Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/360

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Oudney
354
Oudoceus

ordered for the payment to Sir George Downing and his secretary Oudart of their expenses during their imprisonment in Holland (ib. pp. 244-64). Oudart was a friend of John Evelyn (Diary, 2 Sept. 1064).

Oudart died in Little Dean's Yard, Westminster, and was buried in the west cloister of Westminster Abbey on 21 Dec. 1681. His will, dated 5 March 1671–2, was proved on 13 July 1682 by his widow Eva, daughter of John François Tortarolis. She was a rich and handsome gentlewoman of Leyden whom Oudart married about 1655 (ib. 1655, pp. 375, 384). Three daughters were the issue of the marriage, viz. Barbara, married at the Temple Church, London, on 29 Oct. 1677, to William Foster; Amelia Isabella, married in 1689 to Bartholomew Van Sittert; and Dorothy.

[Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1640–67; Cal. Clarendon Papers; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 491, 492, ii. 34; Evelyn's Diary and Nicholas Correspondence in vol. iv. ed. Bray; Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey, p. 204; Fosters Alumni Oxon.; Warwick's Memoires.]

W. W.


OUDNEY, WALTER, M.D. (1790–1824), surgeon royal navy and African traveller, was born in December 1790, of humble parents, in Edinburgh, where he picked up sufficient knowledge of medicine to become a surgeon's mate on board a man-of-war. He was appointed an assistant surgeon in 1810, was stationed in the East Indies (Navy List, 1814), and on 24 May of that year was promoted surgeon. At the peace he returned, on half-pay, to Edinburgh, where his mother and sisters were living, attended classes at the university, graduated M.D. 1 Aug. 1817, and set up in private practice. He had the friendship of Dr. John Abercrombie [q. v.], who inserted two or three of Oudney's 'cases' in the 'Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.' Oudney became a member of the Wernerian Society, applied himself to the study of chemistry and natural history, and had hopes of becoming university lecturer on botany. His views were changed by his association with Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton [q. v.] and Major Dixon Denham [q. v.] in an expedition for the discovery of the source of the Niger. Oudney and Clapperton arrived at their starting-point (Tripoli) in October 1821, whither they were followed by Denham. On 7 April 1822 they reached Murzuk in Fezzan, where they spent the rest of 1822, making excursions in the neighbourhood. In March 1823 they reached Kouka, on Lake Tchad, the capital of the kingdom of Bornou, where they remained some months. On 14 Dec. 1823 Oudney and Clapperton set out for the western extremity of the Bornou. The party was exposed to intense cold, and Oudney, who had been in poor health since his arrival at Kouka, was attacked by pneumonia. He seemed to mend a little on the return journey, but died at Katagum, in the Soudan, on 12 Jan. 1824, and was buried there.

Oudney is described as of middle stature and slight build, with a pale, grave face, pleasing manners, and possessed of much enterprise and perseverance. As an explorer he appears to have been very successful in his intercourse with the natives. Only two of Oudney's papers came into the hands of Colonel Denham, viz. 'An Itinerary from Murzuk to Bornu,' the mineralogical notes in which alone appear in Denham's narrative; and 'An Account of an Expedition to the Westward of Murzuk' (country of the Tuaricks), printed at the end of Denham's introductory chapter.

[Biography of Oudney in a small volume of Biographies of Oudney, Clapperton, and Laing, by the Rev. Thomas Nelson, Edinburgh, 1830, 12mo. The particulars of Oudney are given mostly on the authority of his personal friends Dr. Kay and Lieut. Shirreff, R.N. Scots Mag. 1824, pt. ii. p. 637; Denham's and Clapperton's Narratives.]

H. M. C.


OUDOCEUS (fl. 630?), bishop of Llandaff, is generally regarded as having succeeded Teilo in that see. There is a life of him in the 'Liber Landavensis' (ed. Evans, pp. 130–9), abridged by Capgrave (Nova Legenda Angliæ, p. 258) and by the compilers of 'Acta Sanctorum' (2 July, i. 318). According to this, he was the son of Budic, son of Cybrdan of Cornugallia (Cornouaille in Brittany), and Anauued, daughter of Ensic of Dyfed (West Wales). Budic is known to have been king of the Bretons about 500 (L'Art de verifier les Dates, vol. xiii.), and Ensic was Teilo's father. Oudoceus was trained, it is further said, by Teilo, and on his death was elected his successor, receiving consecration at Canterbury. As bishop he was contemporary with Cadwgan of Dyfed (fl. about 670) and Meurig of Glamorgan (fl. about 600). It was during his time the English seized the region between the Wye, the Dore, and the Worm (Herefordshire). At the close of his life he resigned his bishopric, and withdrew to the solitude of Lann Enniaun, or Lann Oudocui (Llandogo, Monmouthshire), where he died on 2 July.

The chronological inconsistencies of this life deprive it of nearly all value. It appears to have been written in part in Brittany, but the reference to Canterbury shows that it re--