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Oswald pole was already in Paris on a negotiation with France concerning St. Eustatia, and he resented the presence of Oswald. Thomas Grenville was despatched by Fox to treat for peace with the French government, and he was very soon incensed against Oswald as the exponent of the views of Fox's opponent in the English ministry. Grenville on 4 June despatched an angry epistle to his leader, who answered it with equal indignation; but Fox could not succeed in obtaining the recall of Oswald, and the situation ended in the withdrawal of Grenville from his mission and the retirement of Fox and his friends from the cabinet on the death of the Marquis of Rockingham. Ultimately a commission, dated 25 July 1782, was granted to Oswald, authorising him to make peace with the American colonies, and he was afterwards assisted in the negotiations by Alleyne Fitzherbert, baron St. Helens [q. v.], and Henry Strachey. After much difficulty, preliminary articles of peace were signed at Paris by Oswald and the American commissioners on 30 Nov. 1782. The definitive Treaty of Versailles between England and France, Spain and the United States, was concluded on 3 Sept. 1783, but the signature of Oswald was not affixed to it, as by that time his patron was out of office. The earlier proceedings respecting the appointment of a negotiator were marked by the tortuous ways for which Lord Shelburne was conspicuous, and the conduct of Oswald himself was sometimes indiscreet; but the outcome was not unsatisfactory. England acknowledged the independence of the revolted colonies, who relinquished their claims on Canada and Nova Scotia on condition that England abandoned her claim of compensation for the loyal colonists. Oswald's correspondence with Lord Shelburne forms part of vols. lxx. and lxxi. of the manuscripts of the Marquis of Lansdowne, and is set out in the 'Historical Manuscripts Commission,' 5th Rep. App. pp. 239–42, and in Fitzmaurice's 'Life of Lord Shelburne,' iii. 175–302, 413–16. On the conclusion of the preliminary agreement Franklin and Oswald exchanged portraits; the portrait of the former was given by Oswald's nephew to Mr. Joseph Parkes (Mag. of American Hist. xxvii. 472-3;, Administrations, p. 43).

Oswald died at Auchincruive on 6 Nov. 1784 without issue, and the estate is now in the possession of the descendant of his elder brother. His widow died at Great George Street, Westminster, their town house, on 6 Dec. 1788, and her remains were carried to Scotland for burial. Burns, who spent his 'early years in her neighbourhood and among her servants and tenants,' wrote a bitter ode in her memory, dwelling on her 'unhonour'd years,' and her hands 'that took but never gave.' But he candidly confesses in a letter to Dr. John Moore (23 March 1789) that his 'poetic wrath' was roused by the fact that the arrival of her funeral pageantry at the inn at Sanquhar forced him and horse, both much fatigued, to ride twelve miles further to the next inn on 'a night of snow and drift.'

(d. 1819) of Scotstoun, near Glasgow, who died on 6 Oct. 1819, aged 84, was Oswald's nephew. He was head of the tobacco firm of Oswald, Dennistoun, & Co. at Glasgow, and partner in the old 'Ship Bank.' In 1797 he was elected rector of Glasgow University, and he sat for his portrait to Gainsborough.

 OSWELL, WILLIAM COTTON (1818–1893), 'the Nimrod of South Africa,' was born at Levtonstone, Essex, on 27 April 1818. His father, William Oswell, was the third son of the Rev. Thomas Oswell, whose family had for generations lived at Oswestry. His mother was the daughter of Joseph Cotton, master of the Trinity House and grandson of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton [q. v.] From Rugby, where he was under Arnold, Oswell proceeded to the East India Company's training college at Haileybury, and, passing out head of his year, started for Madras in 1837, having obtained an appointment through his uncle, John Cotton, one of the company's directors (, Services of Madras Civilians, v. 110). During his ten years' residence in Madras he won celebrity as an elephant-catcher, and first exhibited a


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Oswell remarkable aptitude for languages, acquiring Tamil and several native Indian dialects. He also studied surgery and medicine. After serving as head assistant to the principal collectors at Arcot and Coimbatore respectively, he was ordered to South Africa for his health, proceeded thither on furlough, and spent two years in hunting and exploring districts hitherto untraversed by Europeans — exploits for which sterling moral qualities ntted him no less than his great personal strength and linguistic and other accomplishments. When he was in Africa vast herds of game of every kind roamed over tracts which are now cultivated and thickly populated by Europeans; and the Kalahari desert was looked upon as an impassable barrier against advance from Cape Colony northwards. When, in 1849, Livingstone determined to investigate the truth of rumours as to a great lake in the Kalahari, Oswell and his friend Mungo Murray returned to South Africa from England in order to take part in the exploration, Oswell generously undertaking to defray the whole expense of the guides. The result was the discovery of Late Ngami, and the important practical demonstration that the Kalahari could be crossed by oxen and wagons. Livingstone freely acknowledged his indebtedness to the companionship of Oswell, who looked after the wagons and supplied the party with food, thus enabling the work of surveying, of making scientific collections, and of studying the native peoples to be carried on without anxiety or preoccupation. The kuabaoba, or straight-horned rhinoceros, was named Oswellii after Oswell, who also received the Paris Geographical Society's medal. for his share in the journey. He was again with Livingstone in June 1851, when the Zambesi was first sighted. Recalled from a life of adventure by family matters, he returned to England in 1853; but on the outbreak of the Crimean war he went to the front as the guest of some of his Indian friends, and rendered good service both in the trenches and in the hospitals. Anxious for active employment, he volunteered to carry secret service money for Lord Raglan, and, though deserted by the escort assigned to him, succeeded in defending his charge and handing it over safely to Colonel (now Field-marshal) Sir Lintorn Simmons at Shumla. During 1855-6 Oswell wandered through North and South America; and in 1860 he married Agnes, fourth daughter of Francis Rivaz, and settled at Groombridge in Kent. There he died on 1 May 1893, leaving a widow, three sons, and two daughters.

Livingstone describes Oswell as one who had had more hairbreadth escapes than any man living, though his modesty prevented him from publishing anything about himself; and he adduces, by way of illustration, two instances of Oswell's having been tossed by a rhinoceros. A splendid rider and shot, he always sought to obtain the closest quarters with his game; and the natives conceived a just idea of his courage from the fact that he always hunted elephants on foot and without dogs. Unlike other African travellers of eminence, Oswell published neither a journal nor a big volume of travel. He was induced, however, to contribute some chapters on 'South Africa Fifty Years Ago' to 'Mr. C. P. Wolley's 'Big Game Shooting' (Badminton Series, 1894). These are prefaced by an appreciative notice of the writer by his intimate friend, Sir Samuel W. Baker. Oswell's style is racy and suggestive, and his tone singularly humane. While his great strength and exploits as a sportsman inspired the natives of Africa with a wholesome awe, he owed the friendly character of his relations with them to his forbearing and sympathetic temper.

 OSWEN, JOHN (fl. 1548–1553), printer, was first settled at Ipswich, and afterwards at Worcester. Three printers are known to have worked at Ipswich in 1548: Anthony Scoloker, who began in 1547, and whose latest book is dated 14 Feb. 1548; John Overton, whose only known book bears the date 31 July 1548; and John Oswen, in whose earliest book it is specifically stated that it was finished on 10 Aug. 1548. The title is: 'The Mynde of the Godly and excellent lerned man M. Ihon Caluyne, what a Faithfull man, whiche is instructe in theWorde of God, ought to do, dwellinge amongest the Papistes.' Copies of this work, which is in octavo, are in the British Museum, Bodleian, and other libraries. It was followed in September 1548 by Calvin's 'Brief declaration of the fained sacrament, commonly called the extreame unction,' and in the same year by Hegendorft's 'Domestycal or housholde Sermons,' Melanchthon's 'Trewe auctoritie of the Churche,' Œcolampadius's 'Epistle that there ought to be no respect of personages of the poore,' 'An exhortatio to the sycke,' Marcort's

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Oswen 'Declaration of the Masse,' 'An Inuectiue against Drunkennes,' and a poem by Peter Moone, entitled

A short treatyse of certayn thioges abused In the Popysh Church, long vsed: But now abolyshed, to our consolation And Gods word auaunced, the lyght of our saluation.

Oswen left Ipswich probably about Christmas 1548, and no other well-authenticated record of printing in that town occurs during the sixteenth century.

After his settlement at Worcester, one of the earliest books which were issued from his press was 'A Consultorie for all Christians. . . Written by H. H.,' dated 30 Jan. 1549, of which the only known copy is in the library of Mr. Alfred H. Huth. Prefixed to this work is the king's license of 6 Jan. 1548-9 to Oswen to print all sorts of service or prayer books, and 'al maner of bokes conteinyng any storye or exposition of Gods holy scripture. . . within our Principalitie of Wales, and marches of the same.' He accordingly printed, on 24 May 1549, the Book of Common Prayer in quarto, and on 30 July 1549 an edition of the same in folio, and these were followed on 1 Sept. by 'The Psalter or Psalmes of Dauid after the translation of the great Bible,' and on 8 Oct. by 'Certayne Sermons,' or homilies, both in quarto. All these are in the British Museum. In 1549 also, on 5 Aug., he printed 'A message from King Edward the 6th at Richmond, concerning obedience to Religion.' Next year, on 12 Jan. 1550, Oswen issued his edition of the New Testament, Cranmer's version, a copy of which is in the British Museum, and in this year printed also Matteo Gribaldi's 'Notable epistle concerning the terrible iudgement of God vpon hym that for feare of men denyeth Christ and the knowen veritie,' Zwingli's 'Short pathwaye to the ryghte and true vnderstanaing of the holye Scriptures,' and Veron's ' Godly saiyngs of the old auncient faithful fathers vpon the Sacrament of the bodye and bloude of Chryste. , In 1551 he printed Bullinger's 'Dialogue betwene the seditious Libertin or rebel Anabaptist and the true obedient christian,' and Bishop Hooper's 'Annotations in ye xiii. chapyter too the Romaynes,' No book of the year 1552 is on record, but in 1553 Oswen closed his career with the Issue of Bishop Hooper's 'Homelye to be read in the tyme of pestylence,' and the Statutes of 7 Edward VI. Both Maunsell and Herbert mention other books as having been printed by Oswen at Worcester, but some cannot now be traced. All are exceedingly rare, and to several is added the notification, 'They be also to sell at Shrewsbury.'

The Worcester press appears to have ceased with the end of the reign of Edward VI, and not to have revived until the middle of the seventeenth century.

 OSWESTRY, Lord of. [See, 1223–1267.]

