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

​CREED, ELIZABETH (1644?–1728), philanthropist, born in or about 1644, was the only daughter of Sir Gilbert Pickering, bart., of Tichmarsh, Northamptonshire, by Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Sidney Montagu, and sister of Edward Montagu, first earl of Sandwich (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, iii. 449). On her father's side she was a cousin of Dryden, on her mother's a cousin of Pepys. In October 1668 she became the wife of John Creed [see below] of Oundle, Northamptonshire, who appears to have been at one time a retainer in the service of Lord Sandwich, and, to judge from Pepys's slighting allusions, of humble origin. Of this marriage eleven children were born. On her husband's death in 1701 Mrs. Creed retired to her property at Barnwell All Saints, near Oundle, where she devoted the remainder of her life to works of beneficence. Herself an artist of considerable skill, she gave free instruction to girls in drawing, fine needlework, and similar accomplishments. Several of the churches in the neighbourhood of Oundle were embellished with altar-pieces, paintings, and other works by her hands. In 1722 she erected a monument to Dryden and his parents in the church of Tichmarsh. A portrait by her of the first Earl of Sandwich hangs at Drayton, and many other portraits and a few pictures painted by her are still preserved among her descendants. Mrs. Creed died in May 1728. A daughter, Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Stuart, inherited her mother's tastes, and ornamented the hall of an old Tudor mansion near Oundle; but all traces of her work have long disappeared (Redgrave, Dict. of Artists, 1878, p. 105).
John Creed was a man of some importance in his day. Of his history previously to the Restoration little is known, but in March 1660 he was nominated deputy-treasurer of the fleet by Lord Sandwich, and two years later was made secretary to the commissioners for Tangier. On 16 Dec. 1663 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. His official duties brought him into frequent contact with Pepys, by whom he was both feared and disliked. In his ‘Diary’ Pepys speaks of Creed as one who had been a puritan and adverse to the king's coming in. But he adapted his policy to the times and grew rich. On his monument at Tichmarsh, where he had an estate, Creed is described as having served ‘his majesty King Charles ye II in divers Honble Imployments at home and abroad’ (Bridges, Northamptonshire, ii. 386); but whether this refers merely to his services in the admiralty or to others of greater importance cannot now be ascertained. His eldest son, Major Richard Creed, who was killed at Blenheim, also lies buried in Tichmarsh church, where there still ​exists a cenotaph to his memory, similar in design to the one erected in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cressener, Drue

​CRESSENER, DRUE, D.D. (1638?–1718), protestant writer, was a native of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He was educated at Christ's College and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, being elected a fellow of the latter society on 29 Aug. 1662 (B.A. 1661, M.A. 1685, B.D. 1703, D.D. 1708). He became treasurer of Framlingham, Suffolk, and vicar of Wearisly in 1677, and junior proctor of the university of Cambridge in 1678. On 14 Jan. in the latter year he was presented to the vicarage of Soham, Cambridgeshire, and on 12 Dec. 1700 he was collated to a prebend in the cathedral church of Ely. He died at Soham on 20 Feb. 1717–18.
His works are: 1. 'The Judgements of God upon the Roman Catholick Church; in a prospect of several approaching revolutions, in explication of the Trumpets and Vials in the Apocalypse, upon principles generally acknowledged by Protestant interpreters,' London, 1689, 4to. 2. 'A Demonstration of the first Principles of Protestant applications of the Apocalypse. Together with the consent of the Ancients concerning the fourth beast of the 7th of Daniel, and the beast in the Revelations,' London, 1690, 4to.
[Davy's Athenæ Suffolcienses, ii. 38; Bentham's Ely, p. 249; Cole's MSS. ix. 91, 1. 220; Cole's Athenae Cantab. C. i. 36; Miller's Description of Ely Cathedral, p. 1 68; Hawes and Loder's Framlingham, p. 273; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 330; Cantabrigienses Graduati (1787), p. 102; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 357, iii. 625.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Creed, Thomas

