OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macfarlane, Mrs.

​MACFARLANE, Mrs. (fl. 1716–1719), murderess, was daughter of Colonel Charles Straiton, a zealous Jacobite. When about nineteen she married John Macfarlane, writer to the signet and law agent of Simon Fraser, lord Lovat. At the time Macfarlane was in middle life, many years his wife's senior. Soon after the marriage Mrs. Macfarlane made the acquaintance of Captain John Cayley, a commissioner of customs, and son of Cornelius Cayley of the city of York. On 29 Sept. 1716 he called on her in her house at Edinburgh, when, for reasons known only to herself or him, she fired two shots at him with a pistol, one of which pierced his heart. Her husband asserted that she fired to save herself from outrage (letter in Swintons of that Ilk, p. 89), and she affirmed that this explanation was 'only too true' (ib. p. 91). Her husband also affirmed that she wished to send for a magistrate and tell the whole story, and that he advised her against it. Not appearing to stand her trial in the ensuing February, she was outlawed. She obtained refuge in the mansion-house of the Swinton family in a concealed apartment opening from the parlour by a sliding panel. A child of Lady Swinton, while her mother was at church, discovered Mrs. Macfarlane one day in the parlour, and this incident suggested to Scott is description of the concealment and discovery of the Countess of Derby in 'Peveril of the Peak,' Scott says 'it is certain she returned and lived and died in Edinburgh' (note to Peveril of the Peak). If, however, she returned, her life in Edinburgh was comparatively short, for her husband married again on 6 Oct. 1719 (Appendix to Fergusson's Major Fraser's Manuscript).
[Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland; Scott's note to Peveril of the Peak; Fergusson's Major Fraser's Manuscript, App. No. 3, ii. 170-181; A. C. Swinton's The Swintons of that Ilk.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morley, John (d.1776)

​MORLEY, JOHN (d. 1776?), medical writer, was grandson and eventual heir of John Morley (1655–1732) [q. v.] of Halstead, Essex (Weight, Essex, i. 466, 470). He died in either December 1776 or January 1777, and was buried with his grandfather in Halstead churchyard (Gent. Mag. 1777, p. 47). By his wife Elizabeth, who survived him, he had three sons: John Jacob, Hildebrand, and Allington; and a daughter, Dorothy, married to Bridges Harvey. To his eldest son he bequeathed as an heirloom the coronation cup and cover of George I. (will proved on 27 Jan. 1777, and registered in P. C. C. 30, Collier).
A method of treating scrofula and kindred diseases having been imparted to Morley, he published it for the public benefit in 'An Essay on the Nature and Cure of Scrophulous Disorders,' 8vo, London, 1767 (11th edit., 1774). The principal cure, it appears, was a preparation of vervain root. He gave advice to all who sought it, without fee.
[Authorities cited; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morley, John (1656-1732)

​MORLEY, JOHN (1656–1732), known as 'Merchant Morley,' agent and land jobber, born at Halstead in Essex on 8 Feb. 1655-6, was originally a butcher, but rose by sheer business capacity to be one of the largest land jobbers, or agents for the disposing of land, in the kingdom. It is commonly stated that in honour of his first trade he annually killed a pig in Halstead market, and received a groat for the job. When he applied for ​a grant of arms in 1722, he assumed for his crest the figure of a butcher holding a poleaxe bend-wise. He became a sort of business agent for the Harleys, and in 1713, to the great contentment of Robert Harley, he negotiated the marriage between Edward Harley, afterwards second earl of Oxford [q. v.], and Lady Henrietta Holles, only daughter and heiress of the fourth Duke of Newcastle. He received a two and half per cent, commission on the dowry, or, in other words, 10,000l. Swift formed a low estimate of him. Writing to Barber in 1738, he said: 'I remember a rascally butcher, one Morley, a great land jobber and knave, who was his lordship's manager, and has been the principal cause of my lord's wrong conduct.' A vivacious sketch of Morley's character forms the staple of Matt Prior's diverting ballad of 'Down Hall,' 1723. The jobber is probably the 'hearty Morley' of Gay's 'Welcome.' Pope, to whom he occasionally sent presents of oysters and eringo roots, was most friendly with him, and when he was seriously ill during 1725-6, sent him a sympathetic and caressing letter. Morley bought about 1700 the messuage and house of Munchensies, in his native parish of Halstead; he rebuilt the house in 1713, and he died there on 20 Jan. 1732. He was buried beneath an altar-tomb in Halstead church, the arms of the Butchers' Company being blazoned above. Though so long 'dry nurse to estates and minors,' he seems to have behaved generously to his native place; and possessing the patronage of Gestringthorpe in Essex, he shortly before his death united with the rector, Moses Cooke, to augment the living by adding 200l. to Queen Anne's Bounty. Prior was a frequent visitor at Munchensies, and at Morley's request commemorated in verse the rebuilding of Halstead steeple. Morley married the 'Thalestris' of the 'Rape of the Lock,' a daughter of Sir George Brown of Berkshire (Sir Plume). Both a son and a grandson bore his name. The latter, a physician, who was owner of Munchensies in 1768 (Morant), is separately noticed. A portrait of the 'land jobber' was painted by Kneller, and was engraved by Simon.
[Elwin's Pope, v. 177, viii. 216, x. 247-9; Morant's Essex, ii. 257; Wright's Essex, i. 467; Hist. of Essex, by a Gentleman, Chelmsford, 1769, ii. 63; W. J. Evans's Old and New Halstead, p. 22; Prior's Miscellaneous Works; Prior's Selected Poems, 1889, p. 93; Noble's Continuation of Granger, 1806, iii. 261-4; Swift's Works, ed. Scott, xix. 258; Swift's Journal to Stella, Letter xxxiv. (8 Nov. 1711); Southey's Commonplace Book, iv. 288; information kindly given by Miss C. Fell Smith.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morley, Daniel of

