Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/305

 143–6, 213–25, vi. 295; Pearch, i. 142–53; Bell's ‘Fugitive Poetry,’ xii. 52–6, xviii. 158–62; and in Dodsley's ‘Museum,’ ii. 182–8. Some curious observations by him on a fragment ascribed to Longinus are published by Nathaniel Lardner in the ‘Collection of Testimonies of Ancient Heathens on the Truth of the Christian Religion’ (Works, ed. 1838, vi. 380–1), and John Taylor, LL.D., in the preface to ‘Marmor Sandvicense,’ 1743, confesses his obligations to him. Many letters to him from Dr. John Ward of Gresham College, London, and one from Bernard de Montfaucon, are in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 6226, and some verses by him, taken from a note-book of Dr. Ward (Addit. MS. 6230), are printed in ‘Notes and Queries,’ 2nd ser. iv. 291. Four English lines of his composition were placed over the debtors' gate of the old county gaol in Castle Street, Reading, and he left behind him in manuscript an account of all the Greek authors, finished to Hypsicles. His contemporaries, Dr. Thomas Hunt, Bishop Lowth, and Thomas Warton, unite in praising his learning and his good feeling. So early in his life as April 1739 he was corresponding on classical subjects with Hermann Samuel Reimar, the Dutch philologist, and there are many references to his ‘Notes on Tryphiodorus’ in Alberti's last volume of ‘Hesychius.’ To English readers Merrick is now best known by his bright little poem of ‘The Chameleon.’ 

MERRICK, RICE (d. 1587), historian of Glamorgan, son of Meiric ap Howell of Cottrell in Glamorganshire, resided at that place, being part owner of the manor of St. Nicholas. He was appointed clerk of the peace for the county of Glamorgan by William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke (and subsequently by Henry, the second earl), and held the office until his death on 1 March 1586–7. He was buried in the south aisle of Cowbridge Church, where an inscribed stone was placed over his grave, and a mural tablet bearing his shield was set up close by (these were transcribed by Dineley; see, Progress, ed. 1888, p. 346, and cf. Arch. Cambr. 5th ser. vii. 321–322).

Merrick was the author of a small history of Glamorgan (in English), called ‘Morganiæ Archaiographia,’ of which the only known copy, transcribed between 1660 and 1680, is preserved at Queen's College, Oxford. It was privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Middlehill in 1825 (fol.), and reproduced, with notes by J. A. Corbett of Cardiff, in 1887 (London, 4to). It contains valuable information about the different methods of administration in the Welsh and English portions of the county, as well as accounts of the ownership and tenure of land. A letter addressed by Merrick to Sir Edward Stradling, and dated from St. Nicholas, 18 Dec. 1574, is printed in the ‘Stradling Correspondence,’ ed. Traherne, pp. 167–8. 

MERRIFIELD, CHARLES WATKINS (1827–1884), mathematician, son of John Merrifield of Tavistock, Devonshire, was born in London (or according to some accounts at Brighton) on 20 Oct. 1827. After receiving a good general education he entered the Education Department in 1847 at Whitehall, and was subsequently appointed an examiner. Although called to the bar in January 1851, he did not practise. All his leisure he devoted to mathematics and hydraulics, and especially to naval architecture. In 1858 he published a paper ‘On the Geometry of the Elliptic Equation,’ which disclosed remarkable aptitude. Important papers on the calculation of elliptic functions followed, and led to his election on 4 June 1863 as fellow of the Royal Society. On 19 March 1866 he was elected member of the London Mathematical Society, became member of the council on 10 Nov. 1870, vice-president 1876–8, president 1878–80, and treasurer until his resignation on 14 Dec. 1882. On the establishment in 1867 of the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at South Kensington, Merrifield became its first vice-principal, succeeding shortly afterwards to the post of principal. This office he held until 1873, when, on the transference of the school to Greenwich, he returned to the Education Office. From 1864 to 1875 Merrifield was member and secretary of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, receiving a handsome testimonial on his retirement. He was also a member of the Association for Improvement of Geometrical Teaching, and he sat on many committees of the British Association, being president of Section G at the Brighton meeting of 1875 and at the Glasgow meeting of 1876. He served on various royal commissions, including one on the unseaworthiness of ships in 1869, frequently acted as assessor in the wreck commissioner's