are: (i.) of God's Word and Scriptures, whether they be sufficient rule of our fayth; (ii) of the Scriptures expounded by the Church, and of unwriten tradition; (iii.) of the Church of Rome, whether it be the trewe Catholic Church, and her sentence to be received as the certayne truth. Published for the good of others by E. P. in the year 1615.' (B.M.) This is an interesting memorial of the religious controversy of the Elizabethan age. John Ainsworth, who had abjured Anglicanism, and was imprisoned in London as a recusant, put forth a challenge to a written debate, and invited Henry Ainsworth to notice this cartel. In the reply to this the Brownist minister, writing from Amsterdam, refers to his opponent as in nation and in name, and I know not whether also for nearer alliance, being meet.' Four letters by the disputants were addressed to each other, and in the published volume Henry Ainsworth ends with a short reply. The discussion extended from 1609 to 1613. It has been said that John and Henry were brothers, but of this there is no evidence. The letters on the whole are remarkable for the earnestness and yet friendly spirit of the disputants in an age when religious controversy was apt to be bitterly personal. The answers of John Ainsworth and twenty-one other priests in Newgate, 20 March 1614, as to the doctrine of allegiance, will be found in Tierney's edition of Dodd's 'Church History of England,' iv. p. cciv. 20. A Reply to the pretended Christian Plea for the Antichristian Church of Rome, published by Francis Johnson, A.D. 1617. Wherein the weakness of the said Plea is manifested, and arguments alleged for the Church of Rome, and Baptisme therein, are refuted, anno 1618. Printed in the year 1620.' (B.M.) 21. 'Solomon's Song of Songs in English metre,' 1623, 1626. 22. 'A Seasonable Discourse; or, a Censure upon a Dialogue of the Anabaptists, entitled "A Description of what God hath predestinated concerning man," 1623, 1642 (B.M.), 1643 (B.M.), 1645, 1651. 23. Certain Notes of Mr. Henry Aynsworth, his last Sermon. Taken by pen in the publique delivery by one of his flock a little before his death, anno 1622. Published now at last by the said writer as a love token of remembrance to his brethren, to inkindle their affections to prayer, that scandalls (of manie years continuance) may be removed, that are barrs to keep back manie godly wise and judicious from us, whereby we might grow to further perfection again. Imprinted 1630.' The preface is signed Sabine Staresmore. The text is 1 Peter ii. 4. 24. Advertisement touching some Objections against the Sincerity of the Hebrew

VOL. I.

Text, and the allegations of the Rabbins in his Annotations,' 1639. This, although believed to have been printed separately, is included in the Annotations on the Pentateuch. It arose out of an attack by John Paget, minister of the English Reformed Church at Amsterdam, who took offence at the admission of a woman as member of Ainsworth's congregation who had previously belonged to Paget's church. 25. The Old Orthodox Foundation of Religion. Long since collected by that judicious and eloquent man, Mr. Henry Ainsworth, for the benefit of his private company, and now divulged for the publicke of all that desire to know that corner-stone, Jesus Christ. By S. W.' London, 1641 (B.M.), 1653 (B.M.). The name of the editor, Samuel White, appears at the end of the preface. Whilst not agreeing with Ainsworth's' preposterous zeale in the point and practise of Separation,' yet as an eyewitness of his life in Amsterdam he praises his 'humility, sobriety, and discretion,' and declares that 'hee lived and died unblameable to the world,' except in one point, which to many is a strong testimony of Ainsworth's love of the truth. 26. Two Treatises. The first, Of the Communion of Saints; the second entitled An Arrow against Idolatry, &c. To this edition is prefixed some account of the life and writings of the author [by Dr. Stuart].' Edinb. 1789. (B.M.). 27. Annotations upon the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Song of Solomon, with a Memoir of the Author,' 2 vols., Glasgow, 1843. (B.M.)

The

W. Bartlett, writing in 1647, speaks of a large treatise' by Ainsworth entitled 'Guide to Zion.' This is not otherwise known, and may perhaps be a mistaken reference to Syon's Prerogative Royal,' which appeared in 1641, and, though without name, is regarded as the work of Ainsworth's successor, John Canne. It is, however, not what even now we should call a large treatise, and is but a lilliputian specimen of the powers of the theologians of the seventeenth century. foregoing list will show that Henry Ainsworth was a busy and voluminous writer, both as controversialist and as commentator. He did not even disdain the muses; but his versification is of the baldest. curious in hymnology who consult his Annotations' upon Exodus xv. will find the music to which his Song of Moses' was sung by the little church at Amsterdam. Of the Canticles he executed a metrical version. He had not the faintest breath of poetical inspiration. It is perhaps worth noting that William Ainsworth, described as lecturer at St. Peter's, Chester, wrote 'Medulla Bibliorum: the Marrow of the Bible...

