Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/302

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
AUB
274
AUB

remained for nine years on the island, and drew up a notice of its Flora. He also introduced many valuable plants into the island. He was subsequently sent to Guiana, and reached the island of Cayenne in 1762. He made extensive collections of plants, and on his return to Paris in 1765, he published his "History of the Plants of French Guiana." He died at Paris on 6th May, 1778. His herbarium was afterwards purchased by Sir Joseph Banks, and is now in the British Museum.—J. H. B.

AUBRÉE, René, a French general, born at Rennes, 1763; killed at the siege of Saragossa, December 1, 1808. His name is inscribed on the bronze tablets of Versailles.

AUBREY or AWBREY, William, was born at Brecknock in 1529, and became regius professor of law at Oxford. He was appointed a member of the council of the Welch marches, vicar-general to the archbishop of Canterbury, a master in chancery, and a master of requests to the queen. He was one of the commissioners on the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, and laboured hard to save her life,—a circumstance which secured for his family the favour of James I. He died in 1595.—J. W. S.

AUBREY, John, a well-known antiquary, was born at Easton-Piers, near Malmesbury, on the 3d November, 1626. His father belonged to an old and wealthy family of Herefordshire, and the estate on which he was born was the property of his mother. John was her eldest son, and was first educated at Malmesbury under a preceptor who, many years before, had Thomas Hobbes for one of his pupils. In 1642 he entered Trinity college, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, and remained at the university four years. In 1646 he went to London, and became a student of the Middle Temple, and after that period his principal residence through life was in the metropolis. He became, about the time of his settlement in London, a member of Harrington's famous Rota club. After the Restoration he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society soon after its foundation in 1662. In 1660 he went over to Ireland, and narrowly escaped shipwreck; and in 1664 he paid a brief visit to France. At his father's death in 1643, he owned estates in several counties; but in 1670, by lawsuits and mismanagement, almost every acre had gone, and he was left in comparative destitution. In 1664 he was married, but not happily. When he was about forty-seven years of age he began his great work, "Perambulations, or Survey of the County of Surrey." At the same time, through his acquaintance with Anthony Wood, he prepared "Minutes of Lives" of eminent men for the Athenæ Oxoniensis. The lives of Hobbes, Milton, and others, were of Aubrey's composition. Blackburn's life of Hobbes, in Latin, was chiefly furnished from Aubrey, for though a much younger man, he was on intimate terms with the philosopher. He had also contributed largely to Dugdale's "Monasticon Anglicanum." The "History of Wiltshire" occupied a large portion of his later years, but he left it unfinished to the care of Janner, then a young and eager antiquarian. In 1696 he published a volume of "Miscellanies," dedicated to the earl of Abingdon, a book which has been twice reprinted. Lady Long of Darcot, Wilts, had been his benefactor for years; and on a journey from London to her residence, he died at Oxford in 1697, and was buried in St. Michael's church of that city. Most of his compositions, such as his "Architectonica Sacra," were left in MSS. at his death. "Old Aubrey," as he is usually termed, was a most curious and diligent collector of very interesting gossip. He knew Hobbes, Milton, Dryden, Hooke, Samuel Butler, Boyle, and others, while Shakspeare, Bacon, Ben Jonson, and Raleigh, were well known to others, with whom Aubrey, so as to treasure up his coveted scraps of information, delighted to converse. The person, features, dress, habits, peculiarities, and sayings, of such men and many others, were noted down minutely by him, and told in his own quaint and antique style. As may be seen in his Miscellany, he was somewhat credulous and rather superstitious; but his Lives are rich in odd and authentic anecdotes. The Wiltshire Topographical Society published, in 1845, a life of Aubrey, written by Mr. Britton, and an edition of the Lives, &c., was published in 1813.—J. E.

AUBRIET, Claude, a French natural history artist. He was born at Chalons-sur-Marne in 1657, and died at Paris in 1743. He was appointed artist to the king of France, and accompanied the celebrated botanist Tournefort in his voyage to the Levant. On his return to Paris he replaced Jean Joubert, and continued the execution of a series of drawings of plants on vellum which had been begun by Nicholas Robert. The engravings illustrating the works of Tournefort and Sebastian Vaillant are after designs by Aubriet. In the Bibliotheque Nationale of France are five volumes, in folio, of representations of shells, fishes, birds, and butterflies, executed by Aubriet. De Candolle has named a genus of plants Aubrietia, belonging to the natural order Cruciferae, after this distinguished artist. (Nouvelle Biographie Generale.)—E. L.

