Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/243

 documents are printed in Raine's ‘Letters from the Northern Registers,’ and many are summarised in the ‘Fasti Eboracenses.’ Thomas Stubbs describes Melton as charitable and pious, parsimonious to himself, bountiful to the needy, and above all to the religious, as well mendicants as others (Historians of the Church of York, ii. 416). Another writer speaks of him as a man faithful in all that was trusted to him, and not corrupted by his long intercourse with the court (Chron. Edw. I and II, ii. 284). Melton's episcopate was marked by much progress in the building of York minster; he restored the tomb of St. William, and gave 700l. towards the completion of the nave. The west end was erected in his time, and it is probably his statue which occupies the niche over the great doorway. He also fortified the Old Bailey at York. Melton amassed considerable wealth; this was inherited by his nephew, Sir William de Melton (1317–1362), who became the founder of a knightly family at Aston, Yorkshire. 

MELTON, WILLIAM (d. 1528), chancellor of York, a native of Yorkshire, was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. 1479, B.D. 1490, and D.D. 1496. In 1495 he was master of Michaelhouse, Cambridge, and on 13 Jan. 1495–6 became chancellor of the church of York. He died at the end of 1528, and his will is dated 28 Aug. of that year, from Acklam, Yorkshire. He is supposed to have been buried either there or in York minster. He was famed as a philosopher, divine, and preacher. Melton was author of a ‘Sermo Exhortatorius,’ published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, a copy of which is in the British Museum Library.

Melton has been constantly confused with his namesakes William de Melton (d. 1340) [q. v.], archbishop of York, and William of Meliton [q. v.] Misled by the identity of name, Wood (Athenæ Oxon. i. 49) claimed him for Oxford. Pits, Tanner, and others state that he was a Dominican (which is an additional mistake, because Meliton was a Franciscan, not a Dominican) and chancellor of the university of Paris, and attribute to him numerous works written by Meliton (cf., Bibliotheca Sancta, iv. 243; , Scriptores Ord. Prædicatorum, i. 488; and , Supplementum ad Scriptores Trium Ordinum, pp. 324–5).

There was yet another William de Melton, a Franciscan, who in 1426 preached at York on the subject of miracle plays, and in 1427 went about the country preaching against tithes. He was arrested and brought to Oxford, where he was compelled to recant (Cf., Greyfriars in Oxford, pp. 86, 259). 

MELUN, ROBERT (d. 1167), bishop of Hereford. [See .]

MELVILL, HENRY (1798–1871), canon of St. Paul's, fifth son of Philip Melvill (1762–1811), an officer in the army, who was lieutenant-governor of Pendennis Castle from 1797 till 1811, by his wife Elizabeth Carey (1770–1844), daughter of Peter Dobree of Beauregard, Guernsey, was born in Pendennis Castle, Cornwall, on 14 Sept. 1798, and became a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, in October 1817. After migrating to St. Peter's College he passed as second wrangler in 1821, and was a fellow and tutor of his college from 1822 to 1832. He graduated B.A. 1821, M.A. 1824, and B.D. 1836. From 1829 to 1843 he served as incumbent of Camden Chapel, Camberwell, London; was appointed by the Duke of Wellington chaplain to the Tower of London in 1840; was principal of the East India College, Haileybury, from 1843 till the college was closed on 7 Dec. 1857; Golden lecturer at St. Margaret's, Lothbury, 1850–1856; one of the chaplains to Queen Victoria, 13 June 1853; canon residentiary of St. Paul's, 21 April 1856; and rector of Barnes, Surrey, 1863–71. Melvill for many years had the reputation of being ‘the most popular preacher in London,’ and one of the greatest rhetoricians of his time. First at Camden Chapel, then at St. Margaret's, and later on at St. Paul's, large crowds of people attended his ministrations. His sermon generally occupied three-quarters of an hour, but such was the rapidity of his utterance that he spoke as much in that time as an ordinary preacher would have done in an hour. His delivery was earnest and animated without distinctive gesticulation; his voice was 