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

​BUCHAN, WILLIAM (1729–1805), physician, was born at Ancram in Roxburghshire, where his father had a small estate, besides renting a farm. When yet a boy at school young Buchan was amateur doctor to the village; yet he was sent to Edinburgh to study divinity. But he supported himself to a considerable extent by teaching mathematics to his fellow-students, and gave up divinity for medicine, the elder Gregory showing him much countenance. After a nine years' residence at Edinburgh Buchan began practice in Yorkshire, and before long settled at Ackworth, being appointed physician to the foundling hospital, supported by parliament. Here he gained great skill in treating diseases of children; but his stay was abruptly terminated on parliament discontinuing the ​vote of 60,000l. for foundling hospitals. After this he practised some time at Sheffield, but returned to Edinburgh about 1766, and practised for some years with success. Ferguson, the well-known popular lecturer on natural philosophy, at his death left Buchan his valuable apparatus. Buchan thereupon began to lecture on the subject, and drew large classes for some years. In 1769 appeared, at the low price of six shillings, the first edition of his 'Domestic Medicine; or the Family Physician,' the first work of its kind in this country. Its success was immediate and great. Nineteen large editions, amounting to at least eighty thousand copies, were sold in Great Britain in the author’s lifetime; and the book continues to be re-edited, as well as largely copied in similar works. It was translated into all the principal European languages, including Russian, and was more universally popular on the continent and in America than even in England. The Empress of Russia sent Buchan a gold medal and a commendatory letter. It is said that Buchan sold the copyright for 700l., and that the publishers made as much profit yearly by it. Having unsuccessfully sought to succeed the elder Gregory on his death, Buchan in 1778 removed to London, where he gained a considerable practice; less, however, than his fame might have brought him but for his convivial and social habits. He regularly practised at the Chapter Coffee-house, near St. Paul’s, to which literary men were then wont to resort. Full of anecdote, of agreeable manners, benevolent and compassionate, he was unsuited to make or keep a fortune: a tale of woe always drew tears from his eyes and money from his pocket. About a year before his death his excellent constitution began to give way, and he died at his son’s house in Percy Street, Rathbone Place, on 25 Feb. 1805, in his seventy-sixth year. He was buried in the cloisters at Westminster Abbey.
Among his minor works are ‘Cautions concerning Cold Bathing and Drinking Mineral Waters,’ 1786; ‘Observations concerning the Prevention and Cure of the Venereal Disease,’ 1796; ‘Observations concerning the Diet of the Common People,’ 1797; ‘On the Offices and Duties of a Mother,’ 1800.
[New Catalogue of Living English Authors (1799), i. 352; Gent. Mag. lxxv. pt. i. 286-8, 378-80; European Mag. xlvii. 167.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buchanan, Andrew (1690-1759)

​BUCHANAN, ANDREW (1690–1759), of Drumpellier, lord provost of Glasgow, was descended from a branch of the old family of Buchanan of Buchanan and Leny. He was the second of four sons of George Buchanan, maltster, Glasgow, one of the covenanters who fought at Bothwell Bridge, and Mary, daughter of Gabriel Maxwell, merchant, and was born in 1690. His name appears in M‘Ure's list of the ‘First Merchant Adventurers at Sea’ (View of the City of Glasgow, p. 209), and by his trade with Virginia, where he had a tobacco plantation, he became one of the wealthiest citizens of his day. In 1735 he purchased the estate of Drumpellier, Lanarkshire, and the older portion of Drumpellier house was built by him in 1736. Adjoining Glasgow he purchased three small properties in what was then known as the ‘Long Croft,’ the first purchase being made in 1719, the second in 1732, and the third in 1740 (Glasgow, Past and Present, ii. 196). Through his grounds he opened an avenue for gentlemen’s houses, which he named Virginia Street, and he planned a town house for himself called Virginia Mansion, which he did not live to complete. Along with his three brothers he founded in 1725 the Buchanan Society for the assistance of apprentices and the support of widows of the name of Buchanan. He was also one of the original partners of the Ship Bank, founded in 1750. He was elected dean of guild in 1728, and lord provost in 1740. When after the battle of Prestonpans John Hay, quarter-master of the Pretender, arrived at Glasgow with a letter demanding a loan of 15,000l., Buchanan and five others were chosen commissioners to treat with him, and succeeded in obtaining a reduction to 5,500l. (Memorabilia of Glasgow, p. 361). On account of his zeal in raising new levies on behalf of the government, Buchanan made himself so obnoxious to the rebels that in December 1745 a special levy of 500l. was made on him under threats of plundering his house, to which he replied ‘they might plunder his house if they pleased, but he would not pay one farthing’ (Scots Mag. viii. 30). He died 20 Dec. 1759. By his wife, Marion Montgomery, he left two sons and four daughters.
[Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry, 2nd ed. pp. 186-8; Cochrane Correspondence, pp. 107, 114, 132; Glasgow, Past and Present, ii. 196; Scots Mag. viii. 30, xxi. 663.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, George (1612?-1668)

