Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/109

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of Edward Wotton and Conrad Gesner, and from papers left to him by his friend Penny. He obtained permission to print it at the Hague on 24 May 1590, and wrote an elaborate dedication to the queen, but delays followed. Laurence Scholz of Frankfort is said to have roughly edited the manuscript in 1598. When James I ascended the English throne, Moffett readdressed the dedication to him. At Moffett's death the manuscript, still unprinted, came into the hands of Darnell, his apothecary, who sold it to Sir Theodore Mayerne [q. v.], and in 1634 Mayerne published it, dedicating it to Sir William Paddy, and describing Moffett as ‘an eminent ornament of the Society of Physicians, a man of the more polite and solid learning, and renowned in most branches of science.’ The original manuscript, with the two dedications addressed respectively to Elizabeth and to James I, is now in Sloane MS. 4014. The title of the printed volume ran: ‘Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum … ad vivum expressis Iconibus super quingentis illustratum,’ London, 1634, fol. Translated into English by J. R. as ‘The Theater of Insects, or lesser living Creatures,’ it was appended with the plates to Edward Topsell's ‘History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents’ (1658). Haller in his notes on Herman Boerhaave's ‘Methodus Studii Medici’ praises the copiousness of the species described and the character of the engravings, and while admitting that Moffett gave credence to too many fabulous reports, acknowledged him to be the prince of entomologists before John Swammerdam (1637–1680).

Moffett's second posthumously issued book was: ‘Health's Improvement; or Rules comprising and discovering the Nature, Method, and Manner of Preparing all sorts of Food used in this Nation. Written by that ever Famous Thomas Mvffett, Doctor of Phisick; corrected and enlarged by Christopher Bennet, Doctor of Physick and Fellow of the Colledg of Physitians of London,’ London, 4to, 1655. This is a gossipy collection of maxims respecting diet, which Moffett intended to supplement by a similar work on ‘drinks’ (p. 221). It was probably compiled about 1595. Another edition was published in 12mo, 1746, with a life of the author, by William Oldys, and an introduction by R. James, M.D.

In Sloane MS. 4014 (‘Theatrum Insectorum’) a frontispiece engraved by William Rogers supplies a portrait of Moffett, and at the foot of the dedication he is described as ‘Scot-Anglus.’ Gesner, Edward Wotton, and Penny are depicted on the same plate.

By license dated 23 Dec. 1580 Moffett married, at St. Mary Cole Church, London, his first wife Jane, daughter of Richard Wheeler of a Worcestershire family, though she was described at the time of her marriage as a spinster of St. Ethelburgh's parish (Chester, Marriage Licences, ed. Foster, p. 952). She was buried at Wilton 18 April 1600. Moffett's second wife was a widow named Catherine Brown. She survived him, and to her children by her first husband—two sons Richard and Benedict, and two daughters Susan and Martha—Moffett left, with other bequests, his musical instruments, including a pair of virginals. Of his will (proved 20 Nov. 1604 and printed by Oldys) his brothers William and Thomas were overseers, and mention is made in it of his own daughter Patience and his ‘dear friend and father in Christe, Mr. Parker.’ His widow appears to have died at Calne, Wiltshire, in 1626. By her will, proved 26 June in that year, she left a portrait of Moffett and a book in his writing, probably ‘Health's Improvement,’ to his daughter Patience. The William Moffett (1607–1679), M.A. of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and vicar of Edmonton from 1631 till his death (Newcourt, Repert. i. 600), who has verses prefixed to William Hodgson's ‘Divine Cosmographie,’ 1640, was doubtless the physician's nephew; he married, as a widower, aged 56, on 24 Oct. 1663, Mary Borne of Edmonton (Chester, Marriage Licences, ed. Foster, p. 931).

[Life by Oldys in Moffett's Health's Improvement, 1746; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr.; Hoefer's Hist. de la Chimie, ii. 26; Moffett's Works; Joannes Antonius Van der Linden's De Scriptis Medicis, Amsterdam, 1637, p. 454; Hunter's manuscript Chorus Vatum (Addit. MS. 24487, ff. 441 sq.); Brit. Mus. Cat. s. v. ‘Moufet;’ Hazlitt's Bibliographical Handbooks.]

S. L.

MOGFORD, THOMAS (1809–1868), painter, born at Exeter on 1 May 1809, was son of a veterinary surgeon at Northlew, Devonshire. He showed an early talent for drawing, as well as mechanics and chemistry, but eventually decided on painting in preference to engineering. He studied in Exeter under John Gendall [q. v.], and was articled for some years to him and to Mr. Cole. At the end of his appenticeship he married Cole's eldest daughter, and settled in Northernhay Place, Exeter. He sent three pictures to the Royal Academy in 1838, and three in 1839, including a full-length portrait of Sir Thomas Lethbridge, bart., with his horse and dog. About 1843 he removed to London, and subsequently exhibited at the Royal Academy portraits of E. H. Baily, R.A. (now in the possession of the Royal Academy), Samuel