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

​HOWITT, RICHARD (1799–1869), poet, born at Heanor in Derbyshire in 1799, was the son of Thomas Howitt and Phoebe Tantum. William Howitt [q. v.] was his brother. He spent his earlier years as a druggist in Nottingham, at first in partnership with his brother William, but finally on his own account. He was an ardent lover of literature, and published in 1830 a volume of poems entitled 'Antediluvian Sketches.' This was highly praised by competent judges, and was followed in 1840 by the 'Gipsy King' and other poems. Many of Howitt's poems appeared first in `Tait's Magazine' and W. Dearden's ' Miscellany.' Towards the end of 1839 Richard, in company with his brother, Dr. Godfrey Howitt, emigrated to Australia, but returned in 1844, and published his experiences in `Impressions of Australia Felix during Four Years' Residence in that Colony, Notes of a Voyage round the World, Australian Poems,' &c., 1845. This miscellany of prose and verse was described by Leigh Hunt as 'full of genuine pictures of nature, animate and inanimate.' After a stay in Nottingham Howitt retired to Edingley, Nottinghamshire, and published in 1868 a last volume of verse, ' Wasp's Honey, or Poetic Gold and Gems of Poetic Thought.' He died at Edingley on 5 Feb. 1869, and was buried in the Friends' cemetery at Mansfield. Christopher North says of him, in the 'Noctes Ambrosianæ,' 'Richard has true poetic feeling, and no small poetic power.'
[The Reliquary, x. and xi.; Mary Howitt: an Autobiography, edited by her daughter, Margaret Howitt, 1889, i. 117, 181, 222, ii. 169; Nottingham Daily Express, February 1869; Nottingham Daily Guardian, February 1869; Smith's Friends' Books.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howick, Viscount

​HOWICK, Viscount, afterwards second Earl Grey. [See Grey, Charles, 1764–1845.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howitt, Samuel

​HOWITT, SAMUEL (1765?–1822), painter and etcher, a member of an old Nottinghamshire quaker family, was born about 1765. In early life he was in an independent position, and, residing at Chigwell, Epping Forest, devoted himself to field sports. Financial difficulties compelled him to turn to art as a profession. Coming to London, he was for a time a drawing master, and attended Dr. Goodenough's academy at Ealing. In 1783 he exhibited with the Society of British Artists three 'stained drawings' of hunting subjects, and in 1785 first appeared at the Royal Academy, contributing two landscapes; in 1793 he sent 'Jaques and the Deer' and 'A Fox Hunt.' He worked both in oils and water-colours, confining himself to sporting subjects and illustrations of natural history, which are carefully drawn, very spirited and truthful. Howitt was closely associated in his art with Rowlandson, whose sister he married, and his works frequently pass for those of his brother-in-law; but, unlike Rowlandson, he was a practical sportsman, and his incidents are more accurately delineated. He was a clever and industrious etcher, and published a great number of plates similar in character to his drawings, and delicately executed with a fine needle. He also produced a number of caricatures in the manner ​of Rowlandson. It has been stated that Howitt visited India, but this is an error; his only eastern subjects were the drawings for Captain T. Williamson's `Oriental Field Sports,' 1807, and these were worked up in England from sketches by Williamson. Other of his works are: `Miscellaneous Etchings of Animals,' 50 plates, 1803; 'British Field Sports,' 20 coloured plates, 1807; 'The Angler's Manual,' with 12 plates, 1808; 'A New Work of Animals, principally designed from the Fables of Æsop, Gay, and Phædrus,' 56 plates, 1811; 'Groups of Animals,' 24 plates, 1811; 'The British Sportsman,' 70 plates, 1812; and many of the drawings for `Foreign Field Sports,' 1814. After 1794 Howitt reappeared at the Royal Academy only in 1814 and 1815. He died in Somers Town in 1822. His great-granddaughter, Mrs. Samuel Hastings, possesses a large number of his works, and examples are in the print room of the British Museum and the South Kensington Museum.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Universal Cat. of Books on Art; Reminiscences of Henry Angelo, 1830; Grego's Rowlandson; information from Rev. S. Hastings.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howlet, John

