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

​BOWES, THOMAS (fl. 1586), translated into English the first and second parts of the 'French Academy,' a moral and philosophical treatise written by Peter of Primaudaye, a French writer of the latter half of the sixteenth century. The translation of the first ​part was published in 1586, and seems to have met with immediate popularity, for a fifth edition was issued in 1614. Along with the third edition in 1594 was published the translation of the second part. To both parts Bowes prefixes a letter to the reader, and in the longer of the two, prefixed to the second part, J. Payne Collier detects allusions to Marlowe, Greene, and Nash. The allusion to Marlowe can scarcely be maintained if the second part appeared for the first time in the 1594 edition; for Marlowe, who, if indeed he is meant, is alluded to as living, died in 1593. Bowes is denouncing the prevalence of atheistic and licentious literature, and after giving as an instance Ligneroles, a French atheist, goes on to quote from English imitators, but gives no names. He ends by denouncing lying romances about Arthur and Huon of Bordeaux. J. Payne Collier, in the 'Poetical Decameron,' discusses the whole passage. There is an edition of the third part of the 'Academy,' englished by R. Dolman, published in 1601. Strype mentions a certain Thomas Bowes, M.A., of Queens' College, Cambridge, whom some have identified with the translator.
[Brit. Mus. Catalogue; Collier's Poetical Decameron, ii. 271; Collier's Extracts from Registers of Stationers' Company, ii. 198; Strype's Annales Reform, iii. 1, 645, Oxford, 1824; Nouvelle Biographie Grenerale, xxix. n. article 'La Primaudaye.']
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bowes, William

​BOWES, Sir WILLIAM (1389–1460?), military commander, was the founder of the political importance of his family. He was the son of Sir Robert Bowes, and of Maude, lady of Dalden. He married Jane, daughter of Ralph, lord Greystoke. His wife died in the first year of her marriage, whereon 'he toke much thoght and passed into France' about the year 1415. He showed much gallantry in the French war, and so commended himself to John, duke of Bedford, whom he served as chamberlain. He fought at the battle of Verneuil, where he was knighted. While in France he was impressed with the architecture of the country, and sent home plans for rebuilding his manor house at Streatlam, near Barnard Castle. He returned from France after seventeen years' service and superintended his buildings at Streatlam, which unfortunately have been entirely destroyed. After his return he took part in the government of the borders, as warden of the middle marches and governor of Berwick. He died at a good old age, and is known in the family records as 'Old Sir William.'
[Surtees's Durham, iv. 102: Leland's Itinerary (ed. 1744),iv. 9.]
M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bowlby, Thomas William

​BOWLBY, THOMAS WILLIAM (18171860), 'Times' correspondent, son of Thomas Bowlby, a captain in the royal artillery, by his wife, a daughter of General Balfour, was born at Gibraltar, and when very young was taken by his parents to Sunderland, where his father entered on the business of a timber merchant. Young Bowlby's education was entrusted to Dr. Cowan, a Scotch schoolmaster, who had settled in Sunderland. After leaving school he was articled to his cousin, Mr. Russell Bowlby, solicitor, Sunderland. On completion of his time he went to London and spent some years as a salaried clerk in the office of a large firm in the Temple. In 1846 he commenced practice in the city as junior partner in the firm of Lawrence, Crowdy, & Bowlby, solicitors, 25 Old Fish Street, Doctors' Commons, and for some years enjoyed a fair practice; but the profession of the law was not to his taste, and he made many literary acquaintances. Although remaining a member of the firm until the year 1854, he went to Berlin as special correspondent of the 'Times' in 1848. Bowlby married Miss Meine, the sister of his father's second wife, and on the death of her father Mrs. Bowlby became possessed of a considerable fortune. During the railway mania Bowlby got into pecuniary difficulties, which caused him to leave England for a short time, but he made arrangements for the whole of his future earnings to be applied in liquidation of his debts. On returning to England he was for some time associated with Jullien, the musical director and composer. He next repaired to Smyrna, where he was employed for a while in connection with the construction of a railway. In 1860 he was engaged to proceed to China as the special correspondent of the 'Times.' Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were fellow-passengers with him in the steamship Malabar, which was lost at Point de Galle on 22 May. His narrative of this shipwreck is an admirable piece of work. His various letters from China afforded much information and pleasure to the readers of the 'Times.' After the capture of Tien-tsin on 23 Aug. 1860, Bowlby accompanied Admiral Hope and four others to Tang-chow to arrange the preliminaries of peace; here they were treacherously captured and imprisoned by the Tartar general, San-ko-lin-sin. Bowlby died from the effects of the ill-treatment he received on 22 Sept. 1860; his body was afterwards given up by the Chinese, and buried in the Russian cemetery outside the An-tin gate of Pekin on 17 Oct. His age was about forty-three; he left a widow and five young children.
[Gent. Mag. 1861, pp. 225-6; Times, 26, 27, 30 Nov., 10, 11, 15, 17, 19, 25 Dec. 1860; Illustrated London News, with portrait, xxxvii. 615-616 (1860); Annual Register, 1860, pp. 265-71; Boulger's History of China (1884), iii. 499-521.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bowler, Thomas William