AUBRION, Jean, a French chronicler of the sixteenth century, who was employed by his fellow-citizens of Metz, in several negotiations with Charles the Bold of Burgundy.

AUBRIOT, Hughes, a provost of Paris in the fourteenth century. He built the Bastile, in which he was afterwards imprisoned until the year 1381, when he was liberated and chosen a leader of the insurgent "Maillotins." He escaped from Paris, however, and retired to Burgundy, where he died.

AUBRIOT, Jean, a bishop of Chalons-sur-Saone, who lived in the earlier part of the fourteenth century.

AUBRUSSEL, Ignace, a jesuit of Verdun in France, was born in 1663, and died in 1730, in Spain, whither he had gone to conduct the education of the prince of Asturias.

AUBRY, Charles, a Latin poet, who lived about the beginning of the eighteenth century. He published:—1. "Ad Ludovicum XIV. Epigrammata," Paris, 1686; "Ecloga in obitum ducis Aurelianensis," Paris, 1701, in 4to; "Victores Galli ad Rhenum, duce Hectore de Villars," Paris, 1702, in 4to; "Gallorum ad Landaviam et in pugna Spirensi duplex palma, Aquila et Gallus, fabula," Paris, 1703, in 4to.

AUBRY, Charles Louis, a French economist and writer on agriculture, born at Ferté-Milon in 1746, died at Paris in 1817; author, also, of a treatise on the weights, measures, and money of all nations, and another on the conversion of the old money of France into modern.

AUBRY, Claude Charles, a French general, born at Bourg-en-Brasse, 25th October, 1775, died at Leipsic, 10th November, 1813. He entered the French army as under-lieutenant of artillery in 1792, and served with distinction in the campaign of the Milanese in 1800, in the French expedition to St. Domingo, in the campaign against Austria in 1809, the invasion of Russia in 1812, and the campaign of 1813 in Germany. He attained the rank of general of brigade in 1809, and, in 1812, that of general of division. He fell at the battle of Leipsic, having both his thighs shot off by a cannon ball.—G. M.

AUBRY DE MONTDIDIER, a French knight of the latter portion of the fourteenth century and time of Charles V., known in history from his connection with the story of the "Dog of Montargis." Aubry, in 1371, was assassinated by a companion in arms, called Richard de Macaire. The murderer would have escaped from the penalty of the law, but, from the moment of the crime, was constantly pursued by the faithful dog of the dead man. The king hearing of the circumstance, conceived the notion of a combat between the dog and Macaire, and ordered it to take place at Paris on one of the little islands of the Seine. Macaire was armed with a mace, but was dragged down by the invincible ferocity of his antagonist, and confessed his crime. The story has given rise to several ballads and dramatic pieces, which have made it familiar both in France and Germany. The first picture exhibited in Edinburgh by Rosa Bonheur was "The Dog of Montargis," a painting of great and unmistakable merit, but one that attracted no attention, as the artist had not then acquired a "reputation."—P. E. D.

AUBRY DU BOUCHET, born at Ferté-Milon about 1740. He was elected deputy to the states-general for the bailliage of Villers-Cotterets. He voted for all the innovations, and proposed a new geographical division of France.

AUBRY, Etienne, a French painter, born at Versailles in 1745, died at Rome in 1781. He was particularly successful in painting family scenes, interiors, and other similar subjects.

AUBRY, François, member of the National Convention at the period of the French revolution, was born at Paris about 1750, and died in England in 1802. Though an actor in the revolution, he was distinguished, throughout that troubled period, by a remarkable degree of moderation. The accounts we have of his public conduct are in many points contradictory, but, notwithstanding what has been said to the contrary, it would appear that he was opposed to the putting of Louis to death. On the 4th April, 1795, he succeeded Carnot in the direction of military operations as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, but retired on the 2nd of August following. He subse-