Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/368

Vincent from 1790 to 1807, and lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At this period of his life he had occasion to attend Leigh Hunt, then a boy at Christ's Hospital, who says that 'he was dark, like a West Indian, and I used to think him handsome.' Vincent was admitted a member of the Corporation of Surgeons—the old Surgeons' Company—in 1800, and he became a member of the newly incorporated College of Surgeons on 20 March 1800. He then took his master's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was elected assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on 13 Aug. 1807, becoming full surgeon 29 Jan. 1816. On 22 July 1822 he was elected a member of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons, and on 5 Jan. 1828 he succeeded to the court of examiners in the room of Thompson Forster. He delivered the Hunterian oration in 1829, and he served the office of vice-president in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839, and of president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1832 and 1840. He was elected a fellow of the college when that order was established in 1843. He fell into ill-health and resigned his post of surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on 21 Jan. 1847, when he was appointed a governor of the hospital. But he retained his college offices until 1851. He died of paralysis at Woodlands Manor, near Sevenoaks, on 17 July 1852, and was buried in the church he had built at Woodlands.

Vincent was an able practical surgeon, shrewd in diagnosis, of conservative tendency, and disposed to avoid operations unless they were absolutely necessary.

Vincent married, on 28 May 1812, Maria, daughter of Samuel Parke of Kensington, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons survived him. She died in October 1824, and he then married Elizabeth Mary Williams, who outlived him.

There is a three-quarter-length in oils by E. U. Eddis in the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted by subscription, and was presented on 10 Sept. 1850.

He published 'Hunterian Oration,' London, 1829, 8vo; 'Observations on some Parts of Surgical Practice,' London, 1847, 8vo. [Leigh Hunt's Autobiography; Medical Times and Gazette, July 1852, p. 101; Lancet, 1852, ii. 91; personal recollection by Sir James Paget, bart., F.R.S., and by Luther Holden, esq., formerly president R.C.S.Engl.; private information.]

 VINCENT, NATHANIEL (1639?–1697), nonconformist divine, was probably born in Cornwall about 1639 (cf. epist. ded. to A Present for such as have been Sick).

His father, (1591–1646), son and heir of Thomas Vincent of Northill, Cornwall, born in 1591, matriculated from New College, Oxford, on 15 Dec. 1609, became a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1612, and, afterwards taking orders, was beneficed in Cornwall. Of nonconformist leanings, he was driven thence by his bishop, as well as from so many other livings that it was said no two of his seven children were born in the same county. Coming to London in 1642, he was nominated by the committee of the Westminster assembly to the rich rectory of Sedgefield, Durham, but died after holding it but two years, in 1646. His widow, Sarah Vincent, petitioned on 1 Nov. 1656 and in April 1657 for 60l. which her husband had lent to the parliament (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1656, pp. 146, 147, 185, 191, 329; Addit. MS. 15671, cf. ff. 38, 42, 55, 69, 114, 124, 140, 148, 150, 219, 227, 238, 251). Their eldest son, John, who inherited his grandfather's estate of Northill, is confused by Wood with a son of Augustine Vincent [q. v.] (Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. xxxv). The second son, Thomas, is separately noticed.

Nathaniel, the third son, entered Oxford University as a chorister on 18 Oct. 1648, aged 10. He matriculated from Corpus Christi College on 28 March 1655, graduated B.A. from Christ Church on 13 March 1655-6, M. A. on 11 June 1657, and was chosen chaplain of Corpus Christi College. He was appointed by Cromwell one of the first fellows of Durham University, but never lived there. At twenty he was preaching at Pulborough, Sussex, and at twenty-one was ordained and presented to the rectory of Langley Marish, Buckinghamshire. Thence he was ejected on St. Bartholomew's day, 1662, after which he lived three years as chaplain to Sir Henry and Lady Blount at Tittenhanger, Hertfordshire. About 1666 Vincent went to London. There his preaching at once attracted attention, and a meeting-house was shortly built for him in Farthing Alley, Southwark, where he gathered a large congregation. In spite of fines and rough handling by soldiers sent to drag him from his pulpit, he continued boldly preaching during the stormy times. In July 1670, soon after his marriage, he was confined in the Marshalsea prison. He was removed to the Gatehouse, Westminster, on 22 Aug. (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom., Addenda, 1660-70, p. 546). He remained six months in prison. In 1682 he was again arrested, brought before magistrates at Dorking, and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, after which he was to be banished the country. A flaw, however, was perceived in the indictment, and, after the section