 OSWIN or OSWINI (d. 651), king of Deira and saint, was son of Osric (d. 634) [q. v.], the son of Ælfric, a brother of Ælla (d. 588) [q. v.] When his father died Oswini was very young, and was taken for refuge to Wessex. On the death of his cousin Oswald (605?–642) [q. v.] in 642, the people of Deira recalled him to be their king, but he seems to have ruled only as an under-king of the Mercian Penda [q. v.] Unlike his father, Oswini was a sincere Christian, and a great friend of St. Aidan; his goodness made the saint prophesy that he would soon be taken from this life, for 'the nation is not worthy of such a ruler' [see more fully under ]. Oswini governed Deira in great prosperity for seven years, while Bernicia was under Oswy or Oswiu [q. v.] At last Oswiu made war on his rival. Oswini, feeling unable to meet his enemy, disbanded the army which he had assembled at Wilfares-dun, ten miles north-west of Caterick, and took refuge with an ealdorman called Hunvald. Hunvald, however, betrayed him to Oswy, who had him murdered at Ingetlingum,now Gilling, near Richmond, on 20 Aug. 651. Baeda describes Oswini as a man of graceful bearing, tall of stature, affable in discourse, and courteous in behaviour; he was very pious and devout, and was beloved by all men. Oswini was the last king of Deira, which, after his death, was permanently united with Bernicia to form the kingdom of Northumbria. A little later, on the persuasion of Oswini's kinswoman Eanfled, the wife of Oswy, the latter founded a monastery at Gilling. Trumhere, a cousin of hers and of Oswini, was made abbot, and prayers were offered for the murdered king and his murderer. Some remains of this monastery survive in the present church of Gilling. In the twelfth century, during the reign of Stephen, an anonymous monk of St. Albans, who was resident in the cell of his monastery at Tynemouth, wrote a life of Oswini. According to this account the king was buried at Tyne-


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Overton OVERTON, JOHN (1640–1708?), printseller, was the principal vendor of mezzotints of his day. Noble thinks he was connected with Robert Scot, the bookseller, of Little Britain. His shop was at ‘the White Horse without Newgate,’ London, where he succeeded Peter Stent and an elder John Overton, and where he was followed by Henry Overton, probably his son, who published many mezzotint portraits, some with E. Cooper. Towards the end of his life Henry Overton was in partnership with I. Hoole. Another member of the family was Philip Overton, who brought out mezzotint portraits down to a period subsequent to 1750 at the Golden Buck, near St. Dunstan's Church, opposite Fetter Lane, in Fleet Street, London, where he was succeeded by M. Overton, and afterwards by Robert Sayer. Both Henry and Philip Overton were benefactors to William Bowyer on the occasion of the fire at his printing-office, on 30 Jan. 1712 (, Lit. Anecd. i. 62).

A portrait of John Overton, in wig and bands, ‘ætatis suæ 68, A.D. 1708,’ is described by J. Chaloner Smith, who states that his address ‘is to be found on many works of the times of Charles II, James II, and William III, some being after states of the line engravings by the elder Faithorne’ (British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1884, iv. 1699–1700).

 OVERTON, JOHN (1763–1838), divine, born in 1763 at Monk Fryston in Yorkshire, where his father was a small landed proprietor, belonged to an ancient Yorkshire family which was early in the fourteenth century settled at Easington Hall in Holderness, and of which Major-general Robert Overton [q. v.] was a member. The ancestral estates passed by sale into the Milner family towards the close of the seventeenth century. John appears to have received his early education in the village school at Monk Fryston, whence he proceeded to Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1790. Magdalene was then beginning to be a stronghold of the evangelical party. He had a high reputation at college, but unfortunately overworked himself, and fell ill just before the tripos examination came on. He was therefore obliged to be content with an ordinary degree. Having received holy orders, he became assistant curate to William Richardson of York, one of the leaders of the evangelical party in the north. He remained with Richardson until 1802, when he was appointed, through the influence of Wilberforce, to the chancellor's livings of St. Crux and St. Margaret's in the city of York. Overton, like most of the early evangelicals, was a strong tory in politics and a great admirer of Mr. Pitt. He took an active part in promoting the election of Wilberforce for the county of York. He died at York on 17 July 1838, and was buried in the chancel of St. Crux, in a vault with his wife.

In 1792 he married Elizabeth Stodart of Reeth, near Hawes, in the Yorkshire dales, whose father was agent to the lairds of Arkendale. By her, who died in 1827, he had a family of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. The sons all grew up to manhood, and were all six feet and upwards in height. Four of them—John, William, Thomas, and Charles—received holy orders; two were lawyers, and two were doctors. John, the eldest (B.A. 1820 and M.A. 1823, Trinity College, Cambridge), won the Seatonian prize at Cambridge and was rector of Sessay; he also won the declamation prize at Trinity College. Charles [q. v.], the sixth son, is separately noticed.

Overton is chiefly known as the author of ‘The True Churchman Ascertained; or an Apology for those of the regular clergy of the establishment who are sometimes called Evangelical Ministers, occasioned by the publications of Drs. Paley, Hey, and Croft, Messrs. Daubeny, Ludlam, Polwhele, the Reviewers, &c.’ It was published at York in 1801, and reached a second edition in 1802. The evangelicals, Overton contended, ‘are the true churchmen; and, in a very fundamental and important sense of the word, Mr. Daubeny and his associates are dissenters from the Church of England.’ The challenge was quickly taken up. In 1802 Dr. Edward Pearson [q. v.], the Christian advocate at Cambridge, published ‘Remarks on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in a Letter to J. Overton,’ followed in the same year by ‘Remarks in a Second Letter.’ Archdeacon Daubeny defended his position, in 1803, in his ‘Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,’ which is almost entirely occupied with ‘The True Churchman.’ A rather unfavourable review of Overton's book appeared, moreover, in the ‘Christian Observer,’ a periodical which had been lately started for the express purpose of advancing the cause of which Overton was the champion. He replied in ‘Four Letters to the Editor of the “Christian Observer.”’ The editor was Zachary Macaulay [q. v.], father of the historian. ‘The True Churchman’ was, however, warmly welcomed by the evangelicals generally as an able and manly


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Redstart

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Redstart


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Rh latter asserting that Clement Wrighter [q. v.] ‘had a great hand in the book.’

Meanwhile Overton had commenced a violent onslaught against the Westminster assembly, under the pseudonym of ‘Martin Marpriest,’ who was represented as the son of Martin Marprelate, the antagonist of the Elizabethan bishops. The series of tracts he issued under this name, of which the chief are ‘The Arraignment of Mr. Persecution,’ ‘Martin's Echo,’ and ‘A Sacred Synodical Decretal,’ were published clandestinely in 1646, with fantastic printers' names appended to them. The ‘Decretal’ is a supposed order of the Westminster assembly for the author's arrest, purporting to be ‘printed by Martin Claw-Clergy, printer to the reverend Assembly of Divines, for Bartholomew Bang-priest, and are to be sold at his shop in Toleration Street, at the sign of the Subjects' Liberty, right opposite to Persecuting Court.’ Prynne denounced these tracts to the parliament as the quintessence of scurrility and blasphemy, and demanded the punishment of the writer, whom he supposed to be Henry Robinson (A Fresh Discovery of some Prodigious New Wandering Blazing Stars, 1645, p. 9). Overton's authorship was suspected, but could not be proved (A Defiance against all Arbitrary Usurpations, 4to, 1646, p. 25). He did not own his responsibility till 1649, when the assembly of divines had come to an end (A Picture of the Council of State, 4to, 1649, p. 36).

In 1646 Overton, who had been concerned in printing some of Lilburne's pamphlets, took up his case against the lords, and published ‘An Alarum to the House of Lords against their Insolent Usurpation of the common Liberties and Rights of this Nation, manifested in their Attempts against Lieutenant-colonel John Lilburne,’ 4to, 1646. For this he was arrested by order of the house on 11 Aug. 1646, and, refusing to acknowledge their jurisdiction, was committed to Newgate (Lords' Journals, viii. 457; Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. pp. 46, 130). But, in spite of his confinement, he contrived to publish a narrative of his arrest, entitled ‘A Defiance against all Arbitrary Usurpations,’ and a still more violent attack on the peers, called ‘An Arrow shot from the Prison of Newgate into the Prerogative Bowels of the Arbitrary House of Lords.’ His wife Mary and his brother Thomas were also imprisoned for similar offences (ib. p. 172; Lords' Journals, viii. 645, 648; The Petition of Mary Overton, Prisoner in Bridewell, to the House of Commons, 4to, 1647).

The army took up the cause of Overton and his fellow prisoners, and demanded that they should be either legally tried or released (Clarke Papers, i. 171; Old Parliamentary History, xvi. 161). He was unconditionally released on 16 Sept. 1647 (Lords' Journals, ix. 436, 440). This imprisonment did not diminish Overton's democratic zeal. He had a great share in promoting the petition of the London levellers (11 Sept. 1648). He was also one of those who presented to Fairfax on 28 Dec. 1648 the ‘Plea for Common Right and Freedom,’ a protest against the alterations made by the council of the army in Lilburne's draft of the Agreement of the People. On 28 March 1649 he was arrested, with Lilburne and two other leaders of the levellers, as one of the authors of ‘England's new Chains Discovered.’ Overton, who refused to acknowledge the authority of the council of state or to answer their questions, was committed to the Tower (A Picture of the Council of State, 1649, pp. 25–45; Commons' Journals, vi. 174, 183; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, pp. 57–9). In conjunction with his three fellow-prisoners he issued on 1 May 1649 the ‘Agreement of the Free People of England,’ followed on 14 April by a pamphlet denying the charge that they sought to overthrow property and social order (A Manifestation from Lieutenant-colonel John Lilburne, Mr. Richard Overton, and others, commonly, though unjustly, styled Levellers, 4to, 1649).

On his own account he published on 2 July a ‘Defiance’ to the government, in the form of a letter addressed ‘to the citizens usually meeting at the Whalebone in Lothbury, behind the Royal Exchange,’ a place which was the headquarters of the London levellers. The failure of the government to obtain a verdict against Lilburne involved the release of his associates, and on 8 Nov. Overton's liberation was ordered (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 552). The only condition was that he should take the engagement to be faithful to the Commonwealth, which he probably had no hesitation in doing. In September 1654 Overton proposed to turn spy, and offered his services to Thurloe for the discovery of plots against the Protector's government. In the following spring he was implicated in the projected rising of the levellers, and fled to Flanders in company with Lieutenant-colonel Sexby. There, through the agency of Sir Marmaduke (afterwards Lord) Langdale [q. v.], he applied to Charles II, and received a commission from him. Some months later he returned to England, supplied with Spanish money by Sexby, and charged to bring about an insurrection (Thurloe State Papers, ii. 590, vi. 830–3; Cal. Clarendon Papers, iii. 54; Egerton MS. 2535, f. 396).


