Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/34

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Irby
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Irby

Iorwerth remained in prison until 1111 (Annales Cambriæ, p. 34; Brut y Tywysogion, p. 97, dates his release in 1107). He was then released by the king on giving hostages and paying a ransom, and his territory (apparently some part of Powys) was restored to him. But his outlawed nephews, Owain, son of Cadwgan, and Madog, son of Rhirid, took up their abode on his lands and hid their prey there. Iorwerth in vain besought them to leave him in peace. As he had been strongly enjoined to have no intercourse with them but to hunt them out and deliver them to the king, he was forced to collect his followers and pursue them. They retreated to Meirionydd, but soon went to Ceredigion, whose ruler, Cadwgan, was now again on good terms with Iorwerth. There they committed fresh outrages. Iorwerth accompanied Cadwgan on his visit to the king's court to deprecate Henry's wrath. Henry deprived Cadwgan of Ceredigion for his weakness, but left Iorwerth in possession of Powys. Madog soon went back to Iorwerth's territory. Iorwerth was still afraid to receive him, so Madog hid himself and joined Llywerch, son of Trahaiarn, in a plot against his uncle. They at last (1112) made a night attack on Iorwerth's house in Caereineon, and sent up a shout which awoke Iorwerth, who bravely defended the house. Madog set fire to it, and Iorwerth's companions escaped, leaving him in the fire. Iorwerth, severely burnt, tried to get out, but his enemies received him on the points of their spears and slew him.

[Brut y Tywysogion, the Welsh text in J. G. Evans's Red Book of Hergest, vol. ii., the English translation in the Rolls ed.; Annales Cambriæ (Rolls ed.); Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. ed. Le Prévost; Freeman's William Rufus, ii. 424–53.]

T. F. T.


IRBY, CHARLES LEONARD (1789–1845), captain in the navy and traveller, born 9 Oct. 1789, was sixth son of Frederick Irby, second lord Boston, and brother of Rear-admiral Frederick Paul Irby [q. v.] He entered the navy in 1801, and after serving in the North Sea and Mediterranean, at the Cape of Good Hope, the reduction of Monte Video, and in the Bay of Biscay, was promoted to be lieutenant on 13 Oct. 1808. He afterwards served at the reduction of Mauritius, and on the coast of North America; and on 7 June 1814 was promoted to the command of the Thames, in which he took part in the unfortunate expedition against New Orleans. Ill-health compelled him to resign the command in May 1815; and in the summer of 1816 he left England in company with an old friend and messmate, Captain James Mangles [q. v.], with the intention of making a tour on the continent. The journey was extended far beyond their original design. They visited Egypt, and, going up the Nile, in the company of Giovanni Baptista Belzoni [q. v.] and Henry William Beechey [q. v.], explored the temple at Abu-Simbel (Ipsamboul); afterwards, they went across the desert and along the coast, with divergence to Balbec and the Cedars, and reached Aleppo, where they met William John Bankes [q. v.] and Thomas Legh, who with themselves were the earliest of modern explorers of Syria. Thence they travelled to Palmyra, Damascus, down the valley of the Jordan, and so to Jerusalem. They afterwards passed round the Dead Sea, and through the Holy Land. At Acre they embarked in a Venetian brig for Constantinople; but being both dangerously ill of dysentery, they were landed at Cyprus for medical assistance. In the middle of December 1818 they shipped on board a vessel bound for Marseilles, which they reached after a boisterous passage of seventy-six days. Their letters during their journeyings were afterwards collected, and privately printed in 1823 under the title of 'Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor, during the years 1817-16.' In 1844 they were published as a volume of Murray's 'Colonial and Home Library.'

In August 1826 Irby was appointed to command the Pelican sloop, fitting out for the Mediterranean, where she was actively employed in the suppression of piracy in the Levant and on the coast of Greece. On 2 July 1827 he was posted to the Ariadne, but was not relieved from the command of the Pelican till the end of September; and after the battle of Navarino he was appointed by Sir Edward Codrington to bring home the Genoa [see Bathurst, Walter], which he paid off at Plymouth in January 1828. He had no further service, and died on 3 Dec. 1845. He married, in February 1825, Frances, a sister of his friend Captain Mangles, and left issue.

[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog, x, (vol. iii, pt. ii.); O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dict.; Gent. Mag. 1845. xxv. new ser, 636, Travels in Egypt, etc. (as in text); Foster's Peerage.]

J. K. L.


IRBY, FREDERICK PAUL (1779–1844), rear-admiral, born on 18 April 1779, was second son of Frederick, second lord Boston, and brother of Captain Charles Leonard Irby [q. v.] He entered the navy in 1791, served on the home and North American stations, and, as midshipman of the Montagu, was present in the battle of 1 June 1794. On 6 Jan. 1797 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Circe frigate, in which