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

​MIDDLETON, JOSHUA (1647–1721), quaker, born in 1647, at Darlington, was one of the Silksworth (Durham) Middletons, a younger branch of the Middletons of Belsay Castle, Northumberland. His fifth direct ancestor, Gilbert Middleton, was mayor of Newcastle in 1530. His father, John Middleton (so called in the marriage register, but Gurney in his pedigree has Joshua), was a strict presbyterian, and brought him up with much care. He, however, early joined the quakers, who had attracted at that time many families of importance in the northern counties. Soon after joining the society, Middleton became a minister, and travelled in many parts of England and Scotland, entertaining also at his house Thomas Story [q. v.] and many other travelling friends. He lived first at Raby, near Staindrop, Durham, and afterwards at Newcastle, where he died 27 Jan. 1720–1.
The ‘Testimony’ of his quarterly meeting speaks of his good example and ‘care of the churches.’ He was of a peaceable spirit, useful in healing differences.
Middleton married Dorothy, daughter of Timothy and Katherine Draper of Newcastle; she died 27 June 1688. He married secondly, on 9 Sept. 1697, Jane Molleson of London, daughter of Gilbert Molleson of Aberdeen, and sister of Christian Barclay, wife of the apologist. ​Middleton's eldest son, Joshua, married Isabella, daughter of John Doubleday of Alnwick Abbey, Northumberland. A second son, John, was burned to death in the Cross Keys Inn, Gracechurch Street, London, he being a lodger there at the time (Smith, Catalogue, ii. 175). A daughter Elizabeth married Peregrine Tyzack of Norwich. Through his youngest daughter, Hannah, Middleton became the ancestor of the Gurneys, Hoares, Frys, and a host of other quaker families. She married, on 21 July 1713, at Norwich, Joseph Gurney of Keswick Hall, Norfolk, brother of John Gurney (1688–1741) [q. v.] Hannah Middleton Gurney was a woman of extraordinary beauty. Her portrait was painted by Richard Houston [q. v.], who published a print (1746?) entitled ‘The Fair Quaker,’ which became extremely popular as a typical illustration of the costume of the Society of Friends.
[J. Gurney Bevan's Piety Promoted, London, 1811, pp. 306–10; Life of Thomas Story, Newcastle, 1747, pp. 585, 596, 657, 666, 690; Gurney's Record of the House of Gurney (printed for private circulation), London, 1848, pp. 556–61; Smith's Cat.; marriage register at Devonshire House.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Middleton, Erasmus

​MIDDLETON, ERASMUS (1739–1805), author, born in 1739, was son of Erasmus Middleton of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. On 4 June 1767 he matriculated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford (Forster, Alumni Oxon., 1715–1886, iii. 951), but was expelled from the university in May 1768, along with five other members of the hall, for publicly praying and preaching (Gent. Mag. 1768, pp. 225, 410). The affair caused considerable stir at the time, and some pamphleteering (cf. Boswell, Life of Johnson, edit. 1848, p. 241; see Macgowan, John). Middleton nevertheless obtained ordination, and subsequently entered himself at King's College, Cambridge, but does not appear to have graduated there. He became in succession minister at Dalkeith, curate of Chelsea, lecturer of St. Benet, Gracechurch Street, and St. Helen, Bishopsgate, curate of St. Margaret's Chapel, Westminster, and in 1804 rector of Turvey, Bedfordshire. He was also chaplain to the Countess of Crawford and Lindsay. He died on 25 April 1805.
Middleton wrote: 1. ‘A Letter to A. D., Esq.’ [on walking with God], 8vo (Edinburgh), 1772. 2. The theological, philosophical, critical, and poetical branches of a ‘New Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,’ fol. 1778, an indifferent compilation. 3. ‘Biographia Evangelica, or an Historical Account of the Lives and Deaths of the most eminent and evangelical Authors or Preachers both British and Foreign in the several Denominations of Protestants,’ 4 vols. 8vo, London, 1779–86, a useful work, written in a singularly uncouth style. 4. ‘Versions and Imitations of the Psalms of David,’ 8vo, London, 1806, on the title-page of which he is styled B.D. He also published several sermons.
There are two engraved portraits of Middleton, one by A. Smith.
[Gent. Mag. 1805, pt. i. p. 490; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 279.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorpe, Robert de (fl.1290)

