OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pestell, Thomas

​PESTELL, THOMAS (1584?–1659?), divine, was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1605 and M.A. in 1609. He became vicar of Packington, Leicestershire, in 1613, and a year or two later chaplain to Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex [q. v.] He gained a reputation as a preacher, and published a sermon, ‘The Good Conscience,’ in 1615, with a dedication to Sir Philip Stanhope of Shelford, Nottinghamshire. Two other sermons, entitled ‘The Car[e]les Calamitie’ (1615) and ‘The Poor Man's Appeale’ (1623), were licensed for the press; and a fourth, ‘God's ​Visitation,’ preached at Leicester, appeared in 1630. He was soon afterwards appointed a royal chaplain, and preached before the king. In 1640 he preached before the council at York. In 1644 he resigned his living at Packington to his son Thomas, and, during the early days of the civil wars, complained that he was five times robbed and plundered of his goods and cattle. In 1650 he contributed two poems to ‘Lachrymæ Musarum’ on the death of Henry, lord Hastings, and in 1652 commendatory verse to Benlowes's ‘Theophila.’ In 1659 he collected some sacred verse and sermons preached before the war in ‘Sermons and Devotions, Old and New, revewed and publisht … with a Discourse of Duels,’ dedicated to Thomas, viscount Beaumont, and Robert, ‘heir to Mr. Rich. Sutton of Tongue in Leicestershire.’ He doubtless died very soon afterwards.
A collection of unprinted poems by Pestell or his father was lent by a descendant to Nichols, who printed many of them in his ‘History of Leicestershire.’ Nichols's excerpts include an elegy on Francis Beaumont. The volume of verse entitled ‘Scintillulæ Sacræ,’ of which two copies are among the Harleian MSS. (Nos. 6646 and 6922), is attributed to Pestell, but some part at least is probably by his son Thomas.
He married a daughter of Mrs. Katherine Carr. His elder son, Thomas Pestell (1613–1701), born at Cole-Orton, Leicestershire, was admitted pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, 29 Aug. 1628. Migrating to Queens', he graduated B.A. in 1632 and M.A. in 1636. He rather than his father seems to have written a Latin comedy, entitled ‘Versipellis,’ which was acted at Cambridge in 1638. It was not printed. Pestell succeeded his father at Packington in 1644, and was ejected in 1646 by the Westminster assembly; he was subsequently rector of Markfeld and confrater of Wigston's Hospital, Leicester. He contributed verses to ‘Lachrymæ Musarum’ (1650) in memory of Henry, lord Hastings.
The second son, William (d. 1696), who graduated B.A. in 1634 and M.A. in 1638 from Queens' College, Cambridge, became in 1644 rector of Cole-Orton, whence he and his wife were driven by the parliamentary soldiers under Sir John Gell. He appears to have resumed his benefice at the Restoration, and in 1667 was instituted to Ravenstone in addition. He was buried at Cole-Orton. He was author of a poetic ‘Congratulation to his sacred Majesty on his Restoration,’ 1661.
[Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 737–8, 927, 940; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum, in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24488, f. 328.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peter, David

​PETER, DAVID (1765–1837), independent minister, was born at Aberystwith on 5 Aug. 1765. When he was seven years old his father, who was a ship carpenter, moved to New Quay, Cardiganshire. As a boy he showed great quickness of understanding, and when he had studied for some time with the Rev. David Davies of Castell Hywel, his father, who was a churchman, wished him to become a clergyman. He preferred, however, to join the independents, and became a member of the church at Penrhiw ​Galed in March 1783. Soon after he commenced to preach, and in the course of a year or two, having made a little money by keeping school, proceeded to the presbyterian college, which was then at Swansea. In 1789 he was appointed assistant-tutor in this institution, a position he resigned in 1792, in order to take the pastorate of Lammas Street church, Carmarthen, where he was ordained on 8 June. The college at Swansea was broken up in 1794, but in the following year it was re-established at Carmarthen, and Peter was appointed president. He held this office, in conjunction with his pastorate, until his death, which took place on 4 May 1837. He married, first, the widow of a Mr. Lewis of Carmarthen, who died in 1820; and, secondly, a sister of General Sir William Nott [q. v.]
Peter translated Palmer's ‘Protestant Dissenters' Catechism,’ Carmarthen, 1803. But he is best known as the author of ‘Hanes Crefydd yng Nghymru,’ Carmarthen, 1816; second edition, Colwyn, 1851—an account of Welsh religion from the times of the Druids to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The book is one which shows fairly wide reading, and it is free from sectarian bias. The first edition has prefixed to it an engraved portrait by Blood.
[Hanes Eglwysi Anibynnol Cymru, by Rees and Thomas.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peter (d.1085)

