OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stratford, Ralph de

​STRATFORD, RALPH de (d. 1354), bishop of London, was probably the son of a sister of John de Stratford [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, and of Robert de Stratford [q. v.], bishop of Chichester (cf. Anglia Sacra, i. 374; but elsewhere he is called simply a ‘kinsman’ of the archbishop, Annales Paulini, i. 360). His father's name was perhaps Hatton, for he is sometimes called Ralph Hatton de Stratford. He was perhaps educated, like his uncles, at Oxford, and had graduated as M.A. and B.C.L. (Bliss, Cal. Pap. Reg. ii. 534). Under his uncles' influence he entered the royal service, and as one of the king's clerks received the prebend of Banbury, Lincoln, on 2 April 1332 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, ii. 275). On 15 Dec. 1333 he received the prebend of Erchesfont, Winchester, which on 25 Sept. 1335 he exchanged for the prebend of Blibury at Salisbury (Wharton). On 11 April 1336 he also received the treasurership of Salisbury (Bliss, Cal. Pap. Reg. ii. 534). Stratford held a canonry at St. Paul's previously to 26 Jan. 1340, when he was elected bishop of London. The royal assent was given three days later, and he was consecrated by the archbishop at Canterbury on 12 March (Le Neve, ii. 291). He was present in the parliament held in April 1341, when he supported John Stratford in his assertion of his rights, and on 3 May was one of the twelve lords appointed to advise the king whether the peers were liable to be tried out of parliament (Anglia Sacra, i. 38–40; Rot. Parl. ii. 127). Stratford was one of the two candidates whom the king recommended to the pope for promotion to the cardinalate in 1350 (Geoffrey le Baker, p. 112, ed. Thompson).
Stratford died at Stepney on 7 April 1354. During the prevalence of the plague in 1348 he purchased a piece of ground called No Man's Land for a cemetery, which was afterwards known as Pardon churchyard, and adjoined the ground purchased by Sir Walter Manny [q. v.] at the same time (ib. pp. 99, 270–1). He also joined with his uncles in their benefactions to their native town of Stratford-on-Avon, and built a residence for the priests of John Stratford's chantry. Ralph Stratford himself had a house in Bridge Street, Stratford (Lee, Stratford-on-Avon, pp. 34, 41).
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stratton, John Proudfoot

​STRATTON, JOHN PROUDFOOT (1830–1895), surgeon, son of David Stratton, a solicitor in practice at Perth, was born in the parish of Caputh, near Dunkeld, on 2 July 1830. He was educated in his native town and afterwards at North Shields, where he was apprenticed about 1840 to Dr. Ingham. He was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1851, bachelor of medicine of the university of Aberdeen in 1852, and M.D. in 1855. At Aberdeen University he gained the medal or a first-class in every subject of study.
In May 1852 he gained, by competitive examination, a nomination offered to the university of Aberdeen by the chairman of the East India Company. After holding various posts in the Indian medical service (Bombay) from 1852 onwards, he was appointed in December 1854 residency surgeon in Baroda, where he took an active part in founding the gaekwar's hospital and in vaccinating the native population. In May 1857 he was, in addition to the medical charge, appointed to act as assistant resident. He performed the duties with ability during the trying years of the mutiny, and received the thanks of the resident, Sir Richmond Campbell Shakespear [q. v.] On the latter's departure for England, Stratton acted as resident until the arrival of Col. (Sir) R. Wallace. In 1859 he was selected to take political charge of ​Bundelkhand, a district embracing several minor states at that time disordered by bands of mutineers and rebels. His services were again acknowledged by the government, while the company marked its sense of their importance by a special grant of extra pay. He was appointed in 1862 commissioner and sessions judge for Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand, and he was promoted in June 1864 from political assistant to be political agent; while from May to July 1876 he was officiating resident. On 4 March 1881 he was appointed officiating resident in Mewar. In July he was posted to the western states of Rajputana, and on 27 Jan. 1882 to Jeypur in the eastern states. He retired from the service under the fifty-five years age rule in 1885 with the rank of brigade-surgeon. He died at 51 Nevern Square, South Kensington, on 8 Aug. 1895, and is buried in Brookwood cemetery. He married, on 12 April 1859, Georgina Anderson, by whom he had six children.
Stratton did excellent service in his capacity of political agent. He obtained from the native chiefs free remission of transit duties; he personally laid out hill roads; he established the Bundelkhand Rajkumar College for sons of chiefs, and instituted vaccination in Central India.
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stratford, William Samuel

