Linnaan Society. 191 



rator. For the ingenious contrivance by which he proposed to effect 

 this object, he received in 1821 the large gold medal of the Society 

 of Arts. Other ingenious modifications of the practical application 

 of the magnet were also devised by Mr, Abraham ; and he delivered 

 a lecture on this, his favourite topic, at an evening meeting of the 

 British Association, at their first meeting in the city of York in 1 83 1 . 

 In conjunction with his friend James Montgomery the poet, who 

 then edited one of the local newspapers, he was mainly instrumental 

 in originating the Literary and Philosophical Society of Sheffield, of 

 which in 1834 he was elected President. He was also celebrated in 

 his neighbourhood for his skill in horticulture, and seldom failed to 

 carry off one or more prizes at the exhibitions of the Sheffield Hor- 

 ticultural Society, founded in 1830 by himself and some friends; the 

 prize medals of which Society bear on their obverse an exquisitely 

 engraved head of Linnaeus. Mr. Abraham died on the 5th of Fe- 

 bruary in the present year, in the 69th year of his age. He became 

 a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1825. 



Henry Singer Chinnock, Esq. 



Barron Field, Esq., was born on the 23rd of October 178G, He 

 was the second son of Mr. Henry Field, who was in extensive me- 

 dical practice in London, and for many years apothecary to Christ's 

 Hospital. Mr. Barron Field was lineally descended in the sixth de- 

 gree from Oliver Cromwell ; his grandfather, Mr. John Field, having 

 married Anne, the daughter of Thomas Cromwell, who was grandsou 

 of Henry Cromwell, Lord Deputy of Ireland, the younger son of the 

 Protector. Mr. Barron Field was educated for the profession of the 

 law, and called to the bar by the Honourable Society of the Inner 

 Temple. In 1811 he published an 'Analysis of Blackstone's Com- 

 mentaries,' which has become a standard work for the use and in- 

 struction of students. In 1816 he was appointed Judge of the Su- 

 preme Court of New South Wales, and continued to exercise the 

 duties of that office till 1824 ; when, on a change in the Charter of 

 Justice for that colony, he relinquished his appointment and returned 

 to England. Early in 1829 he received from Government the ap- 

 pointment of Chief Justice of Gibraltar, which he held until ill-health 

 obliged him to retire and return to his native country. In both 

 these distant appointments Mr. Barron Field applied himself to what 

 was always with him a favourite relaxation, the study of botany. In 

 New South Wales he availed himself of the talents of Mr. Lewin, 

 the distinguished painter of natural history, and formed a pleasing 

 collection of drawings of Botany Bay plants; and his garden at 

 Gibraltar, situate at nearly the most southern point of Europe, ex- 

 hibited fine specimens of geraniums, cacti and other beautiful plants, 

 flourishing in an almost natural state. Mr. Barron Field also dedicated 

 much of his leisure to the critical perusal of the early English dra- 

 matists and poets ; and latterly attached himself to the Shakspeare 

 Society, of which he was chosen one of the Council, and for which 

 he edited several old dramas. He died on the 11th of April 1846, in 

 his 60th year, at Torquay in South Devon, where he had resided for 

 the last two years. 