​PETER (d. 1085), bishop of Lichfield, was chaplain of William I, and custodian of the see of Lincoln in 1066 (Chron. Monast. de Abingdon, i. 492, Rolls Ser.). He was consecrated by Lanfranc at Gloucester, probably in 1072. In 1075, at a synod held by Lanfranc in London, a decree was passed for the removal of certain bishoprics to more populous places. In accordance with this decree Peter removed the see of Lichfield to Chester. There he made the church of St. John's his cathedral church, instituting a dean and canons, for whose maintenance he provided. The see was situated at Chester only until 1106, but some of the canonries inaugurated by Peter remained there until 1541, when the modern see of Chester was created. In 1076 Peter was sent by Lanfranc to assist the archbishop of York in certain consecrations (AnglgSaxon Chron. i. 387, Rolls Ser.) In 1085 he died, and was buried at Chester, being the only bishop of the earlier foundation who was buried there.
[Chron. Monast. de Abingdon, i. 492 (Rolls Ser.); Ann. Monast. i. 185 (Rolls Ser.); Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 433, 445, 457; Le Neve's Fasti; Gervase of Canterbury's Actus Pont. ii. 366; Florence of Worcester in Petrie's Monumenta, p. 624 a; William of Malmesbury, pp. 68, 308–9; Higden's Polychron. vii. 292; Stubbs's Regist. Sacr. Angl. p. 22; Freeman's Norm. Conq. iv. 417 seq.]
A. M. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Fletcher, James

​FLETCHER, JAMES (1852–1908), naturalist, born at Ashe, near Wrotham, Kent, England, on 28 March 1852, was second son of Joseph Flitcroft Fletcher by his wife Mary Ann Hayward. The eldest son, Flitcroft Fletcher, was an artist who exhibited five pictures at the Royal Academy (1882–6), dying at the age of thirty-six. Fletcher was educated at King's School, Rochester, and joined the Bank of British North America in London in 1871. In 1874 he was transferred to Canada and stationed at Montreal. In 1875 he entered the Ottawa office of the bank, and, resigning in May 1876, was employed in the library of parliament until 1 July 1887. Fletcher, whose leisure was devoted to the study of botany and entomology, was then appointed entomologist and botanist to the recently organised Dominion experimental farms. Since 1884 he had acted as Dominion entomologist in the department of agriculture. Elected a fellow of the Linnæan Society on 3 June 1886 and a member of the Entomological Society of America and other scientific societies, he was one of the founders of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club. At his death he was president of the Entomological Society of Ontario, and honorary secretary of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1896 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Queen's University.
Fletcher was a voluminous writer. To the 'Transactions' of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club he contributed a 'Flora Ottawaensis,' and with George H. Clark he published 'Farm Weeds of Canada' (1906). Valuable papers on injurious insects and on the diurnal lepifloptera appeared at intervals. Seventeen species of butterflies bear his name. He died at Montreal on 8 Nov. 1908, and is buried in Beech wood cemetery, Ottawa.
He married in 1879 Eleanor Gertrude, eldest daughter of Collingwood Schreiber, C.M.G., Ottawa, by whom he had two daughters.
The Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club erected in his memory a drinking-fountain with bronze medallion at the experimental farm, and had a portrait painted by Franklyn Brownell, R.C.A., which now hangs in the Ottawa public library.
[Information supplied by Fletcher's daughter, Mrs. R. S. Lake; memorial notices by the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club in The Ottawa Naturalist, vol. xxii. No. 10, Jan. 1909.]
P. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Ford, William Justice

