Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/264

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

pension of 200l., which by deductions was reduced to about 160l. After the death of Cort the members of his family received insignificant pensions from the government. When it is remembered that the production of pig-iron in these islands was in 1740 only 48,000 tons, that in 1884 the produce of our blast furnaces amounted to 7,811,727 tons, and that in the latter year 4,577 puddling furnaces—entirely the result of Cort's invention—made returns, it must be admitted that the story does not reflect any credit on the government of this country.

Cort died in 1800, and was buried in Hampstead churchyard. He left a widow and ten children, who, on the representation of the comptroller of the navy, were allowed an income of about 100l. In 1816, on the death of Mrs. Cort, two unmarried daughters were each granted an annual pension of 20l., and in 1856 Lord Palmerston, in answer to ‘claims on the bounty of the nation’ made in favour of the only surviving son, granted him a pension of 50l.

[Scrivenor's History of the Iron Trade; Percy's Metallurgy, Iron and Steel; Smiles's Industrial Biography; Smiles's Preparing, Welding, and Working Iron, 1783, No. 1351; Patent Manufacture of Iron, 1784, No. 1420; Mechanic's Magazine, 15 July 1859; Henry Cort's Petition to the House of Commons; Richard Cort's Facts and Proofs, 1855; Richard Cort's Review of Report on Services rendered; Abridgments of Specification relating to Iron, 1771, No. 988.]

R. H-t.

CORVUS, JOANNES (fl. 1512–1544), portrait painter, has recently been identified with Jan Rave, a native of Bruges, received master in that town in 1512, who subsequently came to England, and, like many of his fellow-countrymen, latinised his name. Vertue was the first to discover the fact of his existence, by finding the inscription ‘Joannes Corvus Flandrus faciebat’ on the frame of a portrait of Bishop Fox, the founder, at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he engraved for Fiddes's ‘Life of Cardinal Wolsey.’ In 1820 this portrait was placed in a new and gorgeous frame, and the old frame was destroyed. Vertue's statement is fortunately authenticated by the existence of a portrait of Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII, which has a frame and inscription similar to that of Bishop Fox, as described by Vertue. This picture, after being ‘restored’ extensively while in the hands of dealers, was in the possession of the Des Vœux family, and subsequently in the Dent collection. In this portrait a peculiarity of execution occurs which is characteristic of Corvus's work; there is a groundwork of gold showing through the colour of the dress, which is painted over it. This makes it certain that the striking portrait of Princess (afterwards Queen) Mary in the National Portrait Gallery (dated 1544) is the work of Corvus, and it may safely be identified with the entry in the ‘Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary’ (edited by Sir F. Madden), ‘1544: Itm, pd to one John that drue her grace in a table, v li.’ The portrait of Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, in the same collection, may for similar reasons be ascribed to Corvus, who can claim a high place in the ranks of the portrait painters of that age.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (ed. Dallaway and Wornum); A. J. Wauters's Flemish School of Painting; Archæologia, xxxix, Additional Observations, by G. Scharf, F.S.A., on some of the Painters contemporary with Holbein; Cat. of the National Portrait Gallery, 1884; information from George Scharf, C.B., F.S.A.]

L. C.

CORY, ISAAC PRESTON (1802–1842), miscellaneous writer, was a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, proceeding B.A. in 1824 and M.A. in 1827. He was the author of: 1. ‘Ancient Fragments of the Phœnician, Chaldean, Egyptian, Tyrian, Carthaginian, Indian, Persian, and other writers, Greek and Latin,’ 2nd edit. 1832. 2. ‘Metaphysical Inquiry into the Method, Objects, and Result of Ancient and Modern Philosophy,’ 1833. 3. ‘Chronological Inquiry into the Ancient History of Egypt,’ 1837. 4. ‘Practical Treatise on Accounts, exhibiting a view of the discrepancies between the practice of the Law and of Merchants; with a plan for the Amendment of the Law of Partnership,’ 1839. He died at Blundeston, Suffolk, on 1 April 1842.

[Annual Register, lxxxiv. 261; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iv. 415.]

CORYATE, GEORGE (d. 1607), writer of Latin verse, was born in the parish of St. Thomas, Salisbury, whence he proceeded to Winchester School, and from there was admitted probationary fellow of New College, Oxford, 15 Dec. 1560. He was admitted to the B.A. degree in March 1564, and incepted as M.A. in July 1569. In the following year he became rector of Odcombe in Somersetshire, and thereupon resigned his fellowship. He appears to have had the knack of writing Latin verses from boyhood, and on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth visiting Winchester in August 1560, he was either set, or set himself, to write a copy of trumpery elegiacs which should be fixed on the door of the palace of the Bishop of Winchester. If any