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Oswulf mouth, where he was reverenced as a saint until the Danish troubles, when his memory was forgotten. In 1065 his burial-place was miraculously revealed, and his worship restored. His relics were translated in 1110. At the dissolution of the monastery there was still a shrine there containing the body and vestments of St. Oswini. The 'Life of Oswini,' which was clearly written in glorification of Tynemouth, reproduces Bæda's narrative, together with an account of his discovery, translation, and miracles. It is contained in Cotton MS. Julius A., and is printed in the Surtees Society's 'Miscellanea Biographical There was an Osred [q. v.], king of Northumbria, who died and was buried at Tynemouth in 792; it is possible that his name caused a confusion with Oswini. Cotton MS. Galba A.V. is a psalter which is said to have belonged to Oswini.

 OSWULF or OSULF (d. 758), king of Northumbria, son of Eadberht, king of Northumbria, of the house of Ida, succeeded his father, who resigned the kingdom to him, in 758. Before he had reigned a year he was wickedly slain by the men of his household on 25 July, at a place called Mechil Wongtune, which it has been suggested may be Market Weighton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, He was succeeded by Ethelwold or Moll.

 OSWULF or OSULF (d. 1067), earl of Bernicia, was son of Eadwulf or Eadulf, earl of Bernicia, slain by Siward in 1041. Eadulf was brother and successor of Ealdred or Aldred, and a younger son of Uchtred (d. 1016), son of Waltheof [see under ]. After the death of Eadulf, which must have taken place when his son Oswulf was a child, his murderer Siward was earl of the whole of Northumbria. When Morcar [q. v.] succeeded Tostig, the son of Godwin [q. v.], as earl of Northumbria in 1065, he put Oswulf, who is described as being then a young man, to rule over Bernicia, making him earl of the district north of the Tyne. In February 1067 the conqueror dispossessed Oswulf, and granted the earldom to Copsi or Copsige [q. v.], who drove Oswulf out. Oswulf took to the woods, where he suffered hunger, and gathered to himself a band of broken men. Five weeks later, on 12 March, he attacked Copsi as he was feasting at Newburn in Northumberland, set fire to the church in which Copsi had taken refuge, and slew him with his own hands as he attempted to come out. The following autumn a roober slew Oswulf with a spear. Oswulf's earldom was given to Gospatric [q. v.]

 OSWY, OSUIU, OSWIU, OSWIO, OSGUID, OSWEUS, OSWIUS (612?–670), king of Northumbria, a younger son of Ethelfrid or Æthelfrith [q. v.], king of Northumbria, was born in or about 612. He is described by a late writer (Vita S. Oswini, p. 3) as a bastard, but the statement is a mere expression of prejudice, and there is no reason to doubt that he was the son of Æthelfrith's queen Acha, the sister of Edwin or Eadwine (585?–633) [q. v.] On the overthrow and death of his father in 617 he found refuge, in common with his older brother Oswald [q. v.] and some young nobles, with the Scots of Iona, and remained with them during the reign of Eadwine. He was baptised and brought up by the Scottish monks, and may have returned to Northumbria in 633, when his brother Eanfrid succeeded Eadwine in Bernicia. On the death of Eanfrid, who was slain by Caedwalla (d. 634) [q. v.] in 634, Oswy's next brother Oswald came to the throne, and ruled over both the Northumbrian kingdoms; and when he was slain by Penda, king of the Mercians, in 643, Oswy, who was then about thirty (, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. iii. c. 14), was chosen to succeed him. Oswald left a son named Oidilvald or Æthelwald, but he was passed over because, according to a late writer (Vita S. Osicaldi, c. 19), he was then a boy. Oswy was, however, compelled to share the kingly dignity with Oswin [q. v.], son of Osric, a kinsman of Eadwine, of the rival line of Ælla [q. v.], who reigned in Deira. It is evident that for some years he had much difficulty in maintaining his position in Bernicia. The old alliance between Penda and the Britons against the Northumbrians seems to have continued. Probably at the very beginning of Oswy's reign Penda invaded Bernicia, wasted the land far and wide, and set fire to the royal city Bamborough, which was saved from destruction, so it was believed, by the prayer of Bishop Aidan [q. v.] and in 645 Oswy was at war with Britons (, an. 642). There were also constant quarrels between him and Oswin, whose kingdom was


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Oswy richer than Bernicia (, u.s.) With the view, no doubt, of gaining a party in Deira, Oswy sent a priest named Utta to fetch Eanflæd, the daughter of Eadwine and his queen Æthelburh from Kent, and married her on her arrival in Northumbria. The causes of quarrel between him and Oswin became serious, and in 651 he invaded Deira with a large army. Oswin, who gathered a force to meet him, found himself too weak to venture a battle; he dismissed his men, and took refuge with a single follower in the house of a noble named Hunvald, one of his friends. Oswy persuaded Hunvald to betray him, and sent one of his officers, named Ædiluine, or Æthelwine, who slew both Oswin and his retainer at Gilling, near Richmond, in the present Yorkshire, on 20 Aug. This deed rid Oswy of a troublesome rival, and enabled him to unite under himself both the Northumbrian kingdoms, but he conciliated the people of Deira, and perhaps also endeavoured to satisfy a dangerous malcontent, by giving the province a dependent ruler of its own in the person of his nephew, Oswald's son Oidilvald (ib. c. 23). At the request of his queen, and as an atonement for the murder of Oswin, he gave Eanflaed land at Gilling for the erection of a monastery, where prayers were offered for both kings, the slayer and the slain (ib. cc. 14, 24) [see under ].

About 653 Oswy received at his court Peada [q. v.], the son of Penda, who had been given the kingship of the Middle Angles by his father. He requested Oswy to give him his daughter Alchflæd to wife. Oswy replied that he would not do so unless he received Christianity. Peada assented to this, for he was convinced of the truth of the gospel by the preachers at the Northumbrian court, and was further persuaded by Oswy's son Alchfrith [q. v.], who had already married Penda's daughter Cyneburga, or Cyneburh. Accordingly he and his lords and attendants received baptism from Finan [q. v.], the successor of Aidan in the bishopric of Lindisfarne, at a place called Wall, close to the Roman wall, perhaps Walbottle, near Newcastle. Oswy supplied him with four priests to evangelise and baptise his people, and with them he returned to his own land. It was through Oswy's means too that the East-Saxons, who had relapsed into paganism in 616, again accepted the gospel; for he was on terms of intimate friendship with their king Sigberct, and often received visits from him, and on these occasions he used to exhort his guest with brotherly affection to forsake idolatry. After taking counsel with his friends and his lords, Sigberct was baptised by Finan at Wall, and obtained teachers from Oswy for the instruction of his people (ib. c. 22).

It seems probable that Oswy was at this time carrying on a successful war against the Picts and Scots, which led to an extension of his power in the north, while the influence that he had over the East-Saxon kingdom may have suggested an intention on his part of renewing the old strife with Mercia for the over-lordship of East Anglia (, Making of England, p. 299). Penda's jealousy was roused, and, in spite of the connection between their families, he again made war upon Oswy, and pressed him hardly, forcing him to deliver his second son Ecgfrith as a hostage to the Mercian queen Cynuise, or Cyneswythe. In 655 Æthelhere of East Anglia, in some unexplained way, caused war between them. Oswy, whose land had already suffered grievously from Mercian invasions, offered Penda gifts so many and so rich as, Bæda says, to surpass belief, to induce him to retire from his kingdom. They were rejected, and when he found that Penda had resolved to destroy and drive away his whole people, great and small, he said, 'Since the heathen will have none of our gifts, let us offer them to the Lord our God who knoweth all things,' and vowed that if he should gain the victory he would devote his daughter as a consecrated virgin to God, and give twelve estates for the foundation of monasteries. He then set out against the enemy with a small force, and accompanied by his son Alchfrith. The Mercian host was, it was believed, thirty times as large as his; it was composed of thirty divisions, some of them of British allies, each under the command of a royal leader or under-king, and it was guided in its march by Oidilvald, who joined the enemies of his nation. The armies met on 15 Nov. by the river Winwaed, in the district of 'Loidis,' supposed to be either the Avon which flows into the Firth of Forth, or the Aire which flows by Leeds in Yorkshire.

The first theory is maintained by Skene (Celtic Scotland, i. 255-7), who suggests that the place of battle was near Manuel in Stirlingshire, and takes 'Loidis' to be the northern province of Lothian; this would tally with the account given by the continuator of Nennius, in the 'Chronicle of the Picts and Scots,' p. 13, who says that the battle took place on the plain of Gai, apparently in the Pictish district of Manaw). The second theory, which accepts the river Aire, is supported by the fact that in the only other passage in which the name 'Loidis' is used by Bæda, 'Historia Ecclesiastica,' ii. c. 14, it signifies the district of Leeds, while Oidilvald would certainly have


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 , but, according to the report in the ‘State Papers,’ because he was almost starved to death. He was imprisoned in the Tower, and examined on 26 Feb. 1606; he denied having ever known, seen, or heard of Garnett or Oldcorne. Persisting in this denial at a second examination on 1 March, torture was applied, and Owen then admitted his attendance on Garnett at Hindlip, but would not disclose any further knowledge of him. He was threatened with further torture at a subsequent examination, but died before it took place. The official account states that he committed suicide, and at an inquest held on his body in the Tower a verdict of felo de se was returned. But it is not improbable that he died from the effects of torture. Owen must be distinguished from an Irish jesuit of the same name who died in 1646. His brother Henry was a catholic bookseller.

OWEN, NICHOLAS (1752–1811), Welsh antiquary, the son of Nicholas Owen, rector of Llandyfrydog, Anglesey, was born in 1752. On 30 June 1769 he matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, aged 17, and graduated B.A. in 1773, and M.A. in 1776. Soon afterwards he succeeded his father as rector of Llandyfrydog, and about 1800 received the living of Meyllteyrn, Carnarvonshire, together with the perpetual curacy of Bottwnog in the same county. He died unmarried in June 1811.

Besides a sermon preached in aid of the Sunday school at Winslow, Buckinghamshire, in 1788, Owen published: He is also said to be the author of ‘A History of the Island of Anglesey, with Memoirs of Owen Glendower,’ London, 1775, 8vo.
 * 1) ‘British Remains; or a Collection of Antiquities relating to the Britons,’ London, 1777, 8vo; this contains a history of the lords-marchers, an account of the supposed discovery of America by  [q. v.], a biography of  [q. v.], and other antiquarian matter.
 * 2) ‘Select Phrases of Horace,’ London, 1785, 8vo; a collection of phrases not very happily translated, and designed for the use of schoolboys.
 * 3) ‘Carnarvonshire: a Sketch of its History,’ &c., London, 1792, 8vo.

