Robert le Vavasour, and a son Thomas, who, by his marriage with Maud, daughter of Hubert de Vaux, acquired the barony of Gillesland. Thomas Multon, third baron of Gillesland, was summoned to parliament from 1297 till his death in 1313. Through his daughter Margaret the barony passed to Ralph Dacre; from this marriage sprang the titles of Baron Dacre held by Viscount Hampden, and Baron Dacre of Gillesland held by the Earl of Carlisle.
[Matthew Paris; Annales Monastici; Cal. of Close and Patent Rolls; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 567-9; Foss's Judges, ii. 415-19; Nicolas's Song of Caerlaverock, p. 109.]
MULVANY, CHARLES PELHAM (1835–1885), minor poet and journalist, son of Henry William Mulvany, barrister-at-law, and grandson of a captain in the royal navy who took part in the battle of Bunker Hill (17 June 1775), was born in Dublin on 20 May 1835. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1850, became a scholar in 1854, and graduated B.A. at Dublin University as first-honour man in classics in June 1856. Before this date he had written verse in ‘The Nation’ over the signature ‘C. P. M. Sch.;’ he was editor of the ‘College Magazine’ during 1856 and 1857, and also wrote for the ‘Irish Metropolitan Magazine,’ 1857–8.
After a few years of service as a surgeon in the British navy Mulvany was ordained deacon of the church of England in 1868, migrated to Canada, and was ordained priest by the Bishop of Ontario in 1872. After acting for about two years as assistant professor of classics at Lenoxville, where he conducted the ‘Students' Monthly,’ he served as curate successively at Clarke's Mills, Huntley, Milford, and the Carrying Place, all in the province of Ontario. He became a constant contributor to Canadian newspapers and magazines, devoting the greater part of his later life to literary work. He kept up his connection with Trinity College by his brilliant contributions to the first three volumes of ‘Kottabos,’ issued respectively in 1874, 1877, and 1881. His latest verses, entitled ‘Our Boys in the North-West Away,’ appeared in the daily ‘Globe,’ Toronto, as late as 25 May 1885. He died at 69 Augusta Terrace, Toronto, on 31 May 1885.
Mulvany's clever verses are essentially of the imitative order. His versatility and effective use of pathos frequently suggest Hood, and he has been spoken of as an Hibernian Calverley; but neither his originality nor his rhyming power quite justifies the title. Many of his happiest parodies have not been published. These deal with local academic incidents, and are still σποράδην ἀειδόμενα in Trinity College.
His chief separate works are:
- 'Lyrics of History and Life,' 1880.
- 'Toronto, Past and Present,' 1884.
- 'History of the North- West Rebellion of 1885.'
All these were published at Toronto. At the time of his death he was preparing a 'History of Liberalism in Canada.'
[O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, p. 171; Cat. of Dublin Graduates; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biog. iv. 458; The Globe, Toronto, 1 June 1885; The Dominion Annual Register and Review for 1885, Toronto, 1886.]
MULVANY, THOMAS JAMES (d. 1845?), painter and keeper of the Royal Hibernian Academy, first appears as an exhibitor with the Dublin Society of Artists at the rooms of the Dublin Society in Hawkins Street, Dublin, in May 1809. When the Dublin Society in 1819 disposed of their premises and the artists were without a place of exhibition, Mulvany, with his brother, John George Mulvany, who was also a painter, was one of the most strenuous advocates for the grant of a charter of incorporation to the artists of Ireland. When at length this charter was obtained in 1823 and the Royal Hibernian Academy founded under the presidency of Francis Johnston [q. v.], Mulvany and his brother were two of the first fourteen academicians elected. He subsequently became keeper in 1841. During the last years of his life Mulvany was employed in editing 'The Life of James Gandon' [q. v.], which he did not, however, live to complete, as he died about 1845, while the book was not published until 1846. His son, George F. Mulvany (1809–1869), also practised as a painter. He succeeded his father as keeper of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and occasionally sent pictures to the Royal Academy in London. In 1854 he was elected the first director of the newly founded National Gallery of Ireland, and held the post until his death in Dublin on 6 Feb. 1869.
[Sarsfield Taylor's Fine Arts of Great Britain and Ireland; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
MUMFORD, JAMES (1606–1666), Jesuit, born in Norfolk in 1606, entered the Society of Jesus at Watten near St. Omer, 8 Dec. 1626, and became a professed member of the order in 1641. In 1642 he was at the English College, Liège, in the capacity of minister and consultator, and in 1645 he was confessor in the college at St. Omer. About 1647 he was rector of the college at Liège. About 1650 he was sent to the English mis-
