Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/155

 he was appointed registrar of the Manchester cemetery at Harpurhey. He was a clever amateur actor, was president for some years of the Manchester Shakespearean Society, and was for a short time on the staff of the Manchester Theatre Royal. In youth he had written a play in three acts, called ‘The Baron of Manchester,’ which was produced at a local theatre. He also lectured on literary and educational subjects.

From early years he was an eager, desultory reader, and soon became a writer of verse, but had enough discretion to destroy most of his juvenile efforts. He first appeared in print in 1826 in the ‘Manchester Guardian,’ and in the following year wrote for the ‘Liverpool Kaleidoscope.’ In 1828 he joined John Hewitt in editing the ‘Phœnix, or Manchester Literary Journal,’ a creditable performance, which lasted only a few months. He was joint-editor of the ‘Falcon, or Journal of Literature,’ Manchester, 1831; and edited the ‘Oddfellows' Magazine’ from 1841 to 1848; the ‘Chaplet, a Poetical Offering for the Lyceum Bazaar,’ 1841, and the ‘Festive Wreath,’ 1842 (both published at Manchester).

Chronic rheumatism disabled him about 1855 from continuing his duties as registrar. He afterwards kept a tavern in Newton Street, Ancoats, Manchester, and in 1857 was master of a school at Accrington. In the succeeding year he was awarded a government pension of 50l.; then he retired to the Isle of Man, where he died on 15 Oct. 1859, and was interred at Kirk Braddan, near Douglas. His wife was Mary Anne, born Horabin, by whom he left several children.

His separate publications were: His works, though pleasing, lack originality and vigour.
 * 1) ‘Rhyme, Romance, and Revery,’ London, 1840; 2nd edit. 1852.
 * 2) ‘A Voice from the Town, and other Poems,’ 1843.
 * 3) ‘The Wandering Angel, and other Poems,’ 1844.
 * 4) ‘Poetical Works,’ 1850, with portrait.
 * 5) ‘Flowers for all Seasons’ (verses and essays), 1854.
 * 6) ‘Musings in Many Moods,’ 1859, which contains most of the poems in the preceding volumes.



ROGET, PETER MARK (1779–1869), physician and savant, born in Broad Street, Soho, London, on 18 Jan. 1779, was only son of John Roget, a native of Geneva, who was pastor of the French protestant church in Threadneedle Street. His mother, Catherine, was only surviving sister of Sir Samuel Romilly. His father died in 1783 at Geneva, and he was brought up by his mother, from whom he inherited his systematic habit of mind. Mrs. Roget took up her residence in Kensington Square in the family of a Mr. Chauvet of Geneva, who kept a private school, which young Roget attended. He studied mathematics on his own account unaided, and made considerable progress. In 1793 the mother and her children removed to Edinburgh, where Roget, then fourteen years old, was entered at the university. In the summer of 1795 he went for a tour in the highlands with his uncle Romilly and M. Dumont, the friend of Mirabeau. He entered the medical school of the Edinburgh University in the winter session of the same year, and after recovering in 1797 from an attack of typhus fever, which he caught in the wards of the infirmary, he graduated M.D. on 25 June 1798, being then only nineteen years of age. The title of his graduation thesis was ‘De Chemicæ Affinitatis Legibus.’ He was subsequently a pupil in the London medical schools of Baillie, Cruikshank, Wilson, Heberden, and Horne.

In 1798 Roget proved his powers of observation by writing a letter to Dr. Beddoes on the non-prevalence of consumption among butchers, fishermen, &c., which Beddoes published in his ‘Essay on the Causes, &c., of Pulmonary Consumption’ (London, 1799). In 1799 he sent to Davy a communication on the effects of the respiration of the newly discovered gas, nitrous oxide, and the communication appeared in Davy's ‘Researches’ (1800). In October 1800 Roget spent six weeks with Jeremy Bentham, who consulted him upon a scheme which he was devising for the utilisation of the sewage of the metropolis. In 1802 he became travelling tutor to two sons of John Philips, a wealthy merchant of Manchester. In the summer they proceeded to Geneva, having for their travelling companion Lovell Edgeworth, half-brother to Maria Edgeworth, the authoress. The tour terminated owing to the rupture of the peace of Amiens, and Roget was detained at Geneva as a prisoner on parole. He successfully pleaded his rights as a citizen of Geneva by virtue of his descent from Genevese ancestors, and was released. After a long detour, made necessary by the military operations of the French, he and his pupils sailed for England, reaching Harwich on 22 Nov. 1803. After a brief visit in 1804 to Edinburgh with a view to pursuing his studies, he became private physi-