​BOWLER, THOMAS WILLIAM (d. 1869), landscape painter, was born in the Vale of Aylesbury. His general talent was noticed by Dr. Lee, F.R.S., who obtained for him the office of assistant-astronomer under Sir T. Maclear at the Cape. After four years, he resigned his post at the observatory, and established himself successfully in Cape Town as an artist and teacher of drawing. He painted a panorama of the district, and published, in 1844, 'Four Views of Cape Town;' in 1854, 'South African Sketches,' a series of ten lithographs of scenes at the Cape of Good Hope; and in 1865, 'The Kafir Wars,' a series of twenty views, with descriptive letterpress by W. R. Thomson. In 1857 he exhibited at the rooms of the Society of British Artists a drawing of the Royal Observatory, Cape Town; and in 1860, at the Royal Academy, two views of Cape scenery. In 1866 he visited Mauritius and made a number of drawings, but a fever there permanently weakened his health, and coming to England he died from an attack of bronchitis, 24 Oct. 1869.
His lithographs are somewhat in the style of Harding, and show facility in handling the chalk and some power of composition.
[Cat. Brit. Mus. Lib.; Cat. Royal Academy; Cat. Soc. Brit. Artists; Art Journal, April 1870; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists (1878).]
W. H-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bramston, James

​BRAMSTON, JAMES (1694?–1744), poet, was the son of Francis Bramston, fourth son of Sir Moundeford Bramston, master in chancery, who in his turn was younger son of Sir John Bramston the elder [q.v.], lord chief justice of the king's bench. In 1708 James Bramston went to Westminster School. Thence, in 1713, he passed to Christ Church, Oxford, taking his B.A. degree on 17 May 1717, and his M.A. degree on 6 April 1720. In March 1723 he became vicar of Lurgashall, Sussex, and later (1725) vicar of Harting in the same county, obtaining a dispensation to hold both livings. In 1729 he published the 'Art of Politicks,' an imitation of the 'Ars Poetica' of Horace, accompanied by a clever frontispiece illustrating the opening lines:—
If to a Human Face Sir James [Thornhill] should draw A Gelding's Mane, and Feathers of Maccaw, A Lady's Bosom, and a Tail of Cod, Who could help laughing at a Sight so odd? Just such a Monster, Sirs, pray think before ye, When you behold one Man both Whig and Tory. Not more extravagant are Drunkard's Dreams', Than Low-Church Politicks with High-Church Schemes.
The 'Art of Politicks' was followed by 'The Man of Taste. Occasion'd by an Epistle of Mr. Pope's on that subject' (i.e. that to the Earl of Burlington, 1731), 1733. Both these little satires, which hold an honourable place in eighteenth-century verse, abound with contemporary references, and frequently happy lines. They were reprinted in vol. i. of Dodsley's 'Poems by several Hands.' The only other works attributed to Bramston are some Poems in 'Carolina Quadragesimalia;' one in the University Collection on the death of Dr. Radcliffe, 1715; 'Ignorami Lamentatio,' 1736; and a not very successful imitation of the 'Splendid Shilling' of John Philips, entitled 'The Crooked Sixpence,' Dodsley, 1743. This, in 'a learned preface,' is ascribed to Katherine Philips (the 'matchless Orinda'). 'Bramston,' say the authors of Dallaway and Cartwright's 'History of Sussex,' ii. (i.) 365, 'was a man of original humour, the fame and proofs of whose colloquial wit are still remembered in this part of Sussex.' He died 16 March 1744.
[Rawlinson MSS. fol. 16, 271, 4to, 5, 217; Thompson Cooper in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 205; Alumni Wesmonasterienses, 1852, 260; Bramston's Works in British Museum.]
A. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brakelonde, Jocelin

