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

​HART, Sir ANTHONY (1754?–1831), lord chancellor of Ireland, was born about 1754 in the island of St. Kitts, West Indies. He is said to have been educated at Tunbridge School, and to have been for a short time a unitarian preacher at Norwich. He was admitted a student of the Middle Temple in 1776, and was called to the bar in 1781. He confined himself exclusively to equity work, and after practising twenty-six years behind the bar was in 1807 appointed a king's counsel, and in the same year was elected a bencher of his inn. In 1816 he was made solicitor-general to Queen Charlotte. Having been appointed vice-chancellor of England in the place of Sir John Leach, he was admitted to the privy council and knighted on 30 April 1827. He took his seat in the vice-chancellor's court in the following month. Upon the resignation of Lord Manners he was promoted by Goderich to the post of lord chancellor of Ireland. On accepting this office Hart expressly stipulated ‘that he was to have no politics, general, local, or religious; and that of Papists and Orangemen he was to know nothing.’ He was sworn in at Dublin on 5 Nov. 1827, and took his seat in the court of chancery on the following day, when he immediately became involved in a serious misunderstanding with the Irish master of the rolls in reference to the right of the latter to appoint a secretary (Irish Law Recorder, i. 5–6, 67–71, 81–7, 114–115). Hart did his best to shorten equity pleadings, which he considered were ‘too prolix in Ireland’ (ib. i. 500). While he was lord chancellor a singular case affecting the rights of the Irish bar arose, a full account of which will be found in O'Flanagan's ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland’ (ii. 391–398). Upon the formation of Lord Grey's administration towards the close of 1830, Lord Plunket was appointed in Hart's place. Hart sat as lord chancellor for the last time on 22 Dec. 1830, and was addressed in a farewell speech by Saurin on behalf of the bar (Irish Law Recorder, iii. 67–8). Hart was an amiable man, a sound lawyer, and a patient and urbane judge. His judgments were both able and impartial, and were delivered in a quiet lucid manner. It is stated ‘as a fact without precedent that not a single decision of his was ever varied or reversed’ (Burke, History of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, p. 210). He died in Cumberland Street, Portman Square, London, on 6 Dec. 1831. An engraving taken from a portrait of Hart, sketched by Cahill, forms the frontispiece to the first volume of the ‘Irish Law Recorder.’
[O'Flanagan's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 1870, ii. 376–402; Burke's Hist. of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 1879, pp. 204–10; Foss's Judges of England, 1864, ix. 23–4; Torrens's Memoirs of Viscount Melbourne, 1878, vol. i.; The Georgian Era, 1832, ii. 550; Gent. Mag. 1831, vol. ci. pt. ii. p. 566; Annual Register, 1831, App. to Chron. pp. 259–60; Dublin Morning Post, 23 Dec. 1830; Hughes's Register of Tunbridge School, 1886, p. 14; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. vii. 7, 178.]
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hart, Charles (1797-1859)

​HART, CHARLES (1797–1859), organist and musical composer, was born on 19 May 1797, and became a pupil of the Royal Academy of Music, under William Crotch [q. v.] He seems to have been successively organist of Essex Street Chapel, of St. Dunstan's, Stepney (1829-33), of Trinity Church, Mile ​End, and of St. George's Church, Beckenham. He died at 148 Bond Street, London, on 29 March 1859. Hart published: 1. 'Twenty-six Hymns,' oblong 4to, for the use of the congregation of Essex Street Chapel, 1820 (?) 2. 'Anthems,' dedicated to Crotch, 1830. 3. A' Jubilate' by him, with a 'Te Deum,' 1832, which gained the first of the yearly Gresham prizes (a gold medal) in December 1831. 4. An oratorio, 'Omnipotence'—first performed under his own direction at the Hanover Square Rooms on 2 April 1839, the composer conducting—published in pianoforte score; Mendelssohn was among the subscribers. 5. 'Sacred Harmony,' a collection of hymns set to the music of various composers, including some of his own, 1841 (?) 6. 'Congregational Singing,' with chants, 1843.
[Musical World, xi. 188, 216; Gent. Mag. 1832, pt. i. p. 545; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 692; Hart's Music.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Palladias, bishop of Ireland