OWEN, RICHARD (1606–1683), royalist divine, was son of (1562–1617), by Blanche, daughter of John Roberts, younger brother to Lewis Anwyl of Park, Merionethshire (, Visitations of Wales, ii. 215). Cadwallader, who was also of Merioneth, matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford, on 24 Nov. 1581; graduated B.A. in 1583, M.A. in 1588, and B.D. in 1603; and was elected fellow of Oriel College in 1585. In 1597 he was acting as Sir Robert Harley's tutor at Oriel College. He was appointed to the rectory of Llanfechain in Montgomeryshire in 1601, made vicar of Llanbrynmair in the same county in 1608, and sinecure rector of the same place in 1610. He was buried at Llanfechain on 6 April 1617 (Parish Register). He is said to have been a great disputant, and to have gone by the name of ‘Sic doces.’ Wood says that he had ‘heard he was a writer,’ but knew nothing of his works.

Richard was born on 3 Oct. 1606 at Llanfechain, and baptised there on 7 Oct. following (par. reg.). He matriculated at Oxford on 28 June 1622, entering Oriel College as a servitor. On 30 March he was elected Dudley exhibitioner, and held the exhibition till 25 Oct. 1626. He was Bible clerk from 25 Oct. 1624 till 2 Feb. 1627, graduated B.A. on 19 Feb. 1624–5, was elected fellow of his college on 21 March 1627–8, and proceeded M.A. on 22 June 1630, and B.D. on 4 Dec. 1638. He became rector of Llanfechain in 1634, was instituted to the vicarage of Eltham in Kent on 10 Feb. 1636, and to the rectory of St. Swithin, London Stone, on 2 Sept. 1639. He resigned his fellowship at Oriel in 1638. In 1643 he was ejected from his livings on account of his adherence to the royalist cause. During his sequestration he resided at Eltham. He was on intimate terms with John Evelyn, at whose house (Sayes Court) he occasionally preached and administered the sacrament. On 13 Nov. 1656 he peti-


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Oswy sent [q. v.] or Chad to Kent for consecration, that he might take Wilfrith's place. With this step is doubtless to be connected the fact that Alchfrith rebelled against his father and attacked him (, u.s. iii. c. 14); he probably hoped to gain some political advantage by his ecclesiastical policy, and the appointment of Wilfrith as bishop of Deira may have been intended as a step towards separation from Bernicia and the erection of the southern kingdom into an independent state. It is evident that Oswy was too strong for him, and his downfall is marked by the substitution of Oswy's nominee Chad for Alchfrith's friend Wilfrith. The see of Canterbury having been vacant since the death of Archbishop Deusdedit in 664, Oswy took counsel with Ecgberht or Egbert, king of Kent, probably in 667, as to the appointment of a new archbishop, and a priest named Wighard having been elected by the church, the two kings sent him with a letter to Rome, requesting Pope Vitalian, to whom they made rich gifts of gold and silver vessels, to consecrate him. The pope in reply sent a letter to Oswy, informing him of Wighard's death, and of the pope's intention to appoint an archbishop, rejoicing in Oswy's adhesion to the Roman communion, and telling him of the gifts that he was sending to him and his queen (ib. c. 29). The part taken by Oswy in this matter illustrates his predominant influence in England and his growing attachment to the Roman church. When Archbishop Theodore came to Northumbria he placed Wilfrith at York in the room of Ceadda, and to this it is evident that Oswy made no opposition. The next year (669) Theodore requested him to allow Ceadda to accept the bishopric of Mercia and Lindsey, which he accordingly did. His health grew feeble, and so great had become his devotion to the Roman church that he was anxious, if he should regain sufficient strength, to journey to Rome and end his days there, and he promised Wilfrith a large sum if he would go with him. He died on 15 Feb. 670, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in St. Peter's Church, in his daughter's monastery at Whitby. (ib. iii. c. 24, iv. c. 5).

Although the murder of Oswin is a blot on Oswy's memory, he appears to have been a religious man, sincerely anxious for the spread of Christianity. He had to contend with many difficulties, and overcame them triumphantly. Northumbria, which at his accession seemed to lie at the mercy of its great enemy, Penda of Mercia, was raised by him to a position of supremacy equal to that which it had held under Eadwine. Besides the overthrow of Penda and the increase of Oswy's power consequent upon his victory, his reign presents three characteristics of special importance. It was the period of the triumph of Christianity over heathenism in central and eastern England, of the consolidation of Northumbria, and of the rejection of the Scottish in favour of the Roman church. With reference to each of these critical changes Oswy appears to have acted with no small amount of skill. The evangelisation of his heathen neighbours was not a matter only of religious concern; it had a strong political bearing; for his supremacy in England was largely due to his success as a missionary king. His adhesion to the Roman communion had also a political side, for ecclesiastical differences would have greatly endangered the union of the two Northumbrian provinces, and it seems fairly certain that the Roman party was strong in Deira, the special land of Eadwine and his house, while Bernicia was more inclined to hold to the Scottish teachers. Alchfrith evidently hoped to make the religious question a means of establishing himself as an independent king in Deira, and Oswy acted with much prudence in avoiding this danger by adopting the views of the part of his dominions that was the richer, more united, and, for dynastic reasons, less likely to be loyal to his throne; for he was thus better able to crush the obscure attempt that his son, after failing to gain anything by his ecclesiastical policy, seems to have made to assert his independence by force of arms. Oswy married, probably before he came to the throne, Riemmelth, the daughter of Royth, whose name suggests a Pictish origin; and, secondly, [q. v.], the daughter of Eadwine. His sons were Alchfrith; Ecgfrith, who succeeded him, and died in battle against the Picts at Nectansmere in 685; Ælfwine, who was born about 661, and died in battle against Æthelred of Mercia in 679; the last two being by Eanflæd, and a bastard son, [q. v.], who became king of Northumbria, and died in 705. His daughters by his first wife were Alchflæd, who married Peada, and was no doubt the wife referred to by Bæda as generally held to have murdered Peada at Easter-tide 656 (ib. iii. 24); and, by Eanflæd, [q. v.], and Ælfæd, abbess of Whitby [see under ]. [Bede's Hist. Eccles. (Engl. Hist. Soc.) is the chief authority for Oswy's life; Eddi's Vita Wilfridi, ap. Historians of York, vol. i. (Rolls Ser.), a contemporary book, contains an account of the council of Whitby inferior to that given by Bede; see a criticism of the Vita in Engl. Hist. Rev. (1891), vi. 535 seq.; A.-S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.); Flor. Wig. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Henry of


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Oswyn  (Rolls Ser.). Two late pieces of hagiography, the Vita S. Oswini ap. Biog. Miscell. (Surtees Soc.) and the Vita Oswaldi by Reginald of Durham ap. Symeon of Durham's Works in the Rolls Ser., have some unimportant notices; Nennius (Engl. Hist. Soc.), the Chron. of the Picts and Scots (Rolls Ser.), and Tighearnach, ed. O'Connor, present Celtic traditions of some value; Skene's Celtic Scotland, i. 253 seq.; Green's Making of England, pp. 295–309, 319–25; Rhys's Celtic Britain, ed. 1884, pp. 132–4, 140, 145, 171; Dict. Christ. Biog., art. ‘Oswy,’ by Canon Raine.]  OSWYN (fl. 803), bishop of London. [See .]

 OSYTH, OSITH, or OSGITH, (fl. 7th cent.?), is said to have been the daughter of a King Frithwald and his wife Witteburga, a daughter of the Mercian king Penda. Her education was intrusted to the abbess Modwenna, the founder of two monasteries at Pollesworch and Streneshalen [see under, or ]. One of these houses was presided over by Edith, sister of King Alfred, the other by Modwenna herself. Osyth was sent by Modwenna to Edith with a book. As she crossed a bridge on her way she was blown into the water and sank. Modwenna and Edith searched for her in much distress. Coming on the third day to the place where she was, Modwenna called her by name, on which she came out of the water alive and well. Her parents made her marry Siger (Sighere), a sub-king of East-Saxons; but she managed to retain her virginity, and in her husband's absence took the veil from two East-Anglian bishops, Ecci and Baedwine (both consecrated 673,, iv. 5). Siger agreed to her wishes, and gave her Chich in Essex, where she built a nunnery. A band of Danes landed and tried to induce her to apostatise. On her refusal one of them beheaded her. As soon, apparently, as her persecutors had left her, she rose, took up her head, and walked with it in her hands to the church at Chich and knocked at the door. Her friends buried her at Aylesbury, for her parents lived near that place; but she appeared to a smith, and told him that she wished her bones to be taken to Chich, which was accordingly done. The whole story is unhistorical. The names Frithwald (Frithewoldus, an. 675), Penda, Sighere (, iii. 30), Eccl, and Baedwine point to the seventh century, and Witteburga may have been suggested by  [q. v.], a granddaughter of Penda, and Streneshalen by Strenaeshaleh or Whitby; while Alfred, Edith, and the Danes assign the narrative to the ninth century. Richard de Beames (d. 1127), bishop of London, founded a priory of Augustinian canons at Chich in honour of St. Osyth, and the place has received the saints name. The first prior of St. Osyths was William de Corbeuil (d. 1136), who was consecrated to the see of Canterbury in 1123 ( Gesta Pontiff, p. 146). Osyth's story was in the now missing 'Sanctilogium' of John of Tinmouth [see ], and was thence transferred by Capgrave to his 'Nova Legenda. It is in the 'Acta Sanctorum' of the Bollandists. Leland met with a ' Life ' by Vere, a canon of St. Osyths, and gives some notes from it. Vere made Osyth a niece of Edith, the lady of Aylesbury, and says that the Danes were led by Ingwar and Ubba, but dates her martyrdom 600 (Itin. . ii. 41). St. Osyths day is 7 Oct.

 OTHERE (fl. 880), maritime explorer. [See .]

 O'TOOLE, ADAM DUFF (d. 1327), reputed heretic, son of Walter Duff, a member of a tribe occupying a mountainous district in the county of Wicklow, appears to have adopted after 1320 views similar to those afterwards held by Wiclifs followers. He was prosecuted, and, whatever may have been his real opinions, 'his offence was aggravated by a charge of horrid and senseless blasphemy' . It was said that he denied the incarnation and the doctrine of the Trinity, aspersed the character of the Blessed Virgin, denied the resurrection of the dead, said the scriptures were fables, and that the apostolic see was guilty of falsehood. Being tried for these offences, he was found guilty and pronounced a heretic and a blasphemer, and ordered to be burnt alive. The sentence was carried out in 1327, when he was publicly burnt at Le Hogges, a mound which was situated near the site of the church of St. Andrew in Dublin, the name being derived from the Norwegian haugr, a mound.


