Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/42

Lancaster  [Minutes of Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers, 1878, liii. 289–92; Sporting Mirror, 1882, iii. 21–2; Globe Encyclopædia, 1879, v. 379; Lancaster Shot Manufactory, Woolwich, in Parliamentary Papers, 1854–5, (396), xxxii. 683; information from Mrs. Lancaster.]

 LANCASTER, HENRY HILL (1829–1875), essayist, born on 10 Jan. 1829 at Glasgow, was son of Thomas Lancaster, a Glasgow merchant, and of Jane Kelly. He was educated first at the high school, Glasgow, and afterwards at the university. A distinguished student, he proceeded in 1849 as a Snell exhibitioner to Balliol College, Oxford. In 1853 he obtained a first class in literis humanioribus as well as third class honours in the school of law and modern history, and in the following year he was awarded the Arnold prize for an essay on 'The Benefits arising from the Union of England and Scotland in the reign of Queen Anne.' He graduated B.A. 1853 and M.A. 1872. Settling, on leaving Oxford, in Edinburgh, he passed as an advocate there in 1858, and proved himself an able and industrious lawyer. He defended the university in Jex Blake v. the University of Edinburgh, and the 'Athenæum' in the action brought against that journal by Keith Johnston. Under Mr. Gladstone's ministry (1868 to 1874) he held the office of advocate-depute. He took an active interest in the cause of education. In 1858 he served as secretary to a commission of inquiry into the state of King's and Marischal Colleges, Aberdeen ; and in 1872 was a member of a royal commission on Scottish educational establishments.

In his leisure Lancaster contributed to the daily Edinburgh preas.andiu November 1860 he began a connection with the 'North British Review' with an article on 'Lord Macaulay's Place in English Literature.' He took a strong interest in Scottish political history, and wrote for the 'Edinburgh Review' articles on Burton's 'History of Scotland' (July 1867), and on the two Lords Stair under the title of 'The Scottish Statesmen of the Revolution' (January 1876). All his essays are clearly written and display much care and knowledge. He died suddenly from apoplexy, on 24 Dec. 1876, aged 18. In the following year his more important essays were reprinted privately in two volumes, with prefatory notice by Professor Jowett. Most of them were afterwards published in a single volume entitled 'Essays and Reviews,' Edinburgh. 1876.

Lancaster married in 1863 a daughter of Mr. Graham of Skelmorlie, Ayrshire.

 LANCASTER, HUME (d. 1860), painter, showed great promise at one time as a painter of the sea, of scenes on the French and Dutch coasts, and of views on the Scheldt. From 1836 to 1849 he was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists, of which he was elected a fellow in 1841, and at the British Institution. He lived in retirement and poverty, and died at Erith in Kent on 3 July 1850. Some of his pictures were engraved in the London 'Prize Annual of the Art Union' for 1848.

[Art Journal 1850, p240; Grove's Dict. of Artists, 1769-1869]

 LANCASTER, JAMES (d. 1618), merchant and sea-captain, pioneer of the English trade with the East Indies, was 'brought up among the Portuguese; lived among them as a gentleman,' a soldier, and a merchant (, p. 47). As he afterwards spoke of them very bitterly, as a people without 'faith or truth,' it would seem that he considered himself as having sustained some injury or unfair treatment at their hands.

Lancaster returned to England before the war with Spain broke out; and in 1588 commanded the Edward Bonaventure, a merchant ship of 300 tons, serving under Sir Francis Drake in the fleet against the 'Invincible' Armada. In 1591, again in command of the Edward Bonaventure, he sailed on the first English voyage to the East Indies, in the company with George Raymond, general of the expedition, in the Penelope, and Samuel Foxcroft in the Merchant Royal. They sailed from Plymouth on 10 April, and ran south to latitude 8° N. with a fair wind, which then died away, leaving them becalmed in the 'doldrums.' For nearly a month they lay there, losing many men from scurvy, and did not anchor in Table Bay till 1 Aug. The suffering had been very great, and though the sickness rapidly abated, there were still many bad cases which were sent home in the Merchant Royal. The other two, with 198 men, sailed on 8 Sept.; but four days later, in a tremendous storm off Cape Corrientes, the Penelope went down with all bands. In another violent storm on the 16th the Edward was struck by lightning, when many men were killed or hurt. At the Comoro islands, in an affray with the natives, they lost the master and some thirty men, together with their only boat. At Zanzibar they rested and refitted ; and sailing thence 