self, 'I have been for certaine yeeres past, and so at present am, one of the inferiour gunners of his Majestie.' Three copies of English verses in praise of the author are prefixed, of which one is by John Bate, the author of 'Mysteries of Nature and Art.' The second part, the geometrical treatise, was especially designed for the use of guns, and is dedicated to 'Sir John Heyden, Lieutenant of his Majesties Ordnance.' The logarithmic tables, which form the third part of the book, were the earliest published in England. A portrait of Babington by J. Droeshout is in the Duke of Devonshire's copy of the work at Chatsworth.
[Babington's work; Chatsworth Libr. Cat.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
BABINGTON, Sir WILLIAM, (d. 1455), judge, of an ancient Northumbrian family, was the second son of Sir John Babington, Knt., of East Brigford in the county of Nottingham, by Benedicta, daughter of Simon Ward, Esq., of Cambridgeshire, who held the offices of escheator (a functionary whose business it was to safeguard the interests of the crown in escheats, wardships, and the like incidents of the royal prerogative) for the counties of Northampton and Rutland, and custos of the castle and manor of Okeham. Babington married Margery, daughter of Sir Peter Martell, Knt., of Chilwell in Nottingham, through whom he became possessed of estates in that place, and by whom he had five sons and five daughters. He was appointed king's attorney on 16 Jan. 1414, and in the following year (11 July 1415) was commanded to take the rank of serjeant-at-law, at that time one of greater dignity than that of king's attorney, but generally shunned as a barren and expensive honour. Accordingly, in company with several other 'apprentices of the law' who were summoned about the same time, he neglected to appear to the writ, and it was only under pressure of an order from parliament (November 1417) that he and his colleagues were induced to comply. This incident is referred to by Pym in his speech in impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham (in 1626) as one which might be distorted, though manifestly irrelevant, into a precedent for the practice of compelling the purchase of titles of honour, which was one of the offences with which the duke was charged. It is about this date (1417) that Babington's name begins to appear with frequency in the year books. His rise henceforward must have been rapid, for he was appointed chief baron of the exchequer in 1419, and in 1420 justice of the common bench. In 1423 he became chief justice of the common bench, and so continued until 1436, when he retired. In that year his name appears in the list of those called upon to contribute to the loan raised for the purpose of infusing new vigour into the war in France, the sum exacted from him being 100l. He endowed the Babington chantry at Flaforth in Nottinghamshire with some houses and rents, and is said by Foss to have founded 'a chantry for two chaplains at the altar of St. Catherine in the church at Thurgarton' in the same county. There occurs in the St. Alban's Registry the following memorandum: 'For one cup given to W. Babington, Knt., Chief Justice of the Common Bench, for favours done to the Monastery, c. s.' Babington died in 1455, and was buried at Lenton Priory in Nottinghamshire.
[Burke's Landed Gentry; Foss's Judges; Rot. Parl. iv. 107, 1353; State Trials, ii. 1315, 1353; Dugdale's Chronica Series, 57, 58, 62; Proceedings of the Privy Council, 316, 327; Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem et Escætarum, iv. 263, 298.]
BABINGTON, WILLIAM (1756–1833), physician and mineralogist, was born at Portglenone, near Coleraine, in the county of Antrim, Ireland. He was first apprenticed to a practitioner at Londonderry, and afterwards completed his medical education at Guy's Hospital, London, but without at that time taking a medical degree. In 1777 he was made assistant surgeon to Haslar (Naval) Hospital, and held this appointment four years. He then obtained the position of apothecary to Guy's Hospital, and also lectured on chemistry in the medical school attached to the hospital. Of these appointments Babington made stepping-stones to a higher professional position. He resigned the post of apothecary, and, having obtained the necessary degree of M.D. from the university of Aberdeen in 1795, was in the same year elected physician to Guy's Hospital. In 1796 he was licentiate of the College of Physicians, and remained so till 1827, when he received the unusual honour of being elected fellow by special grace. In 1831 he was made honorary M.D. by the university of Dublin. He ceased to be physician to Guy's in 1811.
Dr. Babington was a very able and successful physician, whose skill and knowledge are attested by the general verdict of his contemporaries; while a not less unanimous voice testifies to the elevation and purity of his character. 'History does not supply us,' says Dr. Munk, 'with a physician more loved or more respected than was Dr. Babington.'
