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

​RANDOLPH, FRANCIS (1752–1831), divine, born at Bristol on 29 Dec. 1752, was King's scholar at Eton in 1771, and was admitted at King's College, Cambridge, in the following year. He became fellow on 15 Aug. 1775 (B.A. in 1777, and M.A. in 1780; D.D. from Dublin in 1806). Having taken holy orders, he became vicar of Broad-Chalke, Wiltshire, in 1786, and incumbent of Chenies, Buckinghamshire, in 1788. In the latter year he published a letter to Pitt ‘on the slave trade,’ advocating partial and progressive emancipation (cf. Mathias, Pursuits of Lit. Dialogue iv. n. 73). Subsequently he lived for a time in Germany, and was appointed to instruct the Duchess of York in English. He became chaplain to the Duke of York, and prebendary of Bristol on 24 Dec. 1791. Among his patrons was Francis Russell, fifth duke of Bedford [q. v.], who in 1817 presented him to the living of St. Paul's, Covent Garden. In the same year he became vicar of Banwell, Somerset. In 1796 Laura Chapel, Bathwick, Bath, with sittings for one thousand people, was opened, having been erected on a tontine promoted by Randolph, who frequently occupied the pulpit (Major, Notabilia of Bath, pp. 69, 70). He had gained some reputation as a theologian by contributing to the Socinian controversy the tracts ‘Scriptural Revision of Socinian Arguments, in a Letter to Dr. Priestley’ (1792), and ‘Scriptural Revision, &c. vindicated against the Reply of Benjamin Hobhouse, Esq.’ (1793).
Randolph was entrusted in August 1795 with some letters of the Princess of Wales to carry to Brunswick, but being prevented from going, sent them back by coach from London to the princess at Brighton. They were lost on the way. Lady Jersey was accused in the press of having intercepted them, and of sending some of them to Queen Charlotte, on whom they are said to have cast free reflections. At the request of Lady Jersey, who denied the charge, Randolph published a full account of his conduct in the matter. The princess was unconvinced, and her friends represented that Randolph was promised a bishopric for parting with the papers. Mathias, in his ‘Pursuits of Literature,’ makes merry over the incident (see A Pair of Epistles in Verse, with Notes, the first to the Rev. Dr. Randolph, 2nd edit. 1796; Pursuits, 1812, p. 296). In 1808 Randolph issued ‘A Few Observations on the State of the Nation,’ addressed to the Duke of Bedford, in which he revived a plan propounded by Watson, bishop of Llandaff, for a redemption of the national debt. He died at his prebendal house, Bristol, on 14 June 1831. In the north aisle of Banwell church there is a mural tablet to his memory. The view from a ‘gazebo’ or summer-house that he erected on the summit of Banwell Hill is described in Bowles's poem (‘Days Departed, or Banwell Hill,’ 1828). A portrait of him was painted by Bradley and engraved by Lupton (Evans, Cat. No. 20633).
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ripley, George

1904 Errata appended.
​RIPLEY, GEORGE (d. 1490?), alchemist, was born at Ripley in Yorkshire of a family which seems to have become extinct during the fifteenth century. In his ‘Medulla Alchimiæ’ (Sloane MS. 1524) Ripley gives the names of nine places in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire where his kindred were found. According to his own account, he was an Augustinian and a canon of Bridlington, who had studied in Rome and at other places in Italy. In 1471 he was in England zealously pursuing the study of alchemy, and in 1476 he dedicated his ‘Medulla Alchimiæ’ to George Neville [q. v.], archbishop of York. He asked his patron for a home in some religious house. The death of the archbishop probably forced Ripley to return to Bridlington, where he seems to have been buried. What purports to be an early drawing of his grave is found in Cotton. MS. Vit. E. x.
Ripley was probably the first to popularise the works attributed to Raymond Lully, which were translated into Latin in 1445, and exerted great influence in England on the alchemical revival. He wrote several works, including ‘Concordantiæ Guidonis et Raimundi [Lullii],’ which appeared probably ​after 1471, and a cantilena in imitation of Lully between 1450 and 1470. In 1471 he compiled ‘The Compound of Alchemie,’ a treatise in English dedicated to Edward IV. This work illustrates the growing interest in alchemy which the relaxation of the law against multiplying gold encouraged, especially in London and Westminster. At the same time it shows traces of Platonist influences. Manuscripts are in the libraries of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (No. clxxii. fol. 17), and in University Library, Cambridge (Ff. ii. 23; a fragment is also in Cambr. Univ. MS. Kk. vi.30, ff. 42 b–46). It was first printed in 1591, ‘with certaine briefe additions … set foorth by Ralph Rabbards,’ and then by Ashmole in his ‘Theatrum Chemicum,’ 1652.
Ripley's ‘Medulla Alchimiæ’ was also very popular; the dedication alone to the archbishop of York is printed by Ashmole. Ripley was undoubtedly the most widely studied of the later alchemists. His works (‘Opera Chimica’) were printed in Latin at Cassel in 1649, and many of the English pieces appear in Ashmole's ‘Theatrum Chemicum,’ 1652. In 1678 there appeared an anonymous book of some interest, entitled ‘Ripley Reviv'd: or an exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Hermetico-Poetical Works,’ London, 1678, 8vo (Corser, Collectanea, ix. 197).
The alchemist Ripley has been confused with George (or Gregory) Ripley (d. 1400?), a Carmelite friar of Boston, and author of lives of St. Botolph and John of Bridlington and of ‘Historia Compassionis Mariæ.’ None of these works are known to be extant (Leland, ed. 1709, p. 383; Bale, 1557, p. 622).
R. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.234 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 317 | i | 22 f.e. | Ripley, George: for 1719 read 1709 and for 1577 read 1557 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ripley, Thomas

