Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/196

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Mossop
190
Mostyn


was made when he was about seventeen. In 1806 he made a medal for the Farming Society of Ireland, and in 1810 one to commemorate the fiftieth year of George III's reign. In 1813 he received the premium of the Society of Arts for the die of a school medal, and in 1814 gained its premium for a medal bearing the head of Vulcan. About 1820 he contemplated a series of forty portrait-medals of distinguished Irishmen. He completed the medal of Grattan, and nearly finished those of Ussher, Charlemont, Swift, and Sheridan. The dies of these were left unhardened, but were afterwards annealed by Mr. J. Woodhouse of Dublin, into whose possession they came. Mossop followed the method adopted by his father in designing the model for his steel dies. He used a preparation of beeswax melted and softened with turpentine, and coloured white or brown. 'He spread this tempered wax upon a piece of glass or slate, adding and working in successive portions until the design was completed.' Several of Mossop's wax models are in the possession of Dr. Frazer of Dublin, and some of his steel dies became the property of the Royal Irish Academy and of Mr. J. Woodhouse. Some designs cast in plaster also became the property of Mr. Woodhouse. In addition to his work on medals Mossop was engaged in preparing the seals of various public bodies, including the Waterford chamber of commerce, Cork Institution (1807), County of Sligo Infirmary (1813), Irish treasury, Deny corporation, Prussian consulate, and Waterford harbour commission. He also made a series of dies for the stamp office, Dublin. Mossop was secretary to the Royal Hibernian Academy from its foundation till his death, which took place in the early part of 1827, after an attack of mental aberration. Mossop wrote a short account of his father and himself, which was printed in Gilbert's 'History of Dublin,' ii. 121, ff. and Appendix. The following is a selection from Mossop's medals: Incorporated Society for Charter Schools in Ireland (unsigned); Farming Society of Ireland (signed w. s. Mossop); George III's Jubilee; Kildare Farming Society, 1813; Centenary of House of Hanover, 1814; Daniel O'Connell, 1816 (the first medallic portrait of O'Connell); Feinaglian Institution; Cork Institution, 1817; North of Ireland Society; Dublin Society medal; Sir Charles Gieseckë; Colonel Talbot; Grattan (the head on this medal was copied by the French artist, Galle; Frazer, p. 326, citing T. Moore's Diary}; Archbishop Ussher; Dean Swift; R. B. Sheridan; Lord Charlemont; Visit of George IV to Ireland. The medals are usually signed Mossop.

[Frazer's Medallists of Ireland.]

W. W.


MOSTYN, Sir ROGER (1625?–1690), first baronet, royalist, born about 1625, was the son of Sir Roger Mostyn, knight, of Mostyn Hall, near Holy well, Flintshire, by Mary, daughter of Sir John Wynne of Gwydir. Sir Roger the elder (1567-1642) matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, on 8 May 1584, entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1588 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.), was knighted on 23 May 1606, served as M.P. for Flintshire in 1621-2, died on 18 Aug. 1642, and was buried at Whiteford.

During the earlier conflicts between Charles I and parliament, the sympathies of the Mostyn family were on the side of the king, and the loyal address of the people of Flintshire, presented to Charles at York on 4 Aug. 1642, was probably inspired by Sir Roger or his father. When the king formally declared war and visited Chester towards the end of September, young Roger Mostyn and Captain Salesbury arrived there with troops of Welshmen, who, after the king's departure, ransacked the houses of supposed parliamentarians (Phillips, Civil War in Wales and the Marches, i. 112, ii. 15). In January 1642-3, Mostyn, described by this time as colonel, brought a large number of Welshmen into Chester, and once more they gave vent to their loyalty by sacking the town-house of Sir William Brereton (ib. i. 142). Being appointed governor of Flint Castle, he repaired it and put it in a state of defence at his own cost, but in the autumn of 1643 after a long siege, during which the garrison were reduced to eating their horses, it was surrendered to Brereton and Sir Thomas Myddelton [q. v.] on honourable terms, as were also both the town and castle of Mostyn (Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 78; The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer, No. 23, p. 257). Shortly afterwards, on 18 Nov., a troop of Irish soldiers landed at Mostyn, and the parliamentarians withdrew hastily from that district. Mostyn also raised some Welsh recruits, and combining with the Irish captured Hawarden Castle (Whitelocke, loc. cit.), after a fortnight's siege, and probably proceeded afterwards to Chester. Lord Byron, complaining of the defenceless state of Chester in a letter addressed to Lord Digby on 26 April 1645, stated that he was 'left in the towne only with a garryson of citizens, and my owne and Colonell Mostin's regiment, which both together made not up above 600 men, whereof the one halfe being Mostin's men, I was forced soone after to