​CREED or CREEDE, THOMAS (d. 1616?), stationer, was made free of the Stationers' Company 7 Oct. 1578 by Thomas East. He dwelt at the sign of the Catharine Wheel, near the Old Swan, in Thames Street. A long list of books printed by Creed is given in Herbert's ‘Ames’ (ii. 1279–84). Among these are the 1599 quarto of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ printed for Cuthbert Burby; the 1598 quarto of ‘Richard III,’ printed for Andrew Wise; and the 1600 quarto of ‘Henry V,’ printed for T. Millington and J. Busby. Creed's career as a printer extends from 1582 to 1616. He frequently used for his device an emblem of Truth, crowned and flying naked, scourged on the back with a rod by a hand issuing from a cloud. Encircling the device is the motto, ‘Veritas virescit vulnere.’
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Creighton, Robert (1639?-1734)

​CREIGHTON or CREYGHTON, ROBERT (1639?–1734), precentor of Wells, was the son of Robert Creighton, bishop of Bath and Wells [q. v.] He was born about 1639, and probably went into exile with his father. In 1662 he took the degree of M.A. at Cambridge, where he was elected fellow of Trinity College and professor of Greek. The latter post he seems to have held for only one year, as in 1663 Le Neve (Fasti, ed. Hardy, vol. iii.) gives the name of James Valentine as professor, though according to Chamberlayne (Present State of England) he was professor until 1674. From 1662 to 1667 he was prebendary of Timberscomb, Wells, and on 3 April 1667 he was appointed to the prebendal stall of Yatton in the same cathedral. On 2 Jan. 1667–8 Creighton was recommended by royal letters of Charles II for a canonry in the cathedral on a vacancy occurring, and on 2 May 1674 he was made canon, and on the same day installed as precentor. In 1678 he received the degree of D.D. at Cambridge, and in 1682 published a sermon on the ‘Vanity of the Dissenters' Plea for their Separation from the Church of England,’ which he had preached before the king at Windsor. The ‘Examen Poeticum Duplex’ of 1698 also contains three Latin poems from his pen. In 1719 he gave an organ to the parish of Southover, Wells, and on two occasions gave sums to the almshouses in the same parish. He died at Wells 17 Feb. 1733–4, and was buried there on the 22nd following. Creighton is now solely remembered as a musician. He was taught music at an early age, and was passionately devoted to its pursuit. Burney's statement (iii. 599) that he was once a gentleman in the chapel of Charles II must be a mistake, unless it refers to the time when he was in exile. He wrote a few services and anthems, which, though not very powerful nor original, are exceedingly good music, and are still frequently performed. Creighton was a married man, and had a family, several members of which were connected with Wells during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beattie, James Hay

​BEATTIE, JAMES HAY (1768–1790), son of Dr. James Beattie, author of the 'Minstrel", was born in Aberdeen on 6 Nov. 1768. Having received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school of his native city, he was entered, in his thirteenth year, as a student in Marischal College. From the first he showed premature capacity. He took his degree of M.A. in 1786. In June 1787, when he was not quite nineteen, on the unanimous recommendation of the Senatus Academicus of Marischal College, he was appointed by the king 'assistant professor and successor to his father' in the chair of moral philosophy and logic. Although very young, he fulfilled the requirements of his position. He was studious and variously cultured, being especially devoted to music. But his career was destined to be brief. On 30 Nov. 1789 he was prostrated by fever. He lingered in 'uttermost weakness' for a year, and died 19 Nov. 1790, in his twenty-second year. In 1794 his heart-broken father privately printed his 'Remains' in prose and verse, and prefixed a 'Life.' The book was published in 1799.
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beauchamp, Henry de

​BEAUCHAMP, HENRY de, Duke of Warwick (1425–1445), was born at Hanley Castle 21 March 1425, and succeeded his father, Richard, earl of Warwick [see Beauchamp, Richard de, 1382-1439], in 1439. In consideration of his father's merits he was created premier earl by patent 2 April 1444, and duke of Warwick three days later, with precedence above the duke of Buckingham (which precedence was compromised by act of parliament the same year). He is asserted to have been also crowned king of the Isle of Wight by Henry (Mon. Ang. ii. 63; Leland's Itinerary; Nicolas's Synopsis, ed. Courthope, p. 500), but for this there is no evidence (Coke, 4th Inst. p. 287; Stubbs's Const. Hist. iii. 433). He died at Hanley 11 June 1445, and was buried at Tewkesbury, leaving an only child, Anne, who died young, 3 Jan. 1449.
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beattie, George