​RIPLEY, THOMAS (d. 1758), architect, born in Yorkshire, is said to have walked to London, as a lad, to seek his fortune. He at first worked as a carpenter, and afterwards kept a coffee-shop in Wood Street, Cheapside. On 14 March 1705 he was admitted to the freedom of the Carpenters' Company. He owed his advancement in life to the patronage of Sir Robert Walpole, one of whose servants he married. In 1718 he was clerk of the works at the King's Mews, and undertook his first public work in that year, when he rebuilt the custom-house, which had been destroyed by fire in 1715. The new building was itself burnt down in 1814. On 10 Aug. 1721 Ripley was appointed chief carpenter to all his majesty's works and buildings in England, in succession to Grinling Gibbons. From 1722 to 1735 he was engaged in carrying out Colin Campbell's design for Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for Sir R. Walpole, introducing many improvements of his own. ‘Plans and Elevations of Houghton’ was published by Ripley, jointly with William Kent [q. v.] and Isaac Ware [q. v.], in 2 vols. fol. 1755–60. From 1724 to 1730 he was also building Lord Walpole's seat, Wolterton House, Norfolk, according to Horace Walpole ‘one of the best houses of the size in England.’ From 1724 to 1726 he was engaged in building the Admiralty, Whitehall, which R. Adam afterwards completed by adding the façade. Ripley's estimate for this building was 22,400l. In 1729 he designed the interior and roof of the chapel at Greenwich Hospital, which was burnt in 1779. Meanwhile, on 8 May 1726, he became comptroller of the board of works in succession to Sir John Vanbrugh, and held this appointment till 1738. In 1737 he was appointed keeper of his majesty's private roads, gates, and bridges, and conductor in his royal progresses. In 1742 he obtained a grant of arms from the Heralds' College. In June 1744 he paid his fine to be excused serving the office of sheriff of London and Middlesex. He died 10 Feb. 1758 at his official residence at Hampton Court, and was buried in Hampton church, where he is commemorated by a slab in the floor. His first wife died on 17 Nov. 1737. On 22 April 1742 he married Miss Bucknall of Hampton, Middlesex, who is said to have had a fortune of 40,000l. He left three sons, the eldest of whom inherited a considerable fortune, and several daughters. His portrait, by Gardiner, is at Wolterton, and a later portrait, by J. Highmore, is in the possession of his descendants. Ripley was gibbeted by Pope in the distich:
Heaven visits with a taste the wealthy fool,  And needs no rod but Ripley with his rule
(Epistle to Burlington, ll. 17, 18, and note). The attack is attributed by Walpole to the jealousy of Pope's patron, Lord Burlington, who wanted the comptrollership for his own architect, Kent. Ripley's designs were heavy and tasteless, but he was skilled in construction, and the interior arrangements of his buildings were convenient.
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ripon, Earl of

​RIPON, Earl of. [See Robinson, Frederick John, first Earl, 1782–1859.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rippingille, Edward Villiers

