OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Close, John

​CLOSE, JOHN (1816–1891), 'Poet Close,' born at Gunnerside, Swaledale, on the estate of Lord Wensleydale, in 1816, was the son of Jarvis Close, a butcher, who was well known all over the countryside as a Wesleyan local preacher. Soon after 1830, while still a butcher's lad, Close began issuing little paper tracts of verse of the cheap-jack order 'Sam Dowell,' 'The Little Town Poet,' 'Dr. Caxton and Dr. Silverpen,' 'The Old Farm House,' 'The Satirist,' 'Book of the Chronicles,' 'A Month in London,' 'Adventures of an Author,' and many fly-sheets. In 1846 he established himself as a printer in Kirkby Stephen. He had not a spark of literary talent of any kind, but his assiduity in be- ​rhyming his friends and neighbours, and more especially the gentlefolk of the district, won him patrons who in April 1860 obtained for him a civil list pension of 50l on the recommendation of Lord Palmerston. The bestowal of such recognition on so incompetent a writer excited widespread amazement. In the House of Commons on 2 May 1861 William Stirling asked the first lord of the treasury if a pension of 50l. had been recently granted to J. Close of Kirkby Stephen, who styled himself 'Poet Laureate to his Majesty the King of Grand Bonny' (Hansard, 3rd ser. clxiv. 1375). Palmerston replied that he had conferred the pension upon the recommendation of Lord Carlisle, Lord Lonsdale, and other gentlemen. Lonsdale remained faithful to his 'lake-poet,' but most of Close's other noble patrons, after the fusillade of banter and quotation in the London press, seem to have grown ashamed of the countenance they had given to such a doggerel bard, and Close had to exchange his pension (the warrant for which was cancelled in May 1861) for a grievance, of which he made the best possible use. He received a grant of 100l. from the Royal Bounty in June 1861, as a measure of compensation, but he continued for thirty years longer to issue little pamphlets of metrical balderdash, interspersed with documents relating to his wrongs, from the 'Poet's Hall,' Kirkby Stephen, and a little stall near the landing stage, Bowness; by these means he extorted shillings from thousands of summer visitors to Windermere, and stamps from numerous sympathisers all over the country. He may be termed a survival of the old packman-poet in the last stages of his degradation. He died at Kirkby Stephen on 15 Feb. 1891, and was buried on 18 Feb. in the cemetery there; he left a widow, a married daughter, and two sons. The amusing reference to 'Poet Close' in 'Ferdinando and Elvira; or, the Gentle Pieman,' is familiar to readers of Mr. W. S. Gilbert's 'Bab Ballads.'
[Times, 17 Feb. 1891; Illustrated London News, 21 Feb. 1891 (portrait); Penrith Observer, 17 and 24 Feb. 1891; Daily News, Yorkshire Post, Newcastle Leader, and St. James's Gazette, 17–18 Feb. 1891; Close's Poet Close and his Pension, in 3 pts. 1861; Poetical Works of J. Close, 'Under Royal Patronage,' Kirkby Stephen, 1860, pts. 1–5; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Clerk, George Russell

​CLERK, Sir GEORGE RUSSELL (1800–1889), Indian civilian, born at Worting House in Hampshire, was the eldest son of John Clerk of Worting House, by his wife, the daughter and coheiress of Carew Mildmay of Shawford House, Hampshire. He was educated at Haileybury College, and entered the service of the East India Company as a writer on 30 April 1817. On 20 Aug. 1819 he became assistant to the magistrate of the suburbs of Calcutta, and in 1820 assistant in the office of the superintendent of stamps. On 30 June he was transferred to Nuddea as assistant to the magistrate, judge, and registrar, and on 13 Nov. he became first assistant to the secretary to the government in secret and political departments. On 28 Nov. 1821 he was nominated second assistant to the resident in Rajputana. On 13 March 1824 he visited England on leave, returning in 1827, and on 17 Aug. was appointed first assistant to the resident at Delhi. On 28 June 1831 he was made political agent at Ambala, and then became in succession British envoy at Lahore, where he played a distinguished part, and on 11 Nov. 1846 governor of Bombay. He resigned the last office early in 1848, and, returning to England, was created K.C.B. on 27 April 1848. He declined the governorship of the Cape of Good Hope, but in 1853 undertook the duties of a commissioner for settling the boundary of the colony and arranging for the establishment of independence in the Orange Free State, and in 1854 handed over the government of the Orange Free State to a convention of Boers. In 1856 he was nominated permanent undersecretary to the India board, on the reconstruction of the India administration, in 1857 he became secretary of the India board, and in 1858 permanent under-secretary of state for India to Lord Stanley and Sir Charles Wood (afterwards first Viscount Halifax) [q. v.] On 23 April 1860 he was a second time nominated governor of Bombay, but he resigned in April 1862 in consequence of ill-health. He was succeeded by his warm friend Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere [q. v.], and on 14 Dec. 1863 was appointed a member of the Indian council. On the establishment of the order of the Star of India on 25 June 1861 he was made a knight, and on its extension on 24 May 1866 he was nominated G.C.S.I. He died in London on 25 July 1889 at his residence, 33 Elm Park Gardens. He married Mary (d. 26 Nov. 1878), widow of Colonel Stewart.
[Times, 27 July 1889; Men of the Time, 1887; Dodwell and Miles's Bengal Civil Servants, 1839; Statesman and Friend of India, 4 Feb. 1888; Roberts's Forty-one Years in India, 1897, i. 440; Martineau's Life of Frere, 1895; Noble's South Africa, 1877, pp. 156-62.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robertson, Donald