​FORD, WILLIAM JUSTICE (1853–1904), cricketer and writer on cricket, the eldest of seven sons of William Augustus Ford, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, by his wife Katherine Mary Justice, was born in London on 7 Nov. 1853. Of his brothers, Augustus Frank Justice (b. 1858) and Francis Gilbertson Justice (b. 1866) distinguished themselves in Repton, Cambridge University, and Middlesex cricket, while a third, Lionel George Bridges Justice (b. 1865), became headmaster of Harrow in 1910. Educated at Eagle House, Wimbledon, and at Repton, where he played in the cricket eleven (1870–2). William entered ​St. John's College, Cambridge, as minor scholar in 1872, became foundation scholar in 1874, and graduated B.A. with second-class classical honours in 1876, proceeding M.A. in 1878. He was a master at Marlborough College from 1877 to 1886, and from that year till 1889 was principal of Nelson College, New Zealand. On his return to England he became in April 1890 headmaster of Leamington college, from which he retired in 1893.
Of splendid physique (he was 6 ft. 3 in. in height and weighed in 1886 over 17 stone), Ford was as a cricketer one of the hardest hitters ever known, surpassed only by Mr. C. I. Thornton. His longest authenticated hit was 144 yards; in August 1885 at Maidstone he scored 44 runs in 17 minutes in the first innings, and 75 runs in 45 minutes in the second innings for Middlesex v. Kent. He was a slow round arm bowler and a good field at point. After retiring from his work as schoolmaster, he wrote much on cricket, publishing 'A Cricketer on Cricket' (1900); 'Middlesex County C.C. 1864–1899' (1900); and 'The Cambridge C.C. 1829–1901' (1902). He compiled the articles on 'Public School Cricket' for Wisden's 'Cricketers' Almanack' (1896–1904) and in Prince Ranjitsinhji's 'Jubilee Book of Cricket' (1897). He also contributed articles to the 'Cyclopaedia of Sport' and to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' and the chapter on 'Pyramids and Pool' to the Badminton volume on 'Billiards.'
Ford died of pneumonia at Abingdon Mansions on 3 April 1904, and was buried at Kensal Green. He married in 1887 Miss K. M. Browning, of Nelson, New Zealand.
[The Times, 4 and 6 April 1904; Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, 1905; Haygarth's Cricket Scores and Biographies, 1879, xii. 747; xiv. xcii; Cricket, 17 June 1886 (with portrait); J. Pycroft's Cricket Chat, 1886 (with portrait).]
W. B. O.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tozer, Aaron

​TOZER, AARON (1788–1854), captain in the navy, born in 1788, entered the navy in June 1801 on board the Phœbe, with Captain Thomas Baker, on the Irish station. He afterwards served in the East Indies and on the home station, and, again with Baker, in the Phœnix, in which on 10 Aug. 1805 he was present at the capture of the French frigate Didon (James, Naval History, iv. 66–74; Troude, Batailles Navales, iii. 425–6; Chevalier, Hist. de la Marine Française, iii. 179), then carrying important despatches from Villeneuve at Ferrol to Rochefort. Tozer was dangerously wounded in the shoulder, and, after passing his examination, was specially promoted to be lieutenant on 11 Aug. 1807. After serving in the York of 74 guns at the reduction of Madeira and in the West Indies, he was appointed, in December 1808, to the Victorious, in which he took part in the Walcheren expedition in July and August 1809; and afterwards in the Mediterranean, in the defence of Sicily, June to September 1810, during which time he was repeatedly engaged in actions between the boats and the vessels of Murat's flotilla; and on 22 Feb. 1812 at the capture of the Rivoli [see Talbot, Sir John]. In February 1813 he was appointed to the Undaunted [see Ussher, Sir Thomas], and during the following months repeatedly commanded her boats in storming the ​enemy's batteries or cutting out trading and armed vessels from under their protection. On 18 Aug. 1813 in an attack, in force, on the batteries of Cassis, when the citadel battery was carried by escalade and three gunboats and twenty-four merchant vessels were brought out, Tozer was severely wounded by a canister shot in the groin and by a musket shot in the left hand. In consequence of these wounds he was invalided; on 15 July 1814 was promoted to be commander, and in December 1815 awarded a pension of 150l. a year. From 1818 to 1822 he commanded the Cyrene in the West Indies; in 1829 the William and Mary yacht. On 14 Jan. 1830 he was promoted to post rank, but had no further employment, and died at Plymouth on 21 Feb. 1854. He married, in June 1827, Mary, eldest daughter of Henry Hutton of Lincoln, and left issue one son, the Rev. Henry Fanshawe Tozer, fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Toy, John

