OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irvine, William (1741-1804)

​IRVINE, WILLIAM (1741–1804), American brigadier-general, was born near Inniskilling, Ireland, 3 Nov. 1741, studied medicine at Dublin University, and served as a surgeon in the royal navy during part of the war of 1756–63. He resigned before the close of the war, emigrated, and settled in medical practice at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He sided with the colonists at the beginning of the revolution, and took an active part in public affairs. He was a member of the provincial convention assembled at Philadelphia, 15 July 1774, which recommended a general congress. He was appointed by congress colonel of the 6th Pennsylvanian infantry and ordered to Canada. He raised the regiment, led it through the mouth of the Sorel, and commanded it in the attempted surprise of the British at Three Rivers. He was taken prisoner on 16 June 1776, and was released on parole, but was not exchanged until 6 May 1778. He was a member of the court-martial that tried General Charles Lee. In 1778 he commanded the 2nd Pennsylvanian infantry, and in 1779 was made brigadier-general and given command of the 2nd Pennsylvanian brigade, with which he was engaged at Staten Island and in Wayne's unsuccessful attempt on Bull's Ferry, 21–22 July 1780. He attempted unsuccessfully to raise a corps of Pennsylvanian cavalry. In March 1782 he was sent to Fort Pitt to command on the western frontier, where he remained until October 1783. In 1785 he was ​appointed agent for the state of Pennsylvania to examine the public lands, and had the administration of the act directing the distribution of the donation-lands promised to the soldiers of the revolution. He suggested the purchase of the piece of land known as ‘The Triangle,’ to give Pennsylvania an outlet on Lake Erie. He was a member of the continental congress of 1786, and was one of the assessors for settling the accounts of the union with individual states. He commanded the Pennsylvanian state militia against the whisky insurgents in 1794; served as a representative in the third congress from 2 Dec. 1793 to 3 March 1795; subsequently he removed to Philadelphia, and in 1801 was made superintendent of military stores there. He was president of the state society of Cincinnati at the time of his death, which took place at Philadelphia 29 July 1804. Two of Irvine's brothers were in the military service of the revolution, Andrew, a captain of infantry, and Matthew, a surgeon; and he left several sons serving as officers in the United States army.
Appleton's Cyclop. American Biography, vol. iii. The statement in Appleton that Irvine ‘graduated’ at Dublin is doubtful, as the name does not appear in the Dublin Catalogue of Graduates.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irving, George Vere

​IRVING, GEORGE VERE (1815–1869), lawyer and antiquary, born in 1815, was only son of Alexander Irving of Newton, Lanarkshire, afterwards a Scottish judge with the title of Lord Newton. In 1837 he was called to the Scottish bar. He took a great interest in the volunteer movement, and became captain of the Carnwath troop. He died at 5 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, London, on 29 Oct. 1869, aged 53 (Edinburgh Evening Courant, 3 Nov. 1869, p. 4).
Irving was F.S.A. Scot. and vice-president of the British Archæological Association. He also contributed frequently to ‘Notes and Queries.’ His works are: 1. ‘Digest of the Law of the Assessed Taxes in Scotland,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1841. 2. ‘Digest of the Inhabited House Tax Act,’ 8vo, London, 1852. 3. ‘The Upper Ward of Lanarkshire described and delineated. The Archæological and Historical Section by G. V. Irving. The Statistical and Topographical Section by Alexander Murray,’ 3 vols. 4to, Glasgow, 1864.
[Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iv. 398; Irving's Book of Scotsmen, p. 234.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irvine, James

​IRVINE, JAMES (1833–1889), portrait-painter, born in 1833, was eldest son of John Irvine, wright, of Meadowburn, Menmuir, Forfarshire. He was educated at Menmuir parish school; became a pupil of Colvin Smith [q. v.], the painter, at Brechin; subsequently studied at the Edinburgh Academy, and was afterwards employed by Mr. Carnegy-Arbuthnott of Balnamoon to paint portraits of the old retainers on his estate. Irvine practised as a portrait-painter for some years at Arbroath, and then removed to Montrose. After a period of hard struggle he became recognised as one of the best portrait-painters in Scotland, and received numerous commissions. He was an intimate friend of George Paul Chalmers [q. v.] Among his best-known portraits were those of James Coull, a survivor of the sea-fight between the Shannon and the Chesapeake (which was painted for Mr. Keith of Usan, and of which Irvine painted four replicas), of Dr. Calvert, rector of Montrose Academy, and other well-known residents at Montrose. He also painted some landscapes. He had begun memorial portraits of the Earl and Countess of Dalhousie for the tenantry on the Panmure estate, when he died of congestion of the lungs at his residence, Brunswick Cottage, Hillside, Montrose, 17 March 1889, in his fifty-seventh year.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irvine, William (1743-1787)