​MORLEY, MERLAI, MERLAC, or MARLACH, DANIEL of (fl. 1170–1190), astronomer, apparently came from Morley, Norfolk (cf. Blomefield, Norfolk, passim), and is said to have been educated at Oxford. Thence he proceeded to the university of Paris, and applied himself especially to the study of mathematics; but dissatisfied with the teaching there, he left for Toledo, then famous for its school of Arabian philosophy. At Toledo he remained for some time. The statements of Pits, Wood, and Blomefield that he visited Arabia are erroneous. Morley returned to England with a valuable collection of books. He was apparently disappointed at the neglect of science in England, and a passage in his book has been interpreted to mean that he was on the point of setting out again for foreign parts when he met John of Oxford (1175-1200), bishop of Norwich, who persuaded him to remain. The date of Morley's death is unknown.
Morley was author of a book called both 'Philosophia Magistri Danielis de Merlac,'and 'Liber de Naturis inferiorum et superiorum,' dedicated to John of Oxford; it is in Arundel MS. 377 ff. 88-103, and from the preface is derived all that is known of Morley's life. The Arundel MS. divides the work into two books, one, 'De superiori parte mundi,' the other, 'De inferiori parte mundi;' in it Morley quotes frequently from Arabian and Greek philosophers, and vaunts the superiority of the former; he is not free, however, from astrological superstitions. Another copy of the work is No. 95 in the Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MSS., and is erroneously catalogued under W. de Conchys (Coxe, Cat. Cod. MSS. in Coll. Oxon.) This copy lacks the preface, and mentions a third book of the work beginning 'Seneca loquens ad Lucilium,' which is not in the Aruudel MS. Pits also attributes to Morley a treatise in one book called 'De Principiis Mathematicis,' and 'alia qusedam,' which he does not specify.
[Arundel MS. 377; Coxe's Cat. Cod. MSS.; Wright's Biographia Literaria, ii. 227-30; Hardy's Descr. Cat. ii. 550; Leland's Scriptt. Ill. ed. Hall, p. 244. and Collectanea, iv. 192; Bale, ed. 1557, pp. 229-30; Pits, p. 254; Wood's Hist. and Antiquities, ed. Gutch, i. 168; Arthur Duck's De Vsu et Authoritate, vol. ii. cap. viii. p. 141; Burrows's Collectanea (Oxford Hist. Soc.), ii. 146, 171, 172, 323; Blomefield's Norfolk, iii. 477.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harley, John (d.1558)

