Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/302

 that you used to give to our father Saba, for so they called him, and which you still give to the people?’ Mellitus answered that if they would be washed in the font they should have it, but that otherwise it would do them no good. But they said that they would not enter the font, for they did not need washing but refreshment. The matter was often explained to them by the bishop, who persisted in refusing their request. At last they grew angry and banished him from their kingdom. Not long afterwards they went out to fight with the West-Saxons, and were slain, their army being almost wholly destroyed (, Hist. Eccl. ii. c. 5). This battle was fought against Ceawlin [q. v.] and Cwichelm, the West-Saxon kings who invaded their territory with a larger force than the East-Saxons could muster in or about 626. They were succeeded by Sæward's son Sigebert the Little.

[Mon. Hist. Brit. pp. 629, 637; Henry of Huntingdon, sect. 31, p. 57 (Rolls Ser.); Dict. Chr. Biogr. art. ‘Sexred,’ by Bishop Stubbs.]  SEXTEN, RICHARD (d. 1568), physician and divine. [See .]

SEYER, SAMUEL (1757–1831), historian of Bristol, born in 1757, was the son of Samuel Seyer (1719?–1776), then master of Bristol grammar school. The elder Seyer, son of a gentleman of Bristol of the same names, was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. in 1739 and M.A. in 1742. In 1764 he became rector of St. Michael's, Bristol. He published ‘Essays in Scripture Truths’ (1771) and other works.

The younger Seyer matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 25 Nov. 1772, and graduated B.A. in 1776 and M.A. in 1780. About 1790 he succeeded John Jones at the Royal Fort school, where for ten years Andrew Crosse [q. v.], the electrician, was among his scholars; Crosse deemed his master narrow-minded and unjust. Other pupils were John Kenyon [q. v.] and William John Broderip [q. v.] In 1813 he became perpetual curate of Horfield, and in 1824 rector of Filton, Gloucestershire.

Following in the footsteps of William Barrett (d. 1789) [q. v.], author of the ‘History and Antiquities of Bristol,’ with whom he was well acquainted, Seyer published in 1812 ‘Charters and Letters Patent granted to the Town and City of Bristol’ (4to). The Latin is printed under an English translation. Seyer was refused access to the originals in the Bristol council-house, and founded his text on a late manuscript in the Bodleian (Rawlinson 247). He used a translation published in 1736 which was not of much value. In 1821–3 appeared Seyer's ‘Memoirs, Historical and Topographical, of Bristol and its Neighbourhood,’ with plates, by Edward Blore [q. v.] and others (2 vols. 4to). The work, which brings the narrative down to 1760, incorporated the archives of the Berkeley family and the Bristol calendars. Painstaking and learned, it remains a valuable specimen of local history. Seyer's collections for a second part, on the topography of Bristol, are preserved in manuscript in the Museum Library, Bristol (cf., Bristol, 1887, p. 189; , Kalendar, Camden Soc., vol. ii.).

Seyer died at Bristol on 25 Aug. 1831. A portrait was engraved by Walker from a painting by Branwhite. Another was painted and engraved by Pether.

Besides his archæological works, Seyer published: 1. ‘The Principles of Christianity,’ 1796, 1806, 12mo. 2. ‘The Syntax of Latin Verbs,’ 1798, 8vo. 3. ‘Observations on the Causes of Clerical Non-residence, and on the Act of Parliament lately passed for its Prevention,’ 1808, 8vo. 4. ‘Latium Redivivum: a Treatise on the Modern Use of the Latin Language and the Prevalence of the French; to which is added a Specimen, accommodated to Modern Use,’ 1808, 8vo. He also translated into English verse the Latin poem of Vida on Chess.

[Annual Register, 1831 (App. to Chron. p. 254); Memorials of Andrew Crosse, ch. i.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Prefaces to Seyer's Charters and Memorials; Taylor's Book about Bristol, p. 371; Evans's Cat. Engr. Portraits, Nos. 21, 160, and 9404; notes kindly supplied by William George, esq., of Bristol.]  SEYFFARTH, LOUISA (1798- 1843), watercolour-painter. [See .]

SEYMOUR, (fl. 1717–1723), actress, is first heard of on 22 Aug. 1717, when, with the summer company at Drury Lane, she played Eugenia in Shadwell's ‘Scowrers.’ On 17 June 1718, still with the summer company, she was the original Leonora in Savage's ‘Love in a Veil.’ On 11 July she was Mirtilla in ‘Love for Money,’ and on 15 Aug. Christiana in ‘Love in a Wood.’ On 16 Oct. she made, as Lucia in ‘Cato,’ her first recorded appearance at Lincoln's Inn Fields, Decius being played by Bohemia, better known as Boheme, an actor originally from Southwark Fair, whom subsequently she married. She was also Cynthia in the ‘Double Dealer,’ Rutland in the ‘Unhappy Favourite,’ Lady Brute in the ‘Provoked Wife,’ had a part in ‘Platonick Love, or