​BEATTIE, GEORGE (1786–1823), Scotch poet, was the eldest son of a crofter and salmon fisher at Whitehills, near St. Cyrus, Kincardineshire, where he was born in 1786. He received a good education at the parish school. During his boyhood he was notorious for his frolics and love of practical jokes. It is also related of him that on Saturday afternoons it was his delight to wander among the 'braes' of St. Cyrus, and that he used to 'visit the auld kirkyard with a kind of melancholy pleasure.' When the boy was about thirteen years of age, his father obtained a situation on the excise at Montrose, and 'young George,' it is said, walked all the way to his new home 'with a tame kae (jackdaw) on his shoulder.' After an ineffectual attempt to become a mechanic he obtained a clerkship in Aberdeen, but six weeks later his employer died, bequeathing him a legacy of 50l. Returning to Montrose, Beattie entered the office of the procurator-fiscal, and on the completion of his legal education in Edinburgh he established himself in Montrose as a writer or attorney. His remarkable conversational gifts, especially as a humourist, rendered him a general favourite among his companions, and, being combined with good business talents, contributed to his speedy success in his profession. In 1815 he contributed to the 'Montrose Review' a poem, 'John o' Arnha,' which he afterwards elaborated with much care, and published in a separate form, when its rollicking humour and vivid descriptions soon secured it a wide popularity. Its incidents bear some resemblance to those of 'Tam o' Shanter,' of which it may be called a pale reflex. In 1818 he published in the 'Review' a poem in the old Scotch dialect, written when he was a mere boy, and entitled the 'Murderit Mynstrell.' The poem, which is in a totally different vein from 'John o' Arnha,' is characterised throughout by a charming simplicity, a chastened tenderness of sentiment, and a delicacy of delineation which are sometimes regarded as the special attributes of the earlier English poets. In 1819 he published also in the 'Review' the 'Bark,' and in 1820 a wild and eerie rhapsody, entitled the 'Dream.' He also wrote several smaller lyrics. In 1821 Beattie made the acquaintance of a young lady with whom he contracted a marriage engagement. Before, however, the marriage was completed, the lady fell heir to a small fortune, and rejected Beattie for a suitor who occupied a better rank in life. Deeply wounded by the disappointment, Beattie from that time meditated self-destruction. After completing a narrative of his relations with the lady, contained in a history of his life from 1821 to 1823, he provided himself with a pistol, and, going to St. Cyrus, shot himself by the side of his sister's grave 29 Sept. 1823. Since his death his poems have gone through several editions, and a collection of them, accompanied with a memoir, has been published under the title 'George Beattie, Montrose, a poet, a humourist, and a man of genius,' by A. S. M$^t$ Cyrus, M.A.
[Memoir mentioned above.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beatty, William

​BEATTY, Sir WILLIAM, M.D. (d. 1842), surgeon on board the Victory at the battle of Trafalgar, entered the service of the navy at an early age, and saw much service in it in various districts of the globe. In 1806 he was appointed physician to the Greenwich Hospital, an office which he retained till 1840. He attended Lord Nelson after he received his mortal wound, and published 'An Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson, with the Circumstances preceding, attending, and subsequent to that Event; the Professional Report of his Lordship's Wound; and several Interesting Anecdotes,' 1807, 2nd edition, 1808. He gives in the book a representation of the ball which killed Nelson, with the pieces of the coat, gold lace, and silk pad which remained fixed in it. The ball Beatty retained in his possession in a crystal case mounted in gold. Beatty obtained the degree of M.D. from the university of St. Andrews on 14 Oct. 1817, was made licentiate of the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. of the same year, and was elected F.R.S. on 30 April 1818. On 26 May 1831 ​he received the honour of knighthood from William IV. He died in York Street, Portman Square, on 25 March 1842.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beauchamp, John de

