Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/39

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at Oxford on 3 Sept. 1608 (Oxford Univ. Reg. Oxford Hist. Soc. II. i. 266). He was then a licentiate ‘utriusque juris.’ Wood, who erroneously calls him a Welshman, says that he continued at Oxford for many years ‘in the condition of a commoner, for he wore a gown, and was entered into the matricula as a member of Exeter College’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ii. 420). He proved himself a learned and ingenious scholar, a good Latinist, and a severe Calvinist. He published: 1. ‘Quæstiones Juris Controversi 12,’ Oxford, 1609, dedicated to George Ryves, warden of New College, and the fellows. 2. ‘Oratio Papam esse Bestiam quæ non est et tamen est, apud Johan. Apoc. 17, v. 8,’ London, 1610, 4to, spoken by the author before the university. 3. ‘Contra Conspiratorum Consilia Orationes duæ habitæ in nobiliss. et antiquiss. Oxoniensi Academia 5 Aug. et 5 Novemb. 1610, diebus Regiæ Liberationis et Conspiratione Gowrie et Tormentaria,’ dedicated to George, lord Carew, of Clopton, Henry and Thomas Carey, and William Waller, London, 1612. 4. ‘Libertatis Anglicanæ defensio, seu demonstratio Regnum Angliæ non esse feudum pontificis, in nobilissima et antiquissima Oxoniensi Academia publice opposita Martino Becario, S. J.,’ London, 1613. 5. ‘Eadgarus in Jacobo redivivus seu Pietatis Anglicanæ Defensio contra Rosweydum,’ London, 1614, 4to. 6. ‘De Consilio tractatus,’ dedicated to the Earl of Suffolk, Oxford, 1626.

[Wood's account of Reuter's Welsh origin is denied by his own statement respecting himself in his first publication. Wood's error is repeated in Foster and Williams's Biogr. Dict.; cf. Watt's Bibl. Brit. and Reuter's works in Brit. Mus.; F. Madan's Early Oxford Press, pp. 75, 131.]

W. A. S.

REVANS, SAMUEL (1808–1888), colonist, the ‘father of the New Zealand press,’ was born in England in 1808 and brought up as a printer. He came into contact with Henry Samuel Chapman [q. v.], and emigrated with him in 1833 to Montreal, where he helped to start the ‘Daily Advertiser.’ Some indiscreet articles in the paper led him to leave Canada in 1837 and return to London, where he identified himself with the Wakefield scheme for the colonisation of New Zealand. In 1839 he was appointed secretary to the executive committee for inaugurating the settlement of Port Nicholson. In the same year he published in London the first numbers of the ‘New Zealand Gazette,’ and on 18 April 1840, soon after his arrival in the colony, brought it out in Wellington, being himself editor, printer, and publisher. He assisted with his own hands in building an office for the paper, which on 22 Aug. 1840 blossomed into the ‘New Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator.’ In 1843 he published at this office the first Wellington almanac. He was long remembered as a prominent figure in the early days of the Wellington settlement.

In 1847 Revans gave up his connection with journalism, removed to the Wairarapa, residing at Woodside, near Greytown, and took up land for sheep-farming in partnership with Captain Smith, R.N. An effort in 1851 to make a new settlement in California proved a failure, and after his return to sheep-farming in New Zealand, Revans and his partner held as much as fifty-five thousand acres. For a time he represented Greytown district both in the House of Assembly and in the Provincial Council. But he fell into pecuniary embarrassments, and died unmarried at Greytown on 15 July 1888, dependent on his friends.

[Wairapara Standard quoted by New Zealand Times, 17 July 1888; Mennell's Dict. of Australian Biography; New Zealand Parliamentary Papers.]

C. A. H.

REVELEY, WILLEY (d. 1799), architect, was probably son of William Reveley, a younger son of Willey Reveley of Newton Underwood, Northumberland, and Newby Wiske, Yorkshire, whose father, William Reveley, had married Margery, daughter and heiress of Robert Willey of Newby Wiske. Willey Reveley the younger received his professional education in London from Sir William Chambers [q. v.] in 1781–2. He accompanied Sir Richard Worsley as ‘architect and draftsman’ in his tour through Italy, Greece, and Egypt (1784–1789), and, on his return to England, pursued his profession with much activity. He made designs ‘of great beauty and elegance’ for public baths at Bath, but was not employed in executing them. He also prepared a plan for an infirmary at Canterbury, which was not utilised, and for wet docks on the Thames. The most important works executed by him were All Saints' Church, Southampton (1792–5), a classical building with pediment supported by Ionic columns and cupola of good proportions; and a country mansion, Windmill Hill, Sussex, which is given in Richardson's ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’ (vol. i. pl. 26–7). The plans for the church were modified somewhat disastrously to suit the prejudices of the mayor and aldermen of Southampton. In 1794 he edited vol. iii. of Stuart and Revett's ‘Antiquities of Athens,’ and, in the preface, replied to certain animadversions of Sir W. Chambers upon Greek architecture. His