MIDDIMAN, Samuel, an eminent English landscape engraver, was born in 1746. A pupil of Woollett, he in his best plates displayed a vigour, taste, and intelligence, and an adroit management of the graver, that would have done no discredit to his master. He engraved several of the pictures of Gainsborough, Barret, and Zuccarelli, as well as one or two of Berghem's, and some prints in Boydell's Shakspeare. Of a smaller size he published a series of "Select Views of English Scenery," which are excellent in their way. He died in 1818.—J. T—e.
MIDDLETON, Conyers, was born at York in 1683, and was the son of the Rev. William Middleton, rector of Hinderwell near Whitby. After receiving from his father the earlier part of his education he entered Trinity college, Cambridge, and was elected a fellow in 1706. On the visit of George I. to the university in 1717, Middleton was with others made a doctor of divinity by royal mandate, from all of whom Bentley, professor of divinity, demanded a fee of four guineas in addition to the gratuity usual on such occasions, Middleton paid under protest; litigation followed in the vice-chancellor's court; and Bentley, for denying its authority, was by a grace of the senate denuded of all his degrees.—(See Bentley.) Middleton attacked Bentley in several keen and personal pamphlets; and for a libel contained in one of them, at the suit of his great antagonist, a verdict was obtained against him. Middleton was soon after elected principal librarian of the university, its books having been increased by the royal gift of the late Bishop Moore's collection; and in 1723 he published a "Method for the arrangement of the library." His fondness of books, and his championship against Bentley, had suggested to his friends the creation of this office. On the death of his wife Middleton, along with Lord Coleraine, made a sojourn on the continent, spending in 1724 a considerable period in Rome. When he returned he renewed the action against Bentley, who refunded the money. It was not, however, the value of the money which prolonged and embittered the contest. At this time he published a tract to show that the medical profession was held in small esteem in ancient Italy—an attack on a recent publication of Dr. Mead; and in 1729 appeared his famous "Letter from Rome," attempting to show how modern Romanism was but a perpetuation of ancient paganism, with almost no change save that of name. The dissertation is ingenious and striking; the resemblance of ritual or worship produced being sometimes far-fetched, but often peculiarly and wondrously exact in correspondence. The question is, Is the coincidence in legend and practice only incidental, or is it of designed imitation or borrowed origin? Middleton's answer to the question is distinct; and he handles it with a breadth, freedom, and zest which raised among his readers considerable doubts of his own belief in Christianity. The Woodwardian professorship of mineralogy was at this time conferred upon him, and he held the office till 1734. In the following year he published a "Dissertation on the origin of printing in England," ascribing it to Caxton at Westminster. In 1741 he published by subscription his best known work, "The History of the Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero," in 2 vols. 4to, London. The profits arising from three thousand subscriptions, which Lord Hervey was the principal means of securing, enabled him to buy a small estate about six miles from Cambridge; and here he chiefly resided in lettered leisure during the residue of his life. In 1743 he published the "Epistles of Cicero to Brutus, and of Brutus to Cicero," with a Latin text on the opposite page, and notes in English. In 1749 appeared his "Free Inquiry into the miraculous powers which are supposed to have subsisted in the christian church from the earliest ages through several successive centuries." In the preface he fathers the theory on Locke. The freedom of this inquiry was regarded with perhaps greater suspicion than the results of it. A host of disputants entered the field, and to some of those earliest in it Middleton replied; and he left a more general reply to Drs. Dodwell and Church, published after his death Middleton died at his house at Hildersham, 28th July, 1750. His works were collected after his death in four volumes quarto, 1752. The "Life of Cicero" has always been a popular biography, written in an elegant style, and giving us a good delineation of the great orator and statesman. But Middleton's pretension to originality of research is now justly questioned; for Parr has satisfactorily shown that he borrowed, without acknowledgment, the greater part of his materials from the Scottish Bellendenus "De Statu."—(See Bellenden.) In fact, the same sin has been charged against the "Letter from Rome," the allegation being that it is largely indebted, and without acknowledgment, to a Latin treatise, the first part of which was published at Halle in 1714. Nay, Wolff has surmised, too, that Middleton's earlier dissertation, "De Medicorum Romæ degentium conditione ignobili et servili," is based upon a volume published at Leyden in 1671. Middleton also wrote against Bentley's proposed edition of the New Testament, against Waterland and Bishop Sherlock's Discourses on Prophecy. He published also on "Roman Antiquities" and on the "Roman Senate."—J. E.
