Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/283

Martin moted to the rank of admiral of the fleet on 9 Nov. 1846. He died in Berkeley Square, London, on 28 July 1847. He was twice married, but died apparently without issue. His portrait, by Charles Landseer, R.A., after Lawrence, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.  MARTIN, GEORGE WILLIAM (1828–1881), musical composer, was born in London 8 March 1828. He began his musical studies as a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral, under William Hawes [q. v.], and was one of the choir boys at Westminster Abbey at the coronation of Queen Victoria. He became professor of music at the Normal College for Army Schoolmasters; was from 1845 to 1853 resident music-master at St. John's Training College, Battersea, and was the first organist of Christ Church, Battersea, opened in 1849. In 1860 he established the National Choral Society, by which he maintained for some years at Exeter Hall an admirable series of oratorio performances. In connection with these performances he edited and published cheap edit ions of the oratoriosand other works of the great masters then not readily accessible to the public. In 1864 he organised a choir of a thousand voices for the 'Macbeth' music at the three hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. He had a special aptitude for training school children, and conducted the National Schools Choral Festival at the Crystal Palace in 1859. As a composer his genius lay in the direction of the madrigal and part-song; and from the publication of his prize glee, 'Is she not beautiful?' in 1845 onwards few years passed in which he did not win distinction from some of the leading glee and madrigal societies of the country. 'No composer since the days of Dr. Callcott has obtained so many prizes as Mr. Martin,' said the 'Times' in 1856. The tune 'Leominster,' associated with Bonar's hymn 'A few more years shall roll,' is one of his best-known compositions. Martin, owing to intemperance, sank from ' a position which at one time gave him a claim to be regarded as one of the elements of musical force in the metropolis' (Musical Record). He died, quite destitute, at Bolingbroke House Hospital, Wandsworth, 16 April 1881, and was buried in Woking cemetery by the parish.

 MARTIN, GREGORY (d. 1582), biblical translator, a native of Maxfield, in the parish of Guestling, Sussex, was nominated one of the original scholars of St. John's College, Oxford, by the founder, Sir Thomas White, in 1557. He was admitted B.A. 28 Nov. 1561, and commenced M.A. 19 Feb. 1564-5 at the same time with Edmund Campion [q. v.], 'whom he rivalled, and kept up with in all the stations of academical learning' (Oxford Univ. Reg. ed. Boase, i. 244). They were college companions for thirteen years, having their meals, their books, and their ideas in common. Martin afterwards entered the household of Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk [q. v.], as tutor to Philip, afterwards Earl of Arundel, and his brothers. He was a devout catholic, and with the duke's connivance encouraged the ducal household to remain steadfast to the old religion. On one occasion when the duke visited Oxford he was welcomed at St. John's College in a Latin oration, delivered by a member of the society, who, referring to Martin, said : 'Thou hast, O illustrious Duke, our Hebraist, our Grecian, our poet, our honour and glory.'

In 1570, after the duke had been committed to the Tower, Martin, unable to conscientiously conform to protestantism, escaped to the newly established English College at Douay, where he was heartily welcomed by Dr. William Allen [q. v.], the founder, and by other fugitives with whom he had been acquainted at Oxford. He was ordained priest in 1573, took the degree of licentiate in divinity in 1575, and was employed by Allen in teaching Hebrew and lecturing on the scriptures in the college. Upon the establishment of the English College at Rome, he was sent there in 1577 with the first batch of scholars transplanted to the new seminary, but stayed no longer than was necessary for purposes of organisation. He returned to Douay, and in 1578 removed with the college to Rheims, on account of the civil commotions in Flanders. There he passed the remainder of his life, devoting most of his time to the task of translating the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate.

Constant study impaired his health, and Dr. Allen sent him to Paris in April 1582 to consult the ablest physicians, but, as it proved, he was too far gone in consumption. Returning, therefore, to Rheims, he died there on 28 Oct. 1582. He was buried on the same day in the parish church of St. Stephen, where a monument with a Latin inscription was erected to his memory. All the English at Rheims attended his obsequies, and Allen preached the funeral discourse. 