(Star, London, 1818 and 1821; Darter, Memoirs of an Octogenarian; Reading School Poems, ed. Valpy, 1804). His adaptation of Shakespeare's ‘King John’ was performed at Covent Garden in 1803.
In 1787 Valpy was collated to the rectory of Stradishall, Suffolk. He retired from the headmastership in 1830, his youngest son succeeding him; but he still retained partial control, and took the upper sixth. He died at Earl's Terrace, Kensington, on 28 March 1836, and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery. It is said that he twice refused a bishopric.
Valpy married, first, in 1778, Martha, daughter of John Cornelius of Caundé, Guernsey; secondly, in 1782, Mary, daughter of Henry Benwell of Caversham, Oxfordshire. By his first wife he had one daughter, and by his second wife a family of ten children. His second son, Abraham John Valpy [q. v.], is separately noticed. His publications, in addition to sermons, plays, and contributions to Young's ‘Annals of Agriculture,’ were:
- ‘Poetical Blossoms,’ 1772.
- ‘Greek Grammar,’ 1809.
- ‘Latin Grammar,’ 1809.
- ‘Elements of Mythology,’ 1815.
- ‘Greek Delectus,’ 1815.
- ‘Latin Delectus,’ 1816.
$ ‘Poetical Chronology of History,’ 1816; and several other school-books. There is a fine portrait of Valpy, painted by Opie and engraved by C. Turner, in the possession of Canon Valpy of Winchester; and his pupils placed a bust of him in St. Lawrence's Church, Reading.
Valpy's youngest son, Francis Edward Jackson Valpy (1797–1882), born at Reading on 22 Feb. 1797, was educated at Reading and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Bell scholar, and graduated B.A. in 1819, and M.A. in 1824. He succeeded his father in 1830 as headmaster of Reading school; but under him the number of scholars sank in a few years from nearly two hundred to thirty. He inherited his father's scholarship and eloquence, but lacked his powers of organising and teaching. He resigned, and was for a time master of Burton-on-Trent school. In 1854 he purchased the advowson of Garveston rectory, Norfolk. He died on 28 Nov. 1882, and is buried at Garveston. He married, first, in 1825, Eliza, daughter of John Pullen of Canonbury; and, secondly, in 1866, Mary, daughter of John Champion of Guernsey. He was a good Greek scholar, and published several school-books, etymological dictionaries of Greek and Latin, and editions of Sophocles's ‘Ajax’ and ‘Electra.’
[Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; information from the Rev. W. Charles Eppstein and others; Gent. Mag. 1836, i. 553; Literary Gazette, 1854, p. 254; Coates's Reading, p. 346; Times, 5 April 1836; Macleane's Hist. of Pembroke College (Oxford Hist. Soc.), 1897, p. 387; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Baker's Biogr. Dram.]
VANAKEN, JOSEPH (1699?-1749), portrait-painter. [See Van Haecken.]
VANBRUGH or VANBURGH, Sir JOHN (1664–1726), dramatist and architect, born in the parish of St. Nicolas Acons, and christened 24 Jan. 1663–4, was the son of Giles Vanbrugh (1631–1689), who married in 1660 Elizabeth, fifth and youngest daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton, nephew and heir of Sir Dudley Carleton, viscount Dorchester [q. v.] His grandfather, Gillis van Brugg of Ghent (who was probably related to Van den Bergh, the pupil of Rubens, born at Ypres in 1615), emigrated from West Flanders, obtained letters of denization from James I, resided as a merchant in the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook (Misc. Gen. et Herald. ii. 116), became a churchwarden, and was on 21 June 1646 buried in St. Stephen's Church. The dramatist's father, Giles, migrated from London to Chester in 1667, and set up as a sugar-baker. He was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Chester, on 19 July 1689 (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 232). His will was proved on 24 July 1689 by the widow, who survived until 13 Aug. 1711, and was buried at Thames Ditton (for an abstract of the will, see ib. 2nd ser. i. 117). Sir John's first cousin, William Vanbrugh, was nominated by Evelyn for the secretaryship of the Greenwich Hospital commission, 31 May 1695, subsequently became secretary and comptroller of the treasury chamber, and died on 20 Nov. 1716. ‘Mr. George Vanbrugh,’ song-writer, who flourished 1710–25, was probably the son of this William (cf. Brit. Mus. Cat. Music).
After education, in all probability at Chester grammar school, John Vanbrugh was sent in 1683 to France, where he received his architectural training. Yet his stay in France was brief, as he was back in London by the close of 1685, and early in the new year he received a commission in Owen Maccarthy's company in the Earl of Huntingdon's regiment (commission dated Whitehall, 30 Jan. 1685–6). The regiment was originally formed by Huntingdon in June 1685, and after his death in 1701 became known as the 13th foot, or East Somerset regiment. Vanbrugh subsequently became a captain in this regiment (Comm. to ‘Jno. Van Brook’ dated 10 March 1702, see Dalton, Army Lists, iii. 409). In the summer of 1690 Vanbrugh was seized at Calais upon
