Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/24

 wards he became custodian of Cambridge, which was specially noted for its poverty under his rule. In 1230, when Agnellus attended the general chapter at Assisi, Richard acted as vicar of the English province. Soon after this he was appointed by the general, John Parens, provincial minister of Ireland. He was released from the office by Albert of Pisa in 1239, and set out as a missionary to the Holy Land, where he died. In the manuscripts of Eccleston his name is usually written ‘Ingewrthe’ or ‘Indewurde.’ Leland and his followers call him ‘Kingesthorp.’ The only authority for this form is a late marginal note in the Phillipps MS. of Eccleston, from which Leland made his extracts (see English Hist. Rev. for October 1890).

[Mon. Franciscana, vol. i. ed. Brewer (Rolls Ser.)] 

INMAN, GEORGE ELLIS (1814–1840), song-writer, born in 1814, and well educated, was for some time clerk in the office of a firm of wine merchants in Crutched Friars, London. He obtained some reputation as a song-writer, fell a victim to opium-taking, and committed suicide on 26 Sept. 1840 in St. James's Park.

Two compositions of his, ‘The Days of Yore’ and ‘St. George's Flag of England,’ gained prizes of ten and fifteen guineas respectively from the Melodists' Club in 1838 and 1840. Other songs of his were ‘Sweet Mary mine,’ which enjoyed a concert season's popularity; ‘My Native Hills,’ set to music by Sir Henry Bishop; and ‘Wake, wake, my Love,’ set to music by Raffaelle Angelo Wallis. He wrote the libretto for Wallis's opera, ‘The Arcadians.’ He also contributed to various magazines. In the ‘Bentley Ballads,’ edited by Dr. Doran (new edition, 1861), are included two vigorous poems of his, ‘Old Morgan at Panama’ (p. 17) and ‘Haroun Alraschid’ (p. 80). In ‘La Belle Assemblée’ for September 1844 appeared posthumously a piece by him, ‘Le premier Grenadier des Armées de la République.’ He is said to have published a small volume of poems (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. v. 326).

[Globe newspaper, 28 Sept. 1840, p. 4, and 30 Sept. p. 4; Gent. Mag. November 1840, p. 550; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. v. 225–6.] 

INMAN, JAMES (1776–1859), professor of navigation and nautical science, born in 1776, was younger son of Richard Inman of Garsdale Foot, Sedbergh, Yorkshire. The family of substantial statesmen had owned property in the neighbourhood from the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. James received his early education at Sedbergh grammar school, and subsequently became a pupil of John Dawson [q. v.] (see also, Life and Letters of Adam Sedgwick, i. 70), and although entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1794, did not go into residence till 1796. Inman graduated B.A. in 1800 as senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman, and was elected to a fellowship. Though with no immediate intention of taking orders, Inman now turned his thoughts towards mission work in the East, and set out for Syria. The course of the war rendered it impossible for him to proceed further than Malta, where he devoted some time to the study of Arabic. On his return to England he was recommended to the board of longitude for the post of astronomer on board the Investigator discovery-ship, and joined her on her return to Port Jackson in June 1803 [see ]. When the Investigator's officers and men were turned over to the Porpoise, Inman was left at Port Jackson in charge of the instruments; but after the wreck and the return of Flinders, Inman accompanied him in the Rolla, and assisted him in determining the position of the reef on which the Porpoise had struck. With the greater part of the crew he then returned to England, viâ China, being assigned a passage in the company's ship Warley, in which he was present in the celebrated engagement with Linois off Pulo Aor on 15 Feb. 1804 [see ; ]. In 1805 he proceeded M.A., and about the same time was ordained, though he does not appear to have held any cure; he proceeded to the degree of B.D. in 1815, and of D.D. in 1820.

On the conversion of the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in 1808 into the Royal Naval College, Inman was appointed professor of mathematics, and virtually principal, and here he remained for thirty years. In this office Inman turned to good account the knowledge of navigation and naval gunnery which he had acquired at sea. In 1821 appeared his well-known book, ‘Navigation and Nautical Astronomy for the use of British Seamen,’ with accompanying tables. In the third edition (1835) he introduced a new trigonometrical function, the half-versine, or haversine, the logarithms of which were added to the tables, and enormously simplified the practical solution of spherical triangles. After long remaining the recognised text-book in the navy, the ‘Navigation’ has been gradually superseded, but the tables, with some additions, still continue in use.

It is said that Inman suggested to Captain Broke [see ]