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

​VALLANS, WILLIAM (fl. 1578–1590), poet, son of John Vallans, was born near Ware in Hertfordshire, and afterwards carried on business as a salter. He was a friend of Camden and other antiquaries, and himself took an interest in antiquarian matters. In 1590 he published a poem in unrhymed hexameters entitled ‘A Tale of Two Swannes,’ printed by Roger Ward for John Sheldrake (London, 4to). In the poem he announced his intention of leaving England, and likened his farewell verses to the swan's dying song. The poem is devoted to a description of the situation and antiquities of several towns in Hertfordshire, and mention is made of many seats in the county belonging to the queen and nobility. Vallans probably carried out his intention of leaving England soon after. His poem is one of the earliest examples of the employment of blank verse in English literature outside the drama, and he was perhaps induced to attempt this form of metre by his admiration for Abraham Fraunce [q. v.], from whose translation of Thomas Watson's Latin ‘Odes’ he quotes. His book is extremely rare. It was reprinted by Thomas Hearne (1678–1735) [q. v.] in 1711 in the fifth volume of his edition of Leland's ‘Itinerary’ from a copy in the possession of Thomas Rawlinson (1681–1725) [q. v.] Another poem by ‘William Vallans, salter,’ is preserved in the Harleian manuscripts (No. 367, f. 129). It complains of the injustice of suffering John Stowe to go unrewarded after compiling his ‘Survey of London.’ Vallans had some commendatory verses prefixed to ‘Whartons Dreame,’ published in 1578; and Hearne assigns to him the authorship of ‘The Honourable Prentice; or thys Tayler is a Man; shewed in the Life and Death of Sir John Hawkewood,’ by W. V., London, 1615 4to, 1616 4to (Bodleian Library).
[Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Addit. MS. 24488, pp. 186–7; Ritson's Bibl. Poet.; Brydges's Restituta, iv. 444–7; Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poetry, 1840, iii. 69–70.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Diest, Adriaen

​ VAN DIEST, ADRIAEN (1656–1704), landscape-painter, born at The Hague in 1656, was son of Willem Van Diest, a well-known painter of marine subjects. Van Diest received his principal instruction from his father, and came to England with him when about seventeen years of age. He was patronised by various members of the nobility, and gained some repute for his landscapes. It is probable that he was employed by Sir Peter Lely for this purpose, for seven landscapes by Van Diest are enumerated in the catalogue of Sir Peter Lely's collection. The landscapes were chiefly in the Italian manner, suitable for mantelpieces or to be placed over doors. That he visited Italy at one time is evident from a statement by Vertue that he had seen a portrait, of Van Diest ‘from a drawing done at Rome when he was there by a painter in England; he is represented with a sort of Raysed stuff about his head and a drawing in his hand partly enrolled representing part of a landskip.’ His works were carefully if somewhat laboriously finished. Van Diest died of gout in 1704, aged 48, and was buried in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. He left a son, J. Van Diest, who painted portraits, some of which have been engraved.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Valentine, Benjamin