​IRVINE, WILLIAM, M.D. (1743–1787), chemist, was the son of a merchant in Glasgow, where he was born in 1743. He entered the university of his native town in 1756, and studied medicine and chemistry under Dr. Joseph Black [q.v.] , whom he assisted in his first experiments on the latent heat of steam. After graduating M.D. he visited London and Paris for purposes of professional improvement, was appointed on his return in 1766 lecturer on materia medica in the university of Glasgow, and succeeded Robison in 1770 in the chair of chemistry. His lectures were described by Cleghorn as remarkable for erudition, sagacity, and explanatory power. His experiments were largely devoted to the furtherance of manufactures. He was working at the improvement of glass-making processes in a large factory in which he was concerned when he was attacked with a fever, which proved fatal on 9 July 1787. The offer of a lucrative post under the Spanish government came to him upon his deathbed. By his wife, Grace Hamilton, he left one son William (1776–1811) [q. v.], who published from his father's papers, with some additions of his own, ‘Essays, chiefly on Chemical Subjects,’ London, 1805. Irvine's doctrine of the varying capacities of different bodies for heat was defended, and his method of experimenting was explained by his son in Nicholson's ‘Journal of Natural Philosophy’ (vi. 25, xi. 50).
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Massereene

​MASSEREENE, Viscounts. [See Clotworthy, Sir John, d. 1665; Skeffington, Sir John, d. 1695.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, William Shaw

​MASON, WILLIAM SHAW (1774–1853), statist, a native of Ireland, born in 1774, graduated B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1796. In conjunction with two others he was appointed by patent in 1805 to the office of remembrancer or receiver of the first-fruits and twentieth parts in Ireland; to this was added in September 1810 the post of secretary to the commissioners for public records in Ireland. Sir Robert Peel, while chief secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, conceived a high opinion of Mason, and encouraged him to undertake an Irish statistical work similar to that executed by Sir John Sinclair for Scotland. The first volume of Mason's publication was issued at Dublin in octavo, with maps and plates, in 1814, under the title of ‘A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland, drawn up from the communications of the clergy.’ The second volume appeared in 1816, and a third followed in 1819. Mason devoted much attention to the subject of the census of Ireland, and compiled a ‘Survey, Valuation, and Census of the Barony of Portnahinch’ in Queen's County. This was printed in 1821 in a folio volume, and submitted to George IV during his visit to Ireland as a model for a statistical survey of the whole country. A catalogue of books relating to Ireland, collected by Mason for Sir Robert Peel, was printed under the title of ‘Bibliotheca Hibernicana,’ Dublin, 1823, 12mo. This was the last work of Mason published separately. Returns by him in connection with statistics of Ireland will be found among the sessional papers of the House of Commons. He died in Camden Street, Dublin, on 11 March 1853.
[Reports of Commissioners for Public Records of Ireland, 1810–25; Sir W. Betham's Observations on Record Commission, Dublin, 1837; personal information.]
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Massey, William (1691-1764?)

