Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/519

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used to say that they reminded him of the Eev. Mark Hare's whitewashing the Kock of Cashel, to give it a genteel appearance against a visitation. The Biographie des Musiciens says : " The fault of this collec- tion, as of all others of a similar character, is that the original style of the melodies is destroyed by the modern accompaniment." Moore shields his friend from such accusa- tions : "Whatever charges of this kind may have been ventured upon (and they are few and slight), the responsibility for them rests solely with me, as, leaving the harmonist's department to my friend Stevenson, I re- served to myself the selection and arrange- ment of the airs." Stevenson considered that his symphonies and accompaniments should ever be held subordinate to the melodies for which they were written, and he once remarked to Dr. Petrie : " I would recommend any person who means to sing them to purchase a piano about the value of £5, for it will be then likely that one may have a fair chance of hearing very little of the instrument and something of the melody and the poetry." The round of festivities in which Stevenson took part, would have left him little leisure for work, but that, according to his own account, he could do with only three hours' sleep. He was slight, and of middle height, and dressed in the pink of the fashion. His manners were somewhat pompous, yet he was at heart unaffected and kindly. He died at the seat of his son-in-law, the Marquis of Headford, in the County of Meath, 14th September 1833, aged 70. The orphan son of a poor coachmaker, he lived to see one daughter married to a marquis, another to an estated gentleman ; one of his sons a rector, and another an officer in the army. An inscription to his memory has been erected in Christ Church Cathedral. One of the Melodies (" Silence is in our festal halls ") was written by Moore on the occasion of his death. "*'37) 146 250

Stewart, Alexander Tumey, a wealthy New York merchant and capital- ist, was born near Lisburn, 12th October 1803. He lost both parents before he was many days old, and was placed under the guardianship of Thomas Lamb, a member of the Society of Friends. The death of his grandfather interrupted his studies at Trinity College. He emigrated to the United States, and supported himself by teaching until he was of age, when he re- turned to Ireland, to receive his fortune of .£2,000, with which he opened a drapery shop on Broadway, New York. His clear head, straightforwardness in business transactions, and his rule of never mis-

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representing the quality of goods made him successful from the first, and after some changes he established his business in a splendid marble structure, occupying a full "block" on Broadway. He had agents for the purchase of goods in the leading European markets, and branch establishments in several minor cities and towns of the United States. His yearly sales are said latterly to have amounted to £10,000,000. During the Irish famine he sent an entire cargo of provisions for the relief of his suffering fellow country- men. One of the most important of his permanent benefactions was the erec- tion of an extensive residence in New York for working women. Mr. Stewart was strongly identified with the Repub- lican party and the Federal cause during the war with the Southern States, and contributed largely to the Sanitary Com- mission. He was one of the United States representatives at the Paris Ex- hibition of 1867. In March 1869, he was nominated by PresidentGrant for Secretary of the United States Treasury, but was found to be ineligible because of being engaged in business on his own account. He died in New York, loth April 1875, aged 71, leaving his fortune of some £15,000,000 almost entirely to his wife.

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Stewart, Sir Robert, was made Governor of Londonderry and Culmore by Charles I., in 1643. On 13th June of the same year he defeated Owen Eoe O'Neill at Clones, taking prisoner several foreign officers who had accompanied O'Neill to Ireland. Soon afterwards he embraced the Scottish engagement against the Par- liament, and in his well-fortified strong- hold of Culmore, prevented access by sea to Londonderry. In 1 648 he was inveigled into attending a private baptism in London- derry, seized by Coote, and compelled to give an order for the surrender of Culmore. By direction of Monk, he was removed to London, where he lay immured in the Tower for some years. After the Restora- tion he was reinstated in his honours, and died Governor of Londonderry in 1661. "

Stewart, Sir William, Viscount Mountjoy, was born in 1653. In 1682 he was raised to the peerage, and appointed Master-General of the Ordnance and colonel of a regiment of foot. In 1686 he served in Hungary at the siege of Breda. On his return to Ireland he was made a brigadier-general. Macaulay styles him " a brave soldier, an accomplished scholar. , . At Dublin he was the centre of a small circle of learned and ingenious men, who had, under his presidency, formed 495