​RIPPINGILLE, EDWARD VILLIERS (1798?–1859), painter and writer on art, stated to have been born in 1798, was son of a farmer at King's Lynn in Norfolk, and as an artist was self-taught. In 1813 he exhibited a small subject-picture, ‘Enlisting,’ at the Royal Academy. In the ensuing years he met with some success, exhibiting ‘A Scene in a Gaming House,’ ‘A Country Post Office,’ and similar subjects. He next turned his attention to representations of English domestic and rural life, such as ‘Going to the Fair,’ ‘A Recruiting Party,’ &c., and a series of six pictures entitled ‘The Progress of Drunkenness.’ In 1837 Rippingille went to Rome, where he devoted himself to Italian subjects until 1846. He then returned home and resumed pictures of English life. In 1843 he was a competitor at the Westminster Cartoon Exhibition, and gained one of the prizes. Rippingille was also a writer and lecturer on art subjects, and contributed stories and articles to ‘Bentley's Magazine,’ the ‘Art Journal,’ and other periodicals. In 1843 he started an art periodical entitled ‘The Artist's and Amateur's Magazine,’ which had a short career. Rippingille's writings and criticisms on art and artists were tinged with an egotism and prejudice which not unfrequently gave offence. He died suddenly on 22 April 1859 of heart disease at the railway station of Swan Village in Shropshire. There is a picture by him in the Sheepshanks collection at the South Kensington Museum.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Art Journal, 1859, p. 187; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ripariis, de

​RIPARIIS, de. [See Redvers.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Radcliffe, John Netten

​RADCLIFFE, JOHN NETTEN (1826–1884), epidemiologist, son of Charles Radcliffe, and younger brother of Dr. Charles Bland Radcliffe [q. v.], was born in Yorkshire on 20 April 1826, and received his early medical training at the Leeds school of medicine. Shortly after obtaining his diploma he went to the Crimea as a surgeon attached to the headquarters of Omar Pasha, and remained there till the close of the war. He received for his services the order of the Medjidie as well as the Turkish and English medals, with a clasp for Sebastopol. On returning home he became medical superintendent of the Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in Queen Square, London.
In 1865 he was selected to prepare a special report on the appearance of cholera abroad, and in 1866 he was busily engaged in investigating the outbreak in East London, which he traced to the infected supply of the East London Water Company. This report appeared as a blue-book in 1867, and gained Radcliffe a wide reputation. He was elected a member of the Epidemiological Society in 1850, was its honorary secretary 1862–71, and president 1875–7. In November 1869 he was appointed to the second of the two public health inspectorships then created by the privy council, and, on the formation of the local government board in 1871, he was made assistant medical officer. Owing to ill-health he resigned this post in 1883, and died on 11 Sept. 1884.
Not only an expert in the question of the distribution of oriental diseases, Radcliffe was an authority on all questions pertaining to public health. Of remarkably simple and straightforward nature, he was a most cautious worker, but where rapidity was essential he showed himself equal to the situation. Prior to his official appointment he wrote: 1. ‘The Pestilence in England,’ 8vo, London, 1852. 2. ‘Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, &c.’, 8vo, London, 1854. 3. ‘The Hygiene of the Turkish Army,’ 8vo, London, 1858; reprinted with additions from the ‘Sanitary Review.’ In his official capacity he prepared a long series of reports dealing with the spread of epidemics and the question of quarantine (see list in index, Cat. Libr. of the Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army). Among these the more important, in addition to those already mentioned, are: 1. ‘On the Means for preventing Excre​ment Nuisances in Towns and Villages,’ 1869 and 1873. 2. ‘On an Outbreak of Enteric Fever in Marylebone,’ 1873. 3. ‘On the Diffusion of Cholera in Europe during the ten years 1865–74.’ 4. ‘On the Progress of Levantine Plague, 1875–77.’
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Radford, John

