the palace of Westminster for life, with the annual stipend of twenty marks. The queen also granted him a leasehold at Richmond, Surrey. On 2 Nov. 1591, being then cup-bearer to the queen, he was empowered to license all merchants to purchase and export tin, they paying him fourpence on every hundredweight exported (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1591-4 p. 119, 1598-1601 p. 65). He died unmarried at Richmond, and was buried at Twickenham on 25 Aug. 1597.
Martin published: 1. 'The Tranquillitie of the Minde : a very excellent . . . oration . . . compyled in Latine by John Bernarde . . . now lately translated into Englishe,' 8vo, London, 1570. 2. 'The Common Places of . . . Doctor Peter Martyr. . . . Translated and part he gathered by A. Marten,' fol., London, 1583. 3. 'An Exhortation, to stirre up the mindes of all her Majesties faithfull subjects, to defend their Countrey in this dangerous time from the Invasion of Enemies,' 4to, London, 1588 ; at the end are his prayers to this purpose, pronounced in her majesty's chapel and elsewhere (reprinted in the 'Harleian Miscellany'). 4. 'A second Sound, or Warning of the Trumpet unto Judgment, wherein is proved that all the Tokens of the latter Day are not onelie come, but welneere finished,' 4to, London, 1589. 5. 'A Reconciliation of all the Pastors and Cleargy of the Church of England,' 4to, London, 1590.
[Notes kindly supplied by J. Challenor Smith, esq.; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 242, 550; Cat. of Books in Brit. Mus. to 1640; will of David Martin in Commissary Court of London, 1557, f. 20 a; will of Jane Martin in P. C. C. 15, Chayre; will of Anthony Martin in P. C. C. 107, Cobham.]
MARTIN or MARTYN, BENDAL (1700–1761), essayist. [See under Martin or Martyn, Henry, d. 1721.]
MARTIN, BENJAMIN (1704–1782), mathematician, instrument maker, and general compiler, was born in 1704 at Worplesdon in Surrey, and began life as a ploughboy in the hamlet of Broadstreet. Subsequently he set up as a teacher of reading, writing, and arithmetic in Guildford. His spare time was spent in the study of mathematics and astronomy, and he became an ardent champion of the Newtonian system. A legacy of 600l. left him by a relation enabled him to equip himself with books and philosophical instruments, with which he travelled the country, and gave lectures on natural philosophy. How wide a circle of friends he thus obtained may be gathered from the long list of subscribers, filling twenty-six columns, to his 'Bibliotheca Technologica, or Philological Library of Literary Arts and Sciences,' 1737 ; 2nd edit. 1740; a very skilful and comprehensive compilation, epitomising the current information and ideas of the time under twenty-five headings. When this book appeared he had been settled for at least three years in Chichester, where he kept a school, and began to invent and make optical instruments. In particular he produced and sold for one guinea a pocket reflecting microscope, with a micrometer (see a description by John Williams, Some Account of the Martin Microscope, purchased for the Microscopical Society, 1862 ; Trans. Microscopic. Soc. London, new ser. x. (1862), 31); and he seems to have gained considerable reputation as a maker of spectacles. About 1740 he removed to a house in Fleet Street, three doors below Crane Court, and here became famous as a scientific instrument maker at the sign of 'Hadley's Quadrant and Visual Glasses.' His literary activity continued, and resulted in the publication of a large number of popular scientific books. His principal undertakings were: 1. 'An English Dictionary,' which aimed at being, in the author's words, ' universal, etymological, orthographical, orthoepical, diacritical, philological, mathematical, and philosophical.' The first edition appeared in 1749, and the second in 1754. It was prefaced by a 'Physico-grammatical Essay on the Propriety and Rationale of the English Tongue.' 2. 'Martin's Magazine,' described as a 'New and Comprehensive System of Philosophy, Natural History, Philology, Mathematical Institutions, and Biography,' 1755-64. This work was dedicated to George III. Of fourteen volumes projected only seven appeared, viz. : two volumes of 'Mathematical Institutions,' 1759 and 1764 ; two volumes of 'Philology,' including essays on the different religions of the world and on geography, 1759 and 1704 ; two volumes of the 'Natural History of England,' a description of each particular county in regard to the curious productions of nature and art, illustrated by a map of each county and sculptures of natural curiosities, 1759 and 17G3; and lastly, one volume of 'Biography of Mathematicians and Philosophers,' 1704. The liberty which Martin allowed himself in the work of compilation may be gathered from the fact that the chapters on the theory of equations are taken literatim from Colin Maclaurin s 'Algebra' without acknowledgment.
At the age of seventy-seven, having retired from the active management of his business, he became a bankrupt through the fault of others, and in a moment of desperation attempted suicide. The wound, though not immediately mortal, hastened his death, which
