MEDWYN, Lord. [See Forbes, John Hay, 1776–1854, Scottish judge.]
MEE, ANNE (1775?–1851), miniature painter, eldest child of John Foldsone [q. v.], was educated at Madame Pomier's school in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, where she gave early proofs of artistic talent. She began to practise when very young, and her father dying prematurely, she became the sole support of her family. Miss Foldsone received much royal and aristocratic patronage; and Walpole, in his letters to Miss Berry of 1790 and 1791, mentions that she is at Windsor, ‘painting portraits of all the princesses to be sent to all the princes upon earth,’ and complains that she will not complete commissions for which she has been paid, having (as he has discovered) a mother and eight brothers and sisters to maintain. She married Joseph Mee, a man who ‘pretended to both family and fortune, without being possessed of either’ (Edwards, Anecdotes of Painting, p. 110). The prince regent gave Mrs. Mee much employment in painting portraits of fashionable beauties, and many of these are now at Windsor. Some of her portraits were engraved in the ‘Court Magazine,’ ‘La Belle Assemblée,’ and similar periodicals, and in 1812 she commenced a serial publication, ‘Gallery of Beauties of the Court of George III,’ with her own portrait prefixed, but only a single number was issued. Mrs. Mee exhibited occasionally at the Royal Academy between 1815 and 1837. She died at Hammersmith, 28 May 1851, aged, according to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 76, but more probably over 80.
Mrs. Mee's early miniatures are well drawn and executed, but those of her later time, which are on a comparatively large scale, are meretricious in character and of poor quality. A memoir of her, with a portrait engraved by H. R. Cook, appeared in the ‘Lady's Monthly Museum,’ January 1814. She had a son, A. P. Mee, who practised as an architect, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1824 to 1837.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Clayton's English Female Artists, 1876; Gent. Mag. 1851, ii. 202; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 289, 424, and 7th ser. v. 368, 494; Correspondence of Horace Walpole, ed. Cunningham, vol. ix.]
MEEHAN, CHARLES PATRICK (1812–1890), author and translator, was born at 141 Great Britain Street, Dublin, on 12 July 1812. He received his early education at Ballymahon, co. Longford, the native place of his parents. In 1828 he went to the Irish Catholic College, Rome, where he studied till he was ordained priest in 1834. Returning to Dublin in the same year he was appointed to a curacy at Rathdrum, co. Wicklow. After nine months he was transferred to a curacy at the parish church of Saints Michael and John, Dublin. In that position he continued till his death, which took place on 14 March 1890. Verses by Meehan appeared in the Dublin ‘Nation’ newspaper under the pseudonym of ‘Clericus,’ and he wrote many articles in Roman catholic periodicals, some of which were amplified and republished. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Most of Meehan's productions were in connection with Irish and Roman catholic subjects, and intended for popular reading. They principally consisted of translations and historical compilations. His translations included the following: ‘History of the Geraldines, Earls of Desmond,’ from the Latin of O'Daly [see Daly or O'Daly, Daniel or Dominic], 1847; Manzoni's ‘La Monaca di Monza,’ a continuation of the ‘Promessi Sposi,’ 1847; ‘Life of Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala,’ from the Latin of Lynch, 1848; ‘Lives of the most Eminent Sculptors and Architects of the Order of Saint Dominic,’ from the Italian of Marchese, 2 vols. 1852. Meehan's chief compilations were as follows:
- ‘History of the Confederation of Kilkenny,’ 12mo, 1846.
- ‘Rise and Fall of Irish Franciscan Monasteries, and Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century,’ 1869.
- ‘Fate and Fortunes of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donel, Earl of Tyrconnel,’ 1870.
Of most of these works, all of which appeared at Dublin, cheap editions were published there from time to time, but generally without dates. Meehan edited in 1883 and 1884 Davies's ‘Essays,’ James's Clarence Mangan's essays and poems, ‘Anthologia Germanica,’ and translations of Irish songs by Munster authors. He also re-edited Madden's ‘Literary Remains of the United Irishmen,’ 1887.
[Personal information; Irish Monthly, 1889; Catholic World, September 1890; notes supplied by P. A. Sillard, esq., of Dublin.]
MEEK, Sir JAMES (1778–1856), public servant, born in 1778, entered the public service in the commissariat department in 1798, and was employed by Lord Keith in collecting supplies in Sicily for the Egyptian expedition of 1800. He was afterwards secretary to several flag-officers on the Mediterranean station, and in 1830 was appointed comptroller of the victualling and transport services at the admiralty.
