OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Inglis, Margaret Maxwell

​INGLIS, Mrs. MARGARET MAXWELL (1774–1843), Scottish poetess, born on 27 Oct. 1774 at Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, was daughter of Dr. Alexander Murray. Her decided literary and musical gifts were developed by a good education. When very young she was married to a Mr. Finlay, who was in the navy, and who soon died in the West Indies. After some years at home with her relatives, Mrs. Finlay, in 1803, became the wife of John Inglis, son of the parish minister of Kirkmabreck in East Galloway, and an officer in the excise. On his death in 1826, his widow and three children had to depend solely on a small annuity devolving from his office. Mrs. Inglis now studied hard, and wrote much, publishing in 1828 ‘Miscellaneous Collection of Poems, chiefly Scriptural Pieces.’ These are ​generally spirited and graceful in expression. One of the lyrics is a memorial tribute to James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, whose manner Mrs. Inglis frequently followed with considerable success. She died in Edinburgh on 21 Dec. 1843. According to Rogers, Burns commended her for her exquisite rendering of his songs, especially ‘Ca' the yowes to the knowes.’
[Rogers's Scottish Minstrel; Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ingram, Arthur

​INGRAM, Sir ARTHUR (d. 1642), courtier, was son of Hugh Ingram, a native of Thorp-on-the-Hill, Yorkshire, who made a fortune as a linendraper in London, by Anne, daughter of Richard Goldthorpe, haberdasher, lord mayor of and M.P. for York (Foster, Yorkshire Pedigrees, vol. i.) He became a successful merchant in Fenchurch Street, London, and acquired the manor of Temple Newsam, where he built a splendid mansion, and other estates in Yorkshire. In buying estates his practice was to pay half the purchase-money down, then, pretending to detect some flaw in the title, he would compel the seller to have recourse to a chancery suit. In this way he ruined many. Ingram was fond of lavish expenditure; often placed his purse at the service of the king, and thus rendered himself an acceptable person at court. In 1604 he was appointed comptroller of the customs of the port of London, and on 21 Oct. 1607 the office was conferred on him for life. He was chosen M.P. for Stafford on 1 Nov. 1609, for Romney, Kent, in 1614, for Appleby, Westmoreland, in 1620–1, and again for that borough, Old Sarum, and York in 1623–4, when he elected to serve for York, being re-elected in 1625, 1625–6, and 1627–8. In 1640 a Sir Arthur Ingram (possibly Ingram's eldest son, who had been knighted on 16 July 1621) was returned for New Windsor and Callington, Cornwall (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 178).
Ingram was himself knighted on 9 July 1613 (ib. p. 164). In March 1612 he was appointed one of the secretaries of the council of the north, and about the same time undertook to carry on the royal alum works in Yorkshire, paying the king an annual sum of 9,000l. (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, pp. 44, 336–7, 360). The speculation proved a loss. When occupied with the affairs of the northern council he lived principally in a large and splendidly furnished house on the north side of York Minister. In February 1614–15 he was sworn cofferer of the king's household, but was removed from the office in April following at the instigation of the courtiers, who objected to his plebeian birth. He was high sheriff of Yorkshire in 1620. At the instance of Sir John Bourchier, who pretended to have discovered in the alum accounts a deficiency of 50,000l., Ingram was arrested and brought up to London in October 1624 (Court and Times of James I, ii. 484), but he appears to have cleared himself to the satisfaction of the king. In 1640 he built the hospital which bears his name in Bootham, York. Charles I, who occupied Ingram's house during his long sojourn at York in 1642, would have made him a peer for a money consideration had he dared (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–1643, p. 41). Ingram must have died at York in 1642, for his will (registered in P. C. C. 107, Cambell) was proved in that year. He married, first, Susan, daughter of Richard Brown of London; secondly, Alice, daughter of Mr. ​Ferrers, citizen of London; and, thirdly, Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Grevile of Milcote, Warwickshire. He had issue by each marriage.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ingram, Dale

