Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/82

This page has been validated.
Rockingham
76
Rockstro

    2 vols.; 2nd edit. 1851; 3rd edit., revised by W. H. J. Weale, 1893; illustrated from paintings, sculptures, and inscriptions belonging to the earliest ages of the church.

  1. ‘Did the Early Church in Ireland acknowledge the Pope's Supremacy? Answered in a Letter to Lord John Manners,’ 1844.
  2. ‘The Church of our Fathers, as seen in St. Osmund's Rite for the Cathedral of Salisbury; with Dissertations on the Belief and Ritual in England before the Coming of the Normans,’ 1849–54, 3 vols. in four parts; a new edition, by the Benedictines of Downside, is in preparation (1896).
  3. ‘The Mystic Crown of Mary the Holy Maiden, Mother of God,’ &c., in verse, 1857.
  4. ‘Textile Fabrics, a Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church Vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework, and Tapestries, forming that Section of the (South Kensington) Museum,’ 1870. The introduction to this volume was reissued as No. 1 of the ‘South Kensington Handbooks,’ 1876.

Rock contributed to Manning's ‘Essays in Religion,’ &c., 1865, a paper ‘On the Influence of the Church on Art in the Dark Ages,’ also three papers to the ‘Archæological Journal’ (vols. xxv. xxvi. xxvii.), and many communications to ‘Notes and Queries.’ He also wrote an article on the ‘Fallacious Evidence of the Senses’ in the ‘Dublin Review’ for October 1837.

[English Cyclopædia, Suppl. to Biography, 1872, col. 1047; Graphic, 30 Dec. 1871 (portrait); Brady's Episcopal Succession in England, iii. 350; information kindly supplied by the rector of the English College at Rome, by the president of St. Edmund's College, and by Mr. Joseph Gillow.]

C. W. S.

ROCKINGHAM, Marquis of. [See Wentworth, Charles Watson, 1730-1782.]

ROCKRAY, EDMUND (d. 1597), puritan divine, matriculated as a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, in November 1558, graduated B.A. in 1560–1, M.A. in 1564, B.D. in 1570, and became fellow of his college and bursar shortly after 1560, and proctor of the university in 1568. Rockray was a zealous puritan. In 1570 he openly avowed his sympathy with Thomas Cartwright (1535–1603) [q. v.] (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. lxxii. 11; Strype, Annals, I. ii. 376, II. ii. 415–16). For attacking the new statutes imposed by the government on the university he was summoned before Whitgift, then vice-chancellor of the university, declined to recant, and was ordered to keep his rooms (Heywood and Wright, Cambridge Transactions during the Puritan Period, i. 59; Neal, Puritans, i. 306; Baker MSS. iii. 382–4). In May 1572 he signed the new statutes of the university (ib. i. 62; Lamb, Cambridge Documents), but about the same time he was ejected from his fellowship by order of the privy council for scruples as to the vestments, but was readmitted by Burghley's influence. He still continued obstinate as to the ecclesiastical and academic vestments (Strype, Annals, II. ii. 58), but he retained his fellowship until January 1578–9. In 1577 he had been made canon of Rochester, but, owing to his persistence in nonconformist practices, was suspended from the ministerial functions from 1584 till 1588. In 1587 he vacated his canonry, and, after continuing under ecclesiastical censure for many years, died in 1597.

[Authorities as in text; Neal's Puritans; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr.; ‘second part of a register,’ manuscript at Dr. Williams's Library, pp. 285, 585; Urwick's Nonconformity in Huntingdonshire, p. 803; information kindly sent by F. G. Plaistowe, librarian of Queens' Coll. Cambridge.]

W. A. S.

ROCKSTRO, WILLIAM SMITH (1823–1895), musical composer and theorist, was born on 5 Jan. 1823 at North Cheam, Surrey, and baptised at Morden church in the name of Rackstraw. Rockstro was an older form of the surname, which the composer resumed in early life. His first professional teacher was John Purkis, the blind organist, and his first recorded composition brought forward publicly was a song, ‘Soon shall chilling fear assail thee,’ which Staudigl sang at F. Cramer's farewell concert on 27 June 1844. About the same time he officiated as organist in a dissenting chapel in London, and received instruction from Sterndale Bennett. Apparently on Bennett's recommendation, he studied at the Leipzig Conservatorium from 20 May 1845 until 24 June 1846. He was one of seven specially selected pianoforte pupils of Mendelssohn, with whom he also studied composition, and whose intimacy he enjoyed. His studies with Hauptmann laid the foundation of his great theoretical knowledge, and from Plaidy he received the finest traditions of pianoforte technique.

On his return to England he lived for some time with his mother in London, and was successful as a pianist and teacher. In connection with a series of ‘Wednesday concerts’ he came into contact with Braham and other famous singers, from whom he acquired the best vocal traditions of that day. He wrote at the period a number of beautiful songs, some of which, such as ‘Queen and Huntress’ and ‘A jewel for my lady's ear,’ became in a sort classical. He edited for the