Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/76

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56
Collins — Congreve.

Concerning the Use of Reason (1707); Letter to Mr. Dodwell on Immateriality and Natural Immortality (1707); A Reply to Mr. Clark [on the same subject] (1707); Reflections on Mr. Clark's Defence (1707); An Answer to Mr. Clark's Third Defence (1708); Priestcraft in Perfection, or a Reflection on the 20th Article of the Church of England (1710); Vindication of the Divine Attributes (1710); Discourse on Freethinking (1713); Enquiry Concerning Human Liberty (1715); Essay on the Thirty-Nine Articles [in reference particularly to Art. XX.] (1724); Discourse on the Christian Religion (1724); Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered (1726); Letter to Dr. Rogers on his Sermons concerning Divine Revelation (1727).


COLLOW. See CALOWE.


COMPTON, SPENCER, first VISCOUNT PEVENSEY and EARL of WILMINGTON.
About 1673—1743.

Admitted 25 January, 1686-7.

Second son of James, Earl of Northampton. He was returned for Eye to Parliament in 1698, but, deserting Tory principles, took office under the Whig Government, and in 1707 was appointed Treasurer and Receiver to Prince George of Denmark. In the Parliament of 1715 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, and sworn of the Privy Council the following year. He occupied the Speaker's Chair till 1727, when he was raised to the peerage. He was a favourite with George II., and was made Knight of the Garter in 1733. After the fall of Walpole he became for a time Prime Minister, in a Cabinet, however, where his authority was overshadowed by other and far abler men. He died 2 July, 1743.


COMYN, Sir ROBERT BUCKLEY.
Indian Judge.
1792—1853.

Admitted 30 January, 1819.

The third son of the Rev. Thomas Comyn, of Tottenham, Middlesex. He was first admitted to Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the Bar in 1814. After some years of practice he was appointed a puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Calcutta, with the honour of knighthood, and removed to the Chief Judgeship of Madras in 1835. He returned to England in 1842, was called to the Bench in 1844, and acted as Reader at the Inn in 1848. He died in 1853. He left behind him treatises on Usury (1817), Landlord and Tenant (1821), and a History of the Western Empire (1841).


CONGREVE, WILLIAM.
Dramatist.
1670—1729.

Admitted 17 March, 1690-1.

Son and heir of William Congreve, of Shelton, co. Stafford. He was born at Bardsey, near Leeds, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was a contemporary of Swift. About the time of his entering the Middle Temple he wrote his first Comedy, which was produced at Drury Lane in 1693. Its success acquired for him the notice of Lord Halifax, who conferred on him an office in the Customs, and subsequently he enjoyed other profitable and almost sinecure appointments. This allowed him to follow the bent of his inclination and his genius, and he produced in rapid succession those works which have made his name illustrious. He died on the 19 Jan. 1729.