John Howlett in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​HOWLET, JOHN (1548–1589), jesuit, was born in the county of Rutland in 1548. He entered at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1564, and graduated B.A. in 1566, becoming a fellow. He went abroad in 1570 with the permission of his college, intending to travel to Rome, but, entering the college of Douay in the same year, he was in 1571 received into the order of Jesus at Louvain. At Douay he was a contemporary of Campion, and studied theology. He afterwards taught many different subjects, chiefly at Douay. In 1587 he proceeded to Poland to assist in the Transylvanian mission, and died at Wilna on 17 Dec. 1589.
Howlet's name was well known in England because it was appended to the dedication to the queen prefaced to the tract by Parsons entitled, 'A Brief Discours contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to go to Church. Written by a learned and vertuous man to a frend of his in England, and Dedicated by J. H. to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie,' Douay (really printed at London), 1580.
[Boase's Reg. of Exeter, pp. 45, 181, 207; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 184; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 67; Hearne's Coll., Oxf. Hist. Soc., 4 Sept. 1705; Reg. Univ. Oxon., (Oxf. Hist. Soc.),vol. ii. pt. ii.p.20; Henr. Morus, Hist. Provinciæ Anglicanæ Societatis Jesu, i. xv; Oliver's Biog. of the Members of the Soc. of Jesus, p.119; Southwell's Bibl. Script. Soc. Jesu, ed. Rome, 1676, p. 461; Foley's Records of the Engl. Province, i. 376; Knox's Douay Diaries, pp. 4, 24; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howgill, William

​HOWGILL, WILLIAM (fl. 1794), organist and composer, was organist at Whitehaven in 1794, and some years later, probably in 1810, removed to London.
He published:
* 'Four Voluntaries, part of the 3rd Chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon for three Voices, and six favourite Psalm Tunes, with an Accompaniment for the Organ,' London [1825?].
* 'Two Voluntaries for the Organ, with a Miserere and Gloria Tibi, Domine.'
* 'An Anthem and two Preludes for the Organ.'
[Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 754; Fétis's Biog. Univ. des Musiciens, iii. 375.]
R. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howison, William

​HOWISON or HOWIESON, WILLIAM (1798–1850), line engraver, was born at Edinburgh in 1798. He was educated at George Heriot's Hospital, and on leaving that institution was apprenticed to an engraver named Wilson. He never received any instruction in drawing beyond what he acquired during his apprenticeship, and for some time he worked in comparative obscurity, being chiefly employed upon small plates. Some of these were after David O. Hill, R.S.A., and by Hill's introduction Howison's work attracted the attention of Sir George Harvey, who was the first to appreciate his talents, and to afford scope for their display by giving him a commission to engrave his picture of 'The Curlers.' The merits of this engraving led to his election in 1838 as an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, the only instance of such an honour having been conferred on an ​en. He afterwards engraved 'The Polish Exiles,' after Sir William Allan, P.R.S.A., and 'The Covenanters' Communion,' and 'A Schule Skailin,' after Sir George Harvey, P.R.S.A., and at the time of his death was engaged upon 'The First Letter from the Emigrants,' after Thomas Faed, R. A., for the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. He died at 8 Frederick Street, Edinburgh, on 20 Dec. 1850, and was buried in the Greyfriars churchyard.
William Howison the engraver must be distinguished from William Howison (fl. 1823) poet and philosopher, who also lived in Edinburgh, was a friend of Sir Walter Scott (Lockhart, Life of Sir W. Scott, pp. 230, 505-6), and was author of:
* 'Polydore' (a ballad by which he introduced himself to Scott, who inserted it in the `Edinburgh Annual Review' for 1810).
* 'Fragments and Fictions' (published under the assumed name of M. de Pendemots).
* 'An Essay on the Sentiments of Attraction, Adaptation, and Vanity.'
* 'A Key to the Mythology of the Ancients.'
* 'Europe's Likeness to the Human Spirit,' Edinburgh, 1821, 12mo.
* 'A Grammar of Infinite Forms, or the Mathematical Elements of Ancient Philosophy and Mythology,' Edinburgh, 1823, 12mo.
* 'The Conquest of the Twelve Tribes.'
[Scotsman, 28 Dec. 1850; Edinburgh Evening Courant, 28 Dec. 1850; Art Journal, 1851, p. 44, reprinted in Gent. Mag. 1851, i. 321; Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 500; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves, 1886-9, i. 684; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. v. 253.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, William Noel-

