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

​PHELPS, JOHN (fl. 1649), regicide, matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 20 May 1636, describing himself as aged 17, and the son of Robert Phelps of Salisbury (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1st ser. p. 1155). His first employment seems to have been that of clerk to the committee for plundered ministers. On 1 Jan. 1648–9 he was appointed clerk-assistant to Henry Elsing, clerk of the House of Commons, and on 8 Jan. was selected as one of the two clerks of the high court of justice which sat to try Charles I (Commons' Journals, vi. 107; Nalson, Trial of Charles I, 1682, pp. 7, 9). The original journal of the court, attested under the hand of Phelps, and presented by the judges to the House of Commons, was published by John Nalson in 1682 (ib. p. xiv; Commons' Journals, vi. 508). In 1650 Phelps was called to the bar at the Middle Temple. On 14 Oct. 1652 he was made clerk to the committee of parliament chosen to confer with the deputies of Scotland on the question of the union (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651–2, p. 439). He was em​ployed as official note-taker at the trial of Vowell and Fox in 1654, and was also concerned in the trial of Slingsby and Hewitt in 1658 (ib. 1654 p. 235, 1658–9 p. 11). From 7 to 14 May 1659 he again acted as clerk of the House of Commons (Commons' Journals, vii. 644, 650). By these different employments Phelps made sufficient money to purchase a part of the manor of Hampton Court, which was bought from him in 1654 for the use of the Protector (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, pp. 180, 223).
At the Restoration the House of Commons included Phelps and his fellow-clerk Broughton among the regicides, and on 14 May 1660 voted their arrest (Commons' Journals, viii. 25). Prynne was ordered to secure all the public documents which were among the papers of Phelps, and his goods were also seized (ib. pp. 27, 32, 43, 47). On 9 June it was further voted that he should be excepted from the Act of Indemnity for future punishment by some penalty less than death; and on 1 July 1661 he was attainted, in company with twenty-one dead regicides (ib. pp. 60, 286). Phelps, however, succeeded in evading all pursuit, and in 1662 he was at Lausanne in company with Ludlow. At the close of that year he and Colonel John Biscoe bought goods at Geneva and other places, and resolved to try to make a livelihood by trading in Germany and Holland (Ludlow, Memoirs, ii. 344, ed. 1894). In 1666 he appears to have been in Holland, and his name was included in a list of exiles summoned on 21 July to surrender themselves within a given time to the English government (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, pp. 342, 348, 358). The date and the place of his death are unknown. A tablet to his memory was erected a few years ago in St. Martin's Church, Vevay (Ludlow, ii. 513; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vi. 13).
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pherd, John

Duplicates Fontibus, John de
​PHERD, JOHN (d. 1225), bishop of Ely, properly called John of Fountains, was a Cistercian monk of Fountains, and was chosen ninth abbot of his house in December 1211. He received the benediction from Ralph, bishop of Down, at Melrose (Chron. de Mailros, p. 111, Bannatyne Club). In July-September 1213 he was employed on official business by the king, perhaps in connection with the taxation of, the Cistercians (Rot. Litt. Claus, i. 132, 143). At a chapter-general of the Cistercians in 1218 he was one of the abbots appointed to deal with difficult cases concerning the order in England (Martene, iv. 1323). On 26 April 1219 he was one of three ordered by the pope to inquire into the proposed canonisation of St. Hugh of Lincoln (Cal. Papal Registers, i. 59, 66; Matt. Paris, iii. 58). The election of Robert of York to the bishopric of Ely having been quashed by the pope, Pherd was appointed to that see by Pandulf, the legate, and Stephen Langton, acting under authority from Honorius (Ann. Mon. iii. 56, iv. 412). He was accordingly elected 24 Dec. 1219, and received the royal assent on the same day. He was consecrated by Langton at Westminster on 8 March 1220, and was enthroned at Ely on 25 March (Matt. Paris, iii. 58; Le Neve, Fasti, i. 328). On 2 June he was appointed with Richard Poore [q. v.], bishop of Salisbury, to inquire into the charges against Richard de Marisco [q. v.], bishop of Durham. With this purpose he went to Durham, and paid a visit to Fountains on his way. On 6 Feb. 1221 proceedings were stayed, pending an appeal by Richard de Marisco, but were again resumed on 1 July.; the matter was unsettled at Pherd's death; he was engaged with it in 1224 and 1225 (Ann. Mon. iii. 62, 67; Matt. Paris, iii. 62-4; Cal. Papal Registers, i. 72, 78, 82, 93, 97, 101, 104). He was employed on various matters by Pope Honorius (ib. i. 89, 90, 95-6), and was one of the bishops who witnessed the confirmation of the Great Charter on 11 Feb. 1225 (Ann. Mon. i. 231). He died at Downham on 6 May 1225, and was buried in the cathedral, towards the altar of St. Andrew (Anglia Sacra, i. 635). His tomb was opened 'when the choir was moved into the presbytery' (Bentham, Ely, p. 76). He gave a cope and other vestments and a pastoral staff to the cathedral, and bequeathed the tithes of Hadham for his commemoration. In the 'Flores Historiarum' (ii. 172, Rolls Ser.) he is described as 'a just and simple man who abhorred evil.' The Bollandists include him in their catalogue of 'prætermissi' under 9 June (Acta Sanctorum, June, ii. 147). In contemporary chronicles he is always described simply as Johannes de Fontibus, or Johannes Eliensis. The name Pherd appears to be due to an error of Burton, who misread Elien' in the manuscript (Monasticon Eboracense, p. 210; cf. Memorials of Fountains, i. 134).
[Matthew Paris, Annales Monastici, Cartularium de Rameseia (all three in Rolls Ser.); Memorials of Fountains, i. 134-6 (Surtees Soc.); Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 634-5; Bliss's Calendar of Papal Registers.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phelps, William

