Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/247

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Ordericus Vitalis
241
Ordericus Vitalis

vernor's residence at Carisbrooke. He died at Hackwood Park, near Basingstoke, on 30 July 1807, aged 60, and was buried at Old Basing. His widow died at the Hotwells, Bristol, on 14 Dec. 1814, and was also buned at Old Basing. They left issue two sons.

Orders speech on the 'Irish propositions' was printed at Dublin in 1785, and that on education in 1787. When in Ireland he gave 'a snug little place in the license office to Maurice Goldsmith, in honour of his brother's literary merit,' April 1787 (Prior, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, ii. 227). His communications with Father O'Leary, whom he paid for furnishing information as to the designs of his compatriots, are set out in Froude's 'English in Ireland' and Fitzpatrick's 'Secret Service under Pitt.' The latter of these writers suggested that the published letters of the Duke of Rutland were written by Orde (Athenæum, 29 March 1890, pp. 404-6), but the suggestion seems untenable. Numerous letters to and from him are in Fitzmaurice's 'Life of Lord Shelburne,' iii. 361-3, 393-413; 'Historical Manuscripts Commission,' 12th Rep. App. pt. ix. pp. 307-61, and 13th Rep. App. pt. viii. pp- 20-8. Mathias addressed to him, on 15 Sept. 1791, a Latin ode, which was printed for private distribution, and was also included in his 'Odæ Latinæ,' 1810.

Orde was a friend of Romney, and frequently visited him about 1775. On his commission, Romney began a religious picture, which was intended for presentation to King's College, Cambridge, as an altar-piece ; but the intention of Orde was forestalled, and the painting was never finished. Romney painted his portrait, which was engraved in mezzotint, with three impressions, by John Jones. It is nearly whole-length, and his hand is holding a 'bill for effectuating the intercourse and commerce between Great Britain and Ireland.' There are also two portraits of him etched by Bretherton.

[ Wraxairs Memoirs, ed. Wheatley, iv. 124-38, 153-68; Lecky*8 Hist, during the Eighteenth Century, vi. 351 et seq.; Willis and Clark's Cambridge, i. 489 ; Gent. Mag. 1807 pt. ii. p. 786 ; Peer.igej by Brydges, Foster, and Cokayne; Cat. of Satirical Prints in Brit. Mus. iv. 699 ; Romney's Life of George Romney, pp. 136-7, 259; Uoroe's Portrait-s of Gainsborough and Romney, p. 61 ; Granger's Letters, pp. 87-8 ; Smith's Mezzotint Portraits, ii. 763-4.]

ORDERICUS VITALIS or ORDERIC VITAL (1076–1143?), historian, was son of Odelerius, the son of Constantius of Orleans. Odelerius was the confessor and trusted adviser of Roger of Montgomery [see Roger, d. 1094], whom he accompanied to England and from whom he received a church at the East Gate of Shrewsbury. Though a priest, Odelerius married an English wife, by whom he had three sons — Orderic, Everard, and Benedict. In fulfilment of a vow made at Rome in 1082, Odelerius commenced to replace his wooden church at Shrewsbury by a stone building, which, at his instigation, Earl Roger made the home of his abbey of SS. Peter and Paul. Odelerius endowed the abbey with half of his possessions, and, together with his son Benedict, became a monk in the new foundation. He is no doubt the 'Oilerius Sacerdos' mentioned in the charters of Shrewsbury Abbey (Dugdale, Monast. Angl. iii. 518, 520). He died at Shrewsbury, apparently on 3 June 1110.

Orderic was born on 16 Feb. 1075, and baptised at Atcham, near Shrewsbury, on 11 April, by his godfather Orderic, the priest. When five years old, he was put in charge of Siward, a priest at Shrewsbury, who taught him letters. In 1080 his father sent him, with thirty marks of silver, to become a monk at St. Evroult in Normandy. On 21 Sept. 1085 Orderic received the tonsure from Mainier, abbot of St. Evroult, and was given the Norman name of Vitalis. He was ordained sub-deacon on 15 March 1091 by Gilbert, bishop of Lisieux; deacon on 26 March 1093 by Serlo, bishop of Seez; and priest at Rouen by William the archbishop on 21 Dec. 1107. Orderic passed his whole life as a monk of St. Evroult. But in 1105 he paid a visit to France, and about 1116 spent five weeks at Croyland Abbey, which was then under the rule of Geoffrey, a former monk of St. Evroult. On another occasion he visited Worcester, where he saw a copy of the chronicle of Marianus Scotus, continued by Florence of Worcester; he also mentions that he had once seen a copy of the chronicle of Sigebert of Gombloux at Cambrai. He was possibly present at the council of Rheims in Oct. 1119, and on 20 March 1132 was present at a great assembly of Cluniac monks at Cluny. He records that on 9 Aug. 1134 on the occasion of a great storm he was at Merlerault, about twelve miles from St. Evroult. Orderic closed his history in 1141, and perhaps did not long survive that year. He may be the 'Vitalis monk of St. Evroul,' whose name is recorded on 3 Feb. in an obituary of that monastery (Notice sur Orderic Vital, p. xxxv). Orderic, who relates that, when he came to Normandy, he could not understand the language he heard spoken, never lost his affection for his native land, and, with manifest pride, describes him-