​BRAKELONDE, JOCELIN de. [See Jocelin.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bramis, John

​BRAMIS or BROMIS, JOHN (14th cent.), writer, was a monk of Thetford. He translated the 'Romance of Waldef' from French metre into Latin prose. This romance was originally written in English verse, and had been done into French at the desire of a lady. The manuscript of Bramis is in the Corpus Christi College Library, Cambridge, No. 329. 'Incipit prologus super hystoriam Waldei, &c.' An historical compilation entitled 'Historia compendiosa de regibus Britonum,' and attributed to Ralph de Diceto, is printed in Gale, 'Quindecim Scriptores,' p. 553. The author repeatedly refers to a former compilation thus 'Hæc Brom, &c.' There is no reason for making Ralph of Diceto the author, though the 'Historia' is based on his works; it ends 'Hæc Brome,' and is probably the work of Bramis.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 121; Wright's England in the Middle Ages, i. 96; Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, &c., Rolls Ser. I. i. 337.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Braithwaite, Richard

​BRAITHWAITE, RICHARD. [See Brathwaite.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Braithwaite, John (fl.1660)

​BRAITHWAITE, JOHN (fl. 1660), quaker, was probably born in 1633, as there is an entry in the Cartmel registers of the baptism on 24 March 1633 of John, son of James Braithwaite of Newton. George Fox records in his 'Journal' that, being at Newton-in-Cartmel in 1652, where he attempted to preach to the people after service, he spoke to a youth whom he noticed in the chapel taking notes of the clergyman's sermon. The young man was John Braithwaite, who afterwards became his earnest follower. He published three tracts in support of Fox's doctrines:
* 'A serious Meditation upon the dealings of God with England and the State thereof in General,' n.d.
* 'The Ministers of England which are called the Ministers of the Gospel weighed in the Balance of Equity, &c.,' 1660.
* 'To all those that observe Dayes, Moneths, Times, and Years, &c.,' 1660.
In 1658 he, or one of his name, travelled many miles to visit a friend confined in ​Ilchester gaol, but was 'unmercifully beaten by the wicked gaoler and not suffered to come in;' and at another time he was sent to prison, along with Thomas Briggs, a Cheshire man, for preaching at Salisbury. A John Braithwaite, who may be identical with the quaker, was resident in the island of Barbadoes between 1669 and 1693, where he suffered frequent fines in default of not appearing in arms, and for refusing to pay church dues. Braithwaite is stated by Smith in his 'Catalogue of Friends' Books' to have died at Chippenham, Wiltshire.
[Fox's Journal, Leeds, 1836, i. 184; Joseph Smith's Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books, i. 313; Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers, i. 584, ii. 290, &c.; Whiting's Memoirs.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fauconberg, Earl

​FAUCONBERG, Earl (1627–1700). [See Belasyse, Thomas.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fauconberg, Thomas

​FAUCONBERG, THOMAS, The Bastard of, sometimes called Thomas the Bastard (d. 1471), was the natural son of Sir William Nevill, baron Fauconberg in 1429 and earl of Kent in 1462, who took an active part in 1461 in setting Edward IV on the throne in the place of Henry VI. In 1471 the Bastard was in the service of the Earl of Warwick, and zealously supported the earl's attempt to reinstate Henry VI. He was appointed the captain of ‘Warwick's navy,’ and was directed to cruise about St. George's Channel between Dover and Calais to intercept assistance coming to Edward. About the date of the battle of Tewkesbury (4 May), where Edward gained a complete victory, the Bastard received orders to raise the county of Kent in behalf of Warwick and Henry VI. He marched through Kent and Essex, and collected a large number of men. Nicholas Faunt, the mayor of Canterbury, actively assisted him. On 14 May the Bastard appeared at Aldgate and demanded admission to the city of London. This was refused, and the Bastard set fire to the eastern suburbs. The citizens met the attack vigorously, and pursued the Bastard and his army as far as Stratford and Blackwall, but the damage his followers wrought on the banks of the Thames was long remembered (cf. Wright, Political Songs, ii. 277). The Bastard afterwards made his way westward to Kingston-upon-Thames in pursuit of Edward IV. Lord Scales, who held London for Edward, recognised the king's danger, for the Bastard's army was estimated at twenty thousand men, and recruits were stated to be still coming in. Scales sent word to the Bastard that Edward IV was quitting England, and thus induced the Bastard to return to Blackheath. Thence the Bastard journeyed with six hundred horsemen to Rochester and Sandwich. He soon learned there that Warwick's cause was lost. Edward marched on Sandwich and captured thirteen ships with most of the Bastard's immediate followers. The Bastard himself escaped to Southampton, where the Duke of York took him prisoner. He was taken thence to the castle of Middleham, Yorkshire, and there was beheaded on 22 Sept. 1471. His head was set on London Bridge, ‘looking into Kentward’ (Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 17). A brother is stated to have been a prisoner at the same time, but took sanctuary at Beverley (ib.)
[Warkworth's Chronicle (Camd. Soc.), pp. 19, 20, 65; Stow's Chronicle (1632), pp. 424–5; Hasted's Kent, iv. 260, 433; Hardyng's Chronicle, ed. Grafton and Ellis, pp. 459–60; Polydore Vergil's History (Camd. Soc.), pp. 153, 154.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Faulkner, Benjamin Rawlinson