​ROBERTSON, DONALD (fl. 1644–1660), tutor of Struan or Strowan, was the second son of Robert Robertson, tenth baron of Strowan, Perthshire, by his wife Agnes, daughter of Macdonald of Keppoch. On the death of his elder brother Alexander in 1636, he became tutor to his nephew Alexander, twelfth baron (father of Alexander, thirteenth baron [q. v.]), during whose long minority he held command of the clan. In April 1644 he joined the Marquis of Huntly in Aberdeenshire, with sixty of his clan (Spalding, Memorialls, ii. 343), and shortly afterwards was sent by him on an expedition into Angus (ib. p. 346). In the attack on the town of Montrose he and ‘some highlandmen’ did ‘brave service with their short guns’ (ib. p. 348). With other anti-covenanting leaders he was in 1645 declared by the ​Scottish parliament guilty of high treason, and his arms were ordered to be riven at the cross of Edinburgh (Balfour, Annals, iii. 270). On the arrival of Montrose in Scotland in August 1645, Robertson joined him in Atholl (Spalding, ii. 402), and took part in all the principal battles of the campaign, specially distinguishing himself at Inverlochy. On 10 June 1646 he received from Montrose a commission as colonel. At the Restoration his services were rewarded with a pension.
[Spalding's Memorialls of the Trubles (Spalding Club); Balfour's Annals of Scotland; Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, p. 408; Robertson's Brief Account of the Clan Donnachaidh, 1894.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robertson, James (1720?-1788)

​ROBERTSON, JAMES (1720?–1788), governor of New York, born in Fifeshire about 1720, enlisted as a private, became a sergeant, and obtained an ensign's commission by his service at Carthagena in 1740. Having sailed to America in 1756, he was appointed major-general of the royal troops raised in America, and was also barrack-master at New York. In 1772 he received a colonel's commission, and in the engagement between the British troops and the colonists at Long Island in 1776 he commanded a brigade. He took a leading part in the negotiations with Washington for the release of André. In 1779 Robertson was appointed head of a board of twelve commissioners for restoring peace, and in May of the same year he became civil governor of New York. In May 1781 he was appointed commander-in-chief in Virginia. He thereupon sailed to Sandy Hook; but hearing that Cornwallis had arrived with a commission which would supersede his, he returned to New York. On 20 Nov. 1782 he was appointed lieutenant-general. In the following April he returned to England. He died in London on 4 March 1788.
Our knowledge of Robertson's character rests entirely on the testimony of Thomas Jones, the chief justice of New York, a malevolent and disappointed man, who wrote a history of New York during the revolutionary war. According to him, Robertson, when barrack-master, enriched himself by clipping the coins which passed through his hands, and when civil governor established arbitrary tribunals. He showed, says Jones, ‘the haughtiness, superciliousness, and contempt natural to the pride of a rich and opulent Scot,’ and, when appointed governor, was infirm, paralytic, and undignifiedly amorous.
J. A. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robertson, George (1748?-1788)

