Fullarton, F.R.S., and the Right Hon. John Sullivan, with wilful and corrupt misrepresentation, upon which the latter filed a criminal information against Draper for libel. Draper was convicted before the court of king's bench and was sentenced to and underwent three months' imprisonment, which drew forth much sympathy from his friends, the first to visit him after his arrival in Newgate being the Prince of Wales, attended by Sir Herbert Taylor. Draper served with his battalion in the Walcheren expedition, but was afterwards compelled by pecuniary difficulties to sell his commission, despite the efforts of his friends to save it. In 1813 he was appointed chief secretary in the island of Bourbon (Réunion), and virtually administered the government during the temporary suspension of the acting governor, Colonel Keating. When Bourbon reverted to France, Draper was removed to Mauritius, and held various posts, as chief commissioner of police, acting colonial secretary, acting collector of customs, civil engineer and surveyor-general, registrar of slaves, stipendiary magistrate of Port Louis, and treasurer and paymaster-general. On one occasion his independent line of action displeased the governor, General Hall, who suspended him, but on the case being referred home, Draper was reinstated and Hall recalled. In 1832, during the government of Sir Charles Colville, a new difficulty arose. The home government desired the appointment of Mr. Jeremie to the office of procureur-general. The appointment was repudiated by the whole of the inhabitants. A question then arose before the council, of which Draper was a member, whether Jeremie should be upheld in his appointment or sent home. Draper took the popular side, and became the leader of the opposition party, to which Governor Colville gave way, and ordered Jeremie home. Before the latter returned again, Draper had been ordered by the home government to be dismissed from his appointments. He returned to England, and after an interview with William IV was awarded a pension of 500l. a year until another appointment could be found for him in Mauritius. Soon after he was appointed joint stipendiary of Port Louis, and later colonial treasurer and paymaster-general, which post he held up to his death, 22 April 1841.
Draper was a man of agreeable manners, and, apart from the powerful interest he appears to have had at home, was a popular official. In his young days he was known in racing circles as a gentleman rider, and he inaugurated racing in Mauritius. In 1822 he married Mlle. Krivelt, a creole lady, by whom he had several children, two of whom, a son, afterwards in the colonial service, and a daughter, married to the late General Brooke, son of Sir Richard Brooke, bart., survived him.
[A very florid biographical notice of Draper appeared in Gent. Mag. new ser. xvi. 543; Draper's Address to the British Public (London, 1806), and some remarks on his case appended to the Case of P. Finnerty (London, 1811), may be consulted; also Parl. Papers, Reps. 1826, iii. 87, 1826–7, vi. 287, containing evidence on the state of affairs which led up to the Jeremie dispute. Some ex parte pamphlets relating to the latter are in Brit. Mus. Cat. under ‘Jeremie, John, the younger.’]
DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM, M.D., LL.D. (1811–1882), chemist, born at St. Helen's, near Liverpool, on 5 May 1811, was educated at Woodhouse Grove School. Here he showed scientific tastes, and, after some instruction from a private teacher, he completed his studies at University College, London. Shortly after attaining his majority Draper emigrated to the United States (in 1833), whither several members of his family had preceded him. He studied at the university of Pennsylvania, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine in 1836, presenting as his thesis an essay on ‘The Crystallisation of Camphor under the Influence of Light.’ Draper contributed several papers on physiological problems to the ‘American Journal of Medical Sciences,’ which led to his appointment in 1836 as professor of chemistry and physiology at Hampden Sidney College, Virginia. Here his capabilities for original scientific research found full play, and the publication of his results brought him the offer of the professorship of chemistry and physiology in the university of New York, a post which he accepted in 1839. In.1841 he took an active part in organising a medical department in connection with the university, acting as secretary until 1850, when he succeeded Dr. Valentine Mott as president, an office which he held till 1873.
Draper married young; he had three sons and three daughters. Of his sons Henry Draper (b. 1837) became famous as an astronomer and spectroscopist, and John Christopher Draper attained equal celebrity for his researches in physiology. Their father spent the latter part of his life in a quiet retreat at Hastings, on the Hudson, a few miles from New York city. He died on 4 Jan. 1882, and was buried in Greenwood cemetery, Long Island.
Draper distinguished himself in the departments of molecular physics, of physiology and of chemistry. The results of his work appeared mainly in the ‘American Journal