​VALENTINE, BENJAMIN (d. 1652?), parliamentarian, was probably a native of Cheshire. He was elected on 3 March 1627–1628 to represent the borough of St. Germans in the parliament of 1628–9. He was in the House of Commons on 2 March 1628–9 ​when Speaker Finch would have obeyed the king's direction for adjournment. Valentine, with Denzil Holles [q. v.], held the speaker down in his seat while Sir John Eliot [q. v.] read out resolutions questioning the king's proceedings respecting religion and taxation. On 5 March, with Selden and Coryton, he was under examination at the council board, and was committed to the Tower. On 17 March he was examined before a committee of the council, when he refused to answer any questions respecting acts done in parliament. On 6 May he, with Selden, Holles, Strode, Hobart, and Long, considering themselves legally entitled to bail, applied to the court of king's bench for a writ of habeas corpus. Such stringent conditions were, however, imposed that Valentine absolutely declined to comply with them, and refused to accept bail (3 Oct. 1629). On 7 May an information was filed against him and others by the attorney-general in the Star-chamber, but the prisoners were proceeded against in the court of king's bench. Valentine's ‘plea and demurrer’ to the information of Attorney-general Heath, prepared by his counsel, Robert Mason [q. v.] and Henry Calthorpe [q. v.], was issued on 22 May, and was followed by a further plea on 1 June in answer to the altered information of 29 May. With Selden he should have appeared before the judges of the king's bench on 24 June, had not the king reversed the order for fear that bail should be granted. On 13 Oct. Heath brought in his information against Eliot, Holles, and Valentine in the court of king's bench. On 29 Oct. the three prisoners were transferred from the Tower to the Marshalsea. They appeared in court on 26 Jan. 1630, and again the following day, when Valentine's case was pleaded by Calthorpe. Judgment was pronounced on 12 Feb., when Valentine was fined 500l.
During the summer of 1630 Valentine, with Selden and Strode, was removed to the Gatehouse on account of the sickness in the town. Through the leniency of their keeper they were frequently released on short paroles. They visited Eliot in the Tower, and passed whole weeks in the country in their own houses or in those of their friends. Returning to the Gatehouse towards the end of September, they were put into closer confinement, and their keeper fined 100l. and committed to the Marshalsea. Valentine continued a prisoner for eleven years, and was finally released in January 1640. He took the protestation on 5 May 1641, and the covenant on 25 Sept. 1643. He was elected to represent St. Germans in the Long parliament. Compensation for his losses was granted him by the parliament between 1643 and 1648. Valentine died before 1653. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Springham, by whom he had at least one son, Matthias, who died in the winter of 1653–4, and is described in his will as of St. Clement Danes, Middlesex (P. C. C., Alchin, 319).
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Valpy, Edward

​VALPY, EDWARD (1764–1832), classical scholar, fourth son of Richard Valpy of St. John's, Jersey, by his wife Catherine, daughter of John Chevalier, was born at Reading in 1764. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.D. in 1810. After leaving college he acted for many years as a master at Reading school under his brother, Richard Valpy [q. v.] In 1810 he was elected high master of Norwich school, which greatly improved under his direction. In 1819 he became rector of All Saints, Thwaite, and vicar of St. Mary, South Walsham, both in Norfolk. These livings he held till his death at Yarmouth on 15 April 1832. Valpy married Anne, daughter of Thomas Western of Great Abington, Cambridgeshire, and widow of Chaloner-Byng Baldock, vicar of Milton Abbey in Dorset. By her he had a son, the Rev. Edward John Western Valpy, who died in 1830.
Valpy published: 1. ‘Elegantiæ Latinæ; or Rules and Exercises illustrative of Elegant Latin Style,’ 1803, which went through ten editions in his lifetime. 2. ‘The Greek Testament, with English notes, selected and original,’ 3 vols. 1815, 8vo; this work was well received and was much improved in a new edition of 1826 (Hartwell Horne, Compendious Introduction, 1827).
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Haecken, Joseph

​VAN HAECKEN (VAN AKEN), JOSEPH (1699?–1749), painter, was born at Antwerp about 1699. He came over to England at about the age of twenty, and was a good painter of history and portraits. He found more profitable employment, however, as painter of drapery and other accessories for Thomas Hudson (1701–1779) [q. v.], Allan Ramsay (1713–1784) [q. v.], and other portrait-painters. In this branch of art he showed remarkable excellence. Van Haecken died on 4 July 1749, and was buried in St. Pancras Church, leaving a widow, but no children. Hudson and Ramsay were executors of his will. Hogarth is stated to have drawn a caricature of a mock-funeral procession of Van Haecken, showing the distress of the painters at the loss of their indispensable assistant. Ramsay painted Van Haecken's portrait. A few portraits by Van Haecken himself were engraved in mezzotint by his younger brother, Alexander van Haecken (b. 1701), who lived with him and shared his work. A number of portraits by Amiconi, Hudson, Ramsay, and others were engraved in mezzotint by the younger Van Haecken, who carried on his brother's practice after his death.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Vertue's Manuscripts (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23074, f. 9); Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]
L. C.
# The feet of people walking home
### Version 1

The feet of people walking home With gayer sandals go - The crocus - till she rises - The vassal of the snow - The lips at Hallelujah Long years of practise bore - Till bye and bye, these Bargemen Walked - singing - on the shore
Pearls are the Diver's farthings Extorted form the sea - Pinions - the Seraph's wagon - Pedestrian once - as we - Night is the morning's canvas - Larceny - legacy - Death - but our rapt attention To immortality.
My figures fail to tell me How far the village lies - Whose peasants are the angels - Whose cantons dot the skies - My Classics vail their faces - My faith that Dark adores - Which from it's solemn abbeys - Such resurrection pours!