​STRATFORD, WILLIAM SAMUEL (1790–1853), lieutenant R.N. and astronomer, born 31 May 1790, entered the navy in February 1806 on board the Pompée, flagship first of Sir William Sidney Smith [q. v.] and afterwards of Vice-admiral Stanhope, and was in her at the defence of Gaeta, the reduction of Capri, the passage of the Dardanelles, the destruction of a Turkish squadron off Point Pesquies, and later in the bombardment of Copenhagen. In March 1808 he was again with Smith in the Foudroyant. From 1809 to 1815 he was serving in the North Sea, and on 14 March 1815 was promoted to be lieutenant. On the reduction consequent on the peace he was placed on half-pay and had no further service afloat. He devoted himself to the study of astronomy, and on the foundation of the Astronomical Society in 1820 was appointed its first secretary. On 11 April 1827 he received the silver medal of the society for his co-operation with Francis Baily [q. v.] in the compilation of a catalogue of 2,881 fixed stars, printed as an appendix to vol. ii. of the ‘Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.’ On 22 April 1831 he was appointed superintendent of the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ and on 7 June 1832 he was elected F.R.S. He died on 29 March 1853. He was married and left issue.
Besides various shorter papers read before, or published by, the Astronomical Society (Monthly Notices, ii. 167, xi. 222, &c.), he was the author of: 1. ‘An Index to the Stars in the Catalogue of the Royal Astronomical Society,’ presented to the society on 13 May 1831. 2. ‘On the Elements of the Orbit of Halley's Comet at its appearance in the years 1835–6,’ 1835, London, 8vo. 3. ‘Supplement to the Nautical Almanac of 1837, containing the Meridian Ephemeris of the Sun and Planets,’ 1836, London, 8vo. 4. ‘Ephemeris of Encke's Comet, 1838,’ 1838, London, 8vo. 5. ‘Ephemeris of Encke's Comet, 1839,’ 1838, London, 8vo. 6. ‘Path of the Moon's Shadow over the Southern Part of France, the North of Italy, and Part of Germany, during the total Eclipse of the Sun on 7 July 1842’ (R.A.S. Monthly Notices, v. 173). 7. ‘Ephemeris of Faye's Comet’ (‘Astr. Nachr.’ xxxi. 1851).
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stratford, Edmund

​STRATFORD verè Lechmere, EDMUND, D.D. (d. 1640?), catholic divine, descended from an ancient family in Worcestershire (cf. Nash, Worcestershire, i. 560 et passim). He was educated in the English College at Douay, where he finished the whole course of divinity under Dr. Matthew Kellison [q. v.], and in 1617 was made professor of philosophy. Subsequently he studied at Paris under Gamache, and, after graduating B.D. there, he returned to Douay, where he taught divinity for about eight years. He was created D.D. at Rheims on 25 Oct. 1633, and died at Douay ‘in the prime of his years’ about 1640.
His works are: 1. ‘A Disputation of the Church, wherein the old religion is maintained. By F. E.,’ Douay, 1632, 8vo; ‘by E. S. F.,’ 2 pts., Douay, 1640, 8vo. 2. ‘A Relection of Transubstantiation; in defence of Dr. Smith's Conference with Dr. Featley,’ 1632, 8vo [see Smith, Richard, (1566–1655)]. This was answered by ‘An Apologie for Daniel Featley … against the Calumnies of one S. E. in respect of his Conference had with Doctor Smith. … Made by Myrth. Waferer, Mr. of Artes of Albane Hall in Oxon.,’ London, 1634, 4to. 3. ‘A Relection of certain Authors, that are pretended to disown the Church's Infallibility,’ Douay, 1635. Some theological and philosophical treatises by him were formerly preserved in manuscript in the library of the English College at Douay.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stratford, Edward