​THORPE, ROBERT de (fl. 1290), judge, appears to have been head of an ancient family residing at Thorpe Thewles, near Stockton, Durham, and to have descended from Geoffrey de Torp, who in 1166 held that estate of the bishopric of Durham as half a knight's fee (Liber Niger, i. 308). When Edward I turned out the judges in 1289, he appointed Thorpe a justice of the common pleas, and fines were levied before him in 1290. He perhaps died soon afterwards, and certainly before 1306, for in that year his widow, Aveline, was claiming a third of the manor of Thorpe Thewles.
[Foss's Judges, iii. 164; Rot. Parl. i. 198; Surtees's Durham, iii. 89.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorpe, John de

​THORPE or THORP, JOHN de, Baron Thorpe (d. 1324), judge, apparently son of Robert de Thorpe of North Creak and Ashwell-Thorpe, Norfolk, by his wife Maud, came of a family of wealth and importance in Norfolk and Suffolk. He was summoned among the magnates to be at Portsmouth to join the king on his expedition to Gascony in 1293, was excepted from the general summons of military tenants in 1294, and after that date received special summonses to render service, as in 1301, 1309, and later years. He was a knight of the shire for Norfolk in the parliament of 1305, and in 1306 was a collector and assessor of the aid for Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a justice of trailbaston for Norfolk and Suffolk in 1307, and attended the first parliament of Edward II as a judge. On 11 June 1309 he received a special summons to parliament, and sat as a baron during the remainder of his life, though he continued a judge and served as a justice itinerant on divers occasions. He was appointed sheriff of Norfolk in 1315, and excused himself on the ground of want of health, but served the office in 1319. In 1316 he was certified as lord, or joint-lord, of nineteen manors in Norfolk and of Combs and Helmingham in Suffolk; one at least of them, Uphall in Norfolk, remained in his family until 1522. He was joined with Thomas, lord Bardolf, in 1322 as warden to guard the coast of Norfolk. He died on 16 May 1324. A writ of summons was by mistake addressed to him in 1325. His first wife, Agnes, died in 1299; his second, Alice, widow of Sir William de Mortimer of Norfolk, survived him. He was succeeded in his estates by his son Robert (see below), who received no summons to parliament; another son, George, also occurs during his father's lifetime.
Robert de Thorpe or Thorp (1294?–1330), judge, son of John, baron de Thorpe, was thirty years old at his father's death. He was a justice itinerant in 1321–3, and may perhaps be identified with the member for Northamptonshire in 1323. He was a justice itinerant in 1330, and died in that year. He married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Edmund de Hengrave of Suffolk, and left a son and heir, John, who died in his minority; and Sir Edmund de Thorpe. The latter was twenty-one in 1340, and was ancestor of Sir Edmund de Thorpe who died in 1417, leaving two daughters, coheiresses (Nicolas).
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorpe, John (1682-1750)

​THORPE, JOHN (1682–1750), antiquary, eldest son of John Thorpe and his wife Ann, sister and coheiress of Oliver Combridge of Newhouse, Kent, was born at his father's house of Newhouse in the parish of Penshurst, Kent, on 12 March 1681–2. His family was a branch of the Thorpes of Chertsey, Surrey, and his father had a good estate in the parishes of Penshurst, Lamberhurst, Tonbridge, and Chiddingstone. He was sent to the grammar school at Westerham, of which the master was Thomas Manningham [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Chichester, and on 14 April 1698 matriculated from University College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. at Michaelmas 1701, M.A. on 27 June 1704, M.B. on 16 May 1707, and M.D. in July 1710. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 30 Nov. 1705, and at that time lived in Ormond Street, London, near his friend, Richard Mead [q. v.], the physician. He assisted Sir Hans Sloane [q. v.] in the publication of the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ and published in them on 24 July 1704 a letter to Sloane on worms in the heads of sheep. In 1715 he settled as a physician in Rochester, where he lived within the precincts of the cathedral, and attained considerable practice, at the same time devoting himself to the study of the architecture, antiquities, and history of the county of Kent. His collections were published in 1769 by his son, in folio, under the title of ‘Registrum Roffense.’ The book contains numerous charters, all given in full, monumental inscriptions, and other historical materials. An index to the monumental inscriptions appeared in 1885 (ed. F. A. Crisp).
Thorpe was generous in his historical assistance to Thomas Hearne (1678–1735) [q. v.], Browne Willis [q. v.], and other scholars, and gave medical aid to many poor in his district. He edited the ‘Itinera Alpina Tria’ of Scheuchzer, and published a sheet containing a list of lands contributory to ​Rochester bridge, and in 1733 at Rochester a collection of statutes of Richard II, Henry V, Elizabeth, and Anne, concerning the same bridge. Several of his letters are preserved in the Sloane collection. He died on 30 Nov. 1750 at Rochester. He was buried in the church of Stockbury, Kent, a parish in which he had purchased a house and land called Nettlested, once owned by the family of Robert Plot [q. v.], the antiquary. Thorpe married Elizabeth, daughter of John Woodhouse of Shobdon, Herefordshire, and had one son, John [q. v.], who is separately noticed.
A portrait of Thorpe, engraved by J. Bayly from a painting by Wollaston, is prefixed to ‘Registrum Roffense.’
[Preface by his son to Registrum Roffense; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 509–14; Thomson's History of Royal Society; Sloane MS. 4063, in British Museum; Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorpe, John (1715-1792)

