Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mendes, Moses
MENDES, MOSES (d. 1758), poet and dramatist, was only son of James Mendes (d. 1739), stockbroker, of Mitcham, Surrey, and grandson of Fernando Mendes, M.D. [q. v.] He is said to have received part of his education under Dr. William King at St. Mary Hall, Oxford. Though he once intended to become an advocate in Doctors' Commons, he ultimately saw fit to follow his father's business of stockbroking, by which he made a large fortune, and he acquired a fine estate called St. Andrews at Old Buckenham, Norfolk. He passed for a bon-vivant and a wit, was ‘of an agreeable behaviour, entertaining in conversation, and had a very pretty turn for poetry.’ The poet James Thomson was a frequent visitor at his pleasant house at Mitcham (Lysons, Environs, i. 356). In 1744 he made a journey to Ireland, of which he gave a humorous account in a rhymed epistle addressed to a brother-poet, John Ellis. On 19 June 1750 he was created M.A. at Oxford (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1714–1886, iii. 942). He died at Old Buckenham on 4 Feb. 1758 (Probate Act Book, P. C. C. 1758), and was buried there on 8 Feb. By his marriage to Anne Gabrielle, daughter and coheiress of Sir Francis Head, bart., he had two sons, Francis and James Roper, who were authorised to take the surname of Head in lieu of Mendes by royal license dated 11 May 1770, and his grandson, Francis Bond Head [q. v.], was created a baronet on 14 July 1838. Mrs. Mendes married secondly, on 21 March 1760, Captain the Hon. John Roper (1734–1780), and died on 11 Dec. 1771 (Collins, Peerage, 1812, vii. 86–7; will of Moses Mendes registered in P. C. C. 47, Hutton).
Mendes wrote verse with facility, and some of his songs are not wanting in grace. His dramatic pieces are: 1. ‘The Double Disappointment,’ a ballad opera, first performed at Drury Lane on 18 March 1746, and at Covent Garden on 22 March 1759 (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, iv. 181). It owed its success to the cleverly drawn characters of two rival lovers, a fortune-hunting Irishman and Frenchman, and was printed in 1755, 12mo, and 1760, 8vo. 2. ‘The Chaplet,’ a musical entertainment, brought out on 2 Dec. 1749 at Drury Lane, where, thanks to the music by Boyce and the charming acting of Mrs. Clive as Pastora, it had a considerable run (ib. iv. 291). It was printed in 8vo in 1749, 1753, 1756, 1759, 1761, and about 1777. 3. ‘Robin Hood,’ a musical entertainment, which though set to music by Boyce was not so successful. It was produced at Drury Lane on 13 Dec. 1750 (ib. iv. 320), and printed in 8vo in 1751. 4. ‘The Shepherd's Lottery,’ a musical entertainment, acted at Drury Lane on 19 Nov. 1751 without much success, Burney supplying the music (printed in 8vo in 1751 and about 1781). With Paul Whitehead and Dr. Schomberg Mendes produced ‘The Battiad,’ in two cantos, fol. 1751 (reprinted in Dilly's ‘Repository’), a satire on William Battie, M.D. [q. v.] (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iv. 606). The same year he published ‘The Seasons, a Poem in imitation of Spenser,’ fol. 1751 (reprinted in Richardson and Urquhart's ‘Collection’ and in Pearch's ‘Collection’). In the opening lines he mourns the death of James Thomson. Another imitation of Spenser by Mendes, called ‘The Squire of Dames,’ appeared in vol. iv. of Dodsley's ‘Collection of Poems.’ He has also a few miscellaneous pieces in Richardson and Urquhart's ‘Collection,’ 1767 and 1770; while his translation of Maphæus's continuation of Virgil's ‘Æneid’ was included in Pearch's ‘Collection,’ 1775. His humorous epistle to John Ellis, inviting him to supper at the ‘Cock,’ near the Royal Exchange, was first printed from a copy in manuscript in ‘Notes and Queries’ (4th ser. vii. 5).
His only prose work was entitled ‘Henry and Blanch, or the Revengeful Marriage, a Tale taken from the French of “Gil Blas,”’ 4to, 1745; the same story as that of Tancred and Sigismunda, on which Thomson the same year produced a tragedy at Drury Lane.
Mendes's portrait has been engraved by W. Bromley; there is also a bad portrait of him by Hayman.
[European Mag. xxii. 251–2, with portrait; Baker's Biog. Dram. 1812; Wolf and Jacobs's Bibl. Anglo-Judaica, p. 139; Jewish World, 14 Feb. 1873.]