Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/328

 Society), Walker, and Maddox respectively, and are extant in the manuscript volumes which contain Fenton's letters. All of them deserve to be rescued from oblivion and printed, as they form an interesting link in the naval history of the sixteenth century between the two circumnavigations of Drake and Cavendish.



FENTON, EDWARD DYNE (d. 1880), author, entered the British army as an ensign in the 53rd Shropshire regiment of foot in 1847, was advanced to a lieutenancy in 1849, placed on the half-pay list in 1857, obtained a captaincy in the 14th Buckinghamshire regiment of foot in 1858, and exchanged into the 86th royal County Down regiment of foot in 1860, with which he spent some years at Gibraltar. He retired from the army about 1870, and thenceforward resided chiefly at Scarborough until his death, which took place on 27 July 1880. He was well known as an amateur photographer, and very popular among his friends. He published:
 * 1) ‘Sorties from Gib. in quest of Sensation and Sentiment,’ London, 1872, 8vo (a collection of entertaining narratives of tours made in Spain during brief furloughs).
 * 2) ‘Military Men I have met,’ London, 1872, 8vo (humorous sketches, illustrated by Linley Sambourne, of types of military character).
 * 3) ‘Eve's Daughters,’ London, 1873, 8vo (a volume of slight sketches and stories illustrating female character).
 * 4) ‘B., an Autobiography,’ London, 1874, 8vo (a three-volume novel).



FENTON, ELIJAH (1683–1730), poet, was born at Shelton, near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, 20 May 1683. He was descended from an ancient family. His father, John Fenton, an attorney, who died in 1694, was coroner for the district, and must have left his children in good circumstances, since Elijah, though the eleventh child, was able to proceed to Cambridge. He graduated B.A. at Jesus College in 1704. He had been intended for a clergyman, but conscientious scruples led him to decline taking the oaths, and thus disqualified him for orders in the church of England. These objections would seem to have been rather religious than political, as they did not interfere with his subsequent panegyric upon Marlborough. He did not seek ordination at the hands of the nonjuring clergy, but appears to have almost immediately obtained employment as secretary to the Earl of Orrery, whom he accompanied to Flanders. After relinquishing his patron's service, he became assistant to [q. v.], the well-known schoolmaster, at Headley in Surrey, and was shortly afterwards elected head-master of the grammar school at Sevenoaks, which he is said to have brought into reputation. He had already published a volume of poems in 1707, composed an elegy on the death of the Marquis of Blandford, Marlborough's son, and obtained sufficient reputation as a wit to attract (1710) an invitation from Bolingbroke to give up his school in hopes of a more suitable provision, which he was assured would be forthcoming. He is said to have unsuccessfully applied for the commissionership of stamps vacated by Steele, but this seems irreconcilable with his objection to take the oaths. Whatever the cause, Bolingbroke's promises were not fulfilled, but Fenton's disappointment was partly solaced by his old patron Orrery, who made him, about 1714, tutor to his son, Lord Broghill. This engagement continued for six years, and at its termination Pope procured him another as the instructor of Craggs, the new secretary of state, who was anxious to supply his deficiencies in literature. Fenton's prospects now seemed excellent, but they were speedily blighted by the untimely death of Craggs. Pope, however, always helpful and friendly, conferred on Fenton the distinguished honour of associating him with himself in his translation of the ‘Odyssey,’ allotting him the first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth books, and remunerating him with 300l. Southern, with whom Fenton had long been connected, assisted him with his dramatic experience in the composition of his tragedy of ‘Mariamne,’ which, after being rudely rejected by Cibber, was acted with success at the rival theatre in 1723. Fenton's profits are said to have amounted to nearly a thousand pounds. Pope soon obtained for him another tutorship in the family of a widow, Lady Trumbull, whose son he first educated at home, and afterwards accompanied to Cambridge. When the young man's education was complete, Lady Trumbull retained Fenton in the probably nominal employment of auditor of her accounts, and his latter years were spent in ease and comfort. He prefixed ‘a short and elegant’ account of Milton's life to an edition of his works, and undertook to amend the punctuation of ‘Paradise Lost,’ without, it may be feared, much insight into the matter. In 1729 he