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

​SKINNER, ROBERT (1591–1670), bishop successively of Bristol, Oxford, and Worcester, born on 10 Feb. 1590–1, was the second son of Edmund Skinner, rector of Pitsford, Northamptonshire, and Bridget, daughter of Humphrey Radcliff of Warwickshire. After attending Brixworth grammar school, he was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1607. He graduated B.A. in 1610, and M.A. in 1614. In 1613 he was elected fellow of his college, and until his death interested himself in its welfare. He proceeded B.D. in 1621, and became preacher of St. Gregory's Church, near St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1628 he succeeded his father as rector of Pitsford, and shortly after was chosen by Laud to be chaplain-in-ordinary to the king. In 1631 he was appointed rector of Launton, Oxfordshire, and in 1636 eleventh bishop of Bristol and rector of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire. He retained the livings of Launton and Greens Norton, to which were soon added those of Cuddesden, Oxfordshire, and Beckenham, Kent. In the same year he became D.D. by diploma. In 1641 he was translated to the see of Oxford. He was one of the bishops who subscribed the protest of 17 Dec. 1641, declaring themselves prevented from attendance in parliament, and was consequently committed by the lords to the Tower, where he remained eighteen weeks. Being released on bail he retired to Launton. In 1643 he was deprived of Greens Norton ‘for his malignity against the parliament.’ ​He was also sequestered from his livings of Cuddesden in 1646 and Beckenham in 1647.
During the Commonwealth he secured a license to preach, and continued in his diocese. He also conferred holy orders throughout England. It is stated by Thomas Warton, in his ‘Life of R. Bathurst’ (p. 35), that Bathurst secretly examined the candidates, and officiated at Launton as archdeacon. At the Restoration he became one of the king's commissioners of the university of Oxford, and in 1663 was translated to Worcester. He died on 14 June 1670, and is buried in a chapel at the east end of the choir of Worcester Cathedral. At the head of the inscribed stone, which is now in the crypt, are the arms of the family impaled with those of the see. He married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Bernard Bangor, esquire bedell of Oxford, and left issue six sons and four daughters.
Skinner's eldest son Matthew became fellow of Trinity. The latter's grandson was Matthew Skinner [q. v.], serjeant-at-law; while from the bishop's fourth son was descended John Skinner (1772–1839) [q. v.], the antiquary.
[A few Memorials of the Right Rev. Robert Skinner, and the authorities there cited; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 842 and Fasti, i. 489; Nelson's Bull, p. 25; Woolrych's Lives of Eminent Serjeants, ii. 521.]
E. C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skinner, William (1778-1857)

​SKINNER, WILLIAM (1778–1857), bishop of Aberdeen, second son of John Skinner (1744–1816) [q. v.], bishop of St. Andrews, was born at Aberdeen on 24 Oct. 1778, and educated at Marischal College and at Oxford, where he matriculated from Wadham College on 3 March 1798, graduating B.A. in 1801, and M.A., B.D., and D.D. in 1819. William Stevens, the friend of Bishop Horne, and Jones of Nayland defrayed part of his university expenses (PARK, Life of William Stevens, 1859, pp. 29–34). Skinner was ordained by Bishop Samuel Horsley of St. Asaph's in March 1802. Returning to Scotland, he officiated as assistant, and afterwards as colleague, to his father in the incumbency of St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen. On 11 Sept. 1816 he was elected by the clergy of the diocese as successor to his father in the see of Aberdeen, and was consecrated at Stirling on 27 Oct. George Gleig, primus of the church, sent a severe but fruitless reproof to the dean and clergy of Aberdeen for electing the son of their late bishop. Skinner was one of the bishops who attended the synod held at Laurencekirk on 18 June 1828 to revise the canons of 1811; thirty canons were adopted and duly signed on 20 June. In 1832 he confirmed as many as four hundred and sixty-two persons, and a first effort was made in the same year to circulate religious works in the Gaelic language. On 29 Aug. 1838 he attended another synod held in St. Paul's Church, Edinburgh, when the canons were again revised. Upon the death of Bishop James Walker [q. v.], Skinner was unanimously elected primus by an episcopal synod held in St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen, on 2 June 1841. During his rule Glenalmond College, near Perth, was ​founded in 1844, and developed by the episcopalians in Scotland, as a place of education for young men studying for the church. In the previous year a serious controversy had sprung out of the refusal of Sir William Dunbar, minister of St. Paul's Chapel, Aberdeen, to receive or to administer the sacrament in accordance with the Scottish ritual. Acting with the concurrence of his synod, Skinner excommunicated Dunbar on 13 Aug. 1843 (An Address by the Rev. Sir W. Dunbar, Bart., 1843; A Letter to the Managers of St. Paul's Chapel by Sir W. Dunbar, to which is added Bishop Skinner's Declaration, 1843; The Rev. Sir W. Dunbar versus the Right Rev. W. Skinner, 1849). The bishop was assiduous and exemplary in the discharge of his duties, and did much during his primacy to consolidate the episcopal party in Scotland. He died at 1 Golden Square, Aberdeen, on 15 April 1857, and was buried in the Spital cemetery on 22 April. He married, in 1804, the youngest daughter of James Brand, cashier of the Aberdeen Banking Company.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skinner, John Edwin Hilary

