Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/206

  in 1865, while John, who succeeded to Whitestock Hall, died in 1875, leaving ten children; his eldest son succeeded to the house. The Rev. John Romney's last surviving daughter, Miss Elizabeth Romney, who died at Whitestock in December 1893, ultimately acquired most of the paintings, drawings, and manuscripts which the painter's family retained after his death; the collection was sold at Christie's, May 1894.

[Romney's Memoirs of the Life and Works of George Romney, 1830, were intended to supersede Hayley's Life of George Romney, 1809, and the account by Richard Cumberland in European Magazine, vol. xliii. June 1803. See also Cunningham's British Painters, ed. Heaton, vol. ii.; Some Account of George Romney (an anonymous fragemet in Lancashire Biographical History, vol. i.); Annals of Kendal, by Cornelius Nicholson, F.G.S.; Gamlin's Romney and his Art; Gower's Romney and Lawrence (Great Artist Series); Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Armstrong; Redgrave's Dict.; Memoirs of Emma, Lady Hamilton, ed. W. H. Long; Gamlin's Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton; manuscripts in the collections of T. Humphry Ward, esq. and Alfred Morrison, esq.; Southey's Life of Cowper, iii. 77–84; Letters of William Cowper, ed. Benham.]  ROMNEY, JOHN (1786–1863), engraver, was born in 1786. He seems to have been in no way connected with the family of the famous painter, though he, too, practised in the north of England, and engraved a series of ‘Views of Ancient Buildings in Chester,’ in which city he died in 1863. He contributed plates to Smirke's ‘Illustrations of Shakespeare,’ and to a series of reproductions of ancient marbles in the British Museum. Among the best known of his single plates are ‘The Orphan Ballad-Singer,’ after Gill, and ‘Sunday Morning—the Toilette,’ after Farrier.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Painters.]  ROMNEY, PETER (1743–1777), painter, a younger brother of George Romney [q. v.], was born at Dalton-in-Furness on 1 June 1743. He is said to have shown a precocious talent both with pen and pencil, but such of his verses as have survived are puerile enough. When he was sixteen his more famous brother, who had just started in practice at Kendal on his own account, took Peter as his apprentice. On Romney's departure for London in 1762, Peter remained for a time at Kendal, painting portraits at a guinea a head. In 1765, when Romney visited his family in the north, he took Peter back to London with him, but was finally obliged to send him home, as the young man earned nothing, and seems to have been the cause of a good deal of expense and anxiety to his brother. Having got together a few prints in London, Peter copied them in oils, and raffled them, thus raising money to take him to Manchester, where he started in practice as a portrait-painter. His success in Manchester was slight, and he removed to Ipswich, where his career was cut short by his arrest for debt. He next tried his luck at Cambridge, but there again got into difficulties. George Romney generously discharged his debts, and he started once more at Southport. His money troubles and various unfortunate—and in some cases disreputable—love affairs seem to have so preyed on his mind that he took to drink. Prematurely broken in health, he died in May 1777, in his thirty-fourth year. He chose crayons as his medium, to avoid possible competition with his brother, and is said at one time to have seemed a likely rival to Francis Cotes [q. v.] Lord John Clinton, Lord Pelham, Lord Hyde, and Lord and Lady Montford were among his more notable sitters. A portrait group by George Romney of his two brothers, James and Peter, was sold at Christie's on 25 May 1894.

[A curious account of this erratic artist forms a supplement to the Rev. John Romney's ‘Memoirs’ of his father, George Romney.]  ROMNEY, WILLIAM (d. 1611), governor of the East India Company, only son of William Romney of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and his wife Margaret, was a member of the Haberdashers' Company, and one of the original promoters of the East India Company. For some time governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company, he went to the Netherlands as one of the commissioners for that society in June 1598 to obtain a staple for their wool, cloth, and kerseys. On 22 Sept. 1599 he subscribed 200l. in the intended voyage to the East Indies, and on 24 Sept. was made one of the treasurers for the voyage. An incorporator and one of the first directors of the East India Company, he was elected deputy-governor on 9 Jan. 1601, and governor in 1606. In November 1601 he urged the company to send an expedition to discover the North-West Passage, either in conjunction with the Muscovy Company or alone. When the latter company consented to join in the enterprise (22 Dec. 1601), he became treasurer for the voyage. On 18 Dec. 1602 he was elected alderman of Portsoken ward, and in 1603 one of the sheriffs of the city of London. On 26 July 1603 he was knighted at