OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, John (d.1831)

​ALLEN, JOHN, jun. (d. 1831), bookseller and antiquary, the son of a Hereford man, who as far back as 1775 was the leading bookseller in the county. Besides attending to an extensive printing and new-book trade, the younger Allen took an active part in local affairs, and brought together the remarkable collection of antiquities, books, manuscripts, maps, and prints relating to Herefordshire, described in his ‘Bibliotheca.’ A history of the county, with which he had made some progress, has never been published. He retired to London about six or seven years before his death, which occurred in 1831.
His printed works are:
* ‘A Translation of the Charter granted to the City of Hereford by King William III, 14 June 1697 [by J. A.],’ Hereford, J. Allen, 1820, sm. 4to, pp. 56.
* ‘Bibliotheca Herefordiensis, or a descriptive catalogue of books, pamphlets, maps, prints, &c., relating to the county of Hereford,’ Hereford, J. Allen, 1821, 8vo, pp. xii, 119. Only twenty-five copies printed on writing-paper and one on vellum, for private distribution, were issued of this work. The titles in this very complete bibliography are supplied in almost every instance from the books themselves. It is arranged under ​seventeen headings, with an introductory chapter on some of the best known manuscript collections.
* ‘The Proceedings in Herefordshire connected with the Visit of Joseph Hume, M.P. … with an appendix of documents [ed. by J. A.],’ Hereford, J. Allen, 1822, 8vo, 48 pp.
* ‘Collectanea Herefordensia, from the “Hereford Independent,”’ Hereford, 1825, po. 8vo, 32 pp.
[Walk through Hereford, by J.P. Wright, 1819, p. 45; Gent. Mag. 1825 (July), p. 27; Martin's Cat. of Priv. Pr. Books, 1854, p. 281; Havergal's Fasti Heref. 1869.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, Thomas (1681-1755)

​ALLEN, THOMAS (1681–1755), divine, was born at Oxford 25 Dec. 1681, educated at New College school and Wadham, where he took the degree of B.A. on 2 July 1705; he was for a time a clerk in Lincoln's Inn; then became a schoolmaster; was ordained in 1705; in February 1706 he became vicar ​of Irchester, Northamptonshire, which he resigned in 1715 to take the less valuable rectory of Kettering. He married Dorothy Plowman, who, disliking the exchange of livings, murdered her infant son and cut her own throat, but recovered, and was tried and acquitted at the next assizes. Allen died, while reading prayers, 31 May 1755. He was the author of various religious writings. ‘The Practice of a Holy Life, or the Christian's Daily Exercise,’ 1716, a collection of prayers and meditations, is his chief work. He is also the author of an ‘Apology for the Church of England, and Vindication of her Learned Clergy’ (1725), in reply to Mr. Woolston's pamphlet on ‘the hireling priests of this age,’ and of a sermon preached at Newgate in 1744 to twenty-one condemned criminals, and published at the request of the congregation; of the ‘Way to grow Rich’ (about 1753); a sermon with a preface and essay, recommending the payment of tithes, and reprobating the enclosure of commons; and of ‘The New Birth; or Christian Regeneration, being the marrow of Christian Theology, expressed in blank or Miltonian verse,’ &c. A preface states that the design of these verses is ‘no less than regenerating the whole British nation,’ and expresses the opinion that all who have Mr. Milton's fine poem—the ‘Paradise Regained’—‘would do well to furnish themselves with this little piece, which compleats, or rather realizeth, his design.’ According to an advertisement appended to his ‘Apology for the Church of England,’ Allen had already published in 1725, or was just about to publish, a Greek grammar, entitled ‘English and Greek Institutions for the more easy attaining the Knowledge of the Greek Language;’ a ‘Greek and English Dictionary;’ ‘Practical Christianity; or the whole Will of God and Duty of Man methodically laid down according to both the Testaments or Covenants;’ and ‘An Explanation of the Seven Words of the Lord Jesus to the Seven Churches of Asia,’ which the writer describes as a ‘practical piece.’ But none of these books appear to have survived.
[Catalogue of Oxford Graduates, p. 8; Rawlinson MSS., fol. 16,25 (a short autobiography); Gent. Mag. for 1755, p. 284; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cat. of King's Pamphlets at the British Museum.]
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, Thomas (1608-1673)