The

together with so many English poems containing the contents of every chapter,' which appeared in 1652.

Henry Ainsworth left behind him a large quantity of manuscripts, which appear to have been dispersed. This is known from a passage in one of Dr. John Worthington's letters, in which he bears an emphatic testimony both to the character and attainments of Henry Ainsworth. There is another author, whose remains are most worthy to be retrieved-I mean Mr. Ainsworth, whose excellent annotations upon the Pentateuch, &c. sufficiently discover his great learning and his most exact observation of the proper idioms of the holy text, with every iota and tittle of which he seems to be as much acquainted as any of the Masoreths of Tiberias.' Dr. Worthington goes on to mention works on Hosea, Matthew, and the Epistles to the Hebrews, which Ainsworth had left, but which, owing to some difficulty as to price or copyright between Ainsworth's son and his successor, John Canne, had not been printed. The value of Ainsworth's exegetical writings has been attested by Cotton, Doddridge, Calmet, Poole, and Clarke. Time has not entirely destroyed the value of his annotations; for they have been found helpful to the company of Old Testament revisers (DEXTER, p. 342). His character was that of a modest, amiable, and conciliatory man, acting with moderation under difficult circumstances, unwilling to enter upon controversy, and yet not shrinking from it when duty called. Perhaps his greatest service to English nonconformity was the establishment of a tradition of learning and culture. Even those of the world who despised the sectary admired the scholar whose acquirements in rabbinical and oriental literature-as it was then understoodwere equalled by few in Europe. This combination led Moreri and others to suppose that Henry Ainsworth the annotator and Henry Ainsworth the Brownist were distinct individuals.

Dexter has shown that Henry Ainsworth, who is described as a minister, thirty-six years of age and from Swanton, married Margery Halie, from Ipswich, widow of Richard Appelbey, 29 March 1607. He also quotes a passage from Paget-certainly an unscrupulous and biassed witness-who declares that Ainsworth was originally a member of the church of England-as, indeed, he must have been-separated from her, then in London rejoined her communion, but left her, and once more, when in Ireland, and in some danger for your scandall,' at least nominally resumed his allegiance. Even if there were any wavering in Ainsworth's

youth, which is by no means certain, yet during all the period of his public life from 1596 to his death we find him constant to the despised and unpopular form of christianity which he had adopted.

was

Before his death Ainsworth for a time left Amsterdam and revisited Ireland, but returned to his city of exile, where he died late in 1622 or early in 1623. Neal has given a strange narration of his death, which, if too absurd for credence, is too circumstantial to be omitted. His death,' he says, sudden, and not without suspicion of violence; for it is reported that, having found a diamond of very great value in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised it in print, and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any acknowledgment he would desire; but Ainsworth, though poor, would accept of nothing but a conference with some of his rabbies upon the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah, which the other promised, but not having interest enough to obtain it, 'tis thought that he was poisoned.' Brook's version is that the conference took place, and the champion of Christianity was poisoned by his defeated antagonists.

[Works of John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, London, 1851; Two Treatises by Henry Ainsworth (with some account of the life and writings of the author), Edinburgh, 1789; Neal's History of the Puritans, ii. 43; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, ii. 299; Abram's History of Blackburn, Blackburn, 1877; Dexter's Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, 1880 (containing, at p. 296, a facsimile of Henry Ainsworth's signature); Baines's Lancashire; Halley's Lancashire Puritanism; British Museum General Catalogue.]

W. E. A. A.

AINSWORTH, ROBERT (1660–1743), lexicographer, was born at Woodyale, in the parish of Eccles, four miles from Manchester, in September 1660. He received his education at Bolton, in Lancashire, and afterwards kept a school in that town. In or before 1698 he removed to London, and for a time he was master of a considerable boardingschool' at Bethnal Green. During his residence there he published, probably as a kind of advertisement, a very suggestive pamphlet on 'The most Natural and Easie Way of Institution,' containing various useful proposals in the direction of educational reform. He afterwards removed his school to Hackney, and carried it on successively at other villages in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.