​INGRAM, DALE (1710–1793), surgeon, was born in 1710, and, after apprenticeship and study in the country, began practice at Reading, Berkshire, in 1733, and there, in 1743, published ‘An Essay on the Gout.’ Later in that year he emigrated to Barbadoes, where he practised till 1750, when he returned to England and set up as a surgeon and man midwife on Tower Hill, London. In 1751 he published ‘Practical Cases and Observations in Surgery,’ his most important work. It contains records of cases observed in England and the West Indies. He describes one successful and one unsuccessful operation in cases of abdominal wounds penetrating the bowel. He washed the intestine with hot claret, and then stitched the peritoneum to the edge of the wound and the abdominal wall. The procedure is one of the earliest English examples of a method of surgery which has only been universally adopted within the last few years. In 1754 he went to live in Fenchurch Street, London, and in 1755 published ‘An Historical Account of the several Plagues that have appeared in the World since the year 1346.’ It is a mere compilation. On 24 Jan. 1759 he was elected from among five candidates to the office of surgeon to Christ's Hospital, and thenceforward resided there. He sometimes visited Epsom, and in 1767 published ‘An Enquiry as to the Origin of Magnesia Alba,’ the principal saline ingredient of the Epsom springs. A controversy had arisen as to the cause of death of a potman who had received a blow on the head in an election riot at Brentford in 1769, and he published a lengthy pamphlet entitled ‘The Blow, or Inquiry into the Cause of Mr. Clarke's Death at Brentford,’ which demonstrates that blood-poisoning arising from an ill-dressed scalp wound was the true cause of death. In 1777 he published ‘A Strict and Impartial Inquiry into the Cause of Death of the late William Scawen,’ an endeavour to prove that poison had not been administered. In 1790 it was stated that he was too old for his work at Christ's Hospital, and as he would not resign he was superseded in 1791. He died at Epsom on 5 April 1793.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Inglott, William

​INGLOTT, WILLIAM (1554–1621), musician, was born in 1554, and became organist of Norwich Cathedral. He was noted for his skill as a player on the organ and virginals. His name appears as a composer in the manuscript volume (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) known as ‘Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book,’ but none of his works are now known. He died at Norwich in December 1621, and was buried in the cathedral, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1622. About ninety years afterwards the monument, having fallen into disrepair, was restored at the expense of Dr. William Croft [q. v.] An engraving of it as restored may be seen in the ‘Posthumous Works of Sir Thomas Browne,’ 1712, and the eulogistic inscription is printed by Hawkins.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ingmethorpe, Thomas

​INGMETHORPE, THOMAS (1562–1638), schoolmaster, born in 1562, was a native of Worcestershire. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, in the end of May 1581, graduated B.A. from St. Mary Hall in 1584, and proceeded M.A. from Brasenose in 1586 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., ii. iii. 119). In 1594 he received the living of Stainton-in-Strata, Durham, and about 1610 was also head-master of Durham School. But he was ultimately deprived of his mastership for ‘a reflecting sermon’ against Ralph Tonstall, prebendary of Durham Cathedral, and retired to Stainton, where he taught a few boys. Wood speaks of him as a famous school-master, and eminent in the Hebrew tongue. He held the living of Stainton till his death in November 1638, and was buried there. He published several sermons, of which three are in the Bodleian Library. 1. ‘Upon Part (vv. 3–6) of the 2nd chapter of the 1st Epistle of St. John,’ Oxford, 1598, 8vo. 2. ‘Upon the same chapter (vv. 21–3), wherein the present state of the Papacie is in parte but impartially represented, and showed to be … plaine Anti-christian,’ London, 1609, 4to. 3. ‘Upon the Wordes of St. Paul, Rom. xiii. 1 … wherein the Pope's Sovereignitie over Princes is refuted,’ London, 1619, 4to. Besides these sermons Wood mentions ‘A Short Catechism for Young Children to learn by Law authorized,’ London, 1633, 8vo, and there is in the British Museum Library ‘A short Catechism … Translated into Hebrew by T. I.,’ 1633, 8vo.
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearsall, Richard