​RADFORD, JOHN (1561–1630), jesuit, born in Derbyshire in 1561, was educated at Douay College while it was temporarily located at Rheims. Having completed his studies in humanity and theology, he was ordained priest in 1587, and returned to England on 17 Jan. 1589. There he wrote ‘A Directorie teaching the Way to the Truth in a briefe and plaine Discourse against the Heresies of this Time. Wherunto is added a Short Treatise against Adiaphorists [i.e. Laodiceans], Neuters,’ &c. The preface was dated 10 April 1594, and the dedication to ‘George Blackwell, archipresbyter,’ in 1599, but the book was first published, ‘probably at Douay’ (Brit. Mus. Cat.), in 1605. The book circulated in England, and John Manby (or Manly) of Broughton, Northamptonshire, ascribes his conversion in 1607 to ‘Father Parsons's “Christian Directory,” and a controversial work written by Mr. Radford,’ adding that he was afterwards received by Radford into the catholic church. Radford doubtless carried on the perilous work of a catholic missionary in the part of England most familiar to him. On 30 Oct. 1606 Father Robert Jones, alias North, wrote to Parsons at Venice, recommending that the latter should communicate further with Radford, who, the writer suggested, ‘might be admitted at home, and would prove a sufficient jorneyman’ (Stonyhurst MSS. Archives aiii/1 (Anglia), vol. iii. letter 71). Parsons accepted the view of his correspondent, and Radford accordingly entered the Society of Jesus in 1608. On 2 January 1618 he was made a spiritual coadjutor. He remained at Northampton until after 1621, when he came to London. John Gee [q. v.], in his ‘Foot out of the Snare,’ London, 1624, mentions his name without comment in a ‘list of Jesuites now [1623] resident about the City of London;’ and when papers and goods belonging to jesuits were seized at ‘a house near Clerkenwell, on 19 March 1627–8,’ by order of the council, Radford's name appears among the ‘Veterani Missionarii.’ He soon transferred his missionary work to Devonshire, where he died, at ‘the residence of the Blessed Stanislaus,’ on 9 Jan. 1630, aged 69. In the ‘Archives Générales’ he is eulogised as ‘homo devotus et in missione multos perpessus labores. Laboravit ante ingressum in Societatem jam in missione, ita ut simul omnes computando 39 annos ibidem expleverit.’
E. L. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Radcliffe, Nicholas

​RADCLIFFE, NICHOLAS (fl. 1382), opponent of Wiclif, was a monk of St. Albans who received his education at Oxford, probably at Gloucester Hall, the Benedictine hostel, and obtained the degree of doctor of theology. Appointed prior of Wymondham in Norfolk, a cell of St. Albans, on 5 Feb. 1368, Radcliffe remained there for twelve years. But in 1380 the aggressive Bishop Le Despencer of Norwich claimed authority over the prior. Radcliffe protested, and the abbot of St. Albans asserted his exclusive rights over the priory by divesting him of his office, and making him archdeacon of the parent monastery. The bishop denied his power to do this, but the king decided against him (Chronicon Angliæ, p. 258; Gesta Abbatum, iii. 123). Two years later Radcliffe was among the doctors of theology who joined in the condemnation of Wiclif's heresies at the Blackfriars council (12 June), and assisted in bringing the lollard Aston to a sense of his errors (Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 289, 332). He was alive in 1396, when he took part in the election of a new abbot of St. Albans, and preached a sermon in the chapter-house (Gesta Abbatum, iii. 425, 480, 486).
Radcliffe was a prominent literary antagonist of Wiclif, who stigmatised him and the Carmelite Peter Stokes [q. v.], another adversary, as the black and white dogs. His chief work seems to have been a discussion in two books of Wiclif's views on the eucharist, in the form of a dialogue between himself and Stokes, entitled ‘Viaticum salubre animæ immortalis.’ A manuscript of this was formerly in the library of Queens' College, Cambridge, where Leland saw it (Collectanea, iii. 18). Tanner mentions as a separate work a dialogue with an almost identical title, ‘De Viatico Animæ,’ but in a single book. Its opening words differ from those given by Leland as commencing the first-mentioned treatise. Radcliffe also wrote other dialogues between himself and Stokes, with the titles ‘De primo homine,’ ‘De dominio naturali,’ ‘De obedientiali dominio,’ ‘De dominio regali et judiciali,’ ‘De potestate Petri apostoli et successorum.’ Tanner notes the existence of a manuscript of these in the royal library at Westminster, numbered 6 D. x. Radcliffe wrote also on monastic vows, the worship of images, and the papal schism. An ‘invectio’ against the errors of Wiclif, in Harl. MS. 635, f. 205, is ascribed to him.
J. T-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Radford, Thomas

