32 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



The Eev. Charles Heney Middleton-Wake was educated at 

 Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 

 1852, proceeding to M.A, in 1882. He was ordained deacon in 

 1851 and priest in 1852, by the Bishop of Lichfield. He was 

 Vicar of Liugen, Herefordshire, from 1870 to 1874; from 1881 to 

 1885 he held the post of assistant chaplain at the Savoy, and 

 was Sandar's Reader 1896-97. He became a Fellow of the 

 Linnean Society in 1883, but his interests were more artistic 

 than scientific, and he was known as an authority on etchings 

 and engravings. In 1878 he published a 'Descriptive Catalogue 

 of the Etched Works of Rembrandt van Rhyn,' and in 1894 a 

 ' Catalogue of the Engraved Work of Albert DUrer.' 



[E. A. M.] 



William Ransom came of an unbroken line of Quaker ancestors 

 from Stuart times. He was born in 1826 at Hitchin, and there 

 he died on the 1st December, 1914, at the age of 88. He learned 

 the business of a pharmaceutical chemist with Messrs. Southall, 

 of Birmingham, returning in 1845 to open a pharmacy at 

 Hitchin, and also to start upon the cultivation of aromatic and 

 medicinal plants, with a view to the distillation of essential oils 

 and the manufacture of extracts, such as belladonna and henbane. 

 By 1850 he had become known as a grower of herbs, distiller of 

 lavender and peppermint. He continued the joint occupation of 

 this business wath that of chemist until 1866, when he disposed 

 of the latter, which later came into the possession of Mr. JS"icholas 

 Henry Martin, E.L.S., now of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The title 

 of the firm was altered in 1885 to William Ransom &, Son, and 

 in 1913 it became a private company. 



Our late Fellow was a generous supporter of local schools and 

 similar educational movements. He was a J. P., a Fellow of the 

 Society of Antiquaries, and joined our Society on the 5th March, 

 1885. [B. D. J.] 



Sir John Benjamin Stone, whose death took place at Erdington 

 on the 2nd July, 1914, was best and most widely known as an 

 enthusiastic pliotographer, an art which he pursued with the view- 

 of preserving for posterity faithful records of buildings, customs 

 and ceremonies. He was born in 1838 at Aston near Birmingham, 

 where his father, Benjamin Stone, was a glass manufacturer, and 

 to that business he succeeded, together with interest in a paper 

 mill, under the title of Smith, Stone & Knight. He was educated 

 at King Edward's School, New Street, during the headmastership 

 of Dr. GifFord. The success of his commercial life enabled him 

 to retire at an early age, and to devote himself to municipal and 

 political life (he was M.P. for East Birmingham from 1895 to 

 1909), and to prosecute his many hobbies. At the time of his 

 death, it was stated that his collection of photographs amounted 

 to more than 25,000, all carefully annotated and arranged. He 

 was elected a Fellow of the Society on the 3rd March, 1887. 



[B. D. J.] 



