Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/122



Maurice was on intimate terms with many of the foremost of his contemporaries. He was an industrious student, a voluminous author, and one of the first to popularise a knowledge of the history and religions of the east; but Byron, in his ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,’ described Maurice as 'dull,' and his poem on ‘Richmond Hill’ as ‘the petrifactions of a plodding brain.’ His principal works are: 1. ‘Poems and Miscellaneous Pieces,’ 1779, 4to. 2. ‘Westminster Abbey, an elegiac poem,’ 1784, 4to; another edition with other poems was published in 1813, 8vo. 3. ‘Indian Antiquities,’ 7 vols. 1793-1800, 8vo; another edition 1794-1800 and 1806. 4. ‘History of Hindostan,’ 2 vols. 1795-8, 4to; 2nd edition, 3 vols. 1820. 5. ‘Sanscreet Fragments,’ 1798. 6. ‘A Dissertation on the Oriental Trinities,’ 1800, 8vo, extracted from the 4th and 5th volumes of the ‘Indian Antiquities.’ 7. ‘Poems: epistolary, lyric, and elegiacal,’ 1800, 8vo. 8. ‘Modern History of Hindostan,’ 2 vols. 1802-10, 8vo. 9. ‘The Crisis of Britain,’ 1803, 4to; a poem addressed to Pitt. 10. ‘Select Poems,’ 1803, 8vo. 11. ‘A Vindication of the Modern History of Hindostan,’ 1805, 8vo. 12. ‘Elegy on the late Rt. Hon. W. Pitt’ [1806], 8vo. 13. ‘The Fall of the Mogul: a Tragedy,’ 1806. 14. ‘Richmond Hill, a descriptive and historical Poem,’1807. 15. ‘Brahminical Fraud Detected,’ 1812, 8vo; another edition, entitled ‘The Indian Sceptic Refuted,’ 1813, 8vo. 16. ‘Observations connected with Astronomy,’ 1816, 4to; another edition, 1816, 8vo. 17. ‘Memoirs,’ 1819-22, 8vo. He also published numerous other poems, several of them being odes on the deaths of well-known persons.

[Memoirs of the Author of Indian Antiquities; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1824, i. 467-72; Georgian Era; Nichols's Lit. Illustrations, ii. 661, 663, 848, viii. 187; Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 242; Hill's Boswell, iii. 370 n. 2; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1714-1886; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors.]  MAURICE, WILLIAM (fl. 1640–1680), Welsh antiquary, was a gentleman of good family and landed property, and lived at Cevnybraich, in the parish of Llansilin, Denbighshire, where he built a library in which he spent most of his time studying Welsh literature. He was an industrious collector and transcriber of Welsh manuscripts, and his collection is preserved at Wynnstay; a chronological account of the civil war in North Wales from his notebook was published in the ‘Archæologia Cambrensis,’ i. 33-41. He died between 1680 and 1690.

[Archæologia Cambrensis, i.33-41; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 318.]  MAVOR, WILLIAM FORDYCE (1758–1837), compiler of educational works, was born on 1 Aug. 1758 at New Deer, Aberdeenshire. In 1775 he became an assistant in a school at Burford, Oxfordshire, and he subsequently taught a school at Woodstock. After instructing the children of the Duke of Marlborough in writing, he obtained a title for holy orders in 1781. In 1789 the duke gave him the vicarage of Hurley, Berkshire, which he retained until his death; and in the same year the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Aberdeen. He was afterwards presented by the duke to the rectory of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, which he exchanged in 1810 for the rectory of Bladon-with-Woodstock. On 12 July of that year he was licensed by the bishop to the head-mastership of Woodstock grammar school, In 1808 he was elected mayor of Woodstock, and served the office ten times. He died on 29 Dec. 1837, and was buried at Woodstock, where there is a tablet to his memory.

Mavor was a successful compiler of educational books, many of which, particularly ‘The English Spelling Book,’ 1801, passed through numerous editions. He also invented a system of shorthand, which he explained in a treatise entitled ‘Universal Stenography,’ 8 vo, 1779 (2nd edit. 1785, and several later editions).

His other writings are: 1. ‘The Springs of Parnassus, or Poetic Miscellanies,’ 8vo, 1779. 2. ‘Poetical Cheltenham Guide,’ 12mo, 1781. 3. ‘The Geographical Magazine,’ 2 vols. 4to, 1781, published under the name of Martyn. 4. ‘Dictionary of Natural History,’ 2 vols. fol. 1784, issued under the same pseudonym. 5. ‘Elegy to the Memory of Captain James King,’ 4to, London 1785. 6. ‘Blenheim, a poem, to which is added a Blenheim Guide,’ 4to, 1787. 7. ‘New Description of Blenheim,’ 8vo, 1789 (many subsequent editions). A French version appeared in 1791. At page 124 Mavor states that he had for several years been making collections for a history of Woodstock, which, however, never appeared. 8. ‘Vindiciæ Landavenses, or Strictures on the Bishop of Landaff's Charge’ (Bishop Watson), 4to, 1792. 9. ‘Poems,’ 8vo, 1793. 10. ‘Appendix to the Eton Latin Grammar,’ 12mo, 1796. 11. ‘The Youth's Miscellany, or a Father's Gift to his Children,’ 12mo, 1797 (reprinted in 2 vols. 1805 and 1814). 12. ‘Historical Account of the most celebrated Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries from the time of Columbus to the present period,’ 25 vols. 12mo, 1798-1802. 13. ‘The British Tourists, or Traveller's Pocket Companion through England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland,’ 6 vols. 12mo, 1798-1800, a series of