​BEAUCHAMP, Sir JOHN de, Lord Beauchamp (d. 1388), minister of Richard II, the grandson and heir of John de Beauchamp of Holt (brother of William, earl of Warick). He was steward of the household to Richard II from his accession; was created by him 'Lord de Beauchamp and baron of Kidderminster' 10 Oct. 1387 (being the first baron created by patent); was impeached of treason at the instance of the lords appellant, with Sir Simon Burley [q. v.] and others, by the 'Wonderful Parliament,' 12 March 1388, and was convicted after Easter, and beheaded on Tower Hill (Knighton).
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beatson, George Steward

​BEATSON, GEORGE STEWARD, M.D. (d. 1874), surgeon-general, graduated in arts and medicine at Glasgow, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1836. In 1838 he joined the army medical department, and did duty on the staff in Ceylon from 1839 to 1851. He was surgeon to the 51st foot in the second Burmese war, and subsequently served in Turkey during the Crimean war, where he rendered valuable services in the organisation of the hospitals at Smyrna. After serving as deputy inspector-general in the Ionian islands and Madras, he became surgeon-general in 1863, and was appointed principal medical officer of European troops in India, an appointment which he held for the customary five years. For the next three years he was in medical charge of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley; and in 1871 was appointed principal medical officer in India for the second time. He was appointed a C.B. in 1869. He died suddenly at Simla on 7 June 1874. Beatson, who was an honorary physician to the queen, was accounted one of the ablest officers in the army medical service, but it is in the records of the department, at home and in India, rather than in professional literature, that his labours will be noticed.
[Ann. Reg. 1874; Army Lists; Lancet, June 1874.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Felton, Thomas (1567?-1588)

​FELTON, THOMAS (1567?–1588), Franciscan friar, son of John Felton (d 1570) [q. v.], born about 1567 at Bermondsey Abbey, Surrey, was in his youth page to Lady Lovett. Afterwards he was sent to the English College at Rheims, where he received the first tonsure from the hands of the Cardinal de Guise, archbishop of Rheims, in 1583 (Douay Diaries, p. 199, where he is described as ‘Nordovicen’). He then entered the order of Minims, but being unable to endure its austerities he returned to England. On landing he was arrested, brought to London, and committed to the Poultry Compter. About two years later his aunt, Mrs. Blount, obtained his release through the interest of some of her friends at court. He attempted to return to France, but was again intercepted and committed to Bridewell. After some time he regained his liberty, and made a second attempt to get back to Rheims, but was rearrested and recommitted to Bridewell, where he was put into ‘Little Ease’ and otherwise cruelly tortured. He was brought to trial at Newgate, just after the defeat of the Armada, and was asked whether, if the Spanish forces had landed, he would have taken the part of the queen. His reply was that he would have taken part with God and his country. But he refused to acknowledge the queen to be the supreme head of the church of England, and was accordingly condemned to death. The next day, 28 Aug. 1588, he and another priest, named James Claxton or Clarkson, were conveyed on horseback from Bridewell to the place of execution, between Brentford and Hounslow, and were there hanged and quartered.
[Challoner's Missionary Priests (1741), i. 216; Yepes, Hist. de la Persecucion de la Inglaterra, p. 610; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. v. 163.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Felton, John (fl.1430)

​FELTON, JOHN (fl. 1430), divine, was fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, and professor of theology, and 'vicarius ​Magdalensis Oxonii extra muros.’ His zeal as a preacher gained him the name of ‘homiliarius’ or ‘concionator;’ for though, as Leland tells us, he was ‘an eager student of philosophy and theology,’ yet ‘the mark towards which he earnestly pressed with eye and mind was none other than that by his continual exhortations he might lead the dwellers on the Isis from the filth of their vices to the purity of virtue.’ He published several volumes of sermons, compiled from various sources, which are prefaced by the statement that the ‘penuria studentium’ had moved him to make this compilation ‘de micis quas collegi quæ cadebant de mensis dominorum meorum, Januensis, Parisiensis, Lugdunensis, Odonis, et cæterorum.’ He left behind him:
* ‘Alphabetum theologicum ex opusculis Rob. Grost. collectum.’
* ‘Sermones Dominicales’ (fifty-eight in number; there are three copies among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, one of which contains a note stating that the sermons were finished in 1431).
* Two other volumes of ‘Sermones.’
* ‘Lecturæ sacræ Scripturæ.’
* ‘Pera Peregrini.’
A note on the margin of one of his works declares that in 1420 he made a present of books to Balliol College.
[Tanner's Bibliotheca, 276; Pits, 634; Bale, vii. 93; Leland's De Scriptoribus Britannicis, 402 (De Joanne Vicario).]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dick, Anne