​HALL, GEORGE (1612?–1668), bishop of Chester, born in 1612 or 1613, at Waltham Abbey, Essex, was the son of Joseph Hall [q. v.], successively bishop of Exeter and Norwich. He matriculated as a commoner at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1628, took the B.A. degree on 30 April 1631, was elected, fellow on 30 June 1632, and proceeded M.A. on 17 Jan. 1633–4 (College Register, ed. C. W. Boase). On 8 Oct. 1637 he was inducted to the vicarage of Menheniot, Cornwall, became prebendary of Exeter on 23 Dec. 1639, and archdeacon of Cornwall on 7 Oct. 1641, in succession to his brother Robert. Though deprived of these preferments by the parliament, he was ultimately allowed to accept the lectureship of St. Bartholomew, Exchange, and by 1655 was minister at St. Botolph, Aldersgate. After the Restoration he became a royal chaplain, canon of Windsor on 8 (18) July 1660, and archdeacon of Canterbury four days later (Cal. State Papers, Dom. June 1660, pp. 83, 86, 229). On 2 Aug. of the ​same year he was created D.D. at Oxford (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 460, 469, ii. 237). He was consecrated bishop of Chester on 11 May 1662, and during that year had the richly endowed rectory of Wigan conferred on him by Sir Orlando Bridgeman, which he held in commendam wiih his bishopric (Baines, Lancashire, ed. Whatton and Harland, ii. 177). He died on 23 Aug. 1668, aged 55, of a wound received by a knife in his pocket in a fall from the mount in his garden at Wigan, and was buried at the east, end of the rector's chancel there. He gave Exeter College, after the death of his wife Gertrude, his golden cup, and his estate in Trethewin, near St. Germans, Cornwall, worth 40l. a year (sold to Lord St. Germans in 1859). His writings are: 1. 'God's Appearing for the Tribe of Levi, improved in a Sermon [on Numb. xvii. 8] preached at St. Pauls . . . to the sons of Ministers, then solemnly assembled,' 4to, London, 1655. 2. 'The Triumphs of Rome over despised Protestancie' (anon.), 4to, London, 1655 (another edition, 8vo, London, 1667), an answer to a popish pamphlet entitled 'The Reclaim'd Papist,' 8vo, 1655. 3. 'A Fast-Sermon [on Psalm vii. 9] preached to the Lords. . . on the day of solemn humiliation for the continuing pestilence,' 4to, London, 1666.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 812–14; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 203, iii. 978; Chalmers's Biog. Dict. xvii. 57; Ashmole's Berkshire, 1719, iii. 275; Masson's Life of Milton, iii. 674.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Henry (1655?-1707)

