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

​LANDSBOROUGH. WILLIAM (d. 1886), Australian explorer, son of David Landsborough [q. v.] the naturalist, born at Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, was educated at Irvine. On emigrating to Australia he became a squatter in New England, then in the Wide Bay district, and afterwards, Rockhampton, Queensland. He then discovered Mount Nebo and Fort Cooper, and in 1859 explored Peak Downs and Nagod. In 1860 be discovered the sources of the Thomson river, and in 1861 made a survey of the Gregory and Herbert rivers. Several expeditions were at this date sent out to search for Robert O'Hara Burke and William J. Wills, the explorers, who had not been heard of since the previous year. Landsborough headed one of these, and starting with four companions from the Albert river on 14 Nov. 1861, made a preliminary search to the south-west, going two hundred miles in the direction of Central Mount Stuart, and then returning to the depot. On 10 Feb. 1862 he again started, and crossed Australia from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Melbourne, discovering many fine rivers and much good country, but apparently making little effort to find Burke and Wills. The journal of his expedition was published. For his discoveries he was, on 12 Nov,, presented by Sir Henry Barkly, the governor of Victoria, with a service of plate valued at 500l., and received a gold watch from the president of the Royal Geographical Society, In 1864 he wag elected a member of the Queensland parliament, but resigned his seat in the following year on obtaining the appointment of government resident in Burke district. Finding Burketown very unhealthy, he removed his headquarters to Sweers Island, whence he made explorations of the Gulf of Carpentaria, He ceased to be government resident in 1869. Some time afterwards he was gazetted inspector of brands for East Moreton, Queensland, and for his public services in exploring was awarded a grant of 2,000l. He died at Brisbane in May 1886. He married the sixth daughter of Captain Rennie, by whom he had a daughter.
[Times, 3 Jane 1886. p, 7; Heaton's Australian Dict. of Dates, 1879, p. 111: Howitt's Hist. of Discovery in Australia, 1865, ii. 191, 284-95; Julian E. T. Wood's Hist, of Discovery in Australia. 1865. ii. 300. 495-74; Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria, 1862; Bourne's Journal of Landsborough's Expedition, 1862.]]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Landseer, Jessica

​LANDSEER, JESSICA (1810–1880), landscape and miniature painter, born, according to her own statement, 29 Jan. 1810 was the daughter of John Landseer [q. v.] Between 1816 and 1866 she exhibited ten pictures at the Royal Academy, seven at the British Institution, and six at Suffolk Street. She also etched two plates after her brother Edwin—‘Vixen,’ a Scotch terrier (also engraved by her brother Thomas for 'Annals of Sporting'), and ‘Lady Louisa Russell feeding a Donkey’ (1826). A copy by her on ivory of ‘Beauty's Bath’ [see Landseer, Sir Edwin] is in the possession of the Princess of Wales. She died at Folkestone on 29 Aug. 1880.
[Bryan’s Dict.; Stephen's Landseer in Great Artists Series; Graves's Catolugue of the Works of Sir E. Landseer; Graves's Dict.; information for Mrs. Mackenzie, sister of Miss Jessica Landseer.]
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Landseer, Charles

​LANDSEER, CHARLES (1799–1879), historical painter, born in 1799, was second son of John Landseer, A.E.R.A. [q. v.], from whom he received his first instruction as an artist. He afterwards became a pupil of B. R. Haydon, and entered the schools of the Royal Academy in 1816. When a young man he ​accompanied Lord Stuart de Rothesay to Portugal, and proceeded to Rio de Janeiro on a mission to negotiate a commercial treaty with Don Pedro I. During this trip he made a number of sketches and drawings, some of which were exhibited at the British Institution in 1828. In this year he sent his first picture to the Royal Academy. ‘Dorothea’ (from 'Don Quixote'). In 1833 he exhibited 'Clarissa Harlowe in the Spunging House,' which was bought by Mr. Mr. Vernon, and is now in the National Gallery, together with the 'Sacking of Basing House,' bequeathed to the nation by Mr. Jacob Bell. In 1837 he was elected associate of the Royal Academy. In 1842 he exhibited ‘Charles II escaping in disguise from Colonel Lane's House,' in 1843 ‘The Monks of Melrose,' and in 1844 ‘The Return of the Dove to the Ark.' In 1845 he received the full honours of the Academy, and exhibited 'The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill,' containing a group of a spaniel and despatch-bags by his brother Sir Edwin, which has since been cut out of the picture. In 1851 he succeeded George Jones, R.A. [q. v.], as keeper of the Royal Academy, an office which involves the duty of giving instruction in the antique school. In 1873 he retired from the keepership with full salary. Between 1822 and 1879 he exhibited 110 pictures—seventy-three at the Royal Academy, twenty-six at the British Institution, and eleven at Suffolk Street. In 1879 he sent three pictures, including a portrait of himself, to the Royal Academy, and he died on 22 July in the same year. He gave 10,000l to the Royal Academy for the foundation of Landseer scholarships.
[Bryan's Dict. (Graves and Armstrong); Catalogues of the National Gallery and South Kensington Museum; Stephen's Landseer in Great Artists Series; Grave's Dict.; Redford's Sales.]
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beaumont, Albanis