### Version 2

The feet of people walking home With gayer sandals go - The Crocus - till she rises The Vassal of the snow - The lips at Hallelujah Long years of practise bore Till bye and bye these Bargemen Walked singing on the shore
Pearls are the Diver's farthings Extorted form the Sea - Pinions - the Seraph's wagon Pedestrian once - as we -
Night is the morning's Canvas Larceny - legacy - Death, but our rapt attention To Immortality.
My figures fail to tell me How far the Village lies - Whose peasants are the angels - Whose Cantons dot the skies - My Classics vail their faces - My faith that Dark adores - Which from it's solemn abbeys Such resurrection pours.

### Version 3

The feet of people walking home With gayer Sandals go - The Crocus - till she rises The Vassal of the snow - The lips at Hallelujah Long years of practise bore Till bye and bye these Bargemen Walked singing, on the shore
Pearls are the Diver's farthings - Extorted form the sea - Pinions - the Seraph's wagon - Pedestrian once, as we - Night is the morning's Canvas Larceny - legacy - Death, but our rapt attention To immortality.
My figures fail to tell me How far the village lies - Whose peasants are the angels - Whose Cantons dot the skies - My Classics vail their faces - My faith that dark adores - Which from it's solemn abbeys Such resurrection pours!

### Version 4

The feet of people walking home - With gayer sandals go - The Crocus, till she rises The Vassal of the snow -
The lips at Hallelujah Long years of practise bore - Till bye and bye these Bargemen Walked singing, on the shore.
Pearls are the Diver's farthings - Extorted form the sea - Pinions - the Seraph's wagon - Pedestrian once - as we -
Night is the morning's Canvas Larceny - Legacy. Death, but our rapt attention To immortality.
My figures fail to tell me How far the village lies Whose peasants are the angels - Whose Cantons dot the skies -
My Classics vail their faces - My faith that dark adores - Which from it's solemn abbeys Such resurrection pours -
# The farthest Thunder that I heard

The farthest Thunder that I heard Was nearer than the Sky And rumbles still, though torrid Noons Have lain their missiles by — The Lightning that preceded it Struck no one but myself — But I would not exchange the Bolt For all the rest of Life — Indebtedness to Oxygen The Happy may repay, But not the obligation To Electricity — It founds the Homes and decks the Days And every clamor bright Is but the gleam concomitant Of that waylaying Light — The Thought is quiet as a Flake — A Crash without a Sound, How Life's reverberation Its Explanation found —
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, Patrick (1629-1692)

​RUSSELL, PATRICK (1629–1692), archbishop of Dublin, son of James Russell of Rush, co. Dublin, was born in that parish in 1629. It is probable that he was educated for the priesthood and held preferment abroad prior to his election as archbishop of Dublin on 2 Aug. 1683. The first two years of his archiepiscopate were full of danger. He was frequently obliged to retire to Rush and seek concealment in the house of his kinsman, Geoffrey Russell. In 1685, however, the accession of James II was followed by a suspension of the penal laws. Russell seized the opportunity of restoring the discipline of the church. For this purpose he convened two provincial assemblies in 1685 and 1688, and three diocesan synods in 1686, 1688, and 1689. He signed the petition presented to James by the catholic bishops of Ireland on 21 July 1685, praying him to confer on Tyrconnel authority to protect them in the exercise of their ministry, and took an active part in appointing delegates to suggest to the king the best methods for securing religious liberty. James granted him a pension of 200l. a year.
During James's residence in Ireland Russell was in personal attendance on him, and performed the services of the church in the royal presence. On the flight of James he lay concealed for some time in the country, but was ultimately captured and imprisoned. He was temporarily released on bail, but again arrested, and, it is said, thrown into an underground cell. He succumbed to these hardships, and died in prison on 14 July 1692. He was buried in the churchyard at Lusk.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, Michael