​HARLEY, JOHN (d. 1558), bishop of Hereford, was probably born at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire (Willis, Survey of Hereford Cathedral, p. 521). He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he was probationer-fellow from 1537 to 1542. He graduated B.A. on 5 July 1536, and M. A. on 4 June 1540 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 186). He was master of Magdalen School from 1542 to August 1548, when he became chaplain to John Dudley, earl of Warwick, and tutor to his children. During Lent 1547 he preached at St. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, a very bold sermon against the pope, which, in the then unsettled state of religious affairs, alarmed the university authorities. Harley was hastily summoned to London to be examined on a charge of heresy, but when the king's views were ascertained he was speedily liberated (Bloxam, Reg. of Magd. Coll. Oxford, ii. xlii-xliii). He became rector of Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, on 9 May 1550 (Nash, Worcestershire, ii. 448), being then B.D. and vicar of Kidderminster in the same county, and incumbent of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, on the following 30 Sept. (ib. ii. 56; Hoare, Wiltshire, Mere, p. 95). Edward VI made him his chaplain in 1551, and sent him, along with five other chaplains distinguished for their preaching, on an evangelising tour throughout England. On 9 March 1552 he received a prebend at Worcester (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 87). During the same year he was considered likely to succeed Owen Oglethorpe as president of Magdalen College, but he lost the election through his reputed laziness and love of money. On 26 May 1553 he was consecrated bishop of Hereford (ib. i. 468), was deprived on 19 March 1554 for his protestantism (Rymer, Foedera, fol., xv. 370), and died in 1558. Leland (Encomia, p. 163) praises Harley for his virtues and learning.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harley, George (1791-1871)

​HARLEY, GEORGE (1791–1871), water-colour painter and drawing- master, born in 1791, appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1817, when he sent two drawings of views in London. He had a large practice as a drawing-master, and drew in lithography some landscape drawings, as 'Lessons in Landscape,' for Messrs. Rowney & Forster's series of lithographic drawing-books, published in 1820-2. In 1848 he published a small 'Guide to Pencil and Chalk Drawing from Landscape,' dedicated to his past and present pupils, which reached a second edition. Harley died in 1871, aged 80. There are two water-colour drawings by him in the print room at the British Museum, one being a view of Maxstoke Priory, Warwickshire. A view of Fulham Church and Putney Bridge is in the South Kensington Museum.
[Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and South Kensington Museum.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harliston, Richard

​HARLISTON, Sir RICHARD (fl. 1480), governor of Jersey, was born at Humberstone in Lincolnshire, and was brought up in the household of Richard, duke of York. On the accession of Edward IV Harliston became a yeoman of the king's chamber, and was made vice-admiral, in which latter capacity he came to Guernsey with a small fleet in 1463. Three years previously the castle of Mont-Orgeuil in Jersey had been captured by a French noble, Pierre de Breze, count de Maulevrier, who had since held half of that island against Philip de Carteret, sire de St. Ouen. Harliston crossed over to Jersey, and planned with Carteret an attack on the French, and Mont-Orgeuil was captured after a six months' siege ; another account dates these occurrences in 1467. After the siege the people of Jersey chose Harliston to be their captain-general, but he shortly went back to England. He was afterwards, by a patent dated 13 Jan. 1473, made captain of the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, and Alderney, being the first to bear the title of 'captain-in-chief.' Harliston held his office for many years, and became very popular ; he added a tower to Mont-Orgeuil, which was long called 'Harliston's Tower.' After the fall of Richard III he is said to have thought to make himself lord of the islands under the protection of the French and the Duchess Margaret of Burgundy, but to have been prevented by the diligence of the inhabitants. He was one of those attainted for joining the Earl of Lincoln in Simnel's rebellion in 1486 (Rolls of Parliament, vi. 397-8), but on 4 Sept. of that year a general pardon was granted him ; in the pardon he is described as 'late of the island of Jersey, esquire' {Materials illustrative of Reign of Henry VII, ii. 30, Rolls Ser.) Harliston took refuge with Margaret of Burgundy, and in 1495 was one of Perkin Warbeck's supporters who were attainted for landing at Deal (Rolls of Parl. vi. 504 ; he is here described as 'late of London, knight '). He remained in Margaret's service, and on his death received honourable burial at her expense. During the reign of Edward IV Harliston is mentioned as being excepted from several acts of resumption, and is spoken ​of as 'yeoman of our chamber' or 'yeoman of the corone' (ib. v. 537, vi. 84, 87). There is no record of his being knighted. He had a daughter Margaret, who married Philip de Carteret (d. 1500), grandson of her father's old ally, and had by him twenty-one children; Sir Philip de Carteret (1584-1643) [q. v.] was a descendant. Philip de Carteret was imprisoned in 1494 by Matthew Baker, the then governor of Jersey, but was released by the order of Henry VII at the personal intercession of his wife.
[Authorities quoted; Chroniques des Iles de Jersey, Guernesey, &c., chaps. iv.-xii., written by Samuel de Carteret in 1585 and printed at Guernsey 1832, ed. George S. Syvret; Falle's Account of the Island of Jersey, ed. Durell, 1837; Cæsarea: The Island of Jersey, &c., 1840; Collins's Hist. of the Family of Carteret, pp. 25-9.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harlowe, Sarah

