Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/347

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Otter
341
Otterbourne

school for masters; the institution of a weekly celebration in the cathedral (1839); and the revival of the rural chapters. A training college was erected at Chichester by public subscription in 1849-50 as a memorial of his labours, and is still called the Otter College, though occupied as a training college for mistresses of elementary schools.

He died at Broadstairs, Kent, on 20 Aug. 1840, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral on 28 Aug. A small brass plate bearing a mitre, and simply inscribed 'Gul. Otter, Epis. mdcccxxxvi-mdcccxl,' marks the place of his interment at the east end of the choir, near the entrance to the lady-chapel. A more pretentious monument, with a bust of him by Towne, is in the chapel at the end of the north aisle. His portrait, nearly full-length, and seated in an armchair, was painted in replica by John Linneil in 1840. One picture belongs to his grandson, Robert Otter Barry, of Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, and, the other to Lord Belper. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and a mezzotint-engraving was struck off in 1841 (Life of John Linneil, i. 294, ii. 244, 251). His widow died at Effingham in Surrey on 12 March 1860, and was buried there on 17 March. Their eldest son, the Venerable W. B. Otter, was archdeacon of Lewes; the second son, Alfred William Otter, settled in Canada. The eldest daughter married the Rev. Henry Malthus, vicar of Effingham, son of the political economist; the second married the first Lord Romilly; the fourth became the wife of Sir William Milbourne James [q. v.], lord justice; and the fifth was married to the first Lord Belper.

Otter was author of 'The Life and Remains of E. D. Clarke,' 1824, a new edition of which, with a few alterations and additions, was published in 1825 in two volumes. It contained numerous letters which he had addressed to Clarke. A memoir of Malthus contributed by him to the 'Athenæum' in January 1835 (pp. 32–4) was expanded into the memoir published with the 1836 edition of the 'Principles of Political Economy,' He was 'thoroughly acquainted with the character and views' of Malthus, and had followed the rise and progress of his opinions. Mr. Bonar suggests that the epitaph in Bath Abbey to that philosopher was written by Otter (Malthus and his Work, p. 426).

Otter also published many single sermons and charges, and after his death a volume of 'Pastoral Addresses' (1841) was published by his widow, with the assistance of Archdeacon Hare. In 1812 he wrote 'A Vindication of Churchmen who become Members of the British and Foreign Bible Society' from the strictures of Br. Herbert. Marsh [q. v.], which was printed at Cambridge, and reissued in a second edition at Broxbourne; and he also published in that year 'An Examination of Dr. Marsh's Answer to all the Arguments in favour of the British and Foreign Bible Society.' Many letters to and from him are in the possession of Mr. J. L. Otter of Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Temple. The bishop was a fellow of the Linnean Society.

[Gent. Mag. 1840 pt. ii. pp. 539-41, 1860 pt. i. p. 422; Reliquary, xiii. plate 29; Miscell. Geneal. et Heraldica, iii. new ser. 304-5, 328-9; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 254; Baker's St. John's, Cambridge, ed. Mayor, ii. 736, 824-5; Stephens's S. Saxon Diocese, pp. 261-4.]

W. P. C.


OTTERBOURNE, NICHOLAS (fl. 1448–1459), clerk-register of Scotland, is mentioned on 9 Jan. 1449-50 as master of arts, canon of the church of Glasgow, and official of Lothian (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424-1513, entry 301); on 20 March 1449-1450 as secretary to James II (ib. entry 329), and in 1454 as clerk of the rolls (Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1437-54, entry 609). He was one of those sent in February 1448 to France on a confidential mission in connection with the king's marriage. On 3 Nov. 1450 he had a warrant of safe-conduct for three months to pass into France (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1357-1509, entry 1228); on 3 June 1455 a warrant from the king of England for a safe-conduct to England for four months (ib. entry 1271); and on 11 May 1456 a warrant for three months (ib. entry 1276). On 13 July 1459 he had a safe-conduct, with others, into England to confer with English commissioners at Newcastle (ib. entry 1301). He is stated to have been the author of 'Epithalamium Jacobi II, Lib. 1.'

[Authorities mentioned in the text; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Dempster's His toria Eccles.]

T. F. H.

OTTERBOURNE, THOMAS (fl. 1400), historian, is commonly stated to have been a Franciscan. Sir Thomas Gray (d. 1369) [q. v.], in the prologue to his 'Scala Chronica,' alleges that he had made use of a chronicle by Thomas Otterbourne, a Franciscan friar and doctor of divinity. A friar of that name was sixty-fifth reader of his order at Oxford, and must have lectured before 1350, and probably not later than 1345. This would agree sufficiently well with the statement in the 'Scala Chronica,' but the friar clearly cannot have been the author of the chronicle which now passes under his name, and comes down to 1420. There was an-