​HALL, HENRY, the elder (1655?–1707), organist and composer, was born about 1655. His father, Captain Henry Hall, was connected with Windsor between 1657 and 1675 (Tighe and Davis, Annals of Windsor, ii. 281 et seq.) Hall was a chorister of the Chapel Royal, and, as it appears from his lines printed in Purcell's 'Orpheus Britannicus,' a fellow-student with Purcell, under Blow. In 1674 Hall was admitted lay vicar and succeeded Coleby as organist of Exeter Cathedral; in 1679 he was elected vicar choral, and in 1688 organist, of Hereford Cathedral. He died there on 30 March 1707, and was buried in the cloisters of the vicars choral. Tudway has preserved music by Hall in vols. iv. and vi. of his collection: this includes 'Morning and Evening Services in E flat' (of which the Te Deum has been printed), and anthems, 'Let God arise,' clap your hands,' 'By the waters of Babylon,' 'Comfort ye,' and 'The Souls of the Righteous.' An anthem, 'Blessed be the Lord my strength,' is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 17840, p. 273). Hall was referred to by contemporary writers not only as an excellent organist and a sound musician, but also as a staunch upholder of the dignity of art. The duets, 'As Phœbus' and 'Beauty the painful mother's prayer' (Deliciœ Musicœ, 1695); the song, 'In vain I strive,' and others; an opera on the subject of the marriage of the Doge of Venice and the Adriatic (mentioned by Duncombe as an example of Hall's humour), may possibly have proceeded from the lighter and more ingenious talent of his son Henry Hall the younger [q. v.]
Another son, William Hall (d. 1700), was a violinist, and in 1692 and until 1700 one of the musicians in ordinary to the king. He died in 1700, and was buried at Richmond, Surrey. An inscription on his gravestone proclaims him 'a superior violin.' His compositions are few and unimportant.
[Authorities quoted; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, p. 768; Bedford's Great Abuse of Music, p. 197; Warren's Tonometer, p. 7; Duncombe's Hist. of Hereford, i. 586; Havergal's Fasti Herefordenses, pp. 98, 103; music; Bloxam's Magd. Coll. Reg. ii. 192; Chamberlayne's Notes, 1692 p. 174, 1700 p. 498; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 646.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, George (1753-1811)

​HALL, GEORGE, D.D. (1753–1811), bishop of Dromore, son of the Rev. Mark Hall, of Northumberland, was born there in 1753, but settled early in life in Ireland. His first employment was as an assistant-master in Dr. Darby's school near Dublin. Having entered Trinity College in that city, 1 Nov. 1770, under the tutorship of the Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, he soon distinguished himself, and was elected a scholar in 1773; he graduated B.A. 1775, M.A. 1778, B.D. 1786, and D.D. 1790. On his first trial, and against several competitors, he was a successful candidate for a fellowship in 1777, and on 14 May 1790 he was co-opted a senior fellow. Along with his fellowship he filled various academical offices from time to time, being elected Archbishop King's lecturer in divinity 1790–1, regius professor of Greek 1790 and 1795, professor of modern history 1791, and professor of mathematics 1799. He resigned his fellowship in 1800, and on 25 Feb. of that year was presented by his college to the rectory of Ardstraw in the diocese of Derry. In 1806 he returned to Trinity College, having been appointed to the provostship by patent dated 22 Jan., and held that office until his promotion, on 13 Nov. 1811, to the bishopric of Dromore (Lib. Mun. Hib.) He was consecrated in the college chapel on the 17th of the same month, but died on the 23rd in the provost's house, from which he had not had time to remove. He was buried in the college chapel, where a monument with a Latin inscription to his memory has been erected by his niece, Margaret Stack. There is another memorial of him in the parish church of Ardstraw in Newtown-Stewart, co. Tyrone, of which he had been rector.
[Dublin University Calendars; Todd's Catalogue of Dublin Graduates, p. 243; Gent. Mag. 1811, lxxxi. pt. ii. 493, 667; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, iii. 288; Mason's Parochial Survey of Ireland, i. 119.]
B. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, James (1755-1826)

​HALL, JAMES, D.D. (1755–1826), presbyterian divine, was born at Cathcart, near Glasgow, on 5 Jan. 1755. His parents belonged to the middle class, and were zealous adherents of the secession church. From his father, who died in his infancy, was obtained the feu on which was built the meeting-house of Shuttle Street, afterwards Greyfriars, Glasgow, the earliest secession congregation in the city. His mother presented the seceders of Kirkintilloch with land which she owned there for a meeting-house and manse, and to her James and his brother Robert, afterwards minister of the secession church in Kelso, owed their early training. Hall studied in the university of Glasgow, under Professors Young, Jardine, and Dr. Thomas Reid, and finally proceeded to the theological course under John Brown (1722–1787) of Haddington [q. v.] In the spring of 1776 he was licensed to preach by the associate presbytery of Glasgow. An offer of a good living in the established church was rejected with scorn, and on 16 April 1777 he was ordained pastor of the associate congregation at Cumnock. A call to the congregation of Wells Street, London, in 1780 was set aside by the synod, which then decided calls to ordained ministers; but on 15 June 1786 Hall was translated to the congregation of Rose Street, which had seceded from the first associate congregation in Edinburgh. In 1800 he declined a call to Manchester.
Hall took a high place as a preacher and minister, while his general intelligence and polished manners gave him good standing in Edinburgh society. The meeting-house in Rose Street was filled to overflowing, and a more spacious church was erected in Broughton Place in 1820–1. In 1792 a pulpit gown was presented to him, but the use of such robes was distasteful to strict seceders, and a few of his hearers left. He died on 20 Nov. 1826, and was buried in the New Calton cemetery, in a tomb purchased by the congregation. A marble tablet was placed in the lobby of the church.
From 1786 onwards Hall was always conspicuous on the side of progress in the religious movements of his time. His knowledge of business, ready utterance, and combination of suavity and dignity made him a useful member of ecclesiastical courts. He encouraged bible and missionary societies, and was chairman of the committee which, on 8 Sept. 1820, brought about a union among seceders after a separation of more than seventy years.
J. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Henry (d.1713)

