OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pitcairn, Robert (1793-1855)

​PITCAIRN, ROBERT (1793–1855), antiquary and miscellaneous writer, second son of Robert Pitcairn, W.S., was born in Edinburgh in 1793. After a sound general education, he was apprenticed to William Patrick, writer to the signet, Edinburgh, and was admitted writer to the signet on 21 Nov. 1815. He was long an assistant to Thomas Thomson, deputy clerk register in her majesty's register house, and in 1853 he was appointed one of the four official searchers of records for incumbrances in that institution. In 1833 appeared an elaborate and exhaustive treatise by Pitcairn, entitled ‘Trials and other Proceedings in Matters Criminal before the High Court of Justice in Scotland,’ 3 vols. 4to. Pitcairn's antiquarian tastes and literary bias commended him to Scott, who was stimulated by one of the narratives in his ‘Criminal Trials’ to write his ‘Ayrshire Tragedy’ (Lockhart, Life of Scott, vii. 202). Scott reviewed the earlier portion of Pitcairn's massive work in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for 1831, lauding his friend's ‘enduring and patient toil,’ and thanking him for his ‘self-denying exertions’ in producing ‘a most extraordinary picture of manners,’ calculated to be ‘highly valuable in a philosophical point of view,’ and containing much that would ‘greatly interest the jurist and the moralist’ (Scott, Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xxi.) Pitcairn died suddenly of heart-disease in Edinburgh on 11 July 1855.
On 4 Sept. 1839 Pitcairn married Hester Hine, daughter of Henry Hunt, merchant, London.
An industrious and accurate worker, Pitcairn also published:
* ‘Collections relative to the Funeralls of Mary Queen of Scots,’ 1822.
* An edition of ‘Chronicon Cœnobii Sanctæ Crucis Edinburgensis,’ 1828 (Bannatyne Club).
* ‘Families of the Name of Kennedy,’ 1830.
* James Melvill's ‘Diary,’ 1842.
[Edinburgh Evening Courant, 12 July 1855; Scotsman, 14 July 1855; Lockhart's Life of Scott; Hist. of the Society of Writers to H. M. Signet; information from Mr. G. Stronach, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sadler, Thomas (1604-1681)

​SADLER, THOMAS, in religion Vincent Faustus (1604–1681), Benedictine monk, born in Warwickshire in 1604, was converted to the catholic religion by his uncle, Father Robert Sadler (d. 1621), first Benedictine provincial of Canterbury. Entering the order of St. Benedict, he made his profession at St. Laurence's monastery at Dieulouard in 1622. He was sent to the mission in the southern province of England; became cathedral prior of Chester, and definitor of the province in 1661. In 1671 he and John Huddleston, another Benedictine, visited Oxford to see the solemnity of the Act, and on that occasion Anthony à Wood made their acquaintance (Wood, Autobiogr. ed. Bliss, p. lxix). Sadler died at Dieulouard on 19 Jan. 1680–1.
His works are:
* An English translation of Cardinal Bona's ‘Guide to Heaven, containing the Marrow of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers,’ 1672, 12mo.
* ‘Children's Catechism,’ 1678, 8vo.
* ‘The Devout Christian,’ 4th edit., 1685, 12mo, pp. 502.
He was also the joint author with Anselm Crowder [q. v.] of ‘Jesus, Maria, Joseph, or the Devout Pilgrim of the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary,’ Amsterdam, 1657, 12mo. He probably wrote, or at least enlarged, a book of ‘Obits’ attributed to his uncle Robert.
[Oliver's Cornwall, p. 523; Snow's Necrology, p. 69; Tablet, 1879, ii. 495, 526, 590, 623; Weldon's Chronological Notes, pp. 122, 156, 193, Suppl. p. 15.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sadler, Thomas (1822-1891)

