Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/161

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Bryan
155
Bryant

persons, were taken, and he was arrested. He died on 10 March 1699, and was buried in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West. His works are: 'The Certainty of the future Judgment' (the sermon referred to above), 1685; 'A Persuasion to the stricter Observance of the Lord's Day,' a sermon, 1686; 'St. Paul's Triumph in his Sufferings,' a sermon, 1692. In the dedication of this discourse he describes himself as M. B. Indignus ἐν τῇ θλίψει ἀδελφὸς κὰι συνγκοινωνός, probably in reference to his sufferings as a Jacobite preacher, the sermon itself being on Eph. iv. 1. He also wrote two copies of verses printed in Ellis Waller's translation of the 'Encheiridion' of Epictetus into English verse, 1702, and republished Sir Humphrey Lynd's 'Account of Bertram the Priest,' 1686.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 602, iv. 779, Life, cxiv; Luttrell's Relation, ii. 398, iii. 1; Cox's Literature of the Sabbath, ii. 81; Bryan's Certainty of the future Judgment and his St. Paul's Triumph.]

W. H.

BRYAN, MICHAEL (1757–1821), connoisseur, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 9 April 1757, and was educated at the grammar school of that town under Dr. Moyce. In 1781 he first visited London, whence he accompanied his elder brother to Flanders, where he became acquainted with, and afterwards married, the sister of the Earl of Shrewsbury. In Flanders he continued to reside, with the exception of occasional visits to England, until 1790, when he finally left the Low Countries and settled in London. In 1793 or 1794 Bryan again went to the continent in search of fine pictures. Among other places he visited Holland, and remained there until an order arrived from the French government to stop all the English then resident there. He was, among many others, detained at Rotterdam. It was here that he met M. L'Abord. In 1798 Bryan was applied to by L'Abord for his advice and assistance in disposing of the Italian part of the Orleans collection of pictures. He communicated the circumstance to the Duke of Bridgewater, and his grace authorised him to treat for their purchase. After a negotiation of three weeks, the duke, with the Marquis of Stafford, then Lord Gower, and the Earl of Carlisle, became the purchasers, at the price of 43,500l. In 1801 Bryan obtained, through the medium of the Duke of Bridgewater, the king's permission to visit Paris for the purpose of selecting from the cabinet of M. Robit such objects of art as he might deem worthy of bringing to England. Among other fine pictures, he brought from Paris two by Murillo, the one representing the infant Christ as the Good Shepherd, and the other the infant St. John with a lamb. In 1804 Bryan left the picture world, and retired to his brother's in Yorkshire, where he remained until 1811. In 1812 Bryan again visited London, and commenced his 'Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers,' 2 vols. 4to. The first part appeared in May 1813, and concluded in 1816. Another edition appeared in 1849, and Mr. R. E. Graves is bringing out in parts a new and thoroughly revised edition (1886). In 1818 he connected himself in some picture speculations, which proved a failure. On 14 Feb. 1821 he was seized with a severe paralytic stroke, and died on 21 March following.

[Literary Gazette, 1821, p. 187; Magazine of the Fine Arts, i. 37; MS. notes in British Museum.]

L. F.

BRYANT, HENRY (1721–1799), botanist, was born in 1721, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1749, and proceeded M.A. in 1753. He entered the church, but took up botany about 1764, after the death of his wile. He is said to have been a man of great acuteness and attainments in mathematics. From Norwich he was presented to the vicarage of Langham in 1758, removing afterwards to Heydon, and thence to the rectory of Colby, where he died on 4 June 1799. He was a brother of Charles Bryant, author of 'Flora diætetica,' &c., who died shortly before him. He was the author of 'A particular Enquiry into the Cause of that Disease in Wheat commonly called Brand,' Norwich, 1784, 8vo.

[Sir J. E. Smith in Trans. Linn. Soc. vii. (1804), 297-300; Gent. Mag. lxix. (1799), pt. i. 532.]

B. D. J.

BRYANT, JACOB (1715–1804), antiquary, was born in 1715 at Plymouth, where his father was an officer in the customs, but before his seventh year was removed to Chatham. The Rev. Samuel Thornton of Luddesdon, near Rochester, was his first schoolmaster, and in 1730 he was at Eton. Elected to King's College, Cambridge, in 1736, he took his degrees, B.A. in 1740, M.A. in 1744, and he became a fellow of his college. He was first private tutor to Sir Thomas Stapylton, and then to the Marquis of Blandford, afterwards duke of Marlborough, and his brother, Lord Charles Spencer. In 1756 he was appointed secretary to the Duke of Marlborough, master-general of ordnance, and went with him to Germany, where the latter died while commander-in-chief. At the same time Bryant held an office in the ordnance department worth 1,400l. a year. Mr. Hetherington made him his executor with a legacy of 3,000l., and