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O'Toole O'TOOLE, BRYAN (d. 1825), lieutenant-colonel, entered as cornet in a regiment of hussars raised by Frederick, baron Hompesch, in 1792, and served with it, under the Duke of Brunswick, in the first campaign of that year in Champagne, including the taking of Verdun and the attack on Thionville. Next he was present at the battle of Jemappes, and afterwards under the Prince of Condé at Neerwinden, at the blockades of Condé and Maubeuge, and battle of Charleroi. He then joined the army under the Duke of York, and commanded a squadron of Hompesch at Boxtel and Nimeguen, and in the winter retreat of 1794-5 from the Waal to Bremen. On arriving in England he was appointed captain-lieutenant in one of the regiments of the Irish brigade, then in British raj, and on 25 March 1796 was made captain in the Hompesch hussars, with which he went to the West Indies. Frederick, baron Hompesch, had then two corps in British pay — one hussars, the other rifles (see Parl. Ret. of Foreign Corps, 1796). O'Toole served with the Hompesch hussars in San Domingo, and returned home with the skeleton remains of the corps in 1797 (cf., The Hussar of the authentic story of a soldier of the corps, afterwards an inmate of Chelsea). O'Toole was appointed to a troop in a new corps, Hompesch's mounted riflemen, with which he served in Ireland in 1798, and was ? resent at Vinegar Hill and Ballinahinch. [e was placed on half-pay when the corps was disbanded in 1802. He was brought in as captain in the 39th foot in 1803 ; was aide-de-camp to Major-general Broderick in the expedition to Naples in 1805, and to Sir Gralbraith Lowry Cole [q. v.] in the expedition to Calabria and battle of Maida in 1806 ; was made brevet major in 1808 ; was present as major of a light battalion at the capture of Ischia in 1809 ; and was major commanding the Calabrian free corps, in British pay, dur- ing Murat's threatened invasion of Sicily in 1810. He resigned his command to accompany the 39th to the Peninsula as captain, and was appointed major in the 2nd Portuguese cacadores, with which he was present at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Salamanca, capture of Madrid, and siege of Burgos and subsequent retreat. On 21 June 1813 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and received command of the 7th cacadores in Sir Lowry Cole's division, and was present with it at the battle of Vittoria, blockade of Pampeluna, and the battles in the Pyrenees. During his Peninsular service O'Toole lost the use of one arm. He was placed on half-pay of the Portuguese officers in 1816. He was made OB. on 4 June 1815, and had the gold cross for Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, and the Pvrenees. He died at Fairford, co. Wexford, 27 Feb. 1825.  O'TOOLE, LAURENCE (1130?–1180), Irish saint and archbishop of Dublin, born about 1130, was son of Murtough O'Toole, chief of Ui Muireadaig, a territory in the south of co. Kildare. His mother belonged to the kindred tribe of the Ui Brain (anglicised O'Byrne), who held the north of the county. In 1141 Dermod MacMurrough, king of Leinster, killed Murchadh, father of Murtough, and probably about the same time compelled the latter to surrender his son Laurence, then twelve years old, as a hostage to him. The boy was sent to a barren district, where he was treated with such harshness that his father, on learning it, seized twelve of Dermod's followers and threatened to execute them unless his son were restored to him. The result was that the boy was sent by Dermod to the Bishop of Glendalough. He was kindly treated at the monastery, and received the rudiments of a religious education. Subsequently, his father desiring to devote one of his sons to the ecclesiastical life, Laurence expressed his willingness to stay at Glendalough, and he accordingly became a member of the community. When twenty-five years of age he was appointed coarbor successor of St. Kevin, that is, ruler of the monastery. It was a famous and wealthy foundation of the old Irish church, but his office was one of difficulty. Famine prevailed in the district; robber chieftains made raids on the lands of the monastery, and general disorder was rife. Religion was at so low an ebb that four priests carrying the host were robbed and beaten by banditti, who even presumed to eat the host. Laurence devoted himself to the relief of the destitute during this period, distributing corn and other necessaries, and supplementing the funds of the monastery by his own private fortune. Four years after his appointment as coarb the death took place of the bishop of the monastery, supposed by Dr. Lanigan to have been Gilla na Naemh, who had taken part in the council of Kells in 1152. Laurence was urged to accept the bishopric, but declined, alleging that he had not reached the canonical age. In Harris's 'Ware' the reason assigned is that 'the revenues of the bishoprics were infinitely inferior to those of the abbey,' Yet


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O'Toole it was no uncommon thing for a coarb to be also a bishop in a monastery; and had he accepted the office on this occasion, he could still have retained his revenues. His real reason, apart from that of age, which was only a temporary disqualification, may have been the decree of the synod of Kells, which had assigned 'the better part of the bishoprick of Glendalough for a diocese to the church of Dublin, reserving the remainder to the Bishop of Glendalough during his life, but so that the church of Glendalough, with its appurtenances, should, after the bishop's death, fall to the Church of Dublin.' To this arrangement Gilla na Naemh must be taken as assenting, as he was present at the synod. Laurence, who favoured the ecclesiastical changes then going forward, could not consistently accept the same appointment as Gilla held.

In 1162 Gregory or Gren6, bishop of the foreigners (Danes) of Dublin, having died, Gelasius the primate appointed Laurence the first archbishop of Dublin, or Leinster as the ' Four Masters ' have it, an office which he accepted with reluctance. Gregory, who was consecrated at Lambeth, had professed canonical obedience to the English primate, but the action of Gelasius now restored Dublin to the church of Ireland, and secured, as far as possible, the adhesion of the community of Glendalough by the appointment of their coarb.

In his new position Laurence's austerities were remarkable; thrice a day he was beaten with rods (2 Cor. xi. 25); he mingled his bread with ashes (Ps. cii. 9); he wore a hair shirt under his dress, and abstained altogether from meat. In imitation of St. Kevin, the founder of Glendalough, he frequently retired to a cave there 'formed by St. Kevin s hands.' It was reached by a ladder, the lower end of whioh rested in the water. Here messages from the people who desired to consult him were conveyed by his nephew, who also brought back his replies, and it was popularly believed that, like Moses, he held communication with God. One of his earliest acts as archbishop was the conversion of the secular canons of Christ Church into canons regular of the congregation of Aroasia, which he also joined himself.

In 1167 he attended 'a great meeting convened by Roderic O'Connor [q. v.] and the chiefs of the north, both lay and ecclesiastical,' at Athboy in co. Meath, when thirteen thousand horsemen assembled. The object of it was the promotion of religion and good government, and 'many good resolutions were passed respecting veneration for Churches and Clerics and control of tribes and territories.' But great changes were at hand; for three years after Dermod MacMurrough, aided by Strongbow and his followers, appeared before Dublin and summoned the city. Laurence's position and character marked him out as a suitable ambassador on behalf of the citizens, and he endeavoured to make terms with Dermod, but while negotiations were intentionally protracted, Miles de Cogan and his party scaled the walls and obtained possession of the city in 1170. In the following year a great effort was made to exterminate the invaders, the leading spirit in the project being the archbishop, who 'flew from province to province, to every inferior district and every chieftain, entreating, exhorting, and commanding them to seize the present opportunity; 'he even appeared in arms himself, and commanded his particular troop. Through his exertions an army, estimated at thirty thousand, assembled before Dublin. Strongbow applied to Laurence to act as mediator with Roderic, who commanded the besieging force, and he commissioned him to make an offer of terms. But they were refused, and Laurence returned with an imperative order to 'the foreigners to depart the kingdom.' They, however sallied forth, surprised the besiegers, and totally defeated them. Laurence now saw that the Irish were unable to cope with the invaders, and when in 1171 Henry n arrived with a large force, and armed with the papal authority, he submitted to him. He also took part in the council of Cashel, which was summoned by the king in 1172, and which rather prematurely declared that Ireland was indebted to him for 'the benefits of peace and the increase of religion.' It was not long before Laurence found his hopes from Henry's beneficent mission disappointed, and he crossed to England to appeal to him on behalf of his people against the injuries and oppressions of the Anglo-Norman adventurers. Roderic, king of Ireland, had submitted to Henry; but finding it necessary to enter into a formal agreement with him, he employed Laurence as an ambassador, and in that capacity he attended the council of Windsor in 1175, together with two other Irish ecclesiastics. Four years after, he received a summons from Alexander III to attend the Lateran council, and, having obtained the king's permission, he proceeded to Rome; but when passing through England he was obliged to take an oath that he would do nothing prejudicial to the king or his kingdom. Nevertheless, he 'made the most affecting representations of the injustice of the English governors and of the


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Otteby wrongs and calamities of his countrymen.' Having obtained from the pope a bull confirming the rights and jurisdiction of the archiepiscopal see of Dublin, and also the appointment of papal legate, he returned to Dublin and resumed his functions. On one occasion he sent 140 clerics to Rome on a charge of incontinence. Dr. Lanigan attributes the misconduct of so many to the evil example of the Anglo-Norman clergy, but a more reasonable explanation is that their guilt was merely that of marrying. For the marriage of the clergy, permitted in the old Irish church, still prevailed, and did not cease for some centuries. In 1180 Laurence once more undertook the office of ambassador from King Roderic to Henry, and proceeded to England for the purpose, accompanied by a son of Roderic who was to be left as a hostage. But Henry, incensed at his proceedings in the Lateran council, refused to listen to him, and gave orders that he was not to return to Ireland. Some time after, the king having gone to France, Laurence determined to follow him, hoping that he would relent; but on his arrival at Abbeville on the Somme, he was seized with fever. He would not rest there, but hastened on to Eu, where a few days after he died on 14 Nov. 1180. His love for his own nation was the ruling passion of his life. Just before his death, speaking in Irish, he lamented the sad state of his countrymen now about to lose their pastor. 'Ah, foolish and senseless people,' he said, 'what are you now to do? Who will cure your misfortunes? Who will heal you?' He was buried in the church of Notre-Dame at Eu, where a side-chapel bore his name, and his relics were afterwards placed over the high altar in a silver shrine, some of them being afterwards sent to Christ Church, Dublin. In 1226 he was canonised by Honorius III, being the first Irishman who lived and worked in Ireland who received papal canonisation.

 OTTEBY, JOHN (fl. 1470), Carmelite, and writer on music. [See .]

 OTTER, WILLIAM (1768–1840), bishop of Chichester, born at Cuckney, Nottinghamshire, in 1768, was the fourth son of Edward Otter (1724–1785), vicar of that parish, and of Bolsover, Scarcliffe, and Upper Langwith in Derbyshire. His mother was Dorothy, daughter of John Wright of North Anston in Yorkshire (she died at Cuckney on 13 Feb. 1772). He was admitted into Jesus College, Cambridge, on 23 July 1785; was a Rustat scholar there; graduated B.A., being fourth wrangler, in 1790; proceeded M.A. in 1793, and B.D. and D.D. in 1836. About 1791 he was ordained to the curacy of Helston in Cornwall, and held it, with the mastership of the grammar school, for a few years, being recalled to Cambridge on his election to a fellowship at his college on 8 Feb. 1796.

