Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/326

Singleton and Drawing;' this interesting group, which contains forty portraits, was engraved in 1802 by C. Bestland, and is in the possession of the Royal Academy, Portraits by Singleton of Lord Nelson, Admiral Vernon, and others have been engraved. A small but vigorous portrait by him of Lord Howe is in the National Portrait Gallery. A portrait group of James Boswell [q. v.], with his wife and family, was lent by Mr. Ralph Dundas to the Edinburgh Loan Exhibition of Scottish National Portraits in 1884. Singleton was a candidate for academic honours in 1807, but withdrew his name on being unsuccessful on the first occasion. He resided during the latter part of his life in Charles Street, St. James's, being in easy circumstances, and for some years was the oldest living exhibitor at the Royal Academy. He died, unmarried, at the house of a friend in Kensington Gore on 15 Sept. 1839, and was buried in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. A large collection of sketches by Singleton, and also of engravings from his works, is in the print-room of the British Museum. Sarah MacKlarinan Singleton, who resided with him for twenty or thirty years, latterly at No. 4 Haymarket, appears to have been his sister. She was also an artist, and exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy from 1788 to 1813. Maria M. Singleton, who exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy in 1787 and 1788, and again from 1808 to 1810, appears to have been another sister. Joseph Singleton, who exhibited miniatures at the Royal Academy from 1777 to 1783, was probably of the same family.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1839, ii. 430; Seguier's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1893.]

 SINGLETON, ROBERT or JOHN (d. 1544), Roman catholic divine, belonging to a Lancashire family, was educated at Oxford, but does not appear to have graduated. He became a priest, and for some utterances which were accounted treasonable was brought before a court of bishops in 1543, and was executed at Tyburn on 7 March 1543-4, along with Germain Gardiner and John Larke. Bale mentions him favourably, and Possevino, the Jesuit, in his 'Apparatus Sacer,' styles him a martyr for the church of Rome. He is said to have written: 1. 'Treatise of the Seven Churches.' 2. 'Of the Holy Ghost.' 3. 'Comment on certain Prophecies.' 4. 'Theory of the Earth,' dedicated to Henry VII. Tanner calls the last 'Of the Seven Ages of the World.' None seem to have been printed.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 144; Dodd's Church Hist. 1737. i. 215; Tanner's Bibliotheca Brit. 1748, p. 668.]

 SINGLETON, ROBERT CORBET (1810–1881), hymn-writer, was the second son of Francis Corbet of Aclaro, co. Meath, and was born on 9 Oct. 1810. His father added Singleton to his name in 1820. After a course of education at Dublin schools the younger Singleton entered Trinity College, where he graduated B.A. in 1830 and M.A. in 1833. After his ordination he was appointed first warden of St. Columbe's College, Rathfarnham, near Dublin, which was opened in 1843; thence he proceeded to St. Peter's College, Radley, of which he was the first warden (1847–1851), being succeeded by William Sewell [q. v.] In the former year he was admitted ad eundem to Trinity College, Oxford. His first work was 'The Psalter arranged for Chanting,' 1846, and this was followed by an English version of 'The Works of Virgil,' 1855. In 1868 he edited, in conjunction with Dr. E. G. Monk, 'The Anglican Hymn-Book' (2nd edit. 1871), in which there are nearly thirty original hymns by him, besides numerous translations from the German and Latin. A second edition of his translation of Virgil appeared in 1871. He died at York on 7 Feb. 1881, and was buried on the 12th in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

[Julian's Dict, of Hymnology; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; O'Donoghue's Posts of Ireland; Leeper's Handbook to St. Patrick's Cathedral.]  SINGLETON, THOMAS (1783–1842), archdeacon of Northumberland, born in 1783, was the only son of Thomas Anketell Singleton, of the family of Fort Singleton in Monaghan, and lieutenant-governor of Fort Landguard in Suffolk, by his wife, daughter of Francis Grose [q. v.] the antiquary, He was educated at Eton, which he entered about 1797, and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1804 and M.A. in 1826. At Eton he acquired the friendship of Hugh, earl Percy (afterwards third duke of Northumberland [q. v.]), and at Cambridge he acted as the earl's tutor. He acted as private secretary to the earl on his embassy to Paris, and while he held the office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In 1812 the earl presented him to the rectory of Elsdon, and in 1826 he was appointed archdeacon of Northumberland and rector of Howick. In 1829 he became a prebendary of Worcester, and in 1830 received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dublin University. In 1837 he requested 