​HARLOWE, SARAH (1765–1852), actress, was born in London in 1765. Under the name of Mrs. Harlowe she made her first appearance on the stage at Colnbrook, near Slough, in 1787, removing in the following year to Windsor, where she met Francis Godolphin Waldron, and became his wife. Waldron was prompter of the Haymarket Theatre, London, manager of the Windsor and Richmond theatres, a bookseller, an occasional actor at the Haymarket and Drury Lane, manager of the Drury Lane Theatrical Fund, the writer of several comedies, and a Shakespearean scholar. He died in March 1818, in his seventy-fifth year (Gent. Mag. March 1818, p. 283). Through the interest of her husband Mrs. Harlowe obtained an engagement at Sadler's Wells, where as a singer, actor, and performer in pantomimes she gained some celebrity. She made her appearance at Covent Garden on 4 Nov. 1790 in the ‘Fugitive.’ She was the original singer of ‘Down in the country lived a lass,’ the song generally introduced into ‘Lady Bell.’ In 1792 she was at the Haymarket, whence she went to Drury Lane, where she sustained the characters of smart chambermaids, romps, shrews, and old women, and then removed to the English Opera House. At the opening of the Royalty Theatre, London, under the direction of William Macready, on 27 Nov. 1797, Mrs. Harlowe played in the musical sketch entitled ‘Amurath the Fourth, or the Turkish Harem,’ and also in the pantomime, the ‘Festival of Hope, or Harlequin in a Bottle.’ In 1816 she was playing Lady Sneerwell at Drury Lane. She was a low comedy actress, who without any splendid talent had such a complete knowledge of stage requirements that her services were most useful in any theatre. Her figure was neat, and she often assumed male characters. Her best parts were Lucy in the ‘Rivals,’ the Widow Warren in the ‘Road to Ruin,’ Miss Mac-Tab in the ‘Poor Gentleman,’ and the old Lady Lambert in the ‘Hypocrite.’ She, however, essayed the majority of Mrs. Jordan's characters, and played them with considerable success. In 1826 she retired from the stage, having on 21 Feb. in that year played Mrs. Foresight in the farce of ‘John Bull’ at Drury Lane. She was one of the original ​subscribers to the Drury Lane Theatrical Fund, from which in 1827 she received an annuity of 140l. per annum, which in 1837 was reduced to 112l. She died suddenly of heart disease at her lodgings, 5 Albert Place, Gravesend, Kent, on 2 Jan. 1852, aged 86, and her death was registered at Somerset House as that of ‘Sarah Waldron, annuitant.’
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harley, George Davies

