Rev. William Villiers Robinson and sister of Sir George Stamp Robinson. He left a son, Herman Charles, well known as a dramatic author, and a daughter, Isabella Frances, married to William Peere Williams-Freeman. A second daughter, Agnes, married to Mr. Townshend Trench, died in 1872. His grief at the loss affected his health. He died 8 Feb. 1874 at his house, 13 Cornwall Gardens, South Kensington, and was buried in the Fulham cemetery. By his mother's death in the previous year he inherited the family estate of Barton Place. His widow died 11 Aug. 1881. The first Lord Lytton, in a manuscript note upon Merivale's 'Historical Studies' (notice by the dean of Ely), called the author 'one of the most remarkable men he ever met.' His intellectual characteristic was 'massiveness,' and he could be compared 'to no one of less calibre than Macaulay,' with the difference that, whereas 'no one of much merit could form his opinion by Macaulay,' any one, however powerful his mind, 'would form his opinion upon Merivale.' He was a man of great promptitude of judgment, and vigorous, if not combative, in defending it. In politics he was a staunch liberal. In private life he showed a singularly affectionate nature, both in early life to his parents and brothers and sisters and afterwards among his own family and friends. His literary works, except the 'Lectures on Colonisation,' which deal with questions now out of date, were written in the intervals of more absorbing business, and scarcely give a full impression of his powers.
He was made D.C.L. by the university of Oxford in 1870.
His works are:
- 'The Character of Socrates as drawn from Xenophon and Plato,' &c. (prize essay at Oxford), 1830.
- 'Introductory Lecture upon Political Economy,' 1837.
- 'Introduction to the Course upon Colonisation,' 1839.
- 'Lectures on Colonisation and the Colonies' (delivered in 1839, 1840-1), 1841.
- 'Reports of Cases in the Queen's Bench' (with A. Davison), 1844.
- 'Historical Studies,' 1865 (a collection of articles in periodicals).
- 'Memoirs of Sir Philip Francis,' 1867 (completed from the unfinished work of J. Parkes).
- 'Life of Sir Henry Lawrence' (1st vol. by Sir Herbert Edwardes, 2nd by Merivale), 1872.
Merivale also wrote sixty-six articles in the 'Edinburgh Review' between 1832 and 1874, upon a great variety of topics, historical, literary, and economical. Between 1827 and 1864 he wrote five articles for the 'Foreign Quarterly,' and between 1853 and 1867 nine for the 'Quarterly Review.' He regularly wrote also till his death in the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' started in 1865.
[Notice by Charles Merivale, D.D., younger brother of Herman Merivale, read before the Devonshire Association at Newton Abbot, 1884, and reprinted. This contains also some obituary notices and a list of contributions to quarterly reviews; Family Memorials compiled by Anna W. Merivale, printed for private circulation, 1884; McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy, 1845, p. 95; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. i. 124.]
MERIVALE, JOHN HERMAN (1779–1844), scholar and minor poet, only son of John Merivale of Barton Place, Exeter, and Bedford Square, London, by Ann Katencamp or Katenkamp, daughter of a German merchant settled in Exeter, was born in that city on 5 Aug. 1779.
The earliest records of the Merivale family are to be found in the parish registers of Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, and there is a tradition that an ancestor fled from religious persecution in France and settled at Middleton Cheney about 1590; the name is, however, found in the parish registers as early as 1558, and it was originally spelt Mervayle.
Samuel Merivale (1715–1771), John Herman's grandfather, was brought up as a baptist; falling under the influence of Dr. Philip Doddridge [q. v.], he became a presbyterian, and began to officiate as ‘stated’ minister at Sleaford in 1737. In 1743 he received a ‘call’ to Tavistock, where he went through the formal ceremony of ordination. In 1761 he accepted the post of tutor to the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, founded in that year at Exeter. He died in December 1771. He published ‘Daily Devotions for the Closet. To which are added Prayers on particular occasions,’ pp. 159; 3rd edit. London, 1796, 12mo; other editions 1812 and 1829, with preface by Lant Carpenter [q. v.] (cf. A. W. Merivale, Family Memorials, 1844).
John Herman was himself bred in strict presbyterian principles, so that, though he spent some years at St. John's College, Cambridge, he left without taking a degree. In later life he conformed to the church of England. On 17 Dec. 1798 he entered Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar in Hilary term 1804. In 1811 he published, at the request of the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge respecting the Punishment of Death and the Improvement of Prison Discipline, ‘A Brief Statement of the Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament in the Last and Present Sessions upon the several Bills introduced with a view to the Amendment of the Criminal Law: together with a General Review of the Arguments used in the Debates upon those occasions,’