​SADLER, THOMAS (1822–1891), divine, was the son of Thomas Sadler, unitarian minister of Horsham in Sussex, where he was born on 5 July 1822. He was educated at University College, London, studied for some months at Bonn, and proceeded to Erlangen, whence he graduated Ph.D. in 1844. He entered the unitarian ministry at Hackney, but migrated in 1846 to become minister of Rosslyn Hill chapel at Hampstead, which he served for the remaining forty-five years of his life. In 1859 he published ‘Gloria Patri: the Scripture Doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,’ in which he defended the unitarian position against the views expressed in the ‘Rock of Ages’ by Edward Henry Bickersteth (afterwards bishop of Exeter). Through his instrumentality the new chapel on Rosslyn Hill was opened on 5 June 1862. Dr. James Martineau preached the opening discourse, which was printed, together with Sadler's sermon on the closing of the old chapel and an appendix on the former ministers of Hampstead. Sadler was specially interested in the history of the older English presbyterianism. His literary tastes and intimacies, together with his knowledge of German university life, led the trustees to confide to him, in 1867, the editing of Crabb Robinson's ‘Diaries.’ The work appeared in 1869, and a third edition was called for in 1872; but only a small portion of the Crabb Robinson papers (now in Dr. Williams's Library) was utilised. In addition to minor devotional works, Sadler was also author of ‘Edwin T. Field: a memorial sketch,’ 1872; ‘The Man of Science and Disciple of Christ’ (a funeral discourse on William Benjamin Carpenter [q. v.]), 1885; and ‘Prayers for Christian Worship,’ 1886. He died at Rosslyn Manse on 11 Sept. 1891, and was buried on the 16th in Highgate cemetery. At the time of his death he was the senior trustee of Dr. Williams's Library and visitor of Manchester New College, where his addresses were highly valued. Sadler married, in 1849, Mary, daughter of Charles Colgate, but left no issue.
[Baines's Records of Hampstead, 1890, p. 97; Inquirer, 19 and 26 Sept. 1891 (memorial sermon by Dr. James Drummond); Times, 18 Sept. 1891; Sadler's Works; J. Freeman Clarke's Autobiogr. 1891, p. 369; private information.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sadlington, Mark

​SADLINGTON, MARK (d. 1647), divine, matriculated as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, in June 1578, and graduated B.A. in 1580–1. Soon afterwards he was elected fellow of Peterhouse, and in 1584 commenced M.A. He was head lecturer of Peterhouse in 1588. On 2 Oct. in that year he became a candidate for the mastership of Colchester grammar school, but was unsuccessful, though strongly supported by Sir Francis Walsingham and Samuel Harsnett [q. v.] (afterwards archbishop of York), the retiring master. He was, however, chosen master of St. Olave's grammar school, Southwark, on 25 June 1591, which office he resigned in 1594. On 11 March 1602–3 he was instituted to the vicarage of Sunbury, Middlesex,on the presentation of the dean and chapter of St. Paul's.
Sadlingdon was buried at Sunburyon 27 April 1647 (parish register), his estate being administered to by his widow, Jane, on 4 May following (Administration Act-book, P.C.C., 1647).
To Sadlington has been doubtfully ascribed the authorship of: 1. ‘The Arraignment and Execution of a wilfull & obstinate Traitour, named Euaralde Ducket, alias Hauns: condemned … for High Treason … and executed at Tiborne … 1581. Gathered by M. S.,’ London (1581). 2. ‘The Spanish Colonie, or brief Chronicle of the Actes and gestes of the Spaniardes in the West Indies … for the space of xl. yeeres, written in the Castilian tongue by the reuerend Bishop Bartholomew de las Casas … and now first translated into English by M. M. S.,’ 4to, London, 1583.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saffery, Maria Grace

​SAFFERY, Mrs. MARIA GRACE (1772–1858), hymn-writer and poet, was daughter of William Andrews of Stroud Green, Newbury, Berkshire, where she was born early in 1772. Her mother was a cultured woman of literary tastes, and while still a child Maria gave evidence of poetic talent. At the age of fifteen she wrote a poem entitled ‘Cheyt Sing’ (the name of an unfortunate Hindoo rajah), which, when published later, in 1790, was by permission inscribed to the statesman, Charles James Fox. Maria Andrews was in early life brought under the personal influence of Thomas Scott, the commentator (1747–1821) [q. v.] While still young she removed to Salisbury, and there attended the ministry of John Saffery, pastor of the Brown Street baptist church in that city. She became Saffery's second wife in 1799, and bore him six children, the eldest of whom, Philip John Saffery, succeeded to the pastorate of the church at his father's death in 1825. Subsequently she conducted with great success a girls' school in Salisbury. In 1834 she published an effective volume of ‘Poems on Sacred Subjects.’ The following year she retired to Bratton in Wiltshire, where the rest of her life was spent with her daughter, Mrs. Whitaker. She died on 5 March 1858, and was buried in the graveyard of the baptist chapel there.
Besides the works already mentioned, Mrs. Saffery wrote many hymns for special occasions, which were published in the ‘Baptist Magazine’ and other periodicals. Other hymns by her have found a place in various collections. Among them are: 1. ‘Fain, O my child, I'd have thee know.’ 2. ‘Saviour, we seek the watery tomb.’ 3. ‘The Jordan prophet cries to-day.’ 4. ‘'Tis the Great Father we adore.’
W. B. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sadler, Windham William

