with no inconsiderable personal ex- ertions, formed a plan for uniting the summits of Snow-hill and Holborn-hill, by forming a level across the inter- mediate valley by a handsome bridge, under which the road from Black Friars to the great North road might conve- niently have been carried. For this purpose, every inch of ground had been measured by himself, and every exist- ing house surveyed, between the hours of four and six, of more than thirty mornings, and an accurate plan and design were communicated to a com- mittee appointed for the purpose by the Corporation of London; who, in their Report on the subject, sanctioned by their surveyor, the late George Dance, Esq., highly commended the plan, but objected to the cost of it, though at least as great an expense was afterwards incurred for a very disproportionate improvement. Thanks to Mr. Pridden were unanimously voted by the Corpo- ration; and thus the business termin- ated.
Another favourite idea of his, taken up when resident at Caddington, was the more effectual drainage of the Fens in the several counties of Northampton, Suffolk, Lincoln, Cambridge, Hunting- don, and the Isle of Ely, commonly called "The great Level of the Fens,' which is under the direction of a highly- respectable corporation, called "Go- vernors of the Bedford Level." To this subject he paid great attention; and suggested several useful hints, which in various conferences he com- municated to the proper officers of the Corporation.
In 1803 he preached a sermon for the Anniversary Meeting of the Charity Children in St. Paul's Cathedral. This discourse was afterwards printed.
He was a zealous supporter of the Royal Humane Society, having for thirty-three years been one of the gratuitous chaplains and managers of that institution; and frequently advo- cated the cause of that excellent public charity in the pulpit. He was also for some time the Honorary Secretary of the Sea-Bathing Infirmary at Margate; of which (with Dr. Lettsom and Mr. Nichols) he was one of the original founders; the freehold on which the Infirmary was built having been pur- chased in their names. He also fur nished the design from which the build- ing was erected. During several suc- cessive years, accompanied by the writer
of this memoir, he attended the Anni- versary of the Governors of the In- firmary; and at intervals inspected the churches in the Isle of Thanet, all of which are antient, and most of them very curious. Neat drawings were made of all these religious edifices. The registers were examined; the remark- able epitaphs copied, and the numerous brass plates rolled off, with a view to an improved edition of Mr. Lewis's "His- tory of the Isle of Thanet." He also meditated a much-improved "Margate Guide." But both these were aban- doned from the pressure of professional and other important avocations.
In 1812 he was presented by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to the united rectories of St. George, Botolph-lane, and St. Botolph, Billingsgate; a pre- ferment the more acceptable, as (though he was in some degree a pluralist) the whole of his appointments were com- paratively small; and his constitution, originally robust, showed evident marks of approaching decay.
In the performance of his clerical du- ties he was most exemplary. In the pulpit he was familiar and energetic, and in the desk devout and impressive. His voice, naturally good, he learned to modulate with skill; and in the sub- limity of the burial service he particu- larly excelled. Nothing could be su- perior to his delivery of "I am the Resurrection and the Life," &c. In the cathedral, his chaunting never failed to excite admiration, more especially when, associated with his cordial friend the late Rev. John Moore, the Litany, that exquisite portion of the morning service of the Church, was delivered by the union of their powerful and well- assorted voices.
He prided himself on the beautiful regularity of his hand-writing in his entries in the registers of his various parishes. Copious extracts from the early registers of Heybridge were com- municated by him to Mr. Nichols for the "Illustrations of the Manners and Expenses of ancient Times in England," 1797.
In the progress of the "History of Leicestershire,' a period of more than twenty years, Mr. Pridden frequently accompanied Mr. Nichols in his visits to the several churches in that county, and made drawings of all that he visited, many of which he contributed to the numerous embellishments of that copi- ous county history; in which every
church, with many of the monuments, public buildings, &c. are engraved, to the amount of nearly 500 folio plates.
In 1794 he was persuaded by a late learned dignitary of the Church, to un- dertake a task which that worthy divine had begun, but found more laborious than his clerical duties would enable him to pursue, an ample epitome, under the name of an Index, to the six volumes of the Rolls of Parliament. This laborious task he nearly completed, but in so mi- nute and voluminous a manner, that it employed more than 30 years of his life, and deeply embittered the latter part of it.
Mr. Pridden was twice married; first to Anne, daughter of his old friend and patron, Mr. Nichols,-she died in 1815; and secondly, to Anne, daughter of an- other of his old friends, Mr. Deputy Pickwoad, who survives him; but by neither had he any issue.
His remains were interred on the 12th of April, at his express desire, in the same grave with those of his first wife, in Islington Church-yard. old and intimate friend, the Rev. Dr. Dakins, precentor of Westminster Ab- bey, performed the funeral service with deep feeling; and the Rev. Dr. Fly, and the Rev. Dr. Vivian, Minor-Ca- nons of St. Paul's, with his brothers-in- law, &c. attended as mourners.-Gen- tleman's Magazine.