A man of liberal views, he protested while at Cambridge against the sentence on William Frend [q. v.], and was very intimate with Edward Daniel Clarke [q. v.], the traveller, and with Thomas Robert Malthus [q. v.], the political economist. On 20 May 1799 Otter, Clarke, Malthus, and a young student called Cripps, left Cambridge for Hamburg, and travelled for some time in the north of Europe. They separated at the Wenern Lake in Sweden, Clarke and Cripps proceeding northwards, while Otter and Malthus, as their time was more limited, continued 'leisurely their tour through Sweden, Norway, Finland, and a part of Russia.' He remained at Cambridge as fellow and tutor until 1804, when he was instituted on 30 June to the rectory of Colmworth in Bedfordshire, and married at Leatherhead in Surrey, on 3 July 1804, Nancy Sadleir, eldest daughter and eventual coheiress of William Bruere, formerly secretary to the government and member of the supreme court at Calcutta.

In May 1810 Otter was appointed to the rectory of Sturmer in Essex, and held it, with Colmworth, until the following year, when he obtained the more lucrative rectory of Chetwynd in Shropshire. From 1816 he held, with Chetwynd, the vicarage of Kinlet in Shropshire. He went to Oxford with his wife and family in 1822, as private tutor to the third Lord Ongley (cf. Life of Heber, ii. 56). Under a license of non-residence Otter became the minister of St. Mark's Church, Kennington, in 1825, and in 1830 he was appointed the first principal of King's College at London, thereby vacating all his previous preferments. He continued in charge of that institution until 1836, when he was advanced to the bishopric of Chichester, being consecrated at Lambeth on 2 Oct. The chief acts of Otter's episcopate were the establishment (1838) of the diocesan association for building churches and schools, and for augmenting the incomes of poor livings and curacies; the foundation, conjointly with Dean Chandler, of the theological college (1839); the setting on foot of a training


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 Winslow, Hemel Hempstead, and Leighton Buzzard, that witches were to be tried by ducking at Longmarstone on 22 April 1751. A large and determined mob mustered at Tring on the day specified, and forced the parish overseer and master of the workhouse by threats to reveal the hiding-place of the unfortunate couple in the vestry of the church, where those officers had placed them for better security. The Osbornes were then stripped, and, with their hands tied to their toes, were thrown into Longmarstone pool. After much ducking and ill-usage the old woman was thrown upon the bank, quite naked and almost choked with mud, and she expired in the course of a few minutes. Her dead body was tied to her husband, who was alleged to have died shortly afterwards from the cruel treatment he received, but who ultimately recovered, though he was unable to give evidence at the trial. The authorities determined to overawe local sympathy with the rioters, and to make a salutary example. At the coroner's inquest the jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against one Thomas Colley, a chimney-sweep, and against twenty-one other known and unknown persons. Colley had taken a leading part in the outrage, and had collected money from the rabble for 'the sport he had shown them in ducking the old witch.' He was tried at Hertford assizes on 30 July 1751, before Sir Thomas Lee, and his plea that he went into the pond as a friend to try and save Mrs. Osborne being unsupported by evidence, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was escorted from Hertford gaol to St. Albans by two troops of horseguards blue, and the next morning, 24 Aug., was executed at Gubblecut Cross in Tring, and afterwards hanged in chains on the same gallows. 'The infatuation of the greatest part of the country people was so great that they would not be spectators of his death; yet many thousands stood at a distance to see him go, grumbling and muttering that it was a hard case to hang a man for destroying an old wicked woman that had done so much harm by her witchcraft.' It is noticeable that the last case of a witch being condemned by the verdict of an English jury, that of [q. v.], also occurred in Hertfordshire in 1712.

OSBORNE, SIDNEY GODOLPHIN (1808–1889), philanthropist, third son of Francis Godolphin Osborne, baron Godolphin (1777–1850), by Elizabeth Charlotte Eden, daughter of William, first baron Auckland, was born at Stapleford in Cambridgeshire on 5 Feb. 1808. He was a direct descendant of Godolphin, the fellow-minister of the Duke of Marlborough, and when in 1859 his elder brother, George Godolphin, succeeded his cousin, Francis Godolphin D'Arcy Osborne, as eighth Duke of Leeds, he obtained the rank of a duke's son. He was educated at Rugby and at Brasenose College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. in 1830, and, having taken orders, was appointed rector of Stoke-Poges in Buckinghamshire in 1832. In 1841 he accepted the living of Durweston in Dorset, which was in the gift of Lord Portman, and he occupied that incumbency until 1875. He then resigned the benefice and retired to Lewes, where he died on 9 May 1889. He married in 1834 Emily, daughter of Pascoe Grenfell of Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire, and was thus brother-in-law of Charles Kingsley and James Anthony Froude. His wife died on 19 Dec. 1875, leaving two sons and two daughters.

Osborne is chiefly known in connection with the series of 'lay sermons' delivered from the pulpit of the 'Times' newspaper under the signature 'S. G. O.' A philanthropist of a militant and almost ferocious type, he was always lashing abuses and provoking controversy. But the value of much that he wrote is attested by the fact that it has gained in historical that which it has lost in controversial interest. In matters so diverse as free trade, education, sanitation, women's rights, cattle plague, and cholera, he was equally at home, and, generally speaking, in advance of his time. During the Crimean war he journeyed to the East, made an unofficial inspection of the hospitals under Miss Florence Nightingale's care, and published the results in 'Scutari and its Hospitals,' 1855. He was publicly thanked in parliament for his self-appointed task. On the Irish question, in which he took a special interest in consequence of his visit to the west of Ireland during the famine of 1849, he was a strong unionist, and in church matters he regarded sacerdotal claims with frank and cynical dislike. But his special interest was perhaps the agricultural labourer, of whom his knowledge was unrivalled, while his forecast of


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Otter school for masters; the institution of a weekly celebration in the cathedral (1839); and the revival of the rural chapters. A training college was erected at Chichester by public subscription in 1849-50 as a memorial of his labours, and is still called the Otter College, though occupied as a training college for mistresses of elementary schools.

He died at Broadstairs, Kent, on 20 Aug. 1840, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral on 28 Aug. A small brass plate bearing a mitre, and simply inscribed 'Gul. Otter, Epis. ,' marks the place of his interment at the east end of the choir, near the entrance to the lady-chapel. A more pretentious monument, with a bust of him by Towne, is in the chapel at the end of the north aisle. His portrait, nearly full-length, and seated in an armchair, was painted in replica by John Linneil in 1840. One picture belongs to his grandson, Robert Otter Barry, of Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, and, the other to Lord Belper. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and a mezzotint-engraving was struck off in 1841 (Life of John Linneil, i. 294, ii. 244, 251). His widow died at Effingham in Surrey on 12 March 1860, and was buried there on 17 March. Their eldest son, the Venerable W. B. Otter, was archdeacon of Lewes; the second son, Alfred William Otter, settled in Canada. The eldest daughter married the Rev. Henry Malthus, vicar of Effingham, son of the political economist; the second married the first Lord Romilly; the fourth became the wife of Sir William Milbourne James [q. v.], lord justice; and the fifth was married to the first Lord Belper.

Otter was author of 'The Life and Remains of E. D. Clarke,' 1824, a new edition of which, with a few alterations and additions, was published in 1825 in two volumes. It contained numerous letters which he had addressed to Clarke. A memoir of Malthus contributed by him to the 'Athenæum' in January 1835 (pp. 32–4) was expanded into the memoir published with the 1836 edition of the 'Principles of Political Economy,' He was 'thoroughly acquainted with the character and views' of Malthus, and had followed the rise and progress of his opinions. Mr. Bonar suggests that the epitaph in Bath Abbey to that philosopher was written by Otter (Malthus and his Work, p. 426).

Otter also published many single sermons and charges, and after his death a volume of 'Pastoral Addresses' (1841) was published by his widow, with the assistance of Archdeacon Hare. In 1812 he wrote 'A Vindication of Churchmen who become Members of the British and Foreign Bible Society' from the strictures of Br. Herbert. Marsh [q. v.], which was printed at Cambridge, and reissued in a second edition at Broxbourne; and he also published in that year 'An Examination of Dr. Marsh's Answer to all the Arguments in favour of the British and Foreign Bible Society.' Many letters to and from him are in the possession of Mr. J. L. Otter of Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Temple. The bishop was a fellow of the Linnean Society.

 OTTERBOURNE, NICHOLAS (fl. 1448–1459), clerk-register of Scotland, is mentioned on 9 Jan. 1449-50 as master of arts, canon of the church of Glasgow, and official of Lothian (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424-1513, entry 301); on 20 March 1449-1450 as secretary to James II (ib. entry 329), and in 1454 as clerk of the rolls (Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1437-54, entry 609). He was one of those sent in February 1448 to France on a confidential mission in connection with the king's marriage. On 3 Nov. 1450 he had a warrant of safe-conduct for three months to pass into France (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1357-1509, entry 1228); on 3 June 1455 a warrant from the king of England for a safe-conduct to England for four months (ib. entry 1271); and on 11 May 1456 a warrant for three months (ib. entry 1276). On 13 July 1459 he had a safe-conduct, with others, into England to confer with English commissioners at Newcastle (ib. entry 1301). He is stated to have been the author of 'Epithalamium Jacobi II, Lib. 1.'  OTTERBOURNE, THOMAS (fl. 1400), historian, is commonly stated to have been a Franciscan. Sir Thomas Gray (d. 1369) [q. v.], in the prologue to his 'Scala Chronica,' alleges that he had made use of a chronicle by Thomas Otterbourne, a Franciscan friar and doctor of divinity. A friar of that name was sixty-fifth reader of his order at Oxford, and must have lectured before 1350, and probably not later than 1345. This would agree sufficiently well with the statement in the 'Scala Chronica,' but the friar clearly cannot have been the author of the chronicle which now passes under his name, and comes down to 1420. There was an-


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Otterbourne other Thomas Otterbourne who was presented to the rectory of Haddiscoe, Norfolk, on 3 Oct. 1383, and a Thomas Otterbourne received the rectory of Chingford on 17 Nov. and was ordained priest on 19 Sept. The rector of Chingford, whose successor, Henry Winslowe, died in 1438, may perhaps have been the historian, and would probably have died about 1421. Hearne conjectured that there had been two writers of the name, one under Edward III, the other under Henry IV and Henry V; he supports his conjecture by the statement that some ancient manuscripts of the history reached no further than the reign of Edward III; there is such a copy in Cotton MS. Julius, A. viii, which ends with 1359, but dates from the latter part of the fifteenth century. Otterbourne the Franciscan was, presumably, like Sir Thomas Gray, a native of Northumberland, and it is natural that any work of his should have been known to his fellow-countryman; but there seems no sufficient ground for connecting him at all with the existing chronicle, which bears no marks of having been written by a Franciscan; such notices of the order as are given by Walsingham and in the 'Eulogium Historiarum' are sometimes omitted and usually shortened. The notices of northern events appear to be most numerous in the first years of the reign of Richard II, at which time the future rector of Chingford may be reasonably conjectured to have been still resident in his native county.

