OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forbes, James Ochoncar

​FORBES, JAMES OCHONCAR, seventeenth Lord Forbes (1765–1843), colonel, was the eldest son of James, sixteenth baron, by Catherine, only daughter of Sir Robert Innes, bart., of Ortoun. The lands of Forbes in Aberdeenshire, still in their possession, have been held by this ancient family since the ​reign of William the Lion (1165–1214). Forbes was born 17 March 1765. He entered the army as ensign in the Coldstream guards 13 June 1781, became lieutenant and captain 21 April 1786, captain and lieutenant-colonel 23 Aug. 1793, colonel 3 May 1796, major-general 29 April 1802, lieutenant-general 27 March 1808, and general 12 Aug. 1819. He served in Flanders with his distinguished regiment, and was present in the battles and sieges of St. Amand, Famar, Valenciennes, Dunkirk, Lincelles, Tournay, Vaux, Cateau, Nimeguen, Fort St. André, &c. He subsequently accompanied the expedition to the Helder, and was present in nearly every action which took place in that campaign. He was appointed second in command of the troops in the Mediterranean in March 1808, and in the same year sailed for Sicily. He was colonel 3rd garrison battalion 1807–9, 94th foot 14 April 1809, 54th foot 23 Sept. 1809, and 21st foot 1 June 1816 till his death.
Forbes succeeded his father in the title in 1804, and was chosen a representative peer in 1806. He married at Crailing, 2 June 1792, Elizabeth, eldest daughter and heiress of Walter Hunter, esq., of Polmood, in the county of Peebles, and Crailing, in the county of Roxburgh, by the Lady Caroline Mackenzie, fourth daughter of George, earl of Cromarty, by whom he had ten children. His eldest son, the Hon. James Forbes, was an officer in the Coldstream guards in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, but predeceased his father in 1835. Forbes was from 1825 until 1830 high commissioner of the church of Scotland. He died 4 May 1843 at Bregenz, on the Lake of Constance, in his seventy-ninth year, and was succeeded by his second but eldest surviving son, Walter, eighteenth lord [q. v.] Forbes was a baronet of Nova Scotia, and a knight of St. Januarius of Sicily.
R. H-r.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forbes, John (1571-1606)

​FORBES, JOHN (1571–1606), Capuchin friar, known as Father Archangel, born in Scotland in 1571, was the second son of John, eighth lord Forbes, by his first wife, the Lady Margaret Gordon, eldest daughter of George Gordon, fourth earl of Huntly, the leader of the Scottish catholics at the time of the Reformation. Lord Forbes was a protestant, and eventually drove his wife away from his house on account of her continued attachment to the ancient form of religion. Their son John adhered to the same faith, being encouraged to do so by his elder brother William, who had gone to Flanders and joined the Capuchin order, and by his uncle, Father James Gordon, the celebrated jesuit. Having changed clothes with a shepherd boy, he crossed over to Antwerp, where he was arrested by a soldier of the Spanish army and imprisoned as a spy in the citadel. On recovering his liberty he learned Flemish and Latin; and on 2 Aug. 1593 he received the habit of a novice in the Capuchin monastery at Tournay. On the same day in the following year he took the solemn vows. He was remarkable for his zeal and piety, and resided in succession in the houses of his order at Bruges and Antwerp. It is related that at Dixmude he converted three hundred Scottish soldiers to the catholic religion. His mother ultimately went to Flanders, and a pension was granted to her by the king of Spain. She died at Ghent on 1 Jan. 1605–6, and her son John survived her only seven months, dying on 2 Aug. 1606. He was buried in the nave of the Capuchin Church at Termonde. He and his brother William, also called in religion Father Archangel (who died 21 March 1591–2), are regarded as distinguished ornaments of the Capuchin branch of the Franciscan order.
The life of John Forbes was written in Latin by Father Faustinus Cranius of Diest, under the title of ‘Alter Alexius, natione Scotus, nobili familia oriundus, nuper in Belgium felici S. Spiritus afflatu delatus, et in familiam Seraphici Patris S. Francisci Cappucinorum adscriptus, sub nomine F. Archangeli,’ Cologne, 1620, 12mo. It was translated into Italian under the title of ‘Narrativa della Vita d'un Figlio et d'una Madre,’ Modena, 1634, 4to. An English version, with Forbes's portrait prefixed, engraved by J. Picart, was printed at Douay, 1623, 8vo, together with a memoir of Father Benedict Canfield [q. v.], and ‘The Life of the Reverend Fa. Angel of Ioyevse, Capvchin Preacher.’ These three biographies had previously appeared in French at Paris in 1621.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forbes, John (1733-1808)

