read before the Edinburgh art congress in 1889. Younger men in his profession derived much inspiration both from his work and from his utterances. Two black-and-white portraits are prefixed to ‘A Memorial of John Sedding,’ privately printed, 1892.
[Garden Craft, with memorial notice, by the Rev. E. F. Russell; Memorial of J. Sedding, 1892, with a short appreciation by H. Wilson; Builder, 11 April 1891; Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornubiensis; Times, 10 April 1891.]
SEDDON, FELIX JOHN VAUGHAN (1798–1865), orientalist, son of William Seddon, attorney, of Pendleton, near Manchester, was born in 1798, and educated at the Manchester grammar school. In 1815 he went to India, where he resided fifteen years, and during his stay acquired an intimate knowledge of several oriental languages. He was in 1820 appointed registrar of Rangpur, Bengal, and at the outbreak of the Burmese war, in 1824, accompanied the army as translator and accountant to the agent of the governor-general. He translated the articles of war and artillery exercise into Munipuri, for use of the native levy, and prepared a grammar and dictionary of the language of Assam. When his health failed in 1830, he was engaged on a comparative dictionary of the Munipuri, Siamese, and Burmese tongues. At a later date he assisted in translating the Bible into some Indian language. On 12 July 1833 he was elected professor of oriental languages at King's College, London, and published in 1835 ‘An Address introductory to a Course of Lectures on the Languages and Literature of the East,’ 8vo. In 1837 he again went out to India, intending to open a college at Lucknow, a project in which William IV took much interest; but when he arrived there he found that the king of Oude was dead, and his successor was opposed to the plan. This and other difficulties obliged him to abandon the undertaking. He was afterwards appointed preceptor to the nawab Nizam, and for his services received a pension. The latter part of his life was spent at Murshidabad, Bengal, where he died, unmarried, on 25 Nov. 1865.
[Manchester School Register (Chetham Soc.), ii. 244.]
SEDDON, JOHN (1644–1700), caligrapher, born in 1644, became master of Sir John Johnson's free writing school in Priest's Court, Foster Lane, Cheapside. Massey describes him as a ‘celebrated artist,’ and says he exceeded ‘all our English penmen in a fruitful fancy, and surprising invention, in the ornamental parts of his writing.’ He died on 12 April 1700.
The following performances of his passed through the rolling press: 1. ‘The Ingenious Youth's Companion. Furnished with variety of Copies of the Hand in Fashion. Adorned with curious Figures and Flourishes invented and perform'd à la Volée,’ London [1690], oblong 8vo. It contains fifteen plates engraved by John Sturt. 2. ‘The Pen-man's Paradise, both Pleasant and Profitable, or Examples of all ye usuall Hands of this Kingdome. Adorn'd with variety of Figures and Flourishes done by command of Hand. Each Figure being one continued & entire Tract of the Pen’ [London, 1695], oblong 4to. It was engraved by John Sturt, and contains thirty-four plates, besides the portrait of the author from a drawing by William Faithorne. 3. ‘The Penman's Magazine: or, a new Copy Book of the English, French, and Italian Hands, after the best Made; Adorn'd with about an Hundred New and Open Figures and Fancies,’ London, 1705, fol. The writing copies were ‘performed’ by George Shelley [q. v.] of the Hand and Pen in Warwick Lane, the figures and fancies being by Seddon. The whole work was supervised by Thomas Read, clerk of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, formerly one of Seddon's scholars. Prefixed to it is a laudatory poem by Nahum Tate, poet laureate.
[Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, n. 9373; Massey's Origin and Progress of Letters, ii. 128; Noble's Contin. of Granger, i. 311; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 291; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
SEDDON, JOHN (1719–1769), unitarian divine, son of Peter Seddon (1689–1731), dissenting minister at Penrith, Cumberland (1717–19), and Cockey Moor in the parish of Middleton, Lancashire (1719–31), was born in 1719 at Lomax Fold, Little Lever, in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire. On his father's death, Seddon's education was undertaken by the congregation of Cross Street, Manchester; he was at Stand grammar school under William Walker; at the Kendal Academy (entered 1733) under Caleb Rotheram, D.D. [q. v.]; and at Glasgow University, where he matriculated in 1739, and is said to have graduated M.A., but of this there is no record. On leaving Glasgow he became assistant at Cross Street to Joseph Mottershead [q. v.], and was ordained on 22 Oct. 1742. He was a preacher of facility and power, and pursued a line of singular independence in theology. Priestley, when at Warrington (1761–8), speaks of Seddon as ‘the only Socinian in the neighbourhood,’ adding, ‘we all won-