​HILL, WILLIAM NOEL-, third Lord Berwick (d. 1842), was the second son of Noel Hill, first lord Berwick (grand-nephew of Richard Hill [q. v.]), by Anne, daughter of Henry Vernon of Hilton, Staffordshire. He was ambassador at Naples from 1824 to 1833. In 1824 he assumed the additional name of Noel, and in the same year was created a privy councillor. In 1832 he succeeded his elder brother, Thomas Noel, as third Baron Berwick. He was an F.S.A. He died unmarried at Redrice, near Andover, on 4 Aug. 1842. His large library was dispersed by sale.
[Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 423; Burke's Peerage; Diary and Corresp. of Lord Colchester, vol. iii.; Haydn's Book of Dignities.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hillary, William

​HILLARY, WILLIAM, M.D. (d. 1763), physician, was a pupil of Boerhaave at Leyden, where he graduated M.D. in 1722, writing a dissertation on intermittent fevers. He settled in practice at Ripon, removed to Bath in 1734, and to Barbadoes in 1752, and returned to London in 1758, where he died 22 April 1763.
Hillary was a systematic observer of the weather and prevalent diseases. His observations began at Ripon in 1726, a year in advance of the corresponding work by Clifton Wintringham at York. They were discontinued during his practice at Bath, but resumed at Barbadoes, and continued until he left the colony, 30 May 1758. The first series is published in the appendix to his second edition of ‘Rational and Mechanical Essay on the Small-pox,’ London, 1740; 1st edition, London, 1735. The Barbadoes records are given in his important work ‘Observations on the Changes of the Air, and the concomitant Epidemical Diseases in Barbadoes, with a Treatise on the Bilious Remittent Fever [Yellow Fever], &c.,’ London, 1759; 2nd edition, 1766; American reprint, with notes by B. Rush, Philadelphia, 1811. His other writings are: 1. ‘An Enquiry into the … Medicinal Virtues of Lincomb Spaw Water, near Bath,’ London, 1743. 2. ‘The Nature, Properties, and Laws of Motion of Fire,’ London, 1759. 3. ‘The Means of Improving Medical Knowledge,’ London, 1761.
[Hillary's writings; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
C. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Thomas Noel

​HILL, Sir THOMAS NOEL (1784–1832), colonel, seventh son of Sir John Hill, third baronet of Hawkstone, Shropshire, and younger brother of General Lord Hill [see Hill, Rowland, Viscount Hill], was born 14 Feb. 1784, and entered the army 25 Sept. 1801 as cornet 10th light dragoons (afterwards 10th hussars), in which he became lieutenant in 1803 and captain in 1805. He exchanged to the 53rd foot the year after, and on 16 Feb. 1809 was appointed major in the Portuguese army under Marshal Beresford. He commanded the first Portuguese regiment at the battle of Busaco, the siege and capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, the battles of Salamanca and Vittoria, and the capture of St. Sebastian. He was appointed captain and lieutenant-colonel 1st foot-guards (Grenadier guards) 25 July, and was knighted 28 July 1814. He served as assistant adjutant-general in the Waterloo campaign. He retired from the guards on half-pay, 27 May 1824. He was deputy adjutant-general in Canada in 1827–30, and was afterwards appointed commandant of the cavalry depot, Maidstone, where he died on 4 Jan. 1832.
Hill was a K.C.B., and had the orders of the Tower and Sword of Portugal and of Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria. He married, on 27 July 1821, Anna Maria Shore, fourth daughter of the first Lord Teignmouth, by whom he had six surviving children.
[Army Lists; Philippart's Royal Military Cal. 1820, iv.; Gent. Mag. 1832, pt. i. 84, 650.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, William (1619-1667)