​ALLEN, THOMAS (1608–1673), a famous nonconformist divine, was born at Norwich in 1608, and was educated in his native city. He proceeded to the university of Cambridge, being entered of Caius College, where he took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. in ordinary course. Having received license and holy orders, he was appointed to the parish church of St. Edmund's of Norwich. But he was too pronouncedly evangelical and too outspoken for reformation doctrine as against popish to be long endured by the bishop of the diocese at the time. Bishop Wren ‘silenced’ him in 1636, together with the learned William Bridge and others, for refusing to read ‘The Book of Sports.’ In 1638 he passed over as a fugitive to New England. Cotton Mather testified that he ‘approved himself a pious and painful minister of the Gospel at Charlestown.’ He remained in New England until 1651, and Dr. W. B. Sprague, in his ‘Annals’ of the American pulpit, enrols his name among the worthies of New England. He returned in 1651–2 to Norwich, where he remained ‘in the exercise of his ministry’ until 1662. Curiously enough, his ministry was twofold—firstly, he became rector of St. George's, Norwich, yet, secondly, he was also chosen ‘pastor of the congregational church’ there (1657). The explanation is that Allen was ‘preacher of the city’ in St. George's parish rather than ‘rector,’ and as such was ejected among the two thousand. He died 21 Sept. 1673, His books are exceedingly rare, and of uncommon vigour and tenderness combined. His ‘Invitation to Thirsty Sinners to come to their Saviour,’ published in Boston, Massachusetts, has fetched fabulous prices. His ‘Glory of Christ set forth, with the Necessity of Faith,’ furnishes an excellent example of the average sermons of the ‘ejected’—strong, clear English, and full of ‘the Gospel’ as a honeycomb of honey. The work that won him most celebrity was his ‘Chain of Scripture Chronology from the Creation to the Death of Christ’ (1659). The renowned William Greenhill wrote the preface, and it immediately became famous at home and abroad. It is said that its author was glad to leave others to ‘dispute’ while he should ‘compute.’
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, John (d.1855)

​ALLEN, JOHN (d. 1855), a colonel in the French army, and an associate of Robert Emmet in the émeute of 1803, was a native of Dublin, where he was also for some time a partner in a drapery business. Along with Arthur O'Connor he was tried for high treason at Maidstone in February 1798, but acquitted. After the abortive result of the project of Emmet, whose special confidence he enjoyed, Allen escaped from Dublin in the uniform of the Trinity College Yeomanry corps, and obtained a passage in a vessel to France. Entering the French service, he was promoted colonel for leading the storming party at the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, in Spain, in 1810. During the second occupation of Paris his surrender was, it is said, demanded by the English government; but while being conducted to the frontier, he made his escape, with the connivance of the gendarmes who had him in charge, at the last station on French territory. Subsequently he took up his residence at Caen, in Normandy. Allen was a protestant. He is stated in Miles Byrne's ‘Memoirs’ (iii. 190) to have died at Caen 10 Feb. 1855.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwin of Clare