​HARLEY, GEORGE DAVIES, whose real name was Davies (d. 1811), actor and author, was, according to one account, a tailor ; according to a second, a banker's clerk, and afterwards a clerk in lottery offices. He received lessons from John Henderson [q. v.], and made his first appearance on the stage as Richard III on 20 April 1785 at Norwich. Becoming known as the Norwich Roscius, he was engaged by Harris for Covent Garden, where he appeared as Richard 25 Sept. 1789. In the course of this and two or three following seasons he played Shylock, Touchstone, King Lear, Macbeth, &c., and took original characters in ill-starred plays of Hayley and other writers. Finding that his salary did not increase, and that he was allowed to decline on a lower order of character, he withdrew into the country, but soon returned to Covent Garden, where he remained for four seasons. He then once more went into the country and played old men in comedy with success at Bristol in 1796-9, and afterwards at Birmingham, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, and elsewhere. In 1802 he supported Mrs. Siddons in her farewell visit to Dublin. According to Wewitzer, an untrustworthy authority, he died at Leicester, 28 Nov. 1811. He never rose above being a useful actor.
His writings consist of: 1. 'A Monody on the Death of Mr. John Henderson, late of Covent Garden Theatre,' Norwich, 4to, 1787. 2. 'Poems by George Davies Harley, of the Theatre Royal, Norwich. Printed for the author (by subscription),' 8vo, 1796. 3. 'Ballad Stories, Sonnets,' &c., vol. i. Bath, 1799, 12mo. 4. 'Holyhead Sonnets,' 12mo, Bath, ​1800. 5. 'An Authentic Biographical Sketch of the Life, Education, and Personal Character of William Henry West Betty, the Celebrated Young Roscius,' London, 1802, 8vo. 6. 'The Fight off Trafalgar,' a descriptive poem, Sheffield and London, 4to, 1806. His poems have all the faults of the age ; the monody on Henderson imitates Gray's 'Elegy.' His sonnets are in fourteen lines, but have no other claim to the title. Among his poems the longest are 'To Night,' and 'A Legacy of Love,' to his son aged 4, whom he calls George the second, his predecessor being dead. With the exception of No. 3, 'Ballad Stories,' these works are in the British Museum. Portraits of Harley by De Wilde, as Caled in the 'Siege of Damascus' and as Lusignan in 'Zara,' are in the Mathews Collection at the Garrick Club.
[Genest's Account of the English Stage ; Thespian Diet. ; Grilliland's Dramatic Mirror ; Crosby's Pocket Companion to the Playhouse, 1796; Wewitzer's Dramatic Eeminiscences ; Dramatic Chronology.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manderstown, William

​MANDERSTOWN, WILLIAM (fl. 1515–1540), philosopher, was born in the diocese of St. Andrews, probably at the town of Manderston, Stirlingshire. Educated apparently at St. Andrews, he subsequently proceeded to the university of Paris, where he graduated licentiate in medicine, and became one of the school of Terminists, at whose head was John Major (1469–1550) [q. v.] In 1518 Manderstown published at Paris two works, ‘Bipartitum in Morali Philosophia Opusculum,’ 12mo, dedicated to James Beaton [q. v.], archbishop of St. Andrews, and ‘Tripartitum Epithoma Doctrinale,’ 12mo; in the first work he is said to have plagiarised from ‘Hieronymus Angestus;’ copies of both are preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. On 15 Dec. 1525 he was chosen one of the rectors of the university of Paris (Du Boulay, Univ. Paris. vi. 977). Before 1539 he had returned to Scotland, for in that year, along with John Major, he founded a bursary or chaplaincy in St. Salvator's, and endowed it with the rents of certain houses in South Street, St. Andrews. On 3 April in the same year Manderstown witnessed a charter at Dunfermline Monastery, and also appears as rector of Gogar. The date of his death is unknown. Tanner wrongly places it in 1520. Besides the books above mentioned, Tanner attributes to Manderstown: 1. ‘In Ethicam Aristotelis ad Nicomachum Comment.’ 2. ‘Quæstionem de Futuro Contingenti.’ 3. ‘De Arte Chymica.’
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Man, James

​MAN or MAIN, JAMES (1700?–1761), philologist, born about 1700 at White wreath, in the parish of Elgin, Morayshire, was educated first at the parish school of Longbride, and afterwards at King's College, Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. in 1721. He was then appointed schoolmaster of Tough, Aberdeenshire, and in 1742 master of the poor's hospital in Aberdeen. He proved a very useful superintendent of the hospital, to which at his death in 1761 he left more than half the little property he had accumulated.
Man's zeal for the character of George Buchanan led him to join the party of Scottish scholars who were dissatisfied with Thomas Ruddiman's edition of Buchanan's works published in 1715. Man exposed the errors and defects of Ruddiman's edition in 'A Censure and Examination of Mr. Thomas Ruddiman's Philological Notes on the Works of the great Buchanan . . . more particularly on the History of Scotland . . . containing many particulars of his Life,' 8vo, Aberdeen, 1753. This treatise, which extends to 574 pages, is learned and acute, but very abusive. Ruddiman replied in his ' Anti-crisis,' 1754, and in 'Audi alteram partem,' 1756 [see Ruddiman, Thomas].
Man made collections for an edition of Arthur Johnston's poems, which were in the possession of Professor Thomas Gordon of Aberdeen, and was encouraged by many presbyterian ministers to undertake a history of the church of Scotland. He only completed an edition of Buchanan's 'History of Scotland,' which was issued at Aberdeen in 1762.
[Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman, p. 248.]
G. G.