Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/290

Macro Norton, where he often saw Macro, and considered him 'a very learned and amiable man, the most complete scholar and gentleman united that almost ever I saw,' The doctor was 'master of most of the modern languages;' and he taught Hurd Italian. His house of Little Haugh contained many valuable paintings, a few pieces of sculpture, a choice collection of coins and medals, numerous manuscripts, and a library of books rich in old poetry and other rare works. The staircase was partly painted by Peter Tillemans of Antwerp, who died at Little Haugh in 17S4, and was buried in the churchyard of Stowlangtoft, and the ceiling and dome were painted by Huysmans. A picture by Tillemans of the house, with Macro and the members of his family walking in front of it, was, with eleven other family portraits, in the possession in 1848 of the Rev. W. F. Patteson of St. Helen's, Norwich.

Macro died at Little Haugh on 2 Feb. 1767, and was buried on 9 Feb. in Norton churchyard, in an enclosure between the side of the vestry and a buttress to the church wall. His wife was Mary, daughter of Edward Godfrey, privy purse to Queen Anne. She died on 31 Aug. 1753, and was buried at Norton, leaving one son and one daughter. The former, for some time at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with Hurd as his tutor, became a soldier, and died abroad during his father's lifetime, whereupon his sister, Mary, became her father's heiress. After his death — for he would not allow the union previously — she married, on 8 May 1767, William Staniforth of Sheffield, and died without issue on 16 Aug. 1775. Macro left a charitable bequest of 600l. to Norton parish, to provide twelve coats for poor men and twelve gowns for poor women. A catalogue of Macro's treasures was compiled in 1766. Among them were a bust of Tillemans by Rysbrach, one of Rysbrach himself, drawings by the old masters, which had belonged to Sir James Thornhill, many letters from protestant martyrs, descended to him through Bishop Cox, the great register of Bury Abbey, a ledger-book of Glastonbury Abbey, the original manuscript of Spenser's 'View of the State of Ireland,' all the collections of Dr. John Covel, and numerous charters. Many of his manuscripts had belonged to Sir Ilenry Spelman, others formed part of the library of Bury Abbey, and several of them had been obtained through Hurd. A part of Macro's literary collections were presented by the Staniforths to Mr. Wilson, a Yorkshire antiquary, who was his nephew; and when the Wilson library was dispersed in 1844 they went to augment the store of Sir Thomas Phillipps at Middle Hill. The Macro property ultimately came to John Patteson, M.P. for Norwich, who disposed of the old masters by auction in 1819, and sold the books and manuscripts for a trifling sum — no more than 150l., it is said — to Richard Beatniffe, bookseller in that city, who resold them at a very large profit. The manuscripts were sold for him by Christie of Pall Mall in 1820, and were purchased — forty-one lots by Dawson Turner and the rest by Hudson Gurney — for 700l. The latter portion, now in the possession of J. H. Gurney of Keswick Hall, near Norwich, are described in the Historical Manuscripts Commission's 12th Rep. App. pp. 116-64. Macro's correspondence with eminent literary men and artists (1700-64) forms the Additional Manuscripts 32556-7 at the British Museum. Some of his biographical notes are inserted in the edition of Wood's 'Athenæ Oxonienses,' by Dr. Bliss. The Rev. Joseph Hunter edited for the Camden Society in 1840 a volume of 'Ecclesiastical Documents,' containing, in the second part, twenty-one charters from Macro's library, and from a manuscript formerly in his possession there was printed in 1837 for the Abbotsford Club a 'morality' called 'Mind, Will, and Understanding.'

 MACSPARRAN, JAMES (d. 1757), writer on America, born at Dungiven, co. Deny, was educated at the university of Glasgow, where he was admitted M.A. on 5 March 1709. He appears to have been brought up as a presbyterian, but having, as he says, been ' afflicted and abused by a false charge in his youth/ he was induced to become an Anglican clergyman in 1720, and in 1721 was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts as a missionary to Narragansett, Rhode Island. He was minister of St. Paul's Church there for thirty-six years. He was also instrumental in erecting the church at New London in 1725, and occasionally preached there. When in 1729 Dean (afterwards Bishop) Berkelev and the portrait-painter John Smibert, F.S.A., arrived at Rhode Island, they made a lengthened stay with Macsparran, and Smibert painted the portraits of both him and his wife. The climate did not agree with Macsparran, and he was besides involved in a lawsuit with the 