Otterbourne's chronicle begins with the legendary history of Britain, and comes down to 1420. Until the reign of Edward III it is of no great length, and is fullest for the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. The writer appears to have drawn from the same sources as Walsingham, but in the last eighty years of his narrative he records some facts which are not mentioned elsewhere, and which appear to rest on good authority. The only ancient complete manuscript is Harley 36*43, which dates from the fifteenth century, and was formerly at Eton. Holinshed, in his catalogue of authors, refers to this manuscript as 'compiled by some Northern-man, as some suppose named Otterborne. There is a sixteenth-century transcript of this manu- script in Cotton MS. Vitellius F. ix, which was damaged in the fire of 1731. Hearne edited Otter bourne's chronicle from a copy which he had procured of the Cotton manuscript, and published it with Whet ham stede's 'Chronicle' in two volumes, Oxford, 1732. Pits ascribes to Otterbourne a treatise 'De successione comitum Northumbriæ; 'this, no doubt, refers to some notes in Harleian MS. 3643 F. l. b.  OTTERBURNE, ADAM (d. 1548), king's advocate of Scotland and ambassador, is generally described down to 1533 as 'of Auldhame' (Aldham), a small parish close to Tantallon Castle on the Haddingtonshire coast, now incorporated with that of Whitekirk. It may be presumed that Aldham was his birthplace, or at all events the seat of his family.

Otterburne first appears in 1518 as one of the receivers of Margaret Tudor's jointure rents in Scotland (Letters and Papers, ii. 4677). Three years later he was already a member of the royal council, and by 1525 king's advocate and recorder of Edinburgh, of which city he was lord provost in 1531 and 1544, if not oftener (Hamilton Papers, ii. 106; Acts of Scots. Parl. ii. 332; Fœdera, xiii. 744; State Papers, iv. 376). We ought, perhaps, to assign to the former year his energetic effort as provost to stamp out an outbreak of the plague which the 'Diurnal of Occurrents' (p. 14) places in 1529. Otterburne's diplomatic skill was in constant requisition from 1521 in the critical state of the relations of England and Scotland. Henry VIII was endeavouring, with the aid of his sister [see ], to break up the Scoto-French alliance during the nonage of his nephew James V and in 1524, while the English commissioners were negotiating for a truce at Berwick with Otterburne, they had reason to believe that 'they had made him a convert. Thomas Magnus [q.v.], Henry VIII's envoy, wrote of him, in November, as 'a sad and one of the wisest men in Edinburgh, well learned, and of good experience and practice, and very favourable and forward in our causes' (State Papers, iv. 232, 236). After Angus had forced his way into the regency early in the next year, Magnus recommended Otterburne to Henry for a pension 'for good service done' (ib. iv. 376). If the advocate had grown up under the shadow of Angus's stronghold at Tantallon, this might help to explain his preference of an English to a French connection. In the truce negotiations during the later months of 1525, Magnus was more pleased with him than with Angus : 'Good Mr. Otter-


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Otterburne burne hath taken pain in my company both riding and going at sundry times' (ib. iv. 415). He had presented him with 'cramp-rings' with which Otterburne had 'relieved a man in the falling sickness in the sight of much people' (ib. iv. 449). But when James threw off the tutelage of Angus in the summer of 1528, and drove him into England, Magnus complained that the advocate sought to win 'other far foreign friends than England' (Letters and Papers, iv. 5004). There is some reason to believe that he would have preferred an imperial alliance as the best guarantee of the independence of Scotland, long as James cultivated friendly relations with England, Angus was powerless, and Otterburne stood high in his young sovereign's confidence, and was employed in all his negotiations with England. He helped to conclude the five years' truce of December 1528, and when it ran out was sent to London in November 1533, charged with James's 'inward mind' to discuss the basis of the peace, of which Henry, owing to the complications arising out of his divorce, was now desirous (State Papers, iv. 664). In conjunction with Stewart, bishop of Aberdeen, he concluded peace with England on 11 May 1534, for the joint lives of the two kings and one year beyond (Letters and Papers, vii. 83, 114, 171, 194, 214, 393, 530, 647). A week later Otterburne informed the imperial ambassador, Chapuys, with whom he had frequent interviews, that if a mandate came from the pope against England the Scots would make no difficulty in repudiating the treaty; but in the spring he assured Cromwell that the peace would never be broken (ib. p. 690; viii. 333). While in England he had been knighted, and was henceforth known as Sir Adam Otterburne of Reidhall (Redhall), on the water of Leith, a mile or two south of Edinburgh (ib. vii. 194; Diurnal, p. 18).

In March 1536, when Henry was seeking an interview at York with his nephew, in the hope of persuading him to imitate his ecclesiastical policy, Otterburne was once more despatched to London (Letters and Papers, x. 421). James had made up his mind not to yield to his uncle's wishes, and in the autumn went to France to bring back a wife. The Douglasses at once began to move and made overtures to Otterburne. It was reported from France that those around the ting threatened to have the advocate hanged for speaking to Angus and his brother, Sir George Douglas, when in London (ib. x. 536, xi. 916). It was not, however, until 12 Oct. 1538 that Otterburne was put under arrest at Dumbarton for 'interleagings with the Douglasses.' He lay there nearly a year and was then pardoned on payment of a great fine (Diurnal, p. 23; State Papers, v. 141, 160). In the negotiations which preceded the outbreak of war with England in 1542 he was again employed, but does not seem to have been restored to the office of advocate (Hamilton Papers, i. 170). After Solway Moss, Otterburne was naturally one of the embassy charged to make the best terms with the victor that circumstances allowed. But neither his dislike of the French connection nor his relations with the Douglasses could reconcile him to the marriage of the Scots queen with the heir of the English crown, which Henry made a condition of peace. He frankly told Sadler, the English ambassador, that the treaty, which had been accepted in the first moment of helplessness, would never be performed. 'If,' said he, 'your lad was a lass and our lass a lad, would you then be so earnest in this matter? Our nation, being a stout nation, will never agree to have an Englishman to be king of Scotland. And though the whole nobility of the realm would consent to it, yet our common people and the stones in the street would rise and rebel against it' (Sadler Papers, iii. 326). The event did not belie Otterburne's reputation as 'a wise man as any was in Scotland' (ib.) Henceforth Sadler counted him a member 'of the Cardinal's faction, and a great enemy of the king's majesty's purposes' (Hamilton Papers, ii. 106). He naturally attached himself to Cardinal Beaton, who regarded the French connection as the guarantee for Scottish independence of England, rather than to the queen-dowager, Mary of Guise [q. v.], who would have made Scotland little more than a province of France. It is true that one authority of the time has been appealed to as showing that Otterburne was ready to betray his country to the English. When the Earl of Hertford landed a large force near Leith in the first days of May 1544, to enforce the marriage by burning and slaying, 'the town of Edinburgh,' says the 'Diurnal of Occurrents' (p. 31), 'came forth in their sight, but the provost, Mr. Adam Otterburne, betrayed them, and fled home.' But the account of these events in the 'Diurnal' is not strictly contemporary and in other points inaccurate and confused. The letter of an English eye-witness printed in the same year, and recently reprinted by Mr. Goldsmid, agrees with Bishop Lesley (p. 180) that the provost only went out to parley with the invaders after the regent Arran and the cardinal had withdrawn their small force before Hertford's overwhelming numbers, and that he, nevertheless, rejected the demand for unconditional submission. Otterburne continued to sit in almost every


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Rh another ‘Life’ which passes under the name of Osbert, and is printed by Mabillon (sæc. v. 684–95), who thinks that Osbert lived about 1120; others suppose that Osbert was identical with Osbern; but seemingly this life is really the work of Eadmer (, i. 604). There is a sixteenth-century translation into English in Harleian MS. 537, ff. 9–25. 2. ‘Vita Sancti Alphegi et de Translatione Sancti Alphegi.’ This is printed in Mabillon, sæc. vi. 104–15; the Bollandists' ‘Acta Sanctorum,’ April, ii. 631–42; Wharton's ‘Anglia Sacra,’ ii. 127–47; Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ cxlix. 375–94; and Langebek's ‘Scriptores Rerum Danicarum,’ ii. 439. Eadmer says that the ‘Life’ was written by Lanfranc's order, not only in plain speech for reading, but also for singing with a musical accompaniment; Lanfranc directed it to be sung in church. The ‘Life’ of St. Alphege or Aelfheah is quoted by Eadmer (Memorials of St. Dunstan, p. 419) and William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontificum, p. 33). Osbern says that he had his account of the translation of St. Alphege from Godric the dean, who had been one of Alphege's scholars (, p. 113). 3. ‘Vita Sancti Odonis Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis.’ William of Malmesbury quotes Osbern's life of Odo (Gesta Pontificum, p. 24–5); it was in Cotton MS. Otho A. xii, which was destroyed in the fire of 1731. The life printed in Wharton's ‘Anglia Sacra,’ ii. 78–87, by Mabillon, sæc. v. 287–96, and in Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ cxxxiii. 931, is not Osbern's; it may be by Eadmer. The life of St. Bregwin in ‘Anglia Sacra,’ ii. 75–77, is incorrectly attributed to Osbern. The life of St. Edward the Confessor and the epistles attributed to Osbern really belong to Osbert de Clare [see ]. Osbern is alleged to have written two treatises, ‘De Re Musica’ and ‘De Vocum Consonantiis,’ which Fetis (Dict. des Musiciens, vii. 99) says exist in several manuscripts, a copy of the former being preserved at Christ's College, Cambridge.