​STRATFORD, EDWARD, second Earl of Aldborough (d. 1801), was the eldest son of John Stratford of Baltinglass, by his wife Martha, daughter and coheiress of Benjamin O'Neal, archdeacon of Leighlin, co. Carlow. John Stratford was the grandson of Robert Stratford who came to Ireland before 1660, and is said to have sprung from a younger branch of the Stratfords of Warwickshire (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 376, 424). John Stratford was created Baron of Baltinglass in 1763, Viscount Aldborough in 1776, and Viscount Amiens and Earl of Aldborough, shortly before his death on 29 June 1777.
Edward Stratford was widely known for his ability and eccentricity, which caused him to be termed the ‘Irish Stanhope.’ He was an ardent whig, and was elected member for Taunton to the British parliament in 1774, but was unseated with his colleague, Nathaniel Webb, on petition, on 16 March 1775, for bribery and corrupt practices. After that he represented Baltinglass in the Irish parliament until his father's death (Members of Parliament, ii. 154, App. p. xli; Commons' Journals, xxxv. 18, 146, 200). On 29 May 1777, while still Viscount Amiens, he was elected a member of the Royal Society. On 3 July 1777 the university of Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of D.C.L. He built Stratford Place and Aldborough House in London, and in Ireland he founded the town of Stratford-upon-Slaney, besides greatly improving the borough of Baltinglass. He voted in favour of the union with England in 1800, and received compensation for the disfranchisement of Baltinglass (Cornwallis Correspondence, iii. 322). He died on 2 Jan. 1801 at Belan in Wicklow, and was buried in the vault of St. Thomas's Church, Dublin. He was twice married. His first wife, Barbara, daughter of Nicholas Herbert of Great Glemham, Suffolk, son of Thomas Herbert, eighth earl of Pembroke [q. v.], died on 11 April 1785, and on 24 March 1788 he married Anne Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir John Henniker, bart. (afterwards Lord Henniker). She brought him a fortune of 50,000l., which enabled him to free his estates from encumbrances. After his death his widow married George Powell in December 1801, and died on 14 July 1802. As Lord Aldborough died without children, his title and estates descended to his brother, John Stratford. Lord Aldborough was the author of ‘An Essay on the True Interests of the Empire,’ Dublin, 1783, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, John (fl.1780)

J. Miller in the ODNB.
​MILLER, JOHN (fl. 1780), architect, studied in Italy, and afterwards practised in London. He exhibited drawings of buildings, mostly in London, in the Royal Academy exhibitions between 1781 and 1787, during which years he resided in Westminster. The date of his death is not known.
He published: 1. Andrea Palladio's ‘Elements of Architecture, restored to its Original Perfection, with a Geometrical Explanation of its True Principles of Perspective,’ 28 plates, London, circ. 1748, 1759. 2. ‘The Country Gentleman's Architect … Designs for Cottages, Farm-houses,’ &c., 32 plates, London, 1787, 1797, 1800, 1805. ‘The Ruins of Pæstum or Posidonia, a Town of Magna Grecia,’ 4 plates, London, 1767, is also attributed to him. A drawn ‘Map of an Estate of Mr. Stephen Searson. Lying in Wetheringset in the County of Suffolk. Surveyed by John Miller, 1750’ (Addit. MS. Brit. Mus. 21057 E), may be his.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues; Univ. Cat. of Books on Art; information from Wyatt Papworth, esq.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, Lydia Falconer

​MILLER, Mrs. LYDIA FALCONER (1811?–1876), authoress, daughter of an Inverness tradesman named Fraser, who failed in business and retired to Cromarty, was born about 1811. She was educated in Edinburgh, where she moved in literary society, and then returned to live in Cromarty with her mother. Here she first met Hugh Miller [q. v.] in 1831, and being herself clever and well read, was attracted by his talents. In spite of some opposition from her mother, Miller and she became engaged in 1832. They were not, however, married until 7 Jan. 1837, and in the meantime she took a few pupils. When Miller removed to Edinburgh and became editor of the ‘Witness,’ she gave him considerable assistance in the management of the paper, and occasionally also wrote in it. It 1855, however, a severe illness almost deprived her of the use of her limbs. After her husband's death she helped Mr. Peter Bayne in preparing his biography, and also in editing his works. She died at her son-in-law's manse at Lochinver in Sutherlandshire, 11 March 1876, and was buried in her husband's grave in the Grange cemetery in Edinburgh on 20 March. Under the name of ‘Harriet Myrtle’ (a pseudonym also employed by Miss Mary Gillies in ‘More Fun for our Little Friends,’ 1864), Mrs. Miller wrote numerous stories, principally for the young, of a moral and religious tendency: the ‘Story-book of Country Scenes—Spring,’ 1845, and the same, ‘Summer,’ 1846; ‘Little Amy's Birthday,’ 1846; ‘The Man of Snow and other tales,’ 1848; ‘Pleasures of the Country,’ 1851; ‘Home and its Pleasures,’ 1852; ‘The Little Sister,’ 1852; ‘A Day of Pleasure,’ 1853; ‘Amusing Tales,’ 1853; ‘The Water-lily,’ 1854; ‘The Ocean Child,’ 1857; ‘A Visit to the New Forest,’ ‘Always do your Best,’ and ‘Lizzie Lindsay’ in 1859; ‘Aunt Maddy's Diamonds,’ 1864; ‘Country Scenes’ and ‘Tales of the Four Seasons,’ 1866; ‘Cats and Dogs,’ anecdotes, 1868, 2nd edit. 1873; ‘Twilight Stories of Overbury Farm,’ 1871; ‘The Dog and his Cousins, the Wolf, the Jackal, and the Hyæna,’ 1876; ‘The Cat and her Cousins, the Lion, Tiger, &c.,’ 1877, and some others. She also wrote a novel on the ‘disruption’ in the Scottish kirk, called ‘Passages in the Life of an English Heiress.’
[Bayne's Life of Hugh Miller; Scotsman, 16 and 20 March 1876; Times, 22 and 24 March 1876; Ann. Reg. 1876; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Hamst's Fictitious Names, pp. 84, 90; Cushing's Dict. of Pseudonyms.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, Josiah

