Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/248

 Lucas the Newdigate prize for English verse in 1841 and the chancellor's prize for the English essay in 1845. For some years after his call he went the western circuit, where his genial manners made him extremely popular. Leaving law for literature he connected himself with the metropolitan press and became a frequent contributor to the 'Times,' some of his articles being afterwards reprinted in book form. In 1865 he projected and started the 'Shilling Magazine,' which, however, was discontinued at the end of the year, when, through failing health, he retired from London. He died, after a lung illness, at Eastbourne on 27 Nov. 1868.

He wrote: 1. 'The Sandwich Islands,' a prize poem, 1841. 2. 'The Causes and Consequences of National Revolutions,' a prize essay, 1846. 3. 'Charters of the Old English Colonies in America,' 1860. 4. 'The Connection of Bristol with the Party of De Montfort' (in the 'Bristol Memoirs of the Archaeological Institute,' 1851). 5. 'History as a condition of National Progress,' a lecture, 1853. 6. 'Illustrations of the History of Bristol and its Neighbourhood,' 1853. 7. 'Dacoitee in Excelsis, or the Spoliation of Oude,' 1867. 8. 'Eminent Men and Popular Books, from the "Times,"" 1859. 9. 'Biography and Criticism, from the "Times,"' 1860. 10. 'Secularia, or Surveys on the Mainstream of History,' 1862, 11.'Mornings of the Recess, 1861–4, a Series of Biographical and Literary Papers, reprinted from the "Times,"' 1864. He also edited Thomas Hood's 'Poems,' 1867, 2 vols.

[Times, 28 Nov. 1868; Foster's Alumni Oxonienses, 1715-1886.]  LUCAS, SAMUEL (1805–1870), amateur painter, born in 1805 at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, belonged to an old quaker family resident there. He was educated at Hitchin and at a quaker school in Bristol. Although he had early predilections for the profession of an artist, his religion at that time forbade an artistic education, and he was apprenticed to a shipowner at Shoreham in Sussex. But he managed to practise painting as an amateur, and after his marriage in 1838 settled at Hitchin, where he resided for the remainder of his life, devoting himself to his favourite art. In 1830 he sent to the Royal Academy ‘The Ship Broxbournbury off the Islands of Amsterdam,’ but he very seldom exhibited his paintings publicly. His subjects were mainly landscapes, carefully studied from nature, and he painted both in oil and in water-colours. He was an excellent ornithologist, and also painted birds, animals, and flowers. Some of his drawings of flowers were engraved in the ‘Florist.’ His pictures were much admired, and he enjoyed the friendship of many leading artists. Good examples of his drawings are in the print room at the British Museum, and there is a picture by him of ‘The Old Hitchin Market’ in the Corn Exchange at Hitchin. Lucas was attacked by paralysis in 1865, and died in 1870, leaving a widow and family.

 LUCAS, THEOPHILUS (fl. 1714), biographer, inherited, according to his own assertion, an estate of 2,000l. a year, which he lost at the gaming tables. To deter his son, who was the ‘very next heir to 1,500l. per annum by the death of an uncle,’ from following his example, or, at best, to put him on his guard against the tricks of card-sharpers, he wrote an entertaining, though in places grossly indecent, book entitled ‘Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the most famous Gamesters and celebrated Sharpers in the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne; wherein is contain'd the secret History of Gaming. The whole calculated for the meridians of London, Bath, Tunbridge, and the Groom-Porters,’ 12mo, London, 1714. A third edition, with additions, was published without the author's name in 1744. This book, which owes nothing to Charles Cotton's ‘Compleat Gamester’ (1674), has been of great use to biographers, though its statements must obviously be received with caution. Whether Theophilus Lucas had a real existence or was merely the pseudonym of some bookseller's hack, it is apparently impossible to determine.

 LUCAS, WILLIAM? (fl. 1789), African explorer, is stated to have been born about 1750. He is believed to have been the William Lucas, son of a vintner in Greyfriars, London, who was admitted to St. Paul's School, 11 Feb. 1760, aged 10 (, St. Paul's School Register, pp. 116, 120). While still a boy he was sent to Cadiz, to be trained to mercantile pursuits, but was captured on his return voyage shortly after by a Sallee rover, and carried into slavery at Morocco. According to ‘Reports of the African Association’ (i. 19), after three years' captivity he went to Gibraltar, and was sent as vice-consul at Morocco by General Edward Cornwallis, governor of Gibraltar from 1763 to 1770. In 1785 he returned to England, and was appointed oriental interpreter of the British court apparently at Gibraltar. Soon afterwards he received official permission to