​DICK, ANNE, Lady (d. 1741), verse writer, was a daughter of a Scotch law lord, Sir James Mackenzie (Lord Royston), a son of George Mackenzie, first earl of Cromarty. The date of Anne's birth does not appear, nor the date of her marriage to William Cunyngham, who adopted the name of Dick, and became Sir William Dick of Prestonfield, bart., in 1728, on the death of his maternal grandfather without male issue. Lady Dick made herself notorious by many unseemly pranks. She was in the habit of walking about the Edinburgh streets dressed as a boy, her maid with her, likewise in boy's attire. She also was known as a writer of coarse lampoons and epigrams in verse, which drew upon her the reproof of friends who admired her undoubted gifts and desired her to turn them to better purpose. Three specimens of her verse are in C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe's ‘Book of Ballads.’ She died in 1741, childless; and her husband, who survived her till 1746, was succeeded in his baronetcy by his brother, Sir Alexander Dick, physician [q. v.] A portrait of Lady Dick in a white dress at Prestonfield is mentioned by C. K. Sharpe.
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dicconson, Edward

​DICCONSON, EDWARD, D.D. (1670–1752), catholic prelate, was born in 1670, being the third son of Hugh Dicconson, esq., of Wrightington Hall, Lancashire, by Agnes, daughter of Roger Kirkby, esq., of Kirkby in that county. He was educated in the English college at Douay, and at the end of his course of philosophy, in 1691, returned to England. Subsequently he resumed his studies at Douay, where he took the oath on 8 March 1698–9. He took priest's orders; became procurator of the college in 1701; and in 1708–9 he was professor of syntax and a senior. In 1709–10 he was professor of poetry, and in 1711–12 professor of ​philosophy. He was made vice-president and professor of theology in 1713–14.
He left Douay college to serve the English mission on 13 Aug. 1720, having been invited by Peter Giffard, esq., to take the ministerial charge at Chillington, Staffordshire. While there he was Bishop Stonor's principal adviser and grand vicar. Afterwards he was sent to Rome as agent extraordinary of the secular clergy of England. On the death of Bishop Thomas Williams he was nominated vicar apostolic of the northern district of England, by Benedict XIV, in September 1740, and he was consecrated on 19 March 1740–1 to the see of Malla in partibus infidelium by the bishop of Ghent. Proceeding to his vicariate he fixed his residence at a place belonging to his family near Wrightington, called Finch Mill. He died there on 24 April (5 May N.S.) 1752, and was buried in the private chapel attached to the parish church of Standish, near Wigan. Francis Petre was his successor in the northern vicariate.
He wrote:
* A detailed account of his agency at Rome in four manuscript volumes, full of curious matter.
* Reports and other documents relating to the state of his vicariate. Manuscripts preserved among the archives of the see of Liverpool.
Six volumes of his papers were formerly in the possession of Dr. John Kirk of Lichfield. Dicconson copied for Dodd, the ecclesiastical historian, most of the records from Douay college, besides writing other parts of his work.
Dicconson's name was falsely affixed to a portrait of Bishop Bonaventure Giffard [q. v.], engraved by Burford from a painting by H. Hysing.
[Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 207, 250, 255–9; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 271; Chambers's Biog. Illustr. of Worcestershire, p. 592; Catholic Miscellany, vi. 251–4, 260; Addit. MSS. 20310 ff. 188, 190, 208, 20312 ff. 139, 141, 20313 ff. 173, 175.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dick, Robert Henry

H. M. S.