​MILLER, JOSIAH (1832–1880), hymnologist, son of the Rev. Edward Miller, was born at Putney, Surrey, on 8 April 1832. In his fourteenth year he was articled to an engineering surveyor at Westminster, but he afterwards gave up his articles and entered Highbury College, where he studied for the independent ministry. He graduated B.A. in 1853 and M.A. in 1855 at the London University. He was appointed pastor successively at Dorchester in 1855, at Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, in 1860, and at Newark, Nottinghamshire, in 1868. But he relinquished the last charge in order to become secretary of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews. Subsequently he succeeded the Rev. J. Robinson as secretary to the London City Mission. He died on 22 Dec. 1880, and was buried at Abney Park.
His principal works are:
* ‘Our Hymns: their Authors and Origin. Being Biographical Sketches of the principal Psalm and Hymn Writers (with Notes on their Psalms and Hymns),’ London, 1866, 8vo; intended to be a companion to the New Congregational Hymn Book.
* ‘Our Dispensation: or, the place we occupy in the Divine History of the World,’ London, 1868, 8vo.
* ‘Singers and Songs of the Church; being Biographical Sketches of the Hymn-Writers in all the principal collections,’ 2nd edit. London, 1869, 8vo.
* ‘Christianum Organum; or, the Inductive Method in Scripture and Science. With an Introduction by J. H. Gladstone,’ London, 1870, 8vo.
[Congregational Year-Book, 1882, p. 319; Nonconformist, 30 Dec. 1880, p. 1334.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wright, Thomas (d.1624?)

Contains subarticle Thomas Wright (fl. 1604).
​WRIGHT, THOMAS (d. 1624?), Roman catholic controversialist, was ordained priest in the reign of Queen Mary, and became one of the readers of divinity in the English College at Douay at the time of its foundation in 1569. It is said that he had previously taught theology and Hebrew at Milan, and had also been professor of divinity both in Spain and at Louvain. He graduated D.D., and was ‘always regarded as one of the ablest divines and controvertists of his time.’ In 1577 he was labouring upon the mission in Yorkshire, and was soon afterwards committed as a prisoner to York Castle, where he engaged in a conference with Dean Hutton and some other divines of the church of England. He was ‘tossed about from prison to prison till 1585, when he was shipped off at Hull, and sent into banishment.’ He took refuge at the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, was vice-president for some time, and was afterwards made dean of Courtray. In 1622 he was at Antwerp, where Marco Antonio de Dominis [q. v.], archbishop of Spalato, repeated before him the recantation of protestantism formerly made to the pope's nuncio at Brussels. Wright died about 1624.
Wright has been very doubtfully credited with several religious tracts, which are said to have been published anonymously, but he has been much confused by bibliographers with other writers of the time of his name, and no list of his works can be given with confidence. It is probable that he was author of ‘Certaine Articles discovering the Palpable Absurdities of the Protestants Religion’ [Antwerp, 1600], and ‘The Substance of the Lord's Supper’ (1610, 12mo). The first of these was answered by Edward Bulkeley in ‘An Apologie for the Religion established in the Church of England. Being an Answer to a Pamphlet by T. W[right]’ (1602).
To another Thomas Wright (fl. 1604), a protégé of Henry Wriothesley, third earl of Southampton [q. v.], who had travelled in Italy, must be ascribed ‘A Succinct Philosophicall Declaration of the Nature of Clymactericall Yeeres, occasioned by the Death of Queene Elizabeth. Written by T. W[right]. Printed for T. Thorpe,’ London, 1604, 4to, and ‘The Passions of the Minde in generall. By Thomas Wright,’ London, 1601, 4to, which reappeared in 1604 ‘corrected, enlarged, and with sundry new discourses augmented,’ and was reissued in 1621 and 1630. This work was dedicated to Southampton in the hope that he may be ‘delivered from inordinate passions,’ and had commendatory verses by B. I. [? Ben Jonson]. Another Thomas Wright, M.A., of Peterhouse, Cambridge, issued in 1685 ‘The Glory of Gods Revenge against the Bloody and Detestable Sins of Murther and Adultery’ (London, 8vo).
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wright, Waller Rodwell

