Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/391

 ness, thenceforth remaining only on the London board of the Bank of Montreal. He found occupation, however, for he became a member of the Middle Temple, was on the council of the Royal Colonial Institute from June 1886 till his death, and took an active interest in the establishment of the Imperial Institute.

Redpath is remembered by a series of munificent donations to the McGill College and University at Montreal. He endowed the Peter Redpath chair of natural philosophy in 1871. In 1880 he gave the Redpath Museum, which was opened in 1882, as a centre for the study of geology, mineralogy, palæontology, zoology, and botany. In 1891 he gave, at a cost of some 75,000l., a library for the use of students in arts, science, medicine, and law; he personally spent much time in examining libraries in England and on the continent, and the Redpath library was arranged on his own plans, with the result that it affords more accommodation for its size than any other similar building. It was opened on 31 Oct. 1893 by Lord Aberdeen. He also gave the library some three thousand volumes for an historical library. And at the college he instituted various prizes and medals. Besides encouraging liberal education, he was a large subscriber to works more strictly charitable, and was for some years president of the Montreal General Hospital.

Redpath died on 1 Feb. 1894, at his residence, the Manor House, Chislehurst. He married, on 16 Oct. 1847, Grace, daughter of William Wood of Bowden, Manchester, who survived him. He left no children.

[Toronto Globe, 3 Feb. 1894; Times, 3 Feb. 1894; In Memoriam Peter Redpath, by Sir J. W. Dawson, Montreal, 1894.]  REDVERS,, derived its name from the vill of Réviers, in the Bessin (, II. cclxix.), and is first mentioned in 1060, when Richard of this house, with his brothers William and Baldwin, gave land at Gourbesville in the Cotentin to St. Père de Chartres (ib.) The pedigree begins, however, with that Richard de Redvers who is found as ‘Francus’ holding Mosterton in Dorset in 1084 and 1086 (, Key to Domesday, p. 113). In 1090 he was one of those barons of the Cotentin who supported Henry ‘Beauclerc’ against his brothers ( iii. 351), and this proved the foundation of his fortunes, for Henry, on his accession, endowed him with lands in England. Richard, in return, supported him staunchly (ib. iv. 95, 110; p. 471), and was one of his trusted advisers. Dying in 1107 ( iv. 276), he was buried at the abbey of Montebourg, of which he is deemed the founder (ib.), though he had merely been given its patronage by Henry (, II. cclxxii.), and had given it some lands (Gallia Christiana, vol. xi.; Monast. Angl. vi. 1097). Henry had also given him Twinham Priory, Hampshire, which he endowed with lands in the Isle of Wight on obtaining its lordship (ib. vi. 304). By his wife Adeliza, daughter of William Peverell [q. v.] of Nottingham, who gave her marriage portion, the manor of Woolley, to Montebourg after his death (ib. vi. 1097), he left three sons—Baldwin, his successor [see ], William ‘de Vernon’ (so named from the castle of Vernon), his heir in Normandy, and Robert ‘de Ste. Mère Église,’ who received the manor of that name—and a daughter Hawys, wife of William de Roumare, earl of Lincoln [q. v.] (, II. cclxxv.). Their mother's letter to the bishop of Exeter is found in ‘Sarum Charters’ (p. 5). It is important to distinguish Richard de Redvers from Richard, son of Baldwin of Exeter [see ], with whom he has been persistently confused. Nor was he, as asserted (, Conqueror and his Companions, ii. 48; Complete Peerage, iii. 100), created Earl of Devon by Henry I (Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 272).

His successor, Baldwin, the first Earl of Devon (d. 1155) [q. v.], left issue (with William, afterwards fifth earl) a son and heir, Richard, who was sheriff of Devon (as ‘Ricardus Comes’) in 1155–6, and as Richard ‘de Redvers’ in 1156–7; he is reckoned the second Earl of Devon. An interesting writ was addressed to him by the king as Richard ‘de Redvers’ only, in April 1157, in favour of Montebourg Abbey (, Itinerary, p. 25). He died in 1162 (. p. 213), leaving by Dionys, daughter of Reginald, earl of Cornwall [q. v.], two sons (Baldwin and Richard), who succeeded him as third and fourth earls of Devon. On the death of the latter without issue (1184?) the succession opened to his uncle William (d. 1216).

Stapleton doubted whether this William was really styled, as alleged, ‘de Vernon;’ but a Montebourg charter of 1175 (ib. p. 188) clearly distinguishes him as William de Vernon ‘junior,’ from his uncle, William de Vernon ‘senior’ (a justiciar of Normandy), whose son Richard had at that date succeeded him. It was, however, as William ‘de Redveriis,’ earl of Devon, that he made a grant to ‘Domus Dei,’ Southampton, still preserved at Queen's College, Oxford