MIDDLETON, Erasmus, author of a dictionary of arts and sciences, and editor of the Biographia Evangelica, 4 vols. 8vo., became rector of Turvey in Bedfordshire. Macgowan's satire, The Shaver, was written on the occasion of Middleton's being expelled from Oxford along with other five young men, towards the end of last century. Middleton had strong sympathies with the Methodists, and laboriously endeavoured to promote their views. His "Dictionary" is of little value.
MIDDELTON, Hugh. See Myddelton.
MIDDLETON, John, Earl of, a Scottish military officer and statesman, who took a prominent part in public affairs during the evil days of Charles II., was descended from an ancient family long seated in the county of Kincardine. At an early age he adopted the profession of arms, and served in Hepburn's regiment during the religious wars in France. On his return to his own country he joined the parliamentary army in the first civil war, and in 1642 was appointed lieutenant-general under Sir William Waller. He is next found serving in the Scottish covenanting army, and contributed to the defeat of the royalists at the Bridge of Dee and at Philiphaugh in 1645. In the following year he commanded the forces which raised the siege of Inverness, and compelled Montrose, his former commander, to sign a capitulation and to leave the kingdom. He was appointed quartermaster-general of the cavalry in the Scottish army which the duke of Hamilton led into England to rescue Charles I. from the republicans, and was wounded and taken prisoner at Preston, August 17th, 1648. He made his escape, however, and next year appeared in the highlands at the head of a body of royalists, which was attacked and dispersed by Colonel Strachan in 1650. He fought with conspicuous courage at the battle of Worcester in 1651, where he was severely wounded, taken prisoner, and sent to the Tower. Once more he made his escape and contrived to join Charles II. at Paris, by whom he was sent to the highlands in 1653 to take the command of the royalists in arms there. But they were surprised and defeated at Lochgarry, 26th July, 1654, and Middleton once more escaped to the continent, where he remained till the Restoration in 1660. His star was now in the ascendant. He was created an earl, appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland, and royal commissioner to the parliament. He soon showed himself well fitted for the work he was appointed to do. Aided by the base subserviency of the Estates, he annulled all the proceedings of the various parliaments which had been held since 1633, and in a brief space of time overturned the entire fabric of the civil and religious liberties of the country. Common decency even was set at nought by him and his miserable and abandoned associates, who were almost always in a state of intoxication. The commissioner himself often took his place on the throne in such a helpless state, that the parliament had to be adjourned. The judicial murder of Argyll, whose estates Middleton coveted, and of James Guthrie, who had two years before pronounced upon him a sentence of excommunication; the overthrow of the presbyterian church; the expulsion of four hundred covenanting ministers, and other oppressive measures—followed in rapid succession, and rendered Middleton's administration both odious and contemptible. His quarrel with Lauderdale completed his downfall, and in 1663 he was deprived of all his offices and reduced to poverty. He was subsequently appointed governor of Tangier, where he died in 1673 in consequence of an injury received by falling down stairs in a state of intoxication.—J. T.
MIDDLETON, Thomas, born about 1570, was associated with Johnson, Massinger, Fletcher, and Rowley, in the composition of various dramatic pieces, and was himself the author of a very large number. He flourished in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., Dodsley's Collection contains three of Middleton's plays. "It was originally the opinion of Stevens and Malone that a play by Thomas Middleton, entitled 'The Witch,' had preceded Macbeth, and that Shakspeare was consequently indebted to Middleton for the general idea of the witch
