Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/411

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Runnington
405
Rupert

writes: ‘I have lived to be conviva satur—passed through good report and evil report; have not been injured, more than outwardly, by the last, and solidly benefited by the former.’ He died unmarried at Dublin on 14 April 1743, bequeathing most of his fortune of 20,000l. to John Talbot, second son of the lord chancellor. He was slender in person. His portrait, which belonged to Secker, is at Cuddesdon Palace.

Rundle published four single sermons (1718–36). His ‘Letters … with Introductory Memoirs,’ &c., Gloucester, 1789, 2 vols. 8vo (reprinted, Dublin, same year), were edited by James Dallaway [q. v.] Most of them are addressed to Barbara (1685–1746), daughter of Sir William Kyle, governor of Carolina, and widow of William Sandys (1677–1712) of Miserden, Gloucestershire.

[Memoirs, 1789; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Whiston's Memoirs, 1753, pp. 229 sq.; Boulter's Letters, 1770, ii. 145; Hughes's Letters of J. Duncombe, 1773, ii. 56; Disney's Memoirs of Sykes, 1785; Porteous's Life of Secker, 1797; Swift's Works (Scott), 1814; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, 1840, ii. 5, 37 sq.; Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), 1881 iii. 476, 1871 vii. 334 sq.; certified extracts from the Salisbury diocesan registers.]

A. G.

RUNNINGTON, CHARLES (1751–1821), serjeant-at-law, born in Hertfordshire on 29 Aug. 1751 (and probably son of John Runnington, mayor of Hertford in 1754), was educated under private tutors, and after some years of special pleading was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in Hilary term 1778. He was made serjeant-at-law on 27 Nov. 1787, and held for a time the office of deputy-judge of the Marshalsea court. On 27 May 1815 he was appointed to the chief-commissionership in insolvency, which he resigned in 1819. He died at Brighton on 18 Jan. 1821. Runnington married twice—in 1777, Anna Maria, youngest sister of Sir Samuel Shepherd, by whom he had a son and a daughter; secondly, in 1783, Mrs. Wetherell, widow of Charles Wetherell of Jamaica. His only son, Charles Henry Runnington, died on 20 Nov. 1810.

Runnington, besides editing certain well-known legal works [see Gilbert, Sir Geoffrey, where for ‘Remington’ read Runnington; Hale, Sir Matthew, ad fin; Ruffhead, Owen], was author of ‘A Treatise on the Action of Ejectment’ (founded on Gilbert's work), London, 1781, 8vo, which was recast and revised as ‘The History, Principles, and Practice of the Legal Remedy by Ejectment, and the resulting Action for Mesne Profits,’ London, 1795, 8vo; 2nd edit. by William Ballantine, 1820.

[Law List, 1779; London Gazette, 27 Nov. 1787, 27 May 1815; Gent. Mag. 1787 ii. 1119, 1810 ii. 591, 1815 i. 561, 1821 i. 87; Ann. Reg. 1821, App. to Chron. p. 230; Law Mag. xxv. 289; Georgian Era, ii. 544; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

J. M. R.

RUPERT, Prince, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, afterwards Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness (1619–1682), general, third son of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, and of Frederick V, elector palatine, was born at Prague on 17 Dec. 1619, about six weeks after his father's coronation as king of Bohemia. He was baptised on 31 March following. On 8 Nov. 1620 the battle of the White Mountain obliged his parents to fly from Prague, and Rupert accompanied his mother first to Berlin, and finally to Holland (April 1621). Rupert, his eldest brother Frederick Henry, and his sister Louise were established at Leyden in 1623 under the charge of M. de Plessen and his wife. On the death of Frederick Henry (17 Jan. 1629), Charles I transferred to Rupert the pension of 300l. a year which his elder brother, Charles Louis, had previously enjoyed.

Of Rupert's education little is known. A letter from his father to the queen of Bohemia mentions with satisfaction the boy's gift for languages. In 1633 Rupert and his brother were permitted to accompany the prince of Orange during his campaign, and were present at the siege of Rhynberg. But Rupert's military training really began in 1635, when he served as a volunteer in the lifeguards of the prince of Orange during the invasion of Brabant. In 1636 Rupert followed the prince elector to England, and was received with great favour by his uncle. With the king he was entertained by Laud at Oxford, and on 30 Aug. 1636 was created M.A. At Laud's request the names of Rupert and his brother were entered in St. John's College, ‘to do that house honour’ (Laud, Works, v. 150). A wild scheme was proposed for the establishment of an English colony in Madagascar, of which Rupert was to be governor. Davenant constituted himself poet laureate, and addressed to Rupert a poem on Madagascar, celebrating his future conquests (Works, ed. 1673, p. 205). Charles seriously considered the project, and asked the advice and assistance of the East India Company for the intended expedition. The queen of Bohemia, with more wisdom, wrote, ‘As for Rupert's conquest of Madagascar, it sounds like one of Don Quixote's conquests, where he promised his trusty squire to make him king of an island,’ and told Rupert that