Jean François Albanis Beaumont in the ODNB.
​BEAUMONT, Sir ALBANIS (d. 1810?), draughtsman, aquatint engraver, and landscape painter, was born in Piedmont, but naturalised in England. Between the years 1787 and 1806 he published a great number of views in the south of France, in the Alps, and in Italy. The short account of him in Füssli's 'Lexicon' (1806) is the best: 'Probably a Piedmontese, and the son of Claudio Francesco, he carried the sounding title of "Architecte pensionné de D. M. le roi de Sardaigne à la suite de S. A. R. le duc de Gloucester." In 1787 he exhibited a set of twelve views in Italy, mostly in the ​neighbourhood of Nice . . . and in 1788 yet other twelve views (mediocre enough) in the neighbourhood of Chamonny and the lake of Geneva, drawn and etched by himself. The value of these is due to the beautiful colouring added by Bernard Lory the elder. Soon after he betook himself and his landscape factory (Prospektfabrik) to London, and there associated himself with a certain Thomas Gowland as his partner, and Cornelius Apostool as engraver. In the last ten years of the eighteenth century this firm turned out a new series of views in Switzerland, France, and Savoy, which are about on a level with their precusors, but had not the advantage of Bernard Lory's tasteful brush. It must be acknowledged, however, that the clean firm lines of Apostool's needle add as much to this series as the other lost from the flaccid and insecure draughtsmanship of Beaumont. A description of these plates and their prices (high at times) is found in Meusel's Museum.' He afterwards took to landscape painting, exhibiting in 1806 'A Storm at Sea,' in which the waves are said to have been drawn with great truth. A list of his works is in the new edition of Nagler, 1881, and a rather long account of him in the old, 1835.
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beaufoy, Henry

1904 Errata appended.
​BEAUFOY, HENRY (d. 1795), whig politician, was the son of a quaker wine merchant in London, who, to provide him ​with a liberal education, sent him first (1765-7) to the dissenting academy at Hoxton, and afterwards (1767-70) to the more famous Warrington academy, at the head of which was Dr. Aikin [see Aikin, John, D.D.]. His education gave him a taste for science, and identified him with the politics of liberal dissent. He sat in parliament nearly fifteen years, being elected for Minehead in 1780, for Great Yarmouth in 1784, and again on 18 June 1790. On 10 March 1786 he was placed on the committee for the establishment of a new dissenting academy, and gave 100l. towards the institution, which was opened as the Hackney College on 29 Sept. 1787. The dissenters placed in his hands the advocacy of their case against the Corporation and Test Acts, the repeal of which he moved on 28 March 1787, and again on 8 May 1789. Next year Fox took the initiative, and Beaufoy seconded his motion. He held the post of secretary to the board of control. He was roughly handled in cross-examination by Horne Tooke, on his trial for high treason (November 1794), and this is supposed to have hastened his death, which took place on 17 May 1795. He wrote: 1. 'The Effects of Civilisation on the Real Improvement and Happiness of Mankind, in answer to Rousseau,' 1768 (this was an academical oration at Warrington, published by his father). 2. 'Substance of the Speech on motion for Repeal of Test and Corporation Acts,' 1787, 8vo. 3. 'Substance of the Speech to British Society for Extending the Fisheries,' 1788, 8vo. 4. 'Plan of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa,' 1788, folio. 5. 'Speech [18 June] in Committee on Bill for Regulating the Conveyance of Negroes from Africa to the West Indies; with additional observations,' 1789, 8vo. 6. 'Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa,' vol. i., 1790, 8vo (the first report is his).
A. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.20 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 51 | i | 9 | Beaufoy, Henry: for 1780 read 1783 |
| | | 21 | for He read Although a dissenter he was a supporter of Pitt's ministry and from 1791-3 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beaumont, Francis (d.1598)