​RADFORD, THOMAS (1793–1881), obstetrician, son of John Radford, dyer and bleacher, was born at Hulme Fields, Manchester, on 2 Nov. 1793, and educated at a private school at Chester. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to his uncle, William Wood, surgeon, of Manchester, whose partner and successor he afterwards became. After study at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, he was in 1818 elected surgeon to the Manchester and Salford Lying-in Hospital, and he continued his connection with that charity as well as with St. Mary's Hospital, which was associated with it, in various capacities to the end of his life; his ​latest offices were those of honorary consulting physician and chairman of the board of management. The interests of St. Mary's Hospital were always his special care. A new building for the hospital, opened in 1856, was erected mainly through the exertions of Radford and his wife. He gave to the institution, in 1853, his valuable library, rich in obstetrical works, and his museum of surgical objects, afterwards making many important additions to both collections. Some years before his death he invested the sum of 3,670l. in the hands of trustees, 2,670l. of which was to be devoted to the benefit of the poor in connection with the hospital, and the remaining 1000l. to maintain the library. A catalogue of the Radford Library, compiled by C. J. Cullingworth, was published in 1877.
Radford was one of the founders of the Manchester school of medicine in 1825, and was a lecturer on midwifery at the Pine Street school of medicine in the same town. This was the first complete medical school in the provinces. He became a member of the Apothecaries' Society in 1817. At the same date he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and was elected a fellow in 1852. He graduated M.D. at Heidelberg in 1839, and later in the same year was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
He delivered the first address on obstetrics before the Provincial, now British, Medical Association at its meeting in 1854, and was the author of many papers and communications on midwifery, and of ‘Observations on the Cæsarean Section and on other Obstetric Operations,’ 1865; 2nd ed. 1880, besides several pamphlets. Radford was a notable link in the chain of able and well-known Manchester gynæcologists, starting with Charles White [q. v.] and including John Roberton [q. v.], James Whitehead [q. v.], and others. He was one of the first in this country to advise abdominal section, and gave much assistance in counsel and support to Charles Clay in his early operations for the removal of diseased ovaries.
Radford died at his residence at Higher Broughton, Manchester, on 29 May 1881, aged 87, and was buried in the neighbouring church of St. Paul, Kersal. He married, in 1821, Elizabeth Newton, daughter of John Newton, incumbent of Didsbury, near Manchester. She died in 1874. Their only child died young.
[Manchester newspapers, 30 May 1881; Lancet, 11 Feb. 1882, p. 218; personal knowledge and information from Dr. D. Lloyd Roberts.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Incledon, Benjamin

​INCLEDON, BENJAMIN (1730–1796), genealogist, baptised at Pilton, near Barnstaple, Devonshire, 6 June 1730, was the second son, but the successor to the estate, of Robert Incledon, of Pilton House, by his second wife, Penelope, daughter of John Sanford of Ninehead, Somerset. The father was buried at Pilton on 9 Dec. 1758, aged 83, and the mother on 30 April 1738. Their son was educated at Blundell's school, Tiverton, and in 1765 was elected as a feoffee of that foundation. He was also a trustee of Comyn or Chilcott's free English school at Tiverton. With an ample patrimony, he interested himself all his life in the ancient families of Devonshire. Richard Polwhele refers to his skill in compiling pedigrees (Traditions and Recollections, i. 260), and the 'Stemmata Fortescuana,' which he drew up in 1795, form the basis of the genealogies in Lord Clermont's 'History of the Family of Fortescue.' For some unknown reason he refused to submit his pedigrees to the inspection of Polwhele, who thereupon addressed to him an angry letter, which is printed in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for April 1791, p. 308, and in his 'Traditions,' i. 258-9. Incledon printed at Exeter, in 1792, at his own expense, for the use of the governing body, a volume entitled 'Donations of Peter Blundell and other Benefactors to the Free Grammar School at Tiverton,' which was reprinted by the trustees, with notes and additions, in 1804 and 1826. His account of St. Margaret Hospital at Pilton appeared in the 'Archæologia,' xii. 211-14. His manuscript collections on the Fortescues are deposited with Lord Fortescue at Castle Hill, near South Molton, Devonshire: the rest of his papers seem to have been dispersed. From 1758 until his death ​he was recorder of Barnstaple, and took great delight in its municipal records. In Gribble's 'Memorials of Barnstaple' are copies of his lists of its mayors and members (pp. 197-205, 219-25). Incledon died at Barnstaple, after a long illness, on 7 Aug. 1796. He married at Tiverton in 1757 Margaret, second daughter and co-heiress of John Newton of that town. She died at the Castle, Barnstaple, on 8 Sept. 1803.
W. P. C.