​SADLER, WINDHAM WILLIAM (1796–1824), aëronaut, born near Dublin in 1796, was the son by a second wife of James Sadler, one of the earliest British ​aëronauts. The elder Sadler made his first ascent on 5 May 1785, in company with William Windham, the politician, who subsequently consented to stand godfather to his son. In October 1811 he made a rapid flight from Birmingham to Boston in Lincolnshire, in less than four hours. Less successful was his attempt to cross the Irish Sea on 1 Oct. 1812, when he ascended from the lawn of the Belvedere House, Dublin, receiving his flag from the Duchess of Richmond. In spite of a rent in the balloon (which he partially repaired with his neckcloth), he nearly succeeded in crossing the Channel; but when over Anglesey a strong southerly current carried him out to sea, and he had a most perilous escape, being rescued by a fishing craft, which ran its bowsprit through the balloon. He was not deterred from making other ascents, and his name was long familiar in connection with ballooning; George III took a special interest in his ascents.
The son, Windham, was brought up as an engineer, acquired a good practical knowledge of chemistry, and entered the service of the first Liverpool gas company. He gave up his employment there for professional aërostation, with which, upon his marriage in 1819, he combined the management of an extensive bathing establishment at Liverpool. His most notable feat was performed in 1817, when, with a view to carrying his father's adventure of 1812 to a successful issue, he ascended from the Portobello barracks at Dublin on 22 June. He rose to a great height, obtained the proper westerly current, and managed to keep the balloon in it across the St. George's Channel. In mid-channel he wrote, ‘I enjoyed at a glance the opposite shores of Ireland and Wales, and the entire circumference of Man.’ Having started at 1.20 p.m., he alighted a mile south of Holyhead at 6.45 p.m. On 29 Sept. 1824 Sadler made his thirty-first ascent at Bolton. He prepared to descend at dusk near Blackburn, but the wind dashed his car against a lofty chimney, and he was hurled to the ground, sustaining injuries of which he died at eight on the following morning (Gent. Mag. 1824, ii. 366). He was buried at Christchurch in Liverpool, where he was very popular. He well deserved the title of ‘intrepid’ bestowed on his father by Erasmus Darwin, but he did little to advance a scientific knowledge of aërostation by making systematic observations.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saffold, Thomas

​SAFFOLD, THOMAS (d. 1691), empiric, originally a weaver by trade, received a license to practise as a doctor of physic from the bishop of London on 4 Sept. 1674. He had a shop at the Black Ball and Lilly's Head ‘near the feather shops within Black Fryers Gateway.’ Thence he deluged the town with doggerel in advertisement of his nostrums, medical and astrological. He taught astrology, solved mysteries, kept a boarding-house for patients, and ‘by God's blessing cureth the sick of any age or sex of any distemper.’ He warned the public against mistaking his house, ‘another being near him pretending to be the same.’ Those ‘conceited fools’ and ‘dark animals’ who asked how he came to be able to work such great cures and to foretell such great things he admonished in fluent rhyme. He fell ill in the spring of 1691, and, refusing medicines other than his own pills, he died on 12 May, a satirical elegist lamenting the ‘sad disaster’ that ‘sawcy pills at last should kill their master.’ The advertisements and goodwill passed to ‘Dr. Case,’ who gilded the ‘Black Ball’ and gave the customers to understand that
At the Golden Ball and Lillie's Head,  John Case yet lives, though Saffold's dead.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saham, William de

William of Saham in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​SAHAM, WILLIAM de (d. 1304?), judge, is said by Foss (Judges, iii. 146) to have been the son of Robert de Saham, but his father's name seems to have been Ralph (Abbrev. Placit. p. 255). William was probably a native of Saham Toney, Norfolk, where he had property; he became a clerk, and was, in the beginning of the reign of Edward I, made a judge of the king's bench. He was constantly employed in judicial itinera, as at Northampton in 1285 (Cont. Flor. Wig. ii. 336) and in Bedfordshire in 1286–7 (Annals of Dunstable, pp. 326, 334), until 1289, when he shared in the disgrace of many other judges, was removed, and, though innocent of any wrong, had to pay a fine of three thousand marks to the king (Parl. Writs, i. 15). About ten years later he appears as defendant in an action for damages to property at Huningham in Norfolk. He granted lands to the abbey of Wendling, Norfolk, for the erection and maintenance of the chantry chapel of St. Andrew at Saham. He probably died in or about 1304, leaving his brother John le Boteler his heir (Abbrev. Placit. u. s.). Another brother, Richard de Saham, was sworn a baron of the exchequer in Ireland in 1295 (Foss; Sweetman, Cal. Doc. relating to Ireland).
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hoskins, John (1634-1705)