Palladius (11), July 6, the first bp. sent to Ireland and the immediate predecessor of St. Patrick. Facts known about him are few, though legends are numerous. His birthplace is placed by some in England, by others in Gaul or Italy; some even make him a Greek (see Ussher, Eccles. Britann. Antiq. t. vi. c. xvi. of Elrington's ed.). His ecclesiastical position has also been disputed. He seems to have been an influential man in the earlier part of the 5th cent., as Prosper of Aquitaine, a contemporary, mentions him twice, affording the only real record. of his life which we possess. Under 429 Prosper writes in his Chronicle: "By the instrumentality of the deacon Palladius, pope Celestinus sends Germanus, bp. of Auxerre, in his own stead, to displace the heretics and direct the Britons to the Catholic faith." Prosper's words under 431 are, "Ad Scotos in Christum credentes ordinatur a Papa Celestino Palladius et primus Episcopus mittitur." This mission of Palladius is referred to in the Book of Armagh, where Tirechan (Analect. Boll. t. ii. p. 67), or more probably some writer towards a.d. 900, calls him Patricius as his second name. Rev. J. F. Shearman, in his Loco Patriciana, p. 25 (Dubl. 1879), has discussed with vast resources of legendary lore the different localities in Wicklow and Kildare where Palladius is said to have preached and built churches, but his authorities have little historical value, being specially the Four Masters and Jocelyn. His work contains, however, much interesting matter for students of Irish ecclesiastical history and antiquities, its accuracy being guaranteed by his extensive knowledge of the localities.
[G.T.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Pachomius, St

Pachomius (1), St., founder of the famous monasteries of Tabenna in Upper Egypt; one of the first to collect solitary ascetics together under a rule. Beyond a brief mention in Sozomen, who praises his gentleness and suavity (H. E. iii. 14), the materials for his biography are of questionable authenticity. Athanasius, during his visit to Rome, made the name Pachomius familiar to the church there through Marcella and others, to whom he held up Pachomius and his Tabennensian monks as a bright example (Hieron. Ep. 127, ad Principium). Rosweyd gives a narrative of his life in Latin, being a translation by Dionysius Exiguus, in the 6th cent., of a biography said to be written by a contemporary monk of Tabenna (Vit. Patr. in Pat. Lat. lxxiii. 227). If we may trust this writer, Pachomius was born of wealthy pagan parents in Lower Egypt, before the council of Nicaea. He served in his youth under Constantine in the campaign against Maxentius, which placed Constantine alone on the throne. The kindness shewn by Christians to him and his comrades in distress led him to become a Christian. He attached himself to a hermit, celebrated for his sanctity and austerities. He and Palaemon supported themselves by weaving the shaggy tunics (cilicia), the favourite dress of Egyptian monks. He became a monk, and many prodigies are related of his power over demons, and in resisting the craving for sleep and food (Vit. cc. 40, 44, 45, 47, 48, etc., ap. Rosw. V. P.). His reputation for holiness soon drew to him many who desired to embrace the monastic life, and without, apparently, collecting them into one monastery, he provided for their organization. The bishop of a neighbouring diocese sent for him to regulate the monks there. Pachomius seems also to have done some missionary work in his own neighbourhood. Athanasius, visiting Tabenna, was eagerly welcomed by Pachomius, who, in that zeal for orthodoxy which was a characteristic of monks generally, is said to have flung one of Origen's writings into the water, exclaiming that he would have cast it into the fire, but that it contained the name of God. He lived to a good old age (Niceph. H. E. ix. 14). The Bollandists (Acta SS. 14 Mai. iii. 287) give the Acta of Pachomius by a nearly contemporary author, in a Latin trans. from the original Greek MSS., with notes and commentary by Papebroch. Pachomius died (Acta, § 77), aged 57, about the time Athanasius returned to his see under Constantius, i.e. a.d. 349, as computed by Papebroch. Miraeus (Schol. to Gennad. Scr. Eccl. c. 7) makes him flourish in 340; Trithemius in 390, under Valentinian and Theodosius. Sigebert (Chron. ann. 405) puts his death in 405 at the age of 110. Portus Veneris, now Porto Venere, a small town on the N.W. coast of Italy, near Spezia, claims that his body rests there. Cf. Amélineau, Etude historique sur S. Pach. (Cairo, 1887); also Grützmacher, Pachomius und das Alteste Klosterleben (Freiburg, 1896).
[I.G.S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Baal-tamar

​BAAL-TAMAR, a town of the tribe of Benjamin, in the vicinity of Gibeah. (Judges, xx. 33.) It existed in the time of Eusebius under the name of Beth-amar. (Reland, p. 611.)[ G. W. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Byrsa

​BYRSA. [Carthago.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Bysnaei

​BYSNAEI (Βυσναίοι, Steph. s. v.), a tribe of Bebryces. [Bebryces.] [ G. L. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Babra'ntium

