Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/430

 for Making an Effectual Provision for the Poor,’ January 1753.  ‘A Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning,’ March 1753.  ‘Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, by the late Henry Fielding,’ with ‘Fragment of a Comment on Lord Bolingbroke's Essays,’ 1755. The first collective edition, edited by Arthur Murphy, appeared in 1762. A pamphlet called ‘The Cudgel, or a Crabtree Lecture to the author of the Dunciad,’ a satire called ‘The Causidicade,’ and an ‘Apology for the Life of The. Cibber,’ have been erroneously attributed to Fielding. ‘Miscellanies and Poems,’ edited by J. P. Browne, was published in 1872 (supplementary to the standard editions).



FIELDING, HENRY BORRON (d. 1851), botanist, was the fifth child and only son of Henry Fielding of Myerscough House, near Garstang, Lancashire. Being of a delicate constitution he was shut out from adopting a profession, but devoted himself to the study of plants and the formation of a rich herbarium, which his ample means permitted. In 1836 he bought the herbarium of Dr. Steudel, and the next year the Prescott collection, consisting of twenty-eight thousand plants. In 1842, the dampness of his house at Bolton-in-Furness proving injurious, he removed to a more airy house at Lancaster, where he died 21 Nov. 1851 of a sudden attack of inflammation of the lungs. He bequeathed the whole of his herbarium, with such of his books as were wanting in the Garden Library, to the university of Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1838, but his retiring disposition prevented him from taking a prominent part in scientific pursuits, save that in 1844 he published a volume, ‘Sertum Plantarum,’ with figures and descriptions of seventy-five new or rare plants. The figures were drawn by Mrs. Fielding, and the descriptions were written by Dr. George Gardner, who at one time had charge of the Fielding herbarium.



FIELDING, JOHN (d. 1780), magistrate, was the son of General Fielding by his second wife, and half-brother of  [q. v.] He was blind, apparently from his birth. He was associated with his brother as assisting magistrate for three or four years (Origin … of a Police, &c.), and the office was given to him upon his brother's death. He carried on the plan for breaking up gangs of robbers introduced by Henry Fielding. In a pamphlet called ‘Plan for Preventing Robberies within twenty miles of London’ (1755) he gives some details of this. He denies that he or his brother had employed a certain M'Daniel, who was tried in 1755 for trepanning some wretches into a robbery in order to get a reward by informing against them (, State Trials, xix. 746–864). In 1758 he published another pamphlet on the same subject called ‘An Account of the Origin and Effects of a Police set on foot in 1753 by the Duke of Newcastle on a plan suggested by the late Henry Fielding.’ To this is added a plan for rescuing deserted girls. He mentions another scheme which he had started at the end of 1755 for sending ‘distressed boys’ into the royal navy. Considerable sums were raised for this purpose, which appears to have been successfully carried out; and after the peace he proposed to modify it by finding employment for the boys in the mercantile navy. The accounts were published in 1770. A story of uncertain origin is given by Lawrence (Life of Fielding, p. 273) that Sir John knew more than three thousand thieves by their voices. His energy, however, did not protect him from the ordinary imputations upon ‘trading magistrates.’ In Cole's ‘Collections’ (Addit. MS. 5832, f. 226 b) there is a letter from the ‘Cambridge Chronicle’ of 7 June 1766, in which Fielding thanks some Jews for helping to recover stolen property. Cole observes that ‘though stark blind, and of no great reputation as to strict integrity, [