(q.v.) against the charge of treason in 1807. He has been described by the historian Henry Adams, writing of the Chase trial, as at that time the “most formidable of American advocates.” Though he received a large income, he was so improvident that he was frequently in want, and on the 22nd of February 1822 the legislature of Maryland passed a remarkable resolution—the only one of the kind in American history—requiring every lawyer in the state to pay an annual licence fee of five dollars, to be handed over to trustees appointed “for the appropriation of the proceeds raised by virtue of this resolution to the use of Luther Martin.” This resolution was rescinded on the 6th of February 1823. Martin died at the home of Aaron Burr in New York on the 10th of July 1826. In 1783 he had married a daughter of the Captain Michael Cresap (1742–1775), who was unjustly charged by Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, with the murder of the family of the Indian chief, John Logan, and whom Martin defended in a pamphlet long out of print.
See the biographical sketch by Henry P. Goddard, Luther Martin, the Federal Bull-Dog (Baltimore, 1887), No. 24 of the “Peabody Fund Publications,” of the Maryland Historical Society.
MARTIN, SIR THEODORE (1816–1909), British author and
translator, the son of a solicitor, was born at Edinburgh on the
16th of September 1816, and educated at the Royal High School
and the University, from which he subsequently received the
honorary degree of LL.D. He practised for some time as a
solicitor in Edinburgh, but in 1846 went to London, where he
became senior partner in the firm of Martin & Leslie, parliamentary
agents. He early contributed to Fraser’s Magazine
and Tait’s Magazine, under the signature of “Bon Gaultier,”
and in 1856, in conjunction with Professor Aytoun, he published
the Book of Ballads under the same pseudonym. This work at
once obtained popular favour. In 1858 he published a volume of
translations of the Poems and Ballads of Goethe, and this was
followed by a rendering of the Danish poet Henrik Hertz’s
lyric drama, King René’s Daughter. The principal character in
this drama, Iolanthe, was sustained by Helena Faucit (q.v.),
who in 1851 became the author’s wife. Martin’s translations of
Öhlenschläger’s dramas, Correggio (1854) and Aladdin, or the
Wonderful Lamp (1857), widened the fame of the Danish poet in
England. In 1860 appeared Martin’s metrical translation of the
Odes of Horace; and in 1870 he wrote a volume on Horace for the
series of “Ancient Classics for English Readers.” In 1882 his
Horatian labours were concluded by a translation of the poet’s
whole works, with a life and notes, in two volumes. A poetical
translation of Catullus was published in 1861, followed by a
privately printed volume of Poems, Original and Translated, in
1863. Then came translations of the Vita Nuova of Dante, and
the first part of Goethe’s Faust. A metrical translation of the
second part of Faust appeared in 1866. Martin wrote a memoir
of his friend Aytoun in 1867, and while engaged upon this work
he was requested by Queen Victoria, to whom he was introduced
by his friend Sir Arthur Helps, to undertake the Life of His
Royal Highness the Prince Consort. The first volume of this
well-known work was published in 1874. In 1878 Martin’s
translation of Heine’s Poems and Ballads appeared. Two years
later the Life of the Prince Consort was brought to a successful
conclusion by the publication of the fifth volume. A knighthood
was then conferred upon him. In the following November he was
elected lord rector of the university of St Andrews. Martin’s
Life of Lord Lyndhurst, based upon papers furnished by the family,
was published in 1883. In 1889 appeared The Song of the Bell,
and other Translations from Schiller, Goethe, Uhland, and Others;
in 1804 Madonna Pia, a Tragedy, and three Other Dramas; a
translation of Leopardi’s poems in 1905; and in 1901 he published
a biography of his wife. The kindly relations which subsisted
between Queen Victoria and Sir Theodore Martin were continued
after the completion of the Life of the prince consort up to
the queen’s death. Sir Theodore’s account of these relations
was privately printed in 1902, and, with King Edward’s consent,
for general publication in 1908. This little book, Queen Victoria
as I knew her, throws a good deal of light on the Queen’s
character and private life. Sir Theodore Martin died on the 18th of August 1909.
