Chapter Foxe to Freeman of F by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

was made deputy Postmaster-General for the American Colonies. In 1757 he went to London on some public business in which he was so successful that various colonies appointed him their English agent. In the midst of his varied avocations he found time for scientific investigation, especially with regard to electricity. For these he became known over the civilised world, and was loaded with honours. In 1762 he returned to America, and took a prominent part in the controversies which led to the Revolutionary War and the independence of the Colonies. In 1776 he was U.S. Minister to France, and in 1782 was a signatory of the treaty which confirmed the independence of the States. He returned home in 1785, and, after holding various political offices, retired in 1788, and died in 1790. His autobiography is his chief contribution to literature, and is of the highest interest.

Works (10 vols., Bigelow, 1887-9), Autobiography (1868), Lives by M‘Master (1887), and Morse (1889).

Freeman, Edward Augustus (1823-1892).—Historian, son of John Freeman, was born at Harborne, Staffordshire. He lost both his parents in childhood, and was brought up by his paternal grandmother He was educated at private schools, and as a private pupil of the Rev. R. Gutch, whose daughter he afterwards married In 1841 he was elected to a scholarship at Oxford He had inherited an income sufficient to make him independent of a profession, and a prepossession in favour of the celibacy of the clergy disinclined him to enter the Church, of which he had at one time thought. He settled ultimately at Somerleaze, near Wells, where he occupied himself in study, writing for periodicals, and with the duties of a magistrate. He was a strong Liberal, and on one occasion stood unsuccessfully as an candidate for Parliament. He was also twice unsuccessful as an applicant for professional chairs, but ultimately, in 1884, succeeded Stubbs as Professor of Modern History at Oxford He had always been an enthusiastic traveller, and it was when on a tour in Spain that he took ill and died on May 16, 1892. Freeman was a voluminous author, and a keen controversialist. His first book was a History of Architecture (1849), and among the very numerous publications which he issued the most important were History of Federal Government (1863), The History of the Norman Conquest (6 vols., 1867-79), The Historical Geography of Europe (1881-2), The Reign of William Rufus (1882), and an unfinished History of Sicily. Besides these he wrote innumerable articles in periodicals, many of which were separately published and contain much of his best work. He was laborious and honest, but the controversial cast of his mind sometimes coloured his work. His short books, such as his William I., and his General Sketch of European History, are marvels of condensation, and show him at his best. His knowledge of history was singularly wide, and he sometimes showed a great power of vivid presentation.