season, and Ebers's choice of Rossini's ‘Aureliano in Palmira’ for his benefit, 22 June, did not add to his popularity. He got into trouble concerning the pay to the chorus on this occasion, and the matter was decided against him in the sheriff's court. On 12 Aug. the season came to an abrupt end, several performances being still due. In the next season Coccia, the conductor, resigned his post, and after considerable difficulty his place was taken by M. Dumon. Bochsa, who had undertaken two seasons of oratorios at the King's Theatre without any success, was now appointed director, and on 2 Dec. the house opened with Spontini's ‘La Vestale.’ Pacini's ‘La Schiava in Bagdad’ and Coccia's ‘Maria Stuart’ were produced, and on 7 Aug. the theatre again closed prematurely. At the end of the year Ebers, being unable to pay the enormous rent demanded of him by the assignees of Chambers, became a bankrupt. Messrs. Chambers at first intended to carry on the undertaking themselves, but they ultimately let the theatre to a certain Laurent, who was also lessee of the Théâtre Italien in Paris. After a year he was succeeded by Laporte. In this year (1828) Ebers published his ‘Seven Years of the King's Theatre,’ a book put together with some skill, and in its way an entertaining history of his career. He lays before the public all his accounts, in order to justify his own position, and on the whole it must be admitted to be a valuable contribution to the history of the Italian opera in England. After his failure as a manager, he resumed his business as a bookseller and stationer. His name appears in the directories as the proprietor of the business at 27 Old Bond Street down to 1830; in 1831 the style is John Ebers & Co., and from 1836 onwards the name is given as S. Ebers & Co. An Emily S. Ebers carried on the business, being called in the directory ‘opera agent,’ until 1863. It is probable that John Ebers died in 1830, and that his successor in the business retained his name for five years. He may have lived, however, till 1835, but it is improbable that he did so.
[Seven Years of the King's Theatre, 1828; Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, passim; Harmonicon, passim; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 107, 301, 307, iii. 170, 177; London Directories for 1828–63.]
EBORARD or EVERARD (1083?–1150), the second bishop of Norwich, whose whole career is involved in a mist of uncertainty, is called Eborard by Bartholomew Cotton and the French writers; all other English chroniclers call him Everard. Till recently it was believed without misgiving that he was the son of Roger, lord of Bellême, by Adela, daughter of Everard de Puiset; but even this has been questioned recently, and an able writer in ‘Notes and Queries’ has brought forward a very embarrassing array of facts and discrepancies which throw grave doubts upon the theory of his parentage, heretofore universally accepted as true and satisfactory. Something is to be set down to the poverty of our documentary evidence for the history of the times in which the bishop lived, but this is hardly enough to account for the entire absence of his name in Matthew Paris's longer or shorter history, and for the different dates which have been given for his death, variously assigned to 1146, 1149, and 1150, though it is certain that the last is the correct one.
All that we certainly know of Eborard is that he was archdeacon of Salisbury in 1121, at which time Eadmer describes him as ‘quidam de regis capella.’ Herbert Losinga, the first bishop of Norwich, died on 22 July 1119. Henry II was in Normandy, and seemed to show no sign of intending to fill the vacant see, which yet greatly needed a bishop. It was not till two years had elapsed that the king was prevailed upon by Bishop Roger of Salisbury to appoint a successor, and Eborard was at last nominated and consecrated at Canterbury on 12 July 1121. In the following October we find him at Lambeth, assisting at the consecration of Gregory, bishop of Dublin. In 1127 he took part in the council of Westminster, and again in 1129 his name appears among those of other bishops at the second council held to consider the necessity of enforcing celibacy upon the clergy. On 4 May 1130 he was present at the dedication of Christ Church, Canterbury, but we lose sight of him after this for six years, until we meet with him again among the bishops who attested the great charter issued by Stephen in the first year of his reign (STUBBS, Select Charters, 1870, p. 115). It must have been shortly after this that he was present at the general gift of lands by William de Warenne to the priory of Coxford in Norfolk, as appears by a charter reciting the fact, a copy of which is in the possession of the present writer. From this time we lose all trace of him for several years. When King Stephen broke with the bishops in 1139, and pursued his insane policy of aggression, the Bishop of Norwich seems to have retired from all active interest in the politics of the time, and when the king held his court at Whitsuntide in 1140 he did not attend. It seems as if he had ceased to be de facto bishop of Norwich about this time, although Cotton says he re-