​ROBERTSON, GEORGE (1748?–1788), landscape-painter, born in London about 1748, was son of a wine merchant, and received his education from a Mr. Rolfe in Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell. He studied art at Shipley's school, and was noted there for his skill in drawing horses, for which he received a premium from the Society of Arts in 1761. He afterwards went to Italy, and studied in Rome. He was patronised by William Beckford (1709–1770) [q. v.] of Somerley Hall, Suffolk, with whom Robertson went to Jamaica, where Beckford had a large property. Robertson drew several views of this property in Jamaica, which on his return were finely engraved by D. Lerpinière, T. Vivares, and J. Mason, and published by John Boydell [q. v.] He also exhibited views of Jamaica and other landscapes at the Incorporated Society of Artists' exhibitions, acting as vice-president of the society for some years. He obtained employment in London as a drawing-master, notably at a ladies' boarding school in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. He inherited a small fortune from an uncle and a house in Newington Butts, where he died on 26 Sept. 1788, aged about 40.
Robertson's landscapes are theatrical in conception, but have peculiar merits. Many were engraved, including a series of views of the iron works in Coalbrookdale, by J. Fittler, Wilson Lowry, and F. Chesham, and two views of Windsor Castle, one with the royal family on the terrace, by J. Fittler; all of these were published by Boydell. A series of scenes from Thomson's ‘Seasons,’ drawn by Robertson in conjunction with Charles Reuben Ryley [q. v.], were also engraved. Robertson seldom painted in oil, but in the hall of the Vintners' Company is a picture by him in oils of ‘St. Martin dividing his Cloak.’ He also etched a few landscapes.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robertson, George (1750?-1832)

​ROBERTSON, GEORGE (1750?–1832), topographical writer, was born in Midlothian about 1750, occupied a farm at Granton, near Edinburgh, for many years, and was actively engaged in agricultural affairs in different parts of Scotland from 1765 until shortly before his death. He moved from Granton to Kincardineshire in 1800 and migrated to Ayrshire in June 1811. He devoted the latter portion of his life to genealogical investigations, working in the library at Eglinton Castle and among the Glasgow libraries. He died at his residence, Bower Lodge, near Irvine, in 1832 (Retrospect in Rural Recollections).
Robertson's more important publications were:
* ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Midlothian, with Observations on the Means of its Improvement; drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement,’ Edinburgh, 1793, 4to; London, 1794, 4to; ‘with the additional remarks of several respectable gentlemen and farmers in the country,’ Edinburgh, 1795, 8vo. This report enjoyed a good reputation among its fellows both for matter and style; two appendices treat of dairy and garden management. For the same board, in 1813, he sketched the ‘Agriculture of Kincardineshire, or the Mearns.’
* ‘Topographical Description of Ayrshire; more particularly of Cunninghame; together with a Genealogical Account of the principal Families in that Bailiwick,’ Irvine, 1820, 4to (a useful compilation, with index to genealogies).
* ‘A Genealogical Account of the Principal Families in Ayrshire, more particularly in Cunninghame,’ Irvine, 3 vols. 12mo, 1823; with index and supplement, issued at Irvine, 1827, 12mo.
* ‘Rural Recollections; or the Progress of Improvement in Agriculture and Rural Affairs [in Scotland],’ Irvine, 1829, 8vo. The author judiciously confines himself to such changes in agriculture and in the condition of the agricultural population as fell under his own immediate and very capable observation; and says McCulloch, ‘his work is highly interesting,’ for the advance made by Scotland in industry, wealth, and their correlatives since 1765, when these recollections commence, ‘has, we believe, been quite ​unprecedented in any old settled country, and is hardly, indeed, surpassed by anything that has taken place in Kentucky and Illinois.’ It has an interesting appendix of ‘Extracts respecting Manners and Customs.’
Robertson issued, in 1818 (Paisley, 4to), ‘A General Description of the Shire of Renfrew,’ including an account of its noble and ancient families, being a new edition, with an elaborate continuation of ‘The Genealogical History of the Royal and Illustrious Family of the Stewarts,’ &c. (1710), of George Crawfurd [q. v.] He also contributed to Arthur Young's ‘Annals of Agriculture’ (London, 1808, &c.) and to the tracts of the Highland Society.
[McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy, 1845, p. 219; Donaldson's Agricult. Biogr. p. 78; Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1829; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.; Advocates' Library Cat. v. 785; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robertson, James (1714-1795)