Contains subarticle Joshua Wilson Faulkner (fl. 1809-1820).
​FAULKNER, BENJAMIN RAWLINSON (1787–1849), portrait-painter, born at Manchester, was at first engaged in the mercantile profession, and for several years represented a large firm in their establishment at Gibraltar. When that place and its garrison were visited by the plague, his health suffered so much that he was with difficulty brought home to England. This was about 1813, and during his convalescence he accidentally discovered a talent for drawing, which was encouraged by his brother, J. W. Faulkner, an artist of some merit. Under his direction Faulkner devoted himself to assiduous study of the first principles of the art, and spent upwards of two years in the study of the antique alone. He then came to London, and practised as a portrait-painter; but he was of so diffident a character and so retiring a disposition that his merits were not held in the same estimation in London as they were in his native town. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, sending two portraits, and he continued to exhibit regularly up to the year before his death. His contributions were usually portraits, but he occasionally painted studies of natural objects. He resided for many years at 23 Newman Street, and died at North End, Fulham, in his sixty-third year, on 29 Oct. 1849. His best portraits are in Manchester or the neighbourhood. Portraits by him of John Dalton, F.R.S., and John McCulloch, the geologist, are in the Royal Society, London. He also contributed to the British Institution, Suffolk Street Gallery, Royal Manchester Institution, Liverpool Academy, and other exhibitions. A portrait of Sir John Ross, the Arctic explorer, was lithographed by R. J. Lane, A. R. A., and his pictures have been engraved by C. Heath, H. Robinson, and others. Besides painting, Faulkner was an accomplished musician, and was for some time organist at Irving's church in Hatton Garden.
Joshua Wilson Faulkner (fl. 1809-1820), elder brother of the above, also practised as a portrait-painter at Manchester. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and about 1817 settled in London. He exhibited for the last time in 1820. He painted in miniature.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Faulkner, George (1790?-1862)

​FAULKNER, GEORGE (1790?–1862), the supposed originator of the foundation of Owens College, Manchester, was born about 1790 in Oldham Street, Manchester, in which town his life was spent. In 1812 he entered into partnership in a well-established firm of silk, cotton, and linen manufacturers, which still, though no longer under his name, continues to prosper. For a time its business included a fine-spinning mill, in which Faulkner's intimate friend, John Owens [q. v.], was one of his partners. At some date before Owens's death, which happened in 1846 he is said to have informed Faulkner that he had made his will, in which he had left all his property to his friend. Faulkner, the story continues, refused point-blank to accept another fortune in addition to his own. Owens's irritation at this singular conduct, however, ceased after a few days, when Faulkner suggested to him the plan of leaving the bulk of his wealth for the foundation of a college which should supply a university education unconditioned by religious tests. According to a paper ascribed to the late Professor Henry Rogers (Good Words, 1864, p. 573) Faulkner was himself indebted for the original suggestion of his generous conception to Samuel Fletcher, a public-spirited and philanthropic Manchester merchant, who, unlike Faulkner, was a nonconformist. In any case the advice was taken, and when in 1851 Owens College was actually called into life at Manchester, Faulkner was elected the first chairman of its trustees. He filled this post efficiently till August 1858, taking repeated opportunities of supplementing his friend's ​munificence by liberal benefactions of his own. He died 21 Feb. 1862, leaving behind him a justly honoured name.
A. W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fauconberg, Lord