PULLER, Sir Christopher; late of the Oxford circuit; chief justice of Ben- gal; at Calcutta, about five weeks after his arrival in the East Indies.
Sir Christopher Puller was the son of C. Puller, Esq. for many years an emi- nent merchant in Great Winchester- street, in the city, but who has retired from business for some time, and is now living at Painswick in Gloucestershire. He was at an early age sent to Eton school, where he distinguished himself beyond his companions in classical at- tainments, and in the year 1790, he went off to Christchurch, Oxford, se- cond in celebrity only to Mr. Canning. At that time this distinguished college was in the zenith of its reputation, un- der the government of Dr. Cyril Jack- son, its great and memorable dean. Mr. C. Puller had for his contempor- aries at Christchurch, some of the most leading men of the present day in the various departments of Church and State; the Earl of Liverpool, Mr. Can- ning, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Lords Gran- ville Levison (now Viscount Granville),
Holland, Morpeth, and Amherst, the late Sir John Newbolt, Lord John Be- resford (now an Irish Archbishop), the Bishop of Exeter, and many others who have since attained a high rank in their respective professions. With most of these Mr. C. Puller was connected in intimacy and friendship, and he signal- ized himself beyond all of them, with few exceptions, in the college and uni- versity exercises. In the year 1793 be gained the university prize for under- graduates, by a copy of Latin hexame- ters on the subject of Ludi Scenici. This composition was conceived in the true spirit of Roman poetry, and dis- played an intimate acquaintance with the best models, united with the purest taste. The following lines, addressed to Athens, are a fair specimen : O magna Heroum nutrix, sanctissima sedes!
Urbs armis opibusque potens, latèque subacto
Nobilitate mari! tu sera in secula sce-
Audis prima parens! festis assueta te- porum
Illecebris, aut ficto avidè indulgere do- lori.
Tuque Ilisse pater! celsus qui Palladis
Et divum delubra tuis surgentia ripis, Vidisti, musis longùm acceptissimus amnis,
Dic age, sancte parens, &c.
Then follows a most animated de- scription of the excellencies of Æschy- lus, Sophocles, and Euripides, an apt account of Aristophanes and Menander, a short mention of the Latin comedy, and a most beautiful and characteristic eulogium upon our own divine bard Shakspeare, too long for insertion, but which may be safely recommended to the admirers of classical literature, as an admirable imitation of the peculiar merits of Latin verse, so delicate in ex- pression and vigorous in meaning. Soon after this success in the Univer- sity, Mr. C. Puller was elected to a fellowship of Oriel, and gave up his re- sidence at Oxford for the more smoky atmosphere of Lincoln's Inn. Re- signing the charms of ancient lore, and withstanding the fascinations of tasteful reading, he gave himself up to the pro- fession of the law with unremitted dili- gence and attention. In 1796 he under- took, in conjunction with his friend Mr. John Bernard (now Serjeant) Bo- sanquet, the reporting of the "Cases
argued and determined in the Courts of Common Pleas and Exchequer Cham- ber." The reporters were assisted in this task by the countenance and pa- tronage of the successive Chief Justices Eyre, Eldon, Alvanley, and Mansfield; the former, Lord Chief Justice Eyre, and we believe Lord Eldon also, hav- ing corrected all their judgments. These reports extend through three folio and two octavo volumes, and are cited in the Courts of Law as undoubted authori. ties of credit and fidelity; the former under the abbreviated title of Bos. and Pull., the latter under that of "New Reports." Mr. C. Puller in 1800
was called to the bar, and in a very short time rose to eminence and prac- tice at the Worcester and Stafford Quarter Sessions, and on the Oxford Circuit. His city connections also made him known at Guild-hall, and his talents and diligence were encou- raged and rewarded by considerable business in the mercantile causes tried at that place. He pursued his career without the bar very successfully until the end of 1822, when he was promoted to the highest rank in the profession, independently of judicial elevation, be- ing made a King's Counsel at the same time with Messrs. Taunton, Shadwell, Adam, and Sugden.
In the summer of 1823, the Chief Justiceship of Bengal was offered to him in the most handsome manner by Mr. Wynne, the President of the Board of Controul, which was too splendid an appointment to be refused. He ac- cepted it, trusting to a constitution na- turally good, and to his long-established habits of temperance, that he should, under the permission of God, be able to resist the climate. But it was other- wise ordered by the Divine will. sailed from England in November, de- barked in April, and after a five weeks' residence at Calcutta, fell a victim to fever. Sir C. Puller was endowed with a sound understanding, a vigorous mind, and with powers of indefatigable application. As a scholar he had im- bibed that chaste and severe taste which an education at a public school and an English University seldom fails to give. As a lawyer he was distinguished by the strictest principles and the most ho- nourable conduct, too proud to stoop to those meannesses which some gentle- men do not disdain to adopt to acquire business, and never swerving, for any temporary purpose, from the right line
of rectitude and probity which he had marked out to himself as the path to be pursued. He married Miss Louisa King, the daughter of King, esq. and a niece of Daniel Giles, esq. of Youngsbury, county of Herts. In his domestic relations he was above all praise, and no one can do justice to him as a son, a husband, and a father. Nor are these practical excellencies to be considered as singular, for through life his virtues were sustained, his ac- tions directed, and his hopes invigorated by the faith of a real Christian.—Gen- tleman's Magazine.
