THE GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

A NEW EDITION.

VOL. XXVIII.

Printed by NICHOLS, SON, and Bentley,
Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, London.

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY:

CONTAINING

AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIVES AND WRITINGS

OF THE

MOST EMINENT PERSONS

IN EVERY NATION;

PARTICULARLY THE BRITISH AND IRISH;

FROM THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS TO THE PRESENT TIME.

A NEW EDITION,

REVISED AND ENLARGED BY

ALEXANDER CHALMERS, F. S. A.

VOL. XXVIII.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. NICHOLS AND SON ;

F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; T. PAYNE ;
OTRIDGE AND SON; G. AND W. NICOL; G. WILKIE; J. WALKER; W,
LOWNDES; T. EGERTON; LACKINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO.; J. CARPENTER;
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN; CADELL AND DAVIES; LAW
AND WHITTAKER; J. BOOKER; J. CUTHELL; CLARKE AND SONS; J. AND
A. ARCH; J. HARRIS; BLACK, PARBURY, AND ALLEN; J. BLACK; J. BOOTH;
J. MAWMAN; GALE AND FENNER; R. H. EVANS; J. HATCHARD; J. MURRAY;
BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY; E. BENTLEY; OGLE AND CO.; W. GINGER;
RODWELL AND MARTIN; P. WRIGHT; J. DEIGHTON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE;
CONSTABLE AND co, EDINBURGH; AND WILSON AND SON, York,

A NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

SIMEON OF DURHAM, an eminent English historian, and the contemporary of William of Malmsbury, lived in the twelfth century. He both studied and taught the sciences, and particularly the mathematics at Oxford, and became precentor to the church of Durham. He died probably soon after the year 1130, where his history ends. He took great pains in collecting our ancient monuments, especially in the north of England, after they had been scattered by the Danes in their devastations of that country. From these he composed a history of the kings of England from the year 616 to 1130, with some smaller historical pieces. It was continued by John, prior of Hexham, to the year 1156. This work, and Simeon's account of the church of Durham, are printed among Twisden's "Decem Scriptores;" but of the latter a separate edition was published in 1732, 8vo, by Thomas Bedford.'

SIMEON, surnamed METAPHRASTES, from his having written the lives of the saints in a diffuse manner, was born of noble parents at Constantinople, in the tenth century, and was well educated, and raised himself by his merit to very high trust under the reigns of Leo, the philosopher, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus his son. It is said, that when sent on a certain occasion by the emperor to the island of Crete, which the Saracens were about to surprize, a contrary wind carried his ship to the isle of Pharos. There he met with an anchorite, who advised him to write the life of Theoctista, a female saint of Lesbos. With this he complied, and we may presume, found some pleasure 1 Cave, vol. II.