Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/190

 the Caradoc (Bala of Sedgwick) and that now called Upper Llandovery (the May Hill sandstone of Sedgwick), and had also fallen into serious error as to the stratigraphy of his own Llandeilo beds. The dispute reached an acute stage in 1852, when Sedgwick read two papers to the Geological Society of London. He considered that in regard to these, especially the former, the council of this society had dealt unfairly with him; and from 1854, after another dispute over a paper ‘On the May Hill Sandstone,’ &c., he ceased to be on terms of friendship with Murchison and was estranged from the society. By these papers, which embodied the results of investigations in 1852–3, the distinction of the true Caradoc and of the May Hill sandstone was established.

Sedgwick was also author of a ‘Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge.’ This book originated in a sermon, preached in the chapel of Trinity College at the commemoration of benefactors on 17 Dec. 1832. Next year it was published, by request, after several months' delay. It ran through four editions in two years, and in 1850 was republished as a bulky volume, with a very long preface (cf. Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xii. 344).



SEDGWICK, DANIEL (1814–1879), hymnologist, was born of poor parents in Leadenhall Street, London, on 26 Nov. 1814. After serving an apprenticeship, he became a shoemaker. In 1839 he married and joined the strict baptist congregation at Providence Chapel, Grosvenor Street, Commercial Road. Already in 1837 he had given up shoemaking to commence dealing in secondhand books. He gradually worked up a connection among collectors, mainly of theological literature. His customers included [q. v.], William Bonar, the collector of hymn-books, and Alexander Gardyne, whose collection of Scottish poetry is now in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. His shop was at 81 (afterwards renumbered 93) Sun Street, Bishopsgate. In 1840 he taught himself writing, and acquired a neat and clear hand, but never gained any facility in literary composition. In 1859 he commenced publishing reprints of the rarer hymn-writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, under the general title of ‘Library of Spiritual Song.’ The first of the thirteen issues consisted of the hymns of (1717–1791) [q. v.] Pursuing his studies in hymnology, he produced in 1860 ‘A Comprehensive Index of many of the Original Authors and Translators of Psalms and Hymns,’ with the dates of their various works, chiefly collected from the original publications (2nd edit. enlarged 1863). Thenceforth he was recognised as the foremost living hymnologist. He was consulted by men of all opinions—by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, when compiling ‘Our own Hymn-book,’ 1866, and Josiah Miller, when writing ‘Singers and Songs of the Church.’ ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ owed from its earliest days something to his assistance; and when Sir Roundell Palmer (Lord Selborne) was compiling his ‘Book of Praise’ in 1862 the sheets were submitted to Sedgwick's inspection, when he identified the majority of the compositions. In fact, hardly a hymn-book appeared in his later days in which his aid was not acknowledged. His manuscripts, which are now preserved in the Church House, Westminster, were used in Julian's ‘Dictionary of Hymnology.’ He died at 93 Sun Street on 10 March 1879, and was buried in Abney Park cemetery. His wife survived him; he had no issue.

Sedgwick prepared indexes of authors for the English editions (on the title-pages of which he figures as editor) of the American works: ‘Pure Gold for the Sunday School,’ 1877, and ‘The Royal Diadem Songs for the Sunday School,’ 1877, both by R. Lowry and W. H. Doane. His six catalogues of scarce religious poetry are of bibliographical value.



SEDGWICK, JAMES (1775–1851), author, son of James Sedgwick of Westminster, was born in London in 1775. He matriculated from Pembroke College, Oxford, on 30 Oct. 1797, but did not graduate. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple on 23 Jan. 1801. In 1809 he was appointed a commissioner of excise at Edinburgh, and in 1811 chairman of the excise board. In 1815 he was nominated by the treasury to a seat at the London excise board, but his patent was cancelled