Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/337

 ciation, and presided over the Gloucester congress in 1846.

Meyrick died at Goodrich Court on 2 April 1848. By his marriage, on 3 Oct. 1803, with Mary, daughter and coheiress of James Parry of Llwyn Hywel, Cardiganshire, he had an only son, Llewelyn (1804–1837), B.C.L., F.S.A., and equerry to the Duke of Sussex, who died unmarried. He left his property to his second cousin, Lieutenant-colonel Augustus Meyrick. About 1871 this gentleman's son and heir sold the armoury and art-treasures at Goodrich, mostly to M. Spitzer of Paris, after offering the entire collection to the government for 50,000l. (, Recollections, ii. 168–72, 268–71). In 1893 the Spitzer collection was dispersed by sale.

Planché gives a pleasing account of Meyrick's love of thoroughness in research, precise ways, and sterling qualities (ib. ii. 144–146). His portrait, by H. P. Briggs, was engraved by Skelton (, Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 278).

In 1810 Meyrick published in quarto the ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan,’ a very creditable work. In 1812 he made some preparations for a history of the monarchs of Britain prior to 703, on the plan of Dr. Henry's ‘History,’ but he never finished it. With Captain Charles Hamilton Smith, Meyrick joined in 1814 in the production of a work on the ‘Costume of the original Inhabitants of the British Islands, from the earliest periods to the sixth century; to which is added that of the Gothic Nations on the Western Coasts of the Baltic, the Ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Danes,’ fol., London 1815, with twenty-four coloured plates.

Meyrick's great work on arms and armour was published in three quarto volumes in 1824, under the title of ‘A Critical Inquiry into antient Armour as it existed in Europe, but particularly in England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles II, with a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages,’ with eighty plates, seventy-two of which are beautifully coloured and illuminated in gold and silver. This laborious work, practically the first on the subject, remains an authority. A second edition, corrected and enlarged by Meyrick, with the assistance of Francis Douce, Albert Way, and other antiquarian friends, was published by Bohn in 1844, with additional but inferior plates. He subsequently promoted an undertaking by Joseph Skelton, F.S.A., entitled ‘Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour, from the Collection at Goodrich Court, from the Drawings and with the Descriptions of Dr. Meyrick by J. Skelton,’ 2 vols. 4to, London 1830. A second edition, containing corrections by Meyrick, was issued by Bohn in 1854.

Meyrick's last important work was his edition of Lewis Dwnn's ‘Heraldic Visitations of Wales,’ which he undertook in 1840 for the Society for the Publication of Ancient Welsh Manuscripts, and completed in 1846 in two quarto volumes. He likewise assisted Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke in his ‘Encyclopædia of Antiquities,’ 1823–5; in 1836 contributed the descriptions to Henry Shaw's ‘Specimens of Ancient Furniture;’ and was the author of many papers in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (1822–1839), the ‘Analyst,’ the ‘Cambrian Quarterly Magazine,’ the ‘Cambrian Archæological Journal,’ and Brayley's ‘Graphic and Historical Illustrator,’ 1834. 

MEYRICK or MERICKE, WILLIAM (d. 1668), civilian, son of Maurice Meyrick [see under, bishop of Sodor and Man] of Bodeon, Anglesey, by Jane, daughter of Lewis Evans, was admitted scholar of Winchester College in 1608, scholar of New College, Oxford, on 16 July 1614, and fellow on 16 July 1616; he graduated B.C.L. on 18 April 1621, D.C.L. on 30 June 1627. He resigned his fellowship in 1626, and was admitted a member of the College of Advocates on 2 Feb. 1627–8, and practised before the court of high commission. On 28 Sept. 1641 he succeeded Sir Henry Martin [q. v.] as judge of the prerogative court of Canterbury. In 1643 he joined the king at Oxford, whence on 8 May he issued a notice revoking the powers of his deputies at Canterbury. Sir Nathaniel Brent [q. v.] was appointed to succeed him on 10 Jan. 1647–8. At the Restoration Meyrick was reinstated in the prerogative court, and on 8 Nov. 1661 was knighted at Whitehall. He died on 3 Feb. 1667–8, and was succeeded by Sir Leoline Jenkins [q. v.] 