​RUSSELL, MICHAEL (1781–1848), bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, eldest son of John Russell, a citizen of Edinburgh, was born in 1781. Matriculating at Glasgow Nov. 1800, he graduated M.A. in 1806. Afterwards he was appointed second master of the grammar school at Stirling; but, having become a convert to episcopalianism, he resigned his situation and opened a school of his own. In 1808 he was admitted into deacon's orders, and ordained to the charge of a small congregation in Alloa; but he continued to retain his school until his appointment in the autumn of the following year to the charge of St. James's Chapel, Leith. In 1831 he was made dean of the diocese of Edinburgh, and on 8 Oct. 1837 he was ordained bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, on the separation of that diocese from Edinburgh and St. Andrews. The religious opinions of Russell had a tincture of liberality which caused his orthodoxy to be questioned by the more intolerant of his brethren. In the administration of the affairs of the diocese he was at once conciliatory and energetic, and it is chiefly to him that the Scottish church was indebted for the bill passed in 1840 removing religious disabilities from Scottish episcopalians. In 1820 he received the degree of LL.D. from the university of Glasgow, and in 1842 the university of Oxford conferred on him the diploma degree of D.C.L., for which purpose he was admitted a member of St. John's College. He died suddenly on 2 April 1848, and was buried at Restalrig; a marble slab was erected to his memory in St. James's episcopal chapel, Leith.
Russell was a voluminous author. For many years he was a contributor to the ‘Encyclopædia Metropolitana’ and the ‘British Critic,’ and he was for some time editor ​of the ‘Scottish Episcopal Review and Magazine.’ To the Edinburgh Cabinet Library he contributed volumes on ‘Palestine,’ 1831, ‘Ancient and Modern Egypt,’ 1831, ‘Nubia and Abyssinia,’ 1833, ‘The Barbary States,’ 1835, ‘Polynesia,’ 1842, and ‘Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Isles,’ 1850. For ‘Constable's Miscellany’ he wrote a life of Oliver Cromwell (1829, 2 vols. 8vo). Besides many single sermons and charges, he was also the author of ‘A View of Education in Scotland,’ 1813; ‘Connection of Sacred and Profane History from the Death of Joshua to the Decline of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah,’ 3 vols. 1827, intended to complete the works of Shuckford and Prideaux; ‘Observations on the Advantages of Classical Learning,’ 1830; and a ‘History of the Church of Scotland’ in Rivington's Theological Library, 1834. He published an edition of Keith's ‘Scottish Bishops’ (1824, 8vo), and edited Archbishop Spotiswood's ‘History of the Church of Scotland’ for the Bannatyne Club and the Spotiswood Society jointly (1847 and 1851).
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, Richard

The ODNB states that the article confuses two physicians, Richard Russell, FRS (1687–1759) and Richard Russel (1714?–1771).
​RUSSELL, RICHARD, M.D. (d. 1771), physician, graduated M.D. at Rheims on 7 Jan. 1738. He was in practice at Ware, and on 23 July 1742 was admitted an extra licentiate of the College of Physicians of London. He published in 1750 at Oxford a dissertation ‘De Tabe Glandulari,’ in which he recommends the use of sea-water for the cure of enlarged lymphatic glands. This was afterwards published in English by W. Owen in London, and in 1769 reached a sixth edition. He was elected F.R.S. on 13 Feb. 1752, and in 1755 published ‘Œconomia Naturæ in Morbis acutis et chronicis Glandularum,’ dedicated to Thomas Pelham-Holles, duke of Newcastle [q. v.], in which he discusses the condition, diseases, and treatment of glands throughout the body, regarding them as of one system or tissue, whether secretory or lymphatic. In the volume is printed a letter from him to Richard Frewin, ​M.D., on the use of salt water externally in the cure of tuberculous glands. It is dated from Lewes, January 1752. He went to live in Reading, and there died on 5 July 1771 (Gent. Mag. 1771, p. 335).
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, Thomas (1781?-1846)