​BABRA'NTIUM (Βαβράντιον: Eth. Βαβράντιος), a place in the neighbourhood of Chios, mentioned by Polybius in his sixteenth book, as quoted by Stephanus, s. v. Βαβράντιον It may be the same place as Babras.[ G. L. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Babylle'nii

​BABYLLE'NII (Βάβυλλήνιοι, Ptol. iv. 7. § 29), the name of a tribe which belonged to the hybrid population of the Regio Troglodytica, between the Nile and the Red Sea. They were seated between the easternmost boundary of the island Meroe and the Sinus Adulitanus.[ W. B. D. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Baalbek

​BAALBEK. [Heliopolis.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Babras

​BABRAS (Βάβρας: Eth. Βάβρας), a small place in Aeolis near Chios. (Steph. B. s. v. Βάβρας.)[ G. L. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Babba

​BABBA (Βάβα, Ptol. iv. I. § 14; Βαβαί: Eth. Βαβαίος, Steph. B.), a colony in Mauretania Tingitana, founded by Augustus, 40 M. P. from Lixus. Its full name is given by Pliny in the form Babba Julia Campestris (v. 1). Its coins, which are numerous, from Augustus downwards, have the inscriptions Col. I. B., i. e. Colonia Julia Babbensis, or COL. C. I. B. or C. C. I. B., i. e. Colonia Campestris Julia Babbensis. (Eckhel, vol iv. p. 153.) Its site seems quite uncertain. Some place it at Naranja, which appears too far east; others at Bani Teude, in a beautiful plain on the river Guarga (a tributary of the Subur) where ancient ruins are still visible. (Leo Africanus, ap. Mannert, vol. x. pt. 2, p. 489.) Possibly the true position may be at Baba Kelam, E. of Ksar-el-Kebir.[ P. S. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/By'zacii

​BY'ZACII. [Byzacium.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Booth, Benjamin

​BOOTH, BENJAMIN (fl. 1789), writer on bookkeeping, was an American merchant, and wrote ‘A Complete System of Bookkeeping . . . by and Improved Mode of Double Entry, . . . [with] . . . A New Method of stating Factorage Accounts, adapted particularly to the Trade of the British Colonies,’ 4to, London, 1789. On the title-page Booth describes himself as a merchant of thirty years standing, formerly of New York, and now of London. He became clerk in a store in New York about 1759; and introducing his system of bookkeeping when he had risen to be principal clerk, he used it in his own counting-house in the same city during the many years he traded there as a haberdasher. The war of independence and the peace having cut Booth off ‘from pursuing the line of business to which’ he ‘had long been habituated,’ he used his leisure in England to make known his system, which he held superior to those in vogue. Booth had humour and reading. In his sample invoices he has large imaginary dealings with Lemuel Gulliver, Peter Pindar, and Tristram Shandy. M'Culloch gives the title of Booth's book in ‘Literature of Political Economy,’ p. 139, with the erroneous date 1799.
[Booth's Complete System, pp. 5, 12, 24 (n), 79, 185 et seq.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Booth, Felix

​BOOTH, Sir FELIX (1775–1850), promoter of Arctic exploration, born in 1775, was third and youngest son of Philip Booth, of Mangham's Hill, Hertfordshire, of a county family sprung from the Booths of Dunham Massey, Cheshire. After receiving a liberal education, he became a city merchant, and eventually head of the prosperous firm of Booth & Co., distillers, residing in Great Portland Street, London, and Great Catworth, Huntingdonshire. He was a deputy lieutenant ot Middlesex, and in 1828 was elected one of the sheriffs of London and Middlesex.
Captain Parry's third attempt to reach the Polar Sea, in 1824 and in 1827, had failed. The government had offered (58 Geo. III, cap. 20) a reward of 20,000l. for the discovery of a north-west passage in connection with the board of longitude, which took an active interest in geographical science during its existence up to 1825. Captain John Ross [q. v.] was anxiously endeavouring to promote a new expedition. Felix Booth, an intimate friend, would not join him, because the government reward gave it an appearance of commercial speculation, but in 1828, on the repeal of the act of parliament, under which only 5,000l. had been paid to Parry and his crew in 1819), the matter took another form. Although the Duke of Wellington declined Ross’s offer, Booth undertook the venture for the credit of his country and to serve Captain Ross, thinking he was slighted in his old expedition.’ Booth provided 17,000l. for the expenses of the expedition, to which Captain Ross had added 3,000l., and the result of this mnnificence was an immense stride in the progress of geographical science. The grateful commander gave the name of his patron to several of his discoveries on land and sea-Gulf of Boothia, Isthmus of Boothia, Continent of Boothia Felix, Felix Harbour, Cape Felix, and Sheriff's Harbour; the district with the islands, rivers, lakes, &c., extending to 74° N. latitude along the north-eastern portion of America. The discovery most important to science was that of the magnetic pole at 96° 46′ 45″ W. longitude, and 70° 5′ 17″. Booth's connection with the successful expedition was rewarded with a baronetcy 27 March 1835, with remainder to heirs male of his elder brother.
Sir Felix Booth died very suddenly at Brighton on 25 Jan. 1850. Being unmarried he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew, J. Williamson Booth, of Roydon Hall, on whose death, in 1877, his brother, Charles Booth, of Netherfield, succeeded as third baronet.
[Salliaglaw's Arctic Discovery; Ross's Narrative; Edinburgh Review, July 1835, Oct 1853; Ann. Reg. 1833: Times, 13 May 1835; Roy. Geog. Soc. v. viii. ix.; Arlington Guardian, 1850; Acts of Parliament.]
J. W.-G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Booth, George (1675-1758)

