Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/294

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Madan
288
Madan

courteous, but also resolute and conscientious. He died, 4 May 1862, from the effects of a fall downstairs in his own house, No. 14 Trinity Square, Tower Hill. He left a widow and several children in straitened circumstances. His writings, besides those already noticed and contributions to medical and other journals, are:

  1. 'Remarks on Dr. Gilbert King's Report on the Fever at Boa Vista,' 1848.
  2. 'Exposition of the Case of the Assistant-Surgeons of the Royal Navy,' 3rd edit. 1850.
  3. 'Further Observations on that portion of Second Report on Quarantine by General Board of Health which relates to Yellow Fever Epidemic on board H.M.S. Eclair, and at Boa Vista,' 1852.
  4. 'On the Health of Merchant Seamen' (reprinted from 'Transactions of Social Science Association,' 1862).

[Brit. and For. Med. Rev. vol. xvi. 1843; Med.-Chir. Rev. vol. xxxix. 1843; Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. vol. lxiii. 1845; London Med. Direct. 1862; Lancet, 1862, i. 601, 672; Med. Times and Gaz. 1862, i. 276, 485, 504, 520; Brit Med. Journ. 1862, i. 497; Brit, and For. Med.-Chir. Rev. 1862, xxx. 556.]

W. A. G.

MADAN, MARTIN (1726–1790), author of ‘Thelyphthora,’ born in 1726, was the elder son of Colonel Martin Madan, M.P., of Hertingfordbury, and Judith, daughter of Judge Spencer Cowper, aunt of the poet Cowper, and herself a writer of verses. Spencer Madan [q. v.] was Martin's younger brother. Educated at Westminster School, he, on 9 Feb. 1742–3, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. on 9 Nov. 1746. In 1748 he was called to the bar, and while in London became a member of a recklessly convivial club (see Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 123, 14 Aug. 1886). It is related (Life of the Countess of Huntingdon, chap. x.) that he was commissioned by the club to attend Wesley's preaching in order that his manner and discourse might be caricatured for the entertainment of the company. But the sermon, on the text ‘Prepare to meet thy God,’ impressed Madan so deeply that when he returned to the club and was asked whether he had ‘taken the Old Methodist off,’ he replied, ‘No, gentlemen, but he has taken me off,’ and, at once abandoning his former associates, ‘from being of a very gay and volatile turn, [he] took orders’ (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5832, fol. 84, a paper by William Cole, 1760). The same authorities state that the change was confirmed by his friendship with two methodist clergymen, David Jones (1735–1810) [q. v.] and William Romaine [q. v.] Owing to his new methodist views he had difficulty in obtaining ordination, but Lady Huntingdon's personal efforts on his behalf were successful. Some curiosity was aroused in London to hear the ‘lawyer turned divine,’ even at his first sermon, preached at Allhallows, Lombard Street, 1750; and when appointed chaplain to the Lock Hospital, near Hyde Park Corner, his preaching, which at first took place in the parlour of the institution, rapidly acquired such reputation that a new chapel was built for him in the hospital, and opened on 28 March 1762. In 1760 he issued the first edition of the popular ‘Collection of Psalms and Hymns,’ which was sold at the hospital; and to his pen we are indebted for parts of the modern forms of ‘Lo, He comes,’ and ‘Hark, the herald angels sing.’ From 1750 Madan was in close connection with Lady Huntingdon, and from about 1756 in correspondence with John Wesley. At various times between 1750 and 1780 he is mentioned as ‘itinerating’ and preaching as a Calvinistic methodist at London, Bristol, Brighton (where he preached at the opening of the first chapel in 1761 and at its enlargement in 1767), Oathall, Everton and the neighbourhood, Lewes, Cheltenham, Tunbridge Wells (from 1763), Bath (from 1765), Norwich, Painswick, and other places. He was commonly known at this time as the ‘Counsellor’ (an allusion to his legal training), and is described as being tall in stature, and of a robust constitution, and as so devoted to music that every year an oratorio was performed at the Lock chapel, on which occasions Lady Huntingdon and Charles Wesley were often present. His preaching was both popular and impressive, but free from the extravagances which marked many of the early methodists. In 1768 he was stigmatised by the new Wesleyans as one of the ‘genteel methodists’ of Lady Huntingdon's connexion. His intercourse with his first cousin, Cowper, the poet, was slight, but about 1763, at a time when the latter was greatly depressed in mind, they conversed on religious subjects. Calvinism, however, made too many preliminary claims of belief as a basis of the hope of salvation for Cowper to profit by the interviews. When ‘Thelyphthora’ was published, Cowper prepared, anonymously, his first separate publication, to ridicule the author.

In 1767 Madan's conduct in the matter of the rectory of Aldwinkle in Northamptonshire was the subject of much public dispute. The patron, Mr. J. Kimpton, had wished in 1764 to sell the advowson of the living, which was on the point of becoming vacant, but failing to negotiate a sale he presented a person recommended by Madan, Thomas Haweis [q. v.], an assistant-chaplain at the Lock Hospital. After three years,