Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/240

 work—a translation of the ‘De Senectute’—appeared in 1773.

In 1756 Sir John Eardley Wilmot had appointed Melmoth a commissioner of bankrupts, and his letter of thanks, dated 6 Dec. 1756, suggests that the office was more welcome than the easy circumstances of his earlier life would warrant (Memoirs of Wilmot, 1802, pp. 9–10). A few years later his wife died, and he broke up his home at Shrewsbury. In 1769 he had settled in Bath. There shortly afterwards he married Mrs. Ogle, a malicious rumour tracing a scene in Garrick's ‘Irish Widow’ to the circumstances of the engagement. The ‘De Senectute’ was followed in 1777 by the ‘De Amicitia,’ with a note on Roman friendship. The ‘Travels in Switzerland’ of William Coxe [q. v.] consist of letters addressed to Melmoth at this period (1776–9), and in the edition of 1801 Coxe expresses unstinted admiration of the latter as his literary guide (Advert. p. viii). In 1791 Jacob Bryant [q. v.], in his learned and foolish attempt to prove that Rome tolerated every religion except the Christian, attacked Melmoth for asserting in his ‘Pliny’ that the persecution under Trajan was due not to imperial bigotry, but to the principles of the Roman state. Melmoth vindicated himself in a pamphlet published in 1793, comparing his task, not without fitness, to that of Laberius. His last work was dedicated to his father's memory—the ‘Memoir of a late eminent Advocate,’ published in 1796. His ‘Fitzosborne’ reached the tenth edition that year, but in a letter to Wilmot, son of his old patron, he speaks of himself as weak, bedridden, and old. Melmoth was a familiar figure in Bath literary society of the close of the century. Mrs. Thrale described a meeting with him at Mrs. Montagu's in 1780, and drew from Johnson the characteristic snort, ‘From the author of “Fitzosborne's Letters” I cannot think myself in much danger. I met him only once, about thirty years ago, and in some small dispute reduced him to whistle’ (, Life, ed. G. B. Hill, iii. 422–4, iv. 272 n.) An interesting reference to Melmoth is in the ‘Notes from the Pocket Book of a late Opium Eater.’ ‘A lady who had been educated by Melmoth,’ writes De Quincey, ‘told me about 1813 that she had a trunk full of his manuscripts. As an article of literary gossip this may as well be made known, for some author writing a biographical dictionary may be interested in knowing all that can now be known of Melmoth, and may even wish to examine his manuscripts. … For my part I never looked into the “Fitzosborne's Letters” since my boyhood; but the impression I then derived from them was, that Melmoth was a fribble in literature, and one of the “sons of the feeble.” Accordingly I shrank myself even from the “sad civility” of asking to look at the manuscripts.’ Melmoth was of middle height, spare, with bright, quick eyes, and a deeply lined face. He died at No. 12 Bladud's Buildings, Bath, on 13 May 1799. There is a Latin epitaph on a tablet in Bath Abbey, but Melmoth was buried at Batheaston. 

MELROSE, (1563–1637). [See .]

MELTON, JOHN (d. 1640), politician and author, son of Evan Melton, came of a Yorkshire family, and may have been connected with the Meltons of Aston, though the direct line became extinct with Dorothy, only daughter and heiress of Sir John Melton, who died about 1545 (see, Holderness, ii. 199; , South Yorkshire, i. 162; , Northamptonshire, i. 672; and Collectanea Topographica, passim). Melton was reading law in chambers in 1609 when he published his ‘Sixefolde Politician.’ In 1616 he contributed commendatory verses to the ‘Descriptions’ by William Fennor, and in 1620 published his ‘Astrologaster.’ He was knighted at Whitehall on 4 Nov. 1632. He appears to have increased his means by trading extensively in saltpetre and coal (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1631–3 pp. 109, 183, and 1638–9 p. 397), and became a personage of some importance. There is a letter from him to James Hay, first earl of Carlisle [q. v.], dated 2 Dec. 1633, preserved in Egerton MS. 2597, f. 166, and another to the Earl of Strafford, dated 4 May 1635, advising him to use his influence to procure the summons of a parliament (Strafford Letters, i. 418). In the latter year he was secretary to the