removal of all religious disabilities. He was appointed a queen's counsel in 1852, and became a bencher of his inn the same year, he was judge-advocate of the fleet and standing counsel to the admiralty from 1855 till December 1859, when he succeeded Sir H. S. Keatinge as solicitor-general, and received the honour of knighthood. In June 1861, on the elevation of Sir R. Bethell (Lord Westbury) to the lord chancellorship, Sir William Atherton succeeded to the vacant post of attorney-general. He resigned his office in the autumn of 1863 on account of ill-health; and died at his residence, Westmoreland Terrace, Hyde Park, London, 22 Jan. 1864. He married, in 1843, Agnes Mary, daughter of Mr, Thomas James Hall, chief magistrate at Bow Street. While practising below the bar he published 'An Elementary and Practical Treatise on the Commencement of Personal Actions, and the Proceedings therein to Declaration, in the Superior Courts at Westminster. Comprising the Changes eftected by the Uniformity of Process Act (2 W. 4. c. 39) and recent Rules of Court.' Lond. 1833. 12mo.
[Solicitor's Journal, viii, 3, 42, 247; Times, 23 Jan. 1864; Dod's Parliamentary Companion, (1863).]
ATHLONE, Earl of. [See Ginkel.]
ATHLUMNEY, Lord. [See Somerville.]
ATHOLE, or ATHOLL, Dukes of. [See Murray.]
ATHOLE, or ATHOLL, Earls of. [See Stewart.]
ATHONE, JOHN. [See Acton, John.]
ATKINE, ATKINS, or ETKINS, JAMES (1613?–1687), Scottish bishop, born at Kirkwall about 1613, was the son of Harie Atkine, sheriff of Orkney. He graduated M.A. at Edinburgh, 23 July 1636; and studied divinity at Oxford, 1637-8, under Dr. John Prideaux, then regius professor and rector of Exeter College. He became chaplain to James, marquis of Hamilton, high commissioner to the strongly anti-prelatical general assembly at Glasgow, 1638. He was presented to the living of Birsay, Orkney, 27 July 1641; admitted 26 June 1642, but deposed by the Orkney presbytery, July 1649. In 1650, however, we find Atkine, as moderator of the presbytery, presenting an address to James, marquis of Montrose, expressive of loyalty to Charles II; for this the whole presbytery was deposed by the assembly, and the council of state issued an order for Atkine's apprehension. Warned of this by the clerk of the council. Sir Archibald Primrose, his kinsman, he took refuge in Holland in 1650-3. We find him in Edinburgh in 1653-60, and on 15 May 1661 he received a grant of 100l. on account of his sufferings in the loyal cause. He went to London with Thomas Sydserf (the only survivor of the old hierarchy, and now made bishop of Orkney), and obtained the rectory of Winifrith, Dorset. On 1 Nov. 1676, he was elected bishop of Moray; the patent was issued 5 June 1677, but he was not consecrated till 28 Oct. 1679. He was translated to the see of Galloway, 6 Feb. 1680, by a patent dated 6 March. His loyalty was not servile; in 1686 he took a firm stand in parliament against rescinding the acts against popery; the Earl of Moray, royal commissioner, who opened the parliament, and the chancellor. Lord Perth, had both joined the church of Rome. The obnoxious measure was withdrawn. Atkine died of apoplexy, 15 Nov. 1687, aged seventy-four. He married Anna Rutherford, and had four daughters.
[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scotic.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. II70 ; Grub's Eccl. Hist, of Scotland, 1861, vol. iii.]
ATKINS. [See Atkyns.]
ATKINS, HENRY (1558–1635), physician, born in 1558, was son of Richard Atkins of Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. Matriculating at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1574, he graduated there and afterwards proceeded M.D. at Nantes. In 1588 he became fellow of the College of Physicians, and in 1606 president. He was re-elected in 1607, 1608, 1616, 1617, 1624, and 1625. In 1597 he sailed as physician to the Earl of Essex in the Spanish expedition, but was so sea-sick that he had to be put on shore and resigned the appointment. In 1604 Dr. Atkins was sent by James I to Scotland to bring back his son Charles. A letter of Dr. Atkins' on the child's health, written from Dunfermline, is extant (Thomas, Historical Notes, p. 485). In 1612 he was called into consultation during the last illness of Henry, Prince of Wales, and his opinion (Mayerne, Opera, p. 119) was that the disease was a putrid fever ‘without malignity, except that attending putridity.’ He suggested bleeding. His signature, as one of the king's physicians, stands next to that of Mayerne in the original report of the post-mortem examination (Original State Papers, vol. lxxi. No. 29). In 1611 the king is said to have offered Dr. Atkins the first baronet's patent. In 1618, under the presidency of Dr. Atkins, the College of Physicians issued the first ‘London