​THORPE, JOHN (1715–1792), antiquary, born in 1715, was the only son of John Thorpe (1682–1750) [q. v.], antiquary, of Rochester, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Woodhouse of Shobdon, Herefordshire. He was educated at Ludsdown, Kent, under Samuel Thornton, and matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 22 March 1731–2, graduating B.A. in 1735 and M.A. in 1738. After some study of medicine he abandoned it, and, like his father, devoted himself to antiquarian research. In 1755 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1769 he published, with the assistance of John Baynard of the navy office, his father's ‘Registrum Roffense’ (London, fol.). In 1788 Thorpe supplemented the ‘Registrum’ by publishing the ‘Custumale Roffense’ (London, fol.) from the original manuscript, with the addition of other memorials of the cathedral church. After residing for many years at High-street House, Bexley, Kent, he removed in 1789, after the death of his first wife, to Richmond Green, Surrey, and then to Chippenham in Wiltshire, where he died on 2 Aug. 1792; he was buried in the churchyard of the neighbouring village of Hardenhuish.
Thorpe was twice married. His first wife, Catharina, whom he married in 1746, was the daughter of Laurence Holker, physician, of Gravesend. She died on 10 Jan. 1789, leaving two daughters, Catharine and Ethelinda. On 6 July 1790 he married Mrs. Holland, his housekeeper and ‘the widow of an old collegiate acquaintance.’
Besides the works mentioned, Thorpe contributed ‘Illustrations of several Antiquities in Kent which have hitherto remained undescribed’ to the first volume of the ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica.’ A letter from him to Andrew Coltée Ducarel [q. v.] maintaining, in opposition to Daines Barrington [q. v.], that the cherry is indigenous to England, was published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society (1771, p. 152). He frequently made contributions on antiquarian subjects to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ His portrait, painted by W. Hardy and engraved by Thomas Cook [q. v.], is prefixed to ‘Custumale Roffense.’
[Gent. Mag. 1792 ii. 769, 1101, 1793 i. 129; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 515, vi. 386; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. iv. 646, 673; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict. 1816; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorpe, Robert de (d.1372)

​THORPE or THORP, Sir ROBERT de (d. 1372), chancellor, a native of Thorpe-next-Norwich, was educated at Cambridge, and appears as an advocate in 1340 and as king's serjeant in 1345. He was, Coke says, ‘of singular judgment in the laws of the realm.’ He was appointed the second master of Pembroke Hall or College, Cambridge, in 1347, and held that office until 1364. In 1355 and 1359 he sat as a judge to try felonies in Oxfordshire and other counties, and on 27 June 1356 was appointed chief justice of the common pleas. A grant of 40l. a year was made to him by the king in 1365 to enable him to support the honour of knighthood. When William of Wykeham resigned the great seal on 24 March 1371, the king appointed Thorpe chancellor, delivering him the seal on the 26th. He died somewhat suddenly, for he appears to have transacted business on 25 June 1372, and on the 29th, being in the house of Robert Wyville, bishop of Salisbury, in Fleet Street, was so sick that he had the great seal enclosed in a bag, sealed with his own seal and the seals of Sir John Knyvet, the chief justice, and others, and died there that night. It is evident from his ​connection with Pembroke College, and from his appointment to the chancellorship on the overthrow of the clerical ministers, that he was an adherent of John Hastings, second earl of Pembroke [q. v.], leader of the court and anti-clerical party. He married Margaret, daughter of William Deyncourt, and died without issue, leaving his property to be disposed of by his executors as they thought best. One of them, Richard de Tretton or Treton (afterwards master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), caused forty marks to be given to the university of Cambridge to be spent in building the north side of the school's quadrangle. His brother and heir was Sir William de Thorpe, whose executors built the divinity school together with a small chapel, and in 1398 made an agreement with the university that commemorative services should be held for Sir William and his wife Lady Grace on 6 May and 19 Nov. of each year.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Travers, John