PURVIS, John Child, Esq. Ad- miral of the Blue, at his seat, Vicars- Hill House, near Lymington, Hants. Admiral Purvis was descended from a very respectable family in the county of Norfolk. His grandfather, George Purvis, was an old Post-Captain, and, at the time of his demise, one of the Commissioners of the Navy Board. Of the period of his birth, or of his enter- ing the service, we are not in posses- sion; but at the commencement of the war with France, in 1778, we find bim serving on the American station, as a lieutenant of the Invincible, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Evans, in which ship he returned to England; and on his arrival was ap- pointed to the Britannia, a first rate, carrying the flag of Vice- Admiral Dar- by, with whom he remained until his promotion to the rank of Commander.
On the 19th of August, 1782, Cap- tain Purvis, being on a cruise off Cape Henry, in the Duc de Chartres, of 16 guns and 125 men, fell in with, and after a smart action captured, the French corvette l'Aigle, of 22 guns and 136 men, of whom 13, including their commander, were slain, and 12 wounded. The British sloop had not a man hurt. For his gallant conduct on this occasion, Captain Purvis was posted, September 1, following; but peace taking place soon after, we find
no further mention of him till the com- mencement of hostilities against the French Republic, in February, 1793, when he was appointed to the Amphi- trite frigate, and subsequently to the Princess Royal, a second rate, in which latter ship he was ordered to Gibral tar, to receive the flag of Rear-Admiral Goodall, and from thence proceeded with the fleet under Lord Hood, to the southern coast of France.
On the 29th of August, the fleet en-
tered the port of Toulon, and Rear- Admiral Goodall having been appoint- ed governor of that town, Captain Purvis received directions to take the Princess Royal as high up the N. W. arm of the harbour, and as near the enemy's batteries, as possible. This being done, and the ship properly placed, not a day passed in the course of the six weeks she was so stationed, without an engagement with the repub- licans; and notwithstanding their works (being constructed with casks, sand- bags, fascines, &c.) were soon disabled, they invariably repaired the damages during the night, and again presented complete batteries on the ensuing morn- ing. The Princess Royal was conse- quently much cut up, and had many men killed and wounded. The loss sustained by the enemy was also very considerable.
We next find Captain Purvis assist- ing at the reduction of St. Fiorenzo, and Bastia. He likewise participated in the partial actions of March 14, and July 13, 1795; and was subsequently employed in the blockade of a French squadron, consisting of seven ships of the line and five frigates, in Gourjan bay.
The Princess Royal having returned to England, was paid off in the month of November, 1796, and Captain Pur- vis soon after obtained the command of the London, another second-rate, at- tached to the Channel fleet. In this ship he remained near four years, under the orders of Admirals Lords Bridport, St. Vincent, and Gardner, Sir Henry Harvey, and Lord Keith.
Early in 1801, the London, in con- sequence of her easy draught of water, was selected to form part of the ex- pedition destined for the Baltic, and Captain Purvis was appointed to the Royal George, of 100 guns, into which ship he removed off Ushant, and con- tinued to command her until April 1802, on the 24th of which month she was put out of commission.
The rupture with France in 1803, again called our officer into service; and from that period until his promo-
* In this action the Princess Royal had 3 men killed, and 8 wounded. The Ca Ira, of 80 guns, one of the French ships captured on this occasion, surrendered to her, after being warmly engaged with several others of the Bri- tish line.
tion to the rank of Rear-Admiral, April 23, 1804, he commanded the Dread- nought, of 98 guns, and served under the orders of the Hon. Admiral Corn- wallis, in the Channel. On the 1st of June, 1806, he hoisted his flag on board the Chiffoné, and proceeded off Cadiz, the blockade of which port lasted two years and seven months, after his arrival on that station, one year of which it was conducted by himself during the absence of Lord Collingwood in the Mediterranean; and what is here worthy of remark, the Rear-Admiral conti- nued at sea at one time, without ever being driven through the Gut, or even letting go an anchor, for the space of nineteen months, during which period not a square-rigged vessel entered or quitted the harbour, except on one oc- casion, when several were allowed to proceed, having regular passes from England.
