[Wood's Annals (Gutch), ii. 144; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 64; Douay Diaries, pp. 4, 229, 273.]
DARRELL, WILLIAM (1651–1721), jesuit, was probably the only son of Thomas Darrell, esq., of Scotney Castle, Sussex, by his second wife, Thomassine Marcham (Foley, Records, iii. 477, and pedigree). He was born in Buckinghamshire in 1651, entered the Society of Jesus on 7 Sept. 1671, and was professed of the four vows, 25 March 1689 (ib. vii. pt. i. p. 196). In 1696 he was procurator of the province in Paris. He was prefect of studies in the college at St. Omer in 1696, and subsequently filled the same office at Liège (1699–1700). He was also professor of casuistry at Liège, and rector of the college from 17 Nov. 1708 to 29 Jan. 1711–12. In 1712 he again became procurator of the province in Paris. He died in the college of St. Omer on 28 Feb. 1720–1.
His works are: 1. ‘A Letter on King James the Second's most gracious Letters of Indulgence,’ 1687, 4to. 2. ‘The Lay-man's Opinion, sent in a Private Letter to a considerable Divine of the Church of England. By W. D.,’ 1687, 8vo (Jones, Popery Tracts, i. 77). 3. ‘A Letter to a Lady, wherein he desires a conference with the gentleman who writ her a letter, furnishing her with Scripture testimonies against the principal points and doctrines of Popery’ [London, 1688], sm. sh. fol. (ib. ii. 318). 4. ‘The Vanity of Human Respects,’ a sermon, 1688, 4to (ib. ii. 454). 5. ‘A Vindication of St. Ignatius (founder of the Society of Jesus) from Phanaticism, and of the Jesuites from the Calumnies laid to their charge in a late book [by Henry Wharton] entitul'd the Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome,’ London, 1688, 4to. 6. ‘Discourses of Cleander and Eudoxus upon the Provincial Letters,’ translated from the French of Père Daniel, London, 1701 and 1704, 8vo. 7. ‘Theses Theologicæ,’ Liège, 1702, 4to. 8. ‘The Gentleman Instructed in the conduct of a Virtuous and Happy Life. Written for the Instruction of a young Nobleman: to which is added A Word to the Ladies, by way of supplement,’ 10th edition, London, 1732, 8vo. This work, which first appeared probably in 1708, has been translated into Hungarian and Italian. 9. ‘Moral Reflexions on the Epistles and Gospels,’ 4 vols. London, 1711, 12mo, frequently reprinted. 10. ‘The Case reviewed; or an Answer to the Case stated by Mr. L——y. In which it is clearly shewed that he has stated the Case wrong between the Church of Rome and the Church of England,’ 2nd edition, London, 1717, 12mo. This was in reply to Dr. Charles Leslie's ‘Case stated between the Church of Rome and the Church of England,’ 1711, reprinted 1848. Darrell's answer passed through at least three editions. 11. ‘Treatise of the Real Presence, in answer to the author of the Case stated,’ 2 parts, London, 1721, 12mo. It appears to have been reprinted in 1724, and embodies a refutation of Archbishop Ussher's ‘Answer to a Challenge of a Jesuit [W. Malone] in Ireland,’ Dublin, 1624, 4to.
[Authorities cited above; also Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 494; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 17; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), i. 1526.]
DART, JOHN (d. 1730), antiquary, was bred an attorney, but meeting with little success in that profession, he turned to the church as a means of subsistence. Although his life could not be regarded as exemplary, he contrived to obtain a title for orders, and in 1728 was presented by the master of St. Cross Hospital, Winchester, to the perpetual curacy of Yateley, Hampshire. He served the church there from the neighbouring village of Sandhurst, Berkshire, where he died in December 1730, and was buried on the 20th at Yateley. By his handwriting in the parish register he appears to have been a more than ordinary scribe for those days. He obliged the world with a modernised version of Chaucer's supposititious poem, ‘The Complaint of the Black Knight,’ 8vo, London, 1718; a ridiculous ‘Life’ of Chaucer prefixed to Urry's edition, fol. London, 1721; and a truly wretched paraphrase of Tibullus, 8vo, London, 1720. Still worse is ‘Westminster Abbey, a poem,’ 8vo, London, 1721, afterwards included in his ‘Westmonasterium.’ He is now only remembered by his ‘History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury,’ fol. London, 1726, and ‘Westmonasterium; or the History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster,’ 2 vols. fol. London, 1742, which sold for less than the engravings were worth. Of the former work Gough (British Topography, i. 452) says that if Dart ‘had done as much justice to his subscribers as his engravers did, his book would have been a much more valuable one than it is,’ a remark which applies equally to both performances. A mezzotint engraving of Dart by J. Faber is prefixed to the ‘Westmonasterium.’
[Information from the vicar of Yateley; Noble's Continuation of Granger, iii. 353; Gough's British Topography, i. 763; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 198 n.; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iii. 28, 96, 197, xii. 15.]
