OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, Henry (1573?-1647)

​MASON, HENRY (1573?–1647), divine, younger brother of Francis Mason [q. v.], archdeacon of Norfolk, was born at Wigan, Lancashire, about 1573, entered Brasenose College as a servitor in 1592, and was elected Humphrey Ogle's exhibitioner on 2 Nov. 1593. He graduated B.A. in January 1593-4, and M.A. (from Corpus Christi College) in May 1603. He had previously taken holy orders, and became chaplain of Corpus Christi College in 1602. He proceeded to the degree of B.D. in June 1610, and in the following year was collated to the vicarage of Hillingdon, which he resigned in 1612, when he became rector of St. Matthew's, Friday Street, London. Dr. John King, bishop of London, appointed him his chaplain, and on 14 Feb. 1613 he was collated to St. Andrew Undershaft with St. Mary Axe, London. In 1616 he was installed prebendary of Willesden in St. Paul's Cathedral. This prebend he resigned in March 1637, retaining the rectory of St. Andrew until 1641. Wood records that 'by his exemplary life, edifying and judicious preaching and writing he did great benefit, and was accounted a true son of the church of England.' When the presbyterians became dominant, he resigned his rectory, and retired to his native town, where he died early in August 1647, and was buried ​in Wigan churchyard, he had in his lifetime (in 1632 and 1639) bestowed 240l. in trust for the relief of the poor of Wigan.
He also gave his library to the grammar school, besides making other benefactions to the town. His writings include:
* 'The New Art of Lying, covered by Jesuits under the vaile of Equivocation, discovered and disproved,' 1624 4to, 1634 12mo.
* 'Christian Humiliation, or a Treatise of Fasting,' 1625, 1627, 4to.
* 'Epicure's Fast, or a Short Discourse discovering the Licenciousnesse of the Roman Church in her Religious Fasts,' 1626, 1628, 4to.
* 'Tribunal of the Conscience,' 1626; 2nd edit. 1627, 4to; 1634, 12mo.
* 'The Cure of Cares,' 1627, 1628; 3rd edit. 1634.
* 'Contentment in God's Gifts,' 1630, 1634.
Letters of his appear in Dr. Thomas Jackson's 'Works,' i, 600, and Joseph Mede's 'Works,' p. 767, and some of his pieces occur in Samuel Hoard's 'God's Love to Mankind,' 1653. He left a folio volume of theology in manuscript in the hands of Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury.
[Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 220; Reg. of the Univ. of Oxford (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), ii. 198, iii. 194; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 229; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, pt. ii.p. 173 a; Charity Comm. Reports, xxi. 287; Christie's Old Lancashire Libraries, p. 172; Raines's Notitia Cestriensis, ii. 252; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. and Bodleian Library Catalogues.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, James (fl.1743-1783)

​MASON, JAMES (fl. 1743–1783), landscape engraver, was born about 1710, and practised his art in London. Between 1743 and 1748 he executed a series of plates from pictures by Claude and Gaspar Poussin in various English collections, which were published in numbers by Arthur Pond, and during the next twenty years engraved much from the works of Smith of Derby, Scott, Lambert, Serres, Bellers, and other contemporary English painters. Subsequently he was employed by Boydell, for whom he produced his two finest prints, ‘A View on the River Po,’ 1769, and ‘The Landing of Æneas,’ 1772, both after Claude, and many others after Swanevelt, Moucheron, Zuccarelli, and R. Wilson. Mason exhibited frequently with the Society of Artists, of which he was a member, and with the Free Society between 1761 and 1783. His latest plate, ‘A Village Farm,’ after Hobbema, was published in 1786. He was very skilful in rendering the effect and colour of the original pictures, and ranks with Canot, Chatelain, and Vivares, in conjunction with whom much of his work was done.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Nagler's Kunstler-Lexikon; Dodd's Memoirs of English Engravers in Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 33403.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, Francis (1837-1886)

