Painted Hall as a suitable place, but in the turmoil and anxiety of war the proposal had found no acceptance. Edward Hawke Locker now obtained many professional opinions as to the suitability of the Painted Hall, which had been unused for nearly a century; but there were no funds and as yet no pictures. Locker applied himself earnestly to soliciting donations, and with such success that in less than three years he ‘had the gratification of seeing the walls covered with portraits.’ George IV took up the project warmly, and ‘immediately commanded that the whole of the naval portraits in the royal palaces of Windsor and Hampton Court should be removed to Greenwich; and in succeeding years he contributed several valuable pictures from his private collection.’ Many pictures have since been added, but that the gallery is what it is, is almost entirely due to Locker's business aptitude and enthusiasm.
He left issue, among others, Frederick, author of ‘London Lyrics,’ who in 1885 took the additional name of Lampson on the death of his wife's father, Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson [q. v.]; and Arthur, editor of the ‘Graphic.’
A portrait of Locker, by H. W. Phillips, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.
[Information from Mr. F. Locker-Lampson; Athenæum, 20 Oct. 1849; Times, 22 Oct. 1849; Gent. Mag. 1849, i. 654; preface to the Catalogue of Pictures in the Painted Hall.]
LOCKER, JOHN (1693–1760), miscellaneous writer, born in London on 27 Aug. 1693, was son of Stephen Locker, a scrivener in the Old Jewry, and clerk of the Leathersellers' Company. He entered Merchant Taylors' School on 12 March 1706–7 (Robinson, Register, ii. 20), matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, 21 April 1711, and afterwards travelled on the continent with his friend Mr. Twisleton. On 28 March 1719 he was admitted of Gray's Inn, and he studied law in the chambers once occupied by Francis Bacon, viscount St. Albans (Foster, Gray's Inn Admission Register, p. 363). He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries 3 March 1737, and became an intimate friend of John Bowyer (Gough, List of Soc. Antiq. p. 6). He was appointed clerk of the Companies of Leathersellers (1719) and Clockmakers (1740), and he was also a commissioner of bankrupts. He is styled by Dr. Ward ‘a gentleman much esteemed for his knowledge of polite literature,’ and by Dr. Johnson, ‘a gentleman eminent for curiosity and literature.’ He learned Modern Greek colloquially from a poor Greek priest, whom he casually met wandering about the streets of London, and entertained for some years in his house at his own and Dr. Mead's expense. Locker translated into Modern Greek a part, if not the whole, of one of Congreve's comedies. He died a widower on 30 May 1760, and was buried in St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate Street (Gent. Mag. 1760, p. 297).
He married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward Stillingfleet, M.D., Gresham professor of physic, and afterwards rector of Wood-Norton and Swanton, Norfolk. She was sister of Benjamin Stillingfleet, and granddaughter of the eminent Bishop of Worcester. By this lady, who died on 12 Aug. 1759, he had nine children. Their son, William Locker, is separately noticed.
Locker translated the last two books of Voltaire's ‘Life of Charles XII, King of Sweden,’ London, 1731, and wrote the prefatory discourse.
He and his friend Robert Stephens, historiographer-royal, eagerly collected original or authentic manuscripts of Bacon's ‘Works,’ published and unpublished. On Stephens's death in November 1732 his papers came into the possession of Locker, who also died before he could publish the results of their joint labours, although he finished his correction of the fourth volume of Blackbourne's edition (London, 1730), containing Bacon's law tracts and letters. After Locker's death all his collections were purchased by Dr. Birch, and they are now in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 4258–62). In the preface to the complete edition of Bacon's ‘Works’ published by Birch and Mallet in five vols. 1765, liberal acknowledgment is made of the labours of Stephens and Locker.
To Dr. Johnson Locker communicated a collection of examples made by Addison from the writings of Tillotson, with the intention of preparing an English dictionary.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vii. 234, ix, 417; Spedding's Letters and Life of Bacon, i. 16, 119, ii. 2, vi. 165 n., 172.]
LOCKER, WILLIAM (1731–1800), captain in the navy, second son of John Locker [q. v.], was born in the official residence attached to the Leathersellers' Hall in February 1730–1. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and entered the navy in 1746 as ‘captain's servant’ (equivalent to the modern rank of naval cadet) on board the Kent, with his kinsman Captain Charles Windham. In 1747 he went out to the West Indies in the Vainqueur sloop with Captain Kirk, whom he followed to the Vulture; from her he was moved into the
