Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/351



mollusca were sent to Dr. J. E. Gray, and are now in the British Museum. He was elected F.L.S. in January 1850, and F.R.S. 1 June 1854. In 1864 Gunn was appointed one of the three commissioners charged to advise upon the most suitable position for the capital of New Zealand, the decision being Wellington. Gunn helped to form the Royal Society of Tasmania. He died at Hobart Town 14 March 1881.

 GUNN, WILLIAM (1750–1841), miscellaneous writer, born on 7 April 1750 at Guildford, Surrey, was the son of Alexander Gunn of Irstead, Norfolk. He attended Fletcher's private school at Kingston-upon-Thames for six years. In 1784 he entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, as a sizar (College Admission Register). He took holy orders, in 1784 became rector of Sloley, Norfolk, and in 1786 obtained the consolidated livings of Barton Turf and Irstead. The latter he resigned in 1829 in favour of John Gunn upon receiving the vicarage of Gorleston, Suffolk. In 1795 he obtained the degree of B.D. as a 'ten-year man.' During a residence in Rome he obtained permission to search the Vatican and other libraries for manuscripts relating to the history of England, and published anonymously, as the result of his research, in 1803, a collection of 'Extracts' from state papers of the sixteenth century, describing the ancient manner of placing the kingdom in military array, the various modes of defence adopted for its safety in periods of danger, and the evidence of foreigners as to the national character and personal bravery of the English. In the Vatican he discovered a tenth-century manuscript of the 'Historia Britonum,' commonly ascribed to Nennius, which he printed in 1819 with an English version, facsimile of the original, notes, and illustrations (another edition of the translation only, with a few additions, was published by J. A. Giles in 1841). His 'Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture,' 8vo, London, appeared in 1819. Gunn's most important work was 'Cartonensia; or, an Historical and Critical Account of the Tapestries in the Palace of the Vatican; copied from the designs of Raphael, etc. To which are subjoined Remarks on the Causes which retard the Progress of the higher Departments of the Art of Painting in this Country,' 8vo, London, 1831 (2nd edit, 1832). He died at Smallburgh, Norfolk, on 11 April 1841.

 GUNNING, ELIZABETH, (1734–1790), younger daughter of John Gunning of Castlecoote, co. Roscommon, by Bridget, youngest daughter of Theobald, viscount Mayo, one of two sisters famous for their beauty of face and figure, was born in 1734, and came to London in 1751 [see under ,, sister of Elizabeth]. She surreptitiously married James, sixth duke of Hamilton, at half-past twelve at night, on 14 Feb. 1752, at Mayfair chapel, with, Horace Walpole says, 'a ring of the bed-curtain' (, Letters, ii. 279). When she was presented on her marriage, the anxiety to see her was so great that it was said that the 'noble mob in the drawing-room clambered upon chairs and tables to look at her'(ib. p. 281). A poem entitled 'The Charms of Beauty,' 1752, 4to, was written in her honour. By her marriage with the Duke of Hamilton she had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Edward, twelfth earl of Derby, and two sons, James George and Douglas, who both became dukes of Hamilton. Her husband died on 18 Jan. 1758, and she was for a short time engaged to Francis Egerton, duke of Bridgewater [q. v.], but the match was broken off because she refused to give up her intimacy with her sister. On 3 March 1759 she married John Campbell, marquis of Lorne, lieutenant-colonel of the 42nd regiment, and heir to the dukedom of Argyll. Her beauty was unimpaired, and her behaviour modest (ib. iii. 211). In October 1760, when her sister, who is said to have been the lovelier of the two, died of consumption, she was thought to be dying of the same disease. She was ordered to Italy, but her health improving, she seems to have passed the winter with her husband at Lyons (ib. pp. 345, 358, 371). She returned to England in restored health, and 'almost in possession of her former beauty,' was one of the ladies commissioned to conduct the Princess Charlotte to England in September to be married to the king, and was appointed a lady of the bedchamber (Memoirs of George III, i. 70). In August 1763 she was in Paris, where she was engaged in a suit about the Douglas estate, and Horace Walpole, though considering her 'sadly changed by ill-health,' remarks on the bad taste of the French who thought the Duchess of Ancaster better-looking. It is said that Queen Charlotte was jealous of the king's admiration for her. During the Wilkes riots in March 1768 she behaved with great resolution, and though her husband, Lord Lorne, was absent, and she was in delicate health, refused to illuminate her house in Argyll Buildings at the bidding of the mob, which