​MASON, FRANCIS (1837–1886), surgeon, youngest son of Nicholas Mason, a lace merchant, of Wood Street, Cheapside, London, was born at Islington'on 21 July 1837. He received his early education at the Islington proprietary school, of which John Jackson [q. v.], afterwards bishop of London, was then the headmaster. He afterwards went to the King's School, Canterbury, and, matriculating at the London University, he pursued his medical studies at King's College, London, of which he was made an honorary fellow. In the medical school attached to King's College he became a friend of Sir William Fergusson [q. v.], who esteemed his surgical skill so highly as to make him his private assistant. He was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 25 July 1858. He served as house-surgeon at King's College Hospital 1859-60, and was granted the diploma of fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 11 Dec. 1862.
In 1863 he was appointed an assistant-surgeon to King's College Hospital, and surgeon to the St. Pancras and Northern Dispensary. In 1867 he became assistant-surgeon to, and lecturer on anatomy at, the Westminster Hospital, becoming full surgeon there in 1871. Mason was invited to join the medical staff of St. Thomas's Hospital as assistant-surgeon and lecturer on anatomy when the new buildings of that institution were opened in 1871. He accepted the invitation, and became full surgeon in 1876, when he resigned the lectureship of anatomy for that of practical surgery.
He filled many important offices at the Medical Society of London, being orator in 1870, Lettsomian lecturer in 1878, president in 1882, and subsequently treasurer.
Mason was a man of genial character, generous, hospitable, and possessed of great musical talents. He died of acute erysipelatous inflammation of the throat on Saturday, 5 June 1886, leaving a widow without children. He is buried at Highgate. There is a portrait of Mason in the medical committee-room at St. Thomas's Hospital.
He published:
* 'On Harelip and Cleft Palate,' 8vo, London, 1877.
* 'On the Surgery of the Face,' 8vo, London, 1878.
He was editor of the 'St. Thomas's Hospital Reports,' vols. ix-xiv. (1879-86).
[Obituary notices in St. Thomas's Hospital Reports, new ser. 1886, xv. 249; Lancet, 1886, i. 1144; Transactions of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, lxx. 17; information supplied by Mrs. Mason.]
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, James (1779-1827)

​MASON, JAMES (1779–1827), miscellaneous writer, born in 1779, was a member of a family long settled at Shrewsbury, where he lived until his death. He was captain of the Shrewsbury volunteers, and interested himself both in politics and literature. He was a supporter of Fox, advocating the abolition of slavery and Roman catholic emancipation. In 1804 appeared his ‘Considerations on the necessity of discussing the State of the Irish Catholics’ (1804). This was followed by ‘A Brief Statement of the present System of Tythes in Ireland, with a Plan for its Improvement.’ He took part in the Shrewsbury election of 17 Oct. 1806, and next year issued ‘A Letter to the Electors of Shrewsbury.’ Others of his political pamphlets were: ‘Observations on Parliamentary Reform’ (1811), and ‘A Review of the principal Arguments in favour of restricting Importation, and allowing the Exportation of Corn’ (1814).
His published literary work included a ​tragedy called ‘The Natural Son’ (1805), which should be distinguished from Cumberland's earlier comedy bearing the same title, and in 1809 he issued two volumes of ‘Literary Miscellanies.’ The first contained ‘Mortimer,’ a novel in a series of letters; translations of the ‘Iliad,’ book xix., passages from the ‘Æneid,’ and imitations of Horace's ‘Odes,’ accompanied with critical remarks; and a defence of the ‘Œdipus Tyrannus’ against some observations of Voltaire. In the second were two tragedies, ‘The Renown’ and ‘Ninus;’ and two comedies, ‘The School for Husbands’ (an original play, unlike Ozell's translation from Molière) and ‘The School for Friends.’ A comedy, under the same name as the last, by Marianne Chambers was produced at Drury Lane in December 1805, and printed in the same year. These were preceded by ‘Observations on our Principal Dramatic Authors,’ with severe strictures on the contemporary drama, and some account of the author's plays. The writings are those of a scholar widely read in both ancient and modern literature, and of a critic of some acuteness, although an adherent of the old ‘unities’ school. Mason further published in 1810 ‘The Georgicks of Publius Virgilius Maro, translated into English Blank Verse,’ London, 8vo. Watt also attributes to him, probably wrongly, ‘A Plea for Catholic Communion in the Church of God’ (1816). Mason died at Shrewsbury 27 April 1827.
[Gent. Mag. 1827, ii. 189; Mason's Works; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Watt's Bibl. Brit. ii. 653; Brit Mus. Cat.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Colley, John

