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

​MANBY, CHARLES (1804–1884), civil engineer, and secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers, eldest son of Aaron Manby [q. v.], was born on 4 Feb. 1804. He received his early education at a Roman catholic seminary, whence he was sent in 1814 to the semi-military college of St. Servan, Brittany. His uncle, Captain Joseph Manby, private secretary and aide-de-camp to the Duke of Kent, had already obtained a commission for him, but the prospect of peace caused him to change his plans, and he joined his father at Horseley ironworks, and assisted in building the first iron steamboat [see Manby, Aaron]. He also superintended the erection of the first pair of oscillating marine engines ever made, which were placed in 1820 in the Britannia, a packet on the Dover and Calais station. Manby's drawings of these engines are in the possession of the Institution of Civil Engineers. About 1823 Manby proceeded to Paris to take charge of the gasworks established there by his father, and he subsequently superintended his father's foundry at Charenton. After a short stay at the Creusot ironworks, which his father had undertaken to reorganise, he was employed by the tobacco department of the French government, and he also received a commission in the French military engineers. In 1829 he returned to England and took the management of the Beaufort ironworks in South Wales, and, after spending a short time at the Ebbw Vale ironworks and the Bristol ironworks, he established himself in London in 1835 as a civil engineer. In 1838 he became connected with Sir John Ross's enterprise for running steamers to India, which was eventually absorbed by the Peninsular and Oriental Company. He relinquished his private practice in 1839, when he was appointed secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers. He performed the duties of the office for seventeen years with conspicuous success. Upon his retirement in 1856 a service of plate and a purse of 2,000l. were presented to him, and he was elected honorary secretary. In 1853 the Royal Society elected him a fellow. He was a member of the International Commission which met in Paris for the purpose of considering the feasibility of constructing the Suez Canal. His perfect command of the French language was of considerable service in maintaining a good understanding between the engineers' societies of London and Paris. In 1864 he helped to establish the Engineer and Railway Volunteer Staff Corps, in which he held the post of adjutant with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He died in London on 31 July 1884. He was twice married: first, in 1830, to Miss Ellen Jones of Beaufort; and secondly, in 1858, to Harriet, daughter of Major Nicholas Willard of the Grays, Eastbourne, and widow of Mr. W. C. Hood, formerly a partner in the publishing house of Whitaker & Co. He left no issue.
[Proc. of the Institution of Civil Engineers, lxxxi. 327 (portrait).]
R. B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manby, Thomas (fl.1670-1690)

​MANBY, THOMAS (fl. 1670–1690), landscape-painter, is spoken of as 'a good English landskip-painter, who had been several times in Italy, and consequently painted much after the Italian manner.' From Vertue's extracts from the diaries of Mr. Beale, the husband of Mary Beale [q. v.], it appears that Manby was employed to paint in landscapes in the background of the portraits by her and probably other painters af the time. Manby brought from Italy a large collection of pictures, which were sold at the Banqueting House in Whitehall about 1680.
[Buckeridge's Supplement to De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muir, William (1787-1869)

