Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/96

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Sarah (d. 29 March 1828, aged 66), and many of his children and grandchildren.

The eldest son, Thomas Henry Maudslay (1792–1864), became a member of his father's firm, and by his commercial ability greatly contributed to its progress. His firm constructed the engines for the ships of the royal navy for more than a quarter of a century. He gave evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons on steam navigation in 1831. He purchased the estate of Banstead Park, Surrey, but died at Knight's Hill, Norwood, on 23 April 1864, and was buried at Woolwich. He was twice married (Mechanics' Magazine, 29 April 1864; Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 808; inscriptions on the father's tomb).

The third son, Joseph Maudslay (1801–1861), engineer, originally intended for a shipbuilder, was apprenticed to William Pitcher of Northfleet, but he subsequently joined his father's engineering business at Lambeth, in which he took a prominent position. In 1827 he patented an oscillating engine in which the slide valves were worked by an eccentric, and many engines were made upon that plan. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1833. In conjunction with Joshua Field he took out a patent in 1839 for a double-cylinder marine engine, which came into extensive use. His early training as a shipbuilder led him to take great interest in marine propulsion, and in 1841–2 his firm made the engines for the Rattler, the first screw-steamer built for the admiralty, which was afterwards employed in the trials of various forms of screw propellers. The screw was driven direct without the intervention of gearing. In 1848 he patented a feathering screw propeller, which was fitted in 1850 in three vessels belonging to the Screw Steam Shipping Company. Another of his inventions was the direct-acting annular cylinder screw engine, which formed the subject of a paper read by him before the Institution of Naval Architects in 1860. He died on 25 Sept. 1861 (Mechanics' Magazine, 11 Oct. 1861 p. 250, 29 Nov. 1861 p. 351; Alban, High Pressure Steam Engine, p. 208).

[Smiles's Industrial Biography, pp. 198–235; W. Walker's Distinguished Men of Science, 1862, p. 129; Vincent's Records of Woolwich, v. 213; Autobiography of James Nasmyth.]

R. B. P.

MAUDUIT, ISRAEL (1708–1787), political pamphleteer, was born, it is believed at Bermondsey, London, in 1708. He was descended from a family of French protestants who settled at Exeter early in the seventeenth century. His father, Isaac Mauduit, the first dissenting minister at the chapel of St. John's or King John's Court, Bermondsey, died 8 April 1718, aged 55; his mother, Elizabeth, died 10 March 1713, aged 41. Both were buried, with several of their infant children, in Bermondsey Church. Israel was educated for the dissenting ministry in the nonconformist school at Taunton, and afterwards travelled abroad with several other young men of the same opinions. He preached for a time at the Hague and in other protestant chapels at home and abroad, but afterwards became a partner in a woollen-draper's business in Lime Street, London, with his brother Jaspar, and with James Wright, who had married Jaspar's only child by his first wife. During the rebellion of 1745 the firm executed a government contract without retaining any profit from the transaction. In 1763 Israel was appointed customer of Southampton. Jaspar was agent in England for the province of Massachusetts Bay, but, as the business was managed by Israel, a majority of the council voted for appointing the latter to the agency (Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, 1828, pp. 105, 416–418). Governor Bernard, however, induced them to reverse their decision, and Jaspar remained in his post for a time, though Israel was appointed about 1763. So long as Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant-governor Oliver were in America the agency was held by him, and when the petition for their removal from the governorship of Massachusetts came before the privy council, he applied to be heard on their behalf by counsel. The application was granted. Wedderburn argued their case, and during the proceedings made his celebrated attack on Benjamin Franklin. For some years after the outbreak of war with the American colonies he was not in sympathy with the colonists, and he withheld from them a fund for propagating the gospel among the subjects of the crown. In March 1778 he declared for American independence, and produced to Hutchinson ‘a printed sheet of his own composing’ in support of that view. On 6 May 1787 he was chosen to succeed Richard Jackson [q. v.] as governor of the Dissenters' Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, but only lived to attend one board meeting. He was elected F.R.S. on 13 June 1751.

Mauduit died at Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, London, on 14 June 1787, when his library was sold by John Walker of Paternoster Row. A bachelor, possessed of an ample fortune, he entertained at his house many friends, among whom were Baron Maseres and Dr. Heberden. Miss Hawkins calls him ‘a gentleman of the old school’