Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/233

 Letters of Robert Baillie, ed. Laing, ii. 152–158).

It is evident that Meldrum's defeat was not attributed to incapacity, for in May 1644 he was detached with two regiments to secure Manchester, and take command of the Lancashire forces against Prince Rupert. He held Manchester, but could not prevent the loss of Bolton and Liverpool. After the battle of Marston Moor, however, he defeated Rupert's fugitive horse at Ormskirk on 20 Aug., and on 1 Nov. recaptured Liverpool (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644, pp. 173, 440, 442;, Discourse of the War in Lancashire, pp. 54–9; , Lancashire Civil War Tracts, p. 204; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. pt. iv. pp. 73, 95). On 18 Sept. 1644 Meldrum took part in the defeat of Lord Byron before Montgomery Castle. ‘Sir John Meldrum,’ says Sir William Brereton's letter, ‘did with much judgment order and command these forces, and therefore deserves a large share in the honour of this day's success’ (, Civil War in Wales, ii. 201). Meldrum, however, bitterly complained that the newspapers gave all the credit of the victory to Brereton (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644–5, p. 6). In February 1645 he returned to Yorkshire to besiege Scarborough, which was held by Sir Hugh Cholmley for the king. He stormed the town early in February, but was mortally wounded in a sally during May. Parliament voted him 1,500l., and the committee of both kingdoms sent him on 26 May a singularly warm and complimentary letter. But the castle held out till 21 July, and Meldrum seems to have died before it was taken. His will, dated 24 May 1645, was proved on 2 June 1647 (ib. pp. 304, 527;, vi. 118; , Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 137; Commons' Journals, iv. 59, 97, 149). Ricraft gives a panegyric on Meldrum in his ‘Survey of England's Champions,’ 1647, p. 50, and also a portrait. A drawing is among the Sutherland collection in the Bodleian Library (Catalogue of the Sutherland Collection, i. 634). 

MELFORT, first and titular  (1649-1714). [See .]

MELIA, PIUS, D.D. (1800–1883), Roman catholic divine, born at Rome in 1800, became professor of literature in the Jesuits' College there, and afterwards visited Corsica, Tuscany, and other countries as a missionary priest. In 1848 he came to England and took charge of the mission at St. Leonards, whence he was removed to Walthamstow. About fourteen years later he was made almoner of the Italian Benevolent Society, and sought to ameliorate the condition of the poor Italian immigrants to this country, and to prevent the abuses arising from the importation of Italian children. For many years he officiated on Sundays at Brentwood, and also preached to the Italians of London on Sunday afternoons. He was a member of the Pious Society of Missions, and the erection of the Italian church of St. Peter in Hatton Garden, London, was in great measure due to his persevering efforts. He died in London on 25 May 1883, and was buried at St. Mary's, Kensal Green. He was the author of: 1. ‘Doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas on the Rulers and Members of Christian States, extracted and explained,’ London, 1860, 8vo; entitled on the cover ‘The Pope, the Prince, and the People.’ 2. ‘The Origin, Persecution, and Doctrines of the Waldenses, from documents,’ London, 1870, 4to. 3. ‘Hints and Facts on the Origin of Man, and of his Intellectual Faculties,’ London, 1872, 8vo. 

MELITON, MILITON, or MILTON, WILLIAM (d. 1261), Franciscan, was D.D. and fifth master of the Friars Minors at Cambridge about 1250. He was afterwards called to Paris, and was appointed by Innocent IV to finish the ‘Summa Theologiæ’ of Alexander of Hales in 1252. About 1260 Meliton, Bonaventura, and other distinguished Minorites, at the request of Isabel or Elizabeth, sister of St. Louis, king of France, revised and corrected the rule which she had drawn up for the government of her new nunnery at Longchamp. Meliton died suddenly at Paris in 1261, leaving a reputation for learning and great holiness. His commentaries on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Ezekiel, the Twelve Minor Prophets, the Canonical Epistles, and the Apocalypse, are extant among the manu-