​HILL, WILLIAM (1619–1667), classical scholar, born in 1619 at Curdworth, Warwickshire, was the son of Blackleech Hill, an attorney, and afterwards bailiff of Hemlingford hundred in Warwickshire. In October 1634, when aged fifteen, he entered Merton College, Oxford, where he was made a post-master, and in 1639 a fellow. He graduated M.A. in 1641, and later in life received the degree of D.D. from the university of Dublin. On leaving Oxford about 1640, Hill became master of the free school at Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, and brought it into credit. He afterwards removed to London, and there practised medicine with success. Wood (who, however, had not seen the book) says he epitomised some of the works of Lazarus Riverius, the physician. In 1658 Hill published an edition of Dionysius Periegetes, London, 8vo; other editions appeared in 1659, 1663, 1679, &c. Wood says the edition was used ‘in many schools and by most juniors of the university of Oxon.’ Leaving London to resume teaching, Hill became chief master of the school of St. ​ Patrick's, Dublin. At the Restoration he was, as a parliamentarian, removed from this post, and went to Finglas, near Dublin, where he became minister, and kept a boarding-school for the children of gentlemen. He died in November 1667 ‘of a pestilential fever’ (which was also fatal to most of his family), and was buried on 29 Nov. in Finglas Church. Hill married when at Sutton Coldfield the well-to-do daughter of ‘a plain countryman.’ She died about 1641, and Hill, when practising medicine in London, married (according to Wood) ‘a young lass, daughter of one Mr. Burges, a physician, who brought him forth a child that lived within the seventh month after marriage.’
Another William Hill of Merton College became, according to Wood, a bible clerk of Merton in 1647, and afterwards a tale-bearer to the parliamentary visitors. This man obtained a living, but was ejected at the Restoration, and falling in with a number of fanatics, became privy to a plot to seize the king at Whitehall. He turned informer, and by his means the conspirators were arrested 29 Oct. 1662, and four of them were hanged at Tyburn, 23 Dec. Hill was rewarded with a benefice, which he did not long enjoy. Wood says he published a pamphlet giving a ‘narrative of the plot.’
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 800–2; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Thomas (fl.1590)

Same person as Mountain, Didymus.
​HILL, THOMAS (fl. 1590), miscellaneous writer, of London, was dead by April 1599. In addition to compiling and translating for the booksellers he practised astrology, and was on that account castigated in W. Fulke's ‘Anti-prognosticon,’ 1560. He translated from the Latin of B. Cocles ‘A brief Epitomye of the whole Art of Phisiognomie gathered out of Aristotle, Rasis … and others many moe,’ 8vo, London [1550?], and from the Italian of L. Fioravanti ‘A Joyful Jewell. Contayning … orders, preservatives … for the Plague,’ 4to, London [1579], which was edited by his friend John Hester [q. v.] Hill also wrote: 1. ‘A most briefe and pleasaunt Treatyse, teachynge howe to Dress, Sowe, and Set a Garden,’ 8vo, London, 1563. 2. ‘The proffitable Arte of Gardening, now the third tyme set fourth. … To this annexed two Treatises, the one entituled the marveilous Government of the Bees … and the other the Yerely Conjectures, meete for Husbandmẽ to knowe: Englished by T. H.,’ 2 pts., 8vo, London, 1568. To another edition, also styled the third, is ‘newly added a Treatise of the Arte of Graffing and Planting of Trees,’ 2 pts., 4to, London, 1574. Other editions appeared in 1579, 1586, 1593, and 1608. 3. ‘The moste pleasaunte Arte of the Interpretacion of Dreames, whereunto is annexed sundry Problemes with apte Aunsweares, … and rare examples. Gathered by the former Auctour of T. H. … and now newly Imprinted,’ 8vo, London, 1576. 4. ‘A Briefe and pleasaunt Treatise, Intituled Naturall and Artificiall Conclusions; Written firste by sundry Schollers of the Universitie of Padua at the request of one Bartholomew, a Tuscane; and now Englished by T. Hyll,’ 8vo, London, 1586. 5. ‘A Contemplation of Mysteries: contayning the rare effectes and significations of certayne Comets. … Gathered and Englished by T. Hyll,’ 8vo, London [1590?]. 6. ‘The Schoole of Skil: containing two bookes: the first, of the Sphere, of Heaven, of the Starres, of their Orbes, and of the Earth, &c. The second, of the Sphericall Elements, of the Celestiall Circles, &c. With apt figures’ [edited by W. I.], 4to, London, 1599. 7. ‘The Arte of Vulgar Arithmeticke … devided into two Bookes. … Whereunto is added a third Booke. Newly collected, digested, and in some parts devised by a welwiller to the Mathematicals,’ 4to, London, 1600. 8. ‘A Pleasant History: declaring the whole Art of Phisiognomy, Orderly—utterly all the speciall parts of Man, from the Head to the Foot,’ 8vo [London], 1613.
Hill's portrait has been engraved.
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 6th edit., i. 277.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Thomas (d.1653)