​HOSKINS or HOSKYNS, Sir JOHN (1634–1705), president of the Royal Society, eldest son of Sir Bennet Hoskyns, first baronet, of Harewood and Morehampton Park, Herefordshire, and grandson of Serjeant John Hoskins [q. v.], was born in Herefordshire on 23 July 1634 (monumental inscription). He was educated in the rudiments of Latin by his mother, Anne, daughter of Sir John Bingley of Temple Combe, Somerset, and was afterwards sent to Westminster School under Dr. Busby (Sloane MS.) He was subsequently called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and although he is said not to have practised, acquired some reputation as a lawyer, and was made a master in chancery. Roger North, whose brother, Lord-keeper Guilford, was long intimate with Hoskins, eulogises his integrity in performing the duties of his office. In 1680 he succeeded his father in the baronetcy (having been knighted previously), and five years afterwards was chosen M.P. for Herefordshire, the county in which his estates lay, but took no active part in politics. The bent of his mind was towards philosophical pursuits, and in recognition of his eminence therein he was elected president of the Royal Society in 1682, in succession to his friend Sir Christopher Wren. Evelyn, who had been solicited to stand for the post of president, retired in favour of Sir John, whom he describes as ‘a most learned virtuoso as well as lawyer.’ Hoskins resigned the chair in the following year, but from 1685 to 1687 discharged the duties of secretary. Lord-keeper Guilford was wont to say that he never was more happy than when enjoying with Hoskins an ‘ample Feast of Discourse.’ Aubrey was another of Hoskins's friends (cf. Lives, vol. ii. passim). He died on 12 Sept. 1705, and was buried at Harewood, Herefordshire. He married Jane, daughter of Sir Gabriel Low, and his two sons, Bennet and Hungerford (d. 1766), were third and fourth baronets successively. According to North, Hoskins was ‘one of the most hard-favoured men of his time,’ and very careless in his dress. His portrait was engraved by R. White.
Sloane MS. 4222; Weld's Hist. of Royal Society, p. 281; Evelyn's Diary; North's Lives, ed. Jessopp, i. 372–3; Granger's Biog. Dict. iv. 314; Burke's Baronetage.
C. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hoskins, Anthony

​HOSKINS, ANTHONY (1568–1615), jesuit, a native of Herefordshire, was born in 1568. He entered the English College at Douay 17 April 1590, but the next year passed into Spain, where in 1593 he became a member of the Society of Jesus. In 1603 he came to England on the mission, and in 1609 went to Brussels as vice-prefect of the English mission in Belgium. Going again on a mission to Spain about 1611, he was vice-prefect there also. He died 10 Sept. 1615 at the English College of Valladolid. Hoskins wrote ‘A Briefe and Clear Declaration of Sundry Pointes absolutely dislyked in the lately enacted Oath of Allegiance proposed to the Catholikes of England …,’ St. Omer, 1611, 12mo. He translated the Apologies of Henry IV and Louis XIII for the Society of Jesus at Paris, St. Omer, 1611, 4to, and ‘An Abridgment of Christian Perfection,’ from the French of Alphonsus Rodriquez, St. Omer, 1612. He also modernised Richard Whytford's translation of the ‘De imitatione Christi’ of Thomas à Kempis, St. Omer, 1613, 12mo. In the two last he calls himself F. B. and B. F. respectively.
[Gillow's Bibl. Dict. of English Catholics, iii. 406; Dodd's Church Hist. of England, ii. 416.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hoskins, John (d.1664)