​MASSEY, WILLIAM (1691–1764?), miscellaneous writer and translator, born in January 1691 of quaker parents, learnt Latin, Greek, and French at a private grammar school kept by William Thompson at Nottingham, and afterwards took lessons in Hebrew from one Knobs, clerk of the parish of St. Gregory, Norwich. In 1712 he became Latin usher in a boarding-school at Half-farthing-house, Wandsworth, Surrey, kept by Richard Scoryer, after whose death in 1714 he continued in the same employment for about a year under Scoryer's successor, Edward Powell, a noted writing-master and accountant. Subsequently he conducted a boarding-school of his own for many years at Wandsworth, and it was much patronised by the Society of Friends. Dr. Birch notes that on 24 March 1764 Massey was seized with the dead palsy on his right side, and under date 28 Aug. following he adds: 'I visited him at his house on Cambridge Heath, near Hackney, and found him very ​ill of the stone, added to the palsy.' Probably he died shortly afterwards.
He was the author of:
* 'Musa Parænetica, or a Tractate of Christian Epistles, on sundry occasions, in verse,' London, 1717, 8vo; reprinted 1746.
* 'Synopsis Sacerrima, or an Epitome of the Holy Scriptures, in English verse,' London, 1719, 8vo; reprinted 1801.
* 'Pietas Promota, sive Collectio Novissima Verba Multorum illius Sectæ, quiapud Anglos vulgò Quakeri appellantur, exhibens. … Linguâ vernaculâ olim … conscripta … jam verò … latinè reddita,' London, 1737, 12mo. Translated from Tomkins's 'Piety Promoted.'
* 'Adhortatio Pathetica … being a translation of Benjamin Holme's Serious Call into Latin,' London, 1747, 8vo.
* 'Humanæ Vitæ Œconomia: sive Instituta ad formandos Hominum Mores. Primùm Anglicè à Roberto Dodsley conscripta. Nunc Latinè reddita,' London, 1752, 8vo.
* 'Tully's Compendious Treatise of Old Age; intitled Cato Major … translated into English, with copious notes,' London, 1753, 8vo.
* 'Corruptæ Latinitatis Index, or a Collection of Barbarous Words and Phrases which are found in the works of the most celebrated Writers in Latin,' London, 1755, 8vo.
* 'Ovid's Fasti … translated into English verse, with explanatory notes,' London, 1757, 8vo.
* 'Remarks upon Milton's Paradise Lost, Historical, Geographical, Critical, and Explanatory,' London, 1761, 12mo.
* 'The Origin and Progress of Letters; an Essay,' 2 pts. London, 1763, 8vo. The second part of this curious book, treating of caligraphy, contains particulars not elsewhere recorded of the lives of celebrated English penmen, 'with the titles and characters of the books that they published both from the Rolling and Letter-Press.'
[Addit. MS. 6211, ff. 123, 127; Ayscough's Cat. of MSS. p. 749; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1509; Massey's Origin and Progress of Letters, pp. 115-18, and Dr. Birch's MS. notes; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ii. 310, 311; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, ii. 157; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Massey, William Nathaniel

​MASSEY, WILLIAM NATHANIEL (1809–1881), member of parliament and historian, son of William Massey, was born in 1809, and was a member of the Clarina family. He was called to the bar in 1844, and became recorder of Portsmouth in 1852 and of Plymouth in 1855. In the same year he was returned to parliament in the liberal interest as member for Newport in the Isle of Wight, and sat for that borough until 1857, when the moderate liberal party in Manchester, while inviting Mr. Robert Lowe to oppose Gibson and Bright in that city, extended a similar invitation to Massey to contest Salford against Sir Elkanah Armitage. Massey, wiser than Lowe, responded to the summons, and gained the seat with an ease astonishing to all who were not acquainted with the personal unpopularity of his opponent. His return for so important a borough made him a person of consequence; he was already under-secretary for the home department, and although he lost this appointment on Lord Palmerston's resignation in 1858, he was elected chairman of committees after the dissolution of the following year. He continued to sit for Salford until 1863, when he succeeded Mr. Samuel Laing as financial member of the government of India, a position which he held until 1868. He possessed high qualifications for this important post, but his efficiency in it, as well as in the chair of the house in committee, was thought to be impaired by his constitutional indolence. He was made a privy-councillor on his return to England, was elected for Tiverton in 1872, and sat until his death, but took no prominent part in politics, and did not again hold office. He died in Chester Square on 25 Oct. 1881. He was a devoted follower of Lord Palmerston, and both by conviction and temperament averse to political innovation. He was personally popular both in the house and among his constituents; his abilities were considerable, his legal and financial knowledge extensive, but he lacked energy and ambition. He wrote an essay on legal reform entitled 'Common Sense versus Common Law;' but his only important literary performance is an unfinished history of the reign of George III, extending to the peace of Amiens, 4 vols. London, 1855-1863 (2nd edit. 1865). In writing this book he had the assistance of the extensive materials collected by Mr. E. H. Locker for his intended biography of George II; his style is lucid, and his general treatment of the subject sensible and impartial; but he is devoid of all distinctive characteristics, and exhibits the qualities neither of a picturesque nor of a philosophic historian.
[Annual Register, 1881; Times, 27 Oct. 1881; private information.]
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murray, James (1702-1758)

