Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/300

 demy; William, the subject of this notice; and David (1803–1874), a successful landscape-painter and lithographer.

William began his art education in 1818 under Andrew Wilson (1780–1848), master of the Trustees' Academy at Edinburgh. Among his fellow students were Robert Scott Lauder [q. v.] and David Octavius Hill [q. v.], and Simson soon took a prominent place among them. His early works were local landscapes and sea-pieces, but the success of his elder brother George as a portrait-painter led him to follow temporarily that branch of art. Simson was one of those who helped to create the Scottish (afterwards the Royal Scottish) Academy in 1830. In that year he exhibited his ‘Shooting Party Regaling’—chiefly portraits—at the Royal Academy, London, and from that time till the year of his death (with the exception of 1833–35–36) he was a regular exhibitor there. In 1831 he began to exhibit at the Scottish Academy, and he sent in all seventy-two pictures to its exhibitions. In 1835 Simson studied in Italy. His work there led to his composition, ‘Cimabue and Giotto,’ which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838 (Athenæum, 1838, p. 363), and purchased by Sir Robert Peel for 150 guineas. Simson returned to London in 1838, and settled at 91 Dean Street, Soho, afterwards removing to 12 Sloane Street. He exhibited regularly at the British Institution as well as at the Royal Academy. His subjects were now principally historical, but he still essayed landscape. He died at Sloane Street on 29 Aug. 1847.

Simson's most important works were: ‘Columbus at the Door of the Convent of La Rabida’ (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839); ‘The Temptation of St. Anthony’ (at the Scottish Academy, 1844); ‘Baronial Retainers,’ and ‘Salvator Rosa's first Cartoon on the Wall of the Certosa’ (at the Royal Academy, 1844). Others of his historical and genre pieces were ‘Don Quixote studying the Books of Chivalry’ (1832), ‘Prince Charles Edward reading a Despatch at Holyrood’ (1834), ‘Prince Charles Edward at the Battle of Preston’ (1834), ‘The Murder of the Princes in the Tower’ (1838), and ‘Alfred dividing his Last Loaf with a Pilgrim’ (1842). Several of his best landscapes dealt with the Roman Campagna and its population of shepherds and goatherds. Seven of his pictures are in the Scottish National Gallery.



SIMWNT FYCHAN, i.e. (1530?–1606), Welsh bard, was born about 1530, and lived on his own land at Tybrith, near Ruthin, Denbighshire. He was a pupil of Gruffydd Hiraethog [q. v.], and received the degree of ‘pencerdd’ at the Caerwys eisteddfod of 1568 (for the certificate see the London ‘Greal,’ p. 278). Four of his poems, which commemorate the virtues of various Denbighshire gentlemen, are printed in Williams's ‘Records of Denbigh.’ He was best known, however, for his knowledge of the technicalities of the bardic art. Shortly before the Caerwys eisteddfod he wrote for Pierce Mostyn of Talacre an account of the system, illustrated by means of an ‘awdl’ containing specimens of each of the ‘twenty-four metres.’ This treatise was probably the ‘Pum Llyfr Cerddwriaeth’ printed by Ab Ithel as the work of Simwnt Fychan in ‘Dosbarth Edeyrn Dafod Aur;’ portions of it have also appeared in ‘Cyfrinach y Beirdd.’ According to a manuscript in the possession of the late Gweirydd ap Rhys, the work was composed in 1565. There are important differences between the text of this and that of Ab Ithel. Lewis Dwnn mentions Simwnt Fychan among the older antiquaries who had given him assistance in his heraldic researches (Heraldic Visitations, i. 7). He died in April 1606.



SINCLAIR, ANDREW (d. 1861), surgeon and naturalist, a native of Paisley, entered the navy as an assistant surgeon about 1824, became a surgeon in 1829, and in 1834 was attached to H.M.S. Sulphur on a surveying expedition to the South American coast, under the command of Captain Frederick William Beechey [q. v.], and afterwards of Sir Edward Belcher [q. v.] Sinclair then first took to natural history, collecting plants in 1837 and 1838 in Mexico and Central America. In 1842 he was appointed surgeon to a convict ship, and had opportunities of collecting at several Australian ports. He spent some weeks in New Zealand with Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, then naturalist to the antarctic expedition, and in 1843 accompanied Captain Robert (afterwards Admiral) Fitzroy [q. v.] as private secretary, when Fitzroy became governor of New Zealand. On 6 Jan. 1844 Sinclair was made colonial secretary in New Zealand, and served as such under Captain (afterwards Sir George) Grey (1848–1855) and Colonel Gore Brown. On the establishment of parliamentary government in May 1856 he retired on a pension, but