Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/122

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suits, alchemy, and the mysteries of the cabbala. In 1732 he endeavoured, but it is thought unsuccessfully, to obtain through the influence of John Conduitt [q. v.], Newton's nephew, some reward for having saved the life of the Prince of Orange. He assisted Conduitt in planning the design, and writing the inscription for Newton's monument in Westminster Abbey. He died on 28 April or 12 May 1753 (Gent. Mag. xxiii. 248), and was buried at the church of St. Nicholas, Worcester (Green, Worcester, ii. 93–4; cf. Nash, Worcestershire, vol. ii. supplement, p. 101). He left a number of manuscripts, of which some passed into the hands of Dr. Johnstone of Kidderminster; others were acquired by Professor Le Sage of Geneva, who also possessed a large collection of his letters. A few of his papers and letters are in the British Museum. Among them is a Latin poem entitled ‘N. Facii Duellerii Auriacus Throno-servatus’ (Addit. MS. 4163), containing a curious narrative of Fenil's plot and a not inelegant description of the jewelled watches. A series of letters to Sir Hans Sloane (ib. 4044) extend from 1714 to 1736. Other letters of his are in fasciculus 2 of ‘C. Hugenii aliorumque seculi xvii. virorum celebrium Exercitationes Mathematicæ et Philosophicæ,’ 4to, the Hague, 1833. To vol. v. of Le Clerc's ‘Bibliothèque Universelle,’ 1687, Faccio contributed ‘Réflexions sur une méthode de trouver les tangentes de certaines lignes courbes, qui vient d'être publiée dans un livre intitulé: Medicina Mentis.’ The ‘Acta Lipsiensia’ for 1700 contains ‘Excerpta ex suâ responsione ad excerpta ex litteris J. Bernouilly.’ Besides a paper in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ xxviii. 172–6, entitled ‘Epistola ad fratrem Joh. Christoph. Facium, qua vindicat Solutionem saum Problematis de inveniendo solido rotundo seu tereti in quo minima fiat resistentia,’ Faccio contributed articles on astronomy and Hebrew metres in nearly every number of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1737 and 1738. In addition to the works already mentioned he was author of: 1. ‘Epistola … de mari æneo Salomonis ad E. Bernardum’ in the latter's ‘De Mensuris et Ponderibus antiquis Libri tres,’ 8vo, Oxford, 1688. 2. ‘Fruit-walls improved by inclining them to the horizon,’ by a member of the Royal Society (signed N. F. D., i.e. N. Faccio de Duillier), 4to, London, 1699. 3. ‘N. Facii Duillerii Neutonus. Ecloga,’ 8vo (Ghent?), 1728. 4. ‘Navigation improv'd: being chiefly the method for finding the latitude at sea as well as by land,’ fol., London (1728). With Jean Allut, Elie Marion, and other zealots, he issued an unfulfilled prophecy with the title ‘Plan de la Justice de Dieu sur la terre dans ces derniers jours et du relévement de la chûte de l'homme par son péché,’ 2 parts, 8vo, 1714, of which a Latin version appeared during the same year.

A younger brother, Jean Christophe Faccio, possessed much of Nicolas's learning, but none of his genius. He was elected F.R.S. on 3 April 1706 (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. appendix iv. p. xxxi), and published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (xxv. 2241–6) a description of an eclipse of the sun which he had observed at Geneva on 12 May of that year. He died at Geneva in October 1720 (will registered in P. C. C. 5, Buckingham). By his wife Catherine, daughter of Jean Gassand of Forealquiere in Provence, to whom he was married in 1709, he left no issue. Her will was proved at London in March 1752 (registered in P. C. C. 64, Bettesworth).

[Senebier's Histoire Littéraire de Genève, iii. 155–66; Nouvelle Biographie Générale, xvii. 138–41; Biographie Universelle (Michaud), xiii. 405–6; Calamy's Historical Account of my own Life, i. 189–90, ii. 74–5; Biographia Britannica (Kippis), iii. 143–4, art. ‘Calamy;’ Burnet's Travels (1737), p. 12; Burnet's Own Time (Oxford ed.), iii. 124; Brewster's Memoirs of Sir I. Newton (1855), ii. 36–40; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, iv. 78–9; Kemble's State Papers and Correspondence, pp. 426–9; Hearne's Collections (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), ii. 244, 447; Tatler (Nichols and Chalmers, 1806), iv. 646; Annals of Queen Anne's Reign, vi. 371; Huygenii Exercitationes, fasc. i. 41, ii. 56, 175; Salmon's Chronological Historian, 3rd ed. i. 351; Green's Hist. of Worcester, ii. 93–4, appendix, pp. cxlix–cliv; Wood's Curiosities of Clocks and Watches, pp. 306–10; Nelthropp's Treatise on Watch-work, pp. 92–3, 237–8; Glasgow's Watch and Clock Making, pp. 20, 110, 111, 114, 129; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 171–2, 215, 380–1; Dedication of Francis Willis's Synopsis Physicæ, 8vo, London, 1690.]

G. G.

FACHTHNA, Saint and Bishop (fl. 6th cent.), of Ros Ailithir, now Rosscarbery, in the south-west of the county of Cork, was descended in the twelfth generation from Lugaid Lagda, brother of Olioll Olum, king of Munster, of the race of Lugaid, son of Ith (from whom the territory derived its name Corca Luidhe). His pedigree in the ‘Lebor Brecc’ describes him as son of Mongach, son of Maenach, as does the ‘Book of Leinster.’ In the ‘Calendar’ of Œngus he is said to have been called mac mongach, ‘the hairy child,’ from his appearance at birth; a legend perhaps suggested by the apparent connection between Mongach, the proper name, and ‘mong,’ hair.

He first held the office of bishop and abbot of Dairinis Maelanfaidh, ‘the oak island of