most Rev. Dr. John Potter, late Archbishop of Canterbury, who died June 9, 1761, aged 35 years. Amongst the scholars of his time he was conspicuous for the variety and extent of his knowledge: and to the cultivation of an elegant and correct taste for polite literature, superadded the most judicious researches into the abstruse points and learning of antiquity. His public character was distinguished by an unremitted zeal and activity in most stations, to which his merit had raised him. In private life, he was beloved and respected for the natural sweetness of his disposition, the piety of his manners, and integrity of his conduct. Blessed with a consort worthy of himself, amiable, affectionate, and truly pious, they mutually fulfilled every domestic duty with cheerfulness and fidelity: and their grateful children have the fullest confidence, that they are gone to receive in a more perfect state the certain and final rewards of their exemplary lives upon earth."

Gent. Mag. Vol. LVI. p. 480.

22. MRS. BRERETON.

Jane, the daughter of Mr. Thomas Hughes of BrynGriffith near Mould in Flintshire, by Anne Jones, his wife, was born in 1685; and being observed to be endowed by nature with a great capacity, her talents were assiduously cultivated by her father, who was himself a person of excellent parts. Mr. Hughes however dying when she was only sixteen, she soon lost these advantages; but requiring little from art, she early dis

covered a turn for poetry; which her acquaintance encouraged.

On 20 Jan. 1711, she married Mr. Thomas Brereton, at that time a Commoner of Brazen Nose College, Oxford, only son of Major Brereton, son and heir of William Brereton, Esq. of Cheshire. Her husband soon run out his fortune, and went over to Paris; and some time after this, a separation having taken place, she retired, 1721, to her native country, Wales; where she led a solitary life, secing little company, except some intimate friends.

About this time Mr. Brereton obtained from Lord Sunderland, a post belonging to the Customs at Park Gate near Chester: but in Feb. 1722 was unfortunately drowned in adventurously crossing the water of Saltney, when the tide was coming in; and his body being found, was decently interred in Shotwick chapel belonging to his relation Thomas Brereton, Esq. M. P. for Liverpool.

Mrs. Brereton then retired to Wrexham in Denbighshire for the benefit of her children's education, where she died 7 Aug. 1740, aged 55, leaving two surviving daughters, Lucy and Charlotte. She was amiable in every relation of life; and possessed some talents for versification, if not for poetry, which she displayed for some years as a Correspondent to the Gentleman's Magazine under the signature of MELISSA: where she had a competitor who signed himself FIDO; of whose treachery her Editor complains; and whom I suppose to have been a suicide, who is recorded in the Obituary of the Gent. Mag. Vol. VII. p. 316, in the following words:

May

May 17, 1737, died "Mr. Thomas Beach, Merchant at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, suddenly. He was master of a fine genius, author of Eugenio, a poem, just published, and some other poetical pieces.'

After Mrs. Brereton's death, were published Poems on several occasions: by Mrs. Jane Brereton. With Letters to her friends; and an account of her life. London. Printed by Edward Cave at St. John's Gale. 1744. 8vo. pp. 303.

From the above account this memoir is taken.

23. DR. SNEYD DAVIES.

Dr. Sneyd Davies was a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; Rector of Kingsland in Herefordshire, in his own patronage; and Archdeacon of Derby, and Prebendary of Lichfield, by the gift of his friend Dr. Cornwallis, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a man of amiable character, and died 6 Feb. 1769.

His poems, scattered about in various collections, exhibit proofs of great genius, as well as learning.

In Dodsley's volumes are to be found I. Vaccina. II. Epithalamium. III. On John Whaley + ranging pamphlets. IV. To a Gentleman on the Birth-day of his son. V. On two friends born on the same day. VI. To the Hon. and Rev. F. Cornwallis, against Indolence; a beautiful poem. VII. To the Rev. Thomas

I think in some of Boswell's volumes on Johnson this person is mentioned.

John Whaley, A.M. an intimate friend of Dr. Davies, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and author of a Collection of Original poems and translations, 1745," and of another volume which was published after his death. See Nichols's Collection.

Taylor,

Taylor, D.D. VIII. To Charles Pratt, Esq. IX. At seeing Archbishop Williams's Monument in Carnarvonshire.

In Duncombe's Horace are several of his Imitations.

In Nichols's Collection are, X. A scene after Hunting at Swallowfield in Berks. XI. To the Queen of Hungary. XII Rhapsody, to Milton. XIII. A voyage to Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire from Whitminster in Gloucestershire. XIV. A Night-Thought. XV. Imitation of Horace, B. I. Ep. I. To Mr.Whaley. XVI. Song of Deborah, Judges, chap. v. XVII. The Nativity. XVIII. To the Spring. XIX. Imitation of Horace, B. I. Ep. xi. XX. On the death of Mrs. M. H. XXI. On Old Camden's Picture, at Lord Camden's in Kent. XXII. On Miss Wyndham dancing a Louvre at Bath with Lord Cadogan, 1738. XXIII. On one, in love with a negro woman.

24. REV. PETER WHALLEY, LL.B.

This learned Editor was of an ancient family in Northamptonshire, and received his education at Merchant Taylor's School, and St. John's College, Oxford, of which he was some time Fellow. He was at first Vicar of St. Sepulchre, Northampton; then Rector of St. Margaret Pattens, London; to which he afterwards added the Vicarage of Horley in Surrey. In 1768 he took the degree of LL.B. and was chosen Master of the Grammar School of Christ's Hospital, which he resigned in 1776, and accepted that of St. Olave; and became a Magistrate in the Borough.

He died at Ostend, 12 June, 1791, æt. 69; Rector of the united parishes of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch and St. Margaret Pattens, and Vicar of Horley.

He

He was author of, I. An Enquiry into the Learning of Shakspeare, with remarks on several passages of his Plays, 1748, 8vo. II. A Vindication of the Evidences and Authenticity of the Gospels from the objections of the late Lord Bolingbroke, in his Letters on the Study of History, 1753, 8vo. III. An edition of the Works of Ben Jonson, with notes, 1756, in 7 vols. 8vo. IV. V. VI. Three Sermons, 1758, 1763, 1770. VII. The first volume of Bridges's Northamptonshire, about 1762, fol. and the first part of the Second, 1769. VIII. Verses prefixed to Hervey's Meditations.

An imprudent matrimonial connexion involved his affairs, and driving him abroad, embittered the latter period of his life.

From Gent. Mag. Vol. LXI. pp. 588, 773.

ART. XXXII. Literary Obituary.

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

To pay to rank or riches the reverence that is due to genius, is one of the meanest acts of a weak and degraded mind. For this reason I have never stained the pages of a work intended to preserve the memory of literary excellence by intermixing in my Obituary the names of those, who had no other pretensions to celebrity than their titles and estates. In this age of fierce extremes, of overbearing, and ill-assorted aristocracy, or furious, and malignant democrats, it has been my fate to be at once accused of an adulatory love for station and honours, and of an envious hatred of greatness. The cause is obvious: I have not been insensible