Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Raine, Matthew
RAINE, MATTHEW (1760–1811), schoolmaster and divine, was born on 20 May 1760 at Gilling in the North Riding of Yorkshire. His father, of the same name, was for many years vicar of St. John's, Stanwick, and rector of Kirkby Wiske, and also master of a school at Hartforth, near Richmond, in the same county. His mother, Esther, was of a Cumberland family. After receiving the elements of education under his father, with William Beloe [q. v.] for a schoolfellow, he was admitted a scholar of the Charterhouse, on the king's nomination—obtained, it is said (Beloe, Sexagenarian, annotated copy, i. 10), through the interest of Lord Percy, a patron of his father—in June 1772. In 1778 he went up as an exhibitioner to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as sixteenth wrangler in 1782 (M.A. 1785, B.D. 1794, D.D. 1799). In 1783 and 1784 he gained the members' university prize, and in the latter year was made fellow of his college.
After some time spent in tuition, Raine was appointed headmaster of Charterhouse school on 7 June 1791, in succession to Dr. Berdmore. Charles Burney was one of his competitors. Here he remained till his death. In 1803 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1809 was chosen preacher of Gray's Inn. In July 1810 he was presented to the rectory of Hallingbury, Essex, in the gift of the governors of the Charterhouse, and died unmarried on 17 Sept. 1811.
He was buried in the chapel of the Charterhouse, where there is a gravestone in the south aisle inscribed M. R., and a mural tablet on the adjoining wall by Flaxman, with an epitaph by Samuel Parr. Parr and Porson were his intimate friends. His choice collection of classical books, including many Aldines and rare editions, went by bequest, after the death of his brother Jonathan, to the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iv. 323). This brother, a schoolfellow of Porson's at Eton, and afterwards at Trinity (B.A. 1787, M.A. 1790), was member of parliament for Newport in Cornwall (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 94 n.)
Raine is described as eloquent in the pulpit and dignified in manner. The latter part of this description is borne out by his portrait, reputed to be by Hoppner, in the master's lodge at the Charterhouse. The Society of Schoolmasters owed much to his liberality. His only published works are two sermons.
[Parr's Works, 1828, iv. 612; references in Parriana; Beloe's Septuagenarian, i. 9–12, 245–246; Annual Biography, 1819, p. 30; Gent. Mag. lxxxii. pt. i. p. 403, lxxxi. pt. ii. p. 294; Blanchard's Charterhouse, 1849, p. 108; Registers of Charterhouse Chapel (Harleian Society's publications), xviii. 67; Haig-Brown's Charterhouse Past and Present; Watson's Life of Porson, 1861, pp. 20, 313, 337; information from Canon Elwyn, master of the Charterhouse, Rev. H. V. Le Bas, and Professor John E. B. Mayor.]