​BALDWIN of Clare (fl. 1141) was the youngest son of Gilbert Fitz-Richard, of the elder branch of the line of Gilbert, count of Eu, grandson of Richard the Fearless [see Baldwin of Moeles, d. 1100]. His mother was perhaps Adeliza, daughter of the count of Claremont, though William of Jumièges does not mention him among her sons. The manor of Clare, from which Baldwin and others of his family took their name, was one of the estates held by his grandfather Richard in Suffolk. Baldwin's father, Gilbert, received the grant of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire) from Henry I in 1107. On the death of Henry, Richard, the eldest brother of Baldwin, was slain, and his lands were harried by Morgan ap Owen. Stephen gave Baldwin a large sum of money to enable him to hire troops for the relief of the lands of his house. Baldwin, however, retreated without, as it seems, striking a single blow. When, in 1141, Stephen's army was drawn up before the battle of Lincoln, the king, because his own voice was weak, deputed Baldwin to make a speech to the host. The Arundel MS. of the 'History of Henry of Huntingdon' (twelfth or thirteenth century) contains an outline drawing of Baldwin addressing the royal army in the presence of the king. In this speech he set forth the goodness of the cause of Stephen and the evil character of his enemies, reviling Robert, earl of Gloucester, as having the heart of a hare — a reproach which came singularly amiss from the speaker. In this battle, however, Baldwin fought bravely and received many wounds. He stood by the king to the last, and was taken prisoner with him. He was a benefactor of the abbey of Bec. Richard, earl of Striguil, the invader of Ireland, was his nephew.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwin, Richard

​BALDWIN, RICHARD, D.D. (1672?–1758), provost of Trinity College, Dublin, first became connected with the college by obtaining a scholarship in 1686. He was afterwards made a fellow, and on 24 June 1717 was appointed provost. On his death, 30 Sept. 1758, he bequeathed his fortune of 80,000l. to the college. The will was disputed by certain persons in England who claimed to be his relatives ; but after sixty-two years' litigation the case was in 1820 decided in favour of the college. His associates knew nothing of his nativity or parentage; but the claimants asserted that he was the son of James Baldwin, of Parkhill, near Colne, and that he was born in 1672 and educated at the grammar school at Colne, where he dealt a mortal blow to one of his schoolfellows, and on that account left England. A suggestion has also been made that he owed his promotion to the provostship to his relationship to some one of high influence. There is a marble monument to his memory in Examination Hall.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwin of Moeles

​BALDWIN of Moeles (d. 1100?) was the second son of Gilbert, count of Eu, who was a grandson of Richard the Fearless, and one of the guardians of the youth of William the Conqueror. On the murder of his father in 1040 Baldwin and his elder brother Richard, the ancestor of the house of Clare, were taken by their guardian to the court of Flanders for refuge. At the request of Baldwin of Flanders, Duke William, when he married Matilda, gave Baldwin, the son of Gilbert, the lordships of Moeles and Sap, ​and married him to Albreda, the daughter of his aunt. Baldwin was greatly enriched by the conquest of England. Besides lands in Somerset and Dorset, he had no less than 159 estates in the county of Devon, where he held the office of sheriff. On the fall of Exeter, in 1068, the king left him to keep the city, and to complete the building of the castle. By his wife Albreda, Baldwin had three sons — Richard, who was made earl of Devon by Henry I [see Baldwin of Redvers], Robert, the lord of Brionne, and William; and three daughters. He had also a natural son, Guiger, who became a monk of Bec. A Norman priest in 1101 beheld in a vision Baldwin and his brother, who had both died shortly before, clad in full armour.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwin, Thomas

​BALDWIN, THOMAS (1750–1820), was appointed city architect at Bath about the year 1775, and continued in that office till 1800. Baldwin completed, upon an improved plan, the building of the new guildhall, which had been begun in 1768. He designed the Cross baths, the portico of the great pump room, and many other public and private buildings. Some time before 1796 he was made chamberlain of Bath. He had drawings prepared, which seem not to have been published, of a Roman temple discovered near the king's bath in 1790. He died on 7 March 1820, at the age of 70.
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwin, Timothy