​SKINNER, JOHN EDWIN HILARY (1839–1894), special correspondent, elder son of Allen Maclean Skinner, Q.C., and a descendant of Matthew Skinner [q. v.], was born in London in January 1839, and educated at London University, where he graduated LL.D. in 1861. In the same year he was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn, and went the northern circuit. A first-rate linguist, he obtained a commission from the ‘Daily News’ as special correspondent with the Danish army in the war of 1864. He was present during the campaign down to the fall of Alsen at the end of June, whereupon Christian IX presented him with the Dannebrog order. A partial success only can be ascribed to his attempt to unravel the Schleswig-Holstein complication in ‘The Tale of Danish Heroism’ (London, 1865, 8vo); his opinion as to the superiority of the Prussian breech-loaders, however, was amply vindicated in the following year, when Skinner reported the Austro-Prussian campaign. In the meantime Skinner had visited America, and on his return wrote two sketchy volumes entitled ‘After the Storm’ (London, 1866, 8vo), dealing with the United States, Canada (the ‘Tendon Achilles’ of the British empire, of which he advocates the independence), and Mexico. In 1867 he ran the blockade into Crete, and in ‘Roughing it in Crete’ (London, 1867, 8vo) advocated the cession of Crete to Greece. This, he contended, would not only conciliate liberal opinion, but would concentrate the Turkish power. Nine years later, on this same subject he contributed ‘Turkish Rule in Crete,’ denouncing the ‘blighting effect’ of Turkish misgovernment, to the ‘Eastern Question Association’ papers (No. ix. 1877). During the Franco-German war of 1870 Skinner was attached to ​the crown prince of Prussia's staff, and described the battles from Wörth to Sedan. He carried his account of the decisive battle from Donchéry, near Sedan, to London, riding neck and neck with Dr. Russell of the ‘Times,’ and crossing from Ostend in the same boat. Their narratives appeared simultaneously on 6 Sept., having been anticipated only in the ‘Pall Mall Gazette.’ For a short time, in the spring of 1881, Skinner was assistant judicial commissioner in Cyprus; in 1885 he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of South Paddington against Lord Randolph Churchill. He died at Setif in Algeria, whither he had gone for his health, early in November 1894. A ‘dapper little man,’ overflowing with vivacity, he was referred to by Mr. Archibald Forbes in 1870 as one of the élite of the profession. His account of Sedan has rarely been surpassed.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skinner, Thomas (1629?-1679)

​SKINNER or SKYNNER, THOMAS (1629?–1679), historian, probably son of Nicholas Skinner, gent., who was educated at Bishops Stortford and was admitted sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 29 May 1646, at the age of sixteen (Mayor, Admissions to the College of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, i. 78). He proceeded doctor of medicine from St. John's College, Oxford, on 17 July 1672, and is described as sometime of Cambridge University (Wood, Fasti, ii. 333; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1500–1714, p. 1362). Skinner practised at Colchester, and is stated to have been ‘physician to the Duke of Albemarle, when residing at New Hall in Essex’ (Preface to Skinner's Life of Monck, p. xcii; cf. Wortley's translation of Guizot's Life of Monck, p. xiv). He was buried at St. Mary's, Colchester, on 8 Aug. 1679 (Morant, History of Colchester, p. 118).
Skinner was the author of:
* ‘Elenchi Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia pars tertia, sive Motus Compositi,’ 8vo, 1676. This was a continuation of Bates's ‘Elenchus;’ an English translation of all three parts was published in 1685.
* ‘The Life of General Monk, Duke of Albemarle,’ 8vo; this was published in 1723 by William Webster, curate of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, with a preface vindicating Monck's character, and attributing the manuscript to Skinner.
A letter from Skinner to the secretary of state in January 1677 states that he was solicited by the second Duke of Albemarle to write a life of his father in Latin, but only this English version of the life has survived. Skinner applied to Dr. Samuel Barrow and others for assistance in his task, and claims to have had access to a collection of Monck's ​papers (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. i. 377, 8th ser. iv. 421). But his book is of little value, and contains no information respecting Monck's career of any special value.
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skinner, Thomas (1800?-1843)