​WRIGHT, WALLER RODWELL (d. 1826), author of ‘Horæ Ionicæ,’ was British consul-general for the republic of the Seven Islands (Ionian Islands) from 1800 to 1804. On his return to England he became recorder for Bury St. Edmunds. Subsequently he was president of the court of appeals at Malta, where he died in 1826. Wright's library at Zante was rifled by the French in 1804, and the materials which he had collected for a work upon the Greek islands were scattered or destroyed. His reminiscences took the form of ‘Horæ Ionicæ: a Poem descriptive of the Ionian Islands and part of the adjacent coast of Greece’ (London, 1809, 8vo). There are some charming lines among its heroic couplets, the work throughout of an ardent disciple of Pope. A ‘Postscript’ contains a few remarks upon the Modern Greek spoken in the Ionian Islands. To the third edition (London, 1816, 12mo) were appended ‘Orestes, a Tragedy: from the Italian of Count Vittor Alfieri’ (this was in blank verse, for which Wright showed little aptitude), and two odes. One of these odes, on the Duke of Gloucester's installation at Cambridge, had been printed in 1811 and forwarded in September by Dallas to Byron, who wrote: ‘It is evidently the production of a man of taste and a poet, though I should not be willing to say it was fully equal to what might be expected from the author of “Horæ Ionicæ.”’ In reference to this poem Byron had previously written in ‘English Bards:’
Blest is the man who dare approach the bower  Where dwelt the Muses in their natal hour …  Wright, 'twas thy happy lot at once to view  Those shores of Glory, and to sing them too.
[Wright's Horæ (three editions) in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Byron's Letters, ed. Henley, i. 375; Moore's Life and Letters of Byron, 1854, p. 136; Monthly Review, 1809, iii. 98; Biographical Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 401.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wright, Thomas (fl.1740-1760)

1904 Errata appended.
​WRIGHT, THOMAS (fl. 1740–1760), author of ‘Louthiana,’ is stated to be ‘of Durham’ (Brit. Mus. Cat.) His published ​writings are: 1. ‘The Use of the Globes, or the General Doctrine of the Sphere,’ London, 1740, 8vo. 2. ‘Clavis Celestis, being the Explication of a Diagram entituled a Synopsis of the Universe, or the Visible World epitomised,’ London, 1742, 4to. 3. ‘Louthiana, or an Introduction to the Antiquities of Ireland in upwards of ninety Views and Plans, representing with Explanations the principal Ruins, Curiosities, and Antient Dwellings in the County of Louth,’ with a portrait, London, 1748, 4to; a second edition, 1758, with some few additions, Londonn, 1758, 3 pts. 4to. 4. ‘An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe, founded upon the Laws of Nature’ (London, 1750, 4to. An edition of this work was published in Philadelphia, with notes by C. Rafinesque, in 1837.
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone's Dict. of Eng. Lit.]
D. J. O'D.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.285 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 128 | ii | 3-1 f.e. | Wright, Thomas (fl. 1740-1760) : for (fl. 1740-1760) . . . (Brit. Mus. Cat.), read (1711-1786), natural philosopher, was born at Byer's Green, near Durham, and brought up as a philosophical instrument maker. Subsequently he taught private pupils in mathematics, and became so well known that he was offered, but declined, the professorship of mathematics at the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. In his 'Original Theory . . . of the Universe' (London, 1750, 4to) he anticipated the modern physico-philosophical theory of the material of the universe. He 'gave the theory of the Milky Way, which is now considered established,' and predicted the 'ultimate resolution of the rings of Saturn into congeries of small satellites' (De Morgan in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, Phil. Mag. vol. xxxii.) He died at Byer's Green in 1786. |
| 129 | i | 21 | after Lit. insert Gent. Mag. 1793, i. 9, 126, 213; Kant's Kosmogony, ed. 1900, pp. 193-205 |