​PHELPS, WILLIAM (1776–1856), topographer, son of the Rev. John Phelps of Flax Bourton, Somerset, matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1793, and graduated B.A. from St. Alban Hall in 1797. He took holy orders, was vicar of Meare and Bicknoller, Somerset, from 1824 till 1851, when he became rector of Oxcombe, Lincolnshire. There he died on 17 Aug. 1856. He published 'A Botanical Calendar' in 1810 and guide-books to the Duchy of Nassau (1842) and Frankfort-on-the-Main (1844). But his chief work was a very elaborate 'History and Antiquities of Somersetshire,' with a learned historical introduction and illustrations. Seven parts were issued between 1835 and 1839, when they reappeared in two volumes. The undertaking was left incomplete.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Phelps's Works; Gent. Mag. 1836 i. 174sq.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phesant, Peter

​PHESANT, PETER (1580?–1649), judge, son of Peter Phesant, barrister-at-law, of Gray's Inn, by his wife Jane, daughter of ​Vincent Fulnetby, was born probably at his father's manor of Barkwith, Lincolnshire, about 1580. The father was reader at Gray's Inn in Lent 1582, and also attorney-general in the northern parts. The son, on 26 Oct. 1602, entered Gray's Inn, where he was called to the bar in 1608, elected ancient in 1622, being then one of the ‘common pleaders’ for the city of London, bencher in 1623, and reader in the autumn of 1624. On 19 May 1640 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and on 10 March following was prayed as counsel by attorney-general Sir Thomas Herbert on his impeachment, but excused himself on the score of ill-health. In 1641 he was justice of assize and nisi prius for the county of Nottingham. He was recorder of London in the interval, 2–30 May 1643, between the dismissal of Sir Thomas Gardiner [q. v.] and the election of Sir John Glynne [q. v.]
On 30 Sept. 1645 Phesant, who had been recommended to the king for a judgeship in the parliament's propositions for peace of 1 Feb. 1642–3, was voted a judge of the court of common pleas by the House of Commons, and on the 28th of the following month was sworn in as such. On the abolition of the monarchy he accepted a new commission on condition that the fundamental laws were not abolished. He died on 1 Oct. following, at his manor of Upwood, near Ramsay, Huntingdonshire, and was buried in Upwood church.
Phesant married, about 1609, Mary Bruges, of a Gloucestershire family, who, dying about the same time as himself, was buried by his side. By her he had several children. Phesant's epitaph credits him with ability, conscientiousness, and courage.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phelips, Edward

