Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/365

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Vincent
357
Vincent

of his ‘Catalogue.’ In his ‘Discoverie’ Vincent gave Jaggard space wherein to reply to Brooke's strictures on his skill as a printer. The friendly relations of Jaggard and Vincent are further attested by the interesting circumstance that when, in 1623, Jaggard completed the printing of the first folio edition of Shakespeare's collected plays, he presented to Vincent one of the earliest copies that came from the press. This copy is still extant in the library of Mr. Coningsby Sibthorp of Sudbrooke Holme, Lincoln. On the leather binding, portions of which survive in the original state, Vincent's arms are stamped, and on the title-page is the contemporary manuscript inscription, of which the genuineness is fully established, ‘Ex dono Willmi Jaggard Typographi, Anno 1623’ (Cornhill Magazine, April 1899).

Vincent also contemplated and made collections for a baronage of England, called the ‘Herωologia Anglica,’ at which his son John afterwards worked; it is now among the Wood manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. Wood speaks of it as ‘a very slight and trite thing’ as compared with the ‘Baronage’ of Dugdale. Burton, the historian of Leicestershire, and Weever, author of the ‘Ancient Funeral Monuments,’ both speak highly of the help afforded them by Augustine Vincent, and, from what Burton says, it seems that Vincent contemplated a history of Northamptonshire.

Vincent married, on 30 June 1614, Elizabeth, third daughter of Vincent Primount of Canterbury, who came originally from Bivill la Baignard in Normandy. She married, before November 1630, Eusebius Catesby of Castor, Northamptonshire, and died on 6 Aug. 1667.

His son, John (1618–1671), who is confused by Wood with John Vincent, elder brother of Nathaniel Vincent [q. v.], was a zealous antiquary. He was Selden's godchild and the friend of Ralph Sheldon [see under Sheldon, Edward], and seems to have given way to drink. He died in Drury Lane in 1671. He inherited his father's collections of manuscripts, pawned some of the volumes ‘for ale,’ but made a bequest of the whole to Sheldon. Sheldon on his death in 1684 left them to the College of Arms. Anthony à Wood catalogued these manuscripts, and, by Sheldon's direction, saw them transferred to the College of Arms. Among the Wood manuscripts at the Bodleian are five manuscripts by Augustine and three by John Vincent; possibly others may have been written by them.

[Wood left notes for a life of Augustine Vincent, which are in the Bodleian Library. The Memoir of Augustine Vincent by Sir Harris Nicolas contains all the essential particulars. See also Wood's Life and Times, ed. A. Clark (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), iii. 102–3; Noble's Hist. of the College of Arms; Hampton's Life, Diary, and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 501, 2nd ser. xi. 403; Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. 933–4; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. pp. c. iii. 375, 503, Fasti Oxon. ii. 26.]

W. A. J. A.

VINCENT, GEORGE (1796–1836?), landscape-painter, born in the parish of St. John Timberhill, Norwich, and baptised on 27 June 1796, was the second surviving son of James Vincent, a weaver, afterwards a manufacturer, residing in St. Clement's Church Alley, Norwich, by his first wife, Mary Freeman, who died about 1800. He was educated at the Norwich grammar school. As a child he was fond of drawing with charcoal, and on leaving school he was articled to John Crome [q. v.] His fellow-pupils were James Stark [q. v.] and John Bernay Crome [q. v.], but Vincent was the most talented of the group. He contributed to the exhibitions of the Norwich Society of Artists every year from 1811 till 1823, sending more than a hundred works in all. In 1814 he exhibited a view near Norwich at the Royal Academy, and another in 1815 at the British Institution; but he was not a regular contributor to the London exhibitions till 1818, when he took up his residence in London, first in Wells Street, then at 86 Newman Street, where he remained till 1821. At first he received a fair amount of patronage, and painted some pictures of importance. He exhibited only nine works at the Royal Academy, forty-one at the British Institution (yearly from 1815 to 1831, except 1816 and 1828), and twelve in Suffolk Street. His pictures were chiefly views of Norfolk villages, meadows, and woods, varied occasionally by Scottish scenes (‘Edinburgh from Calton Hill,’ 1820; ‘Loch Katrine,’ 1822) and pictures of boats. In 1820 he exhibited ‘London from the Surrey Side of Waterloo Bridge’ at the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society's gallery, which was open on this occasion to non-members. This picture was afterwards in Lord De Tabley's collection, and was engraved in the ‘Leicester Gallery.’ In the same year he exhibited a ‘View of Greenwich from Blackwall’ at the British Institution.

In 1822 he was living at Kentish Town. After that year his name appears in exhibition catalogues with no address. His health suffered from his intemperate habits, and he was generally in pecuniary difficulties. In the summer and autumn of 1824 he