Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/227

 DONLEVY, ANDREW, D.D. (1694?–1761?), an Irish ecclesiastic, born about 1694, received his early education in or near Ballymote, Sligo. In 1710 he went to Paris, and studied in the Irish college there, of which he ultimately became prefect. He took the degree of licentiate of laws in the university of Paris. Walter Harris states that he was titular dean of Raphoe, and seeks an occasion to introduce his name 'out of gratitude,' as he says, 'for many favours I received from him, particularly in his transmitting to me from time to time several useful collections out of the King's and other libraries in Paris.' Donlevy was living in 1761. The date of his death is unknown. He was the author of: ‘An Teagasg Criosduidhe do réir ceasda agus freagartha, air na tharruing go bunudhasach as bréithir h Soilléir Dé, agus as toibreacaibh fiorglana oile' (‘The Catechism, or Christian Doctrine, by way of question and answer, drawn chiefly from the express Word of God and other pure sources’), Paris, with approbation and the king's license, 1742,8vo. This scarce work is in Irish and English. To it is appended (pp. 487-98) an Abridgment of Christian Doctrine in Irish verse, compiled more than a century before by Bonaventure O'Heoghusa, or O'Hussey. The book also contains a treatise by Donlevy on ‘The Elements of the Irish Language.’ It treats of orthography only, but is the best dissertation which had appeared on the subject up to that time. A second edition of the Catechism appeared at Dublin in 1822, 8vo. It was revised by the Rev. John McEncroe, and corrected for the press by Edward O'Reilly, author of the ‘Irish Dictionary.’ To it are appended a poem in Irish on the Sufferings of Christ, written by Doncha mor O'Dálaigh, abbot of Boyle in the fourteenth century, and a compendium of Irish grammar by McEncroe. A third edition of the Catechism was published at Dublin in 1848, 12mo, for the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth.

[O'Reilly's Irish Writers, p. 229; O'Donovan's Irish Grammar, introd. p. lvii; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog.]  DONN or DONNE, BENJAMIN (1729–1798), mathematician, was born in 1729 at Bideford, Devonshire, where his father and brother Abraham (1718-1746) kept a school. From 1749 to 1756 he contributed to the ‘Gentleman's Diary,’ then edited by J. Badder and T. Peat, but ceased to contribute after 1756, when Peat became sole editor. His contributions were accounts of eclipses observed at Bideford, and answers to nearly the whole of the mathematical questions given during the time mentioned. Until 1768 he was a ‘teacher of the mathematics and natural philosophy on the Newtonian principles’ in his native town. In 1768 he was elected librarian of the Bristol Library, and, ‘in keeping with his taste for the binomial theorem and the book of Euclid, he conceived the idea of converting the establishment into a mathematical academy; but the corporation did not join in his enthusiasm, and students were not invited.’ As his official duties were light, he started a mathematical academy at Bristol on his own account, in the park, near St. Michael's Church, and in the year of his election he published his ‘Young Shopkeeper's &c. Companion,’ which was specially compiled for that academy. In addition to his school he gave a course of fourteen lectures in experimental philosophy to subscribers at one guinea each. These lectures he continued to deliver when he left Bristol for Kingston, near Taunton; but then he only delivered them in the Christmas or midsummer vacation. He would travel thirty miles for twenty subscribers, or fifty miles for thirty subscribers. It is not known when he left Bristol. He was there on 30 Nov. 1773, and possibly on 8 Dec. following, when the salary of the librarian was raised to ten guineas a year. However, in 1775 he was settled at Kingston, near Taunton. Towards the end of his life he was appointed master of mechanics to the king, on the death of Dr. Shepherd. He died in June 1798. Donn mentions in his ‘Mathematical Tables,’ 1789, that he has added a final e to his name; but on the title-page the name is spelt Donn.

Donn published in 1765 a map of Devonshire, from an actual survey taken by himself, for which he received a premium of 100l. from the Society of Arts in December; a map of the country eleven miles round Bristol, from an actual survey, 1770; a pocket map of the city of Bristol circa 1775; map of the western coast of England, containing Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall; charts of the Western Ocean; and many mathematical instruments, a list of which will be found in the ‘Mathematical Tables,’ 1789. His works are: 1. ‘A New Introduction to the Mathematics; being Essays on Vulgar and Decimal Arithmetic,’ 1758, 2nd edit., called ‘Mathematical Essays, or a New Introduction,’ &c. 1764. 2. ‘The Geometrician, containing Essays on Plane Geometry and Trigonometry,’ 1759; 2nd edit. 1775; another, called 2nd edit., 1778. 3. ‘The Accountant, containing Essays on Bookkeeping by Single and Double Entry,’ 1759; 2nd edit. 1775. 4. ‘Essay on the 