MACBETH, NORMAN (1821–1888), portrait-painter, was born in 1821 at Greenock, where his father, James Macbeth, was an official of the excise. He served a seven years' apprenticeship as an engraver in Glasgow, and then proceeded to London, where he studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, and copied in the National Gallery, passing afterwards to Paris, where he worked in the Louvre and under a master. In 1845 he established himself as a portrait-painter in Greenock, removing to Glasgow in 1848, and in 1856 we find him again practising in Greenock. Since 1845 he had been a regular contributor to the exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1861 he came to Edinburgh, where he gained much employment as a portrait-painter, and was elected A.R.S.A. in 1870, and R.S.A. in 1880. His works, which include the portrait of Sir John Steell, R.S.A., in the possession of the Royal Scottish Academy, and that of the Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, though too often poor in colour and mechanical in handling, have usually the merit of being unmistakable likenesses. About two years before his death he removed to London, where he represented the Royal Scottish Academy as trustee of the British Institution Scholarship Fund, and he died there on 27 Feb. 1888. His sons, R. W. Macbeth, R.A., James Macbeth, and H. Macbeth Raeburn, are also known as painters.
[Catalogues of Royal Scottish Acad.; Ann. Rep. of Royal Scottish Acad. for 1888, &c.]
MACBRADY, FIACHRA (fl. 1712), Irish poet, whose name is written in Irish MacBraduigh, was born in co. Cavan, and became a schoolmaster at Stradone in that county. He wrote ‘Nach truagh libhse chairde gach buaireadh da dtarlaidh’ (‘Grieve not friends for the troubles that befell’), a witty description of a journey, and ‘Chonnairc me aisling air mo leaba mar do chifinn bean’ (‘I saw a vision on my bed as if I beheld a woman’). Both these have been printed in the ‘Anthologia Hibernica.’ He also wrote ‘Gnidhim diomus, brisim saoire dia domhnaigh’ (‘I indulge in pride, I break holidays and Sunday’), and other poems.
[Anthologia Hibernica, October and December, Dublin, 1793; E. O'Reilly in Transactions of Iberno-Celtic Society, Dublin, 1820.]
MACBRADY, PHILIP (fl. 1710), Irish scholar, commonly called in Irish Pilip Ministeir, Philip the Minister, was born in co. Cavan. He was brought up in the protestant religion, and became vicar of the parish of Inishmagrath, in the diocese of Kilmore. He translated into Irish a sermon preached by Archbishop Tillotson before the king and queen at Hampton Court in April 1689, on St. Luke, x. 42, and this was printed in Irish type, but with a title-page in Roman letters, by Elinor Everingham, with five other sermons, London, 1711, entitled ‘Seanmora ar na priom Phoncibh na na Chreideamh.’ He was a friend of Carolan [q. v.], and wrote an Irish poem addressed to him. He was famous for his wit, and many of his epigrams were current among the country people in Cavan as long as Irish was spoken there. He wrote ‘Fuair me dram don mbrandi laidir’ (‘I got a strong dram of brandy’); the epitaph on Parson Pryx, ‘Ar an cuigeamh la fichet don mi abhra, se chaill teampul Chriost a bhall feabhra;’ his De Profundis over a dead man, ‘A Rois MicCaba an ait sean budhleat’ (‘O Rose MacCabe, the old place will be thine’); and a beautiful verse on seeing his daughter weep at the report of the death of a youth. He suspected it was her lover, and asked why she wept. ‘Some snuff I was taking,’ was her reply, but her father saw the true cause, recited this Irish verse, sent for the youth, and consented to the marriage. He was so popular with the native Irish for his wit and his literary accomplishments in their language, that his protestantism was sometimes suspected.
[Seanmora, London, 1711, often called from the author of the preface Richardson's Sermons; Irish verses, &c., in manuscript, 1824–7, copied from various older manuscripts, or from oral repetition by Peter Galegan, a schoolmaster, 1824–7, at Carnaross and other places on the borders of Meath and Cavan.]
MACBRIDE, DAVID (1726–1778), medical writer, born at Ballymoney, co. Antrim, 26 April 1726, was son of Robert MacBride, presbyterian minister there [see under McBride, John, 1651?–1718]. His mother's name was Boyd. He was educated at the public school of the village, and apprenticed to a local surgeon. He was for a short time surgeon's mate on a hospital ship and surgeon in the navy, and he acquired an acquaintance with the diseases of seamen which he afterwards turned to advantage. After the peace (1748) he attended lectures on anatomy by Alexander Monro ‘primus’ [q. v.] (in Edinburgh), and, going to London, he heard William Hunter on the same subject, and Smellie on midwifery. In 1749 he returned to Ballymoney, but moved to Dublin in 1751. He joined, and read papers before, the Medico-Philosophical Society there (established in