​MURRAY, JAMES (1702–1758), dissenting divine, born at Dunkeld, Perthshire, in 1702, was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and having obtained presbyterian ordination removed to London, and for some years was assistant minister at Swallow Field Presbyterian Church, Piccadilly. He was not popular, and eventually retired, but found a patron in the Duke of Atholl, with whom he resided until his death in 1758. He published 'Aletheia; or a System of Moral Truths,' London, 1747, 2 vols. 12mo.
[New and Gen. Biog. Dict. 1798, xi. 142; Wilson's Hist, and Antiq. Dissenting Churches, iv. 48.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murray, James (1788-1871)

​MURRAY, Sir JAMES (1788–1871), discoverer of fluid magnesia, born in co. Londonderry in 1788, was son of Edward Murray of that county. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and Dublin, and in 1807 became a licentiate of the College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, and in the following year was admitted a member of the Dublin college. In 1809 he married a Miss Sharrock, and seems to have settled down as a practising physician in Belfast. In 1817 he published a paper on 'The Danger of using Solid Magnesia, and on its great value in a Fluid State for internal use.' He gave much time and attention to the dissemination of his views on this subject, and is said to have taken out a patent, although it is not noticed in Woodcroft's 'Index of Patents.' In 1829 he graduated M.D. at Edinburgh University, and in the same year published his treatise on 'Heat and Humidity.' The success of this work led the Marquis of Anglesey, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, to appoint him his resident physician and to knight him. In 1832 Murray was presented with the honorary degree of M.D. Dublin University. He secured an extensive practice in Dublin, and was continued in his post of resident physician by the Marquis of Normanby and Viscount Ebrington, and received the appointment of inspector of anatomy in Dublin, a post which he held nearly forty years. In 1834 he accompanied Lord Anglesey to Rome, and returned in the following year. He established a manufactory for fluid magnesia, which still benefits his descendants, and successfully prosecuted several firms for infringements of his patent. He formulated various theories, such as a system of dry cupping, a proposal for the prevention of cholera by the insertion of a layer of non-conducting material beneath the ground floors of dwelling-houses, and was probably the first to suggest electricity as a curative agent, in which he strongly believed. He also suggested the utilisation of atmospheric pressure in air-baths. His work on ' Cholera,' published in 1844, was translated into Italian. His death took place in Upper Temple Street, Dublin, on 8 Dec. 1871, at the age of eighty-four, and he was buried at Glasnevin. His son, John Fisher Murray [q. v.], predeceased him.
The following are Murray's most important works : 1. 'Dissertation on the Influence of Heat and Humidity, with Practical Observations on the Inhalation of Iodine,' 8vo, London, 1829. 2. 'Four Letters on the Relief of the Sick Poor in Ireland,' 8vo, Dublin, 1837. 3. 'Abstract of a Popular Lecture on Artificial Respiration,' 8vo, Dublin, 1838. 4. 'Observations on Fluid Magnesia,' 8vo, London, 1840. 5. 'Electricity as a Cause of Cholera or other Epidemics, and the Relation of Galvanism to the Action of Remedies,' 12mo, Dublin, 1849.
[Lancet, 16 Dec. 1871; Northern Whig, 13 Dec. 1871; Irish Times, 12 Dec. 1871; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]
D. J. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Leslie Grove

​JONES, LESLIE GROVE (1779–1839), soldier and political writer, was born at Bearfield, near Bradford in Wiltshire, 4 June 1779. His father, John Jones of Frankley, near Bradford, was inspector of the board of works and died in 1807. Jones when young entered the navy; but while a midshipman on the Revolutionnaire he incurred censure for interfering on behalf of the cook, who was, in his opinion, flogged unjustly, and he quitted the navy in consequence. The Marquis of Lansdowne offered him a commission in the guards, and he became ensign 25 Nov. 1796, lieutenant and captain 25 Nov. 1799, brevet-major 4 June 1811, captain and lieutenant-colonel 21 Jan. 1813. He served throughout the Peninsular war, and was commandant at Brussels before Waterloo. While with the army of occupation at Cambrai he employed his leisure during the winter of 1817 in writing a pamphlet upon the 'Principles of Legitimacy,' which was published in 1827. After his retirement from the army he took a keen interest in polities, and when the reform agitation was in progress gained much notoriety by his violent letters in the 'Times' signed 'Radical.' He intended to stand for the new borough of St. Marylebone in 1832, but withdrew at the last, perhaps, as the 'Age' suggests, from want of means. Jones died in Buckingham Street, Strand, 12 March 1839, and was buried at Kensal Green. A portrait engraved by Phillips appeared in the 'Union Magazine' for February 1832. Jones married, first, Jean, youngest daughter of Patrick Miller of Dalswinton—she died 29 Oct. 1833, leaving two sons; secondly, on 28 March 1838, Anna Maria, second daughter of William Davies Shipley, who survived him.
[Age and Times, 1821-3; Gent. Mag. 1839, i. 541; Greville Memoirs, ed. Reeve, 1st ser. ii. 200; Men of the Reign.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Joseph David

