- 1835.
- ‘Letters to the Right Hon. Lord John Russell. By E. Baines the younger. With an appendix containing correspondence with W. Ewart, 1846.’
- ‘Debate in the House of Commons on 3 May 1864 upon Mr. Ewart's Motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the expediency of maintaining the Punishment of Death,’ 1864.
[Register and Magazine of Biography, i. 115, 209–10, 522 (1869); Illustrated London News, 25 July 1846, p. 53 with portrait, 6 Feb. 1869, p. 147, and 6 March, p. 237 with portrait; Law Times, 30 Jan. 1869, p. 258; Law Magazine and Law Review, xxvii. 177 (1869); Times, 28 Jan. 1869, p. 5.]
EWBANK, JOHN W. (1799?–1847), painter, born at Gateshead, Durham, in or about 1799, was adopted when a child by a wealthy uncle who lived at Wycliffe, on the banks of the Tees, Yorkshire. Being designed for the Roman catholic priesthood, he was sent to Ushaw College, from which he absconded, and in 1813 bound himself apprentice to T. Coulson, an ornamental painter in Newcastle. So strong had become his love for art that on removing with his master to Edinburgh, he was allowed to study under Alexander Nasmyth. His talents soon procured him practice both as a painter and a teacher. The freedom and truth of his sketches from nature were especially admired; and a series of drawings of Edinburgh by him, fifty-one in number, were engraved by W. H. Lizars for Dr. James Browne's ‘Picturesque Views of Edinburgh,’ fol. 1825. His reputation, however, will be found to rest mainly upon his cabinet pictures of banks of rivers, coast scenes, and marine subjects. About 1829 he essayed works of a more ambitious character, and was nominated in 1830 one of the foundation members of the Royal Scottish Academy. He painted ‘The Visit of George IV to Edinburgh,’ ‘The Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon,’ and ‘Hannibal crossing the Alps,’ all works of much ability, yet by no means equal to his landscapes. A ‘View of Edinburgh from Inchkeith,’ which belongs to this period, exhibits higher qualities of excellence. Ewbank was now at the height of his reputation; in one year his labours, it is said, brought him the handsome sum of 2,500l. But he suddenly gave way to habitual intoxication, his wife and children were reduced to want, and he himself became the tenant of a miserable cellar. During the last twelve years of his life his pictures were frequently painted in the taproom of an alehouse, or in his own wretched abode, ‘where,’ writes one who knew him well, ‘a solitary chair and a pile or two of bricks formed the only articles in the shape of furniture to be seen—the window-sill serving for his easel. They were generally painted on tin, within an hour or two, and sold on the instant, wet and unvarnished, for sixpence or a shilling, which was immediately spent in ministering to his sensual gratifications.’ He died of typhus fever in the infirmary at Edinburgh, 28 Nov. 1847. Few of his pictures have been exhibited in London.
[The Art Union (1848), x. 51; Gent. Mag. new ser. xxix. 668; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists (1878), p. 146.]
EWBANK, THOMAS (1792–1870), writer on practical mechanics, was born at Barnard Castle, Durham, on 11 March 1792. When thirteen years of age he began work as a plumber and brassfounder. In 1812 he went to London, where he was employed in making cases for preserved meats. His spare hours were given to reading. In 1819 he emigrated to America, and next year began business in New York as a manufacturer of lead, tin, and copper tubing. In 1836 he was able to retire from business and devote himself to studies and writings on mechanics. In 1845–6 he travelled in Brazil, and on his return published an account of his travels as ‘Life in Brazil’ (New York, 1856). He was appointed commissioner of patents by President Taylor in 1849. He was attacked for the manner in which he fulfilled the duties of his office, which he held till 1852 (see Charges against Thomas Ewbank, Commissioner of Patents, for Official Misconduct, submitted to President Fillmore, January 1851, by five individuals or companies; also William C. Fuller's Charges against Thomas Ewbank, New York, 1851).
Ewbank was one of the founders and president of the American Ethnological Society. He died at New York on 16 Sept. 1870. Ewbank wrote:
- ‘A Descriptive and Historical Account of Hydraulic and other Machines for Raising Water, Ancient and Modern, including the progressive development of the Steam Engine,’ New York, 1845, 16th ed. 1876.
- ‘The World a Workshop, or the Physical Relation of Man to the Earth,’ New York, 1855.
- ‘Thoughts on Matter and Force,’ New York, 1858.
- ‘Reminiscences of the Patent Office, and of Scenes and Things in Washington,’ New York, 1859.
- ‘Inorganic Forces ordained to supersede Human Slavery,’ New York, 1860.
Ewbank also wrote a number of scattered papers on scientific subjects. Many of them appeared in the ‘Transactions of the Franklin Institute.’ His ‘Experiments on Marine Propulsion, or the Virtue of Form in