OSBERN or OSBERT (d. 1103), bishop of Exeter and chancellor, was son of Osbern the seneschal, who was guardian of Normandy for the future Conqueror. He was thus brother of William Fitzosbern, the earl of Hereford [q. v.], and a kinsman of Edward the Confessor ( Gesta Pontificum, p. 201). He came to England during the reign of Edward, and was one of the king's chaplains, and held land at Stratton, Cornwall, at the time of Edward's death (Domesday, iv. 216). As a royal chaplain he was present at the dedication of Westminster Abbey on 28 Dec. 1065, and after the conquest witnessed a charter to St. Martin's, London, in 1068, as ‘Osbernus Capellanus’ (Mon. Angl. vi. 1325). A little later he seems to have become the king's chancellor, but the only authority for Osbern in this capacity is a charter to St. Augustine, Canterbury, which is attested by ‘signum Osberti Cancellarii.’ This Osbert is no doubt the future bishop, whose name appears both as Osbern and Osbert (cf. Domesday, iv. 8, 61; Mon. Angl. iv. 16, 17). Osbern probably resigned the chancellorship on his nomination to the bishopric of Exeter. He was consecrated at St. Paul's, London, on 28 March 1072, by Lanfranc. As bishop of Exeter he was present at the councils held at Windsor in 1072 and London in 1075 (, Concilia, i. 325, 364). He had some dispute with the monks of St. Nicholas, Exeter, but was afterwards reconciled to them, and became one of their benefactors (ib. i. 378;, Monasticon, p. 113). William of Malmesbury says that Osbern followed the English in choice of food and in other respects, and preferred English to Norman customs. ‘After the manner of ancient prelates, he was content with old buildings,’ so that the earliest work at Exeter dates from the time of his successor. He was liberal in mind and chaste in deed. Osbern was blind for some years before his death; William of Warelwast, who eventually succeeded him, endeavoured to have him deprived of his bishopric on this score; but Osbern died before the scheme could take effect in the latter part of 1103.

OSBERN, CLAUDIANUS (fl. 1148), scholar, was a monk of Gloucester under Hamelin, who was abbot 1148–1179. Leland says he was the best Latinist of his time; that he had a knowledge of Greek, was an exact theologian and well versed in philosophy, and that his teaching was much praised in the monastery (De Script. Brit. No. 151). Gilbert Foliot [q. v.], writing as abbot of Gloucester to his ‘dear son’ Osbern,


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Otway mione [see, d. 1797; ] was in La Guayra, he went thither, and on the night of the 7th pulled in with two of his boats. The Hermione, however, was not there; but, finding a corvette which had lately arrived from Spain, he boarded and carried her, and by break of day had towed her out of range of the batteries. But it was a dead calm; a flotilla of gunboats was seen coming out in pursuit; and defence or escape seemed equally impossible. Otway ordered two guns, loaded to the muzzle, to be got ready, and when the gunboats were on the point of boarding, fired them through the corvette's bottom. The gunboats had as much as they could do to save their countrymen from drowning, and in the confusion Otway drew off his men in his own boats. In his six years in the West Indies he was said to have captured or destroyed two hundred of the enemy's privateers or merchantmen. The Trent, in 1799 and 1800, 'is supposed to have made as many captures as ever fell to the lot of one vessel in the same space of time' (, Naval History, ii. 448).

In November 1800 the Trent returned to England with the flag of Sir Hyde Parker (1739-1807) [q. v.], with whom Otway went to the Royal George, and thence, in February 1801, to the London, when Parker took command of the fleet for the Baltic. It is said, apparently on Otway 's authority, that it was at his suggestion that the fleet advanced against Copenhagen through the Sound instead of by the Great Belt. During the battle which followed, when the commander-in-chief determined to hoist the celebrated signal to 'discontinue the action,' Otway was sent to the Elephant with a verbal message to Nelson to disregard it if he saw any probability of success [see ]. He was sent home with despatches, and, on rejoining the flag in August, was appointed to the Edgar, in which he went out to the West Indies, and returned in July 1802. During 1804-5 he commanded the Montagu off Brest under Cornwallis; in the spring of 1806 he was detached, under the command of Sir Richard John Strachan [q. v.], in pursuit of the French squadron under Willaumez, and in 1807 was sent to the Mediterranean, where he was employed on the coast of Calabria, and afterwards, in 1808, on the coast of Catalonia in co-operation with the Spanish patriots. In August 1808 he was moved to the Malta for a passage to England; but in the following May he again went out to the Mediterranean in command of the Ajax, in which, and afterwards in the Cumberland, he was employed in the continuous blockade of Toulon and the French coast. In December 1811 his health gave way, and he was compelled to invalid. In May 1813 he was again appointed to the Ajax, for service in the Channel and Bay of Biscay. In the autumn he co-operated with the army in the siege of San Sebastian, and early in 1814 convoyed a fleet of transports, with some five thousand troops on board, from Bordeaux to Quebec. He afterwards assisted in equipping the flotilla on Lake Champlain. On 4 June 181 4 Otway was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and from 1818 to 1821 was commander-in-chief at Leith. On 8 June 1826 he was nominated a K.C.B., and at the same time was appointed commander-in-chief on the South American station, then — in the turmoil of insurrection, revolution, and civil war — a post calling for constant watchfulness and tact. He returned to England in 1829. On 22 July 1830 he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and on 15 Sept. 1831 was created a baronet. He was promoted to be admiral on 23 Nov. 1841, and was nominated a G.C.B. on 8 May 1845. He died suddenly on 12 May 1846. He had married, in 1801, Clementina, eldest daughter of Admiral John Holloway, and by her had a large family. His two eldest sons, both commanders in the navy, predeceased him; the third, George Graham Otway, succeeded to the baronetcy. A portrait, lent by Sir Arthur John Otway, the fourth son and third baronet, was in the Naval Exhibition of 1891.  OTWAY, THOMAS (1652–1685), dramatist, born at Trotton, near Midhurst, Sussex, on 3 March 1651-2, was only son of Humphrey Otway, at the time curate of Trotton. The father, after graduating from Christ's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1635, and M.A. 1638), was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College in the same university (, Admissions to St. John's College, 1. 43). In his son's infancy he became rector of Woolbeding, three miles from Trotton. A successor was appointed to the rectory in 1670, which was doubtless the year of Humphrey Otway's death. He was poor, and left his son (the latter tells us) no inheritance beyond his loyalty. A silver flagon, still used in holy communion in Woolbeding church, bears an inscription stating that it was the gift in 1703 of Humphrey Otway's widow Elizabeth.


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Otway Thomas was educated at Winchester College. His name appears in the 'Long Roll' for 1668 as a commoner, and one of five boarding in college. About 1739-40 a 'marble,' with his name, the date '1670,' and the initials 'W. C.' and 'J. W.' carved upon it, was placed in sixth chamber in college. The initials apparently represent the names of those who erected the memorial — William Collins, the poet, and Joseph Warton, who were scholars and prefects in 1739-40. In his vacations, spent at Woolbeding, Otway seems to have beguiled a part of his leisure by scribbling scraps of Latin over the parish register, in which his signature may still be seen attached to many irrelevant Latin quotations. On 27 May 1669, at the age of seventeen, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, as a commoner. Among his chief friends there was Anthony Cary, fifth viscount Falkland, some five years his junior, who matriculated at Christ Church on 21 May 1672. Otway was from an early age devoted to the theatre, and Falkland, who shared his sympathies, seems to have encouraged his dramatic predilections (cf. Caius Marius, Ded.) Leaving the university in the autumn of 1672, without a degree, he made his way to London. Introducing himself to Mrs. Aphra Behn, he eagerly accepted her proposal that he should play the small part of the king in her ' Forc'd Marriage, or the Jealous Bridegroom,' which was on the point of production at the theatre in Dorset Gardens. The experiment proved a complete failure. 'The full house put him to such a sweat and tremendous agony [that], being dash't, [it] spoilt him for an actor' (, Roscius Anylicanus, 1708, p. 34). Otway did not appear on the stage again, but thenceforward occupied himself in writing plays.

Some success attended his earliest effort. In 1675 there was produced, at Dorset Garden Theatre, a tragedy by him, in five acts of heroic verse, entitled 'Alcibiades.' The story was drawn, with many modifications, from Nepos and Plutarch. There is much bombast and no indisputable sign of talent in Otway's treatment of his theme. At a later date he apologised for making his hero a 'squeamish gentleman' (Don Carlos, Pref.) ; but the title-role in the hands of Betterton proved attractive, while Mrs. Betterton and Mrs. Barry, who on this occasion 'gave the first indication of her rising merit,' were acceptable to the audience in the parts respectively of Timandra and Draxilla (, i. 177 ;, Dramatic Miscellanies, iii. 179). The Earl of Rochester commended the piece, and brought Otway to the notice of the Duke of York. 'Alcibiades ' was at once published, with a dedication to Charles, earl of Middlesex (2nd edit. 1687).

A year later Otway achieved a wider reputation. On 15 June 1676 a license was granted for the performance at Dorset Gardens of his 'Don Carlos,' another rhyming play. The plot was adapted from a French historical romance of the same name by the Abbé St. Réal, which had been published in London in an English translation in 1674. Schiller's 'Don Carlos' is drawn from the same French original, and the many close resemblances between the English and German plays have offered a suggestive field for criticism in Germany (Ueber Otway's und Schiller's Don Carlos, von Jacob Lowenberg, Lippstadt, 1886 ; Otway's, Schiller's und St. Real's Don Carlos, von Ernst Müller, Markgroningen, 1888). Betterton played Philip II, and 'all the parts were admirably acted'. The piece, despite the sanguinary extravagances of its concluding scene, was repeated ten consecutive nights, and 'got more money than any preceding tragedy' (ib.) The statement in Cibber's 'Lives' that it was played thirty nights together is an obvious exaggeration. In his 'bession of the Poets' Rochester writes that the piece filled Otway's pockets. Betterton told Booth that 'Don Carlos' 'was infinitely more applauded and better followed for many years than' any other of Otway's productions (Letters of Aaron Hill;, i. 191). Only one revival after Otway's death is noted by Genest—that at Drury Lane on 27 July 1708, when Barton Booth played Philip II ; but, according to Davies (iii. 179), it was acted again about 1730 at Lincoln's Inn Fields, with Boheme as Philip and Mrs. Seymour as the queen, and its reception restored the falling fortunes of that playhouse. The first edition was published in 1676, with a dedication to the Duke of York, and a preface in defence of 'Alcibiades,' its predecessor. According to the preface, Dryden, who is referred to as 'an envious poet,' asserted that 'Don Carlos' 'contained not one line that he would be author of.' A coolness between Otway and Dryden followed, but proved of short duration. A fourth edition of 'Don Carlos' was dated in 1695, and a fifth 'corrected' in 1704.

Betterton's faith in Otway was now established, and early in 1677 he brought out two dramas by him, both adaptations from the French. The first, 'Titus and Berenice,' a tragedy in three acts of rhyming verse, was adapted from Racine ; the second, 'The Cheats of Scapin,' a farce, was adapted from Moliere. Both tragedy and farce were acted on the same night in February 1676-7, and were published shortly afterwards in a single