of John Webb (1776–1869) [q. v.] He matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 8 March 1826, graduated B.A. in 1829 with mathematical honours, and M.A. in 1832. In 1830 he was ordained deacon at Hereford, and licensed to the curacy of Pencoyd. He was admitted to priest's orders in the following year by George Isaac Huntingford, bishop of Hereford. After twenty-five years of diligent though unostentatious labour in this and other parishes (including a lengthy term as precentor and minor canon of Gloucester Cathedral), he was presented in 1856 to the scattered living of Hardwick, Herefordshire, which he filled with the utmost conscientiousness until his death on 19 May 1885. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and had a profound and accurate knowledge, practical and theoretical, of astronomy and optics. From an early age Webb took a deep interest in the former science, and as far back as 1825 was making useful observations, precursors of a long, painstaking, and most accurate series. His first telescope was a 4-inch fluid achromatic, after which he observed in succession with a 37/10-inch Tulley, a 5½-inch Alvan Clark, and a 91/3-inch With reflector. In 1859 he issued ‘Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes’ (London, 16mo), a work which reached its fifth edition in 1899, and has done more than any other to advance the cause of amateur observation. Besides this book Webb published ‘Optics without Mathematics’ (London, 1883, 8vo), ‘The Sun’ (London, 1885, 12mo), and a little work on ‘Chrismas and Easter Carols.’ He also contributed largely to such publications as ‘The Student,’ ‘The Intellectual Observer,’ ‘The London Review,’ ‘Nature,’ ‘Knowledge,’ ‘The Argonaut,’ and ‘The English Mechanic.’ He ‘edited and completed’ his father's ‘Memorials of the Civil War’ (London, 1879, 2 vols.). Webb was an observer of great ability. He took a special interest in the study of the moon, was a member of the moon committee of the British Association, and an active supporter of the now defunct Selenographical Society. After his father's death he finished editing the ‘Military Memoirs of Colonel John Birch,’ for the Camden Society, and in 1879 published a new and enlarged edition of John Webb's ‘Civil War in Herefordshire.’ In 1882 he became prebendary of Hereford Cathedral. On the death of Sir Henry Webb, seventh baronet, of Odstock, Wiltshire, he succeeded in 1874 as head of that family. He died on 19 May 1885, and was buried beside his wife Henrietta (d. 1884), daughter of Arthur Wyatt of Troy House, Monmouth, in the cemetery of Mitchel Troy. He bequeathed the family estate in Herefordshire to his cousin, J. G. H. Webb, and left a sum of over 20,000l. to Herefordshire charities.
There is a watercolour portrait of Webb in the possession of F. E. Webb, esq., at 113 Maida Vale, London, and a good portrait is prefixed to the fifth edition of ‘Celestial Objects.’ By his will he bequeathed certain pictures and articles of plate to the trustees of the South Kensington Museum.
[Memoir in the Monthly Notices of the R.A.S.; Nature; Mee's Observational Astronomy; and the biographical note prefixed by the Rev. T. E. Espin to the fifth edition of Celestial Objects; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Burke's Landed Gentry. A detailed memoir is in preparation from the pen of Mr. S. Maitland Baird Gemmill.]
WEBBE. [See also Webb.]
WEBBE, EDWARD (fl. 1590), master-gunner and adventurer, son of Richard Webbe, ‘master-gunner of England,’ was born at St. Katherine's, near the Tower of London, about 1554. At the age of twelve his father placed him in the service of Captain Anthony Jenkinson [q. v.], ambassador to Russia, who sailed from England on 4 May 1566. He was in Jenkinson's service in and about Moscow for three years, and returned with him to England. In 1570 he sailed in the English-Russian fleet, under Captain William Borough [q. v.], for Narva, and was at Moscow in May 1571 when that town was burnt by the Crim Tartars. He became a slave to the Tartars in the Crimea, but was ransomed. Sailing again from London in the Henry, he appears to have been at Tunis when Don John of Austria took it from the Turks (October 1572), and to have reached the rank of master-gunner; but some months later the Henry was captured by the Turks, and Webbe became a galley slave. ‘Constrained for want of victuals,’ he consented to serve the Turks as a gunner, and accompanied the Turkish army to Persia and many other eastern countries. About 1588 William Harborne [q. v.], the English ambassador, ransomed Webbe and nineteen others. He encountered various troubles on his way to England, but reached England safely in 1589. In November of that year he proceeded to France, and was made chief master-gunner by Henry IV. He was present at the battle of Ivry, 14 March 1590, but returned soon after to England, and took lodgings at Blackwall, where on 19 May he dedicates the little tract which recounts his adventures. The title of this is: ‘The Rare & most wonderful thinges which Edward Webbe an Englishman borne hath seene
