rapidly. He also translated into Latin some of Robert Boyle's works.
Oldenburg's latter days were embittered by a disagreement with his colleague, Robert Hooke [q. v.], the curator to the Royal Society. Hooke complained that Oldenburg had not done justice in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ to his invention of the hair-spring for pocket watches. The quarrel lasted for two years, and was determined by a declaration of the council of the Royal Society, 20 Nov. 1676, that, ‘Whereas the publisher of the “Philosophical Transactions” hath made complaint to the council of the Royal Society of some passages in a late book of Mr. Hooke, entitled “Lampas,” &c., and printed by the printer of the said society, reflecting on the integrity and faithfulness of the said publisher, in his management of the intelligence of the said society; this council hath thought fit to declare, in the behalf of the publisher aforesaid, that they knew nothing of the publication of the said book; and, farther, that the said publisher hath carried himself faithfully and honestly in the management of the intelligence of the Royal Society, and given no just cause for such reflections’ (Ward, Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, pp. 178–82, fol., London, 1711). Oldenburg edited the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ Nos. 1–136 (1664–77). In Maty's ‘Index to the Philosophical Transactions’ his name is attached to thirty-four papers as author or translator. He also edited and wrote the Latin preface to M. Malpighi's ‘Dissertatio epistolica de Bombyce,’ 4to, London, 1669. In the archives of the Royal Society is a draft petition (undated) by Oldenburg for a patent for Huyghens's ‘New Invention of Watches serving as well for ye pocket as otherwise, usefull to find ye Longitudes both at Sea and Land,’ the right in which had been assigned to Oldenburg by the inventor.
Oldenburg died suddenly in September 1677, at Charlton in Kent, leaving a son Rupert, a godson of Prince Rupert, and a daughter Sophia. He married twice. His first wife, who brought him 400l., died in London in 1666. On 11 Aug. 1668 he obtained a license to marry in London a second wife, Dora Katherina, only daughter of John Durie (1596–1680) [q. v.] She brought him ‘an estate in the marshes of Kent,’ worth 60l. a year. In the marriage license Oldenburg's age is described as ‘about forty,’ clearly an understatement, and he is said to reside in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields (Chester, Marriage Licences, p. 993). The Royal Society possesses a half-length life-size portrait of Oldenburg, painted by John Van Cleef. He is represented in black coat, broad white bands, and plain sleeves sewed to the narrow armholes. The head is massive, and wears a long flowing peruke; the face clean-shaved except a short moustache, the mouth firm, but the expression somewhat anxious. The right hand holds an open chronometer case.
[The only connected account of Oldenburg's life of any length is that by Dr. Althaus, published in the Beilage zur Allgemeinen Zeitung (Munich), 1888 No. 229–33, 1889 Nos. 212–14. See also Weld's History of the Royal Society, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1848; Masson's Life of John Milton, vols. v. vi. 8vo, London, 1877–80; Pollock's Spinoza: his Life and Philosophy, 8vo, London, 1880; Burnet's Letters, 1686, p. 244. In the archives of the Royal Society are 405 original letters and drafts by Henry Oldenburg, besides a guard-book containing ninety-four additional letters to Boyle, and a commonplace-book of 207 ff. written between 1654 and 1661. The Ellis, Birch, Sloane, Harleian, Ward, and Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, all contain letters by Oldenburg and other documents bearing upon his life. His correspondence with Spinoza is given in Van Vloten and Land's Benedicti de Spinoza Opera, vol. ii. 1883, and in Ginsberg's Opera Philosophica of Spinoza, vol. ii. 8vo, 1876. Milton's letters to Oldenburg are to be found in the various editions of the Epistolæ Familiares. Other letters in Rigaud's Correspondence of Scientific Men, printed from the Macclesfield papers; Edleston's Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton; Commercium Epistolicum D. Johannis Collins et aliorum de Analysi Promota; Correspondence of Hartlib, Haak, Oldenburg, and others of the founders of the Royal Society with Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, 1661–72, 8vo, Boston, 1878 (reprint from Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc.)]
OLDFIELD, ANNE (1683–1730), actress, the granddaughter of a vintner, and daughter of a soldier in the guards, said to have been a captain who had run through a fortune, was born in Pall Mall in 1683. Her father was, perhaps, the James Oldfield of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields who married Elizabeth Blanchard of the same parish on 4 Dec. 1682 (Chester, Marriage Licences). She was put with a sempstress in King Street, Westminster, where she spent her time in reading plays. Afterwards she resided with her mother at the Mitre Tavern, St. James's Market, then kept by her aunt, Mrs. Voss, afterwards Wood. Farquhar the dramatist overheard her reciting passages from the 'Scornful Lady' of Beaumont and Fletcher, and expressed a favourable opinion of her capacities. This was conveyed by her mother to Vanbrugh, a frequenter of the house, who was struck by her abilities. He introduced her, accordingly, to John Rich [q. v.], the manager of Drury Lane, by whom