​JONES, JOSEPH DAVID (1827–1870), Welsh musical composer, born in 1827 at Brynerugog, parish of Llanfair-Caereinion, Montgomeryshire, was the son of a small farmer who acted as local preacher among the Wesleyans. Jones, in spite of his father's opposition, devoted himself in youth to musical study, and in 1847 published at Llanidloes the 'Perganiedydd,' a volume of congregational tunes, which proved a success. In the same year he left home after the death of his mother, and in 1848 and succeeding years held singing classes at Towyn, Merionethshire, and the neighbouring villages. He spent three months in 1851 at a training college in London. From 1857 to 1866 he took charge of the British school at Ruthin, in 1866 opened a private school there, and died on 17 Sept. 1870.
Jone's published music found great favour with his countrymen. His cantata, 'Llys Arthur,' or 'Arthur's Court,' with words by R. J. Derfel, appeared at Ruthin in 1884, and includes the Queen's song, one of his happiest compositions. His collection of hymns and tunes, 'Tonau ac Emynau' (Wrexham, 1868), begun with the Rev. E Stephens of Tanymarian, who soon withdrew from the undertaking, occupied him for six years. It is still in use throughout the Principality. He hadmade some progress with an appendix, which was partly utilised by Mr. Stephens in preparing a second part. He also arranged a volume of music for the use of the Wesleyans, which was published after his death.
[Information supplied by his son, Rev. J. D. Jones, South Park, Lincoln.]
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Lewis

​JONES, LEWIS (1550?–1646), bishop of Killaloe, born in Merionethshire, Wales, became, according to Wood, a student at Oxford about 1562. He graduated B.A. in 1568 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 265), and was elected fellow of All Souls' College. Taking holy orders, and migrating to Ireland, he was appointed dean of Ardagh in 1606, and dean of Cashel and prebendary of Kilbragh in that church in 1607. He held both deaneries jointly till 1625, when he resigned Ardagh to his son Henry. The royal visitors stated, in 1615, that he had improvidently leased the revenues of the Cashel deanery to a son of Archbishop Meiler Magrath. But while dean he restored Cashel Cathedral,and established a choir there. In 1629 Archbishop Ussher warmly recommended ​him to Laud, on the ground of his services to the diocese, for the vacant archbishopric of Cashel (Ussher, Works, ed. Elrington, xv. 444). The recommendation was without effect. In 1629 Jones became a prebendary of Emly, and in April 1633 bishop of Killaloe. Early in his episcopate he showed more favour to Scottish covenanters than Wentworth, the lord-deputy, and Laud, approved, and he was censured by the High Commission court. 'I am sorry old Jones of Killaloe is so faulty,' wrote Laud to Wentworth on 12 April 1634. According to Anthony a Wood, he retired to Dublin on the outbreak of the Irish rebellion, and, dying there on 2 Nov. 1646, was buried in St. Werburgh's Church. Harris states in his edition of Ware's account of the Irish bishops that Jones died in the 104th year of his age; but Ussher, in his letter of 1629, says that Jones was then sixty-nine years old, in which case he would be eighty-six at death. The fact that he had been a graduate of Oxford for seventy-eight years implies, however, that he was some years older. Three of his sons, Henry Jones (1605-1682), Michael Jones (d. 1649), and Sir Theophilus Jones (d. 1685), are separately noticed.
Another son, Ambrose Jones (d. 1678), bishop of Kildure, was educated at Dublin; succeeded his father as prebendary of Emly in February 1637-8; became treasurer of Limerick in 1639, and precentor there in 1641; archdeacon of Meath in February 1660-1; rector of Castletown, co. Meath, in 1663; and bishop of Kildare in 1667. As bishop he sought to recover the alienated property of the see. He died on 15 Dec. 1678, and was buried at St. Andrew's, Dublin.
[Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. passim; The Bishop's Will, Dwyer's Hist. Dioe. Killaloe, p. 181; Steame MS. (Trinity Coll. Dublin), F. 4, 2; Laud's Works, vii. 57, 68, 76.]
W. R-l.