continue the series. John Dunton in 1705 described him as a gentleman of good learning and well born, who will ‘write you a design off in a very little time if the gout and claret don't stop him.’ His brother Edward, in his ‘Theatrum Poetarum,’ says of him, hyperbolically, that he was ‘accounted one of the exactest of heroical poets, either of the Ancients or Moderns, either of our own or whatever other Nation else, having a judicious command of style both in prose and verse. But his chiefest vein lay in burlesque and facetious poetry.’ Edward regretted that little of his serious work was published, and declared it to be ‘nothing inferior to what he hath done in the other kind.’ Wood less respectfully remarks that he was a man of very loose principles and atheistical, who forsook his wife and children, and made no provision for them.
Besides the works mentioned, Phillips brought out a number of translations, of which the chief were: Calprenède's ‘Pharamond,’ from the French, 1677; De Scuderi's ‘Almahide,’ 1677; Scarron's ‘Typhon, or the Gyants' War with the Gods,’ 1665, fol.; ‘Six Voyages’ of Tavernier's ‘Voyages in the East,’ 1677, fol.; Grelot's ‘Voyage to Constantinople,’ 1683; Ludolphus's ‘History of Ethiopia,’ 1682; ‘Nine Essays in Plutarch's Morals from the Greek,’ 1684; Frambesarius's [i.e. Nic. Abr. Framboisière] ‘Art of Physick,’ 1684; and ‘The Present Court of Spain,’ 1693. He is said to have aided in the English version of Lucian's works, 1711, and to be author of a pamphlet, ‘Established Government vindicated from all Popular and Republican Principles’ (Claver, Cat. 1695). Verses by him appear in the ‘Gentleman's Journal,’ 1691, and Tutchin's ‘Search after Honesty,’ 1697.
[Godwin's Lives of Edward and John Philips, 1815; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 765 seq.; Masson's Life of Milton.]
PHILLIPS, JOHN (fl. 1792), writer on inland navigation, was a native of Essex. Brought up as a builder and surveyor, he devoted many years to the promotion of schemes for the construction of canals. His interest in the subject was aroused by a tour, ‘partly on business, partly on pleasure,’ while the Bridgwater Canal was in course of construction. He published:
- ‘A Treatise on Inland Navigation: illustrated with a whole-sheet plan, delineating the Course of an intended navigable Canal from London to Norwich and Lynn, through the Counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk,’ &c., London, 1785, 4to.
- ‘A General History of Inland Navigation, Foreign and Domestic,’ &c., London, 1792, 4to; this work contains much useful information on the canals at that time completed or in process of construction, the cost of construction, freights, &c.
- ‘Crosby's Builder's New Price Book, containing a correct Account of all the present Prices allowed by the most eminent Surveyors,’ &c., 25th edit. London, 1817, 8vo; corrected by C. Surman, surveyor.
[Phillips's Works; Watt's Bibl. Brit; Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce, ii. 379.]
PHILLIPS, JOHN (1800–1874), geologist, descended from a Welsh family, was born at Marden in Wiltshire on 25 Dec. 1800. His ancestors had possessed some landed property; his father held a position in the excise; his mother was a sister of William Smith (1769–1839) [q. v.], the geologist. When about seven years old he lost his father, and about a year later his mother died. The uncle then took charge of the boy, and at once initiated him in geology. In his eleventh year he was sent to a school at Holt Spa in Wiltshire. Here he was active in games and diligent in class, and when he left, some four years later, he carried away a fair knowledge of Latin, French, and mathematics, with the rudiments of Greek and German, and a certain proficiency in drawing and practical mechanics. The next year was spent with Benjamin Richardson, rector of Farleigh, near Bath, a man of wide knowledge and an ardent geologist, to whose good influence he always expressed himself deeply indebted. Then he joined his uncle in London, just about the time when the latter published his geological map of England, and had undertaken to prepare a series of county maps similarly coloured. Smith, in fact, had now devoted himself to that study which proved ‘so fatal to his prosperity, though so favourable to his renown.’ Of this epoch in his life John Phillips afterwards wrote: ‘In all this contest for knowledge, under difficulties of no ordinary kind, I had my share. From the hour I entered his house in London, and for many years after he quitted it, we were never separated in act or thought … and thus my mind was moulded on his.’
The joint labour in the field and in the office was continued till the spring of 1824, when a lecture engagement took Smith to York, and, as a result of the visit, John Phillips was entrusted with the arrangement of the fossils in the museum, and next year was appointed its keeper. He held this post with the secretaryship of the Philosophical Society, till 1840, but continued to be honorary curator of the museum till 1844.