​TRAVERS, JOHN (1703?–1758), musician, born about 1703, received his early musical education in the choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor. By the generosity of Henry Godolphin [q. v.], dean of St. Paul's and provost of Eton College, he was apprenticed to Maurice Greene [q. v.] He afterwards studied with John Christopher Pepusch [q. v.], and copied, says Burney, ‘the correct, dry, and fanciless style of his master.’ On Pepusch's death Travers succeeded, by bequest, to a portion of his fine musical library. About 1725 he became organist of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and afterwards of Fulham church. On 10 May 1737 he succeeded Jonathan Martin (1715–1737) [q. v.] as organist of the Chapel Royal, a post which he held until his death in 1758.
Travers wrote much church music, including ‘The whole Book of Psalms for one, two, three, four, or five voices, with a thorough bass for the harpsichord’ (1750?). His service in F and his anthem ‘Ascribe unto the Lord’ are still in frequent use. Of his secular compositions the best known are his ‘Eighteen Canzonets,’ the words being from the posthumous works of Matthew Prior, which enjoyed great popularity in their day.
R. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Travis, George

​TRAVIS, GEORGE (1741–1797), archdeacon of Chester, only son of John Travis of Heyside, near Shaw, Lancashire, by Hannah his wife, was born in 1741, and educated by his uncle, the Rev. Benjamin Travis, incumbent of Royton, Lancashire, and at the Manchester grammar school, which he entered in January 1756. He matriculated from St. John's College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1761, and graduated B.A. in 1765 and M.A. in 1768. He was fifth senior optime and chancellor's senior medallist in 1765. He was ordained in that year, was appointed vicar of Eastham, Cheshire, in 1766, and rector of Handley in the same county in 1787, and he held both benefices till his death. In 1783 he was made a prebendary of Chester Cathedral, and in 1786 archdeacon of Chester. He is described as a ‘gentleman and scholar,’ and is said to have been ‘familiarly acquainted with the law of tithes.’ He came into prominence in 1784 by the publication of his ‘Letters to Edward Gibbon,’ in defence of the genuineness of the disputed verse in St. John's First Epistle, v. 7, which speaks of the three heavenly witnesses. The first edition was printed at Chester, the second in London in 1785, and the third and enlarged edition in 1794. He is remembered chiefly by having called forth Porson as an antagonist. The great critic's famous ‘Letters to Archdeacon Travis in Answer to Defence of the Three Heavenly Witnesses’ appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ in 1788–9, and were republished in 1790. An additional letter is given by Kidd in his edition of Porson's ‘Tracts, &c.’ (1815). Gibbon himself said ‘the brutal insolence of Mr. Travis's challenge can only be excused by the absence of learning, judgment, and humanity.’ Porson's answer to the ‘wretched Travis’ is justly described by Gibbon as ‘the most acute and accurate piece of criticism which has appeared since the days of Bentley.’ Travis was also attacked by Herbert Marsh in his ‘Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis,’ 1795 (cf. Baker, St. John's College, ed. Mayor, 1869, ii. 757).
Travis married, in 1766, Ann, daughter of James Stringfellow of Whitfield, Derbyshire, and died without issue on 24 Feb. 1797 at Hampstead. A monument, with a profile portrait, was erected to him in Chester Cathedral. Two miniature portraits of Travis were in the possession of ​the late Rev. Thomas Corser of Stand in 1866.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Travers, Rebecca