​PEARSALL, RICHARD (1698–1762), dissenting divine, was born at Kidderminster 29 Aug. 1698. His eldest sister, Mrs. Hannah Housman, extracts from whose diary he published, stimulated his religious temper. Another sister, Phœbe, was married to Joseph Williams, esq., of Kidderminster, whose ‘Diary’ was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Richard was educated at a dissenting academy at Tewkesbury under Samuel Jones. Joseph Butler, author of the ‘Analogy,’ and Secker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) were among his fellow-students. He was admitted to the ministry among the dissenters before 1721 (Evang. Mag. xviii. 377).
He was ordained at Bromyard in Herefordshire, and succeeded Samuel Philips (d. 1721), whose daughter he married, in the pastorate of the presbyterian (now independent) congregation there. He removed in 1731 to Warminster in Wiltshire, where he apparently ministered to a body of seceders who charged the original presbyterian society with Arianism. From 1747 until 1762 he was minister of the large independent church at Taunton, Somerset. He died at Taunton on 10 Nov. 1762. In the ‘Evangelical Magazine’ (xviii. 377) there is a fine portrait, engraved by Ridley.
Pearsall as a religious writer was a feeble imitator of James Hervey (1714–1758) [q. v.], who gave him much encouragement (cf. Hervey, Theron and Aspasio, vol. iii. letter 9). Apart from a few tracts, sermons, and letters, Pearsall's works were: 1. ‘The Power and Pleasure of the Divine Life exemplified in the late Mrs. Housman of Kidderminster, Worcester, as extracted from her own papers,’ London, 1744; new edit. 1832, London (edited by Charles Gilbert). 2. ‘Contemplations on the Ocean, Harvest, Sickness, and the Last Judgment, in a series of letters to a friend,’ London, 1753; Nottingham, 1801; Evesham, 1804. 3. ‘Meditations on ​Butterflies: philosophical and devotional, in two letters to a lady,’ London, 1758. 4. ‘Reliquiæ Sacræ, or Meditations on Select Passages of Scripture and Sacred Dialogues between a Father and his Children; published from his MSS., designed for the press by Thomas Gibbons, D.D.,’ London, 1765 (only one volume published).
Some poems by Pearsall, one of which appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ March 1736, are printed in ‘Extracts from the Diary, Meditations, and Letters of Mr. Joseph Williams [Pearsall's brother-in-law],’ Shrewsbury, 1779.
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearse, Thomas Deane

​PEARSE, THOMAS DEANE (1738?–1789), colonel, born about 1738, after serving as lieutenant in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, was appointed second lieutenant royal artillery on 24 Oct. 1761, first lieutenant on 3 Feb. 1766, and was transferred to the East India Company's service in February 1768. He was made major in the Bengal artillery on 2 Sept. 1768, lieutenant-colonel on 30 Oct. 1769, and colonel on 12 June 1779. In India he was high in the favour of Warren Hastings, the governor-general, and acted as Hastings's second in his duel with Sir Philip Francis [q. v.] on 17 Aug. 1779.
In 1781, on the formation of the Bengal sepoy corps, Warren Hastings resolved on sending a detachment of five regiments to the relief of the presidency of Fort St. George. This important force was assembled at Midnapoor, and the command of it was conferred on Pearse. Artillery officers of the East India Company's army, in the early wars in India, held general commands, and were not, as in the royal artillery, confined to their department of the army. The detachment consisted of the 12th, 13th, 24th, 25th, and 26th regiments. They proceeded on their march through Orissa and the northern circars; and, having reached the vicinity of Madras about the middle of 1781, the Bengal troops joined the other forces in the field, under the commander-in-chief, Sir Eyre Coote [q. v.]; and during the arduous warfare in which they were engaged from that period down to the cessation of hostilities before Cudalore in June 1783, the Bengal corps, under Pearse, established for themselves a lasting reputation. The attack on the French lines at Cudalore was one of the first occasions on which European troops and the disciplined natives of India had met at the point of the bayonet. Lieutenant (afterwards Sir) John Kennaway [q. v.] was Pearse's Persian secretary in the campaign. Some two thousand out of the five thousand troops, the veteran remains of those gallant corps, returned to Bengal early in 1785, when their encampment was visited by the governor-general in person, and his testimony of their services was recorded in the general orders issued at Fort William on 22 Jan. 1785, and three days later in the camp at Ghyretty. In the latter the governor-general desires that ‘the commanding officer, Colonel Pearse, whom he is proud to call his friend, will make [his thanks] known in public orders to the officers, his countrymen, and to the native officers and private sepoys of the detachment.’ For his services in the defence of the company's territories in the Carnatic Pearse received a sword of honour.
In May 1785 Pearse contributed a paper on ‘Two Hindu Festivals and the Indian Sphinx’ to the proceedings of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, which was subsequently published in ‘Dissertations and Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the History and Antiquities … of Asia, by Sir W. Jones … and others, Dublin,’ 1793. Pearse died on the Ganges on 15 June 1789.
B. H. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearson, Alexander