​HALL, HENRY, the younger (d. 1713), organist, son of Henry Hall the elder [q. v.], succeeded his father in 1707 as organist of Hereford Cathedral. He is said to have composed little or no music, applying himself to verse-making. Such trifles as 'To Mr. R. C., a dun;' 'All in the Land of Cider;' 'Catch on the Vigo Expedition,' in 'The Grove,' 1721; and 'A Ballad on the Jubilee,' in 'Pope's Miscellany' (Lintot, 5th edit., 1727, vol. ii.) were admired for their ease and brilliancy in an age that was not repelled by their coarseness. Hall's commendatory poem prefixed to Blow's 'Amphion' is a pleasing example of his writing. There is no mention in the 'Fasti Herefordenses' of the election of the younger Hall to the office of vicar choral, ​though after his death, on 22 Jan. 1713, he was buried in the cloisters, near his father.
[For authorities see under Hall, Henry the elder.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Elisha

Elizeus Hall in the ODNB.
​HALL, ELISHA (fl. 1562), fanatic, was an impostor who professed to have revelations and to write books by direct inspiration. On his appearance in London he was brought before Grindal, bishop of London, on 12 June 1562 for examination. He asserted that in 1551 he heard a voice say 'Ely, arise, watch and pray; for the day draweth nigh,' and that in April 1552 he was absent from earth two days while he saw heaven and hell. He was bidden to watch and pray for seven years, and then to write for three years and a half, during two years and a half of which he should 'bring nothing to pass,' while at the end of the last year he was to 'be troubled and fall into persecution.' He affirmed that he had during the last year been examined several times before commissioners, and that unless he should have a fresh revelation his commission would cease in a few weeks. He made no claim to being a religious teacher, and affirmed that the 'Great Book' he had written was a work of inspiration, as he had not 'read much' of the Bible, or consulted with any one. His revelation commanded him neither to eat fish nor flesh, to forsake everything pleasant, and to write his book on his knees. As his examination did not reveal that he held dangerously heterodox opinions, or that he endeavoured to propagate heresy, he does not appear to have been further proceeded against nor to have published his 'Great Book.'
According to Tanner, Hall wrote: 1. 'Of Obedience.' 2. A book of 'Visions' in Metre. Tanner says that a manuscript of the latter belonged to Sir John Parker.
[Strype's Annals of the Reformation, vol. i. pt. i. pp. 433–5, ed. 1828; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.–Hibern.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Francis Russell

Also Francis Russel Hall (Venn).
​HALL, FRANCIS RUSSELL (1788–1866), theological writer, son of the Rev. Samuel Hall, incumbent of St. Peter's, Manchester, was born on 17 May 1788. He was educated at the Manchester grammar school and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was elected a fellow. He graduated B.A. in 1810, M.A. in 1813, B.D. in 1820, and D.D. in 1839, and held the rectory of Fulbourn, near Cambridge, from 1826 until his death on 18 Nov. 1866. He wrote: 1. 'Reasons for not contributing to circulate the Apocrypha,' &c, 1825, 8vo. 2. 'Regeneration and Baptism considered,' 1832, 8vo. 3. 'A Letter. . . on the present Corrupt State of the University of Cambridge,' 1834. 4. 'Hints to Young Clergymen,' 1843. He also wrote occasional poetical pieces, and compiled a hymn-book.
[J. F. Smith's Manch. School Reg. (Chetham Soc), ii. 215; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Jacob