​BOOTH, GEORGE (1675–1758), second Earl of Warrington, was the second son of Henry, earl of Warrington [q. v.], by Mary, daughter of Sir James Langham, of Cottesbrooke, and was born at Merehall, Cheshire, on 2 May 1675. On the death of his father, in 1694, he succeeded to the title, and also received the appointment of lord-lieutenant of Chester, another nobleman being nominated to discharge the duties during his minority. In 1702 he married Mary, daughter of Sir John Oldbury, a merchant in London. During the lady’s lifetime he published anonymously, in 1739, ‘Considerations upon the Institution of Marriage, with some thoughts concerning the force and obligation of the marriage contract, wherein is considered how far divorces may or may not be allowed, By a Gentleman. Humbly submitted to the judgment of the impartial.’ It is an argument in favour of divorce on the ground of incompatibility of temper. From other sources we learn that he had been convinced of the advisability of admitting this as a sufficient reason by his own unhappy experiences. Luttrell (Relation of State Affairs, v. 162) states that the lady had a fortune of 40,000l., and Philip Bliss, in a manuscript note in a copy of Walpole‘s ‘Royal and Noble Authors,’ now in the British Museum, adds: ‘Some few years after my lady had consign’d up her whole fortune to pay my lord’s debts, they quarrelled, and lived in the same house as absolute strangers to each other at bed and hoard.' Of the earl and his lady there is an amusing and not too flattering description in a letter by Mrs, Bradshaw, printed in ‘Letters to and from Henrietta, countes of Suffolk’ (1824), i. 97: ‘The Earl and Countess of Warrington,’ she writes, ‘met us, which to me quite spoiled the feast; she is a limber dirty fool, and he the stiffest of all stiff things.’ Besides his pamphlet on divorce the earl was the author of a ‘Letter to the writer of the “Present State of the Republic of Letters,” vindicating his father from the ​reflections against him in Burnet’s 'History of his own Time,' He died on 2 Aug. 1758, and was buried in the vault at Bowden. His wife died in 1740. Their only child, Mary, married, in 1736, Henry Grey, fourth earl of Stamford, who inherited the estates in Cheshire and Lancashire, and in whose son the title of Earl of Warrington was revived in 1796.
[Biog Brit. (Kippis), ii.; Walpole’s Royal and Noble Authors (Park). iv. 231–41; Luttrell’s Relation of State Affairs.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Booth, George (1791-1859)

​BOOTH, GEORGE (1791–1859), Latin verse writer, was born 12 Nov. 1791 at Masborough House, Rotherham, and was the youngest son of William Booth of Masborough, and of Brush House, Ecclesfield, a descendant of an old and considerable family at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. After being at Eton he went to Cambridge as pensioner of Trinity College in May 1809. He left Cambridge in consequence of delicate health and removed to Oxford, where he matriculated as commoner of Lincoln College in May 1811. He took his B.A. degree in 1813, that of M.A. in 1816, and in 1823 was created bachelor of divinity. He was ordained deacon as curate of Nether Hoyland, Wath-upon-Dearn, in the diocese of York, in December 1815, and priest in the following month. In 1816 he was elected to a fellowship of Magdalen College, Oxford, which he retained until 1834. Of this college he was made vice-president in 1830, and dean of divinity in 1832. In 1833 he was instituted to the vicarage of Findon, Sussex, which he held until his death, a period of twenty-six years. He died at Findon 21 June 1859, aged 67.
He was author of ‘Nugæ Canoræ,' Oxon. 1826, 4to, and ‘Sicut Lilium, ad Choristes Coll. S. M. Magd. Oxon. Carmen hortativum,' 1854.
[Infomation supplied by Rev. J. R. Bloxam, D.D. from his MS. Register of Magdalen Coll.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lamont, John

