Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/276

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Pellatt
264
Pellatt

Yorkshire, he was admitted as sizar at the age of seventeen on 29 March 1651 at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his tutor was Joseph Hill [q. v.] He graduated M.A., was elected scholar 2 June 1654 and fellow 3 Nov. 1656, and received orders from Ralph Brownrig [q. v.], bishop of Exeter, probably at Sunning, Berkshire. He held the sequestered rectory of Easington, Durham, and a tutorship in the college at Durham founded by Cromwell by patent dated 15 May 1657. At the Restoration this college collapsed, and Clark, the sequestered rector of Easington, was restored. Pell was appointed to the rectory of Great Stainton, Durham, which he held until ejected in 1662.

After ejection he preached in conventicles, and was imprisoned at Durham for nonconformity. Removed to London by ‘habeas corpus,’ he was discharged by Sir Matthew Hale [q. v.] He then betook himself to the North Riding of Yorkshire, and practised medicine. His friends, who valued him for his breadth of acquirement, and especially for his eminence as an orientalist, repeatedly urged him to resume the work of teaching ‘university learning.’ He considered himself debarred from so doing by the terms of his graduation oath. The project of instituting a ‘northern academy’ fell accordingly into the hands of Richard Frankland [q. v.] After the indulgence of 1672 he ‘preach'd publickly’ at Tattershall, Lincolnshire, and was protected by holding the office of domestic steward to Edward Clinton, fifth earl of Lincoln. A London merchant of the same surname, but no kinsman, became his benefactor. On James's declaration for liberty of conscience (1687), he became pastor to the nonconformists at Boston, Lincolnshire. Thence he removed in 1694 to become the assistant of Richard Gilpin, M.D. [q. v.], at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Here he died on 2 Dec. 1698, having entered his sixty-third year. He was buried on 6 Dec. at St. Nicholas's Church, Newcastle. He married Elizabeth (buried 30 Jan. 1708), daughter of George Lilburn of Sunderland. He published nothing, but left unfinished collections which showed the extent of his oriental and rabbinical studies.

[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 288 sq., Continuation, 1727, i. 454; Memoirs of Ambrose Barnes (Surtees Soc.) l. 141; Miall's Congregationalism in Yorkshire, p. 75; extracts from the records of Magdalene College, Cambridge, per A. G. Peskett, esq.; extracts from the burial register of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-on-Tyne, per R. Welford, esq.]

A. G.

PELLATT, APSLEY (1791–1863), glass manufacturer, eldest son of Apsley Pellatt, and of Mary, daughter of Stephen Maberly of Reading, was born on 27 Nov. 1791, probably at 80 High Holborn, London, where his father kept a glass warehouse. The elder Pellatt removed his business subsequently to St. Paul's Churchyard, and then to the Falcon Glass works, Holland Street, Southwark. He was the inventor of the glass lenses, known as ‘deck lights,’ used for giving light to the lower parts of ships, for which he obtained a patent in 1807 (No. 3058). He died on 21 Jan. 1826 (Gent. Mag. 1826 i. 187).

The younger Pellatt was educated by Dr. Wanostrocht at Camberwell, and joined his father in business. In 1819 he took out a patent (No. 4424) for ‘crystallo-ceramie or glass incrustation,’ which consisted in enclosing medallions or ornaments of pottery ware, metal, or refractory material in glass, by which very beautiful ornamental effects were produced. The new process was described by the inventor with illustrations in his ‘Memoir on the Origin, Progress, and Improvement of Glass Manufactures,’ London, 1821. It does not appear to have been his own invention, as it is stated in the patent that it was communicated to him by a foreigner residing abroad, whose name, however, is not given (ib. 1821, i. 70). He took out a patent in 1831 (No. 6091) for improvements in the manufacture of pressed glass articles, and another in 1845 (No. 10669), with his brother Frederick, for improvements in the composition of glass, and in the methods of blowing, pressing, and casting glass articles. Under his care the products of the Falcon glass works attained a high reputation both for quality and artistic design. He devoted much time to the investigation of the principles of glass-making both in ancient and modern times, and he became a high authority upon the subject. He published in 1849 ‘Curiosities of Glass Making,’ in which the results of his researches are embodied. He was assisted in this work by John Timbs [q. v.] He was one of the jurors at the exhibition of 1862, and wrote the report on the glass manufactures shown on that occasion.

Pellatt was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1838, and in 1840 he became a member of the council. He contributed in 1838 and 1840 papers on the manufacture of glass, which are printed in the ‘Proceedings,’ and he was a frequent speaker at the meetings of the institution.

Besides his work as a glass-maker, Pellatt took a considerable share in public affairs, and was for many years a member of the common council of the city of London. He was largely instrumental in securing the admission of Jews to the freedom of the city,