Encyclopædia americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new ed.; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-lexicon. Ed. by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth ...

354 ~FBYLES-BYRON.
visitor at once hurried away, in great circumstances so equivocal, that he was
anxiety, to make further inquiries. B. indicted for murder, and only saved from
lived in retirement the last 12 years of the penalty attendant on manslaughter by
his life, and died July 5, 1788, at the age pleading his peer-age-an escape which
of 82. did not prevent him from being consigned,
By:,G John, served under his father, by public opinion, to a life of seclusion
admiral George B., and by his merits, as and obscurity. Captain B., the poet's fawell as the influence of his name, was ther,; was so dissipated, that he obtained
raised to the rank of admiral. His at- the name of the mad Jack Byron. lie was
tempts to relieve fort St. Philip, in Minor- one of the handsolnest men of his day,
ca, when blockaded by a French fleet but so immersed in all the fashionable
under La Galissoniere, proved abortive; vices, that, at length, to be seen in his
and his hesitation in engaging the enemy, company was deemed discreditable. In
when a bold attack might have perhaps his 27th year, hie seduced Amelia, margained him the victory, excited the clamor chioness of Carmarthen, daughter of the
of the nation against him. The ministry, earl of Holdernesse, to w+hoin, on a diwho wished to avert the public odium vorce following, he was united in marfiom their unsuccessful measures, beheld riage. This ceremony the ill-fated lady
with seeming satisfaction the unpopulari- did not survive more than two yearls,
ty of B.; and, when he was condemned when he took, for a second wifb, Miss
by a court martial, they suffered him, Gordon, whose fortune he quickly dissithough recommended to mercy, to be pated, leaving her a destitute widow, in
sacrificed to the general indignation, and 1791, with a son, the celebrated sulbject
he was shot at Portsmouth, March 14, of this article, then only three years of
1757, meeting his death with calm res- age. Previously to the death of her husignation. band, having been deserted by hinm, Mrs
BYN ERSHOECK, Cornelius van; a Dutch B. retired, with her infant son, to Abetlawyer, born at Middleburg in 1675. I-e deen, where she lived in narrow Circumstudied at the university of Franeker, stances and great seclusion. The singular
and, after practising as a barrister at the circumstances attendant upon the early
Hague, became professor of law at Ley- childhood of B. seem to have operated
den, and president of the council of HIol- very materially in the formation of his
land. He died in 1743. B. was one of very striking character. Untilseven years
the most learned among modern civilians. of age, the care of his education rested
His works were published at Geneva in solely on his mother, to whose excusable,
1761, and at Leyden in 1766. They are but injudicious indulgence, some of the
written in Latin; and his treatise De waywardness, by which it was subseForo Legatoruwn competente was trans- quently marked, was, even by himself,
lated, by Barbeyrac, into French, under attributed. Being then of a weakly conthe title of Diz Juge compe'tent des.lqmbas- stitution, that disadvantage, added to a
sadeurs, 1728, 4to. B. edited a periodical slight rmalconformation in one of his feet,
publication, called The AJ'ew jfercuzNJ of naturally rendered him an object of pethe Hague, which was suppressed, owing culiar solicitude; and, to invigorate his
to the offence taken at the strain of satire constitution, he was not sent to school,
which it exhibited. but allowed to brace his limbs upon the
Brnao\ (George Gordon) lord, an Eng- mountains in the neighborhood; where
lish peer and poet of elevated genius, was he early acquired associations, and enborn at London, Jan. 22, 1788. Hle was countered a mass of legendary lore, which
the grandson of admiral John B. (q. v.), indisputably nurtured his poetical tendenand succeeded his great uncle, William cies. At the age of seven, he was sent to
lord B., while at school, in 1798. His the grammllar-school at Aberdeen, where
fiather was the admiral's only son, captain he was more distinguished for great occaJohn B. of the guards, notorious for his sional exertions, in order to make up for
gallantries and reckless dissipation. By the intervals of absence, rendered necesthe eccentricity and misconduct of the old sary by his delicacy of health, than by
lord B., and of the captain his nephew, his general application. In all boyish
the reputation of the family of B., so sports. however, the ardor of his temperancient and honorable in English history, ament enabled him to surmount his natuhad been considerably tarnished. TIle ral disadvantages. In 1798, the death of
former was tried by his peers for killing his great uncle, without issue, gave him
his relation, Mr. Chaworth, in a combat the titles and estates of the family; ol)
with swords, after a tavern dispute, under which, being then ten years of age, hlo