Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macquin, Ange Denis
MACQUIN, ANGE DENIS (1756–1823), abbé and miscellaneous writer, of Scottish extraction, was born at Meaux in 1756. Educated at the college of that town, he became a good classical scholar, was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres, and held a rich ecclesiastical benefice in the neighbourhood. In 1783 he published anonymously a pamphlet entitled 'Je ne sais quoi, par je ne sais qui, se vend je ne sais où,' and in 1789 some verses on memory. At the commencement of the revolution he edited or contributed to a royalist paper, which openly welcomed the Prussian invaders as deliverers. Quitting Meaux just in time to escape the massacre of 4 Sept. 1792, he embarked at St. Valery for England. At Hastings he began learning English, and supported himself by sketching local scenery; but in 1793 an introduction to Edmund Lodge led to his appointment as heraldic draughtsman to the College of Arms, and on 22 May 1794 he was elected honorary fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries (Gough, List, 1798). He designed Nelson's funeral- car and a new throne for the House of Lords. Devoting his leisure to literature and art, he wrote on heraldry and other subjects in the 'Encyclopædia Londinensis,' besides literary and antiquarian articles for the 'Sporting Magazine.' He likewise edited Bellinger's 'Dictionary of French and English Idioms,' and published a humorous Latin poem, 'Tabella Cibaria,' a history of three hundred animals (London, 1812), and a 'Description of West's picture of Christ rejected by the Jews' (1814). On the fall of Napoleon he revisited France, and recovered part of his property, but feeling himself out of his element there he returned to London. He was latterly engaged on a work entitled 'Etymological Gleanings,' some portions of which appeared in Jordan's 'Literary Gazette,' He died in Bermondsey Street, Southwark, 17 July 1823, and was buried in the catholic church at Horselydown.
[Gent. Mag. 1823, ii. 1801 W. Jerdan's Autobiography, iii. 103, London, 1852; Quérard's France Littéraire, Paris, 1833; Carro'e Histoire de Meaux, 1865.]