Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/16

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
O'Flaherty
10
Ogborne

of the monarchy in England has not had the effect of redressing his wrongs.

A Latin poem by O'Flaherty on the birth of James, prince of Wales, was published at Dublin in 1688, under the title of 'Serenissimi Walliæ Principia, Magnæ Britanniæ et Hiberniæ, cum appendicibus dominiis hueredis conspicui Genethliacon.'

Edward Lhuyd [q. v.] of Oxford, who visited O'Flaherty in 1700, described him as 'affable and learned;' but, added Lhuyd, the late revolution in Ireland had 'reduced him to great poverty, and destroyed bis books and papers.' In 'Archæologia Britannica,' published in 1707. Lhuyd bore testimony to the erudition of O'Flaherty.

Sir Thomas Molyneux [q. v.] saw O'Flaherty in April 1709 living 'in a miserable condition at Park, some three hours to the west of Galway.' 'I expected,' wrote Molyneux, 'to have seen here some old Irish manuscripts, but his ill-fortune has stripped him of these as well as his other goods, so that he has nothing now left but some few pieces of his own writing, and a few old rummish books of history, printed.' O'Flaherty died on 8 April 1718, and was buried within his house at Parke, co. Galway. His treatise, left in manuscript, entitled 'Ogygia vindicated against the Objections of Sir George Mackenzie,' was published at Dublin in 1775 by Charles O'Conor [q. v.] It formed an octavo volume, divided into twenty-one chapters, the last of which was unfinished in the manuscript.

Of the 'Ogygia' an inaccurate English version by the Rev. James Hely of Trinity College, Dublin, appeared in two volumes in 1793.

O'Flaherty's 'Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught' was edited by James Hardiman [q. v.] for the Irish Archilogical Society in 1841. The book gives an interesting account of the chief features of the country and of the islands off the coast, and of much of the local history. In this volume were printed original memoranda by O'Flaherty on Borlase's account of Ireland, written in 1682; on Chinese chronology, and on the relations of prelates in Ireland with Canterbury. A reproduction of a letter from O'Flaberty to Edward Lhuyd in 1706 was included among the Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland, edited by the present writer, pt. iv. p. 2, plate xcv.

No vestiges have been found of a work entitled 'Ogygia Christiana,' which O'Flaherty was supposed to have compiled. A collection of unpublished letters of O'Flaherty is now being prepared for the press by the author of the present notice.

[Nicholson's Irish Historical Library. 1724; Ware's Writers of Ireland, 1740; Dissertations on History of Ireland, 1766; Miscellany of Irish Archæol. Soc. Dublin, 1846.]

J. T. G.


O'FLYN, FIACHA (d. 1256), archbishop of Tuam. [See MacFlynn, Florence or Flann.]


OFTFOR (d. 692), bishop of Worcester, also known as Oftoforis, Ostfor, Ostoforus, Osteor, Ostfortus, was a pupil of the abbess Hilda [q. v.]; he studied the scriptures in both her monasteries, Hartlepool and Whitby (Bædæ Hist. Eccl. iv. 23), and at Whitby he discharged the office of the priesthood (Flor. Wig. s.a. 691). He studied also under Theodore of Canterbury, and journeyed to Rome; on his return he preached to the Huiccii in Worcestershire, and led an exemplary life. He was chosen bishop by unanimous consent, and was consecrated by Wilfrid at the command of King, Æthelred of Mercia in 692 (Stubbs, Registr. Sacr. Angl.; not 691, as in Flor. Wig.) His signature is appended to a genuine charter of 692, by which Æthelred granted him the village of Hanbury in Worcestershire (Kemble, Codex Dipl. No. 32). Another charter, in which he signs himself Oftoforis, must belong to the same year (ib. No. 36), for he died in 692. Bale says be wrote homilies (Script. Illustr. No. 85), but the statement is not trustworthy.

[Bædæ Hitt. Eccl. iv. 23; Flor. Wig. anno, pp. 691, 692.]

M. B.


OGBORNE, DAVID (fl. 1740–1761), artist, married and settled before 1740 at Chelmsford, Essex, where he is described in the register as a 'painter' or 'limner.' He gained a certain reputation by his portraits of local provincial monsters, such as a winged fish taken at Battle Bridge, and a calf with six legs produced at Great Baddow; but he painted also a portrait of Edward Bright, a grocer of Maldon, Essex, who weighed 43½ stone, and died 10 Nov. 1750, aged 29 [see under Lambert, Daniel]. This portrait was engraved by James MacArdell [q. v.], and published 1 Jan. 1750, Another of his portraits was of Thomas Wood, the miller of Billericay (see Trans. Royal Coll. of Phys. ii. 259-74, and Mayo, Philosophy of Living, 1837, pp. 85-7).

Ogborne is better known as the artist of 'An exact Perspective View of Dunmow, late the Priory in the County of Essex. With a Representation of the Ceremony and Procession in that Manor, on Thursday the 20 June 1751. Engraved from an Original Painting taken on the Spot by David Ogborne, published January 1752. Engraved by C. Mosley.' This presents the well-known