​ROBERTSON, JAMES (1714–1795), orientalist, born in 1714 in the parish of Cromarty, studied for many years at Leyden University under Schultens, the celebrated Dutch orientalist, and was ‘called’ to his native parish as minister, having been licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh on 28 Nov. 1744. He never settled at Cromarty, but, after graduating at Leyden as ‘Britannus’ on 20 Jan. 1749, proceeded to Oxford to study under Thomas Hunt [q. v.], the regius professor of Hebrew. He was offered an advantageous post in Doddridge's academy at Northampton; but the town council of Edinburgh, in response to a petition from the divinity students, elected him about May 1751 to the chair of Hebrew in the university of Edinburgh. He received the fees of students only, his superannuated predecessor, Professor Dawson, retaining the salary for life. Dr. Johnson, who visited Edinburgh in August 1773, was delighted with the conversation of the professor of oriental tongues (Boswell, ed. 1848, p. 277). Robertson was infirm during the last few years of his life, and died at Middlefield, Leith Walk, on 26 Nov. 1795. Professor Baird was appointed as joint Hebrew professor in 1792. A medallion of Robertson by James Tassie is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. ​Robertson wrote: 1. ‘Grammatica Linguæ Hebrææ,’ Edinburgh, 1758, 8vo; 2nd edit. Edinburgh, 1783. 2. ‘The Resemblance of Jesus to Moses considered,’ Edinburgh, 1765, 8vo. 3. ‘Clavis Pentateuchi,’ Edinburgh, 1770, 8vo. This is a learned analysis of the Hebrew version of the Pentateuch, printed in Latin and English. Two dissertations are prefixed (1) on the Arabian tongue, (2) on the vowel points. A second edition, by the Rev. J. Kinghorn, was published at Norwich in 1824, 8vo.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, Thomas (1749-1813)

​ROBINSON, THOMAS (1749–1813), divine, was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, on 10 Sept. 1749, in the house adjoining that in which Archbishop Potter was born. His father, James Robinson, was a hosier there. He was sent at an early age to the grammar school of his native town, whence he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1768. In April 1771 he was elected a scholar of his college, in 1772 he graduated as seventh wrangler (M.A. 1775), in October of the same year he was made a fellow of his college, and in 1773 he gained one of the members' prizes for a Latin essay. In or about 1772 he was ordained to the joint curacies of Witcham and Wichford in the Isle of Ely, but from 1773 to 1778 he was afternoon lecturer at All Saints', Leicester, and chaplain to the infirmary. In 1778 he was appointed to a lectureship newly founded in St. Mary's Church, Leicester. Later on in the same year he was made vicar of St. Mary's. The state of Leicester at the time, and the improvement wrought in it by Robinson, are forcibly described by Robert Hall in a eulogium delivered before the Auxiliary Bible Society at Leicester, shortly after Robinson's death, and subsequently printed. At St. Mary's in 1784 Robinson commenced the series of discourses on sacred biography by which he is best known. The earliest appeared in the ‘Theological Miscellany’ of 1784, and the whole series was eventually printed under the title of ‘Scripture Characters’ (1793, 4 vols. 12mo; 10th edit. 1815; abridgment, 1816). He wrote also ‘The Christian System Unfolded, or Essays on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity’ (1805, 3 vols. 8vo), and some shorter pieces. A collective edition of his ‘Works’ was published in 8 vols. London, 1814. Robinson died at Leicester on 24 March 1813, and was buried on the 29th in the chancel of St. Mary's, his funeral sermon being preached by Edward Thomas Vaughan [q. v.], who published a memoir of Robinson, with a selection of his letters, in 1815. He was twice married. By his first wife, who died in 1791, he had a son Thomas (1790–1873) [q. v.], master of the Temple. His second wife, whom he married in 1797, was the widow ​of Dr. Gerard, formerly warden of Wadham College, Oxford.
[Vaughan's Account; Memoir prefixed to the first volume of Scripture Characters, 1815; Peacock's Wakefield Grammar School, 1892, p. 190; Lupton's Wakefield Worthies, 1864, pp. 197–206.]
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, Thomas (1790-1873)