1904 Errata appended.
​BALDWIN, Sir TIMOTHY (1620–1696), civil lawyer, younger son of Charles Baldwin of Burwarton, Shropshire, was born in 1620. He became a commoner of Balliol College, Oxford, in 1635, and proceeded B.A. on 13 Oct. 1638, B.C.L. on 26 June 1641, and D.C.L. in 1652. In 1639 he was elected fellow of All Souls' College, where he lived during the civil wars. As a royalist he was deprived of his fellowship by the parliamentary commissioners in 1648, but an application on his behalf to the wife of Thomas Kelsey, deputy-governor of the city of Oxford, accompanied by 'certain gifts,' secured his speedy reinstatement. He is mentioned by Wood in his autobiography (ed. Bliss, p. xxv) as joining in 1655 a number of royalists 'who esteem'd themselves either virtuosi or wits' in encouraging an Oxford apothecary to sell 'coffey publickly in his house against All Soules Coll.' At the restoration he was nominated a royal commissioner to inquire into the state of the university, was admitted principal of Hart Hall, now Hertford College (21 June 1660), and became a member of the College of Civilians (Coote's English Civilians, p. 84). He afterwards resigned his fellowship (1661), and was nominated chancellor of the dioceses of Hereford and Worcester. For twelve years, from 1670 to 1682, he was a master in chancery (Foss's Judges, vii. 8). He was knighted in July 1670, and was then described as of Stoke Castle, Shropshire. In 1679-80 he is found acting as one of the clerks in the House of Lords, and actively engaged in procuring evidence against the five lords charged with a treasonable catholic conspiracy. He died in 1696. At the time he held the office of steward of Leominster (Luttrell's Brief Relation, iv. 93).
Baldwin was the author of 'The Privileges of an Ambassador, written by way of letter to a friend who desired his opinion concerning the Portugal Ambassador,' 1654. This very rare tract treats of the charge of manslaughter preferred in an English court against Don Pantaleone, brother of the Portuguese ambassador. Baldwin also translated into Latin and published in 1656 Lord Herbert of Cherbury's 'History of the Expedition to Rhé in 1627.' The English original, which was written in 1630, was first printed in 1870 by the Philobiblon Society. In 1663 Baldwin edited and published 'The Jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England asserted against Sir Edward Coke's "Articuli Auctoritatis" in xxii. chapter of his "Jurisdiction of Courts" by Richard Zouch, Doctor of the Civil Laws and late Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, 1663.' Baldwin contributed a brief preface to this work dated 'Doctors' Commons, 25 Feb. 1663.'
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.13 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 38 | i | 19 f.e. | Baldwin, Sir Timothy: after 1660) insert holding the office till 1663. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, John (d.1690)

​JOHNSTON, Sir JOHN (d. 1690), criminal, was son of Sir George Johnston of Caskieben, a Nova Scotian baronet; his mother was a daughter of Sir William Leslie of Wardes. He early took service under William of Orange, and served, according to the partial but vague accounts of his life issued after his execution, with distinction in Flanders. He was asserted to have committed a rape in Holland, but he indignantly denied the charge on the scaffold. At the revolution he came to England, and was the victim of a false accusation of the same kind made by a woman at Chester. He passed into Ireland, served with William III's troops at the battle of the Boyne, and returned to England. On 10 Nov. 1690 he was privy to the abduction of Mary Wharton, an heiress, by Captain the Hon. James Campbell; Johnston's share in the outrage was small. But he was the only offender who was arrested, and as the girl's family was related to Lord Wharton, the friend of William III, Johnston was promptly tried and convicted at the Old Bailey. He was hanged at Tyburn on 23 Dec. 1690, a victim, according to some, to the prevailing anti-Scottish sentiment. He was unmarried, and the title reverted to his uncle, John Johnston of Newplace. A cut of Johnston was prefixed to the ‘Brief History’ of his life and death, published in 1690.
[A Brief History of the Memorable Passages and Transactions that have attended … the unfortunate Sir John Johnston, 1690; An Account of the Behaviour, Confession, and last Dying Speech of Sir John Johnston, 1690; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Noble's Granger, i. 221; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relat. ii. 148.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, William (1773-1844)

