Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/330

 School; Cassan's Lives of Bishops of Winchester; Bloxam's Magdalen Coll. Reg.; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy; Hutchins's Hist. of Dorset; and especially Nicholas Papers (Camd. Soc.), vol. ii.]  MEY, JOHN (d. 1456), archbishop of Armagh, was official of the court of Meath, and vicar of the parish churches of Delvin and Kilmessan, co. Meath, before 1444, when he was made by papal provision archbishop of Armagh; he was consecrated on 20 June, and enthroned by the dean, Charles O'Neillan, on 9 July 1444. Like his predecessors, he was much obstructed in the exercise of his primatial rights within the diocese of Dublin, and refused in consequence to attend parliament there. By a deed dated 19 Nov. 1455 Mey, with the consent of his dean and chapter, annexed his mensal tithes of Rathcoole to the choir of St. Anne's Chapel in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda, to which he also added his mensal portion of the tithes in Drummyng Church. About the same time the lord lieutenant, James Butler, earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire [q. v.], appointed Mey his deputy, but the archbishop did not maintain order very successfully. The English government ordered Ormonde to perform the duties himself, and on his refusal directed the Earl of Kildare to supersede him. Mey died in 1456.

 MEY, WILLIAM (d. 1560), archbishop-elect of York. [See .]

MEYER, HENRY (1782?–1847), portrait-painter and engraver, was born in London about 1782. He was a nephew of John Hoppner [q. v.], and a pupil of Francesco Bartolozzi [q. v.], in whose dotted manner many of his plates are engraved. He worked also in mezzotint, and painted a considerable number of portraits, both in oil and in water-colours, of which he exhibited twelve at the Royal Academy between 1821 and 1826. He was one of the foundation members of the Society of British Artists, and to the first exhibition in 1824 he sent eight portraits, two sketches in chalk, and no less than forty-three engravings. In 1826 he exhibited a portrait of Charles Lamb, and in 1831 one of Benjamin Webster the actor. He became president of the society in 1828, but retired from it in the following year, and ceased to exhibit after 1833. In the later years of his career he devoted much attention to drawing portraits, and was very successful in his likenesses. He died on 28 May 1847, in his sixty-fifth year.

Meyer's engraved works consist chiefly of portraits, and include those of George IV; Prince Leopold, afterwards king of the Belgians, and the Princess Charlotte, full-lengths after A. E. Chalon, R.A.; Frederick William, duke of Brunswick, after J. P. Zahn; Admiral Viscount Nelson, and Earl Cathcart, after J. Hoppner, R.A.; Admiral Viscount Exmouth, after S. Drummond, A.R.A.; the Marquis of Wellesley, after a miniature by A. Robertson; Lady Leicester, afterwards Lady de Tabley, as ‘Hope,’ after Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.; Lord Byron, after a miniature by J. Holmes; Sir John Nicholl, dean of the arches, after W. Owen, R.A.; Miss O'Neill, as ‘Belvedera,’ after A. W. Devis; Charles Mathews, in five characters on one sheet, after G. H. Harlow; Alderman John Boydell, after Gilbert Stuart; Philip James de Loutherbourg, R.A., after John Jackson, R.A.; and Henry Tilson, portrait-painter, after himself. Among his other plates are ‘Mary anointing the feet of Jesus,’ after W. Hilton, R.A.; ‘Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church,’ after C. R. Leslie, R.A.; ‘The Proposal’ (three girls sitting under a tree), and ‘Congratulation,’ after G. H. Harlow; ‘Hesitation,’ after S. Drummond, A.R.A.; ‘The Approaching Checkmate,’ after A. E. Chalon, R.A.; ‘Exeter Change,’ after J. Northcote, R.A.; ‘The Blunt Razor,’ after E. Bird, R.A.; ‘The Stolen Kiss,’ after W. Kidd, R.S.A.; ‘The Dancing Bear,’ after W. F. Witherington, R.A.; and ‘I will fight,’ after the picture by Philip Simpson in the South Kensington Museum.

 MEYER, JEREMIAH (1735–1789), miniature-painter, born at Tübingen, Würtemberg, in 1735, was the son of an obscure artist, who brought him to England in 1749. He studied in Shipley's academy in St. Martin's Lane, and during 1757 and 1758 was a pupil of C. F. Zincke [q. v.], to whom he paid 400l. for instruction and materials. He practised both in enamel and miniature with great ability, and was for many years without a rival. In 1760 and 1764 Meyer exhibited enamels with the Society of Arts, and in 1761 gained the prize of 20l. offered by the society for a profile portrait of the king, to be used for the coinage; engravings from this by MacArdell and others were very popular. He was naturalised in