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  secretary (1863) and soon afterwards second secretary of the post office, and in 1871 he was made C.B. Later on, his eagerness for progress and impatience of obstacles led to some conflict of opinion, which was terminated by his resignation in 1875. Among other changes made by Scudamore was the introduction of female clerks into the postal service, every department of which for at least ten years before his resignation had been indebted to his energy and administrative ability. He afterwards accepted an offer of the Ottoman government to go to Constantinople to organise the Turkish international post office, and projected some useful reforms; the sultan conferred on him the order of the Medjidieh in 1877; but when, after interminable delays, Scudamore found that his projects were not seriously entertained, he gave up his post. He continued to live at Therapia, and found relaxation in literary work. His talent was shown as early as 1861 by one of his happiest efforts, a lecture on the fairies, entitled ‘People whom we have never met.’ Another diverting volume contains his papers, entitled ‘The Day Dreams of a Sleepless Man,’ London, 1875, 8vo. His somewhat casual and allusive style appears to less advantage in ‘France in the East; a contribution towards the consideration of the Eastern Question’ (London, 1882), which is a plea for the good intentions of France in south-eastern Europe, and denounces the policy of preserving the integrity of the Ottoman empire. He also wrote largely in ‘Punch’ and in the ‘Standard,’ the ‘Scotsman,’ the ‘Comic Times,’ and other papers. He died at Therapia on 8 Feb. 1884, aged 61, and was buried in the English cemetery at Scutari. He married, in 1851 Jane, daughter of James Sherwin, surgeon, of Greenwich, and left issue.

[Times, 9 Feb. 1884; Ann. Reg. 1884; Kelly's Upper Ten Thousand, 1875; Baines's Forty Years at the Post Office; Spielmann's History of Punch, p. 361; private information.]

 SCUDAMORE, JOHN, first (1601–1671), eldest son of Sir James Scudamore, who married, in 1599, at St. James's, Clerkenwell, Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton, and widow of Sir Thomas Baskerville, was baptised at Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, on 22 March 1601. The Holme Lacy branch of the Scudamore family probably diverged from the main stem settled at Kentchurch, Herefordshire, late in the fourteenth century. Another branch migrated to Canterbury about 1650, and from it are descended Sir Charles Scudamore [q. v.], William Edward Scudamore [q. v.], and Frank Ives Scudamore [q. v.] Sir James was the son of Sir John Scudamore (d. 14 April 1623) of Holme Lacy, knight, M.P. for Herefordshire in five parliaments, standard-bearer to the pensioners, and gentleman usher to Queen Elizabeth, as his grandfather, in turn, John Scudamore (d. 1571), high sheriff of Herefordshire and rebuilder of Holme Lacy, had been one of the four gentlemen ushers to Henry VIII. The Sir John of Elizabeth's day was a friend of learning, a benefactor of Bodley's library, and an intimate with its founder, who praises his ‘sweet conversation;’ and a special patron of the mathematician, Thomas Allen (1542–1632) [q. v.] (cf. Letters from Eminent Persons, ii. 202). Sir James, the viscount's father, a gallant soldier, accompanied Essex to Cadiz, where he was knighted in 1596 (, Annals, 1630, bk. iv. p. 94 s.v. ‘Skidmore’). He was held up as a pattern of chivalry as Sir Scudamour in Spenser's ‘Faërie Queene,’ the fourth book of which is devoted to his ‘warlike deedes’ on behalf of Duessa; and he is similarly commemorated in Higford's ‘Institutions of a Gentleman,’ where is a picturesque description of his tilting before Queen Elizabeth and a bevy of court ladies. ‘Famous and fortunate in his time,’ says Fuller, he was M.P. for Herefordshire 1604–11, and 1614, subscribed 37l. to the Virginia Company, and, dying before his father, at the age of fifty-one, was buried at Holme Lacy on 14 April 1619.’

John was educated under a tutor at Holme Lacy until 1616, when, on 8 Nov., he matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford (he was created M.A. on 1 Nov. 1642). He is said to have entered at the Middle Temple in the following year (though there is no record of this in the register), and he soon afterwards obtained license to travel. Having spent about three years abroad, he was appointed by the Earl of Northampton to be captain of horse in Herefordshire. His family had been famous for generations for their horsemanship and breed of horses. On 1 June 1620 he was created a baronet, and he was M.P. for Herefordshire in 1620 and 1624, and for the city of Hereford in 1625 and 1628. He was sworn of the council of the marches on 25 Aug. 1623. He soon became a person of mark at the new court, and was specially attached to Buckingham, whom he accompanied on the Rochelle expedition. He sincerely lamented the duke's death (of which he sent an early account in a letter to Laud), and was present at his funeral. On 1 July 1628 he was created Baron Dromore and Viscount Scudamore of Sligo, and shortly after his elevation retired