​COLLEY, JOHN (fl. 1440), theological writer, was a member of the Carmelite convent at Doncaster. He is said to have been an elegant Latin writer and an eloquent preacher, and to have written the following works: 'De Passione Christi,' 'De Laudibus Apostolorum,' 'Sermones,' 'Epistolsæ ad Diversos.' It does not appear that any of these writings are known to exist.
[Bale's Scriptt. Brit. Cat.; Pits, De Angl. Scriptt.; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Bibliotheca Carmelitana, i. 827.]
H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collier, Joel

The ODNB rejects the attribution of the pseudonym Joel Collier to George Veale.
​COLLIER, JOEL (18th cent.), was the pseudonym of a musician named George Veal (not of J. L. Bicknell, as stated by Fetis), who was a tenor-player at the Italian Opera in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and who wrote a satire of Dr. Burney's 'Musical Tour,' entitled 'Musical Travels in England,' which enjoyed a wide popularity. The first edition appeared in 1774; the second was published in 1775, and contains an appendix consisting of a fictitious account of the last sickness and death of Joel Collier, by Nat Collier. Other editions appeared in 1776 and 1785, but all editions are rare, owing, says M. Fetis, to the suppression of the work by the Burney and Bicknell (?) families. In 1818 Veal followed his previous effort by a scathing satire of Jean-Baptiste Logier's system of pianoforte instruction, entitled 'Joel Collier Redivivus, an entirely new edition of that celebrated author's Musical Travels, dedicated to that great musical luminary of the musical world, J. B. L-g-r' (London, 1818, 8vo).
[Fetis's Biographie Universelle des Musiciens; Collier's Works.]
E. H.-A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collier, Francis Augustus

​COLLIER, Sir FRANCIS AUGUSTUS (1783?–1849), rear-admiral, second son of Vice-admiral Sir George Collier [q. v.], entered the navy in 1794, and after a few years' service in the Channel was, early in 1798, at the desire of Sir Horatio Nelson, appointed to the Vanguard, the ship which bore Sir Horatio's flag in the Mediterranean and at the battle of the Nile. He was afterwards moved into the Foudroyant, with Nelson and Sir Edward Berry [q. v.], and continued serving in the Mediterranean till the peace. He was promoted to be lieutenant on 11 April 1803; commander, 25 Jan. 1805; and captain, 13 Dec. 1808; during which years he was actively employed in the West Indies, though without any opportunity of special distinction. On 8 Dec. 1815 he was made a C.B., and in February 1818 was appointed to the Liverpool of 50 guns, going out to the East Indies. In December 1819 he was sent to the Gulf of Persia, in naval command of a joint expedition against the Joasmi pirates. Their chief fortress, Ras-el-Khyma, was captured, the fortifications all round the coast were blown up, their shipping was destroyed, and on 8 Jan. 1820 a formal treaty of peace was signed, and piracy, on the part of the Arabs, declared to be at an end for ever. Not the least remarkable part of the business is that the treaty was fairly well kept. It did really put an end to the national and patriotic piracy which had been the scourge of Eastern seas; although, of course, piracy in its more vulgar form continued, and, in fact, still continues. Collier returned to England in October 1822. From 1826 to 1830 he was commodore on the west coast of Africa, from 1841 to 1846 was superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard, and in 1846 commanded a squadron in the Channel. On 9 Nov. 1846 he became a rear-admiral, and in April 1848 was appointed to the command of the China station, where he died suddenly of apoplexy on 28 Oct. 1849.
His services in the Persian Gulf had been rewarded by the order of the Lion and Sun; he was knighted 28 July 1830, and made K.C.H. 1 Jan. 1833. He was twice married and left issue.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Colliber, Samuel