​TOY, JOHN (1611–1663), author, son of John Toy of Worcester, was born in that city in 1611. He matriculated from Pembroke College, Oxford, on 23 May 1628, graduating B.A. on 27 Jan. 1630–1 and M.A. on 2 July 1634. After filling the office of chaplain to the bishop of Hereford, he became headmaster of the free school at Worcester, whence he was transferred about 1643 to the king's school. On 22 Oct. 1641 he was presented to the vicarage of Stoke Prior, Worcestershire. These two offices he retained until his death on 28 Dec. 1663. He was buried in the cathedral of Worcester. His wife, Martha Toy, survived him, dying on 10 April 1677.
He wrote:
* 'Worcesters Elegie and Eulogie,' London, 1638, 8vo: a poem describing the plague which assailed the city in 1637–8, and commemorating those who assisted the inhabitants in their distress; it was dedicated to Thomas Coventry, with commendatory verses in Latin by William Rowlands [q. v.], and others in English signed 'T. N.'
* 'Quisquiliæ Poeticæ, Tyrunculis in re metrica non inutiles,' London, 1662, 12mo: dedicated to John Persehouse. Wood conjectures that he may also be the author of 'Grammatices Græcæ Enchiridion in Usum Scholæ Collegialis Wigorniæ' (London, 1650, 8vo).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed Bliss, iii. 649; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Nash's Hist. and Antiq. of Worcestershire, ii. 381, 382; Chambers's Biogr. Illustrations of Worcestershire, 1820, p. 163; Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24489, f. 188.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tracy, Robert

1904 Errata appended.
​TRACY, ROBERT (1655–1735), judge, born in 1655 at Toddington in Gloucestershire, was the eldest son of Robert Tracy, second viscount and baron Tracy of Rathcoole, by his second wife, Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Cocks of Castleditch, Herefordshire [see under Tracy, Richard]. Robert's paternal grandmother, Anne, was daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley [q. v.] of Wiston, Sussex. He matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 29 Oct. 1672, and entered at the Middle Temple in the following year. He was called to the bar in 1680, and in July 1699 was appointed a judge of the king's bench in Ireland (Luttrell, Brief Hist. Relation, 1857, iv. 536). In the following year he was transferred to England on 14 Nov. as a baron of the exchequer (ib. iv. 702, 707, 709, v. 49, 183, 184), and in Trinity term 1702 he was removed to the court of common pleas. He was appointed a commissioner of the great seal while the lord-chancellor's office was vacant from 24 Sept. to 19 Oct. 1710 and from 15 April to 12 May 1718 (ib. vi. 633). He was one of the judges who gave an opinion on Sacheverell's trial, and in 1716 took part in trying the Jacobites at Carlisle. On 26 Oct. 1726 he retired from the bench with a pension of 1,500l., and died at his seat at Coscomb in Gloucestershire on 11 Sept. 1735. By his wife Anne, daughter of William Dowdeswell of Pull Court, Worcestershire, he left three sons—Robert, Richard, and William—and two daughters—Anne and Dorothy. Dorothy married John Pratt, fourth son of Sir John Pratt (1657–1725) [q. v.], chief justice of the king's bench.
Tracy is described as ‘a complete gentleman and a good lawyer, of a clear head and an honest heart,’ and as delivering his opinion with such ‘genteel affability and integrity that even those who lost a cause were charmed with his behaviour.’
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.267 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 142 | i | 25 | Tracy, Robert: for eldest son read fifth son |
| | | 27 | after coole, insert and was his eldest son |
| | | 17 f.e. | for 14 Sept. read 24 Sept. |
| | | 15 f.e. | after vi. 633). insert He was one of the judges who gave an opinion on Sacheverell's trial. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tozer, Henry

​TOZER, HENRY (1602–1650),puritan royalist, born in 1602 at North Tawton, Devonshire, matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, on 3 May 1621, and graduated B.A. on 18 June 1623, and M.A. on 28 April 1626. He took holy orders, was appointed lecturer at St. Martin's Church (Carfax, Oxford) on 21 Oct. 1632, and proceeded B.D. on 28 July 1636. Of puritan views, he was elected in 1643 to the Westminster assembly, but refused to sit, nor would he accept the degree of D.D. when nominated for it on 6 June 1646. Tozer was appointed vicar of Yarnton in 1644. He probably served the parish from Oxford, as he never lived there.
As bursar and sub-rector of Exeter College, Tozer managed the college in the absence of George Hakewill [q. v.], the rector. In March 1647 he was cited before the parliamentary visitors for continuing the common prayer, and for his known disfavour to parliamentarians. In November he was summoned to Westminster before the parliamentary commission, and the following year was imprisoned for some days on refusing to give up the college books. He was expelled from his fellowship on 26 May 1648, and on 4 June turned out of St. Martin's Church by soldiers because he prayed for the king, and 'breathed out pestilent air of unsound doctrine.' The decree, however, was revoked on 2 Nov., and Tozer was allowed to travel for three years, retaining his room in Exeter College.
Tozer then went to Holland, and became minister to the English merchants at Rotterdam, where he died on 11 Sept. 1650; he was buried in the English church there.
He was author of the following works, all published at Oxford: 1. 'Directions for a Godly Life, dedicated to his pupil Lorenzo Cary, son of Viscount Falkland,' 1628, 16mo, 5th ed. 1640, 8th 1671, 10th 1680, 11th 1690, 13th 1706 12mo. 2. 'A Christian Amendment,' 1633. 3. 'Christus: sive Dicta Facta Christi,' 1634. 4. 'Christian Wisdome,' 1639, 12mo.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Pickle the Spy