MARTIN, WILLIAM (1767–1810), English naturalist, the son of a hosier, was born at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1767.
He studied drawing at an early age from James Bolton at
Halifax, and gained from him a taste for the study of natural
history. In 1805 he was appointed drawing master in the grammar
school at Macclesfield. Meanwhile he cultivated his taste
for natural history, and was in 1796 elected a fellow of the
Linnaean Society. He is best known for his early works on
British fossils, entitled Petrifacta derbiensia or Figures and
Descriptions of Petrifactions collected in Derbyshire (1809); and
Outlines of an Attempt to establish a Knowledge of Extraneous
Fossils on Scientific Principles (1809). He died at Macclesfield on
the 31st of May 1810.
MARTIN, SIR WILLIAM FANSHAWE (1801–1895), British
admiral, son of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam Martin,
comptroller of the navy, and grandson, on the mother’s side, of
Captain Robert Fanshawe, who commanded the “Namur” 90
in Rodney’s victory of the 12th of April 1782, was born on the 5th
of December 1801. Entering the navy at the age of twelve,
his father’s interest secured his rapid promotion: he was made
a lieutenant on the 15th of December 1820; on the 8th of
February 1823 he was promoted to be commander of the
“Fly” sloop, his good service in which in support of the interests
of British merchants at Callao secured his promotion
as captain on the 5th of June 1824. He afterwards served
in the Mediterranean and on the home station. In 1849–1852
he was commodore commanding the Channel squadron,
and gave evidence of a remarkable aptitude for command.
He was made rear-admiral in May 1853, and for the next four
years was superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard. He was
made vice-admiral in February 1858, and after a year as a lord
of the admiralty, was appointed commander-in-chief in the
Mediterranean. The discipline of the navy was then bad. It
was a tradition sprung from the wholesale shipment of gaol-birds
during the old war, that the men were to be treated without
consideration; moreover the ships had been largely filled up with
“bounty men” bought into the service with a £10 note without
training. Out of this unpromising material Martin formed the
fleet which was at that time the ideal of excellence. He had no
war service, and, beyond the Italian disturbance of 1860–61, no
opportunity for showing diplomatic ability. But his memory
lives as that of the reformer of discipline and the originator of a
comprehensive system of steam manœuvres. He became an
admiral in November 1863, and on the 4th of December succeeded
to the baronetcy which had been conferred on his grandfather.
His last appointment was the command at Plymouth, 1866–1869,
and in 1870 he was put on the retired list. In 1873 the G.C.B.
was conferred on him, and in 1878 he was made rear-admiral.
He died at Upton Grey, near Winchfield, on the 24th of March
1895. He was twice married, and left, besides daughters, one
son, who succeeded to the baronetcy.
MARTIN OF TROPPAU, or Martin the Pole (d. 1278), chronicler,
was born at Troppau, and entered the order of St Dominic
at Prague. Afterwards he went to Rome and became papal
chaplain under Clement IV. and other popes. In 1278 Pope
Nicholas III. appointed him archbishop of Gnesen, but he died
at Bologna whilst proceeding to Poland to take up his new duties.
Martin wrote some sermons and some commentaries on the
canon law; but more important is his Chronicon pontificum et
imperatorum, a history of the popes and emperors to 1277.
Written at the request of Clement IV. the Chronicon is jejune
and untrustworthy, and was mainly responsible for the currency
of the legend of Pope Joan, and the one about the institution of
seven electors by the pope. Nevertheless it enjoyed an extraordinary
popularity and found many continuators; but its value
to students arises solely from the fact that it was used by
numerous chroniclers during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.
In the 15th century it was translated into French, and as part of
the Chronique martiniane was often quoted by controversialists.
It has also been translated into German, Italian and Bohemian.
