Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/285

 directed him to manage a house in Wales, probably a cell of Gloucester (, Patrologia, p. 190, col. 767). His writings are contained in the Latin MS. Bibl. Reg. 6 Dix., a folio of three hundred pages: (1) folios 1–72a consist of dialogues between Osbern and a monk Nicolas on the Pentateuch; (2) on folio 73a begins a treatise, in six chapters, on the Book of Judges, dedicated to Gilbert Foliot, bishop of Hereford, 1148–1163, whose corrections Osbern desires; (3) folios 174a–201a are on the incarnation; (4) folios 201a to 241b contain Osbern's book on the nativity; (5) folios 241b to 292b are on the sacrament of the passion; (6) folios 292b to 300b are on the resurrection.

Leland ascribes to Osbern a work called ‘Panormia quasi Vocabularium,’ addressed to Hamelin, beginning ‘Cum in nocte hyemali.’ It seems to have at one time formed part of the volume already described, and was in Leland's time at Gloucester, whence Henry VIII had taken the other parts of the manuscript (Nos. 1-6). Bale ascribes the ‘Panormia,’ no doubt wrongly, to Osbern of Canterbury [q. v.] The library of Rouen apparently contains a copy of part or of the whole of Osbern's work (, Cat. Lib. MSS. p. 421, Rouen, No. 387. Sex dierum tractatus, Osbernus de incarnatione et nativitate Domini).

 OSBERT (fl. 1136), prior of Westminster. [See .]

OSBOLSTON. [See .]

OSBORN WYDDEL i.e. the Irishman, (fl. 1280), founder of the houses of Cors y gedol, Wynne of Ynys maengwyn, "Wynne of Maes y neuadd, and other important families in Merionethshire, came over from Ireland and settled in the neighbourhood of Llanaber, Barmouth, in the latter part of the thirteenth century. Tradition, the only authority for his career, asserts that he was a Geraldine, of the Desmond branch of that family. On this assumption Sir William Betham, Ulster king of arms, thought he was in all probability a son of John FitzThomas, the first Geraldine lord of Decies and Desmond (d. 1261). The circumstances of his settlement in Ardudwy (North-west Merionethshire) are unknown, though it may be conjectured that he was driven to seek a home in Wales by the temporary overthrow of the Geraldine influence in Desmond which followed the battle of Callan (1261). A spot called Berllys (or Byrllysg), a little to the north of Cors y gedol, is pointed out as the site of Osborn's first residence. He afterwards married, it is said, the heiress of Cors y gedol, and moved thither. He was assessed in the parish of Llanaber for the fifteenth levied in 1293 or 1294 upon holders of land in Wales.

 OSBORN, ELIAS (1643–1720), quaker, born at Chillington, Somerset, was baptised there 24 June 1643 (Parish Register). His mother died when he was two years old, and his father, a strict puritan, made him attend weekly lectures and repeat the substance of the sermon on the way home. He says in his autobiography that he was ‘inclined to religion’ when he was thirteen, but also loved ‘pleasure and vanity.’ At fifteen he left school, and was employed in the clothing trade. At ‘King Charles's return,’ he says, ‘I tried the common prayer, but soon wearied of it, and indeed of all other religions I then knew. Amongst the several forms,’ he continues, ‘and great professions, the Life and Power is lost.’

When nineteen he first heard of the quakers, read one or two of their books, and finally became convinced of ‘the truth.’ His father and other puritan relatives strongly opposed his conversion, and Osborn left the house and engaged himself to assist a widow with two daughters in the clothing trade. All three were quakers, and Osborn on 1 Oct. 1665, at the age of twenty-three, married Mary Horte, the younger daughter. His father, though strongly objecting to this quaker daughter-in-law, afterwards ‘loved her very dearly,’ and desired to be buried by her side. Concerning his son, he declared that, having done what he could to reclaim him, he was now satisfied it was ‘a matter of conscience with him,’ adding ‘he is more dutiful to me than before.’ Osborn and his mother-in-law, ‘a noble, generous-spirited woman,’ were imprisoned in 1670 at the suit of Lord Paulet's steward for non-payment of tithes, and their goods were more than once seized for the same cause.

They entertained many ‘travelling friends,’ and their meetings were suffered until the passing of the Conventicle Act (1670), when, Osborn says, ‘the nation seemed all of a flame, the worst men being let loose to ruin their honest neighbours by a law.’ A large monthly meeting at Stoke Gregory was the first to be broken up by Captain Lacy with a troop of horse. Other meetings were disturbed, chiefly by Justice Henry Waldron, a captain of militia, who lived eight miles