lished) a funeral sermon for John Abernethy (1680-1740) [q. v.] In 1762 the Stafford Street congregation amalgamated with that in Wood Street, when Hears became colleague to Samuel Bruce, father of William Bruce (1757-1841) [q. v.] A new meeting-house was built for the united congregation in Strand Street; Mears preached the opening sermon on 22 Jan. 1764. He died on 11 Oct. 1767. Armstrong says 'he died in 1768, about the eighty-fifth year of his age, having been fifty-nine years a minister;' this last statement must be corrected to forty-seven years; he was probably ordained as soon as possible, and therefore born late in 1694 or early in 1695, making his age at death seventy-two. He left one son, who settled in Calcutta, and a daughter, who married John Brown, presbyterian minister at Waterford. A portrait was engraved by R. Hunter.
He was author of:
- ‘A Catechism … In three Parts; for the use of Adult Persons,’ London, 1732, 12mo, often reprinted, and in general use, as superseding the Westminster ‘shorter catechism,’ in Irish non-subscribing congregations till the present century; the last edition, Belfast, 1818, 16mo, ‘revised and recommended by the Presbytery of Antrim,’ is virtually a new catechism on the basis of Mears's.
- ‘A Short Explanation … of the Lord's Supper,’ Dublin, 1758, 12mo; mainly incorporated in ‘Forms of Devotion … By J. Leland, J. Duchal, I. Weld, and J. Mears,’ Dublin, 1772, 16mo.
[Armstrong's Short Account of the General Fund, 1815, p. 77; Armstrong's Appendix to Martineau's Ordination Service, 1829, pp. 75, 99 sq.; Reid's Hist. Presb. Church in Ireland (Killen), 1867, iii. 131, 166, 184, 191; Witherow's Hist. and Lit. Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland, 1880, ii. 26 sq.; Killen's Hist. Congr. Presb. Church in Ireland, 1886, pp. 104, 185, 207 sq.; Irwin's Hist. Presbyterianism in Dublin, 1890, pp. 286 sq.; Records of General Synod of Ulster, 1890, i. 456, 486, 518; Campbell's manuscript Sketches of the Hist. of Presb. in Ireland, 1803.]
MEATH, Lords of. [See Lacy, Hugh de, first Lord, d. 1186; Lacy, Walter, second Lord, d. 1241.]
MECHI, JOHN JOSEPH (1802–1880), agriculturist, born in London 22 May 1802, was third son of Giacomo Mechi, a citizen of Bologna, who early in life settled in England, was naturalised, and obtained a post at Kensington Palace in the household of George III. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of J. Beyer of Poland Street, London. John at the age of sixteen was placed as a clerk in a house in Walbrook in the Newfoundland trade, where he remained ten years, By great care and industry he was enabled in 1828 to set up on his own account as a cutler in a small shop at 130 Leadenhall Street, whence he removed to No. 4 in the same street in 1830. Between 1830 and 1840 he realised a handsome fortune by the 'magic razor strop' which bears his name After the Crimean war and the extension of the beard movement the sale fell off to the extent of 1,500l. a year. On 10 Nov. 1840 he took out a patent for 'improvements in apparatus to be applied to lamps in order to carry off heat and the products of consumption.' This was for the outside shop-window lamps since become so well known. From 1859 to 1869 he was in partnership with Charles Bazan, and then gave up his city business and removed to 112 Regent Street.
In 1841, after attentively studying English farming, he resolved to attempt some improvements in agriculture, and accordingly purchased for 3,400l. a farm of about 130 acres at Tiptree Heath, one of the least productive districts in Essex. Here he tried deep drainage and the application of steam power, and persevered until he brought his farm into such a state of productiveness that it realised annually on an average a handsome profit. The press acknowledged the services he had rendered to agricultural science by the introduction of modern processes into his model farm. He was appointed to the shrievalty of London in 1856, and in 1858 elected an alderman of the city. He was a member of the council of the Society of Arts, and was a juror in the department of art and science at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and at the Industrial Exhibition at Paris in 1855. His well-known publication, 'How to Farm Profitably,' 1857, had in various forms a circulation of ten thousand copies.
The failure of the Unity Joint Stock Bank in 1866, of which he was a governor, and an unfortunate connection with the Unity Fire and General Life Assurance Office, caused him such heavy losses that, instead of becoming lord mayor, he was in August 1866 obliged to resign his aldermanic gown. Many bad seasons followed at Tiptree farm, particularly that of 1879, and at last, worn out with diabetes and broken-hearted, his affairs were put in liquidation on 14 Dec. 1880. He died at Tiptree Hall on 26 Dec. 1880, and was buried in Tiptree Church on 1 Jan. 1881. He married first, in 1823, Fanny Frost, and secondly, in 1846, Charlotte, daughter of Francis Ward of Chillesford, Suffolk. A subscription was made for his widow and daughters.
