his eldest son the charge of the second. His last illness found him in London. “His sufferings (a contemporary writes) were most severe; happily they were of short duration, yet long enough to show that his virtues were the fruits of faith, and could stand the trial of a dying hour; proving that he rested his hopes of salvation wholly and unreservedly on the only true foundation — the meritorious death and sacrifice of our Redeemer.” The integrity, benevolence, and modesty of Professor Rigaud were known to a large circle of observers, well qualified to appreciate his high scientific powers and acquirements, which those virtues adorned. “In affectionate regard for his memory (writes Mr. Johnson, his successor at the Radcliffe Observatory), and in admiration of his learning, I yield to no one. His private virtues are remembered by many of us; and his public services will be remembered as long as Astronomy is a science cultivated among men.” Professor Rigaud married, in 1815, Christian, eldest daughter of Gibbes Walker Jordan, Esq., by whom (who died in 1827) he had four sons and three daughters; as to his sons —
Stephen Jordan Rigaud, D.D., born March 1816, was Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, Head Master of Ipswich School, and Bishop of Antigua, where he died, May 1859.
Richard Rigaud, born January 1819, settled in South Australia, and died there, May 1865.
Gibbes Rigaud, born May 1820, commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 60th Royal Rifles, and retired as Major-General, January 1873; he died at Oxford on 1st January 1885.
John Rigaud, B.D., born July 1821, was Demy, and subsequently Fellow, of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he resides.
Inscription on a Tombstone in St. James’ Church, Piccadilly.
“Here lie the mortal remains of Stephen Peter Rigaud, M.A., F.R.S., &c, born August 1 2th, 1774, who departed this life, in expectation of the Resurrection, through faith in his Redeemer, March 16th, 1839. He was elected Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, 1794; Senior Proctor of the University, Savilian Professor of Geometry, and Reader in Experimental Philosophy, 1810; Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and Radcliffe Observer, 1827.”
Inscription on a Monumental Brass in the Ante-Chapel of Exeter College, Oxon.
In memorian Stephani Petri Rigaud, A.M., hujusce Collegii olim Socii et Astronomiae Professoris Savilliani, qui Londinii defunctus, die XVIto Martii A.S. MDCCCXXXIX., aetatis suae LXV{sup|to}}, juxta ecclesiam S{sup|ti}} Jacobi parochialem Westmonasteriensem sepultus jacet; necnon Stephani Jordan Rigaud, S.T.P., ejusdem S.P.R. filii natu maximi, hujusce Collegii olim Socii, et Antiguae apud Indos Occidentales Episcopi, qui Antiguae die XVII{sup|mo}} Maii A.S. MDCCCLIX., aetatis suae XLIII{sup|o}}, obiit, et ibidem juxta Ecclesiam Cathedralem sepultus est. Filii filiaeque Stephani Petri Rigaud super, tites hoc ponendum curaverunt.
deo aeterno sit aeterna gloria.
Gosset. — Isaac Gosset, Esq., died at Kensington, 28th November 1799, having nearly completed his eighty eighth year; he was the younger son of Isaac Gosset, of Jersey (See chapter xx.). He invented a composition of wax in which he modelled portraits in the most exquisite manner. His works were numerous, and included the royal family, and many of the nobility and gentry from the times of George II. down to 1780. In the line of his art he may be said to have been unique, as the inventor of the inimitable materials with which he worked, the secret of which was confided only to his son, the learned and Rev. Dr. Isaac Gosset.
Rev. Isaac Gosset, D.D., F.R.S., died in Newman Street, London, 16th December 1812, in his sixty-eighth year. As a learned man in many departments of literature besides Biblical Criticism, and also as a book-collector, he was well known. He was an eminent preacher, though incapacitated by the feebleness of his frame from much or frequent personal exertion. In his happier hours of social intercourse the disadvantages of his person disappeared in the graces of his conversation, which was sometimes serious and argumentative, sometimes playful and humorous. Buoyancy of spirits, joined to literary enthusiasm, operated as a sustaining principle against various bodily afflictions; and it never deserted him. He experienced no mental decay, but died in the full vigour of his intellectual faculties.
Beranger. — Three detachments of this respectable Huguenot family left France as fugitives from the persecutions under Louis XIV., and Gabriel, the subject of this paragraph, rose to eminence. His forefathers took refuge in Holland, from whence he himself came over to Ireland in order to marry a fair cousin of Beranger refugee stock who presided over a warehouse for artists’ materials in Dublin. The third branch of the family located itself in England, and one of its members is said to