​FORBES, JOHN (1733–1808), of Skelater, usually known as Forbes-Skelater, general in the Portuguese service, was the only son of Patrick Forbes of Skelater in Aberdeenshire, a branch of the Forbes of Corse. He entered the army when a boy of fifteen as a volunteer at the siege of Maestricht, and was successful in winning a commission. He was essentially a soldier of fortune, and when Portugal applied to England for officers to reorganise her army under the Count of Lippe Buckeburg, he was one of the first to volunteer. Forbes remained in Portugal after the termination of the seven years' war; and as he was a catholic and had married a Portuguese lady, he had no difficulty in getting employment. He acted for many years as adjutant-general of the Portuguese army, but at last, in 1789, he was asked to resign, owing to the jealousy of the Portuguese officers, and was made a knight of the order of Aviz, and promoted general. When Portugal decided to join the war against the French revolution, a corps was sent to assist the Spanish army in Roussillon, under the command of Forbes. The Portuguese soldiers behaved well, but the commanders of the Spanish army were always at variance, and Forbes himself had much trouble with his adjutant-general, Gomes Freire de Andrade. In the result the French republicans utterly defeated the combined Spanish-Portuguese army, and Forbes returned to Portugal with his corps. He was too old to seek further active service, so he went to Brazil with the Queen Maria Pia, the prince regent, and the court when they fled before Junot, and on arrival there he was appointed governor of Rio de Janeiro, in which city he died on 8 April 1808.
[Gent. Mag. September 1808; Diego de Lemos's Historia de Portugal.]
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fleming, James (1682-1751)

​FLEMING or FLEMMING, JAMES (1682–1751), major-general, colonel 36th foot, was wounded at Blenheim when serving as a captain in the Earl of Derby's regiment (16th foot, now 1st Bedford), and afterwards for many years commanded the royal fusiliers, until promoted on 9 Jan. 1741 colonel of the 36th foot (now 2nd Worcester). He became a brigadier-general in 1745, was present at Falkirk and Culloden, and became major-general in 1747. He died at Bath 31 March 1751. A tablet with medallion portrait was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fleming, Margaret

​FLEMING, MARGARET (1803–1811), called Pet Margarie, born 15 Jan. 1803, was daughter of James Fleming of Kirkcaldy, by Elizabeth, daughter of James Rae, and sister of Mrs. Keith of Ravelston, the friend of Sir Walter Scott. Scott frequently saw Margaret Fleming at the house of her aunt, Mrs. Keith, became attached to the child, and delighted in playing with her. She showed extraordinary precocity; she read history when six years old, and wrote diaries and poems, which were preserved by her family. They show singular quickness, vivacity, and humour, while there is no trace of the morbid tendencies too often associated with infant prodigies. She composed an historical poem upon Mary Queen of Scots,
Who fled to England for protection (Elizabeth was her connection);
an excellent epitaph upon three young turkeys,
A direful death indeed they had, That would put any parent mad; But she [their mother] was more than usual calm, She did not give a single dam;
and made many quaint remarks upon various lovers, including a gentleman who offered to marry her with his wife's permission, but failed to carry out his promise, and sundry religious reflections, especially upon the devil. That her talents were limited is proved by her statement: ‘I am now going to tell you the horrible and wretched plaege that my multiplication table givis me; you can't conceive it. The most devilish thing is 8 times 8 and 7 times 7; it is what nature itself can't endure.’ No more fascinating infantile author has ever appeared, and we may certainly accept the moderate anticipation of her first biographer, that if she had lived she might have written books. Unfortunately she had an attack of measles, and when apparently recovering was taken ill and died after three days of ‘water on the brain,’ 19 Dec. 1811. Her father could never afterwards mention her name. Her life is probably the shortest to be recorded in these volumes, and certainly she is one of the most charming characters.
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fleming, John (d.1815)

The ODNB gives different dates, 1747 to 1829.
​FLEMING, JOHN (d. 1815), botanist, was educated at Douai, took his degree of M.D. at Edinburgh, and became president of the Bengal medical service. He is stated to have been a good classic, and contributed to several journals, but the only memoir of his which can be cited is his ‘Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants and Drugs’ in the eleventh volume of ‘Asiatick Researches,’ which was reprinted with additions, Calcutta, 1810, 8vo, and translated into Dutch and German. He died of a paralytic stroke in London, 10 May 1815. Dr. Roxburgh dedicated the genus Flemingia to him, and his name is further commemorated by the genus of fossil plants, Flemingites.
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fleming, Malcolm