​PHELIPS, Sir EDWARD (1560?–1614), speaker of the House of Commons and master of the rolls, was fourth and youngest son of Thomas Phelips (1500–1588) of Montacute, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1598), daughter of John Smythe of Long Ashton in the same county. His father stood godfather to Thomas Coryate [q. v.], and ‘imposed upon him’ the name Thomas. Edward was born about 1560, for according to Coryate, who refers to him as ‘my illustrious Mæcenas,’ he was ‘53 or thereabouts’ in 1613. He does not appear to have been, as Foss suggests, the Edward Philipps who graduated B.A. in 1579, and M.A. on 6 Feb. 1582–3 from Broadgates Hall, Oxford. He joined the Middle Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1596. In 1601 he entered parliament as knight of the shire for Somerset. On 11 Feb. 1602–3 he was named serjeant-at-law, but, owing to the queen's death, did not proceed to his degree until the following reign. On 17 May he was made king's serjeant and knighted. In November he took part in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, but did not share in ‘the brutal manner in which Coke conducted the prosecution.’ He was re-elected to parliament for Somerset on 11 Feb. 1603–4, and on 19 March was elected speaker. According to Sir Julius Cæsar, he was ‘the most worthy and judicious speaker since 23 Elizabeth.’ Though his orations to the king were tedious, he did ‘his best to help the king's business through on some critical occasions.’
On 17 July 1604 he was granted the office of justice of common pleas in the county palatine of Lancaster. In this capacity he ​was very active against the catholics. On one occasion he condemned a man to death ‘simply for entertaining a Jesuit,’ and is said to have declared that, as the law stood, all who were present when mass was celebrated were guilty of felony. He was one of those appointed to examine the ‘gunpowder plot’ conspirators, and in January 1606 opened the indictment against Guy Fawkes. He was also chancellor to Prince Henry. On 2 Dec. 1608 he was granted the reversion of the mastership of the rolls, but did not succeed to the office until January 1611. Yelverton, Coke, and Montagu all spoke highly of his conduct as a judge, though the last admitted that he was ‘over swift in judging.’ On 14 July 1613 he was appointed ranger of all royal forests, parks, and chases in England.
Besides his house in Chancery Lane, and another at Wanstead, Essex, where he entertained the king, Phelips built a large mansion at Montacute, which is still standing, and in the possession of his descendants. He died on 11 Sept. 1614, having married, first, Margaret (d. 28 April 1590), daughter of Robert Newdegate of Newdegate, Surrey, by whom he had two sons, Sir Robert [q. v.] and Francis; secondly, Elizabeth (d. 26 March 1638), daughter of Thomas Pigott of Dodersall, Buckinghamshire. There is a portrait of Phelips at Montacute House.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phelps, Thomas

​PHELPS, THOMAS (fl. 1750), astronomer, was born at Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, in January 1694. In 1718 he was a stableman in the service of Lord-chancellor Thomas Parker (afterwards Earl of Macclesfield) [q. v.], but rose to higher employments through his good conduct and ability. George Parker, second earl of Macclesfield [q. v.], took him into his observatory in 1742, and he was the first in England to detect the great comet of 1743. His observations of it on 23 Dec. were published without his name in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (xliii. 91). A curious engraving, preserved in the council-room of the Royal Astronomical Society, represents Phelps as just about to make an observation with the Shirburn Castle five-foot transit, which John Bartlett, originally a shepherd, prepares to record. The print dates from 1776, when Phelps was 82, Bartlett 54 years of age.
[Scattered Notices of Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, by Mary Frances, Countess of Macclesfield, 1887; Rigaud's Memoirs of Bradley, pp. lxxxiii-iv; Weld's Hist. of the Royal Soc.ii. 3.]
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfwig

​ÆLFWIG (d. 1066), abbot of New Minster, was the uncle of Harold, and was probably the brother of Earl Godwine. He was made abbot in 1063. When Harold marched to meet the Normans, Ælfwig joined him with twelve of his monks, wearing coats of mail over their monastic garb, and with twenty armed men. He and his monks fell fighting at Senlac. After the battle their bodies were recognised by the habit of their order, which was seen beneath their armour. The Conqueror punished ​the convent severely for the part which it had taken in resisting his invasion.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælla (d.514?)

