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 in Paris. He practised for some years as a surgeon in Great Marlborough Street, London, and published in 1783 ‘A Treatise upon Ulcers of the Legs.’ In 1788 he published on the same subject ‘Surgical Tracts on Ulcers of the Legs.’ On 5 April 1784 he was admitted a licentiate in midwifery of the College of Physicians of London, and was the last survivor of that kind of practitioner. Thenceforward he practised as a man-midwife. He was attached to the British Lying-in Hospital, and attended the Princess of Wales at the birth of the Princess Charlotte on 7 Jan. 1796. He published in 1784 ‘A Treatise on the Diseases of Children,’ of which a fuller edition appeared in 1801, consisting of one volume on medical diseases, one on the surgery of childhood, and one on the general management of infants; a fifth edition appeared in 1805. The work was edited in 1835 in a ninth edition by Marshall Hall [q. v.], and a tenth in 1846 by Henry Davies [q. v.], and was translated into French by De Willebrune. It is based upon extensive clinical observation, was the best treatise on the subject which had appeared in English, and may still be consulted with advantage. Underwood died at Knightsbridge on 14 March 1820.

[Works; Munk's College of Physicians, ii. 336.] 

UNTON or UMPTON, HENRY (1557?–1596), diplomatist and soldier, was second son of Sir Edward Unton or Umpton of Wadley, near Faringdon, Berkshire, by his wife Anne, eldest daughter of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, Edward VI's protector, and widow of John Dudley, commonly called Earl of Warwick, eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland. The marriage of his parents was solemnised on 29 April 1555 at Hatford in Berkshire, near the bridegroom's house at Wadley. The father, Sir Edward, belonged to a Berkshire family, which traced its pedigree to the time of Edward IV; he was knighted at Queen Elizabeth's coronation in January 1558–9, was sheriff of the county in 1567, and M.P. in 1572, and entertained Queen Elizabeth at his residence at Wadley in July 1574 (, Progresses, i. 391). He died on 16 Sept. 1583, and was buried in Faringdon church. An unpublished fragment of an itinerary of a journey made by Sir Edward in Italy in 1563–4 is in the British Museum (Sloane MS. 1813). His wife, who was always known as the Countess of Warwick, was in October 1582 declared of unsound mind. She survived till February 1587–8. The sermon preached at her burial at Faringdon church was printed (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–90, p. 74). The elder son, Edward, was M.P. for Berkshire in 1555 and 1586, and ‘was slain in the Portugall voyage’ in 1589.

Henry, born about 1557 at Wadley, was educated, like his elder brother Edward, at Oriel College, Oxford, where he supplicated for the degree of B.A. in October 1573. He was created M.A. on 14 July 1590. He became a student of the Middle Temple in 1575, and subsequently travelled in France and Italy. In 1584 he was elected M.P. for New Woodstock. On his return he was employed by Sir Christopher Hatton, lord chancellor, who commended him to the queen.

Unton, with his friend Sir William Hatton, nephew and heir of Sir Christopher Hatton, accompanied the Earl of Leicester's army to the Low Countries in 1585. On 22 Sept. 1586, he and Hatton were engaged in the affair at Zutphen, in which Sir Philip Sidney received his fatal wound. Leicester wrote six days later to Walsingham, that Unton and Hatton ‘a horseback or foote’ had shown a courage and eagerness for fight which none other in the army excelled (Leycester Correspondence, Camden Soc., pp. 416–417). Unton was knighted by Leicester on 29 Sept.

Unton made the acquaintance of the Earl of Essex in the Low Countries, and, apparently owing to the earl's influence with the queen, he was nominated in July 1591 to the office of ambassador to Henry IV of France. Henry was then engaged in his fierce struggle with the forces of the League, and Elizabeth had sent small armies to his aid. Essex was in command of one English detachment in Normandy, and Sir John Norris headed another in Brittany. Unton was directed to encourage Henry to hold out against his foes, but he was warned against committing the queen to a long continuance of her active support. On 11 Nov. 1591 Henry laid siege to Rouen, which was in the hands of the forces of the League. Unton accompanied him, and remained with Henry until he was forced to raise the siege in April. Personally Unton recommended himself to the French king, and they were soon on terms of intimacy. In January 1592 Unton was at Henry's side at the skirmish of Aumale, when the king was severely wounded. In the spring there reached Unton's ears the report that the young Duke of Guise had spoken of Queen Elizabeth ‘impudently, lightly, and overboldly.’ He thereupon sent a challenge to the duke, proposing to meet