763 



ELIOT, JOHN. 



ELIZABETH. 



764 



other scientific societies ; and cm the death of Arago in 1853 he suc- 

 ceeded him as perpetual secretary to the Academic des Sciences. 



ELIOT, JOHN, often called the ' Apostle of the Indians' waa a native 

 of England, born in 1604. He was educated at the University of 

 Cambridge, and distinguished himself by proficiency in theology and 

 in ancient languages. Having seceded from the established church 

 and embraced the ministry, he emigrated, like many other sufferers 

 for conscience, to New England, and arrived at Boston in 1631. In 

 the following year he married, and finally established his abode at 

 Roxbury, only a mile distant, as minister of a small congregation, 

 composed chiefly of friends to whose religious service he had previously 

 engaged himself, in case they should follow him across the Atlantic. 

 In discharging the duties of his function he was zealous and efficient ; 

 and he was also earnest in spreading the blessings of education, by 

 promoting the establishment of schools. One of his occupations was 

 the preparing, in conjunction with Richard Mather and another minis- 

 ter named Wilde, a new metrical version of the Psalms for congrega- 

 tional use. 



Having qualified himself, by learning their language, to become a 

 preacher to the Indians, he commenced his missionary labours on the 

 28th of October 1646, before a large assemblage collected by his invita- 

 tion on the site of what is now the town of Newton, a few miles from 

 Roxbnry. Many, it is said, on this and on a subsequent occasion 

 seemed deeply touched ; and it is evident, by the questions asked of 

 the preacher, that the understandings as well as the feelings of his 

 audience, were roused. From the chiefs and priests, or medii:iiie-men, 

 both of whom felt interested in maintaining ancient manners and 

 superstitions, he usually met with opposition. Still no small number 

 were converted : and these, abandoning their savage life, united in 

 communities, to which lands were granted by the provincial govern- 

 ment. In 1674 there were seven Indian ' praying-towns,' containing 

 near 500 persons, thus settled in Massachusetts, under the care of 

 Eliot, besides a still greater number of converts, to whom land had 

 not been thus assigned. 



In travelling among the woods Eliot underwent great physical labour 

 and hardship, and his mental labour was unremitting. He translated 

 the Old and New Testament, and several religious treatises, into the 

 Indian tongue, which were printed for distribution chiefly at the 

 expense of the Society for Propagating the Gospel ; he composed an 

 Indian grammar, and several treatises on subjects not directly 

 religious, for the use of his converts and pupils, and also wrote a 

 number of English works. Nevertheless, he lived to the age of eighty- 

 six, and resigned his pastoral charge at Roxbury only two years before 

 his death, which took place on the 20th of May 1690. A colleague 

 had been appointed to assist him in 1650, in consequence of his neces- 

 sary and frequent absence. His private character appears to have 

 been very beautiful : he was not only disinterested aud zealous, but 

 benevolent, self-denying, and humble. Baxter says, in one of his 

 letters, " There was no man on earth whom I honoured above him." 

 A handsome memorial to the ' Apostle of the Indians, and the pastor 

 for fifty-eight years of the first church in Roxbury,' has been erected 

 in the picturesque ' Forest Hills Cemetery,' Roxbury. 



(Cotton Mather, Ace. Hist., b. iii., and Life of John Eliot. A modern 

 Life of John Eliot, Edinburgh, 12mo, 1828, contains a good deal of 

 information concerning the early attempts to convert the Indians.) 



ELIOTT, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, LORD HEATHFIELD, was 

 born at Stobbe in Scotland in 1718. He studied the mathematics 

 and other sciences at Edinburgh, and afterwards went to the Univer- 

 sity of Leyden, where he made great proficiency in classical literature, 

 and was remarkable for the elegance and fluency with which he spoke 

 the French and German languages. His knowledge of tactics was 

 acquired in the celebrated school at La Fere. Having attained the 

 rank of lieutenant-colonel, he accompanied George II. to Germany in 

 1743 as his majesty's aide-de-camp, and was wounded in the battle of 

 Dettingen. In the Seven Years War, he fought in 1757 under the 

 Duke of Cumberland and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and greatly 