​PEARSON, ALEXANDER (d. 1657), lord of session, under the title of Lord Southall, is supposed to have been the son of Alexander Pearson who was one of the counsel for Lord Balmerino in 1634 (Brunton and Haig, Senators of the College of Justice, p. 338), but not improbably he himself acted as Balmerino's counsel. Possibly also he was the Alexander Pearson who was appointed in 1638 one of a committee to examine if certain registers of the kirk were full and authentic (Baillie, Letters and Journals, i. 129), and in 1641 was appointed, with other advocates, to draw up the summons and libel against Montrose (ib. p. 384). Along with seven others he was in March 1649 nominated a lord of session, in succession to those lords who had been cashiered for their loyalty (Balfour, Annals, iii. 390; Guthry, Memoirs, p. 300). He was also shortly afterwards named one of a committee for the revision of the laws and acts of parliament, a commissioner for the plantation of kirks, and one of the visitors of the university of Edinburgh. He sat as lord of session until the supremacy of Cromwell in 1651 (Nicoll, Diary, p. 76), and in October 1653 he was appointed a commissioner of judicature by the English parliament (ib. p. 115). In 1654 he was conjoined, with Sir John Hope of Craighall, as judge of the high court; but, according to Nicoll, he was ‘not comparable to Sir John Nather [sic] in judgement nor actioun’ (ib. p. 122). In November 1655 he ​was continued an extraordinary judge (ib. p. 168). He died at Edinburgh on 12 May 1657 (Lamont, Diary, p. 98).
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pears, Steuart Adolphus

​PEARS, STEUART ADOLPHUS (1815–1875), schoolmaster and author, born at Pirbright, Surrey, on 20 Nov. 1815, was seventh son of the Rev. James Pears, headmaster of Bath grammar school, and brother of Sir Thomas Townsend Pears [q. v.] Pears was educated at Bath under his father, and was elected scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1832. He graduated B.A. in June 1836, with a second class in literæ humaniores; was elected fellow of Corpus, and remained in residence till 1838. He then became tutor to Lord Goderich (the first Marquis of Ripon), of whom he took charge until 1842. In 1839 he gained the Ellerton theological prize for an essay on the ‘Conduct and Character of St. Paul,’ and in 1841 the Denyer theological prize for an essay on the ‘Divinity of our Lord.’ In 1843 he was sent abroad by the Parker Society to search the libraries of Zurich and other places for correspondence relating to the English Reformation. In the course of his researches he discovered a number of original letters in Latin from Sir Philip Sidney to his friend Hubert Languet, which he translated and published on his return (London, 1845). During 1844 and 1845 he was in residence at Oxford as dean of Corpus Christi College. In 1846 he was appointed fellow and tutor of Durham University; and in 1847, at the age of thirty-two, assistant-master at Harrow under Dr. Vaughan. In the same year he married the elder daughter of Temple Chevallier [q. v.], professor of mathematics and Hebrew in Durham University. He remained at Harrow until 1854, when he was elected head-master of Repton School. At the time there were about fifty boys in the school, many of them village boys; the schoolhouse contained only two or three classrooms, and there were two boarding-houses.
In 1857 the tercentenary of the school was celebrated, and it was resolved to build a school-chapel, which a large increase in the number of boys had rendered necessary. A boarding-house was built by Pears about the same time. He built another in the next few years with class-rooms, fives-courts, and library; and several other houses were erected during his mastership. In 1869 he was examined before the endowed schools commission; and a scheme was settled for the government of the school, which was included in the list of first-grade public schools. In 1874 Pears resigned the headmastership, after nearly twenty years' service, during which he had raised the school from a local grammar school of fifty boys to a first-grade public school of nearly three hundred.
He was, shortly afterwards, presented by the president and fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to the living of Childrey, Berkshire, where he died on 15 Dec. 1875, aged 60. A fine speech-room, named after him, was subsequently erected at Repton in his memory.
Besides Sidney's correspondence, he published ‘Sermons,’ 1851; ‘Three Lectures on Education,’ 1859; ‘Short Sermons on the Elements of Christian Truth,’ 1861; and he edited ‘Over the Sea, or Letters from an Officer in India to his Children at Home,’ 1857.
[Ann. Reg. 1875, p. 156; private information.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearman, William

