Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/240

Rh tation for honesty and zeal, though of little learning and no great judgment.’

On 15 Feb. 1649 the presbytery issued at Belfast the famous ‘representation’ (answered by Milton), which denounces the execution of Charles as ‘an act so horrible as no history, divine or human, ever had a precedent for the like.’ O'Quinn, who had not been present at the meeting, disobeyed the presbytery's order for reading this document in the churches. Joined by James Ker, minister of Ballymoney, he submitted (3 May) ten objections to the ‘representation.’ The presbytery argued the matter for several meetings; at length they suspended Ker and O'Quinn, and reported the matter to the standing commission of the church of Scotland, who approved their action. Ker and O'Quinn ‘despised the sentence’ and held their places, but continued to make fruitless applications to the presbytery for the removal of the suspension. They took the ‘engagement’ and got salaries from the civil list. With Thomas Vesey, minister of Coleraine, whose principles were episcopalian, they left the presbytery to join a clerical coalition, of which Timothy Taylor [q. v.], an independent, was the leader. By November 1651 they were weary of exclusion; an order in council (13 Nov.), addressed to Colonel Robert Venables, referred to O'Quinn as ‘somewhat embittered against the interest of England,’ and suggested his transfer to ‘parts where there are Irish that cannot speak English.’ O'Quinn advised Taylor to seek a conference with ‘the brethren of the presbytery,’ in order to adjust matters of difference, and was sent with this proposal to Kennedy. The presbytery appointed a conference with Taylor and Andrew Wyke of Lisburn at Antrim in March 1652. It turned to a discussion with Adair, who was thought to have gained the advantage. Ker made his submission in October, and O'Quinn soon followed his example. Henceforth he helped to keep the peace between the government and the presbyterians. The privy council paid him 40l. on 20 April 1654 for a visit to Dublin. His name is on Henry Cromwell's civil list of 1655 for a salary of 100l. at Billy. He died at Billy on 31 Jan. 1657 (the date is not to be corrected to 1658, as the Scottish reckoning prevailed in the north of Ireland). His executor, Teague O'Moony, a presbyterian landholder in co. Antrim, applied to the government for help towards payment of his small debts and funeral expenses, and received a grant of 25l. He was buried in Billy churchyard, where is a tombstone bearing his epitaph (name, ‘O'Quinius’) with Latin elegiacs. The inscription (most correctly given in Benn, where ‘exeunte’ should be ‘ex unda’) was renewed by Thomas Babington (1755–1823), vicar of Billy, who is buried in the same tomb. Adair spells his name O'Queen.

 ORAM, WILLIAM (d. 1777), painter and architect, was educated as an architect, and, through the patronage of Sir Edward Walpole, obtained the position of master-carpenter to the board of works. He designed a triumphal arch for the coronation of George III, of which an engraving was published. Oram also devoted much time to landscape-painting in the style of Gaspar Poussin. His works were often applied to decorative purposes and inserted over doors and mantelpieces. He designed and painted the staircase at Buckingham House, and was employed to repair the paintings on the staircase at Hampton Court. He published an etching of Datchet bridge in 1745. In 1766 he exhibited three landscapes at the Society of Artists' exhibition. Oram, who was generally known as ‘Old Oram,’ to distinguish him from his son, died on 17 March 1777, leaving a widow and a son, Edward Oram (noticed below). In his will, dated 4 Jan. 1776, and proved 17 March 1777 (P. C. C. 124, Collier), Oram describes himself as of St. John's, Hampstead, and leaves everything to his wife Elizabeth. His widow gave Oram's manuscripts to his near relative, Charles Clarke, F.S.A., who in 1810 published from them ‘Precepts and Observations on the Art of Colouring in Landscape-Painting, by the late William Oram, esq., of his Majesty's Board of Works.’

(fl. 1770–1800), son of the above, also practised as a landscape-painter. He exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy from 1775 to 1790, and again in 1798 and 1799. He was also engaged in scene-painting as assistant to Philip James de Loutherbourgh [q. v.], and painted scenery for the Royalty theatre in Wellclose Square [see, 1742?–1798]. He was one of the artists patronised, like John Flaxman [q. v.] and William Blake [q. v.], by the Rev. Henry and Mrs. Mathew, and he assisted Flaxman in decorating their house in Rathbone Place. In 1799 Oram was 