Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/414

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On his return to Newgate Young attempted to suborn a half-starved wretch named Holland to take Blackhead's place, and to support him with newly devised evidence against Marlborough and Sprat. Holland having reported this scheme to Nottingham, Young was prosecuted by the attorney-general for perjury. Blackhead absconded after promising to turn king's evidence, thus delaying the trial until 7 Feb. 1693, when Young was sentenced at the king's bench to be imprisoned and to be thrice set in the pillory, where he had to undergo a very severe pelting. Having effected his escape from the king's bench prison on 12 Dec. 1698, Young seems to have turned to coining for a livelihood, and early in April 1700 he was arrested for this offence and tried at the Old Bailey. He was found guilty on 12 April, under the name of John Larkin alias Young. The ‘evidence against him,’ says a contemporary news-sheet, ‘were two fellow prisoners whom he had invegled to assist him in the act of coyning, with design to accuse them, and to witness against them, in hopes to purchase his liberty, but they turned evidence against him, upon which he was condemned. He was very dexterous in counterfeiting People's Hands, having counterfeited the Hands of both the Sheriffs for the discharge of a prisoner’ (London Post, 15 April). He made a ‘penitent’ end at Tyburn on 19 April 1700, confessing that he had forged the plot against the bishop of Rochester (Flying Post, No. 772). In a ‘Paper delivered by Robert Young’ to John Allen, the ordinary of Newgate, and published on 20 April 1700, the criminal frankly confesses ‘I have injured my Neighbour so often by Forgeries, Cheats, &c., that I think it is scarce possible to recount them.’

Writing to Lord Hatton in March 1693, Charles Hatton said of Young, whose trial he witnessed: ‘In impudence he far outdid even Dr. Oates. He had not a ranting impudence, but a most unparalleled, sedate, composed impudence, and pretends to be as great a martyr for his zeale for the preservation of the present government as Oates did for his for the protestant religion’ (Hatton Corresp. ii. 190).

[The windings of Young's evil career down to 1692 are unfolded with remarkable detective skill in Bishop Sprat's Relation of the late Wicked Contrivance of Stephen Blackhead and Robert Young; pt. i., dealing with the investigation of the supposed plot by the council, was issued in August 1692, and pt. ii., illustrating Young's previous career by a number of papers, letters, and affidavits, in November 1692. Both parts were reprinted in the Harl. Miscellany, 1810, vi. 198–277. The literary ability displayed by the bishop in his narrative was justly commended by Macaulay. See also Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation, ii. 485, 605, 615, 621, iii. 31, 36, iv. 461; Rapin's Hist. of England, 1751, iii. 218; Ralph's Hist. of England, 1746, ii. 387–9; Oldmixon's Hist. 1735, iii. 77; Burnet's Own Time, ii. 285; Coxe's Marlborough, i. 36–9; Macaulay's Hist. of England, iv. 245 seq.; Wolseley's Life of Marlborough, ii. 272 seq.; Wheatley and Cunningham's London, iii. 415; Annals of England, p. 506; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. v. 310; and see art. Sprat, Thomas.]

T. S.

YOUNG, ROBERT (1822–1888), theologian and orientalist, son of George Young, manager of a flour mill, was born in Haddingtonshire on 10 Sept. 1822; his father died when Robert was a child. After education at some private schools, he was in 1838 apprenticed to the printing business, and in 1847 became a printer and bookseller on his own account. During his apprenticeship he employed his spare time in studying Hebrew and other oriental languages, and also interested himself in various forms of religious work; for three years he was connected with Dr. Chalmers's Territorial church sabbath school in the West Port, Edinburgh. On starting business as a printer he proceeded to publish a variety of works intended to facilitate the study of the Old Testament and its ancient versions, of which the first was an edition with translation of Maimonides's 613 precepts. From 1856 to 1861 he was literary missionary and superintendent of the mission press at Surat; and during this time he added Gujarati to his acquirements, which already included Gaelic and Finnish, in addition to the Romance and Teutonic languages; while he did not neglect his Semitic studies. From 1864 to 1874 he conducted the ‘Missionary Institute;’ in 1867 he visited the most important cities in the United States. The best known of his works is his ‘Analytical Concordance to the Bible’ (1879, 4to), which has gone through many editions. In 1871 he stood unsuccessfully for the Hebrew chair at St. Andrews. Most of his life was passed in Edinburgh, where he died on 14 Oct. 1888, leaving two sons and four daughters.

[Banner of Ulster, 18 Dec. 1855; Schaff's Encyclopædia of Living Divines, 1887.]

D. S. M.

YOUNG or YONGE, THOMAS (1507–1568), archbishop of York, was the son of John Young and Eleanor his wife, and was born at Hodgeston or Hogeston, near Llanfey, Pembrokeshire, in 1507. He became a