Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/103

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sermons on the Beatitudes, who must have flourished much earlier than the above-named William, since the Laudian manuscript of his work (Laud. MS., Miscell. 368, f. 106, Bodl. Libr.) cannot be later than the beginning of the thirteenth century; yet this writer's death is placed by Wood in 1365. 3. A third William of Exeter was physician to Queen Philippa, and held a variety of church preferments, which are enumerated by Tanner; among them was the precentorship of Lincoln. He is said to have graduated in arts, medicine, and theology, but no writings are assigned to him.

[Bale MS. Selden, supra, 64, f. 52, Bodl. Libr.; Scriptt. Brit. Cat. v. 33, p. 405; Pits, De Angl. Scriptt. 426; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 356 et seq.]

R. L. P.

EXLEY, THOMAS (1775–1855), mathematician, was born at Gowdall, a village one mile west of Snaith in Yorkshire. Having taken the degree of M.A. (but at what university is unknown), he settled some time before 1812 as a mathematical teacher at Bristol. In that year he brought out with the Rev. William Moore Johnson, then curate of Henbury, Gloucestershire, a useful compilation entitled ‘The Imperial Encyclopædia; or, Dictionary of the Sciences and Arts; comprehending also the whole circle of Miscellaneous Literature,’ &c., 4 vols. 4to, London [1812]. By 1848 he had given up keeping school, and retired to Cotham Park Road, Bristol. He died 17 Feb. 1855, aged 80. Dr. Adam Clarke [q. v.], in whose defence he frequently wrote, was his brother-in-law. He was an early member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and read several papers at its meetings. His other writings are: 1. ‘A Vindication of Dr. Adam Clarke, in answer to Mr. Moore's Thoughts on the Eternal Sonship of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, addressed to the People called Methodists,’ &c., 8vo, Bristol [1817]. 2. ‘Reply to Mr. Watson's Remarks on the Eternal Sonship of Christ; and the Use of Reason in matters of Revelation. Suggested by several passages in Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary on the New Testament. To which are added Remarks on Mr. Boyd's Letters on the same subject in the Methodist Magazine,’ 8vo, London, 1818. 3. ‘The Theory of Parallel Lines perfected; or, the twelfth axiom of Euclid's Elements demonstrated,’ 8vo, London, 1818. 4. ‘Principles of Natural Philosophy; or, a new Theory of Physics, founded on Gravitation, and applied in explaining the General Properties of Matter,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1829. 5. ‘Physical Optics; or, the Phenomena of Optics explained according to Mechanical Science, and on the known Principles of Gravitation,’ 8vo, London, 1834. 6. ‘A Commentary on the First Chapter of Genesis: in which an attempt is made to present that Beautiful and Orderly Narrative in its true light. To which are added a Short Treatise on Geology, showing that the facts asserted by Moses … corroborate Geological Facts, … a short treatise on the Deluge,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1844. In the preface the author states that ‘this work is not a mushroom notion just sprung up; indeed for more than forty years it has occupied my thoughts.’

[Works; Mathews's Bristol Directories; Reports of British Association.]

G. G.

EXMEW, WILLIAM (1507?–1535), Carthusian, was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. His friend, Maurice Chauncy [q. v.], says that he was a man of good family, and that when at the age of twenty-eight he was chosen vicar (and shortly afterwards steward) of the London Charterhouse, there was no Carthusian in England better fitted by wit and learning for the post. This must have been in 1535, as Humphrey Middlemore is called steward (procurator) in 1534 (Cal. Hen. VIII, vii. 728). After the prior and other more important Carthusians had suffered death for denying the king's supremacy, Exmew and two others still persisted in refusing the oath, and were forthwith hanged as traitors in June 1535. They had previously been imprisoned in the Tower, rigidly chained in a standing position for thirteen days. A theological treatise entitled ‘The Clowde of Knowing and the Clowde of Contemplation’ has been ascribed to him or Chauncy, but the handwriting of the copy in the Harleian collection (Harl. MS. 674) belongs to an earlier period, and the writer of that copy signs himself Walter Fitzherbert. Another copy at University College, Oxford, is mentioned in the Oxford Catalogue of Manuscripts.

[Cal. of Henry VIII, vols. vii. viii.; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 160; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Strype's Eccl. Mem.; Baga de Secretis in 3rd Rep. of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records.]

R. H. B.

EXMOUTH, Viscount. [See Pellew, Edward, 1757–1833.]

EXSHAW, CHARLES (d. 1771), painter and engraver, a native of Dublin, was one of the early competitors for the Society of Arts' premium for an historical painting, with a picture of ‘The Black Prince entertaining the captive French Monarch after the Battle of Cressy.’ He is said to have studied in Rome, but in 1757 he was in Paris as a pupil of Carle