Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/57

 colophon, 'Explicit libellus dictus &hellip; secundum Johannem Marcus, priorem abathie de Lilyshel.' Both this manuscript and Harl. 5306 begin with a letter: 'Amico suo Karissimo domino iohanni de S. uicario de A. frater iohannis dictus prior de l. salutem.' The writer humbly asks for corrections, and hopes J. de S. may not long delay to turn the work into English. In Harl. MS. 5306 the last eight chapters of the fifth part are missing. The Cambridge MS. does not contain the letter, but is entitled 'Manuale Sacerdotis' (Johannis Lilleshullensis); it is complete, and the transcriber's name, Robert Wasselyn, chaplain, is recorded. Mr. Bradshaw noted that the subject and treatment of the 'Manual' are much like that of Mirk's 'Instructions to Parish Priests,' an English poem in rhyming couplets, printed for the Early English Text Society from the Cott. MS. Claud. A. II. ff. 127, 152. This poem, which Mirk says he translated from the Latin called 'Pars Oculi,' is neither a versified translation of John de Burgh's 'Pupilla Oculi' (a dictionary of theological subjects alphabetically arranged), nor of Mirk's 'Manual,' as has been suggested, but of the 'Pupilla Oculi' by [q. v.] Of this Mirk has used both the 'dextra' and the 'sinistra pars,' but chiefly the 'dextra.'

No list of the priors of the canons regular of Lilleshull is known, and Mirk's date cannot be ascertained. Pits gives it as 1403.



MISAUBIN, JOHN, M.D. (d. 1734), was born in France, and graduated M.D. at the university of Cahors on 7 July 1687. He settled in London, and became a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1719. His foreign manner and accent sometimes excited ridicule, and though he was a regular licentiate his arrogance and method of practice caused him to be described and caricatured as a quack. In one print of the time he is represented as saying 'Prenez des pilules, prenez des pilules,' and Fielding relates (Tom Jones, bk. xiii. chap, ii.) that he 'used to say that the proper direction to him was to Dr. Misaubin "in the world," intimating that there were few people in it to whom his great reputation was not known.' He has left no writings, and his chief claim to recollection is that he is one of the four medical practitioners mentioned in 'Tom Jones,' the others being [q. v.] and the surgeons [q. v.] and [q. v.] He lived near Covent Garden, and died on 20 April 1734.



MISSELDEN, EDWARD (fl. 1608–1654), merchant and economic writer, was deputy-governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company at Delft from 1623 until 1633. Upon his departure from England (October 1623) the East India Company invited him to act as one of their commissioners at Amsterdam to negotiate a private treaty with the Dutch. He appears to have been well qualified for the position. He was 'reputed a proper merchant and a good civilian' (Court Minutes, 17-21 Oct. 1623; State Papers, East Indies), and had probably been employed by the Merchant Adventurers' Company in 1616 in a similar capacity (Carleton Letters, 1615-16-1620, pp. 63, 64). His fellow-commissioner was Robert Barlow, East India merchant. The negotiations, however, were fruitless, owing chiefly to the unreasonable attitude of the Dutch. Upon the report of the outrages at Amboyna new difficulties arose, and Misselden himself suffered from ill-health. He returned to England, and presented to the company an account of the negotiations (3 Nov. 1624). The court acknowledged that 'he had failed in no point of sufficiency or integrity, and so, in respect he was sickly, wished him to take his ease.' He received 100l. as 'a token of the well-acceptance of his services.' He returned to Delft at the end of November 1624, and during the next four years he was again employed by the East India Company in their attempts to obtain satisfaction for the outrages at Amboyna. He was also entrusted with the negotiations on behalf of the Merchant Adventurers' Company for a reduction of the duties on English cloth (Court Minutes, 3 Feb. 162; Ashmolean MS. 831, f. 251). Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, believed that he had been bribed by the Dutch to secretly undermine the influence of the two companies in Holland, but there is no evidence of the truth of this accusation, and the East India Company rewarded him (27 June 1628) for 'his great pains about the business of Amboyna.' The States-General, on the other hand, suspected him of compromising their interests by sending secret information to England, and confronted him (October 1628) with some of his letters. 'But when he had given his answers they had not much to say '(Misselden to Lord Dorchester, 18 Oct. 1628, State Papers, East Indies). He was so aggrieved at his treatment that he declined to have anything fur-