​SKINNER, THOMAS (1800?–1843), soldier and author, born about 1800, was son of Lieutenant-general John Skinner. He entered the army on 25 Jan. 1816 as an ensign in the 16th foot; he became lieutenant on 6 Aug. 1819, captain on 9 Oct. 1823, and exchanged into the 31st foot on 25 March 1824. He proceeded with his regiment to India shortly before 1826, and was stationed at Hardwar, in the North-West provinces, near the foot of the Himalayas. Thence he made expeditions into the little-known mountainous districts of the neighbourhood, and embodied the results of his explorations in a book called ‘Excursions in India’ (London, 1832). After returning home on leave, he went back to India in 1833 by the overland route through Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. Thence he proceeded down the Euphrates, and embarked on the Persian Gulf. He published an account of this journey in ‘Adventures during a Journey Overland to India’ (London, 1836). On 24 Nov. 1835 he attained the rank of major, and in 1842 he joined the force assembled at Jalalabad under Sir George Pollock [q. v.] for the relief of Cabul. He commanded the 31st foot in the ensuing campaign, and on 26 July 1842 was present at the conflict of Mazeena, near Jalalabad. He accompanied Pollock's advance, and was entrusted with the task of clearing the hills on the left of the valley of Tezin in the engagement there on 13 Sept. He received for his services the cross of the Bath and the Cabul medal, and was gazetted on 23 Dec. to the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died at Landaur on 6 May 1843 from the results of privations endured during the campaign.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skinner, Stephen

​SKINNER, STEPHEN (1623–1667), physician and philologist, born in 1623, was the son of John Skinner of London. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 6 Dec. 1639; but the civil war breaking out, he left England and ‘served in wars beyond seas.’ He was probably the Skinner who was stated by the parliamentary visitors of Oxford to be ‘in the service of Ireland.’ In 1646 he was again at Oxford, and in consideration of his foreign service was allowed to accumulate both his arts degrees in that same year, B.A. on 21 Oct. and M.A. on 10 Nov. On 22 April 1649 he entered as a medical student at Leyden, on 6 May 1653 at Heidelberg, and on 4 Nov. 1653 again at Leyden. At the beginning of 1654 he graduated M.D. of Heidelberg, and on 26 May following was incorporated in that degree at Oxford. Wood says that during his absence from England he ‘visited France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, visited the courts of divers princes, frequented several universities, and obtained the company and friendship of the most learned men of them.’ He was made honorary fellow of the College of Physicians in December 1664. He practised in Lincoln, where he died of malignant fever on 5 Sept. 1667. Administration of his estate was granted to his sister, Elizabeth Bowyer, and his daughter Stephanie Skinner, on 7 Sept. 1667.
Skinner left behind him several philological treatises in manuscript which are enumerated by Wood. These were edited by Thomas Henshaw [q. v.] and published in London in 1671, under the title of ‘Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicanæ.’ Dr. Johnson gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Skinner in the preface to his ‘Dictionary’ (1755).
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, vol. iii. cols. 793–4; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, vol. ii. cols. 90, 91, 148; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Album Studiosorum Academiæ Lugduno-Batavæ, pp. 394, 432; Toepke's Die Matrikel der Universität Heidelberg, ii. 316; Burrows's Reg. of Visitors, p. 329; Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 335–6; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 122, 168; Horne Tooke's Epea pteroenta, passim.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paye, Henry