​HILL, THOMAS (d. 1653), master of Trinity College, Cambridge, born at Kington, Worcestershire, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was scholar and fellow, and where he graduated B.A. in 1622, M.A. in 1626, and B.D. in 1633. He was incorporated B.A. at Oxford on 9 July 1622, resided for some years at Cambridge as a tutor, and having taken holy orders preached regularly at St. Andrews. Subsequently he lived for a time with his friend John Cotton [q. v.] at Boston, Lincolnshire. A strong puritan, he was summoned as assessor by the committee of the House of Lords appointed to consider innovations in religion on 1 March 1640–1. He was also one of the original members of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, which was constituted by ordinance of 12 June 1643, and was a frequent week-day preacher before the assembly in Westminster Abbey. He also preached regularly on Sundays at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields during the sittings of the assembly. About this time he was presented to the rectory of Little Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire, which he held until his death, and was elected to the mastership of Emmanuel College, which he exchanged in 1645, by direction of the parliamentary commissioners, for that of Trinity College. He was appointed vice-chancellor of the university, and took the degree of D.D. (1646). A patent issued by the parliament, 17 March 1647–8, confirmed him in the office. The mode of Hill's appointment and his Calvinistic views made him highly unpopular with the fellows of Trinity, nor was his method of governing calculated to conciliate them. On one occasion he summarily arrested and imprisoned a fellow named Wotton for saying in a tavern that the English parliament were greater rebels than the Irish. He pertinaciously propagated his Calvinistic views, not only in Cambridge, but also in the neighbouring towns and villages. He died of a quartan ague on 18 Dec. 1653. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Anthony Tuckney, master of Emmanuel College, on 22 Dec. Hill married Mary Willford, governess of Lady Frances, daughter of Robert, earl of Warwick. She survived him and married Tuckney. Hill published some sermons, and edited the theological tracts of William Fenner [q. v.]
[Θανατοκτασια. Or Death disarmed and the Grave swallowed up in Victory (the funeral sermon referred to in the text); Clarke's Lives of Ten Eminent Divines; Cole MSS. xlv. 225, 1. 7; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 408; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. iii. 699; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 438; Lords' Journ. iv. 174, ix. 664; Commons' Journ. v. 503; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. v. 337–8; Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. App., 7th Rep. App.; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll. ed. Mayor, 229 n., 642; Brook's Lives of the Puritans.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Thomas Ford

​HILL, THOMAS FORD (d. 1795), antiquary, was the son of a glove manufacturer at Worcester. He was a quaker, and intended for a commercial life. After serving an apprenticeship at Pontefract, he was taken into the house of Messrs. Dawson & Walker in Cornhill, London, but abandoned business for literature and antiquities. In 1780 he made an antiquarian tour through Scotland. In 1784 he visited the continent, residing at Geneva to learn French, and afterwards exploring the mountainous districts of Savoy. His tour was in 1787 extended to Italy, for the purpose of antiquarian studies. He was abroad five years, during which he made the acquaintance of eminent men of learning, and of Cardinal Borgia and Prince Kaunitz. He made two other journeys to the continent in 1791 and 1792, when he travelled through a great part of Germany, and also visited Paris. In 1792 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1794 he went again to Italy, and died on 16 July 1795 at Ariano, worn out by the difficulties he had encountered in his journey to Calabria in that year.
During his tour in Scotland in 1780 Hill collected many Erse songs, some of which appeared, together with a notice of his tour, in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (1782 p. 570, 1783 i. 33, 36, 140, 398, 489, ii. 590), as also did a letter of his on the Ossian controversy (1782, pp. 570–1). The poems were afterwards published separately, under the title of ‘Ancient Erse Songs,’ 1784. The only other work of Hill was ‘Observations on the Politics of France, and their Progress since the Last Summer,’ which was published in 1792. His portrait was painted at Rome in 1787 by Gavin Hamilton (1730–1797) [q. v.]
[Gent. Mag. 1795 pt. ii. p. 704, 789, 1796 pt. i. pp. 126–31; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, viii. 154.]
T. E. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crowther, James

​CROWTHER, JAMES (1768–1847), botanist, the youngest of seven sons of a labourer, was born in a cellar in Deansgate, Manchester, on 24 June 1768. At nine years of age he became draw-boy at a loom, and rarely earned twenty shillings a week through life. Becoming one of the chief of the working-men botanists of Manchester, he gave great assistance to J. B. Wood in compiling the ‘Flora Mancuniensis,’ and also to John Hull. Though most conspicuously acquainted with the lower plants, he was the first to discover the Lady's-slipper Orchid at Malham in Yorkshire. When past work he had but a pittance of three shillings a week, and died on 6 Jan. 1847. He was buried at St. George's, Hulme.
[Cash's Where there's a Will there's a Way.]
G. S. B.