​MUIR, WILLIAM (1787–1869), divine, son of William Muir, merchant, of Glasgow, was born at Glasgow on 11 Oct. 1787, and was educated there and at the divinity hall of Edinburgh. He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1800, receiving the degree of LL.D. on 1 May 1812, and subsequently that of D.D. He was licensed to preach on 7 Nov. 1810, presented to St. George's Church, Glasgow, on 9 June, and ordained on 27 Aug. 1812. In 1822 he was transferred to the New Grey Friars, Edinburgh, and thence in 1829 to St. Stephen's, Edinburgh. On 17 May 1838 he was elected moderator of the general assembly, and began to take a prominent part in the non-intrusion controversy. On 16 May 1839, in the debate on the Auchterarder case, he moved a series of abortive resolutions endeavouring to reconcile the opposing views of Cook and Chalmers; he also adopted a similar position with regard to the Strathbogie ​case, throughout following a middle course, which ultimately led to the passing of Lord Aberdeen's Act. At the disruption Muir threw in his lot with the established church, and, being frequently consulted by the government, is said to have exercised an unprecedented influence in the disposal of patronage. In 1845 he was appointed dean of the order of the Thistle, and chaplain in ordinary to the queen. In 1858 he was admitted a member of the university council of Glasgow. He was compelled by blindness to retire from active duties in 1867, and died at Ormelie, Murrayfield, Edinburgh, on 23 June 1869. Muir married, first, on 22 June 1813, Hannah, eldest daughter of James Black, provost of Glasgow; secondly, he married on 3 Oct. 1844 Anne, daughter of Lieutenant-general Dirom, of Mount Annan. Besides single sermons, pamphlets, and published speeches, Muir wrote: 1. ‘Discourses on the Epistle of St. Jude,’ London, 1822. 2. ‘Discourses on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia.’ 3. ‘Practical Sermons on the Holy Spirit,’ Edinburgh, 1842. 4. ‘Metrical Meditations,’ Edinburgh, 1870.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Hew Scott's Fasti, i. 72, 76, ii. 28, &c.; Scotsman and Edinburgh Courant, 24 June 1869; Church of Scotland Home and Foreign Missionary Record, 2 Aug. 1869, pp. 448–9; Memorial Sermon by J. C. Herdman; Bryce's Ten Years of the Church of Scotland, i. 91–2, 128, 157; Autobiography of Thomas Guthrie, pp. 166–71, 384; Memorials of R. S. Candlish; Buchanan's Ten Years' Conflict, ii. 16–19, 48–52, 126; A Letter to the Lord Chancellor by John Hope, Edinburgh, 1839; information kindly supplied by Professor Dickson, D.D., and the Rev. Robert Muir.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muirhead, James (1742-1808)

​MUIRHEAD, JAMES, D.D. (1742–1808), song-writer, son of Muirhead of Logan (representing an ancient family), was born in 1742 in the parish of Buittle, Kirkcudbrightshire. After elementary training at Dumfries grammar school, he studied for the church at Edinburgh University, and was ordained minister of the parish of Urr, Kirkcudbrightshire, 28, June 1770. As a proprietor and freeholder of the county, he was one of the aristocratic victims of Burns's unsparing satire in 'Ballads on Mr. Heron's Election, 1795,' and he retaliated in a brochure, in which he quoted and liberally translated into verse Martial's 'In Vacerram' (Martialis, liber, xi. ep. 66). He somewhat cleverly made out Vacerras to have been a gauger of very loose principles, and 'no publication in answer to the scurrilities of Burns ever did him so much harm in public opinion, or made Burns himself feel so sore' (manuscript of Alexander Young, quoted in Chamber's Burns, vol. iv. Library edit.) Burns further denounced Muirhead in his election song of 1796, 'Wha will buy my Troggin?' A scholarly man, Muirhead was specially known as a mathematician and a naturalist. In 1796 he received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University. He died at Spottes Hall, Dumfriesshire, 16 May 1808 (Scots Mag. lxx. 479). He married, 21 Aug. 1777, Jean Loudon (d. 1826), by whom he had two sons, William, an advocate, and Charles, and a daughter, wife of Captain Skirving, of the East India Company's service.
Muirhead's one published song is the shrewd and vivid pastoral, 'Bess the Gawkie' (i.e. fool or dupe). It first appeared in Herd's 'Scottish Songs,' 1776. Burns considered it equalled by few Scottish pastorals, pronouncing it 'a beautiful song, and in the genuine Scots taste' (Cromek, Reliques of Burns). Muirhead furnished particulars of the parish of Urr to Sinclair's 'Statistical Account of Scotland,' 1791-9.
[Murray's Literary Hist. of Galloway; Scots Musical Museum, ed. Laing; Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel; Harper's Bards of Galloway; Hew Scott's Fasti, pt. ii. pp. 608-9.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muirhead, James (1831-1889)