​HOSKINS, JOHN (d. 1664), miniature-painter, ‘was a very eminent Limner in the reign of King Charles I, whom he drew with his queen and most of his court. He was bred a face-painter in oil, but afterwards taking to miniature, he far exceeded what he did before.’ Other details of his life are wanting, but his miniature portraits were as much admired by his contemporaries as they are at the present day. Some fine examples were exhibited at the South Kensington Exhibition of Miniatures in 1862, and at the exhibition of miniatures at the Burlington Arts Club in 1889. He painted many celebrities of his time, including Lord Falkland, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir John Maynard, William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, John Selden, and others. Perhaps his finest miniature is the large portrait of Catherine Bruce, countess of Dysart, painted in 1638, in the collection of the Earl of Dysart at Ham House. Hoskins made two drawings for the great seal of Charles I, which were preserved in the royal collection. His nephews, Alexander and Samuel Cooper [q. v.], were his pupils. The latter excelled Hoskins as a miniature-painter, and has somewhat overshadowed his fame. Hoskins died in February 1664, and was buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden. He left a son, John Hoskins the younger, who also practised with success as a miniature-painter, and painted James II, Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, and others. It is difficult to distinguish his paintings from those of his father.
[Buckeridge's Suppl. to De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Propert's Hist. of Miniature Painting; Catalogues of Exhibitions at South Kensington, 1862, and Burlington Club, 1889.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Josiah William

​SMITH, JOSIAH WILLIAM (1816–1887), legal writer, only child of the Rev. John Smith, rector of Baldock, Hertfordshire, was born on 3 April 1816, and graduated LL.B. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1841 (Luard, Graduati Cantabrigienses). He entered himself a student of Lincoln's Inn on 9 Nov. 1836, where he was called to the bar on 6 May 1841, and chiefly practised in the court of chancery. He was the draughtsman of the ‘Consolidated General Orders of the High Court of Chancery’ (1860), and also edited Fearne's ‘Contingent Remainders’ and Mitford's ‘Chancery Pleadings.’ But he is best remembered as the author of the ‘Manual of Equity’ (1845), ‘Compendium of the Law of Real and Personal Property’ (1855), and ‘Manual of Common Law and Bankruptcy’ (1864). These works, clearly and concisely written, went through many editions, and are standard works. In addition he compiled several small manuals of devotion and a ‘Summary of the Law of Christ’ (1859 and 1860). Having attained the rank of ​queen's counsel on 25 Feb. 1861, Smith was chosen a bencher of Lincoln's Inn on 13 March following, and in September 1865 became county-court judge for Herefordshire and Shropshire (circuit No. 27). He was a judge of very strong individuality, resented being overruled by a superior court, and on one occasion, shortly before his retirement, declared his reason for not giving leave to appeal to be that if he was overruled the court would be deciding contrary to law and justice. This drew down upon him a rebuke from the court of queen's bench, Justice Mellor pronouncing him ‘an extraordinary specimen of a county-court judge.’ Credit was, however, given him for good intentions. Smith, who was a J.P. for Herefordshire, retired from the bench on a pension in February 1879. He died at Clifton on 10 April 1887, and was buried at Baldock. He married in 1844 Mary, second daughter of George Henry Hicks, M.D., of Baldock.
W. R. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Philip

​SMITH, PHILIP (1817–1885), writer on ancient history, son of William Smith of Enfield, and younger brother of Sir William Smith [q. v.], was born in 1817. He was educated at Mill Hill school, and entered Coward College as a student for the congregational ministry in April 1834. He graduated B.A. at London in May 1840. He was professor of classics and mathematics in Cheshunt College from 1840 to 1850, and pastor of the congregational church at Crossbrook from 1840 to 1845. From 1850 to 1852 he was first professor of mathematics and ecclesiastical history in New College, and from 1853 to 1860 headmaster of Mill Hill school. The remainder of his life was spent in writing for his brother's dictionaries and in historical work. He was editor of the ‘Biblical Review’ from 1846 to 1851, and a frequent contributor to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ while his brother William was its editor. He died at Putney on 12 May 1885. Smith published:
* ‘A Smaller History of England,’ London, 1862, 8vo; 28th edit. 1890.
* ‘A History of the Ancient World,’ the only portion published of a projected ‘History of the World,’ London, 1863–5, 8vo.
* ‘A Smaller Ancient History of the East,’ London, 1871, 8vo. 4. ‘The Student's Ancient History,’ London, 1871, 8vo.
* ‘The Student's Ecclesiastical History,’ London, 1878–1885, 8vo.
He also edited:
* ‘The Posthumous Works of John Harris, D.D.,’ 1857, 8vo.
* Schliemann's ‘Troy,’ 1875, 8vo.
* Brugsch's ‘History of Egypt,’ 1879, 8vo; new edit. 1881.
[Information communicated by Dr. Samuel Newth of Acton; Athenæum, 1885, i. 664; Times, 13 May 1885; Smith's Works.]
E. C. M.