​COLLIBER, SAMUEL (fl. 1718–1737), author, published in 1727 'Columna Rostrata,' a naval history, more especially of the Dutch wars of the previous century, for which it is often referred to as a contemporary authority. This, of course, it is not; but notwithstanding its unsatisfactory brevity, it has an unwonted value from the fact of its author being familiar with Dutch and French, and having examined the works of writers in those languages. A second edition was published in 1742. Colliber wrote also a number of semi-religious, or rather pantheistic tracts, including 'An Impartial Enquiry into the Existence and Nature of God' (1718, 8vo, 230 pp.), which ran through several editions; 'Free Thoughts concerning Souls' (1734, 8vo); and 'The Known God, or the Author of Nature unveiled' (1737, 8vo). They display considerable ingenuity of argument, the style of which, as well as occasional illustrations, shows him to have had some knowledge of mathematics and to have been not unacquainted with Latin and Greek.
Nothing is known of him except what little is gathered from his writings. Though he wrote on religious subjects, he was not a clergyman; and though he wrote on naval subjects he was not a seaman. He may possibly have served for some little time in the navy as a volunteer, or more probably as a schoolmaster.
[Colliber's Works.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collier, Giles

​COLLIER, GILES (1622–1678), divine, was the son of Giles Collier of Pershore, Worcestershire, in which county he was born in 1622. In Lent term 1637 he became either a battler or a servitor at New Inn Hall, Oxford, taking the degrees of B.A. and M.A. in 1641 and 1648 respectively. When he left the university he became a presbyterian, subscribing in 1648 to the covenant, and was afterwards presented to the livings of Blockley and Evesham in Warwickshire. In 1654 he was made assistant to the commissioners acting within that county for the ejection of 'scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient ministers and schoolmasters,' but on the Restoration he retained his livings by complying with the Act of Uniformity, to the disappointment of the neighbouring loyalists, who disliked his meddlesome and somewhat vindictive nature. He died at Blockley in July 1678, and was buried there. His works are:
* 'Vindiciæ Thesium de Sabato, or a Vindication of certain passages in a sermon on the Morality of the Sabbath, from the exceptions to which they were subjected by Edw. Fisher, esq., in his book called "A Christian Caveat,'" &c.
* 'Appendix wherein is briefly examined the bold assertion of Edw. Fisher, esq., viz. there is an equal antiquity for the observance of the 25 Dec. as for the Lord's Day,' 1653.
* 'Answer to Fifteen Questions lately published by Edward Fisher, esq., and the suggestions therein delivered against suspended ignorant and scandalous persons from the Lord's Supper,' &c.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1171; Chambers's Worcestershire Biography.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neade, William

​NEADE, WILLIAM (fl. 1625), archer and inventor, began experiments in James I's reign with a ‘warlike invention of the bow and the pike,’ a simple arrangement by which a bow could be attached to a movable pivot in the middle of the pike, thus making a combined weapon for offence or for close quarters. In 1624 he exhibited his invention before the king in St. James's Park, and the Honourable Artillery Company soon afterwards made trial of it (Double-armed Manne, Epistle Ded.) In July 1633 (State Papers, Dom. ccxliii. 70) he petitioned the council to approve ‘a direction for a commission to authorise the inventor to teach the service and for a proclamation to command the general exercise thereof.’ On 12 Aug. following (Record Office, Collection of Proclamations, Car. I, No. 166) the proclamation was issued at Oatlands, and five days later a commission was given to Neade and his son William to instruct lieutenants of counties and justices of the peace in the exercise. The specification of the patent which was granted to Neade in the following year (16 May, Patent Specifications, 1634, No. 69) recites that he had spent many years in practising the weapon. In 1635 and again in 1637 Neade informed the king that he had laid out his whole estate of 600l. on his invention, ‘but by the evil example of the city of London the service is now wholly neglected,’ although three hundred of the Artillery Company had given an exhibition of the weapon in action before King Charles in St. James's Park. The council seems to have meditated some fresh concessions to Neade, but no further reference to the matter exists (State Papers, Dom. May 1637).
Neade wrote: ‘The Double-armed Man, by the New Invention, briefly showing some Famous Exploits achieved by our British Bowmen, with several Portraitures proper for the Pike and Bow,’ London, 1625 (Brit. Mus.), with six plates, which have all been reproduced in Grose's ‘Military Antiquities.’ Ward, in his ‘Animadversions of Warre,’ 1639, gives an engraving of a similar weapon, and Captain Venn, in his ‘Military Observations,’ 1672, strongly recommends ‘the gallant invention of the Half Pike.’
[Hewitt's Ancient Armour in Europe, Supplement, p. 705; Grose's Military Antiquities, i. 354; Ward's Animadversions of Warre; Venn's Military Observations; Specifications of Patents, 1634, No. 69; State Papers, Dom. ubi supra; Epistle Dedicatory to Neade's Tract; Cat. of Huth Library, iii. 1020–1; Lowndes's Bibliographical Manual.]
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neale, Adam

