_Sir Thomas Hanmer_, Baronet, was born in 1676, and succeeded to the title and estates of his uncle Sir John Hanmer, in Flintshire. He was educated at Westminster School, and Christ Church, Oxford. He commenced his parliamentary career in the representation of the county of Suffolk; and in 1713, he was elected speaker of the House of Commons, which honourable office he held until the end of his parliamentary life, which from its commencement lasted upwards of thirty years. He then withdrew altogether from public life, and turned his attention to literature; he published an elegant edition of Shakspeare in six volumes, quarto, which was printed at Oxford in 1744; and he liberally presented the copyright to the University. He died at his seat in Suffolk in 1746. _Howell Harris_ was born at Trevecka, in Brecknockshire, in 1714. His parents were in humble circumstances, but they contrived to give him a classical education, and kept him at school until he was eighteen, when his father dying, he was obliged to support himself by giving instruction to a few boys in the neighbourhood, intending at a proper time to enter the established church. In 1735, he went to Oxford, and was entered at St. Mary Hall, where he did not remain to complete his studies. In 1739, he began to traverse Wales, preaching in the open fields and streets according to the tenets which Whitfield was spreading in England, and gaining numerous converts every day. The sect which he introduced is still very great in Wales, and after spending seventeen years in spreading his doctrine, he came to reside permanently at his native town of Trevecka. After an active life, he died in the year 1773. _John ap Henry_ was born in Wales in 1559, and was a celebrated character at that period, better known by his assumed title of Martin Marprelate. He was entered at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1584; he afterwards removed to Oxford, where he graduated M.A.; he preached frequently in both Universities, and gained great reputation, and he afterwards became a notorious Puritan. His embracing the principles of the Brownists, rendered him obnoxious to a vindictive government, to the cruelty of which he afterwards fell a victim. He was prosecuted for some libellous pamphlets which could not be proved against him; and afterwards he was most illegally tried and condemned on a charge of denying the sovereign’s authority, for which he was accordingly executed. He was a man of great talent and learning, but his productions are chiefly political tracts which related to that period.