​PEARMAN, WILLIAM (fl. 1810–1824), vocalist, born at Manchester in 1792, entered the navy when a boy, but, being wounded in the leg before Copenhagen, retired with a pension from the service. He then made some unsatisfactory attempts to become an actor, appearing at Tooting, Surrey, at the Sans Pareil Theatre in the Strand, and with Macready's company at Newcastle. He at last achieved some measure of success as a singer of Dibdin's nautical songs at Sadler's Wells. John Addison (1766?–1844) [q. v.] gave him lessons, and enabled him to take leading singing parts in provincial theatres, while Macready again engaged him for musical drama at Newcastle.
On 7 July 1817 Pearman made his début at the English Opera House as Orlando in the ‘Cabinet,’ and he leaped into public favour. Of other impersonations in a similar vein of light opera, his Captain Macheath was especially good; he was said to be impressive in the prison scene, and, in short, the best Macheath on the stage. In 1819 Pearman was retained at Drury Lane for secondary parts, and in 1822 at Covent Garden; but his voice and style were ineffective in a large house. His best effort here was said to be the imitative song, in ‘Clari,’ composed for him by Bishop, ‘Ne'er shall I forget the day.’ In September 1824 he distinguished himself as Rodolph in ‘Der Freischütz’ at the English Opera House.
Pearman's natural voice, soft or veiled in tone (Oxberry describes it as smothered), did not reach beyond E, although he could force a G. His falsetto was sweet when audible. It was not possible for him to sing many tenor songs in their original key. He was a small man, well proportioned, and so easy and graceful that his lameness was scarcely perceived. A portrait of Pearman as Leander ​in ‘The Padlock,’ drawn by De Wilde and engraved by J. Rogers, was published by Oxberry.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parsons, Elizabeth (1812-1873)

Elizabeth Parson in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​PARSONS, ELIZABETH (1812–1873), hymn-writer, was the daughter of W. Rooker, congregational minister of Tavistock, Devonshire, and was born there on 5 June 1812. In 1844 she married T. Edgecumbe Parsons, and died at Plymouth in 1873. From 1840 to 1844 she conducted a class for young people in her father's chapel, and for them she wrote several hymns, eighteen of which were afterwards printed by one of her pupils for private circulation, under the title of ‘Willing Class Hymns.’ Two have become popular, ‘Jesus, we love to meet,’ and ‘O Happy Land! O Happy Land!’ and others are found in various collections. She wrote a few hymns for adults, but these have only been printed for private use.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parsons, Francis

​PARSONS, FRANCIS (fl. 1763–1783), portrait-painter, was a student at the drawing academy in St. Martin's Lane. In 1763 he exhibited at the Society of Artists' exhibition in Spring Gardens portraits of an Indian chief and of Miss Davies the actress. Parsons was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and served as director in 1775 and the following years, and as their treasurer in 1776. A portrait of James Brindley [q. v.] the engineer, by Parsons, was engraved in mezzotint by R. Dunkarton in 1770, and published by Parsons at his house in Great Ormond Street, London. The same portrait was also engraved by Cook (Evans, Cat. p. 39). Another portrait of Cunne Shote, a Cherokee chief, by Parsons, was engraved in mezzotint by J. McArdell. As he did not succeed greatly in portraiture, Parsons latterly kept a shop as a dealer in and restorer of pictures. He exhibited for the last time in 1783.
L. C.