​MUIRHEAD, JAMES (1831–1889), jurist, son of Claud Muirhead of Gogan Park, Midlothian, proprietor of the 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' born in 1831, was admitted on 31 Oct. 1854 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 6 June 1857, being admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates the same year. In 1862 he was elected to the chair of civil law in the university of Edinburgh, which he held until his death. He held the post of advocate ​depute during Lord Beaconsfield's administration, and in 1886 was appointed sheriff of Stirling, Dumbarton, and Clackmannanshire.
Muirhead was an accomplished jurist, and besides discharging his professorial duties with eminent ability, made a European reputation by his masterly works on Roman law. In 1885 he succeeded Lord McLaren as sheriff in chancery, and the same year received from the university of Glasgow the honorary degree of LL.D. He died at his house in Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, on 8 Nov. 1889. Muirhead married, on 14 April 1857, Jemima Lock, youngest daughter of George Eastlake of Plymouth.
Muirhead edited in 1880 'The Institutes of Gaius and Rules of Ulpian. The former from Studemund's Apograph of the Verona Codex. With translation and notes critical and explanatory, and copious alphabetical digest,' Edinburgh, 8vo. His 'Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome,' Edinburgh, 1886, 8vo, of which an abridgment had appeared, under the title 'Roman Law,' in the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' is a work of authority, and has been translated into French and Italian. Muirhead's interesting and valuable library of law books was, after his death, purchased by subscription and presented to the Owens College, Manchester. A catalogue of it has been published by the college.
[Scotsman, 9 and 13 Nov. 1889; Times, 9 Nov. 1889; Journal of Jurisprudence, 1889, p. 639; The Student, 17 May 1889; Foster's Men at the Bar; Edinburgh Univ. Cal.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mulholland, Andrew

​MULHOLLAND, ANDREW (1791–1866), cotton and linen manufacturer, born at Belfast in 1791, came of an old Ulster family. His father, Thomas, was in 1819 head of Messrs. Thomas Mulholland & Co., a firm of cotton manufacturers of Union Street, Belfast (cf. Belfast Directory, 1819, p. 52). Andrew was posted in this firm, which, on the death of his father, was carried on by himself and a brother under the title of Messrs. T. & A. Mulholland. On 10 June 1828 their cotton mill in York Street was burnt down. No machinery had yet been introduced into the manufacture of linen at Belfast, but Andrew had observed that the supply of yarns made by hand was quite insufficient to meet the demands of the Belfast spinners, and that quantities of flax were shipped across to Manchester to be spun and reimported as yarn. He accordingly determined in 1828 to set up flax-spinning machinery in a small mill in St. James's Street, and subsequently devoted the rebuilt mill in York Street to the same purpose. The first bundle of flax yarns produced by machinery in Belfast was thrown off in 1830 from the York Street mill; Messrs. Murland, however, dispute priority with the Mulhollands in the introduction of machinery. After his brother Thomas's death Andrew carried on the business single-handed. For some years he enjoyed with very profitable results almost a monopoly in the new industry which he had set on foot, and the firm still remains one of the principal concerns in Belfast. On the grant of a corporation to Belfast in 1842 Andrew became a member of it, was mayor in 1845, and presented the town with the organ in Ulster Hall at a cost of 3,000l. In 1860 he retired to Springvale, Ballywalter, co. Down, and subsequently became justice of the peace, deputy-lieutenant, and served as high sheriff for Down and Antrim. He died on 24 Aug. 1866 at Springvale, aged 73. He married in 1817 Eliza, daughter of Thomas McDonnell of Belfast. His eldest son, John (b. 1819), assisted Cobden in his negotiation of a commercial treaty with Napoleon III in 1860, entered parliament as member for co. Down in 1874, sat for Downpatrick 1880–5, and was in 1892 raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom under the title of Baron Dunleath of Ballywalter.
[Belfast Weekly News, Weekly Press, and Northern Whig for 1 Sept. 1866; J. H. Smith's Belfast and its Environs, p. 57; Belfast Directory, 1819; British Manufacturing Industries, p. 77, &c.; Charley's Flax and its Products in Ireland, pp. 36, 92, 124; Sharp's Flax, Tow, and Jute Spinning; Warden's Linen Trade, Ancient and Modern, p. 404; Foster's Peerage, 1893; information received from Baron Dunleath.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muirchu Maccu Machtheni