​ÆLLA (d. 514?), a Saxon ealdorman, landed in Britain with his three sons in 477. The place of his landing, Keynor, or Cymen's ora, preserves the name of his eldest son. Ælla defeated the Britons, and made them flee for shelter to the great forest of the Andredsweald. The invaders established themselves along the coast, and were called South Saxons. They made slow progress in the work of conquest. Many native princes combined together against them, and, in 485, fought with Ælla and his sons ‘near the bank of Mearcrædsburn.’ The battle was bloody and indecisive. Ælla found his forces so much weakened that he sent for help to his countrymen across the sea. His invitation was answered by a large Saxon immigration. With this reinforcement Ælla and his son Cissa, in 491, laid siege to the strong city of Anderida. The city was girt by Roman walls, of which large portions still remain. The defence was obstinate. Henry of Huntingdon records the traditional details of the siege. The population was thick, for Anderida stood in the midst of a mining district. When the city fell, Ælla ‘slew all that dwelt therein, so that not one Briton was left there.’ The overthrow of Anderida raised Ælla to the kingship of the South Saxons. He is said to have helped the West Saxons in 508 in their struggle with Natanleod. Ælla was looked on as the head of all the Teutonic settlers in Britain, and is reckoned as the first Bretwalda. He died about 514, and was succeeded by his third son, Cissa.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfthryth (945?-1000)

​ÆLFTHRYTH, or in Latin ELFRIDA (945?–1000), was the daughter of Ordgar, the ealdorman of Devon. Her first husband was Æthelwald, the ealdorman of the East ​Anglians, who died about 962. Two years after his death she married King Eadgar. On the death of Eadgar and the accession of Eadward, the stepson of Ælfthryth, the ealdorman Ælfhere [q. v.] headed a reaction against the revived monasticism of Dunstan. As Ælfthryth was by her first marriage sister-in-law of Æthelwine, the head of the monastic party, and was also probably opposed to the election of her stepson Eadward, she no doubt upheld the cause of the monks. Eadward was slain at Corfe, and Æthelred, the son of Ælfthryth, was made king in his stead. Osbern, writing in the latter part of the eleventh century, was the first who attributed the death of Eadward to his stepmother. His statement gains additional weight by the confirmation of Florence of Worcester. The fact that the contemporary chronicler does not mention the names of the murderers of Eadward, and his statement that his kinsmen would not avenge his death, is consistent with the assertion of the guilt of Ælfthryth. And as Ælfhere, the champion of the secular clergy, joined with Dunstan in the translation of the body of Eadward, the death of the king may probably be set down to personal rather than political motives. Ælfthryth was alive in 999, but had died by 1002, as in that year her son Æthelred granted lands to the monastery of Wherwell for the good of her soul. She is represented in a new light—as a kindly grandmother to one of her son's children—in the will of Æthelstan, a son of Æthelred, who left his bequests for ecclesiastical purposes ‘for the soul of Ælfthryth, my grandmother who afed me.’ This is all that is really known about her. She is the subject of a romance told by William of Malmesbury, and improved on by later writers. The growth of this romance has been discussed in an essay by Mr. Freeman, who believes the story to contain germs of truth, and infers from it that Ethelwald in some way met with a violent death, and that there was some canonical impediment to the second marriage of Ælfthryth with Eadgar.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfthryth (d.929)

​ÆLFTHRYTH, Lat. Eltrudis (d. 929), was a younger daughter of King Ælfred. She was brought up in her father's court with her brother Eadward. Asser dwells on the care with which the brother and sister were educated. Ælfthryth learnt all that was held fitting for people of high birth to know. She studied the Psalms and English books, and, above all, the English songs which her father loved so well. Ælfthryth married Baldwin II, count of Flanders, a violent and greedy man. She received Chippenham and two other estates in Wiltshire by her father's will. In 912 she gave Lewisham with its dependencies, Greenwich and Woolwich, to the abbey of St. Peter at Ghent. Her husband, Baldwin, died in 915, and was buried in the abbey of St. Bertin. Two years after his death Ælfthryth had his body moved to Ghent and buried in the church of St. Peter. She died in 929, and was laid beside her husband. She had two sons and two daughters. Her elder son, Arnulf, succeeded his father as count of Flanders. Fifth in descent from Arnulf was Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V and wife of William the Conqueror. Ælfthryth forms, therefore, an important link in the genealogy of the royal family of England. Her second son, Adelulf, was count of Boulogne.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfsige

