Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/250

Moyle some particulars of his son's extravagance. Eliot thereupon went hastily to Moyle's house to express his resentment, and in a fit of passion drew his sword and wounded Moyle in the side. This act was unpremeditated, and Eliot expressed extreme sorrow for what he had done. The story was narrated in an erroneous form, on the authority of Dean Prideaux, by Laurence Echard (History of England, ed. 1718, ii. 26-7), and repeated from him by Isaac D'Israeli (Commentaries on Charles I, new ed., i. 319, 531-3). Its true character is set out in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' (1837, pt. ii. p. 483), by Lord Nugent in his work on ' John Hampden ' (i. 152-6), and by Forster in his ' Life of Sir John Eliot ' (i. 3-9, ii. 630-2). Moyle and Eliot became fast friends. The former was sheriff in 1624, and, to fill a vacancy in the Long parliament, was returned for the Cornish borough of East Looe, and ordered to be admitted on 5 July 1649. He died at Bake on 9 Oct. 1661, and was buried at St. Germans on 17 Oct. In 1612 he married Admonition, daughter of Edmond Prideaux of Netherton, Devonshire, who was buried at St. Germans on 3 Dec. 1675. Of his numerous sons, Sir Walter Moyle of Bake (1627-1701) was knighted at Whitehall 4 Feb. 1663, became sheriff of Cornwall 1671, and was father of Walter Moyle [q.v.]

Some of Moyle's correspondence with Sir John Eliot is quoted in Grosart's edition of his 'Letter-book,' pp. 109-10, 143-8, and in Forster's 'Eliot,' ii. 630-2. Papers relating to him are in the Addit. MSS. Brit. Mus. 5494, f. 79, and 5497, f. 162.

 MOYLE, JOHN (d. 1714), naval surgeon, after serving many years at sea in merchant ships and ships of war, and having been ‘in most of the sea fights that we have had with any nation in my time,’ was superannuated about 1690 on a pension of apparently 40l. a year, and applied himself in his old age to writing his surgical experiences for the benefit of younger sea-surgeons. What he wrote was not, he said, collected out of other authors, but was his own practice, the product of real experience. He nowhere mentions any officer with whom he had served, any ship or any particular battle which he had been in, though he refers some of his experiences to ‘the last Holland war,’ to ‘one of the last fights we had with the Hollanders’—that is in 1673; or to ‘before Tripoli in Barbary, when we had wars with that place’—that is, in 1676. Similarly he speaks of having been at Newfoundland, and at many places in the Mediterranean; Alexandria, Scanderoon, Smyrna, and Constantinople are incidentally mentioned. He describes himself in 1693 as ‘being grown in years and not capable to hold it longer in that employ,’ as surgeon at sea. He seems to have lived for his remaining years in Westminster, where he died in February 1713–14. His published works are: 1. ‘Abstractum Chirurgiæ Marinæ, or An Abstract of Sea Surgery’ (12mo, 1686). 2. ‘Chirurgus Marinus, or The Sea Chirurgion’ (12mo, 1693). 3. ‘The Experienced Chirurgion’ (12mo, 1703). 4. ‘Chirurgic Memoirs’ (12mo, 1708). This last has a portrait in full flowing wig.

He left a widow, Mary, and three children, a son, John, and two daughters, Mary Nozet, and Susanna Willon, apparently by a former marriage. To these he bequeathed one shilling each, ‘to debar them from claiming any interest in or title to any part of my real or personal estate.’ To a grandson, James Willon, ‘now beyond the seas,’ he left 10l. subject to the condition of his demanding it in person within seven years. The rest of the property was left to the widow, ‘sole and only executrix’ (will in Somerset House, Aston, 32, dated 1 March 1702–3, proved 17 Feb. 1713–14). One of the witnesses to the will is Edward Ives, who may probably have been the father of Edward Ives [q. v.], the naval surgeon and traveller.

 MOYLE, MATTHEW PAUL (1788–1880), meteorologist and writer on mining, second son of John Moyle, by Julia, daughter of Jonathan Hornblower [q. v.], was born at Chacewater, Cornwall, 4 Oct. 1788, and educated at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1809, and was afterwards in practice at Helston in Cornwall for the long period of sixty-nine years. A considerable portion of his practice consisted in attending the men accidentally injured in the tin and copper mines of his neighbourhood, and his attention was thus led to mining. In 1814 he sent to Thomson's ‘Annals of Philosophy’ ‘Queries respecting the flow of Water in Chacewater Mine;’ in the following years he communicated papers on ‘The Temperature of Mines,’ ‘On Granite Veins,’ and ‘On the Atmosphere of Cornish Mines.’ During a series of years he kept registers and made extensive and valuable observations on barometers and thermometers, and