​TRAVERS, REBECCA (1609–1688), quakeress, born in 1609, was daughter of a baptist named Booth, and from the age of six devoutly studied the Bible. At an early age she married William Travers, a tobacconist at the Three Feathers, Watling Street, London. In 1654 curiosity led her to hear a dispute between James Naylor [q. v.] and the baptists. Soon afterwards she met Naylor privately, became a sound quaker, and his good friend. Her stability and discretion contrasted with the extravagances of the handful of quaker women who contributed to Naylor's fall. Rebecca Travers visited him in prison, and, upon his release in ​September 1659, lodged him for a time at her house.
A fearless and powerful preacher, she attended at St. John the Evangelist's church in the same year and questioned the priest upon his doctrine. He hurried away, leaving her to be jostled and abused. Gough says she was three times in Newgate in 1664, but these imprisonments are not recorded in Besse's ‘Sufferings.’ She early took a prominent part among the quaker women, being specially trusted with the care of the sick, poor, and prisoners. She visited the prisons at Ipswich and elsewhere. In 1671, a year before the representative yearly meeting, the ‘six weeks' meeting’ was established as a court of appeal. It was composed of ‘ancient Friends’—i.e. in experience and quaker standing, not age—and Rebecca Travers was one of its first members. It still exists, as does also the ‘box meeting’ for the relief of poor Friends, which was first started at her house. Rebecca Travers died on 15 June 1688, aged 79. A son, Matthew, and at least one daughter survived. She was author of ten small works, including a volume of religious verse, and prefaces to two of Naylor's books; also (this is not given in Smith's ‘Catalogue’) of ‘The Work of God in a Dying Maid,’ London, 1677, 12mo (two editions); reprinted Dublin, 1796, 12mo; London, 1854, 24mo. It is the account of the conversion to quakerism and subsequent death of Susan Whitrow, a modish young lady of fifteen.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Alexander (fl.1714-1726)

​SMITH, ALEXANDER (fl. 1714–1726), biographer of highwaymen, called himself ‘Captain Smith,’ but is known exclusively for the compilations executed for the booksellers during the reign of George I, which suggest that he was better known as a frequenter of police-courts and taverns than in military circles. It is not improbable that his industry was stimulated by the success obtained by Theophilus Lucas [q. v.] from his ‘Lives of the Gamesters,’ published in 1714. The works issued in Captain Alexander Smith's name were:
* ‘A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the most notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts, and Cheats of both Sexes in and about London and Westminster’ (2nd edit. London, 1714, 12mo, supplementary volume, 1720, 12mo; another edit., 2 vols. 1719, 12mo; 1719–20, 3 vols. 12mo); this curious work, which commands a high price, commences with a humorous account of Sir John Falstaff, and gives details, frequently no less mythical, about the Golden Farmer, Nevison, Duval, Moll Cutpurse, and a score of other notorious persons. The supplement of 1720 includes a ‘Thieves' Grammar.’
* ‘Secret History of the Lives of the most celebrated Beauties, Ladies of Quality, and Jilts, from Fair Rosamond down to this Time,’ London, 1715, 2 vols. 12mo.
* ‘Court of Venus, or Cupid restored to Sight,’ London, 1716, 2 vols. 12mo.
* ‘Thieves' New Canting Dictionary of the Words, Proverbs, Terms, and Phrases used in the Language of Thieves,’ London, 1719, 12mo.
* ‘The Comical and Tragical History of the Lives and Adventures of the most noted Bayliffs in and about London and Westminster … discovering their stratagems and tricks, wherein the whole Art and Mistery of Bumming is fully exposed,’ London, 1723, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1723. This shilling brochure had a great sale, mainly on account of the extreme coarseness of the drolleries, ​which reaches its climax in the account of the indignities inflicted upon a bailiff caught within the liberties of the Mint (this is effectively utilised in the opening chapters of Ainsworth's ‘Jack Sheppard’).
* ‘Memoirs of the Life and Times of the famous Jonathan Wild, together with the Lives of modern Rogues … that have been executed since his death,’ London, 1726, 12mo (with cuts).
* ‘Court Intrigue, or an Account of the Secret Memoirs of the British Nobility and others,’ London, 1730, 12mo.
[Smith's Works in British Museum Library; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 2417; Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Alexander (1684-1766)

​SMITH, ALEXANDER, D.D. (1684–1766), Roman catholic prelate, born at Fochabers, Morayshire, in 1684, was admitted into the Scots College at Paris in 1698. He returned to Scotland in deacon's orders in 1709, but was not ordained priest till 1712. From 1718 to 1730 he was procurator of the Scots College at Paris. In 1735 he was consecrated bishop of Mosinopolis in partibus infidelium, and appointed coadjutor to Bishop James Gordon, vicar-apostolic of the Lowland district, on whose death in 1746 he succeeded to the vicariate. He died at Edinburgh on 21 Aug. 1766.
He published two catechisms for the use of the catholics of Scotland. These received the formal approbation of the holy office on 20 March 1749–50.
[London and Dublin Weekly Orthodox Journal, 1837, iv. 84; Stothert's Catholic Mission in Scotland, p. 9; Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 459.]
T. C.