​RUSSELL or Cloutt, THOMAS (1781?–1846), independent minister, was born at Marden, Kent, about 1781. His father and grandfather were members of the church of England, and he was himself confirmed in that communion, but was educated for the dissenting ministry at Hoxton Academy (September 1800–June 1803), under Robert Simpson, D.D. His first settlement was at Tonbridge, Kent, in 1803. In 1806 he became minister of Pell Street Chapel, Ratcliff Highway, where he was ordained on 5 Sept. His tastes were literary, and he edited a collection of hymns as an appendix to Watts; but his ministry was not popular. About 1820 he adopted the name of Russell, and obtained in 1823 the king's patent for the change. Soon afterwards he received from a Scottish university the diploma of M.A. On the closing of Pell Street Chapel a few years before his death, he became minister of Baker Street Chapel, Enfield, Middlesex. He was a Coward trustee, and (from 1842) a trustee of the foundations of Daniel Williams, D.D. [q. v.]; he was also secretary of the Aged Ministers' Relief Society. Contrary to the general sentiment of his denomination, he was a promoter of the Dissenters' Chapels Act of 1844 [see Field, Edward Wilkins]. He died at his residence, Penton Row, Walworth, Surrey, on 10 Dec. 1846. His sons, Arthur Tozer Russell [q. v.] and John Fuller Russell [q. v.], are separately noticed.
Under the name of Cloutt he published four sermons (1806–18), and a ‘Collection of Hymns,’ 1813, 12mo (17th edit. 1832, 12mo). His ‘Jubilee Sermon’ (1809) was roughly handled in the ‘Anti-Jacobin Review,’ November 1809, and he issued a defensive ‘Appendix,’ giving autobiographical particulars. In 1823 he began his edition of the works of John Owen, D.D. [q. v.], finishing it in 1826 in twenty octavo volumes, uniform with the ‘Life of Owen,’ 1820, 8vo, by William Orme [q. v.]; sets are usually completed by prefixing this ‘Life,’ and adding the seven volumes of Owen on Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1812–14, 8vo), edited by James Wright; but Russell's edition has been superseded by that of W. H. Goold, D.D. In 1828 he issued proposals for a series of ‘The Works of the English and Scottish Reformers;’ only three vols. 1829–31, 8vo, were published, containing works of William Tindal [q. v.] and John Frith [q. v.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Adler, Nathan Marcus

​ADLER, NATHAN MARCUS (1803–1890), chief rabbi, born at Hanover on 15 Jan. 1803, was third son of Mordecai Adler, rabbi in Hanover, and grand-nephew of Rabbi David Tewele Schiff, chief rabbi of London in the reign of George III (from 1705 to 1792). In addition to careful instruction in Hebrew and theology, he received a good general education, and he attended successively the universities of Gcittingen, Erlangen, Wiirzburg, and Heidelberg. On 27 March 1828 he received a certificate of ordination from Abraham Bing, the chief rabbi of Wiirzburg, and on 5 June graduated Ph.D. from the university of Erlangen. In 1829 he was elected chief rabbi of the grand duchy of Oldenburg, and in 1830 he undertook the office of chief rabbi of Hanover, which his father was unable to fill from lack of qualifications required by the government. On 13 Oct. 1844 he was elected chief rabbi of London, in succession to Rabbi Solomon Hirschel [q. v.], and on 9 July 1845 was installed at the great synagogue. He entered on his office shortly after the foundation of the 'reform' congregation in Burton Street, at a time when one party in the Jewish church was urging rapid innovation, while another was opposing all change. Adler represented the moderate party, which desired to effect improvement by gradual modifications. His first efforts were for the improvement of Jewish schools, especially of those for the middle class. He inspected the schools and pointed out their deficiencies. On his initiative a training college for the Jewish ministry, known as Jews' College, was founded at 10 Finsbury Square on 11 Nov. 1855, From him also proceeded, on 24 Sept. 1860, the first proposal for uniting the English congregations under one management, which resulted in the passage of the United Synagogues bill through parliament in 1870. For many years he lived at 4 Crosby Square, Bisliopsgate. Subsequently he removed to 16 Finsbury Square, and in 1880 he left London for Brighton, where he took a house at 36 First Avenue. His son, Dr. Hermann Adler, was at the same time appointed to perform the main duties of his office, with the title of delegate chief rabbi. Dr. Adler died at his residence at Brighton on 21 Jan. 1890, and was buried at Willesden cemetery on 23 Jan.
Adler was twice married. By his first wife, Henrietta Worms (d. 1854), of Frankfort, he had five children—two sons and three daughters. The younger son, Dr. Hermann Adler, succeeded him as chief rabbi. By his second wife, Celestine Lehfeldt, who survived him, he had one son and two daughters.
A portrait of Adler by Solomon Alexander Hart [q. v.] is in the vestry room of the great synagogue, and another by Mr. B. S. Marks was presented to the council by the president of the united synagogue. Adler published several sermons, and was the author of a Hebrew commentary on the Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos on the Pentateuch, 'Nethinah la-ger,' Wilna, 1874; 2nd edit. 1877.
[Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890; Jewish Chronicle, 24, 31 Jan. 1890; Biograph, 1881, v. 136-9.]
E. I. C.