​LAMONT, JOHN (fl. 1671), chronicler, was probably son of John Lamont, who was described in 1612 as 'destitute of any means for his wife and children, having been chased out of Ireland by the rebels,' and died at Johnston's Mill in 1652. His grandfather, Allan Lamont or Lawmonth (d. 1632), was minister of Kennoway, Fifeshire, in 1586, and afterwards of Scoonie conjointly. His great-grandfather, Allan Lawmonth (d. 1574), second son of Lawmonth of that ilk in Argyllshire, entered the college of St. Andrews in 1536, settled in the city of St. Andrews about 1540, and was the first of the family to associate himself with Fifeshire. The intimate acquaintance shown by Lamont in his extant 'Chronicle' with the affairs of the Lundins of that ilk has led to the suggestion that he was factor to that family, and his interest in and knowledge of the prices paid for properties purchased in Fife support the theory that he was a landed estate agent of some kind. The 'Diary' by which he is known ostensibly begins in March 1641) and terminates in April 1671, but it is evident that both the beginning and end are incomplete as published. It supplies dates of the births, marriages, and deaths that occurred not only in Fifeshire families, but also among the nobility of Scotland, and is of great value to the Scottish genealogist. It also gives accounts of Lamont's brother Allan, and of his sisters Margaret and Janet, and of their families. The absence of any reference to his own marriage implies that he died a bachelor, probably about 1675. His brother's eldest son, John (b. 1661), was his heir, and doubtless inherited his uncle's manuscripts, including the 'Diary.' This John was at one time a skipper of Largo, but in 1695 acquired the estate of Newton, in the parish of Kennoway. The 'Diary' was first published, under the title of the 'Chronicle of Fife,' by Constable in 1810, and was ascribed to John Lamont 'of Newton,' a confusion of the nephew with the uncle, the real author. Another edition from early manuscripts, then in the possession of General Durham of Largo and James Lumisdaine of Lathallan, was issued by the Bannatyne Club in 1830.
[The Rev. Walter Wood of Elie, in his East Neuk of Fife, 1888, first distinguished accurately between the two John Lamonts, uncle and nephew, and identified the former with the author of the Chronicle.]
A. H. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, Charles William

G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, Henry Hill

​LANCASTER, HENRY HILL (1829–1875), essayist, born on 10 Jan. 1829 at Glasgow, was son of Thomas Lancaster, a Glasgow merchant, and of Jane Kelly. He was educated first at the high school, Glasgow, and afterwards at the university. A distinguished student, he proceeded in 1849 as a Snell exhibitioner to Balliol College, Oxford. In 1853 he obtained a first class in literis humanioribus as well as third class honours in the school of law and modern history, and in the following year he was awarded the Arnold prize for an essay on 'The Benefits arising from the Union of England and Scotland in the reign of Queen Anne.' He graduated B.A. 1853 and M.A. 1872. Settling, on leaving Oxford, in Edinburgh, he passed as an advocate there in 1858, and proved himself an able and industrious lawyer. He defended the university in Jex Blake v. the University of Edinburgh, and the 'Athenæum' in the action brought against that journal by Keith Johnston. Under Mr. Gladstone's ministry (1868 to 1874) he held the office of advocate-depute. He took an active interest in the cause of education. In 1858 he served as secretary to a commission of inquiry into the state of King's and Marischal Colleges, Aberdeen ; and in 1872 was a member of a royal commission on Scottish educational establishments.
In his leisure Lancaster contributed to the daily Edinburgh preas.andiu November 1860 he began a connection with the 'North British Review' with an article on 'Lord Macaulay's Place in English Literature.' He took a strong interest in Scottish political history, and wrote for the 'Edinburgh Review' articles on Burton's 'History of Scotland' (July 1867), and on the two Lords Stair under the title of 'The Scottish Statesmen of the Revolution' (January 1876). All his essays are clearly written and display much care and knowledge. He died suddenly from apoplexy, on 24 Dec. 1876, aged 18. In the following year his more important essays were reprinted privately in two volumes, with prefatory notice by Professor Jowett. Most of them were afterwards published in a single volume entitled 'Essays and Reviews,' Edinburgh. 1876.
Lancaster married in 1863 a daughter of Mr. Graham of Skelmorlie, Ayrshire.
Private information ; Scotsman, 25 Dec. 1875; Edinburgh Journil of Jurisprudence, February 1878; Athenæum. 1 Jan. 1876; Oxford University Calendar.]
T. B. S.