuscript, and the ‘Amhra Choluimcille,’ as the first is called, has, been printed with a translation by O'Beirne Crowe from an eleventh-century text in ‘Lebor na huidri,’ an edition which has been severely criticised by Whitley Stokes (Remarks on the Celtic Additions to Curtius' Greek Etymology, Calcutta, 1875).

The legend of the composition is that Dallan had composed the panegyric and proceeded to recite it at the end of the folkmote at Druim Ceta. Columba was pleased, but Baithene, his companion, warned him that fiends floating in the air were rejoicing over his commission of the sin of pride. Columba accepted the reproof and stopped the poet, saying that it was after death only that men should be praised. After the saint's death in 597 Dallan made public the panegyric. The text in ‘Lebor na huidri’ has a copious and very ancient commentary, the obscurity of which shows that scholars in the eleventh century found parts of the ‘Amhra’ as unintelligible as they are in the present day. It was in verse, and several metres were probably used, though an exact recension of Dallan's part of the text as it stands is required before there can be any certainty about the rhythm. The poem begins with a lament for Columba's death, his ascent into heaven is told next and some of his virtues set forth; then his learning, his charity, his chastity, and more of his virtues are recounted, and the poem ends as it began with the words, ‘Ni di sceuil duæ neill,’ a history worth telling about the descendant of Niall. The feast day of St. Dallan is 29 Jan., but the year of his death is unknown.

[O'Beirne Crowe's Amra Choluimcille of Dallan Forgaill, Dublin, 1871; Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, Louvain, 1645; Lebor na huidri, facsimile Royal Irish Academy.]  DALLAS, ALEXANDER ROBERT CHARLES (1791–1869), divine, was descended from William Dallas, of Budgate, Nairnshire, in 1617. His father was Robert Charles Dallas [q. v.], his mother Sarah, daughter of Thomas Harding of Nelmes, Essex. He was born at Colchester 29 March 1791, and, having received his early education at a school of some standing in Kennington, was appointed in 1805 to a clerkship in the commissariat office of the treasury. He was soon promoted, and was actively employed both at home and abroad. He was present at the battle of Waterloo, but on the peace of 1815 retired upon half-pay. In May 1818 he married his first wife and settled in London, intending to study for the bar; but decided to take orders, and in 1820 matriculated as a gentleman-commoner of Worcester College, Oxford. He was ordained a deacon 17 June 1821, and priest in August of the same year.