Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/186

 Articles of the Materia Medica in the Cure of Lues Venerea,’ London, 1800, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1807, 8vo. 5. ‘Some Account of the Two Mummies of the Egyptian Ibis,’ ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ 1805, pt. i. p. 264, and plates. 6. ‘Life of William Hey,’ London, 1822, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit. 1823.

[Lond. Med. and Phys. Journ. 1826, lvi. 51.] 

PEARSON, JOHN (1819–1886), judge, born on 5 Aug. 1819, was son of John Norman Pearson [q. v.], and elder brother of Charles Henry Pearson [q. v.] He graduated B.A. at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, on 24 Feb. 1841, and proceeded M.A. on 2 July 1844, having been called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 11 June the same year. A sound and painstaking lawyer, but without influential connections or conspicuous brilliance, Pearson rose slowly at the chancery bar, and did not take silk until 1866 (13 Dec.). In the following year he was elected a bencher of his inn, of which he was treasurer in 1884–1885. In 1882, on the retirement of Vice-chancellor Hall, Pearson was appointed on 24 Oct. to succeed him, but without the title of vice-chancellor, and on 30 Nov. following was knighted at Windsor. He died at his residence, 75 Onslow Square, South Kensington, after a painful illness of some weeks' duration, on 13 May 1886. His remains were interred in Brompton cemetery.

During his brief judicial career Pearson proved himself an eminently competent judge. His decisions on the Settled Land Act of 1882 did much to determine the construction of that important statute; nor did he show less ability in dealing with patent cases and company law. Pearson was for some time a member of both the councils of legal education and law reporting.

Pearson married, on 21 Dec. 1854, Charlotte Augusta, daughter of William Short, rector of St. George's, Bloomsbury, who survived him.

[Foster's Men at the Bar and Index Ecclesiasticus; Grad. Cant.; Times, 14 May 1886; Ann. Reg. 1886, obituary; Law Times, Law Journ. and Solicitors' Journ. 22 May 1886; Haydn's Book of Dignities.] 

PEARSON, JOHN NORMAN (1787–1865), divine, son of John Pearson (1758–1826) [q. v.], born 7 Dec. 1787, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained the Hulsean prize in 1807. He then took orders, and acted as chaplain to the Marquis of Wellesley until the Church Missionary Society appointed him, in 1826, the first principal of its newly founded missionary college at Islington. In 1839 he was appointed vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Tunbridge Wells, a position which he resigned in 1853. He afterwards lived in retirement, doing occasional duty for the surrounding clergy, at Bower Hall, near Steeple Bumpstead in Essex, until his death in October 1865. He married Harriet, daughter of Richard Puller of London and sister of Sir Christopher Puller, by whom he had a numerous family. His sons Sir John and Charles Henry are separately noticed.

There is a three-quarter length portrait of Pearson in oils, dated 1843, but unsigned, in the hall of the Missionary College in Upper Street, Islington.

Pearson's works are: 1. ‘A Critical Essay on the Ninth Book of Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses,’ Cambridge, 1808. 2. ‘Christ Crucified; or some Remarkable Passages of the Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, devotionally and practically considered,’ London, 1826, 12mo. 3. ‘Life of Archbishop Leighton,’ prefixed to an edition of his ‘Works’ in 1829. 4. ‘The Candle of the Lord uncovered; or the Bible rescued from Papal Thraldom by the Reformation,’ London, 1835, 8vo. 5. ‘The Faith and Patience of the Saints exhibited in the Narrative of the Sufferings and the Death … of I. Lefevere;’ a new translation, 1839, 12mo. 6. ‘Psalms and Hymns chiefly designed for Public Worship,’ London, 1840, 12mo. 7. ‘The Days in Paradise,’ London, 1854, 12mo. He also published several volumes of sermons.

[Obituary notice in Gent. Mag. 1865, ii. 792.] 

PEARSON, RICHARD (1731–1806), captain in the navy, was born at Lanton Hall, near Appleby in Westmoreland, in March 1731. Entering the navy in 1745 on board the Dover, he joined in the Mediterranean the Seaford, commanded by his kinsman, Captain Wilson. In her he remained for three years, and in 1749 joined the Amazon, with Captain Arthur Gardiner [q. v.] In 1750, seeing little prospect of advancement in the navy, he took service under the East India Company; but returned to the navy when war was imminent in 1755, passed his examination on 5 Nov., and on 16 Dec. was promoted to be fourth lieutenant of the Elizabeth, which during 1756 was commanded by Captain John Montagu, and attached to the fleet employed on the coast of France and in the Bay of Biscay. In 1757 Montagu was superseded by Charles Steevens [q. v.], who took the Elizabeth out to the East Indies; and in her Pearson was present in the actions of 29 April and 3 Aug.