Jew, or of Alfred Moritz Myers,' Chester, 1840 12mo. 2. The History of Job,' London, 1841, 18mo. 3. 'The English Mother,' 3rd edit. 1849, 18mo. 4. 'The Night of Toil,' 4th edit. 1853, 12mo. 5. 'The Angel s Message, or the Saviour made known to the Cottager,' London, 1857, 12mo. 6. 'Light in the Dwelling, or a Harmony of the Four Gospels,' London, 1858, 8vo. 7. 'Streaks of Light, or Fifty-two Tracts from the Bible for the Fifty-two Sundays of the Year,' London, 1861, 8vo, last edit. 1890. 8. 'The Apostles preaching to Jews and Gentiles,' London, 1873, 18mo, new edit. 1875. 9. 'The Captivity of Judah,' London, 1875, 18mo, new edit. 1870.
[The Family Friend, 1878, p. 183; Reminiscences, by Lord Forester, in the Times, 20 Jan. 1892; private information; Supplement to Allibone's Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MORTIMER, GEORGE FERRIS WHIDBORNE (1805–1871), schoolmaster and divine, born on 22 July 1805 at Bishopsteignton in Devonshire, was the eldest son of William Mortimer, a country gentleman of that place. He was educated at the Exeter grammar school and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he matriculated 18 March 1823, and obtained an exhibition. Thence he migrated to Queen's, where he secured a Michel exhibition, and was placed in the first class of the final classical school at Michaelmas 1826 with the present archdeacon of Taunton, George Anthony Denison, and another. After graduating B.A. in 1826 he engaged actively in tuition. He proceeded M.A. in 1829, and D.D. in 1841, having been ordained on 24 Feb. 1829. He was successively head-master of the Newcastle grammar school (1828) and of the Western proprietary school at Brompton, London (1833). In 1840 he was appointed, in succession to John Allen Giles [q. v.], to the scene of his longest and most important labours, the headship of the City of London School. The school had been opened in 1837 [see under Carpenter, John, 1370?–1441?], but its prosperity had been injured by the action of the first head-master. Mortimer's administrative ability and genial manner rendered the success of the school certain. He treated with conspicuous honesty and fairness the large proportion of boys, not members of the church of England, who from various causes were found there. In 1861 he had the unique distinction of seeing two of his scholars respectively senior wrangler and senior classic at Cambridge. Charles Kingsley read privately with him for ordination. Dr. Mortimer received in 1864 the honorary prebend of Consumpta per mare in St. Paul's, and for many years was evening lecturer at St. Matthew's, Friday Street. At Michaelmas 1865 he resigned his head-mastership, and for the next few years interested himself actively in the Society of Schoolmasters and other educational institutions. He died 7 Sept. 1871, at Rose Hill, Hampton Wick, and was buried in Hampton churchyard. He married in 1830 Jane, daughter of Alexander Gordon of Bishopsteignton; and by this lady, who still survives, he left a numerous family.
Besides two sermons, Mortimer published while at Newcastle a pamphlet entitled 'The Immediate Abolition of Slavery compatible with the Safety and Prosperity of the Colonies' (1833, 8vo).
[Information from the family; personal knowledge.]
MORTIMER, HUGH (I) de (d. 1181), lord of Wigmore and founder of Wigmore Priory, was, according to the common accounts, the son of Ralph I de Mortimer [q. v.], and in any case his father's name was Ralph (Brut y Tywysoyion, ed. Evans, p. 312). The only direct authority that makes him the son of the Domesday baron seems, however, to be the late and half-mythical history of Wigmore Priory, printed in the 'Monasticon,' vi. 348 sq., which, besides many statements directly at variance with known facts, gives an altogether fabulous account of Hugh's marriage, maintaining that his father, in his lifetime, fetched for him as his wife, from Normandy, 'Matilda Longespey, filiamWillelmi Longespey ducis Normanniæ,' who died in 942 ! It is hard to dogmatise when there is so little direct evidence, and Mr. Eyton and other good modern authorities accept the statement of the Wigmore annalist; but it seems more likely that a generation has been omitted, and that Hugh was really grandson of Ralph I de Mortimer, than that the latter begot in extreme old age a son, who succeeded without question to the paternal estates (Shropshire, iv. 200-1).
The troubled reign of Stephen gave ample opportunities to a great baron who was powerful, ambitious, and capable to extend his power. Hugh took little part in general politics, and it is uncertain whether he was a partisan of Stephen or Matilda. His main object was to strengthen his local position as the chief potentate of the middle marches of Wales. Stephen from the first recognised his power. The patent by which the king strove to create Robert de Beaumont earl of Hereford in 1140 especially reserved the rights of Hugh, who seems to have had excep-