Having acquired a moderate fortune, Ainsworth gave up his school, and spent the remainder of his life in a private manner. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Anti

place his name on the title-page of the first edition of this pamphlet, but he affixed it to 'the dedication addressed to Sir William Hustler, M.P.,' one of the members for Northallerton, with whom he appears to have been previously well acquainted. At the end is the following advertisement :-'Such as desire to discourse the Author upon these Proposals may hear of him at the Booksellers, or at the Marine Coffee-House in Birchin Lane, after 'Change, who can inform them of Undertakers.' A second edition, with a few additions, appeared in 1699; and another, also called the second edition, was brought out in 1736 by the notorious Curll, of Rose Street, Covent Garden, probably without Ainsworth's knowledge or consent. 2. An account, in Latin, of the classical antiquities collected by John Kemp, under the title of 'Monumenta Vetustatis Kempiana, ex vetustis scriptoribus illustrata, eosque vicissim illustrantia; In duas Partes divisa: Quarum Altera Mumias, Simulacra, Statuas, Signa, Lares, Inscriptiones, Vasa, Lucernas, Amuleta, Lapides, Gemmas, Annulos, Fibulas, cum aliis veterum Reliquiis; Altera Nummos, materia modoque diversos, continet.' London, 1720, 8vo. Besides the catalogue, profusely illustrated with classical references, the volume contains ten long dissertations on Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities; one being a disquisition on the Roman money, De Asse et Partibus ejus,' which extends to above seventy pages. There is in the British Museum the handsomely bound presentation copy of this work that was sent to Henry Hare, Lord Coleraine. Two manuscript letters, in most elegant handwriting, addressed by Ainsworth to his lordship, and also a manuscript note by Dr. Birch, are prefixed to this copy. 3. An account of ancient Roman coins, drawn up by him and Roger Gale conjointly for the Society of Antiquaries. 4. "Iσetov, sive, ex Veteris Monumenti Isaici Descriptione, Isidis Delubrum reseratum,' 1729, 4to, consisting of only four pages, besides the dedication to James West, Esq. 5. De Clypeo Camilli antiquo,' 1734, 4to, which had previously appeared at the end of the 'Museum Woodwardianum,' or account of the antiquarian collections of Dr. John Woodward, published after Woodward's death in 1728, under the superintendence of Ainsworth, by whom it was in part drawn up. 6. A Latin-English Dictionary. About the year 1714 a proposal was made to some of the leading London booksellers for compiling a new Compendious English and Latin Dictionary' upon the plan of Faber's 'Thesaurus.' Ainsworth was engaged to carry out the design. De

lays and difficulties arose, and afterwards, on account of Ainsworth's advanced age and a disorder which affected his eyes, Dr. Samuel Patrick was requested to assist in revising the copy after about a dozen sheets had been struck off. Originally the dictionary was intended to be merely a school book, but the dimensions of the scheme were gradually enlarged, and the authorities for the meaning of the words were added. The first edition appeared with the title 'Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ compendiarius; or, a Compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue, designed principally for the use of the British Nations,' in one volume, 1736, 4to. It was inscribed to Dr. Richard Mead in a Latin dedication written with Ainsworth's usual elegance of style. The work was at once recognised as superior to other undertakings of a similar kind, and it long remained the best Latin-English Dictionary. A second edition was brought out in 1746 under the superintendence of Dr. Patrick. Dr. John Ward also assisted in this edition, which, like the first, was in one volume 4to. A third edition, with little or no variation, followed in 1751 under the care of Mr. Kimber, and a fourth in one volume, folio, in 1752, with great improvements by the Rev. William Young, assisted by Ward. edition, in two vols. 8vo, was published in 1758, under the inspection of Nathanael Thomas, who corrected a fourth edition in 4to, 1761. Another edition, in two vols. 4to, was produced in 1773 under the care of the Rev. Thomas Morell, and many other editions have since appeared, some of them quite recently. One of them, in a single 8vo volume, was reprinted at London in 1829 from the edition of 1752, with numerous additions, emendations, and improvements by the Rev. B. W. B. Beatson, M.Â., and William Ellis, M.A. The sum received by Ainsworth for the first edition was 6661. 178. 6d. For the second edition Ainsworth's executors were paid 250l., Dr. Patrick 1017. 11s. 9d., and Dr. Ward 261. 58. Kimber had 217. for correcting the third edition; and Young 1847. 108. for his improvements in the folio. Besides these sums 2187. 88. had been paid by the booksellers to Dr. Morell for correcting Ainsworth, and 2617. 128. to Mr. Thomas, making a total, up to 1773, of 1,7307. 108. 3d.

An

Thesaurus; Biog. Brit. ed. Kippis; George L. [Memoir prefixed to second edition of the Craik, in Biog. Dict. Soc. D.U.K. i. 570; Rev. J. E. B. Mayor, in Notes and Queries (1883), Ser. 6, v. vii. 64; Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, 2nd edit. ii. 157, iii. 13, 15, 20, 151; Nichols's Lit. Aneed. v. 248-254; Lysons's Environs of London, iii.