​PAYE, HENRY (fl. 1405–1415), sea captain, appears to have belonged to Poole. In 1403 he was sent to Calais to aid in settling some Flemish claims, and in August 1404 he was directed to prepare to meet a threatened French invasion. In 1405 he was associated with Lord Berkeley in command of a fleet levied for the defence of the Channel, with the special object of preventing the French from sending assistance to Owen Glendower. They succeeded in landing a strong body of men in Milford Haven, but there their fleet was attacked by the English under Berkeley and Paye, and fifteen of their ships burnt. A strong reinforcement which was being sent to the French in Wales was met at sea, and fourteen ships laden with military stores were captured. Paye afterwards ravaged the coast of France, and is said to have brought home 120 vessels laden with iron, salt, oil, and wine. The French soon obtained assistance from Spain, and a combined squadron of French and Spanish galleys came into the Channel. So far as can be made out from the confused geography, they sacked Looe, judged Falmouth too strong, were beaten off from Plymouth, and again from Portland. They then came to Poole, which the Spanish chronicler describes as belonging to a knight called Arripay—Harry Paye—who scours the seas as a corsair with many ships. This ‘Arripay came often upon the coast of Castile, and carried away many ships; he scoured the channel of Flanders, so that no vessel could pass that way without being taken; he burnt Gijon and Finisterre, and carried off the famous and most holy crucifix from Santa Maria de Finisterre, and much more damage he did in Castile, taking many prisoners, and exacting ransoms; and though other armed ships came there from England, he it was who came oftenest.’ In revenge for Paye's ravages in Castile, the Spaniards now resolved to land and burn Poole; but after a sharp fight, in which a brother of Paye was slain, they were driven back to their ships. They afterwards went to the Isle of Wight, and, meeting no good success there, returned to France. Paye's knighthood seems to have been conferred on him by the Spanish chronicler. On 19 July 1414 he was paid eight marks for going to Calais to report on the state of the garrison.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paxton, John

​PAXTON, JOHN (d. 1780), painter, appears to have been of Scottish origin, and to have been a student in Foulis's art academy at Glasgow. He subsequently studied at Rome. He was one of the original members of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and signed their declaration roll in 1766. In that year he sent to their exhibition from Rome ‘Samson in Distress.’ In 1769 and 1770 he exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy, and in the latter year settled in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, where he had considerable practice as a portrait-painter. He continued to exhibit with the Society of Artists, of which he was director in 1775, sending chiefly portraits, but also scriptural, classical, and historical subjects. Subsequently he received some commissions to paint portraits in India, and went there about 1776. He died at Bombay in 1780. Paxton painted a portrait of Signorina Zamperini as ‘Cechina.’ A portrait by him of his fellow-pupil, James Tassie [q. v.], is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery at Edinburgh. Paxton is alluded to in John Langhorne's ‘Fables of Flora,’ 1771.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paxton, Peter

​PAXTON, PETER (d. 1711), medical writer and pamphleteer, was admitted to the degree of M.D. per literas regias, at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1687. His name does not appear in the admission-book of Pembroke College, and he may have come from Oxford for an ad eundem degree. In 1704 he lived in Beaufort Street, London. His last work, ‘Specimen Physico-medicum,’ is posthumous, and the bookseller speaks of the author as recently dead. Paxton wrote: 1. ‘An Essay concerning the Body of Man, wherein its Changes or Diseases are consider'd and the Operations of Medicines observed,’ London, 1701. This work, which traces all diseases to the fluids in the body, was reviewed in ‘History of the Works of the Learned’ for March 1701 (iii. 177–83). 2. ‘The Grounds of Physick examined, and the Reasons of the Abuses prov'd to be different from what have been usually assign'd; in answer to a Letter from the ingenious Dr. G.,’ London, 1703, 8vo; an attack on apothecaries. 3. ‘A Discourse concerning the Nature, Advantage, and Improvement of Trade, with some Considerations why the charges of the Poor do and will increase,’ London, 1704 (a sensible and remarkable exposition of laissez faire). 4. ‘A Scheme for Union between England and Scotland, with Advantages to both Kingdoms,’ London, 1705. 5. ‘A Directory Physico-medical, composed for the Use and Benefit of all such as design to study and practise the Art of Physick, wherein proper Methods and Rules are prescrib'd for the better understanding of that Art, and Catalogues of such Authors exhibited as are necessary to be consulted by all young Students,’ London, 1707. 6. ‘Specimen Physico-medicum de corpore humano et ejus morbis: or an Essay concerning the Knowledge and Cure of most Diseases affecting Human Bodies, to which is annex'd a short Account of Salivation and the use of Mercury, with a copious Index,’ London, 1711, posthumous; an expansion by Paxton himself of No. 1, and written in Latin, ‘but I find,’ says the printer to the reader, ‘that he preferred to have it turned into English, and I have done so’ (History of the Works of the Learned, xiii. 97).
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paye, Richard Morton

