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Lucas
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Lucas

on the title-pages of his books, but the university register does not recognise him as a graduate. In 1791 he became curate of Avebury, Wiltshire, where he devoted himself to writing novels and religious poems. He left Avebury in 1816 and settled at Devizes, where he died in 1854.

His chief works are:

  1. 'A Descriptive Account in Blank Verse of the old Serpentine Temple of the Druids at Avebury,' 1795; 2nd edit, with notes, Marlborough, 1801, 4to.
  2. 'Free Thoughts on a General Reform,' Bath, 1796.
  3. 'The Castle of St. Donat's, or the History of Jack Smith,' 1798, 3 vols. 12mo.
  4. 'The Infernal Quixote, a Tale of the Day,' 4 vols. London, 1801, 12mo, dedicated to Pitt.
  5. 'The Abissinian Reformer, or the Bible and the Sabre,' a novel, London, 1808, 12mo.
  6. 'Joseph,' a religious poem, 2 vols. London, 1810, 8vo.

[Works in Brit. Mus.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886.]

A. F. P.

LUCAS, CHARLES (1808–1869), musical composer, born at Salisbury 28 July 1808, was for eight years a chorister in the cathedral, and afterwards studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1830 he joined Queen Adelaide's private band, and about the same time became music preceptor to Prince George (now Duke) of Cambridge and the Princes of Saxe-Weimar. In 1832 he was appointed conductor at the Royal Academy of Music, and in 1839 organist of Hanover Chapel, Regent Street. He was for some time conductor of the Choral Harmonists' Society, and from 1840 to 1843 occasionally conducted at the Antient Concerts. From 1859 to 1866 he was principal of the Royal Academy of Music, and from 1856 to 1865 a member of the music-publishing house of Addison, Hollier, & Lucas. He was in much request as a violoncello player, and in that capacity succeeded Robert Lindley [q. v.] at the opera and the leading festivals and concerts. He composed an opera, 'The Regicide,' three symphonies, string quartets, anthems, songs, &c., and edited 'Esther' (1851) for the Handel Society. He died 23 March 1869, and was buried at Woking, Surrey.

[Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 170, where the date of his death is erroneously given as 30 March; Musical Times, April and May 1869; Mag. of Music, October 1890, where his portrait is engraved.]

J. C. H.

LUCAS, FREDERICK (1812–1855), Roman catholic journalist and politician, born in Westminster on 30 March 1812, was son of Samuel Hayhurst Lucas, a corn-merchant in the city of London, and an earnest member of the Society of Friends. Samuel Lucas (1811-1865) [q. v.] was his elder brother. After spending eight years in a quaker school at Darlington, he became, in his seventeenth year, a student at University College, London, then recently established and called the London University. He took a leading part in almost every discussion in the college debating club, or Literary and Philosophical Society. At this period the Roman catholic claims were naturally the principal topic of discussion, and he eagerly espoused the cause of emancipation, and devoted much attention to Irish politics. When he left the university, which had not then the power to confer degrees, he entered on the study of the law, first in the chambers of Mr. Revell Phillips, and afterwards in those of Mr. Duval. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1835. Three years later he delivered two 'Lectures on Education' in the Literary and Scientific Institution at Staines. In these lectures, which excited some attention at the time, and were afterwards published, he bestowed his warmest sympathies on the feudal and catholic spirit of mediæval Christendom. Early in 1839, in the course of some conversations with Thomas Chisholm Anstey, he was led to seriously examine the doctrines of Catholicism, and in less than a week he convinced himself of their truth, and was reconciled to the Roman church by Father Lythgoe, S.J. He forthwith published a pamphlet entitled 'Reasons for becoming a Roman Catholic; addressed to the Society of Friends,' London, 1839, 8vo. This offended many of his former acquaintances, but his wife and two of his brothers subsequently followed him into the Roman communion, and he maintained an intimacy with many persons of opposite and irreconcilable views and principles. The most conspicuous of these, outside the catholic body, were John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle. In 1840 he married Elizabeth, daughter of William Ashby of Staines, Middlesex.

About this time he contributed several articles to the 'Dublin Review,' and acquired a literary reputation which made his co-religionists desirous that he should be permanently engaged in the support of their cause. With the aid of some wealthy catholics he was enabled to start the 'Tablet,' a weekly London newspaper, the first number of which appeared on 16 May 1840. In conducting this journal he advocated the most advanced ultramontane opinions with such zeal and occasional asperity of language that he soon 'found himself in opposition to powerful' sections of his own religious community. Towards the end of 1849 he removed the publishing offices of the 'Tablet' to Dublin,