Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/135

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called Shillito, Tomson, Dixon, and Preston, are mentioned in the will. The books which he had taken from the library of Dr. Timothy Thurscrosse were left to the vicars of North Grimston, Yorkshire, in succession. His own books were to be sold and the proceeds to be expended by William Nicolson [q. v.], the Bishop of Carlisle, in purchasing the works of certain specified divines for such parishes as he might select. A list of the books given to ten poor vicarages in the diocese of Carlisle under this bequest and the agreement of the various incumbents are printed in Bishop Nicolson's 'Miscellany Accounts,' pp. 7-9. He inquired after their existence and condition at his primary visitation. The manuscripts of Jackson passed to Lamplugh, bishop of Exeter.

Oley left certain articles of furniture to Sir John Hewett in exchange for the gifts which he had received in 1659. To the dean and chapter of Worcester he gave 200l. for buttresses for the choir and the chapel at the east end of the cathedral; to Clare College he left one hundred marks English for building a library, and 10l. to the descendants of John Westley, 'that good workman that built the college,' through fear that the omission to state his accounts before the royalists were ejected from the university might have been prejudicial to his interests. The junior fellows of King's College received the sum of 50l. to be expended in making walks for their recreation, and money was left for the augmentation of poor vicarages.

[Le Neve's Fasti, i. 352-3, where Oley is called Heyolt, iii. 81, 623, 637; Todd's Table of T. Jackson's Writings (1838), p. iii; Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch (1807), pp. 320-1; Lupton's Wakefield School; Bentham's Ely, p. 279; Hearne's T. Caii Vindicia, ii. 690-2; Letters from the Bodleian Library, ii. 80-81; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 141-42; Notes and Queries, 2nd ed. ii. 170; Kennet's Case of Impropriations, pp. 288-90; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24489, pp. 472-474; Ferrar and his Friends (1892), pp. 223, 271-2; Life of J. Barwick, pp. 111-12; Baker's St. John's Coll. Cambr., ed. Mayor, i. 219, ii. 632, 647; information from Rev. Dr. Atkinson, Clare College. A chapter on Oley, 'his life, letters, benefactions, and will,' is in the History of Great Gransden, now being published by its vicar, the Rev. A. J. Edmonds; and among the illustrations is a view of 'Barnabas Oley's Almshouses.' Oley is introduced into the last chapter of Shorthouse's romance of 'John Inglesant.']

W. P. C.

OLIFARD, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1329). [See Oliphant, Sir William.]

OLIPHANT, CAROLINA (1766–1845), song and ballad writer. [See Nairne, Carolina, Baroness Nairne.]

OLIPHANT, FRANCIS WILSON (1818–1859), painter and designer of stained glass, son of Thomas Oliphant, Edinburgh, of an ancient but fallen family in Fife, was born on 31 Aug. 1818 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, during the temporary residence of his parents there. He was trained as an artist at the Edinburgh Academy of Art. In early life the revival of Gothic style and ornament led him to make a profound study of ecclesiastical art, and while still very young he attained considerable reputation as a designer of painted glass in the works of Messrs. Wailes of Newcastle-on-Tyne. He afterwards removed to London, and worked much with Welby Pugin, especially upon the painted windows in the new Houses of Parliament. He also sent in a cartoon to the competition for the decoration of Westminster Hall, which was not successful. During this period Oliphant exhibited several pictures in the Royal Academy, the chief being a large Shakespearean study of the interview between Richard II and John of Gaunt, and a striking picture of the Prodigal Son ‘Nearing Home.’ In 1852 he married his cousin, Margaret Oliphant Wilson, who was beginning to be known as a writer, and since achieved a wide reputation in many departments of literature. His latter years were occupied with an energetic attempt to improve the art of painted glass by superintending the processes of execution as well as the design, in the course of which he produced the windows in the ante-chapel of King's College, Cambridge, those in the chancel of Aylesbury Church, and several in Ely Cathedral. The famous choristers' window at Ely was the joint work of Oliphant and William Dyce, R.A., the former being responsible for the original design. This work, however, was interrupted by ill-health, which obliged him to seek a warmer climate. He died at Rome in October 1859, chiefly from the effects of overwork. He had published in 1856 a small treatise entitled ‘A Plea for Painted Glass.’

Oliphant had two sons, both of whom died in early manhood after making some promising efforts in literature. The elder son, Cyril Francis Oliphant (1856–1890), who graduated B.A. at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1883, published in 1890, in the series known as ‘Foreign Classics,’ a biography and criticism of the work of Alfred de Musset, which was notable for some well-rendered translations from the French. The younger son, Francis Romano Oliphant (1859–1894), born at Rome after his father's death, graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1883. He issued in 1891 ‘Notes of