Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/364

 LATIMER

LATROBE

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LATIMER (flary) Elizabeth Wormeley, au- thor, was born in London, England, July 26, 1832 ; daughter of Admiral Ralph Randolph and Caroline (Preble) Wormeley, and niece of Com- modore Edward Preble, U.S.N. Admiral Worme- ley was a Virginian by birth, and was one of the American- born officers who won distinction in the English navy af- ter the Revolution. His daughter was taken to Boston in 1823 and returned to England in 1829, where she was edu- cated. She resided in Paris, 1839 to 18- 42, and then return- ed to Boston, Mass. In 185(5 she married Randolph Brandt Latimer, of Baltimore, and for twenty years devoted herself to domestic duties. In 1876 circumstances induced her to return to literature as a profession. Her parlor lectures given in Baltimore on " English and Italian Literature " and " Historical Gossip from 1822 to 1892" were afterward published in book form. She is the author of : Forest Hill: A Tale of Social Life in 1S30-31 (3 vols., London, 1846); Amabel, a Family History (1853); Our Cousin Veronica ; or, Scenes and Adventures over the Blue Ridge (1856) ; Salvage (1880) ; My Wife and My Wife's Sister (1881); Princess Amelie (1888); A Chain of Errors (1889); Familiar Talks on some of Shakespeare's Comedies (1886) ; France in the XIX Century (1892); Russia and Turkey in the XIX Century (1898); England in the XIX Century (1894); Europe and Africa in the XIX Century (1895) ; Italy in the XIX Century (1896); Spain in the XIX Century (1897); Judea from Cyrus to Titus (1899); Last Years of the XIX Cen- tury (1900), and many contributions to English and American magazines. Her translations in verse include : Coquelin's Hat and Fly, Hugo's Louis VII.; ChildeMiJm ;and BeronXede's Sergent. She also translated Louis Ulbach's Madame Gosse- lin (1878), The Steel Hammer (1888), and For Fifteen Years (1888); Th. Benzon's Jacqueline; Paul Perret's Manette Andre; the last two vol- umes of Renan's People of Israel, and in connec tion with her daughter, Caroline Wormeley Lati- mer, Flammarion's Unknoum and Victor Hugo's Love Letters (1900). In 1899 she issued a volume entitled My Scraphook of the French Revolution, with some allusions to the justice of the claim of the Rev. Eleazer Williams as the lost Dau- phin and rightful successor of Louis XVI.

LATiriER, William Key, naval officer, was born at Annapolis, Md., Sept. 1, 1794 ; sou of Randolph Brandt and Catharine (Howard) Lati- mer ; grandson of Thomas Randolph and Eliza- beth (Swan) Latimer, and a descendant of James Latimer, who immigrated to Maryland from Eng- land about 1680, and married Mary, daughter of Capt. Randolph Brandt, who from about 1674 to 1698 was high in the confidence of Lord Balti- more. He attended St. John's college, Annapolis ; was appointed midshipman in the U.S. navy, Nov. 15, 1809, and was promoted lieutenant, Feb. 4, 1815. He commanded the schooner Grampus in the pursuit of pirates on the coasts of the West India islands, 1826-30 ; was promoted captain, July 17, 1843, and was in command of the navy yard at Pensacola, Fla., during the war with Mexico. He was a member of the board of offi- cers appointed to examine and report on the coasts of Florida and the mouths of the Mississippi river, Sept. 18, 1852, and was I'etired from active service in 1857. He was promoted commodore on the retired list, July 16, 1862, and was ordered on special duty, July 12, 1863. He died in Balti- more, Md.. March 15. 1873.

LATROBE, Benjamin Henry, architect, was born in Yorkshire, England, May 1, 1764 ; son of Benjamin and Julia Latrobe, and a descendant of Henry Boneval de la Trobe, who emigrated from France to Holland, and entering the ser- vice of the Prince of Orange, accompanied him to England and was severely wound- ed in the battle of Boyne. Benjamin

entered a Moravian seminary in Saxony in 1776, and was grad- uated from the Uni- versity of Leipzig. He entered the Prus- sian army in 1785, serving as cornet of Hussars, and was

twice wounded. He resigned his commission in 1788 and was appointed engineer of London and surveyor of the public offices in 1789, and declined a crown surveyorship. He immigrated to the United States in 1796, and was engineer of the James river and Appomattox canal ; built the Richmond, Va., penitentiary and many private dwellings ; removed to Philadelphia, Pa., in 1798, and was the architect of the Bank of Pennsyl- vania, the Academy of Art, and the Bank of the United States, and first introduced the pumping of water from the Schuylkill river to supply the city of Philadelphia in 1800. He designed the