 distinguished himself at the head of his celebrated regiment of light- 

 horse, raised and formed by himself, and called by his name. He 

 was second in command in the expedition against the Havnnnah, the 

 capture of which important place was highly honourable to the 

 courage and perseverance of the British troops. After the peace he 

 obtained the rank of lieutenant-general, and was appointed in 1775 to 

 the government of Gibraltar. His memorable defence of that import- 

 ant fortress against the combined efforts of France and Spain was the 

 last exploit of his life, the splendour of which so far eclipsed all that 

 had preceded it, that he is most familiarly known as 'the gallant 

 defender of Gibraltar.' This last and most memorable of all the 

 sieges of Gibraltar was commenced in 1779, and did not terminate 

 till the 2nd of February 1783. For a detailed account of the siege 

 the reader is referred to the interesting work of Captain John Drink- 

 water and M. Bourgoing, to the ' Life of General George Augustus 

 Elliot (afterwards Lord Heathfield),' and to chap. Ixiv. of Malvon's 

 ' History of England.' The conduct of the governor and brave 

 defender of Gibraltar throughout forms one great example of moral 

 virtue and military talent. The grand attack took place on the 13th 

 of September 1782. On the land side, besides stupendous batteries 

 mounting 200 pieces of heavy ordnance, there was an army of 40,000 

 men, commanded by a victorious general, the Duo de Crillon, and 



animated by the immediate presence of two princes of the crown of 

 France. In the bay lay the combined fleets of France and Spain, 

 consisting of 47 sail-of-the-liue, numerous frigates and smaller armed 

 vessels, besides 10 battering ships, which alone had cost upwards of 

 500,000t Four hundred pieces of the heaviest artillery (reckoning 

 both sides) were playing at once. The battering ships were found to 

 be of so formidable a construction that the heaviest shells rebounded 

 from them. Eventually however two of them were destroyed by the 

 incessant discharge of red-hot shot from the garrison, aud the remain- 

 ing eight were burnt by the enemy to prevent them from falling into 

 the hands of the besieged. The remainder of the enemy's squadron 

 also suffered considerably; but notwithstanding their failure the 

 assailants kept up a less vivid fire for more than two months, and the 

 siege did not finally terminate till the 2nd of February 1783, when 

 it was announced that the preliminaries of a general peace had been 

 signed. The expenditure of the garrison exceeded 8300 rounds (more 

 than half of which were hot balls), and 716 barrels of powder. That 

 of the enemy could not be ascertained, but their loss, including 

 prisoners, was estimated at 2000, while that of the garrison only 

 amounted to 16 killed and 68' wounded. While the floating batteries 

 were on fire a detachment of British marines under Brigadier Curtis, 

 was humanely and successfully employed in rescuing numbers of the 

 enemy from their burning citadels. The failure of this memorable 

 attempt to wrest Gibraltar from the possession of Eugland has been 

 partly attributed to a want of co-operation among the enemy's forces, 

 but the priucipal cause was, no doubt, the gallant defence made by 

 General Eliott and his brave garrison, notwithstanding their frequent 

 and extreme suffering from want of provisions and from the prevalence 

 of disease. 



After the peace General Eliott waa created a peer by the title of 

 Lord Heathfield of Gibraltar. His lordship died at his favourite 

 country seat Kalkofen, near Aix-la-Chapelle, whither he had gone iu 

 1790, in the seventy-third year of his age. 



ELIZABETH, Queen of England, the daughter of Henry VIII. by 

 his second wife, Anne Boleyn, was born at Greenwich, 7th of September 

 1533. She was not three years old therefore when her mother was 

 brought to the block in May 1536. Very soon after her birth it was 

 declared, by the Act 25 Henry VIII., c. 22, that if Queen Anne should 

 decease without issue male, to be begotten of the body of the king, 

 then the crown, on the death of the king, should go " to the Lady 

 Elizabeth, now princess, and to the heirs of her body lawfully 

 begotten." By this act therefore Henry's female issue by his present 

 queen was placed in the order of succession before the male issue he 

 might have by any future wife. By the 28 Henry VIII., c. 7, however, 

 passed after his marriage with Jane Seymour, his two former marriages 

 were declared to be unlawful and void, and both Elizabeth and her 

 elder sister Mary were bastar jised. But finally, by the 35 Henry VIII., 

 c. 1, passed soon after his marriage with his last wife, Catharine Parr, 

 it was declared that if Prince Edward should die without heirs, then 

 the crown should remain first to the Lady Mary, and, failing her, to 

 the Lady Elizabeth. This waa the last legal settlement of the crown, 

 by which her position was affected, made previous to Elizabeth's 

 accession ; unless indeed she might be considered to be excluded by 

 implication by the Act 1 Mary, st. 2, c. 1, which legitimatised her 

 sister Mary, declared the validity of Henry's first marriage, and 

 pronounced his divorce from Catherine of Aragon to be void. 



In 1535 a negociation was entered into for the marriage of Elizabeth 

 to the Duke of Angoulume, the third son of Francis I. of France ; 

 but it was broken off before any agreement was come to. In 1546 

 also Henry proposed to the Emperor Charles V., with the view of 

 breaking off a match then contemplated between the emperor's sou, 

 the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II., with a daughter of the 

 French king, that Philip should marry the Princess Elizabeth ; but 

 neither alliance took place. Elizabeth's next suitor, though ho does 

 not seem to have formally declared his pretensions, was the protector 

 Somerset's unfortunate brother, the Lord Seymour of Sudley. He is 

 said to have made some advances to her even before his marriage 

 with Queen Catharine Parr, although Elizabeth was then only in her 

 fourteenth year. Catharine, who died a few months after her marriage 

 (poisoned, as many supposed, by her husband), appears to have been 

 made somewhat uncomfortable while she lived by the freedoms the 

 princess continued to allow Sudley to take with her, which went 

 beyond ordinary flirtation ; the scandal of the day indeed was, that 

 " the Lady Elizabeth did bear some affection to the admiral." After 

 his wife's death he was accused of having renewed his designs upon 

 her hand ; and it was part of the charge on which he was attainted 

 that he had plotted to seize the king's person and to force the princess 

 to marry him ; but his execution in the course of a few months 

 stopped this and all his other ambitious schemes. 



In 1550, in the rtign of Edward VI., it was proposed that Elizabeth 

 should be married to the eldest sou of Christian III. of Denmark ; 

 but the uegociation seems to have beeu stopped by her refusal to 

 consent to the match. She was a favourite with her brother, who 

 used to call her his ' sweet sister Temperance ; ' but he waa never- 

 theless prevailed upon by the artful aud interested representations of 

 Dudley to pass over her, as well as Mary, in the settlement of 

 the crown which he made by will a short time before his death. 

 [EDWAKD VL] 



