Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/205

 fession to become a commissioner of the forfeited estates in Ireland. An uncle's death, and his marriage, placed him in easy circumstances, and he devoted himself to political writing as a constitutional reformer in church and state. His first publication, in conjunction with Walter Moyle [q. v.], was ‘An Argument showing … a Standing Army … inconsistent with a free Government,’ 1697 (thrice reprinted); it was followed by ‘A Short History of Standing Armies in England,’ 1698 (reprinted 1731); much angry controversy ensued. In 1709 he published anonymously ‘The Natural History of Superstition.’ In 1719 began his literary connection with Thomas Gordon (d. 1750) [q. v.], who calls him his ‘first friend’ and ‘the best friend that I ever had.’ They co-operated in the production of ‘The Independent Whig,’ published every Wednesday from 20 Jan. 1720 to 18 June 1721 (to two previous pamphlets they had given the same name), and in the writing of a series of Saturday letters from 5 Nov. 1720 to 27 July 1723, signed ‘Cato.’ The earliest were published in the ‘London Journal,’ later ones in the ‘British Journal.’ The ‘Independent Whig’ was collected into a volume (1721), and swelled by Gordon's additions to 4 volumes (1747). ‘Cato's Letters,’ with six new ones by Gordon, were collected in 4 vols. (1724). Both collections have been often reprinted; in later editions Trenchard's articles are signed ‘T,’ the conjoint articles ‘T and G.’ Some are signed simply ‘G.’ Trenchard, however, as Gordon fully allows, inspired the whole of this joint work by ‘his conversation and strong way of thinking.’

Trenchard was a whig with popular sympathies, but by no means a republican, as his opponents wished to consider him. His unsparing attacks on the high-church party were followed by counter attacks, representing him as a deist, or an enemy of all religion; but he set forth his attachment to Christianity with unequivocal sincerity, and while declaiming against abuses, affirmed his consistent loyalty to the established church. He got into parliament for Taunton, but made no figure in the house.

He died on 17 Dec. 1723, leaving no issue by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Blackett. Gordon, who describes him as ‘strong and well set,’ but ‘scarce ever in perfect health,’ draws a vivid picture of his strenuous character and frank disposition, and hints that on his deathbed Trenchard suggested that Gordon should marry his widow—a marriage which came about.

[Burke's Commoners, iv. 79; Gordon's pref. to Cato's Letters, 1724; Gordon's epitaph for Trenchard in Independent Whig, 1732, vol. ii.; Biographia Britannica, 1766; Toulmin's Hist. of Taunton, 1791, p. 81; Notes and Queries, 9th ser. iii. 203.]  TRENGROUSE, HENRY (1772–1854), inventor of the ‘Rocket’ life-saving apparatus, born at Helston, Cornwall, on 18 March 1772, was son of Nicholas Trengrouse (1739–1814) by his wife, Mary Williams (d. 1784). The family had long been the principal freeholders in Helston. Henry was educated at Helston grammar school, and resided there all his life. Samuel Drew [q. v.] was his intimate friend. On 24 Dec. 1807 he witnessed the wreck of the Anson frigate in Mount's Bay, when over a hundred lives were lost, and this disaster led him to devote his life and patrimony to the discovery of some means for saving lives at shipwrecks. He spent much labour in attempting to devise a lifeboat, but produced no satisfactory results, and turned his attention to the ‘Rocket’ life-saving apparatus.

As early as 1791 Lieutenant John Bell (1747–1798) [q. v.] had devised an apparatus for throwing a line to ships from the shore (Parl. Papers, 1810–11 vol. xi. No. 215, 1814 xi. 417–51; Trans. Soc. of Arts, 1807, vol. xxv.); and, concurrently with Trengrouse, Captain George William Manby [q. v.] was engaged in perfecting an apparatus very similar to Bell's. The idea occurred to Manby in February 1807, and in August he exhibited some experiments to the members of the Suffolk House Humane Society. He sought to establish communication between the shore and the shipwreck by means of a line fastened to a barbed shot which was fired from a mortar on the shore. By means of this line a hawser was drawn out from the shore to the ship, and along it was run a cradle in which the shipwrecked persons were landed. This invention had been recommended by various committees, and adopted to some extent before 1814 (Parl. Papers, new ser. 1816, xix. 193–227). Trengrouse's apparatus, which was designed in 1808, was similar to Manby's in the use of the line and hawser, but instead of a mortar he suggested a rocket, and a chair was used instead of a cradle. The distinctive features of the apparatus consisted of ‘a section of a cylinder, which is fitted to the barrel of a musket by a bayonet socket; a rocket with a line attached to its stick is so placed in it that its priming receives fire immediately from the barrel’ (Parl. Papers, 1825, xxi. 361). The advantages were that the rocket was much lighter and more portable than the mortar; that the cost was much smaller; that there was little