Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/147

 HUCK, RICHARD (1720–1785), doctor of medicine. [See Saunders, Richard Huck- (DNB00)]  HUCKELL, JOHN (1729–1771), poet, son of Thomas Huckell, burgess of Stratford-upon-Avon, was baptised there 29 Dec. 1729. He studied at the grammar school of Stratford, matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 8 April 1747, proceeded B.A. 11 March 1751, and 'was presented to the curacy of Hounslowin Middlesex, and the chapel standing on the confines of two parishes, Heston and Isleworth.' He resided in the latter (preface to Avon), and on his death was buried there, 20 Sept. 1771. Huckell wrote: 1. 'Avon; a Poem, in three parts.' The first edition was published in 1758, 'being printed in quarto at Birmingham in an elegant manner by the celebrated Baskerville' (preface to Avon). A new edition was published at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1811. 2. 'An Epistle to David Garrick, Esq., on his being presented with the Freedom of Stratford-upon-Avon; and on the Jubilee held there to the Memory of Shakespeare in September 1769 ' (Gent. Mag. April 1813, p.357).

[Foster's Alumni Oxon. ii. 703; preface to 'Avon,' 1811 edition; Gent. Mag. 1758 p.282, 1813 pt. i. p.212; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vii. 92.]  HUDDART, JOSEPH (1741–1816), hydrographer and manufacturer, was born on 11 Jan. 1740-1 at Allonby in Cumberland, where his father was a shoemaker and farmer. He was educated at a school kept by the clergyman of the parish, and is said to have shown aptitude for mathematics and mechanics, to have constructed the model of a mill, and to have built a miniature 74-gun ship from the description in a work on naval architecture. On leaving school Huddart was sent to sea in the interests of a fish-curing business in which his father had engaged. On the death of his father in 1762 he succeeded to a share in the business, and took command of a small brig belonging to it, trading principally to Ireland. In 1768 he built another brig, mainly with his own hands, and while commanding these devoted much of his leisure to the study of navigation and to the survey of the ports he visited. In 1771 he went to London on a visit to a brother of his father, described as a wealthy tradesman in Westminster, whose daughters had married Sir Richard Hotham and Mr. Dingwall, both shipowners and holders of East India stock. On the introduction of these persons he entered the service of the East India Company, and in 1778 was appointed commander of the ship Royal Admiral, in which he made four voyages to the East. Meanwhile he occupied himself with the survey of the coasts and ports that came under his notice, and constructed charts of Sumatra and the coast of India from Bombay to the mouth of the Godavery, as well as—at home—of St. George's Channel. In 1788 he retired from the company's service, and seems to have been employed for the next three years in surveying among the Hebrides. In 1791 he was elected an elder brother of the Trinity House, and also a F.R.S. Several years before, the accident of a cable parting had turned his attention to the faulty manufacture of rope, and he invented a method ' for the equal distribution of the strains upon the yarns.' He now entered into business for the manufacture of cordage on this principle, in which he realised a handsome fortune. He died in London on 19 Aug. 1816, and was buried in a vault under the church of St.Martin's-in-the-Fields. He married in 1762 and had issue five sons, of whom one only survived him. His portrait, by Hoppner, is in the Institution of Civil Engineers.

[Memoirs of the late Captain Joseph Huddart, F.R.S., by his son Joseph Huddart (for private circulation, 1821, 4to); A Brief Memoir of the late Captain Joseph Huddart, and an Account of his Inventions in the Manufacture of Cordage (with portrait after Hoppner), by W. Colton; Remarks on Patent Registered Cordage, 1800,4to; Reports of Warm Registered Cordage manufactured by Huddart & Co., 1815.]  HUDDESFORD, GEORGE (1749–1809), satirical poet, was baptised at St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford, on 7 Dec. 1749, being the youngest son of George Huddesford, D.D., president of Trinity College, Oxford. William Huddesford [q.v.] was an elder brother. He was elected scholar of Winchester College in 1764, and matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 15 Jan. 1768. He soon migrated to New College. On 8 May 1769 he was elected one of its scholars and became a fellow on 8 May 1771. He graduated B.A. in 1779 and M.A. in 1780. He vacated his fellowship by marriage in August 1772, and a note against his name in a list of the members of the college adds: 'Amatricem Londini juvenili amore correptus præpropere duxit.' In early life Huddesford dabbled in painting, and was a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. By 1775 he had exhibited three pictures at the Academy exhibition, and in the Bodleian Picture Gallery is a painting by him in 1777 of the Earl of Lichfield, chancellor of the university. Reynolds painted in 1778–9 a portrait, now at the National Gallery, of Huddesford and