​HALL, JACOB (fl. 1668), rope-dancer, distinguished himself as a performer on the tight-rope. In 1668 he attained his greatest popularity. The court encouraged him, and he described himself as 'sworn servant to his Majestie.' Lady Castlemain, afterwards Duchess of Cleveland, to avenge herself on Charles for neglecting her, fell, according to Pepys and Grammont, 'mightily in love' with him. In April 1668 he was a regular visitor at her house, and received a salary from her. He appears to have given his earliest entertainment in a booth at Smithfield, in connection with Bartholomew Fair. Pepys witnessed his performance there on 28 Aug. 1668, and described his 'dancing of the ropes' as 'a thing worth seeing, and mightily followed.' On 21 Sept. 1668 Pepys attended again, and afterwards met Hall at a tavern. Hall told Pepys that he had often fallen, but had never broken a limb. 'He seems,' Pepys adds, 'a mighty strong man.' A placard was issued describing the performances of 'himself and those of Mr. Richard Lancashire, with several others of their companies.' Hall and his friends promised' excellent dancing and vaulting on the ropes, with variety of rare feats of activity and agility of body upon the stage, as doing of somersets and flipflaps, flying over thirty rapiers, and over several men's heads, and also flying through several hoops.' Hall finally challenged 'all others whatsoever, whether Englishmen or strangers, to do the like with them for twenty pounds, or what more they please' (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vii. 62). Subsequently Hall began to build a booth in Charing Cross, and was committed to prison for continuing its erection after the local authorities had ordered its demolition. But his influence with the king's mistress enabled him to complete the booth. He also erected a stage in Lincoln's Inn Fields, but the inhabitants intervened again, with the result that his performances there were inhibited. On 4 Sept. 1679 William Blaythwaite, in a letter to Sir Robert Southwell, mentioned that he had just witnessed Hall's exhibitions of agility. Robert Wild, in his 'Rome Rhymed to Death,' 1683; Dryden, in his epilogue to Nat. Lee's 'Mithridates;' Dr. John King, in his 'Collection of Riddles,' refer to his skill, and in the second edition of the collection entitled 'Wit and Drollery' (1682) he is described as still delighting London with his jumping.
A picture of Hall, heavily dressed on a tight-rope, with a balancing rod in his hands, forms the frontispiece to 'News from Bartholomew Fair, or the World's Mad.' A fine portrait by Van Oost of a man richly dressed was adopted, without much authority, as a representation of Hall in early editions of Hamilton's 'Memoirs of Grammont.'
[Jesse's Court under the Stuarts, iii. 190, 193; Henry Morley's Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, 1859, pp. 238-9, 245-8, 288; Hamilton's Memoirs of Grammont (Bohn's extra ser.), pp. 118-19; Pepys's Diary, ed. Lord Braybrooke, iii. 420, iv. 13, 25.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacCarthy, Cormac Laidhir Oge

​MACCARTHY, CORMAC LAIDHIR OGE (d. 1536), Irish chieftain, and lord of Muskerry, was son of Cormac Laidhir MacCarthy, lord of Muskerry (d. 1494), by Mary Fitzmaurice, daughter of Edmund, ninth lord of Kerry. He joined the English of Munster in 1510 after the expedition against Limerick, and was subsequently head of the coalition against the Fitzgeralds, which ended in 1520 with the great battle at Mourne, near Mallow. In this engagement MacCarthy, who was in command, entirely routed the Fitzgeralds, and in consequence the Butlers were left supreme in Munster. Soon after the battle Thomas Howard II [q. v.], earl of Surrey (afterwards third duke of Norfolk, 1473–1554), visited Munster, and had an interview with MacCarthy, whom he wished to create a baron. Probably it was to MacCarthy, who had expressed a wish to hold his lands in tail of the crown, that Henry VIII addressed his letter on the state of Ireland, which is printed in ‘State Papers,’ ii. 59. In 1524 MacCarthy defeated O'Conor Kerry, who had made a raid into his territory, and slew O'Conor O'Brien. He died in 1536, and was buried at Kilcrea. Surrey described him as ‘a sad, wise man.’ By his wife Catherine Barry, daughter of John, viscount Buttevant, he left a son, Teige, who died in 1566, and a daughter, Julia, or Shely, who married, first, Gerald Fitzmaurice, fifteenth lord of Kerry; secondly, Cormac MacCarthy Reagh, lord of Kilbritton; and thirdly, Edmund Butler, lord Dunboyne.
[Annals of the Four Masters, sub ann.; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors; Laine's Archives Généalogiques de la Noblesse de France, v. 73; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography.]
W. A. J. A.