​ROBINSON, THOMAS (1790–1873), master of the Temple, born in 1790, was the youngest son of Thomas Robinson (1749–1813) [q. v.] He was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, whence he matriculated as a scholar in 1809. In 1810 he gained the first Bell scholarship, and graduated B.A. in 1813 as thirteenth wrangler and second classical medallist. He proceeded M.A. in 1816, was admitted ad eundem at Oxford in 1839, and graduated D.D. in 1844. He was ordained deacon in 1815 and priest in 1816, going out at once as a missionary to India. He was appointed chaplain on the Bombay establishment, and was stationed first at Seroor and then at Poonah, where he was engaged in translating the Old Testament into Persian. The first part, entitled ‘The History of Joseph from the Pentateuch,’ appeared in 1825, and two others, ‘Isaiah to Malachi’ and ‘Chronicles to Canticles,’ in 1837 and 1838. He attracted the favourable notice of Thomas Fanshaw Middleton [q. v.], bishop of Calcutta, to whom in 1819 he dedicated his ‘Discourses on the Evidences of Christianity,’ published at Calcutta. In 1825 he was appointed chaplain to Middleton's successor, Reginald Heber [q. v.], whose constant companion he was during the bishop's episcopal visitations. He was present at Trichinopoly on 2 April 1826, when Heber was drowned, and preached and published a funeral sermon. He also wrote an elaborate account of ‘The Last Days of Bishop Heber,’ Madras, 1829, 8vo. Before the end of 1826 he was made archdeacon of Madras.
In 1837 Robinson was appointed lord almoner's professor of Arabic in the university of Cambridge. He delivered his inaugural lecture on 22 May 1838, and published it the same year, under the title of ‘On the Study of Oriental Literature.’ In 1845 he was elected master of the Temple, and in 1853 was presented to the rectory of Therfield, Hampshire. In the following year he was made canon of Rochester, resigning his professorship at Cambridge. He gave up his rectory in 1860, and the mastership of the Temple in 1869, being succeeded by Charles John Vaughan, dean of Llandaff. He died at the Precincts, Rochester, on 13 May 1873.
Besides the works already mentioned and many single sermons, Robinson published:
* ‘The Character of St. Paul the Model of the Christian Ministry,’ Cambridge, 1840, 8vo.
* ‘The Twin Fallacies of Rome, Supremacy and Infallibility,’ London, 1851, 8vo.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Grad. Cantabr.; Cambridge Cal.; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1873; Times, 14 May 1873; Men of the Reign; Darling's Cycl.; Le Bas's Life of Bishop Middleton, 1831, ii. 427; Norton's Life of Heber, 1870, pp. 120, 126, 131; Life of Heber by his Widow; Heber's Journals, passim.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, Robert Spencer

​ROBINSON, Sir ROBERT SPENCER (1809–1889), admiral, born on 6 Jan. 1809, was the third son of Sir John Robinson, bart., archdeacon of Armagh, by Mary Anne, second daughter of James Spencer of Rathangan, Kildare, and grandson of William Freind (1715–1766) [q. v.], dean of Canterbury. He entered ​the navy in 1821; in 1826 was a midshipman of the Sybille in the Mediterranean, with Sir Samuel John Brooke Pechell [q. v.], and passed his examination in 1828. He was promoted commander on 28 June 1838, in July 1839 he was appointed to the Phœnix steamer, and in March 1840 to the Hydra, in the Mediterranean, where he took part in the operations on the coast of Syria [see Stopford, Sir Robert], and was advanced to post rank on 5 Nov. 1840. For the next nine years he remained on half-pay. From 1850 to 1852 he commanded the Arrogant in the Channel fleet, and in June 1854 he commissioned the Colossus, which formed part of the fleet in the Baltic and off Cronstadt in 1855. In January 1856 he was moved into the Royal George, which was paid off in the following August. In 1858–9 he commanded the Exmouth at Devonport, and on 9 June 1860 was promoted to be rear-admiral. He was then appointed one of a commission to inquire into the management of the dockyards, and in the following year became controller of the navy, which office he held for ten years. During the last two—December 1868 to February 1871—he was also a lord of the admiralty under Hugh Childers. He became vice-admiral on 2 April 1866, was made a civil K.C.B. on 7 Dec. 1868, and an admiral on 14 June 1871. During his later years he was well known as a writer to the ‘Times’ on subjects connected with the navy, and as author of some pamphlets, among which may be named ‘Results of Admiralty Organisation as established by Sir James Graham and Mr. Childers’ (1871), and ‘Remarks on H.M.S. Devastation’ (1873). He died in London on 27 July 1889. He married, in 1841, Clementina, daughter of Admiral Sir John Louis, bart.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Times, 31 July 1889; Foster's Baronetage; Navy Lists.]
J. K. L.
# Diggers' Song
## Footnotes

* Gutenberg.org