In the spring of 1808, at which pe- riod Cadiz was threatened to be invested by the satellites of an adventurer, who had already usurped the throne of France, and compelled another branch of the Bourbon family to renounce his legal inheritance, Rear-Admiral Pur- vis and Major-General Spencer, with whom he co-operated, appear to have rendered essential service to the com- mon cause, by establishing peace and friendship with the Supreme Council of Seville, at least as far as they had authority to go.
Rear-Admiral Purvis having trans- mitted to the Governor of Gibraltar, Lieutenant-General Sir Hew Dal- rymple, the state of Cadiz, there being great commotion, and a strong dispo- sition in the inhabitants to resist the power of France, that officer detached Major-General Spencer, with a corps under his command consisting of 2,500 men, with directions to concert with the Rear-Admiral such measures as circum- stances might render necessary for the advantage of the public service. The Major-General in consequence having taken up his residence with his naval co- adjutor, those officers immediately de- termined on circulating certain papers, with invitations to the various descrip- tions of persons who were most likely to accede to their desires. No reply, however, was returned, and on the ap- pearance of the transports all the French and Spanish ships were moved up the Channel leading to the Caraccas. On the 18th of May an address was de-
spatched to the Marquis Solano, Go. vernor-General of the province of An- dalusia, who acknowledged the receipt of the letter, but requested no more communications of the kind should be forwarded to him. The marquis soon afterwards fell a victim to the fury of the populace.
At length, after several long con- ferences and many letters had passed between the British commanders and the leading persons of Cadiz, parti- cularly stipulating on the part of the former that the French ships should be made over to them as a preliminary act, a convention was signed by each party; but nothing could induce the Spaniards to allow their new friends to interfere in the capture of those vessels, nor would they permit the English troops to take post in the vicinity of the port, declaring that they were them- selves in sufficient force to reduce their quondam ally, whom they afterwards at- tacked, and compelled to surrender at discretion.
Affairs were in this state when, on the 11th of June, Lord Collingwood came into the fleet, and Rear-Admiral Purvis delivered to his Lordship the de- spatches he had made up for the in- formation of the Government at home.
Towards the close of the same year, the Commander-in-Chief having re- sumed his station off Toulon, Rear- Admiral Purvis, on the receipt of in- telligence that the French had possessed themselves of Madrid, proceeded from Gibraltar to Cadiz, in the Atlas of 74 guns, in order to secure the Spanish feet from falling into the hands of the enemy. On his arrival he found only one ship of the line and a frigate in commission, and all the others in sad disorder in every respect. His first object was to obtain permission to fit the Spanish ships and prepare them for sea, for which purpose he applied to the Governor of Cadiz, the Commandant- General of the Marine, and the Prince de Montforte, Governor-General of the province. The replies made to his letters were by no means satisfactory, except that from the Prince de Mont- forte, who assured the Rear-Admiral that he would without delay submit his proposal to the consideration of the
* The French squadron at Cadiz, consisted of five ships of the line and one frigate, under the orders of a Flag- officer.
Supreme Central Government of the kingdom. In consequence of this he- sitation on the part of the Spanish au- thorities, much time was wasted before the ships could be fitted for service: however, the necessary orders being at length issued, and a large supply of cables and cordage brought from the stores at Gibraltar, all those which were deemed sea-worthy were rigged and brought down from the Caraccas by the British seamen; the remainder were appropriated for the reception of the French prisoners, there being at that time confined in them and at Isle Leon, nearly 13,000 sailors and soldiers of that nation.
On the 23d of January, 1810, Vice- Admiral Purvis learnt that the French had forced the passes and were march- ing in great force towards Cadiz, where- upon he obtained the Governor's con- sent to his blowing up the forts and bat- teries along the east side of the harbour, a measure which he had before proposed without effect. On the 7th of March following, during the prevalence of a heavy gale of wind, a Spanish three- decker and two third-rates, together with a Portuguese 74, were driven on shore on the east side of the harbour, and there destroyed by the hot shot from the enemy's batteries.
Fort Matagorda having been garri- soned by British soldiers, seamen, and marines, the French on the 21st of April opened their masked batteries at Trocadero, and commenced a heavy fire on it and the San Paula, which ship had been officered and manned by the English. The latter was in a very short time on fire in several places, oc- casioned by the hot shot; but the wind being easterly she cut her cables, ran to leeward of the fleet, and by great exertions the flames were extinguished. The fort was bravely defended by Cap- tain Maclaine of the 94th regiment, until it became a heap of rubbish, when the garrison was brought off by the boats of the men of war. On the 28th of the same month, Admiral Sir Charles Cotton arrived at Cadiz in the Lively frigate, on his way to the Mediterra- nean, to assume the command of the fleet on that station, vacant by the recent demise of the gallant Collingwood.
At this period Vice-Admiral Purvis had an application from the British
* He had been advanced to that rank, October 25, in the preceding year.
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