463; Sir Egerton Brydges' Censura Literaria, vii. 218.] T. C.

AINSWORTH, WILLIAM HARRISON (1805-1882), novelist, was born in King Street, Manchester, 4 Feb. 1805, in a house that has long since been demolished. His father was a solicitor in good practice, and the son had all the advantage that educational facilities could afford. He was sent to the Manchester grammar school, and in Mervyn Clitheroe has left an interesting and accurate picture of its then condition, which may be contrasted with that of an earlier period left by the English opiumeater.' At sixteen, a brilliant, handsome youth, with more taste for romance and the drama than for the dry details of the law, he was articled to Mr. Alexander Kay, a leading solicitor of Manchester. The closest friend of his youth was Mr. James Crossley, who was some years older, but shared his intellectual taste and literary enthusiasm. A drama, written for private theatricals in his father's house, was printed in Arliss's Magazine,' and he also contributed to the 'Manchester Iris,' the Edinburgh Magazine,' and the London Magazine.' He even started a periodical, which received the name of 'The Boeotian,' and died at the sixth number. Many of the fugitive pieces of these early days were collected in volumes now exceedingly rare: 'December Tales' (London, 1823), which is not wholly from his pen; the Works of Cheviot Tichburn' (London, 1822; Manchester, 1825), dedicated to Charles Lamb; and A Summer Evening Tale' (London, 1825).

Sir John Chiverton' appeared in 1826, and for forty years was regarded as one of his early works; but Mr. John Partington Aston has also claimed to be its author. In all probability both of these young men joined in the production of the novel which attracted the attention of Sir Walter Scott. On the death of his father in 1824 Ainsworth went to London to finish his legal education with Mr. Jacob Phillips of the Inner Temple. Whatever intentions he may have formed of humdrum study and determined attention to the details of a profession in which he had no interest, were dissipated by contact with the literary world of the metropolis. He made the acquaintance of Mr. John Ebers, who at that time combined the duties of manager of the Opera House with the business of a publisher. He it was who issued 'Sir John Chiverton,' and the verses forming its dedication are understood to have been addressed to Anne Frances (Fanny') Ebers, whom Ainsworth married 11 Oct. 1826. Ains

worth had now to decide upon a career, and acting upon the suggestion of Ebers, his father-in-law, he began business as a publisher; but after an experience of about eighteen months he abandoned it. In this brief interval he introduced the Hon. Mrs. Norton and Ude, the cook, to the discerning though unequal admiration of the British public. He was introduced to Sir Walter Scott, who wrote the 'Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee' for an annual issued by him. Ainsworth gave him twenty guineas for it, which Sir Walter accepted, but laughingly handed over to the little daughter of Lockhart, in whose London house they had met. Ainsworth's literary aspirations still burned with undiminished ardour, and several plans were formed only to be abandoned, and when in the summer of 1830 he visited Switzerland and Italy he was as far as ever from the fulfilment of his desires. In 1831 he visited Chesterfield and began the novel of Rookwood,' in which he successfully applied the method of Mrs. Radcliffe to English scenes and characters. The finest passage is that relating Turpin's ride to York, which is a marvel of descriptive writing. It was written, apparently in a glow of inspiration, in less than a day and a half. This feat,' he says, for feat it was, being the composition of a hundred novel pages in less than twenty-four hours, was achieved at "The Elms," a house I then occupied at Kilburn.' The success of 'Rookwood' was marked and immediate. Ainsworth at a bound reached popularity. This was in 1834, and in 1837 he published 'Crichton,' which is a fine piece of historical romance. critics who had objected to the romantic glamour cast over the career of Dick Turpin were still further horrified at the manner in which that vulgar rascal, Jack Sheppard, was elevated into a hero of romance. The outcry was not entirely without justification, nor was it without effect on the novelist, who thenceforward avoided this perilous ground. 'Jack Sheppard' appeared in Bentley's Miscellany,' of which Ainsworth became editor in March 1840, at a monthly salary of 517. The story is powerfully written, and its popularity was greatly aided by the wonderful illustrations supplied by George Cruikshank. In 1841 he received 1,0007. from the Sunday Times' for Old St. Paul's,' and he, in 1848, had from the same source another 1,000l. for the 'Lancashire Witches.' In 1842 he began the publication of 'Ainsworth's Magazine,' which came to an end in 1853, when he acquired the 'New Monthly Magazine,' which he edited for many years. This was the heyday of Ainsworth's reputation alike in literature and in society. His home at Kensal

The