​JOHNSTON, Sir WILLIAM (1773–1844), lieutenant-general, born in 1773, entered the army as ensign in the 18th foot 3 June 1791. His subsequent steps were: lieutenant 7 Jan. 1794, captain 4 April 1795, major 27 Feb. 1800, lieutenant-colonel 25 April 1808, colonel 4 June 1814, major-general 27 May 1825, lieutenant-general 28 June 1838. He served at Gibraltar until October 1793, thence went to Toulon, where he was in action [cf. O'Hara, Charles, general], and proceeded to Corsica, where he was wounded, and where he became captain in Smith's Corsican regiment. In 1797 he took part in the expedition against Tuscany, and in 1798, having returned to England, he was placed on half-pay, but saw some service during the Irish rebellion with a yeomanry corps. In 1800 he joined the 68th foot as major; in 1801 he went with his regiment on the expedition directed against the Danish and Dutch West Indies; he commanded the 68th at the siege of Flushing (August 1809), and throughout the Walcheren expedition. Johnston afterwards distinguished himself in the Peninsula, and led the 68th at Salamanca, Vittoria, and Orthez; he was wounded seriously at Vittoria, and received a medal with two clasps. On 2 June 1837 he was made K.C.B., and the colonelcy of the 68th was given to him 6 April 1838. He died at Orchard Place, Southampton, 23 Jan. 1844, leaving a widow, a son in the 8th foot, and six daughters.
Sir William Johnston, the lieutenant-general, must be carefully distinguished from Sir William Johnston (1760–1844), seventh baronet of Johnston, who was son of Sir William Johnston, sixth baronet of that ilk, and a collateral descendant of Sir John Johnston (d. 1690) [q. v.] He also entered the army and saw service in India; in 1798 he raised a regiment of fencibles, which was disbanded in 1802. From 1801 to 1806 he represented New Windsor in the House of Commons. He died at the Hague 13 Jan. 1844, leaving, with other issue by his second wife, Maria, daughter of John Bacon, a son, the eighth baronet, whose son, Sir William Johnston, became ninth baronet.
[Gent. Mag. 1844, i. 319, ii. 89; Times, 24 Jan. 1844; Hampshire Advertiser, 27 Jan. 1844; Ann. Reg.; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Book of Eminent Scotsmen.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, James Henry

​JOHNSTON, JAMES HENRY (1787–1851), commander in the navy and controller of the steamers of the East India Company, entered the navy in 1803 on board the Spartiate, under the successive captains, George Murray, John Manley, and Sir Francis Laforey. In her he was present at the battle of Trafalgar, and in 1809 at the operations on the coast of Italy. In December 1809 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Canopus, still on the coast of Italy, and being invalided from her in the following year, was in September 1811 appointed to the Kite sloop, employed in the North Sea, and afterwards in the Mediterranean. On her paying off, in December 1814, he was appointed to the Leveret on the home station, but in July 1815 was placed on half-pay. Seeing no probability of further employment, and having friends in Calcutta, he went thither in 1817, and obtained command of the ship Prince Blucher, in which he made two voyages to England. In 1821 he attempted to establish a sailors' home at Calcutta; it failed, but Johnston was brought under the favourable notice of the Marquis of Hastings, who appointed him marine storekeeper, and, before he could enter on the duties, commissioner of the court of requests; but Johnston returned to England to arrange his private affairs, and never filled either office. He then turned his attention to steam navigation, and drew up a proposal for establishing steam communication with India viâ the Mediterranean and Red Sea. In 1823 he returned to India to lay his plans before the governor-general. They were not accepted, and Johnston, returning to England, was appointed to the Enterprise, a private steam-vessel, in which he made the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at Calcutta in December 1825. The steamer was immediately purchased for the company's service, and sent on to Burma, but not till after the conclusion of the war. In 1829 Johnston was desired to report on the practicability of establishing steam navigation on the Ganges, and after surveying the river was ordered to England to confer with the court of directors. His plans were approved, and for many years the navigation of the Ganges was carried on in iron steamers built after his design. Returning to India in 1833, he was appointed controller of the company's steamers, which post he held till 1850. On his passage home after retirement, he died on 5 May 1851. He was married, and left issue.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict., United Service Gazette, 19 July 1851; information from the family.]
J. K. L.