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 to the Sorbonne and to Huyghens. Another correspondent was John Collins (1625–1683) [q. v.], the mathematician, for whom Vernon obtained, through Père Berthet, many foreign scientific works, among which were Descartes's ‘Traité de la Mécanique’ and the third volume of his ‘Letters’ and Pascal's ‘Triangle Arithmétique.’ He also sent the mathematician James Gregory a copy of Fermat's ‘Diophantus.’ Edward Bernard [q. v.], the astronomer, valued Vernon's opinion; and Gregory told Collins he always ‘admired him for his great knowledge in many sciences and languages.’ Vernon's services to science were recognised by his election to the Royal Society on his return to England in 1672, his proposer being Henry Oldenburg [q. v.]

In spite of the dissuasions of his friends, Vernon's ‘itch of rambling’ did not allow him to remain long in England. His last journey was from Venice, through Dalmatia, Greece, and the Archipelago to Persia. Writing from Athens to the English resident at Venice, he said that he had well examined the ruins of the temple at Delphi, and all that was remarkable at Thebes, Corinth, Sparta, and Athens; had clambered up mounts Helicon and Parnassus; and had diligently but vainly searched on the banks of the Alpheus for the Stadium Olympium. Arriving in Persia in the spring of 1677, he became engaged in a quarrel with some Arabs over a penknife, and was murdered by them. He was buried at Ispahan two days afterwards. A letter to Oldenburg, dated 10 Jan. 1675, was printed in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of 1676 (cxxiv. 575, Abridg. ii. 284), under the title ‘Observations made during Travels from Venice through Dalmatia … to Smyrna.’ It was translated into French by Jacob Spon, who incorporated it in his ‘Réponses à la Critique publiée par M. Guillet,’ 1679, 12mo.

Vernon's ‘Journal,’ which was begun at Spalatro and finished at Ispahan, was found among the papers of Dr. Robert Hooke [q. v.] It contains short notes and many inscriptions. Wood says that he left behind him a piece of poetry and several observations on his travels ‘not fit to be published because imperfect and indigested.’ A Latin poem entitled ‘Oxonium Poema,’ published in 1667, under the initials ‘F. V. ex æde Christi,’ has been identified as by Vernon. It is a description of Oxford and its environs.

 VERNON, GEORGE (1578?–1639), judge, only son of Sir Thomas Vernon of Haslington, Cheshire, by Dorothy, daughter of William Egerton of Betley in the same county, was born about 1578. He was admitted in November 1594 a student at the Inner Temple, where in 1603 he was called to the bar, and in the autumn of 1621 and in Lent 1627 was reader. He was also in 1627 called to the degree of serjeant-at-law (4 July), advanced to a seat in the court of exchequer (13 Nov.), and knighted (23 Dec.) Thence he was transferred on 8 May 1632 to the court of common pleas. In the following year he was placed on the ecclesiastical commission (17 Dec.) He concurred with his colleagues of the common-law bench in the extrajudicial opinion in favour of the legality of ship-money, signed on 7 Feb. 1636–1637, and also, by writing, being absent by reason of ill-health, in the judgment in Hampden's case. He died at Serjeants' Inn on 16 Dec. 1639. His remains were interred (18 Dec.) in the Temple church. His contemporary, Sir George Croke, describes him as ‘a man of great reading in the statutes and common law, and of extraordinary memory.’

Vernon married twice: first, Jane, daughter of Richard Corbet of Stoke, Shropshire; secondly, Alice, daughter of Sir George Booth of Dunham, Cheshire. By his second wife he had no issue; by the first he had three daughters, of whom the second and survivor, Muriel, married Henry Vernon of Sudbury, Derbyshire, ancestor of George Venables Vernon, first lord Vernon of Kinderton (created on 1 May 1762).

 VERNON, GEORGE (1637–1720), divine, born in 1637, was a native of Cheshire, but his name does not figure in the pedigree of any branches of the well-known Cheshire family of Vernon (, Cheshire, iii. passim). He was admitted as a