​NEALE, ADAM, M.D. (d. 1832), army physician and author, was born in Scotland and educated in Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. on 13 Sept. 1802, his thesis being published as ‘Disputatio de Acido Nitrico,’ 8vo, Edinburgh. He was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London, on 25 June 1806, and during the Peninsular war acted as physician to the forces, being also one of the physicians extraordinary to the Duke of Kent. In 1809 he published, in ‘Letters from Portugal and Spain,’ an interesting account of the operations of the armies under Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur Wellesley, from the landing of the troops in Mondego Bay to the battle of Coruña. Neale subsequently visited Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey, where he was physician to the British embassy at Constantinople, and in 1818 gave to the public a description of his tour in ‘Travels through some parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey,’ 4to, London, 1818, with fifteen coloured plates. About 1814 he settled at Exeter, but removed to Cheltenham in 1820. There he attempted to attract notice by publishing a pamphlet in which he cast a doubt on the genuineness of the waters as served to visitors at the principal spring. It was called ‘A Letter to a Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh respecting the Nature and Properties of the Mineral Waters of Cheltenham,’ 8vo, London, 1820. This discreditable pamphlet was soberly answered by Dr. Thomas Jameson of Cheltenham, in ‘A Refutation,’ &c., and more categorically in ‘Fact versus Assertion,’ by William Henry Halpin the younger, and in ‘A Letter’ by Thomas Newell. The controversy was ended by a satirical pamphlet entitled ‘Hints to a Physician on the opening of his Medical Career at Cheltenham,’ 8vo, Stroud, 1820. As the result of these tactics, Neale was obliged in a few months to return to Exeter. In 1824 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of physician to the Devon and Exeter Hospital. He accordingly went to London, and resided for some time at 58 Guilford Street, Russell Square, but died at Dunkirk on 22 Dec. 1832. His sons, ​Erskine [q. v.] and William Johnson Neale [q. v.], are noticed separately.
Neale, who was fellow of the Linnean Society, published, besides the works mentioned: 1. ‘The Spanish Campaign of 1808,’ contributed to vol. xxvii. of ‘Constable's Miscellany,’ 18mo, Edinburgh, 1828, which is entitled ‘Memorials of the late War,’ 2 parts. 2. ‘Researches respecting the Natural History, Chemical Analysis, and Medicinal Virtues of the Spur or Ergot of Rye when administered as a Remedy in certain States of the Uterus,’ 8vo, London, 1828. 3. ‘Researches to establish the Truth of the Linnæan Doctrine of Animal Contagions,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1831. He also translated from the French of Paolo Assalini ‘Observations on … the Plague, the Dysentery, the Ophthalmy of Egypt,’ &c., 12mo, London, 1804.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neagle, James

​NEAGLE, JAMES (1760?–1822), engraver, is said to have been born about 1760; he worked with ability in the line manner, confining himself almost entirely to book illustrations, of which he executed a very large number, from designs by Stothard, Smirke, Fuseli, Hamilton, Singleton, R. Cook, and other popular artists. They include plates to Boydell's and other editions of Shakespeare; Sharpe's and Cooke's ‘Classics,’ Forster's ‘Arabian Nights,’ 1802; ‘Gil Blas,’ 1809; ‘Ancient Terra-Cottas in the British Museum,’ 1810; and Murphy's ‘Arabian Antiquities of Spain,’ 1816. Neagle's most important work is ‘The Royal Procession in St. Paul's on St. George's Day, 1789,’ from a drawing by E. Dayes. In 1801, in the action brought by Delattre the engraver against J. S. Copley, R.A., to recover the price of a plate made from the latter's ‘Death of Chatham,’ Neagle was a witness for the plaintiff. Towards the end of his life he emigrated to America, and, according to a statement on a crayon portrait of him in the print room of the British Museum, died there in 1822. He had a son, John B. Neagle, who practised as an engraver in Philadelphia until his death in 1866.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of English Engravers (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 33403); Baker's American Engravers and their Works, 1875.]
F. M. O'D.