​PICKLE THE SPY, pseudonym. [See Macdonell, Alastair Ruadh (1725?–1761), thirteenth chief of Glengarry.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spelman, Edward

​SPELMAN or Yallop, EDWARD (d. 1767), author and translator, was the son of Charles Yallop of Bowthorp Hall, Norfolk, by his wife Ellen, daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Barkham, bart., of Westacre, Norfolk. Edward's grandfather, Sir Robert Yallop, married Dorothy, daughter of Clement Spelman [q. v.], baron of the exchequer. Edward, who in later life adopted the surname of Spelman, added an assiduous study of classical literature to the ordinary pursuits of a country gentleman. He was a profound Greek scholar, but had a great contempt for university learning. ‘Good God!’ he exclaimed on one occasion, ‘doth any fellow of a college know anything of Greek?’ He lived at High House, near Rougham, Norfolk. He died unmarried on 12 March 1767 at Westacre.
In 1742 he translated Xenophon's Anabasis, under the title ‘The Expedition of Cyrus into Persia, with Notes Critical and Historical,’ London, 8vo, which went through several editions, and was republished as late as 1849. Spelman's translation was styled by Gibbon ‘one of the most accurate and elegant that any language has produced’ (see also Smith's Dict. of Biography and Mythology, ed. 1849, iii. 1300). He also translated ‘A Fragment out of the Sixth Book of Polybius,’ London, 1743, 8vo, and ‘The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius Halicarnassus, with Notes and Dissertations,’ London, 1758, 4to. The latter work won the praise of Adam Clarke [q. v.], the former that of Edward Harwood (1729–1794) [q. v.]
Besides his translations Spelman was the author of: 1. ‘A Short Review of Mr. Hooke's Observations concerning the Roman Senate and the Character of Dionysius Halicarnassus,’ London, 1758, 8vo, written in reply to some criticisms of Nathaniel or Nathanael Hooke [q. v.]; Spelman's tract was answered by William Bowyer the younger [q. v.] in ‘An Apology for some of Mr. Hooke's Observations,’ London, 1783, 4to. 2. ‘The History of the Civil War between York and Lancaster,’ Lynn, 1792, 8vo; completed by George William Lemon [q. v.] Under the title of ‘Two Tracts’ Lemon also issued an essay by Spelman on Greek accents, with one of his own on the ‘Voyage of Æneas from Troy to Italy,’ London, 1773, 8vo.
[Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, ed. Parkin, ii. 384, 387, vi. 201, ix. 4, 145, 148, 163; General Hist. of Norfolk, 1829, ii. 832; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 304, 305, 616, iii. 661, viii. 135; Gent. Mag. 1767, p. 144.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spence, Benjamin Edward

​SPENCE, BENJAMIN EDWARD (1822–1866), sculptor, was born in Liverpool in 1822. His father, William Spence, who was born in Chester, contributed to the Liverpool and the Manchester exhibitions, and in 1842 and 1844 to the Royal Academy; but later in life he became a partner in a business house in Liverpool, and abandoned the profession. He died in Liverpool on 6 July 1849, aged 56 years. The younger Spence, at the age of sixteen, successfully executed a portrait bust of William Roscoe [q. v.], and in 1846 he was awarded the Heywood silver medal and 5l. in money by the council of the Royal Manchester Institution for a group in clay of the death of the Duke of York at Agincourt. His father was then persuaded by his old friend, John Gibson, R.A., to send the young sculptor to Rome. Here he entered the studio of R. J. Wyatt, and also received much help from Gibson. Between 1849 and 1867 he contributed to the exhibition of the Royal Academy five times—in 1850 Ophelia, in 1856 ‘Venus and Cupid,’ in 1861 Hippolytus, and in 1867 ‘The Parting of Hector and Andromache.’ To the International Exhibition of 1862 he contributed two works, ‘Finding of Moses’ and ‘Jeanie Deans before Queen Caroline,’ and to the French International Exhibition of 1855 ‘Highland Mary.’ Many works of his that were not exhibited in England were engraved in the ‘Art Journal.’ He was not an artist of great originality, but his work has elegance and feeling. He died at Leghorn on 21 Oct. 1866.
A. N.