​ÆLFSIGE (d. 959) was made bishop of Winchester in 951. On the death of Oda, which took place in 958, Ælfsige was elected to the archbishopric of Canterbury. He set out on his journey to Rome to obtain the pall. He was overtaken on the Alps by a heavy snowstorm, and died from the effects of the cold. His companions returned home safely. This is all that is certainly known about him. As Ælfsige was appointed to Canterbury during the reign of Eadwig, he probably belonged to the party opposed to the policy of Dunstan. This is sufficient to account for the dark picture given of him in later legends. His election is regarded as a postponement of the just claims of Dunstan, and is said to have been procured by simony. William of Malmesbury adds a story of his insulting the tomb and memory of his predecessor Oda, and speaks as though his death was the consequence of his sin.
[Florence of Worcester; Stubbs, Introduction to Memorials of Dunstan, Rolls Ser., and Vita S. Dunstani, auct. B., p. 37, Osbern, p. 107, Eadmer, p. 198, and William of Malmesbury, p. 294 in Memorials.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfweard

​ÆLFWEARD (d. 1044), bishop of London, was a monk of Ramsey. He was made abbot of Evesham by King Æthelred in 1014. He found his monastery in a distressed state. Twice the monks had been turned out of their house, their last expulsion being the work of Ælfhere, the ealdorman of the Mercians. The powerful Godwine of Lindesey unlawfully seized and kept many of its estates. By the king's help Ælfweard managed to oust Godwine and recover the property of his house. He was also successful in resisting the claim of the bishop of Worcester over the abbey, and asserted its liberty by appointing the prior Avitius dean of the vale of Evesham. He added a guest-house to the buildings of the abbey. Cnut, who is said to have been a kinsman of Ælfweard, enriched Evesham with many gifts for his sake. Ælfweard also was liberal in his benefactions; some of these were books, and others relics of saints, of which he was a great collector. He was made bishop of London in 1035, but retained his position as abbot. On the death of Harold in 1040 Ælfweard was sent on an embassy to Harthacnut, who was then at Bruges, to invite him to take possession of the throne. Short as the voyage was, it was long enough to admit the interruption of a storm, which was stilled by a miracle. At the close of his life Ælfweard fell sick of leprosy, a judgment, it is said, inflicted on him by the vengeance of a departed saint and virgin, whose resting-place the bishop disturbed and plundered in his eager desire for the acquisition of relics. In his misery he gave up, it appears, his office of abbot, and applied as a favour for admission into the house over which he had long and liberally presided. The monks, however, refused to take him in. As a punishment for their ingratitude he took away all the books and sacred vessels with which he had enriched the abbey, together with some, it is said, which had been given by other benefactors. Taking these treasures with him, he had himself carried to Ramsey, where he found a welcome. There he died, 27 July 1044, and there he was buried.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfric (fl.1050)

​ÆLFRIC (fl. 1050), archbishop-elect of Canterbury, was a kinsman of Earl Godwine. From early youth he was brought up in the monastery of Christ Church, and was much beloved by his fellow monks. He was well skilled in worldly matters and took delight in them. On the death of Archbishop Eadsige (October 1050) Ælfric was elected to the see of Canterbury by the monastic chapter of his house. In this election the clergy of the province seem to have concurred. The monks sent to Godwine, in whose earldom they were, and informed him of the canonical election of Ælfric and begged him to use his influence in behalf of his kinsman. The earl promised to do all he could in the matter. King Eadward was, however, at this time inclined to the faction which opposed the earl, and refused his request in behalf of Ælfric. In the mid-Lent meeting of the witan, in 1051, Robert of London was appointed archbishop, much to the anger of English churchmen.
[Lives of St. Edward the Confessor, ed. Luard, Rolls Ser.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ælfwine

​ÆLFWINE (d. 1047), bishop of Winchester, one of the priests or chaplains of Cnut, was made bishop of Winchester in 1032, and died in 1047. He is said to have been a monk and sacristan of the monastery of St. Swithin's, the cathedral church of Winchester. He is made the lover of Emma, the widow of Æthelred and Cnut, in the famous legend of her ordeal. Emma fell under the displeasure of her son Eadward in 1043, and passed the rest of her life in retirement at Winchester, which was the natural place for her abode. In order to make the relations between the bishop and the lady perfectly intelligible, the legend-mongers represent Ælfwine as her kinsman, and allege that he came over from Normandy with her; that he was then a layman, and that before he became a monk he was earl of Hampshire. The whole story is unhistorical. It is one of the most famous legends of our early history, and was the subject of a ballad said to have been sung at Winchester, in 1333, at the enthronement of Adam of Orlton.
W. H.