Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/61

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Templeton
55
Tench

Cranmore on 15 Dec. 1825, and was buried in the new burying-ground, Clifton Street, Belfast.

Templeton married in 1799 Katherine, daughter of Robert Johnston of Seymourhill, near Belfast, by whom he left a son, Dr. Robert Templeton, deputy inspector-general of hospitals, an entomologist, who contributed numerous papers to the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' between 1832 and 1858, and died in 1894.

Templeton contributed papers to the 'Transactions' of the Linnean Society on the migrations of birds and on soils, and to those of the Geological Society in 1821 on peat-bogs (Royal Soc. Cat. v. 930). Several volumes of his manuscript 'Hibernian Flora,' with coloured drawings, are preserved in the Belfast Museum. Robert Brown dedicated to him the Australian leguminous genus Templetonia.

[Mainly from material communicated by the Rev. C. H. Waddell, B.D.; London's Mag. of Natural Hist. i. (1828) 403, ii. (1829) 305.]

G. S. B.

TEMPLETON, JOHN (1802–1886), tenor vocalist, son of Robert Templeton, was born at Riccarton, near Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, on 30 July 1802. He had a fine voice as a boy, and, joining his eldest brother, a concert-singer and teacher in Edinburgh, he took part in concerts there. In 1822 he became precentor to the Rose Street secession church, then under John Brown (1784-1858) [q. v.] Resolving to adopt a professional career, he went to London and studied under Blewitt, Welsh, De Pinna, and Tom Cooke. In July 1828 he made his début on the stage at Worthing, Sussex, and, after some wanderings in the provinces, obtained an engagement at Drury Lane, where he appeared as Meadows in 'Love in a Village.' Soon afterwards he undertook, at the short notice of five days, the part of Don Ottavio in Mozart's 'Don Giovanni' at Covent Garden. In 1833 Malibran selected him as her tenor for 'La Sonnambula,' and he continued to be successfully associated with her until her death in 1836. Bellini was so pleased with his performance of the part of Elvino that he once embraced him and, 'with tears of exultation,' promised to write a part that would 'immortalise him.' After touring for some years in the provinces he visited Paris in 1842, where he was entertained by Auber. In 1843 he started concert-lecture entertainments on national and chiefly Scottish music, and toured through the provinces as well as America. He retired to New Hampton, near London, in 1852, and died there on 1 July 1886. He had four brothers, all more or less celebrated for their vocal abilities (cf. Brown and Stratton).

Templeton's voice was of very fine quality and exceptional compass. Cooke called him 'the tenor with the additional keys.' His chest voice ranged over two octaves, and he could sustain A and B flat in alt with ease. His weakness was an occasional tendency to sing flat. He had a répertoire of thirty-five operas, in many of which he created the chief parts. He wrote a few songs, one, 'Put off! put off!' on the subject of Queen Mary's escape from Lochleven. One of his concert lectures, 'A Musical Entertainment,' was published at Boston, United States, in 1845.

[Templeton and Malibran, by W. H. H[usk], which contains two portraits of Templeton; Kilmarnock Standard, 16 Feb. 1878; Brown and Stratton's British Musical Biography; Baptie's Musical Scotland; Grove's Dictionary of Music.]

J. C. H.

TEMPLO, RICHARD de (fl. 1190–1229), reputed author of the 'Itinerarium Regis Ricardi.' [See Richard.]

TENCH, WATKIN (1759?–1833), soldier and author, is conjectured to have been born about 1759 in Wales; in his 'Letters in France' (p. 140) he refers to the 'happier days passed in Wales,' and in the dedication of his 'Account of Port Jackson' (1793) he acknowledges the 'deepest obligations' from the family of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn. He became first lieutenant of marines in 1778 and served in America, being a prisoner in Maryland in that year. In 1782 he was raised to the rank of captain, and in 1787 was sent to Australia as one of the captains of marines in the charge of convicts. The expedition left Portsmouth under the command of Arthur Phillip [q. v.] 13 May 1787, and arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788. With some other officers he explored during six days in August 1790 the country inland (Collins, New South Wales, i. 131), and on 18 Dec. 1791 he left Port Jackson for England. He published in 1789 'A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, with an Account of New South Wales.' dated from Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, 10 July 1788. Its conclusions were perhaps over sombre, but its value is shown by the issue in that year of two more editions in English as well as by the publication of a Dutch translation at Amsterdam and a French rendering by M. C. J. Pougens at Paris.

Tench on his return seems to have fixed his residence at Plymouth. In 1793 he published 'A Complete Account of Settlement at Port Jackson in New South