of which his friend, Dr. Clarke, was rector), and in 1721 to the morning preachership there. In January 1724 Sykes was made prebendary of Alton Borealis in the cathedral church of Salisbury, of which in 1727 he became precentor, and in April 1725 he was appointed assistant preacher at St. James's, Westminster. His other preferments were the deanery of St. Burien, Cornwall, in February 1739, and a prebendal stall at Winchester, through the favour of Bishop Hoadly, on 15 Oct. 1740. Sykes died from paralysis, at his house in Cavendish Square, London, on 23 Nov. 1756, and was buried on the 30th in St. James's Church, Westminster. He married Mrs. Elizabeth Williams, a widow of Bristol, but left no children. She died in 1763. The bulk of his fortune, which was considerable, Sykes left to her for life, with remainder to his brother George, who succeeded him in the rectory of Rayleigh. In 1766 the latter left by will the sum of 1,000l. to the master and fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in trust for the foundation of four exhibitions (now consolidated into one) for scholars from St. Paul's school. A portrait of him was painted by Wills.
Sykes was a voluminous controversial writer of the school of Hoadly. The catalogue of his works, chiefly pamphlets, prefixed to Disney's ‘Memoirs’ of him, fills fourteen octavo pages, and there are over eighty entries in his name in the ‘British Museum Catalogue.’ ‘His whole life,’ writes a critic in the ‘Monthly Review,’ ‘was a warfare of the pen, first in the Bangorian controversy, next in the Arian, then in the dispute about Phlegon, and afterwards in the Inquiry concerning the Demoniacs.’ He naturally incurred the resentment of Warburton, and, as Lowth puts it, was whipped by him at the cart's tail, in the notes to the ‘Divine Legation,’ ‘the ordinary place of his literary executions.’ One of his pieces, ‘An Essay on the Nature, Design, and Origin of Sacrifices,’ 1748, was translated by Semler into German, 1778.
[Memoirs of the Life and Writings … by John Disney, D.D., 1785 (this is chiefly a survey of his writings); Masters's Hist. of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1831, p. 251; Gardiner's Admission Registers of St. Paul's School; Sloane MS. (Brit. Mus.) No. 4319, ff. 70–91, containing letters from Sykes to Dr. Birch; Addit. MS. (Brit. Mus.) No. 32556, ff. 154, 241, letters of Sykes to Dr. Cox Macro; Monthly Review, lxxiii. 207–16 (a review of Disney's Memoirs); Gent. Mag. 1785, pp. 369–71; Maty's New Review, 1786, p. 17; Monk's Life of Bentley, 1833, i. 427, ii. 66–73; Perry's Hist. of the Church of England, iii. 301; Nichols's Illustrations of Lit. ii. 826.]
SYKES, GODFREY (1825–1866), decorative artist, born at Malton, Yorkshire, in 1825, received his training in the government school of art at Sheffield, to the headmastership of which he succeeded. While at Sheffield he at first painted pictures of rolling-mills, smiths' shops, &c.; but, coming under the influence of Alfred Stevens [q. v.], he developed a remarkable talent for decorative work, and in 1861 was invited to London to assist Captain Francis Fowke [q. v.] on the buildings connected with the horticultural gardens then in course of formation. Some of the arcades were entrusted to him, and to his successful treatment of them with terra-cotta the subsequent popularity of that material was largely due. The new buildings for the South Kensington Museum gave further scope for the exercise of Sykes's powers, and upon the decoration of these he was engaged until his death. His most admired work at the museum is the series of terra-cotta columns which he modelled for the lecture theatre. Of these a set of photographs was published in 1866. His designs for the majolica decorations of the refreshment-rooms he did not live to complete. Some of his general schemes for the decoration of the museum were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862 and 1864. Sykes's style, while based upon the study of Raphael and Michael Angelo, was thoroughly individual, and characterised by a fine taste and sense of proportion. He died at Old Brompton, London, on 28 Feb. 1866, and was buried in the Brompton cemetery. A watercolour drawing of a smith's shop by Sykes is in the South Kensington Museum. At the request of Thackeray he designed the well-known cover of the ‘Cornhill Magazine.’
[Gent. Mag. 1866, i. 604; Art Journal, 1866; Athenæum, 3 March 1866; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers (ed. Armstrong).]
SYKES, Sir MARK MASTERMAN (1771–1823), book-collector, born on 20 Aug. 1771, was eldest son of Sir Christopher Sykes (1749–1801), second baronet, of Sledmere, Yorkshire, by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1803), daughter of William Tatton of Withenshaw, Cheshire. Mark matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 10 May 1788. In 1795 he served the office of high sheriff of the county of York, and in September 1801 succeeded by the death of his father to the baronetcy and estates. On 14 May 1807 he was returned member of parliament for the city of York, and retained his seat till 1820, when he retired on account of ill-health.