​MUIRCHU MACCU MACHTHENI, Saint (fl. 697), is termed in the 'Martyrology of Donegal' Mac ua Maichtene, and in the 'Lebar Brecc' Mac hui mic Teni, i.e. son of the grandson of Mac Teni. Bishop Graves suggests that the name Machtheni is a ​translation of Cogitosus, who mentions Muirchu as his father; the word is cognate with machtnaigim, 'I ponder.' Maccu Machtheni would thus mean 'of the sons of Cogitosus.' Colgan and Lanigan were disposed to identify him with Adamnan, who is known as Ua Tinne, but the resemblance of the names is only apparent. His monastery (civitas), according to the 'Lebar Brecc,' was in Hy Faelan, in the north of the county of Kildare, but the 'Calendar of Cashel' says Gill Murchon (Murchu's Church) was in Hy Garchon in the county of Wicklow.
Muirchu is only known as the author of the life of St. Patrick in the 'Book of Armagh,' a manuscript transcribed in 807, and now preserved in Trinity College, Dublin. This is the earliest existing life of the saint, and forms the foundation of all the later lives, which either borrow from it or enlarge on it. It was composed in obedience to the command and at the dictation of Aedh of Sletty in the south of the Queen's County, an anchorite and bishop, who appears to have been specially interested in the see of St. Patrick, and was intimately associated with Adamnan in endeavouring to introduce the Roman Easter and other foreign customs in the North. Muirchu, who was with Adamnan at the synod summoned to support the new customs over which Flann Febla, coarb of Armagh, presided, supported the innovation. He tells us that 'many had taken in hand' the life of St. Patrick, but had failed owing to the conflicting nature of the accounts then current and the many doubts of the facts expressed on all sides. He uses the 'Confession of St. Patrick' as his authority for the earlier part, and then proceeds to the traditional matter. The parts do not harmonise, but his work is of great importance, as identifying the author of the 'Confession' with the popular saint. The copy of this life in the 'Book of Armagh' was imperfect for more than two centuries owing to the loss of the first leaf, but a few years ago the Bollandist fathers found in the Royal Library of Brussels a Legendarium of the eleventh century which contained a perfect copy of the life, not taken from the Armagh codex, and in some respects more accurate. This was placed in the hands of the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S. J., by whom it was carefully edited and published in the 'Analecta Bollandiana' in 1882. Muirchu's day is 8 June.
[Vita Sancti Patricii; Analecta Bollandiana; Brussels, 1882, p. 20; Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. iii. 131; Martyrology of Donegal, p. 41; Calendar of Oengus, p. xcix; Adamnan's St. Columba, ed. Reeves, Appendix to Preface, p. 41; Goidelica, by Whitley Stokes, 2nd ed. p. 92.]
T. O.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irving, Paulus Æmilius

​IRVING, Sir PAULUS ÆMILIUS (1751–1828), general, born 30 Aug. 1751, was son of Lieutenant-colonel Paulus Æmilius Irving, who was wounded at Quebec when serving as major commanding the 15th foot under Wolfe, and died lieutenant-governor of Upnor Castle, Kent, in 1796. His mother was Judith, daughter of Captain William Westfield of Dover. He was appointed lieutenant in the 47th foot in 1764, became captain in 1768, and major in 1775. He served with his regiment in the affair at Lexington, at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and in Boston during the blockade. Subsequently he accompanied the regiment to Quebec, and was present in the affair at Trois Rivières and the various actions of Burgoyne's army down to the surrender at Saratoga, 17 Oct. 1777. He was afterwards detained as a prisoner of war in America for three years. He returned home in 1781, and in 1783 became lieutenant-colonel 47th foot. In 1790 he took the regiment out to the Bahamas, where he served until 1795, becoming brevet-colonel in 1791 and major-general in 1794. On the death of Sir John Vaughan, 21 June 1795, Irving succeeded to the West India command, in which he was replaced by Major-general Leigh in September of the same year. Irving then assumed the command in St. Vincent, and on 2 Oct. 1795 carried the enemy's position at La Vigie with heavy loss. He received the thanks of George III, conveyed through the Duke of York. He returned home in December 1795. He was appointed colonel of the 6th royal veteran battalion in 1802, and was afterwards transferred to the colonelcy of his old corps, the 47th (Lancashire) foot. He was created a baronet 19 Sept. 1809, became a full general in 1812, and died at Carlisle 31 Jan. 1828. Irving married, 4 Feb. 1786, Lady Elizabeth St. Lawrence, second daughter of Thomas, first earl of Howth, by whom he left two sons and a daughter. The baronetcy became extinct on the death of Irving's younger son, the third and last baronet.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irving, Joseph

