Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/324

 he was elected fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He died at Hyde, near Winchester, on 25 Feb. 1889, while still actively engaged in professional work.

[Obituary notices in Building News and Journal of Proc. of Royal Institute of British Architects, new ser. v. 172, 314 (by Thomas Henry Watson); Pink Memorial; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]  PINK, ROBERT (1573-1647), warden of New College, Oxford. [See .]

PINKE, WILLIAM (1599?–1629), author, born in Hampshire, was probably one of the Pinkes of Kempshot, Winslade, and related to Robert Pinck or Pink [q. v.], the warden of New College, Oxford. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, as a commoner in Michaelmas term 1615, and graduated B.A. on 9 June 1619, M.A. 9 May 1622. He took holy orders, and became tutor or ‘reader’ to George Digby, second earl of Bristol [q. v.] He was also appointed philosophy reader of Magdalen, and was elected a fellow in 1628. He was known as an excellent classical scholar and linguist. He died in February 1629, before the promise of his abilities was fulfilled, and was buried in Magdalen College chapel. He is described as a thoroughgoing puritan.

He wrote: ‘The Tryal of a Christian's syncere loue vnto Christ,’ edited, with a dedication to Lord George Digby, by William Lyford [q. v.], Oxford, 1630, 4to; 1631, 4to; 1634, 12mo; 1636, 16mo; 1657, 12mo; 1659, 12mo; the first edition of this work contains two sermons, the second and all subsequent editions contain four. He was also author of ‘An Examination of those Plausible Appearances which seeme most to commend the Romish Church and to preiudice the Reformed,’ Oxford, 1626; this is a translation of the ‘Traité auquel sont examinez,’ &c., La Rochelle, 1617, by John Cameron (1579?–1625) [q. v.] Wood mentions a dedication to the master of the Skinners' Company, which is not in the copy at the British Museum. Pinke also left numerous manuscripts.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 475, and Fasti, i. 386, 406; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, ii. 365; Wood's Hist. Antiq. Oxon. ed. Gutch, App. p. 272; Clarke's Indexes, iii. 375; Bloxam's Magd. Coll. Reg. v. 88; Madan's Early Oxford Press (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), pp. 130, 157–8, 179, 193; Alumni Oxon. early ser. iii. 1166; a first edition of his Sermons is in Dr. Williams's Library.]  PINKERTON, JOHN (1758–1826), Scottish antiquary and historian, born at Edinburgh on 17 Feb. 1758, claimed descent from an old family originally settled at Pinkerton, near Dunbar, but no complete account of the steps of the descent is given. His grandfather Walter was a yeoman or small farmer at Dalserf, Lanarkshire; and his father James, after following with some success the trade of a dealer in hair in Somerset, settled in Edinburgh, where he married a widow, Mrs. Bowie, whose maiden name was Heron, and who was the daughter of an Edinburgh merchant. The antiquary, their third son, received his early education at a small school in the suburbs of Edinburgh, and from 1704 to 1710 attended the grammar school of Lanark, then taught by Mr. Thomson, brother of the author of ‘The Seasons.’ On his return to Edinburgh he expressed a strong desire to enter the university there, but to this his father objected; and after devoting some time to private study, especially of French and mathematics, he was articled to William Ayton, a writer to the signet in Edinburgh, with whom he remained for five years. While still an apprentice with Ayton he published anonymously, in 1776, a small poem of no great merit, entitled ‘Craigmillar Castle: an Elegy,’ which he dedicated to Dr. Beattie.

Pinkerton completed his apprenticeship in 1780, but his father's death in the same year led to his abandonment of the profession of law; and, in order to obtain access to books of reference, he removed, towards the close of 1781, to London. The same year he published a volume of miscellaneous poetry which he entitled ‘Rimes,’ and which consisted of four varieties: ‘melodies, symphonies, odes, and sonnets;’ in 1782, ‘Two Dithyrambic Odes: (1) On Enthusiasm; (2) On Laughter;’ and in the same year ‘Tales in Verse.’ Although his verses indicate a facile command of a variety of metres, they possess no distinct poetic qualities. In 1783 he published ‘Select Scotish Ballads’ with the sub-title ‘Hardy Knute: an Heroic Ballad, now first published complete; with other nine approved Scotish Ballads and some not hitherto made public, in the Tragic style. To which are prefixed two ‘Dissertations: (1) on the Oral Tradition of Poetry; (2) on the Tragic Ballad.’ Under the pseudonym of ‘Anti-Scot,’ Ritson, in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for November 1784 (pp. 812–14), demonstrated that the second part of ‘Hardy Kanute,’ and a considerable number of the other so-called ancient ballads of Pinkerton were modern; and in the preface to his ‘Ancient Scotish Poems’ (pp. cxxviii–cxxxi) Pinkerton confessed himself the author of the second part of ‘Hardy Kanute,’ and also gave a list of other ballads which were in great part his own composition, affirming at the same time that he had never directly 