​PAYE, RICHARD MORTON (d. 1821), painter, is stated to have been born at Botley (?) in Kent. His name first appears in 1773, when he was living in London, and sent two portraits in oil and two models in wax to the Royal Academy. He continued to exhibit there not infrequently during the following years up to 1798, sending portraits, miniatures, and small figure subjects. He also exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1783. He had some skill as a modeller and chaser, which accounts for a certain sculpturesque feeling in his pictures. Paye especially excelled in painting children, both as single portraits and in groups. A number of these were engraved by John Young [q. v.], who did much to assist the painter, ​V. Green, J. R. Smith, W. Ward, R. Pollard, and others, and are valuable, because truthful records of child-life in Paye's day. Paye was greatly helped in early life by the Rev. Joseph Holden Potts, vicar of Kensington and archdeacon of Middlesex, who purchased many of his works. Subsequently he was patronised by Dr. John Wolcot (Peter Pindar) [q. v.], who did much to promote Paye's success as a painter, until a breach took place between them. When left to his own resources Paye quickly sank into poverty and neglect, and was eventually crippled by illness, though he continued painting after losing the use of his right arm. He received assistance from the artists' benevolent fund, but died quite forgotten and neglected in December 1821. At the exhibition of A Century of British Art (Grosvenor Gallery, 1888–9) a picture was lent by Sir John Neeld, bart., representing a candle-light scene (a style in which Paye especially excelled), with a portrait of the artist engraving a portrait. A picture by Paye of an interior, with an old woman at work, was once sold as a fine Netherlandish work, and another picture, ‘The Widow's Cruse,’ was not only sold, but even exhibited in a well-known picture-dealer's shop as the work of Velasquez. A portrait of Paye, engraved from a drawing by himself, accompanies a memoir of him in Arnold's ‘Library of the Fine Arts.’ Paye appears to have had a son (C. W. Paye) and a daughter, who both painted miniatures, and were exhibitors at the Royal Academy from 1798 to 1808.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paxton, James

​PAXTON, JAMES (1786–1860), surgeon and medical writer, was born in London on 11 Jan. 1786. He was admitted M.R.C.S., London, 16 March 1810, and was created M.D. of St. Andrews 1845. For a time he acted as an army surgeon, but in 1816 took a practice at Long Buckley, Northamptonshire. Thence he removed to Oxford in 1821, where he had considerable success as a general practitioner. He was assistant-surgeon to the Oxfordshire militia. In 1843 he removed to a practice at Rugby. A small estate was bequeathed to him in 1858 at Ledwell, a hamlet of the parish ​of Sandford St. Martin, seventeen miles from Oxford. There he died, at his residence, Ledwell House, after a very short illness, on 12 March 1860, and was buried in the churchyard at Sandford. He married Miss Anna Griffin, who died in 1864, and one of his two daughters married the Rev. Henry Highton, headmaster of Cheltenham College.
Paxton was a man of strong religious feelings, and was highly esteemed by his friends and patients. His writings had much success. Their titles are: 1. ‘Specimen of an Introduction to the Study of Human Anatomy,’ 1830. 2. ‘An Introduction to the Study of Human Anatomy,’ London, 1831, 8vo, 2 vols.; new edit. 1841. This book was republished in America, where it went through three editions. 3. ‘The Medical Friend; or Advice for the Preservation of Health,’ Oxford, 1843. 4. ‘Living Streams, or Illustrations of the Natural History and various Diseases of the Blood,’ London, 8vo, 1855. He contributed ‘A Case of Scirrhous Pylorus and Mortification of the Stomach’ to the ‘Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,’ xv. 328, and edited Paley's ‘Natural Theology,’ with ‘a series of plates and explanatory notes,’ Oxford, 1826, 8vo, 2 vols.
E. H. M.