​BEAUMONT, FRANCIS (d. 1598), judge, was the eldest son of John Beaumont, sometime master of the rolls, by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Hastings. His father was removed from the bench in 1552 for scandalously abusing his position [see Beaumont, John]. Of Francis's early education nothing is recorded. He appears as a fellow-commoner of Peterhouse, Cambridge, when Elizabeth visited the university. There is no entry of his matriculation, nor of his having graduated. He studied law in the Inner Temple, was called to the bar, and practised with success and reputation. He represented Aldborough in the parliament of 1572. In 1581 he was elected autumn reader in the Inner Temple. In 1589 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law (Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 655). He was promoted to the bench as a judge of the common pleas on 25 Jan. 1592-3. He was never knighted: he is described in his will, made the day before his death, as 'Esquire.'
He married Anne, daughter of Sir George Pierrepoint, knt., of Holme-Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, and widow of Thomas Thorold, of Marston, Lincolnshire. She predeceased him. They had a family of three sons and one daughter. The sons were Henry, who was knighted in 1603 and died in 1605, ætat. 24; John [see Beaumont, Sir John]; Francis, the great dramatist [q. v.]. The daughter was Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Seyliard, of Kent. Beaumont died at Grace-Dieu on 22 April 1598, and was buried on 12 June following, with heraldic attendance, in the church of Belton, within which parish Grace-Dieu lies. Burton, the historian of Leicestershire, who was three-and-twenty when Beaumont died, calls him a 'grave, learned, and reverend judge.'
[Cooper's Athen. Cantab, ii. 246; Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, i. xix, xxii, lxxxvii, lxxxxix; Introduction to Dr. Grosart's edition of the Poems of Sir John Beaumont in Fuller's Worthies Library (1869); Cal. Chanc. Proc.temp. Eliz. i. 61; Coke's Reports, ix. 138; Foss's Judges of England, v. 408, 411, 414, 421, 456; Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 166, 186; Chron. Ser. 98; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 649, 655, 656, 666*, and pl. lxxvii. fig. 4; Originalia Eliz. p. 3, r. 126; Strype's Annals, iii. 92; Talbot Papers, G. 472, 505, 529, H. 207; Willis's Not. Parl. iii. (2) 95.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Melvin, James

​MELVIN, JAMES (1795–1853), Latin scholar, was born in Aberdeen, of poor parents, on 21 April 1795. He passed through the grammar school a few years after Byron had left it, during Cromar's rectorship, and was the first bursar of his year at Marischal College, whence he graduated A.M. in 1816. After acting successively as usher at a private school kept by Bisset at Udny, and at Old Aberdeen grammar school under Ewen Maclachlan [q. v.], he became in 1822 a master at the Aberdeen grammar school, and in 1826 he succeeded Cromar as rector. He also became ‘lecturer on humanity’ (i.e. Latin) at Marischal College, and was created LL.D. by the college in 1834. He formed a wonderful collection of classical and mediæval Latin literature, and became probably the most accomplished Scottish Latinist of his day. An appreciative account of his teaching and personality was contributed to ‘Macmillan's Magazine’ for January 1864 by a former pupil, Professor David Masson, who, with pardonable exaggeration, compares Melvin as a ruler and inspirer of boys to Thomas Arnold [q. v.] His method of instruction was certainly most dissimilar, being minute, punctilious, and strictly philological. In 1839 and in 1852 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the professorship of Latin at Marischal College. On 18 June 1853 a testimonial in the shape of 300l. in a silver snuff-box (souvenir of an inveterate habit) was presented to him by old pupils. Severe application had told upon his health, and he died at his house in Belmont Street, 29 June 1853. He was publicly buried in the town churchyard on 5 July.
‘Latin Exercises as dictated by the late James Melvin, LL.D., to which are prefixed Dissertations on a variety of Latin Idioms and Constructions,’ was published by the Rev. Peter Calder, rector of Grantown grammar school, in 1857. A supplementary volume or key appeared in 1858, and a third edition, revised by the Rev. J. Pirie, Edinburgh, in 1873, 8vo. Melvin also wrote for use in his school a Latin grammar, which first appeared in 1822, and passed through three editions, and a number of grammatical ‘Melviniana’ were appended by W. D. Geddes, professor of Greek in Aberdeen University, to his ‘Principles of Latinity,’ Edinburgh, 1860.
Melvin was said to have been long occupied with a large Latin dictionary, but does not appear to have left any materials. His books (6,984 in number) were presented to Marischal College in September 1856 by his sister and executrix, Agnes Melvin. A stained-glass window in the university library, Aberdeen, represents Melvin in his rectorial robes, in association with Buchanan, Arthur Johnston, and Ruddiman. The device is a beehive and grapes, and the inscription, ‘Mel-vinum Natura dedit, gaudete Camenæ’ (Geddes, The Melvin Memorial Window, 1885).
[Athenæum, 1853, pp. 861–2; Gent. Mag. 1853, ii. 318 (same notice); Macmillan's Mag. January 1864, pp. 225–39; Aberdeen Herald, 2 and 9 July 1853; Anderson's Fasti Academiæ Mariscallanæ, 1889, pp. 527–9; private information.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mendes, Fernando

