Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



[FEB. 



Elizabeth Kerr, daughter of William John, 

 fifth Marquess of Lothian ; by whom, who 

 died in 1822, he had no issue. It is re- 

 markable of Lord Dormer, that having re- 

 jected the errors of Popery, and conformed 

 hirmelf to the established religion, he was 

 the first of his family who sat in the House 

 of Lords, although the peerage has existed 

 upwards of two centuries. 



LORD KINNAIRD. 



Charles Kinnaird, Lord Kinnaird, of Inch- 

 hire, in the county of Perth, a counsellor of 

 state to the king, in Scotland, F.R. and 

 A. S., was a descendant from Rodolphus, 

 surnamed Rufus, who had a charter from 

 King William, the Lion, of Scotland, of the 

 barony of Kinnaird, in Perthshire, whence 

 the family assumed their swrname. His 

 lordship was born on the 7th of April, 1780, 

 and he succeeded his father George, the 

 late lord, on the 2 1st of October 1805. 

 His mother, the late Lady Kinnaird, was the 

 danghter and sole heir of Griffin Ransom, 

 of New Palace Yard, Westminster, Esq. 

 He married, in 1806, Lady Olivia Lelitia 

 Catherine Fitzgerald, youngest daughter of 

 William Robert, second Duke of Leinster ; by 

 whom he bad issue George William Fox, his 

 successor, two other son*, and two daugh- 

 ers. In the year J802, his lordship offered 

 himself a candidate for the borough of 

 Leominster, and, in conjunction with Mr. 

 Lubbock, he stood a warm contest, and 

 was successful. He sat in the Commons 

 during only one parliament, but he proved 

 himself a good speaker and an active mem- 

 ber. It was considered that, in consequence 

 of his political sentiments, the influence of 

 ministers was exerted against him to prevent 

 his being elected one of the representative 

 peers of Scotland. Some years ago, his lord- 

 ship sold off bis effects in England, gave up 

 his share in the banking-house to his 

 brother, the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, and 

 retired lo the continent, where he was much 

 distinguished for his patronage of the fine 

 arts. Latterly he had suffered much from 

 ill-health ; but although he had long been 

 in a hopeless state, his death, which took 

 place in Regency Square, Brighton, was 

 unexpected. His lady survives him. 



PROFESSOR BODE. 



John Elert Bode, a distinguished astro- 

 nomer, was born at Hamburgh, in the year 

 1747. At an early period he displayed a 

 love of the mathematical sciences, and he 

 was only nineteen when tbe eclipse of 1766 

 furnished him with an opportunity of ma- 

 nifesting his astronomical knowledge. In 

 1772, he was appointed royal professor of 

 astronomy at the academy of Berlin ; he 

 soon became a correspondent of all the 

 most celebrated astronomers, and he re- 

 tained bis professor's chair until the day of 

 his death, a period of fifty-four years. 

 Bode's works, written \vith clearness and 

 precision, are numerous and valuable. 



Amongst the principal of them are, his 

 " Introduction to the Knowledge of the 

 Starry Heavens;" his " Elements of the 

 Astronomical Sciences ; v and his " Atlas 

 Caelistis,"' in twenty sheets, containing 

 17,240 stars, and 12,000 more than had 

 been previously laid down. Amongst the 

 great men with whom Bode was most 

 closely connected, was Sallande, who is 

 said to have entertained a higher opinion of 

 the professor than of any of his rivals in the 

 same science. The professor was so inde- 

 fatigable in his studies, that he was found 

 dead at his desk a short time since ; or, as 

 his Berlin biogrnpher observes, " he was 

 sitting at his writing-desk when the angel 

 of death gently summoned him away to 

 eternal life, and conducted his spirit to the 

 stars, among which he has been no stranger 

 for these fifty years." 



LORD RIBBLESDALE. 



The Right Hon. Thomas Lister, Baron 

 Ribblesdale, of Gisburne Park, in the county 

 of York, D.C.L., and colonel of the Craven 

 Legion, was born on tbe 22d of March, 1752, 

 and raised to the peerage on the 26th of 

 October, 1797. The house of Lister bus had 

 its chief residence in the parish of Gisbnrne, 

 in Craven, for nearly 500 years. Its posses- 

 sions on the borders of the river which gives 

 origin to the title, are by descent of extraor- 

 dinary antiquity ; having been acquired about 

 the year 1312, by the marriage of John, 

 son of Sir Thomas Lister, with Isabel, 

 daughter and heiress of John de Bolton, 

 from whom Thomas Lister, the present and 

 second baron, is the eighteenth in lineal 

 descent. The above Isabel, it is believed, 

 also was descended, through the illustrious 

 families of Clare, Gaut, and Roumare, from 

 the old Saxon Earls of Mercia ; Willfam de 

 Roumare, one of the great Norman barons, 

 having after the conquest, married Lucy, 

 sister and heiress of Edwin, the last earl. 



The deceased nobleman was the son of 

 Thomas Lister, Esq., M.P. for the borough 

 of Clilheroe, and of Beatrix, daughter of 

 Jessof Hulton, of Hulton Park, in the 

 county of Lancaster, Esq. During the 

 American war he raised, at his own expence, 

 a regiment of horse for the service of go- 

 vernment, called Lister's Light Dragoons ; 

 aud afterwards, at the commencement of 

 the French Revolution, be became colonel 

 of the Craven Legion of Yeomanry Caval- 

 ry. For these, and other services, he was, 

 as already stated, raised to the peerage in 

 1797. His lordship married, in J789, Re- 

 becca, daughter of Joseph Fielding, Esq., 

 of the kingdom of Ireland, by Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Christopher Jackson, Esq., of 

 the county of Nottingham. By her lady- 

 ship, who died in 1816', he had one son, 

 Thomas, his successor in the peerage, born 

 in 1790, and two daughters. 



Lord Ribblesdale was a patron of the 

 fine arts, and possessed a valuable collection 

 of pictures at Gisburne Park. Amongst 



