Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/276

 He advocated a modification of the then new system of pulverisation, or drill cultivation, which was invented by Jethro Tull [q. v.] about 1730. Randall embodied his views in a verbose treatise, dedicated to the Society of Arts, and entitled ‘The Semi-Virgilian Husbandry, deduced from various Experiments, or an Essay towards a new Course of National Farming, formed from the Defects, Losses, and Disappointments of the Old and New Husbandry, and put on the true Biass of Nature, in the Production of Vegetables and in the Power of every Ploughman with his own Ploughs, &c. to execute. With the Philosophy of Agriculture, exhibiting at large the Nutritive Principles derived from the Atmosphere, in a Rotation of Nature, from their being exhaled to their Descent into the Pores of the Soil when duly prepared for the Purposes of Vegetables,’ London, 1764. At the same time Randall invented (but did not patent) a seed-furrow plough, on the principle of Tull's drill plough, and described this and other ingenious performances in ‘Construction and extensive use of a new invented Seed-furrow Plough, of a Draining Plough, and of a Potato-drill Machine, with a Theory of a common Plough,’ 1764. A drawing of the seed plough is engraved in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 1764, p. 460, and an article upon it which condemns it as complicated was answered by Randall, who dated from York.

[Works cited; Donaldson's Agricultural Biogr.; De Morgan's Arithmetical Books; Gent. Mag. 1764, pp. 460, 532.]  RANDALL, JOHN (1715–1799), organist, born in 1715, was a chorister of the Chapel Royal under Bernard Gates [q. v.] On 23 Feb. 1732 at Gates's house, Randall acted and sang the part of Esther in the dramatic representation of Handel's oratorio. In 1744 he graduated Mus. Bac. at Cambridge. In the following year he was appointed organist to King's College Chapel; in 1755 he succeeded Dr. Greene as professor of music in the university of Cambridge, and in 1756 he proceeded Mus. Doc. Assisted by his pupil, William Crotch, who joined him in 1786, Randall retained his appointments until his death at Cambridge on 18 March 1799. His wife predeceased him on 27 April 1792.

Randall set to music Gray's ‘Ode for the Installation of the Duke of Grafton as Chancellor of the University,’ 1768. He published ‘A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, some of which are new and others by permission of the authors, with six Chants and Te Deums, calculated for the use of congregations in general,’ Cambridge, 1794. Of these his six original tunes are said to be ‘Cambridge,’ ‘Trinity Church,’ ‘Garden,’ ‘Yelling,’ ‘King's,’ and ‘University,’ but Randall is best known by his two double chants. ‘The Hopeless Lover,’ London (1735?), and other songs are attributed to Randall.

[Burney's History, iv. 360; Sketch of the Life of Handel, p. 22; Chrysander's Handel, ii. 273; Grove's Dictionary, iii. 73; Gent. Mag. 1792, p. 480.]  RANDALL, JOHN (1755–1802), shipbuilder, was son of John Randall, shipbuilder, of Rotherhithe. He received a liberal education, and on the death of his father, about 1776, successfully continued the shipbuilding business under his own management. He applied himself at the same time to the study of mathematics, in which, as well as in the principles and details of naval construction, he attained proficiency. In addition to the large number of ships which he built for the mercantile marine and for the East India Company, he built upwards of fifty for the government, including several 74-gun ships and large frigates—among them the Audacious, Ramillies, and Culloden, which were specially celebrated in the war of the French revolution. In the more theoretical part of his profession, he collected materials for a treatise on naval architecture, but on the publication of some French works he abandoned the design. He took a prominent part in founding the Society of Naval Architects. At the same time he maintained his youthful interest in literature and music.

During the revolutionary war shipwrights' wages had been largely increased, and when, with the peace, the pressure of work ceased, and Randall lowered them to the former standard, his men went out on strike. The admiralty permitted him to engage workmen from the Deptford dockyard, and offered to send a military force to protect them. Randall declined the offer, believing that his personal authority with the men on strike would be sufficient. But the Deptford men were forcibly prevented from working in his yard; and, in attempting to quell the riot, he was slightly wounded. His mortification at the action of his men, whom he had treated liberally, brought on a fever, of which he died, at his house in Great Cumberland Street, Hyde Park, on 23 Aug. 1802. He left a widow and family.

 RANDALL, THOMAS (1605-1635), poet and dramatist. [See ] 