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Loudon
148
Loudon

killed in battle with Indians near Deerfield, Mass., 29 Sept. 1675), Samuel, Joseph, and Benjamin. All founded families in New England. Two daughters, Jane and Barbarah, were married at the time of his death. By his second wife, who survived him, he had two sons, Barnabas and John, who also founded families. His will left real property in Barnstaple, and personalty valued at 72l. 16s. 5d. He had a reputation for learning, and is described as ‘studious of peace, a lively preacher.’

He published nothing; but his manuscript, ‘An Original Register,’ giving an account of his work at Scituate and Barnstaple, was employed by Thomas Prince in ‘A Chronological History of New England,’ Boston, 1736, 12mo, vol. i. Two of Lothropp's letters, dated Scituate, 18 Feb. and 28 Sept. 1638, are printed in the ‘Biographical Memoir.’ Lothropp spelled his name thus. ‘Lathrop’ (found in Wood) was adopted by the descendants of his son Samuel until the present century; they (or some of them) now write ‘Lothrop,’ a form used by his eldest son and other descendants, and found in Cotton Mather. Morton has ‘Laythrop,’ which represents the New England pronunciation of ‘Lathrop.’ Neal, Crosby, Wilson, and Brook erroneously adopt ‘Lathorp’ from Calamy.

[Biographical Memoir of the Rev. John Lothropp, by his great-grandson, John Lathrop, D.D., in collections of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1814, 2nd ser. i. 163 sq.; Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1634; Morton's New-Englands Memoriall, 1669 (see also notes in Boston reprint, 1855); Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 435; Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, 1702, iii. 3; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 46; Crosby's Hist. of Engl. Baptists, 1738, i. 148; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 40 sq.; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 163 sq.; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans (Toulmin), 1822, ii. 340 sq.; Waddington's Surrey Congregational Hist. 1866, pp. 18 sq.; Dexter's Congregationalism [1880], p. 419.]

A. G.

LOUDON. [See Loudoun.]

LOUDON, CHARLES, M.D. (1801–1844), medical writer, a native of Scotland, was born in 1801. By 1826 he had become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and in 1827 graduated M.D. at Glasgow. He then established himself as a physician at Leamington, and in 1830 was appointed one of the royal commissioners for inquiring into the employment of children in factories. He retired about 1841 to Paris, where he died on 2 Feb. 1844. About 1828 he married Miss Ryves of Castle Ryves, co. Limerick, but had no children.

Loudon was author of:

  1. ‘A short Inquiry into the principal Causes of the unsuccessful Termination of Extraction by the Cornea,’ 4to, London, 1826.
  2. ‘A practical Dissertation on the Waters of Leamington Spa,’ 8vo, Leamington Spa, 1828; 3rd edit. 1831.
  3. ‘The Equilibrium of Population and Sustenance demonstrated, showing, on physiological and statistical grounds, the means of obviating the fears of the late Mr. Malthus,’ 8vo, Leamington Spa, 1836.
  4. ‘Solution du Problème de la Population et de la Subsistance,’ 8vo, Paris, 1842, a different work from the former.

[Loudon's Works; Gent. Mag. 1844, pt. i. p. 657.]

G. G.

LOUDON, JANE (1807–1858), horticultural and miscellaneous writer, was born at Ritwell House, near Birmingham, in 1807. Her father, Thomas Webb, died in 1824, and finding it necessary to earn her own livelihood, Miss Webb wrote ‘The Mummy, a Tale of the Twenty-second Century,’ a romance of the future, containing, among other things, a quasi-prophetic account of the steam plough, which may have furnished some of the ideas of Lytton's ‘Coming Race.’ This was published in 1827, and a copy of it falling into the hands of John Claudius Loudon [q. v.], he not only published a commendatory notice of it in one of the journals which he then edited, but sought the acquaintance of the writer, whom he supposed to be a man. They met in February 1830, and were married on 14 Sept. in the same year. Mrs. Loudon frequently accompanied her husband when on journeys connected with his profession as a landscape gardener, and she acted as his sole amanuensis. When Loudon was encumbered with debt, due to the production of his ‘Arboretum,’ Mrs. Loudon began to write botanical books of a popular character. In 1841 Mrs. Loudon published her most successful work, ‘The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden,’ of which more than twenty thousand copies were sold, the ninth edition appearing in 1879. In 1842 she began ‘The Ladies' Magazine of Gardening,’ which was, however, soon discontinued; nor was ‘The Ladies' Companion,’ 1850–1, more successful. After her husband's death in 1843 Mrs. Loudon received a pension of 100l. from the Civil List, and published numerous works, mostly horticultural, besides new editions of those of her husband. She died at Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, 13 July 1858.

Her chief works are:

  1. ‘Prose and Verse,’ 1824, 12mo.
  2. ‘The Mummy, a Tale of the Twenty-second Century,’ 1827, 12mo, of which an octavo edition appeared in 1872.