Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/379

 reported on the sanitary condition of Birmingham and fourteen other towns. In the autumn of 1847 he was again returned for Shrewsbury, holding his seat till the middle of 1852. He was re-elected in 1857, and again in 1859, remaining in parliament till his death in 1862. He also filled the office of magistrate and deputy lieutenant for Shropshire, and was high sheriff of that county in 1854. In August 1860 he set out on a journey to the United States and Canada, visiting Boston, Quebec, Montreal, Chicago, St. Louis, and Washington, returning in November of the same year. Next year, 1861, he published an account of his tour in ‘Short Journal of a visit to Canada and the States of America in 1860.’

A bold rider to hounds, a fine shot, and a good naturalist, Slaney died on 19 May 1862 at his residence, Bolton Row, Piccadilly, from the effects of falling through a gap in the floor at the opening of the International Exhibition. He married Elizabeth, daughter of W. H. Muccleston, M.D., by whom he had three daughters: Elizabeth Frances, who married, in 1835, Thomas Campbell Eyton; Mary, who married W. Wynne, esq., of Peniarth; and Frances Catherine, who married Captain William Kenyon, son of the Hon. Thomas Kenyon of Pradoe, and inherited the family estates at Hatton Grange, Shropshire. Captain Kenyon subsequently adopted the name of Slaney (, County Families, v. ‘Kenyon-Slaney’). After the death of his first wife, Slaney married, secondly, in 1853, Catherine, widow of T. Archer, esq.

Among his publications, besides those already noted and some parliamentary speeches, were: 1. ‘An Essay on the Employment of the Poor,’ 1819; 2nd edit. 1822. 2. ‘Essay on the Beneficial Direction of Rural Expenditure,’ 1824. 3. ‘An Outline of the Smaller British Birds,’ 1832. 4. ‘A Plea for the Working Classes,’ 1847; with two small volumes of rather commonplace verse, entitled 5. ‘A few Verses from Shropshire,’ 1846, and 6. ‘A few more Verses from Shropshire,’ 1855.

[Gent. Mag. 1862, i. 794 (see also Ann. Register, 1862, inaccurate in some points); Times, 21 May 1862; Burke's Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, iv. 503; Hansard, passim; Works; Brit. Mus. Cat.; information from Colonel W. Kenyon-Slaney, M.P., his grandson.]

 SLANNING, NICHOLAS (1606–1643), royalist, son of Gamaliel Slanning of Maristow, Devonshire, by Margaret Marler, was born about 2 Sept. 1606 (, The Slannings of Leye Bickleigh and Maristow, p. 9). In November 1628 he was admitted to the Inner Temple, was knighted on 24 Aug. 1632, and was appointed governor of Pendennis Castle on 17 April 1635 (ib.) In 1639 he served in the army collected for the first Scottish war (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1638–9, pp. 502, 580). He represented the borough of Plympton in the Short parliament of 1640, and Penryn in the Long parliament.

Slanning was one of the fifty-nine Straffordians whose names were posted up in Palace Yard as voting against the bill for Strafford's attainder. When Sir Ralph Hopton entered Cornwall and set up the king's standard there, Slanning raised a foot regiment and joined him (, Rebellion, vi. 244). Slanning, who is described as general of the ordnance in Hopton's army, fought throughout the western campaign, specially distinguishing himself at the battles of Bradock Down (19 Jan. 1643), at Sourton Down (April 1643), and at Stratton (16 May 1643). At Lansdowne (5 July 1643), with three hundred musketeers, he beat Waller's reserve of dragoons, and had a horse killed under him. In the retreat to Devizes he commanded Hopton's rear-guard, and his Cornish foot soldiers completed the victory at Roundway Down on 13 July 1643 (ib. vi. 249, vii. 88, 106, 111). When Rupert took Bristol by storm (26 July 1643), the Cornish were assigned the task of assaulting the Somerset side of the city, where the fortifications were strongest, and were repulsed with great loss. Slanning was mortally wounded, and died about September following (ib. vii. 132;, Prince Rupert, ii. 258; , p. 12).

Clarendon describes Slanning as a man ‘of a small stature, but very handsome and of a lovely countenance, of excellent parts and invincible courage. … He was of a very acceptable presence, great wit, and spake very well, and with notable vivacity, and was well beloved by the people.’ He told Clarendon, who came to visit him after he was wounded, ‘that he had always despised bullets, having been so used to them, and almost thought they could not hit him,’ and ‘professed great joy and satisfaction in the losing his life in the king's service’ (, Rebellion, vi. 121 n. ed. Macray).

Slanning's estates were sequestrated by the parliament (Cal. of Committee for Compounding, p. 2210). He married, on 23 Sept. 1625, Gertrude, daughter of Sir James Bagge, of Little Saltram, and left a son Nicholas, who was created a baronet on 19 Jan. 1663, and was governor of Plymouth in 1688, when the Prince of Orange landed. He died in 1692. Margaret, Slanning's eldest