the battle of Prestonpans (21 Sept. 1745), Home, with Loudon, assisted Cope in his vain attempt to rally the dragoons. He was afterwards appointed to the command of the Glasgow volunteer regiment of six hundred foot, which in December was sent to the defence of Stirling. In 1749 he was promoted major of the third regiment of foot-guards, in 1750 colonel of the 48th foot, and in 1752 colonel of the 29th foot. On 16 April 1757 he was made governor of Gibraltar. His term of office was uneventful. He died at Gibraltar 28 April 1761, being then a lieutenant-general of the army. At the election of 1741, and on several subsequent occasions, he was chosen a representative peer of Scotland. He was married, 25 Dec. 1742, to Mrs. Laws of Albemarle Street, London, but had no issue, and was succeeded by his brother Alexander, ninth earl.
[Home's and Chambers's Histories of the Rebellion; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 739; Scots Mag. 1761, xxiii. 279.]
HOMER, HENRY, the elder (1719–1791), miscellaneous writer, son of Edward Homer, gentleman, of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, was born in 1719, and educated at Oxford, where he matriculated on 26 June 1736 as a member of University College. He became a demy of Magdalen College in 1737, and graduated B.A. in 1740, M.A. in 1743. He was appointed rector of Birdingbury, Warwickshire, and vicar of Willoughby in 1764; and chaplain to Edward, lord Leigh, lord high steward of the university of Oxford. From 1774 to 1779 he also held the vicarage of Anstey, Warwickshire. He died on 24 July 1791, and was buried at Birdingbury. Of his seventeen children Arthur (see below), Henry, and Philip Bracebridge are separately noticed.
His works are: 1. ‘An Essay on the Nature and Method of ascertaining the specific Shares of Proprietors upon the Inclosure of Common Fields; with Observations on the Inconveniences of Open Fields, and upon the objections to this Inclosure, particularly as far as they relate to the Public and the Poor,’ Oxford, 1766, 8vo. 2. ‘An Enquiry into the means of Preserving and Improving the Publick Roads of this Kingdom. With Observations on the probable consequences of the present plan,’ Oxford, 1767, 8vo. Macadam, in his ‘Remarks on the present System of Roadmaking,’ pp. 11 and 12, quotes this work with approval. Homer's opinions on highways, the enclosure of waste lands, and the value of inland navigation were far in advance of his time.
Arthur Homer (1758–1806), the fourth son of Henry Homer the elder, was educated at Rugby and Magdalen College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. 1778, proceeded M.A. 1781, B.D. 1790, and D.D. 1797; from 1782 to 1802 he was a probationary fellow of Magdalen. In 1802 the college presented him to the rectory of Standlake, Oxfordshire, where he died 2 July 1806. There is a monument to his memory, with an inscription supposed to have been written by Dr. Parr, on the south wall of the chancel of Standlake Church. He published one volume of his ‘Bibliographia Americana, or a Chronological Catalogue of the most Curious and Interesting Books, Pamphlets, State Papers, &c., upon the subjects of North and South America,’ London, 1789, 4to.
[Colvile's Warwickshire Worthies, p. 430; Foster's Alumni Oxon. ii. 683; Bloxam's Reg. of Magdalen College, vols. i. vi. and vii.; Gent. Mag. 1791 pt. ii. p. 685, 1806 pt. ii. p. 1209; MacCulloch's Lit. of Political Economy, p. 199; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 660; Cat. of Oxf. Graduates, 1851, p. 332.]
HOMER, HENRY, the younger (1753–1791), classical scholar, the eldest of the seventeen children of Henry Homer the elder [q. v.], was born at Warwick in 1753 (Colvile, Warwickshire Worthies, p. 433). In 1758 he entered Rugby School, of which, at the age of fourteen, he was the head boy. Afterwards he studied for three years at Birmingham. In November 1768 he was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, under Dr. Farmer, where he became acquainted with Dr. Samuel Parr, who helped to direct his studies. Among his other intimate college friends were William Bennet [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Cloyne, and George Dyer [q. v.] He graduated B.A. in 1773, M.A. in 1776, and B.D. in 1783. He was elected a fellow of his college in 1778, and returned to the university from Warwickshire, where he had been living for about three years, soon after his election. About this time he was admitted into deacon's orders. He now resided chiefly at Cambridge, and spent much time in the university library, turning his attention to philological studies. In 1787 he joined with Dr. Parr in the republication of Bellenden's ‘Tracts,’ and prepared editions of several classical authors, all remarkable for the accuracy of the text and beauty of the typography. At the suggestion of Dr. Parr, he undertook a splendid variorum edition of Horace, but died before its completion. It was finally published by Dr. Charles Combe, and this occasioned an angry literary altercation between Combe and Parr. In consequence of religious scruples Homer declined to take priest's orders in compliance