​MENDES, FERNANDO, M.D. (d. 1724), physician, was born of Jewish parentage in the province of Beira, Portugal. He graduated M.D. at Montpellier in December 1667, and became physician to John IV of Portugal. When Catherine of Braganza was on her way to England to become the wife of Charles II, she was attacked during her ​journey through New Castile with erysipelas, and Mendes was sent to her assistance. He gained such favour with the princess that she made him a member of her household, and desired him to accompany her to England and settle there. Mendes reached this country on 25 Oct. 1669, and was appointed physician in ordinary to the queen. He was one of the many physicians in regular attendance on Charles II in his last illness. By the charter of James II he was created a fellow of the College of Physicians, and was admitted on 12 April 1687, but at the accession of William and Mary his name was removed from the roll. Mendes died in London on 15 Nov. 1724 (Hist. Reg. vol. ix., Chron. Diary, p. 48). By his wife, Miss Marques, he had a son James (d. 1739), and a daughter Catherine (named after the queen, who acted as godmother), born about 1678 in the royal palace of Somerset House (Gent. Mag. 1812, pt. i. p. 22). Moses Mendes [q. v.], the dramatist, was his grandson.
Mendes's only published work was his thesis for the degree of M.D., entitled ‘Stadium Apollinare, sive Progymnasmata medica, ad Monspeliensis Apollinis Laurum consequendam,’ 4to, Lyons, 1668. Prefixed is his portrait engraved by N. Regnesson. A letter in Portuguese from him to John Mendes da Costa, dated 1663, is among the Additional MSS. in the British Museum (No. 29868, f. i.)
[Barbosa Machado's Bibliotheca Lusitana, ii. 38; Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, i. 434; Lysons's Environs, iii. 478; Lindo's Hist. of the Jews; Picciotto's Sketches of Anglo-Jewish Hist. p. 44; Wolf and Jacobs's Bibl. Anglo-Judaica, p. 138; Lists of Coll. of Phys. in Brit. Mus.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, George Henry Monck

​MASON, GEORGE HENRY MONCK (1825–1857), British resident at Jodhpore, born in 1825, was son of Captain Thomas Monck Mason, R.N., by his second wife, Mary, daughter of the Hon. Sir George Grey. His father was brother of Henry Joseph Monck Mason and William Monck Mason, and nephew of John Monck Mason, all of whom are noticed separately. In 1842 George was gazetted ensign in the 74th regiment of native infantry at Bengal, became lieutenant on 3 Oct. 1845, and was chosen assistant to the agent at Rajpootana on 11 May 1847. He distinguished himself in this capacity by his energy in capturing several robber-chiefs on the borders of Scinde. In these expeditions he was often accompanied by only a few sowars, and had to traverse vast tracks of barren country on camel-back, riding as many as seventy or eighty miles within the twenty-four hours, and subsisting for days upon chupatties and arrack. His services were rewarded by his being appointed political agent at Kerowlee, a small Rajpoot state. There he remained about six years, and his tact in dealing with a disputed succession to the rajah's throne gained him the thanks of the governor-general (Lord Dalhousie).
In March 1857 Mason succeeded Sir Richmond Shakespear as resident at Jodhpore. The mutiny of the Jodhpore legion, in Au- gust, placed him in a situation of fearful responsibility and danger. Many Europeans, including women and children, sought refuge in the residency. Mason rapidly provided for their safety, and sent a body of men to protect the sanatorium on Mount Aboo where others had taken shelter.
Soon afterwards intelligence was received at Jodhpore of the approach of the small force under General George Lawrence [q. v.], which was detained before the strong fort of Ahwa, then held by the rebels. Mason persuaded the rajah of Jodhpore to despatch troops to Lawrence's assistance, and insisted upon accompanying them. On approaching the fort the party entered a thick jungle, impassable to cavalry. The men accordingly halted, and Mason, attended only by two servants, proceeded on foot with the intention of making his way to Lawrence's camp. He suddenly came upon a group of sowars whom he supposed to belong to the British force, and he accepted their guidance. They were in reality mutineers, and when they had gone a few yards, two of them came up from behind and shot Mason dead (18 Sept. 1857).
Mason was an intimate friend of Sir Henry Lawrence [q. v.] He married Louisa, daughter of Dr. Cheyne, queen's physician in Ireland, by whom he had issue Gordon, an Indian official, and two daughters.
[Private information from the Rev. Thomas E. Hackett; Gent. Mag. 1858, pt. i. pp. 105-6; East India Register.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mason, George (1735-1806)