​IRVING, JOSEPH (1830–1891), historian and annalist, born at Dumfries 2 May 1830, was son of Andrew Irving, joiner. After being educated at the parish school of Troqueer, Maxwelltown, on the opposite bank of the Nith from Dumfries, he served an apprenticeship as a printer in the office of the ‘Dumfries Standard;’ subsequently practised as compositor and journalist in Dumfries and Sunderland; was for a time on the staff of the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ London, and in 1854 became editor of the ‘Dumbarton Herald.’ For some years afterwards he was a bookseller in Dumbarton, published a history of the county, and started in 1867 the ‘Dumbarton Journal,’ which was unsuccessful. In 1860 he became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and in 1864 an honorary member of the Archæological Society of Glasgow, to the ‘Transactions’ of which he contributed an important paper on the ‘Origin and Progress of Burghs in Scotland.’ Disposing of his Dumbarton business in 1869 on the death of his wife, who had helped him much in all his undertakings, Irving, after living a few years in Renton, Dumbartonshire, settled in Paisley in 1880, where he wrote for the ‘Glasgow Herald’ and other journals, and did much solid literary work. He was an authority on Scottish history and an excellent reviewer. After some years of uncertain health he died at Paisley 2 Sept. 1891.
Irving's works are as follows: 1. ‘The Conflict at Glenfruin: its Causes and Consequences, being a Chapter of Dumbartonshire History,’ 1856. 2. ‘History of Dumbartonshire from the Earliest Period to the Present Time,’ 1857; 2nd edit. 1859. 3. ‘The Drowned Women of Wigtown: a Romance of the Covenant,’ 1862. 4. ‘The Annals of our Time from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Opening of the present Parliament,’ 1869 (new edit. 1871), with two supplements from February 1871 to 19 March 1874, and from 20 March 1874 to the occupation of Cyprus, published respectively in 1875 and 1879; a further continuation brings the record from 1879 down to the jubilee of 1887 (Lond. 1889), and Mr. J. Hamilton Fyfe has undertaken a later supplement. 5. ‘The Book of Dumbartonshire: a History of the County, Burghs, Parishes, and Lands, Memoirs of Families, and Notices of Industries,’ a sumptuous and admirable work, 3 vols. 4to, 1879. 6. ‘The Book of Eminent Scotsmen,’ 1882, a compact and useful record. 7. ‘The West of Scotland in History,’ 1885. He also published: ‘Memoir of the Smolletts of Bonhill’; ‘Memoir of the Dennistouns of Dennistoun,’ 1859; and ‘Dumbarton Burgh Records, 1627–1746,’ 4to, 1860. Irving has sterling merits as a local historian, and his ‘Annals’ is a standard work of reference.
[Information from Irving's son, Mr. John Irving, Cardross, Dumbartonshire, and Mr. George Stronach, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; Glasgow Herald, 5 Sept. 1891.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irvine, William (1776-1811)

​IRVINE, WILLIAM (1776–1811), physician, son of William Irvine (1743–1787) [q. v.], professor of chemistry at Glasgow, was born there in 1776. He studied medicine in the university of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D. 25 June 1798. His thesis, ‘De Epispasticis,’ was based upon an unpublished essay of his father's on nervous diseases (Preface to Chemical Essays, 1805). He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London 25 June 1806, and his professional life was spent in the medical service of the army as physician to the forces. In 1805 he published his father's ‘Essays, chiefly on Chemical Subjects.’ In 1808 he was stationed in Sicily, and in 1810 his most important work appeared, ‘Some Observations upon Diseases, chiefly as they occur in Sicily.’ This book is based upon observations on malarial fever and dysentery made in the general army hospital at Messina, and contains several acute remarks, such as that abscess of the liver is associated with dysentery, that it may burst through the diaphragm into the lung, and the patient nevertheless recover. Shingles was then confused with erysipelas, but he notes accurately a difference in the results of treatment which is due to the definite duration of the former disease. He had carefully compared his own observations with those of George Cleghorn [q. v.] and of James Currie [q. v.] on similar fevers, and had studied minutely the observations of Hippocrates on diseases of the Mediterranean region. He died of fever at Malta, 23 May 1811. After his death were published in 1813 his ‘Letters on Sicily.’
[Works; Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 37.]
N. M.