imp. 1578. This is dedicated to 'Lorde Charles Howard of Effingham.' Some of these devises are of peculiar interest, as they anticipated by more than eighty years the 'Century of Inventions' by the Marquis of Worcester. No. 21 is supposed to be the earliest mention in our language of a ship's log and line, the deviser of which was Humprey Cole, of the Mint in the Tower. No. 75 is a night signal or telegraph, afterwards used by Captain John Smith, and for which he obtained such renown. No. 110 seems to be a curious anticipation of the telescope, apparently borrowed from the Pantometria by Digges (1571), while some have been brought forward as new discoveries at Gravesend within the present century.
Of Bourne's manuscripts three are extant:
- 'The Property or Qualytyes of Glaces [glasses], Acordyng vnto ye severall mackyng pollychynge & gryndyng of them' (Brit. Mus. 'Lansd.,' 121 (13), printed by Halliwell-Phillipps).
- 'A dyscourse as tochying ye Q. maejisties Shypes.' Brit Mus. 'Lansd., '29 (20). All doubt as to the authorship is obviated by a reference to his 'Inventions and devises ' to be found in it.
- A manuscript in three parts (1) 'Of Certayne principall matters belonging vnto great Ordnance;' (2) 'Certayne conclusions of the skale of the backside of the Astrolabe;' (3) 'A litle briefe note howe for to measure plattformes and bodyes and so foorth' (Brit. Mus. 'Sloane,' 3651). Dedicated to Lord Burleigh. The substance of this manuscript is to be found in 'Shooting in Great Ordnance' and 'Treasure for Travellers;' it, however, contains two unpublished drafts in Bourne's hand: a small one of the Thames and Medway, and another on a larger scale of the Thames near Gravesend, with 'plattformes' for the defence of the river. A short study of his writings serves to show that Bourne was a self-taught genius, who, although he had mastered mathematics as then understood in all its branches, did not always succeed in setting forth his acquired knowledge in fairly good English. His sentiments, as expressed in his several addresses to 'ye gentell reader,' are as pious as they are patriotic, the little incident of the fine notwithstanding, which arose doubtless from the negligence of his servants or from preoccupation. He died 22 March 1582-3, leaving a widow and four sons.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit., 1748; Ames's Typogr. Antiq., 1785; Hutton, Math, and Philos. Dict., 1815, i. 244; Halliwell-Phillipps's Kara Mathematica, 1839, p. 32; Cruden's Hist. of Gravesend, 1843, pp. 207-12; Arber's Register of Company of Stationers, 1875, 4to.]
BOURNE, WILLIAM STURGES- (1769–1845), politician, the only son of the Rev. John Sturges, D.D., chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, by Judith, daughter of Richard Bourne, of Acton Hall. Worcester, was born on 7 Nov. 1769. After having been at a private school near Winchester, where he made the acquaintance of Canning, he entered the college where he remained as a commoner until 1786. In the Michaelmas term of that year he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford; and as Canning was at the same house, their friendship was renewed and never interrupted. His degrees were B.A. 26 June 1790, M.A. 28 June 1793, and D.C.L. 15 June 1831. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 23 Nov. 1793, and entered into public life as member for Hastings on 3 July 1798. During his parliamentary career he represented many constituencies in turn: Christchurch from 1802 to 1812 and from 1818 to 1826, Bandon 1815-18, Ashburton 1826-30, and Milburne Port 1830-1. On the death in 1803 of his uncle, Francis Bourne, who had assumed the name of Page, the bulk of his wealth came to Sturges, coupled with the condition that he should assume the name of Bourne. He refused the post of under-secretary of the home department in 1801, but acted as joint-secretary of the treasury from 1804 to 1806, and as a lord of the treasury from 1807 to 1809, when he resigned with Canning. In 1814 he was created an unpaid commissioner for Indian affairs, was raised to the privy council, and from 1818 to 1822 served as a salaried commissioner. Sturges-Bourne had more than once refused higher office in the state; but on the formation, in April 1827, of Canning's administration he consented to hold the seals of the home department. He only retained this place until July in the same year. When he resigned the home department in favour of Lord Lansdowne, he accepted the post of commissioner of woods and forests, and retained his seat in the cabinet. In January 1828 he resigned all his offices with the exception of the post of lord warden of the New Forest, and in February 1831 he retired from parliament. His name is commemorated by an act for the regulation of vestries passed in 1818 (58 Geo. III, c. 69), which is still in force, and is usually called after him Sturges-Bourne's Act. He died at Testwood House, near Southampton, on 1 Feb. 1845, and was buried at Winchester Cathedral. He married, on 2 Feb. 1808, Anne, third daughter of Oldfield Bowles of North Aston, Oxford. His manner was not impressive, and his speech was ineffective; but he had much knowledge of public affairs, and his
