Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lynam, Robert
LYNAM, ROBERT (1796–1845), miscellaneous writer, son of Charles Lynam, spectacle-maker, of the parish of St. Alphage, London Wall, was born in London on 14 April 1796. He was admitted to Christ's Hospital in March 1806, passed thence as a Grecian in 1814 (Trollope, Hist. of Christ's Hospital, p. 307), graduated B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1818, and proceeded M.A. in 1821. He was appointed assistant mathematical master at Christ's Hospital in 1818, and was promoted in 1820 to be fourth grammar master—a post which he resigned in 1832 for that of assistant chaplain and secretary to the Magdalene Hospital, having previously taken orders. He was St. Matthew's day preacher at Christ's Hospital in 1821 and 1835, and was subsequently curate and lecturer of Cripplegate Without until his death in Bridgewater Square, London, on 12 Oct. 1845. He left a widow and nine children. Lynam's portrait was engraved by Adlard, after Hervé.
Besides some sermons Lynam published: 1. ‘The History of England during the Reign of George III,’ London, 1825; short and perspicuous. 2. ‘The History of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to the Death of Marcus Antoninus,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1850, with portrait; published after the author's death by the Rev. J. T. White, a master at Christ's Hospital; though based too exclusively on Tacitus and Suetonius, it is not without merit, but had the misfortune to appear almost simultaneously with Merivale's ‘Romans under the Empire,’ and never attracted the slightest attention. Lynam is chiefly remembered as an editor. He edited with a memoir, and revised 1. The fifteenth edition of the translation of Charles Rollin's ‘Ancient History,’ 8 vols. 1823. 2. ‘The Complete Works of Philip Skelton, rector of Fintona,’ 6 vols. 1824, dedicated to John Plumtre, dean of Gloucester. 3. ‘The Complete Works of William Paley, with Life and Extracts from his Correspondence,’ 4 vols. 8vo, 1825. 4. ‘The Works of Samuel Johnson,’ 6 vols. 1825. 5. The ‘Edinburgh Mirror’ (1779–80), with introductory preface and notices of the chief contributors [see Mackenzie, Henry, ‘The Man of Feeling’], London, 1826. 6. ‘The British Essayist, with Prefaces Biographical, Historical, and Critical, with Portraits,’ 30 vols. London, 12mo, 1827; a sound compilation, which, however, never succeeded in supplanting Chalmers's ‘British Essayists’ (1803 and 1823) as a library edition.
[Lockhart's Christ's Hospital Exhibitioners, 1885, p. 40; Graduati Cantabrigienses, 1884, p. 334; Gent. Mag. 1828 ii. 637, 1845 ii. 542; Lynam's Works in British Museum Library.]