Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/62

Fisher , may be safely ascribed to the same hand:
 * 1) 'The Marrow of Modern Divinity &hellip; by E. F.,' &c., 1645, 8vo; 4th edit. 1646, 8vo, has recommendatory letters by Burroughes, Strong, Sprigge, and Prittie.
 * 2) 'A Touchstone for a Communicant &hellip; y E. F.,' c., 1647, 12mo (Caryl's imprimatur).
 * 3) 'The Marrow of Modern Divinity: the Second Part &hellip; by E. F.,' &c., 1649, 8vo. The 19th edit, of the 'Marrow' was published at Montrose, 1803, 12mo. It was translated into Welsh by John Edwards, a sequestered clergyman; his dedication is dated 20 July 1650; later editions are Trefecca, 1782, 12mo; Carmarthen, 1810, 12mo.
 * 4) 'London's Gate to the Lord's Table,' &c., 1647, 12mo; the title-page is anonymous, but the signature 'E. F.' appears at the end of the dedication to Judge Henry Rolle of the pleas, and Margaret his wife.
 * 5) 'Faith in Five Fundamentall Principles &hellip; by E. F., a Seeker of the Truth,' &c., 1650, 12mo.

 FISHER, EDWARD (1730–1785?), mezzotint engraver, born in Ireland in 1730, was at first a hatter, but took to engraving, went to London, and became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1766, where he exhibited fourteen times between 1761 and 1776. His earliest dated print is 1758, and his latest 1781. He resided in 1761 in Leicester Square, and moved to Ludgate Street in 1778. It is said that Reynolds called him 'injudiciously exact' for finishing too highly the unimportant parts of the plate. After his death, about 1785, most of his coppers were dispersed among several print-sellers, and in some cases tampered with. He engraved over sixty plates of portraits, including George, earl of Albemarle, after Reynolds; Robert Brown, after Chamberlin; William Pitt, earl of Chatham, after Brompton; Colley Gibber, after Vanloo; Christian VII of Denmark, after Dance; David Garrick, after Reynolds; Simon, earl Harcourt, after Hunter; Roger Long, after B. Wilson; Hugh, earl of Northumberland, and Elizabeth, countess of Northumberland, after Reynolds; Paul Sandby, after F. Cotes; Laurence Sterne, after Reynolds; and the following fancy subjects: 'Lady in Flowered Dress,' after Hoare; 'Hope Nursing Love,' or, according to Bromley, Theophila Palmer, afterwards Mrs. Gwatkin, after Reynolds; and 'Heads from "Vicar of Wakefield,"' ten plates engraved from his own designs and published in 1776.

 FISHER, GEORGE (1794–1873), astronomer, was born at Sunbury in Middlesex on 31 July 1794. One of a large family left to the care of a widowed mother, he received little early education, and entered the office of the Westminster Insurance Company at the age of fourteen. Here his devotion to uncongenial duties won the respect and rewards of his employers. His scientific aspirations had, however, been fostered by Sir Humphry Davy, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Everard Home, and other eminent men, and he entered St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, in 1817, whence he graduated B.A. in 1821, M.A. in 1825. His university career was interrupted by his appointment, on the recommendation of the Royal Society, as astronomer to the polar expedition fitted out in H.M. ships Dorothea and Trent in 1818. The highest latitude attained was 80° 34', and both vessels returned to England disabled before the close of the year; but Fisher had made a series of pendulum experiments at Spitsbergen, from which he deduced the value 1/303 for the ellipticity of the earth. The results of his observations on the ships' chronometers were embodied in a paper read before the Royal Society on 8 June 1820, entitled 'On the Errors in Longitude as determined by Chronometers at Sea, arising from the Action of the Iron in the Ships upon the Chronometers' (Phil. Trans. cx. 196).

Fisher soon afterwards took orders, and qualified himself by formally entering the navy to act as chaplain as well as astronomer to Parry's expedition for exploring the north-west passage in 1821-3. A 'portable' observatory, embarked on board the Fury, was set up first at Winter Island, later at Igloolik, and Captain Parry testified to the 'unabated zeal and perseverance' with which Fisher pursued his scientific inquiries. He devoted much care to the preparation of the results for the press, and they formed part of a volume, published at government expense in 1825, as an appendix to Parry's 'Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage.' Astronomical, chronometrical, and magnetic observations were accompanied by details of experiments on the velocity of sound, and on the liquefaction of chlorine and other gases at very low temperatures, as well as by an important discussion 