Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/110

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for examination and sifting. His offered compromise was accepted by a committee, but the dispute went on; both parties began civil actions. Proceedings were stayed; the London society paying all costs, amounting to over 2,000l.

The first volume of Whitehead's ‘Life’ of Wesley was published in 1793, 8vo, the included ‘Life’ of Charles Wesley being issued separately in the same year; the second volume appeared in 1796, 8vo. It fell undeservedly flat, being in every respect superior to the ‘Life’ by Coke and Moore. In 1796 Whitehead returned Wesley's papers to the methodist book-room. Before they reached Moore's hands (1797) some had been destroyed by John Pawson as ‘useless lumber.’ Aided by these manuscripts, Moore brought out his new life of Wesley in 1824–5. No higher tribute can be paid to the excellence of Whitehead's work than the constant use which Moore makes of it, frequently, and without acknowledgment, adopting its language, though criticisms of Whitehead are not spared. Whitehead's ‘Life’ was reprinted at Dublin in 1806, with some additions.

In 1797 Whitehead was restored to membership in the methodist body. He died at his residence, Fountain Court, Old Bethlem, in 1804; the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ gives 7 March as the date of his death, and 14 March as that of his interment in Wesley's vault at City Road chapel; these dates are probably correct, but the inscription added in 1840 gives 18 March as the date of death, while Stevenson says he died ‘at the end of February,’ and was buried on 4 March. His will, dated 24 Feb., codicil 26 Feb., was proved 15 March 1804. He left a widow (Mary), children, and grandchildren. His funeral sermon was preached by Joseph Benson [q. v.] There is no portrait of him; ‘a full-length figure in the picture of Mr. Wesley's deathbed is said to be that of Dr. Whitehead’ (Stevenson, p. 378).

Besides the life of Wesley, he published: 1. ‘An Essay on Liberty and Necessity. … By Philaretus’ [1775], 12mo (against Toplady). 2. ‘Materialism philosophically examined,’ 1778, 8vo (against Priestley). 3. ‘Tentamen physiologicum … sistens novam theoriam de causa reciprocarum in corde et arteriis contractionum,’ Leyden, 1780, 4to. 4. ‘To whom it belongs,’ 1781, fol. (a quaker broadsheet, signed ‘Principle’). 5. ‘A Report … of a Memoir containing a New Method of treating … Puerperal Fever,’ 1783, 8vo (translated from the French of Denis Claude Doulcet, with notes). 6. ‘A Letter on the Difference between the Medical Society of Crane Court and Dr. Whitehead,’ 1784, 8vo. 7. ‘A True Narrative of … the Difference between Dr. Coke, Mr. Moore, Mr. Rogers, and Dr. Whitehead, concerning … the Life of … Wesley,’ 1792, 8vo. 8. ‘A Defence of a True Narrative,’ 1792, 8vo. 9. ‘A Letter to the Methodist Preachers,’ 1792, 8vo. 10. ‘Circular to the Methodist Preachers,’ 1792, 8vo.

[Gent. Mag. 1804, i. 283; Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 328; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, 1867; Whitehead's Life of Wesley (preface), and his True Narrative; Moore's Life of Wesley (preface); Stevenson's City Road Chapel, 1872, pp. 131, 172, 370, 377; Album Studiosorum Academiæ Lugduno-Batavæ, 1875, p. 1132.]

A. G.


WHITEHEAD, JOHN (1860–1899), ornithologist, the second son of Mr. Jeffrey Whitehead of Newstead, Wimbledon, was born at Muswell Hill, Hornsey, on 30 June 1860. He was educated at Elstree under the Rev. Mr. Saunderson, and at the Edinburgh Institution under Dr. Ferguson, who greatly fostered his taste for natural history. Exposing himself too recklessly in the pursuit of his favourite science, he developed a weakness of the lungs, and was compelled to winter in the Engadine in 1881–2, and in Corsica in 1882 and 1883, when he began collecting, and discovered a bird new to science. On his return to England he prepared for a collecting trip to Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo, which lasted from October 1884 to August 1888. He brought back examples of many new animals, including no fewer than forty-five new species of birds. The results of this trip are fully set forth in his ‘Exploration of Mount Kina Balu,’ London, 1893, 4to. In December 1893 he set out for the Philippines. He made nine different trips in those islands, and discovered on Mount Data the first known indigenous mammalian fauna, returning to England in 1896. In January 1899 he started for those islands again, intending to complete his researches there; but the war between the United States and Spain put an end to the plan, and, after waiting a few weeks at Manila, he sailed for Hong Kong, and thence set out to explore the island of Hainau. The expedition was, however, attacked by fever. He with difficulty struggled back to the coast, and died at the port of Hoi-hou on 2 June 1899.

[Country Life, July 1899; Spectator, July 1899; information kindly supplied by Whitehead's father and by Mr. W. Ogilvie Grant.]

B. B. W.


WHITEHEAD, PAUL (1710–1774), satirist, was born on 6 Feb. 1710 in Castle Yard, Holborn, where his father was a pro-