Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/46

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Locke
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Locker

the 'Discobolos,' afterwards at Duncombe Park, and the torso of Venus, which, was in the Duke of Richmond's collection, and after injury by fire came to the British Museum. In 1774 he purchased an estate at Norbury, near Mickleham in Surrey, where he built a house, one of the rooms in which was decorated with paintings by G. Barret, Cipriani, and other artists. Locke and his wife were well known in the society of their day, and Frances Burney was one of their closest friends [see Arblay]. When the French refugees, Mme. de Stael and others, settled at Juniper Hall, near Norbury, they were very intimate with the Lockes, who materially assisted the marriage of M. d'Arblay and Miss Burney. When the latter built 'Camilla Cottage,' it was on a piece of ground given them by the Lockes. Locke died at Norbury on 5 Oct. 1810, aged 78, and was buried at Mickleham. By his wife, Frederica Augusta, he left among other children two sons, William (see below) and George, and a daughter Amelia, married to John Angerstein, M.P., of Weeting, Norfolk.

Locke, William, the younger (1767-1847), amateur artist, elder son of the above, born in 1767, distinguished himself in early days as a promising artist. He was a pupil and friend of Henry Fuseli [q. v.], who dedicated his lectures on painting to him. Locke painted several historical and allegorical subjects in a strained and affected style; one, 'The Last Moments of Cardinal Wolsey,' was engraved in stipple by Charles Knight. There are some etchings and drawings by him in the print room at the British Museum. Locke sold Norbury in June 1819, and lived afterwards principally at Rome and Paris. He married Miss Jennings, daughter of Mr. Jennings-Noel, a lady noted for her beauty, and died in 1847, leaving one son, William (see below), and a daughter Elizabeth, who married Joseph, thirteenth Lord Wallscourt. He was buried at Mickleham.

Locke, William, the third (1804-1832), captain in the lifeguards and amateur artist, was remarkable for his personal beauty and for his skill as an amateur artist. He published some illustrations to Byron's works. He was drowned in the lake of Como on 15 Sept. 1832. Locke married Selina, daughter of Admiral Tollemache. A daughter, Augusta Selina, was born posthumously. She married successively Ernest, Lord Burghersh, the Duca di San Teodoro, and Thomas de Grey, the present Lord Walsingham.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Mme. d'Arblay's Diaries; Brayley's Hist. of Surrey, vol. iv.; Gent. Mag. 1810 pt. ii. p. 393, 1832 pt. ii. p. 390; private information.]

LOCKER, EDWARD HAWKE (1777–1849), commissioner of Greenwich Hospital, youngest son of Captain William Locker [q. v.], was born at East Malling in Kent on 9 Oct. 1777. He was educated at Eton, and in 1795 entered the navy pay office, from which he was promoted to be second secretary to the board of control. In 1804 he became civil secretary to Sir Edward Pellew (afterwards Viscount Exmouth) [q. v.], and served with him in that capacity during his command in the East Indies, 1804–9, in the North Sea in 1810, and in the Mediterranean 1811–14. The emoluments of his office, especially as prize agent in the East Indies, had placed him in easy circumstances, and in 1815 he married a daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Boucher [q. v.], and settled at Windsor till 1819. In that year he accepted the office of secretary to Greenwich Hospital, and in 1824 was appointed civil commissioner. This post he occupied till 1844, when, being in very feeble health, he retired on a special pension, and died at Uxbridge on 16 Oct. 1849.

Locker was a man of varied talents and accomplishments, a fellow of the Royal Society, an excellent artist in water-colour, a charming conversationalist, an esteemed friend of Southey and of Sir Walter Scott. In co-operation with Charles Knight (1791–1873) [q. v.] he edited and largely contributed to ‘The Plain Englishman’ (8vo, 1820–3), a magazine of original and selected articles, described as ‘almost the first, if not the very first of any literary pretension, of those cheap and popular miscellanies which the growing ability of the great bulk of the people to read imperatively demanded in the place of mischievous or childish tracts’ (Athenæum, 20 Oct. 1849). In the first volume appeared a course of religious lectures delivered by Locker on board the Culloden, where he for some time officiated as chaplain; they were afterwards republished separately with the title ‘Popular Lectures on the Bible and Liturgy’ (8vo, 1821). He also published ‘Views in Spain’ (4to, 1824), the record of a tour made during the war in 1813 in company with Lord John (afterwards Earl) Russell, and illustrated with sketches by the author; and ‘Memoirs of celebrated Naval Commanders, illustrated by engravings from original Pictures in the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital’ (1832, imp. 8vo). This volume is preceded by an engraved portrait of Locker.

In 1823 Locker revived a scheme, originally proposed by his father in 1795, of establishing a gallery of naval pictures at Greenwich. Captain Locker had suggested the