body of laws many of which have been copied by other provinces of the dominion and by several states of the American Union. In eight important cases which he argued before the Judicial Committee of H. M. Privy Council, he established, as against the contention of Sir John A. Macdonald, the proposition that the provincial legislatures were co-ordinate with and not subordinate to the parliament of Canada. To weaken his influence the Conservatives at Ottawa attempted to extend the boundaries of Manitoba, thereby reducing the area of Ontario; but Mr Mowat again appealed to the Judicial Committee and was again successful. According to Sir John A. Macdonald, Ontario contained under the “Quebec Act” only 116,782 sq. m.; but Mr Mowat gave it an area of 260,862 sq. m. When he returned home after this great victory he received an ovation unparalleled in the history of any Canadian statesman. One of his prominent characteristics was his loyalty to Britain. Between 1886 and 1896 Canadian trade was depressed, and men were leaving the country in thousands for the United States. Dr Goldwin Smith and other prominent men advocated commercial union with the United States, viz. that the two countries should maintain a uniform tariff against the rest of the world, with free trade as between themselves. Sir Oliver Mowat saw in this “veiled annexation,” and by letters, speeches and pamphlets he crushed the movement so completely as to make his party more imperialist than the Conservatives had ever been. In July 1896 he was called to the senate of Canada and made minister of justice. In November 1897 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of his native province, and this office he held until he died at Government House, Toronto, on the 19th of April 1903.
See C. R. W. Biggar, Sir Oliver Mowat, a Biographical Sketch (Toronto, 1905). (C. R. W. B.)
MOWBRAY, the name of an Anglo-Norman baronial house,
derived from Montbray (Manche) in Normandy south of St Lo.
It was founded at the Conquest by Geoffrey (de Montbray),
bishop of Coutances. His brother’s son Robert, who rebelled
with him against William Rufus on the Conqueror’s death,
was made, after their reconciliation, earl of Northumberland,
as his uncle’s heir but was forfeited and imprisoned for life
on rebelling again in 1095. A sister of Bishop Geoffrey was
mother by Roger d’Aubigny (of Aubigny in the Cotentin) of
two sons, Nigel and William, who were ardent supporters of
Henry I., and were rewarded by him with great estates in
England. William was made king’s butler, and was father of
William d’Aubigny (“de Albini”), first earl of Arundel (see Arundel); Nigel was rewarded with the escheated fief of
Geoffrey de la Guerche, of which Melton (Mowbray) was the
head, and with forfeited lands in Yorkshire. Nigel married, by
dispensation, the wife of his cousin, the imprisoned earl, but
afterwards divorced her, and by another wife was father of a
son Roger, who took the name of Mowbray.
Roger, a great lord with a hundred knights’ fees, was captured with King Stephen at the battle of Lincoln, joined the rebellion against Henry II. (1173), founded abbeys, and went on crusade. His grandson William, a leader in the rising against King John, was one of the 25 barons of the Great Charter, as was his brother Roger, and was captured fighting against Henry III. at the rout of Lincoln (1217). His grandson Roger (1266–1298), who was summoned to parliament by Edward I., was father of John (1286–1322), a warrior and warden of the Scottish March, who, joining in Thomas of Lancaster’s revolt, was captured at Boroughbridge and hanged. His wife, a Braose heiress, added Gower in South Wales and the Bramber lordship in Sussex to the great possessions of his house. Their son John (d. 1361) was father, by a daughter of Henry earl of Lancaster, of John, Lord Mowbray (c. 1328–1368), whose fortunate alliance with the heiress of Lord Segrave, by the heiress of Edward I.’s son Thomas, earl of Norfolk and marshal of England, crowned the fortunes of his race. In addition to a vast accession to their lands, the earldom of Nottingham and the marshalship of England were bestowed on them by Richard II., and the dukedom of Norfolk followed (see Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, 1st duke of).
The 1st duke left two sons, of whom Thomas the elder was only recognized as earl marshal. Beheaded for joining in Scrope’s conspiracy against Henry IV. (1405), he was succeeded by his brother John, who was restored to the dukedom of Norfolk in 1424. His son John, the third duke, was father of John, 4th and last duke, who was created earl of Warrenne and Surrey in his father’s lifetime (1451). At his death (1475) his vast inheritance devolved on his only child Anne, who was married as an infant to Edward IV.’s younger son Richard (created duke of Norfolk and earl of Nottingham and Warrenne), but died in 1481.
The next heirs of the Mowbrays were then the Howards and the Berkeleys, representing the two daughters of the first duke. Between them were divided the estates of the house, the Mowbray dukedom of Norfolk and earldom of Surrey being also revived for the Howards (1483), and the earldom of Nottingham (1483) and earl marshalship (1485) for the Berkeleys. Both families assumed the baronies of Mowbray and Segrave, but Henry Howard was summoned in his father’s lifetime (1640) as Lord Mowbray, which was deemed a recognition of the Howards right; their co-heirs, from 1777, were the Lords Stourton and the Lords Petre, and in 1878 Lord Stourton was summoned as Lord Mowbray and Segrave. The former dignity is claimed as the premier barony, though De Ros ranks before it. Lord Stourton’s son claimed, but unsuccessfully, in 1901–1906 the earldom of Norfolk (1312), also through the Mowbrays. Of the Mowbray estates the castle and lordship of Bramber is still vested in the dukes of Norfolk. The heraldic badge of the house was a mulberry-tree. (J. H. R.)
MOWBRAY, HARRY SIDDONS (1858–), American artist, was born of English parents at Alexandria, Egypt, on the 5th of August 1858. Left an orphan, he was taken to America by an uncle, who settled at North Adams, Mass. After a year at the United States Military Academy at West Point, he went to Paris and entered the atelier of Léon Bonnat, his first picture, “Aladdin,” bringing him to public notice. He was made a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1891. Subsequently he was best known for his decorative work, especially “The Transmission of the Law,” Appellate Court House; ceiling for the residence of F. W. Vanderbilt; and the ceiling and walls of the library of the University Club—all in New York. This last was executed in Rome, where, in 1903, he was made director of the American Academy.
MOWBRAY, ROBERT (d. 1125), a Norman who was appointed earl of Northumberland between 1080 and 1082. In 1088 he and his uncle Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, sided with Robert, duke of Normandy, against William Rufus, but they were pardoned at the close of the rebellion. In 1091 Mowbray defeated Malcolm Canmore of Scotland, who had invaded England, and in 1093 surprised and slew this king near Alnwick; soon after this event he succeeded to his uncle’s vast estates.
In 1095 he led a rebellion which had for its object the transference of the crown from the sons of the Conqueror to Stephen of Aumale. Rufus marched against the earl in person, and Mowbray shut himself up in Bamborough Castle, but he was captured
by treachery, escaped, and was captured again. He was then
deprived of his possessions and kept a prisoner for the rest of his
life, nearly thirty years.
See E. A. Freeman, William Rufus, especially Appendices C. C. F. F. (Oxford, 1882).
MOXON, EDWARD (1801–1858), British poet and publisher, was born at Wakefield in 1801. In 1826 he published a volume of verse, entitled The Prospect, and other Poems, which was received with some favour. In 1830 Moxon was started by Samuel Rogers as a London publisher in New Bond Street. The first volume he issued was Charles Lamb’s Album Verses. Removing to Dover Street, Piccadilly, Moxon published an illustrated edition of Rogers’s Italy, £10,000 being spent upon the illustrations. Wordsworth entrusted him with the publication of his works from 1835 onwards, and in 1839 he issued the first complete edition of Shelley’s poems. Some passages in Queen Mab were the cause of a charge of blasphemy being