​MASON, GEORGE (1735–1806), miscellaneous writer, born in 1735, was eldest son of John Mason (d. 1750), distiller, of Deptford Bridge, whose widow remarried Dr. George Jubb [q. v.], regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford. He matriculated at Oxford from Corpus Christi College on 7 Feb. 1753, but did not graduate, and was called to the bar from the Inner Temple in 1761 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1714-1886, iii. 924). Having inherited ample means, including the estate of Porters, in the parish of Shenley, Hertfordshire, and another property at Havering, Essex, he was enabled to fully gratify his taste for letters and landscape-gardening. He bought also with rare discrimination some of the scarcest books in Greek, Latin, and English literature, including a perfect copy of Dame Juliana Bernes's 'Boke of Haukyng and Huntyng' (1486), which fetched 73l. 10s. at his sale, and a few choice manuscripts. In 1772 he sold Porters to Richard, earl Howe, whose biographer he afterwards became, and thenceforward resided at Aldenham Lodge, Hertfordshire (Cussans, Hertfordshire, vol. iii., ​'Dacorum Hundred' p. 311). A portion of his library was sold by Messrs. Leigh & Sotheby in four distinct parts in 1798 and 1799, Lord Spencer buying some of the rarest items (Dibdin, Bibliomania, pp. 559-564). The sale catalogue (4 pts. 8vo, London, 1798-9) was formerly prized by collectors.
Mason, who was a director of the Sun Fire Office, died unmarried at Aldenham Lodge on 4 Nov. 1806 (Gent. Mag. 1806, pt. ii. p. 1169). He left his landed property to his brother's son, and provided handsomely for a natural daughter.
His works are: 1. 'An Essay on Design in Gardening' [anon.], 8vo, London, 1768; 2nd edit., greatly augmented, 1795. An 'Appendix,' in answer to Uvedale Price's publications, appeared in 1798. 2. 'A Supplement to Johnson's "English Dictionary," of which the palpable errors are attempted to be rectified, and its material omissions supplied,' 4to, London, 1801. 3. 'The Life of Richard, Earl Howe' 8vo, London, 1803. 4. 'A Review of the Proposals of the Albion Fire Insurance: also a Continuation of the ... Globe's History from where Mr. Stonestreet's ends. ... A Narrative of gross misbehaviour towards the Public, in the British Critic ... on the subject of the Appendix to the Supplement to Johnson's Dictionary' 8vo, London, 1806. He is also accredited with the authorship of a pamphlet called ' A British Freeholder's Answer to Thomas Paine.'
From a manuscript in his possession Mason published a selection of 'Poems by Thomas Hoccleve, with a Preface, Notes, and Glossary' 4to, London, 1796, a very creditable performance.
Mason's correspondence with William Herbert, whom he assisted in the preparation of a new edition of Joseph Ames's 'Typographical Antiquities' and with Samuel Pegge on the subject of a glossary to 'Hoccleve' may be found in Nichols's 'Illustrations of Literature' (iv. 550-70). He also had frequent correspondence with Owen Manning [q. v.], the historian of Surrey, who thought him a ' very sensible and ingenious person' (ib. viii. 287).
G. G.