LATIMER
LATROBE
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LATIMER (flary) Elizabeth Wormeley, au-
thor, was born in London, England, July 26,
1832 ; daughter of Admiral Ralph Randolph and
Caroline (Preble) Wormeley, and niece of Com-
modore Edward Preble, U.S.N. Admiral Worme-
ley was a Virginian
by birth, and was
one of the American-
born officers who
won distinction in
the English navy af-
ter the Revolution.
His daughter was
taken to Boston in
1823 and returned
to England in 1829,
where she was edu-
cated. She resided
in Paris, 1839 to 18-
42, and then return-
ed to Boston, Mass.
In 185(5 she married
Randolph Brandt Latimer, of Baltimore, and
for twenty years devoted herself to domestic
duties. In 1876 circumstances induced her to
return to literature as a profession. Her parlor
lectures given in Baltimore on " English and
Italian Literature " and " Historical Gossip from
1822 to 1892" were afterward published in book
form. She is the author of : Forest Hill: A Tale
of Social Life in 1S30-31 (3 vols., London, 1846);
Amabel, a Family History (1853); Our Cousin
Veronica ; or, Scenes and Adventures over the
Blue Ridge (1856) ; Salvage (1880) ; My Wife and
My Wife's Sister (1881); Princess Amelie (1888);
A Chain of Errors (1889); Familiar Talks on
some of Shakespeare's Comedies (1886) ; France in
the XIX Century (1892); Russia and Turkey in
the XIX Century (1898); England in the XIX
Century (1894); Europe and Africa in the XIX
Century (1895) ; Italy in the XIX Century (1896);
Spain in the XIX Century (1897); Judea from
Cyrus to Titus (1899); Last Years of the XIX Cen-
tury (1900), and many contributions to English
and American magazines. Her translations in
verse include : Coquelin's Hat and Fly, Hugo's
Louis VII.; ChildeMiJm ;and BeronXede's Sergent.
She also translated Louis Ulbach's Madame Gosse-
lin (1878), The Steel Hammer (1888), and For
Fifteen Years (1888); Th. Benzon's Jacqueline;
Paul Perret's Manette Andre; the last two vol-
umes of Renan's People of Israel, and in connec
tion with her daughter, Caroline Wormeley Lati-
mer, Flammarion's Unknoum and Victor Hugo's
Love Letters (1900). In 1899 she issued a volume
entitled My Scraphook of the French Revolution,
with some allusions to the justice of the claim
of the Rev. Eleazer Williams as the lost Dau-
phin and rightful successor of Louis XVI.
LATiriER, William Key, naval officer, was
born at Annapolis, Md., Sept. 1, 1794 ; sou of
Randolph Brandt and Catharine (Howard) Lati-
mer ; grandson of Thomas Randolph and Eliza-
beth (Swan) Latimer, and a descendant of James
Latimer, who immigrated to Maryland from Eng-
land about 1680, and married Mary, daughter of
Capt. Randolph Brandt, who from about 1674 to
1698 was high in the confidence of Lord Balti-
more. He attended St. John's college, Annapolis ;
was appointed midshipman in the U.S. navy, Nov.
15, 1809, and was promoted lieutenant, Feb. 4,
1815. He commanded the schooner Grampus in
the pursuit of pirates on the coasts of the West
India islands, 1826-30 ; was promoted captain,
July 17, 1843, and was in command of the navy
yard at Pensacola, Fla., during the war with
Mexico. He was a member of the board of offi-
cers appointed to examine and report on the
coasts of Florida and the mouths of the Mississippi
river, Sept. 18, 1852, and was I'etired from active
service in 1857. He was promoted commodore on
the retired list, July 16, 1862, and was ordered on
special duty, July 12, 1863. He died in Balti-
more, Md.. March 15. 1873.
LATROBE, Benjamin Henry, architect, was born in Yorkshire, England, May 1, 1764 ; son of Benjamin and Julia Latrobe, and a descendant of Henry Boneval de la Trobe, who emigrated from France to Holland, and entering the ser- vice of the Prince of Orange, accompanied him to England and was severely wound- ed in the battle of Boyne. Benjamin
entered a Moravian seminary in Saxony in 1776, and was grad- uated from the Uni- versity of Leipzig. He entered the Prus- sian army in 1785, serving as cornet of Hussars, and was
twice wounded. He resigned his commission in 1788 and was appointed engineer of London and surveyor of the public offices in 1789, and declined a crown surveyorship. He immigrated to the United States in 1796, and was engineer of the James river and Appomattox canal ; built the Richmond, Va., penitentiary and many private dwellings ; removed to Philadelphia, Pa., in 1798, and was the architect of the Bank of Pennsyl- vania, the Academy of Art, and the Bank of the United States, and first introduced the pumping of water from the Schuylkill river to supply the city of Philadelphia in 1800. He designed the