health was impaired, and he saw no further military service. He was promoted lieutenant-general in regular course in 1819, and died suddenly in Dublin on 8 April 1834, leaving behind him one son, Cadwallader Davis Blayney, M.P. for Monaghan, who became twelfth Lord Blayney, and a representative peer for Ireland, and on whose death, in 1874, the peerage of Blayney became extinct.
[Royal Military Calendar, ed. 1820, vol. iii.; Napier's History of the Peninsular War, book xii. chap. i.]
BLAYNEY, BENJAMIN, D.D. (1728–1801), Hebrew scholar, was first a member of Worcester College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1750 and M.A. in 1753. He afterwards became fellow, and eventually vice-principal, of Hertford College, and took the degree of B.D. in 1768. He was employed by the Clarendon Press to prepare a corrected edition of the authorised version of the Bible. This edition, which has received very high praise for its accuracy, appeared in 1769. Unfortunately a large part of the impression was destroyed in a fire which took place at the Bible Warehouse in Paternoster Row, and copies are now scarce. Blayney received much assistance in his Hebrew studies from the celebrate William Newcome, afterwards archbishop of Armagh, who was also a fellow of Hertford, and to whom he dedicated several of his works. In 1775 he published 'A Dissertation by way of Inquiry into the true Import and Application of the Vision related, Dan. ix. 24 to the End, usually called Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks.' This work attracted considerable attention, and was translated into German by the celebrated J. D. Michaelis. A corrected edition was published by the author in 1797. In 1784 Blayney published a new translation of Jeremiah and Lamentations, and in 1786 and 1788 two sermons on 'The Sign given to Ahaz,' and on 'Christ the greater Glory of the Temple.' He was appointed regius professor of Hebrew in 1787, and in the same year was made canon of Christ Church and received the degree of D.D. In 1790 he published an edition of the Hebrew-Samaritan Pentateuch, transcribed in ordinary Hebrew characters, with critical notes. His last production was a new translation of the prophecy of Zechariah, 1797. Dr. Blayney's writings, though deficient in literary ability, display what for their time and country may be considered a high degree of Hebrew scholarship. Like his friend Archbishop Newcome, and many other eminent biblical scholars of the period in England, he did not escape the imputation of heterodoxy, and was the object of several very acrimonious attacks, from which he defended himself with exemplary fairness and courtesy. He died at his rectory of Poulshot, Wiltshire, on 20 Sept. 1801, aged 73. By his will he directed that his unpublished writings, after being submitted to the judgment of his friend and patron. Dr. Barrington, bishop of Durham, should be deposited in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth. Amongst these manuscripts may be mentioned:
- 'A New Version of the Psalms,' 2 vols. 4to.
- 'Critical Comment on the Psalms,' 3 vols.
- 'Notes on Isaiah,' 3 vols.
[Gent. Mag. lxxi. 1054, lxxiii. 1108; Blayney's Preface to Dissertation on Dan. vii. 24.]
BLEDRI, surnamed Ddoeth or the Wise (d. 1022?), was an early bishop of Llandaff. His history is almost entirely derived from suspicious or late sources. But, if they can be believed, his election as bishop by the kings, clergy, and people of Morganwg, his investiture with the pastoral staff by Æthelred the Unready in the royal court, and his consecration by Archbishop Ælfric of Canterbury, illustrate very remarkably the dependence of Wales on England, which the imperial policy of Eadgar and Dunstan had produced, and the way in which the metro-political jurisdiction of Canterbury followed the temporal supremacy of the English king. As Ælfric was archbishop between 995 and 1005, Bledri's appointment must have taken place within those years, and not in 983 as the original authority puts it. During Bledri's episcopate three important grants of land were made to the see of Llandaff, one of which came from Edwin, king of Gwent, as compensation for an outrage inflicted upon the bishop. A dispute had arisen between Edwin and Bledri, which resulted in a tumult, in which the bishop was wounded by some of Edwin's household. A synod of the clergy met at Llandaff, excommunicated the offenders, and placed Gwent under an interdict. The terrors of the church's censures led to Edwin's submission.
Bledri was called the Wise, and is said to have been the first scholar of his time in Wales. At a time when the famous school of St. David's was falling into decay. Bledri revived and disseminated learning in his diocese, by insisting that every priest should establish a sort of school in his church, 'that every one might know his duty to God and man.' Bledri died in 1022 or 1023.