​FAUCONBERG, Lord. [See Nevill, Sir William, d. 1463.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Bonosus

​Bonosus, the founder of the sect of the Bonosiani, was bp. of Sardica in Illyria at the end of the 4th cent. (Tillemont, x. 754). Bonosus is only known to us as holding the same views with Helvidius with regard to the perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord, and as to His brethren, whom he affirmed to have been the natural offspring of Joseph and Mary. At the synod of Capua, convened by Valentinian, A.D. 391, to settle the rival claims of Flavian and Evagrius to the see of Antioch, opportunity was taken to lay an accusation against Bonosus. The synod was unwilling to consider the question, and transferred it to Anysius, the bp. of Thessalonica and metropolitan, and his suffragans, who, as a neighbour of Bonosus, might be supposed to be more fully acquainted with the merits of the case (Labbe, ii. 1033). Bonosus was condemned for heretical teaching, deposed, ​and his church closed against him. Bonosus consulted Ambrose, who recommended patience and submission. This prudent counsel was not followed, and the difference was exaggerated into a schism, which lasted into the 7th cent. Bonosus and his followers were widely accredited with heretical views respecting the conception and person of Christ. Mercator calls him an Ebionite, and a precursor of Nestorius (Dissert. i. de Haeres. Nestor. § 6, ii. 315). But the Bonosians were more usually charged with Photinianism (Gennadius, de Eccl. Dogm. c. 52, "Photiniani qui nunc vocantur Bonosiaci"). Whether these charges were well grounded, or were based on the general unpopularity of the sect, it is impossible to determine. Their baptism was pronounced valid by the 17th canon of the second synod of Arles, A.D. 445, on the ground that, like the Arians, they baptized in the name of the Trinity (Labbe, iv. 1013). But Gregory the Great, in a letter to the Irish bishops (Ep. lib. ix. 61), includes them in those whose baptism the church rejected because the name of the Trinity was not invoked (cf. Gennadius, de Eccl. Dogm., u.s.). They on their part rebaptized those who joined them. The third council of Orleans, A.D. 538, ordained that they who did so should be arrested by the royal officers and punished. The Bonosians were anathematized by pope Vigilius (Ep. xv.; Labbe, v. 333).
[E.V.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Blandina

​Blandina, martyr, a female slave, reckoned as the chief among the martyrs of Lyons, in that, although weakest in body, she suffered longest and most bravely the most various and prolonged torture. Among other things she was stretched upon a cross and thrown to wild beasts, which, however, refused to touch her; and finally she was tied up in a net and gored to death by a bull. (Eus. H. E. v. 1; Eucher. Lugdun. Hom. inter Hom. Euseb. Emesen. xi.; Greg. Tur. de Glor. Martt. xlix.; Baron. June 2.)
[A.W.H.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Bosphorius

​Bosphorius, bp. of Colonia in Cappadocia Secunda, a confidential friend and correspondent of Gregory Nazianzen and Basil the Great. His episcopate was prolonged through at least 48 years (Pallad. c. 20, p. 203), and must have commenced in 360. From the letters of Gregory we learn that he and Bosphorius had lived together in youth, laboured together, and grown old together (Greg. Ep. 141, 227). He had great influence over the gentler nature of Gregory, who speaks of him with the highest respect, both for the purity of his faith and the sanctity of his life, as well as for his successful exertions in bringing back wanderers to the truth, acknowledging the benefit he had derived, both as hearer and teacher, from him (Ep. 164, 225). He persuaded Gregory to remain at Nazianzus after his father's death, and to accept the unwelcome charge of the see of Constantinople. Gregory bitterly complained of his unscrupulous importunity, but yielded (Ep. 14, 15). In 383 Bosphorius was accused of unsoundness in the faith—a charge which greatly distressed Gregory, who wrote urgently in his behalf to Theodore of Tyana, Nectarius, and Eutropius (Ep. 225, 227, 164). Basil addressed to him a letter denying the charge of having excommunicated his bp. Dianius (Ep. li.). He attended the second oecumenical council at Constantinople in 381 (Labbe, ii. 956). Palladius speaks with gratitude of the sympathy shewn by him towards the bishops banished in 406 for adherence to Chrysostom's cause (Pallad. c. 20, p. 203).
[E.V.]