​FLEMING, Sir MALCOLM, Earl of Wigtown (d. 1360?), the son of Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, was, like his father, a staunch adherent of King Robert Bruce. He was appointed steward of the household to David, earl of Carrick, and continued to hold the office after the young prince [see Bruce, David, 1324–1371] succeeded to the throne. He was also bailie of Carrick, sheriff of Dumbarton, and keeper of the castle of Dumbarton, for which last-named office he had an annual salary of a hundred merks. He was engaged in the battle of Halidon in 1333, the loss of which by the Scots left their country at the mercy of Edward III, who quickly reduced it all to subjection, save four castles and an island peel, the principal of which was the castle of Dumbarton. Fleming had escaped from the battle-field, and hastening home, placed this castle in a position to hold out for any length of time. Hither, says Wyntoun, resorted all who yearned to live freely. Here too he kept safely David II and his queen, until the king of France sent means to convey them thence to France, whither Fleming accompanied them. On his return he received in the following year Robert, the steward of Scotland, afterwards Robert III, who had effected his escape from Rothesay. David II and his consort returned from France to Scotland on 4 May 1341, and the loyalty of Fleming was rewarded on 9 Nov. following by a royal charter, dated at Ayr, granting him and his heirs male the sheriffdom of Wigtown and other lands, and creating him Earl of Wigtown, with right of regality and special judicial powers. Fleming followed David II into England in 1346, and with him was taken prisoner at the battle of Durham, 17 Oct., conveyed to London and incarcerated in the Tower. After a lengthened captivity he was liberated, and took a prominent part in the negotiations for the ransom of David II. At the meeting of the Scottish parliament at Edinburgh on 26 Sept. 1357 he was appointed one of the commissioners to conclude the treaty at Berwick on 3 Oct. following, and his seal was appended to that document. He died about 1360, and was succeeded by his grandson Thomas, earl of Wigtown, who sold the earldom to Archibald, third earl of Douglas, 8 Feb. 1371–2. Fleming married a foster sister of King Robert Bruce, who was called Lady Marjory, countess of Wigtown. The royal connection is shown in the fact that in 1329 Fleming received a royal gift of money on the occasion of his son's marriage. He had one son, Thomas or John, who predeceased him, and two daughters: (1) Lady Marjory, who married William of ​Fawside, and received during her lifetime a grant of part of the crown lands of Clackmannan; (2) Lady Eva, who married John of Ramsay, and with her husband received from the king the thanage of Tannadice.
H. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fleming, Miss

Fanny Fleming in the ODNB.
​FLEMING, Miss, afterwards Mrs. Stanley (1796?–1861), actress, was born, according to Oxberry's ‘Dramatic Chronology,’ 31 Oct. 1796, but more probably four years earlier. She is said to have been a granddaughter of John West Dudley Digges [q. v.] In Liverpool and Manchester she played Lady Macbeth, Helen McGregor, and other characters. She married George Stanley, a low comedian, who appeared 9 Oct. 1834 at the Lyceum as Nicholas Trefoil in ‘Before Breakfast,’ went to America, and there died. Mrs. Stanley's first appearance in London took place at the Lyceum, assumably near the same date. She is chiefly remembered in connection with the Haymarket, where she played old women both in comedy and tragedy. She was a tall, well-built woman, and seems to have been a fine actress. Her daughter, Emma Stanley, born 13 Nov. 1823, made her first appearance at the Lyceum, in May 1843, as Catherine in ‘The Exile.’ Mrs. Stanley died suddenly of bronchitis in Jermyn Street, 17 Jan. 1861, at the reputed age of sixty-nine years.
[Such meagre particulars as are obtainable concerning Miss Fleming are derived from Oxberry's Dramatic Chronology, an untrustworthy source; and Gent. Mag. 1861, pt. i. p. 234.]
J. K.
# The World's Famous Orations/Volume 3/Conquest of America Impossible

* related portals: Speeches.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
Arguing that the conquest of America would be impossible. Delivered to the House of Commons in 1777.
II
CONQUEST OF AMERICA IMPOSSIBLE
(1777)
Sir, it ill becomes the duty and dignity of Parliament to lose itself in such a fulsome adulatory address to the Throne as that now proposed. We ought rather, sir, to approach it with sound and wholesome advice, and even with remonstrances, against the ministers who have precipitated the nation into an unjust, ruinous, murderous and felonious war. I call the war with our brethren in America an unjust and felonious war, because the primary cause and confessed origin of it is to attempt to take their money from them without their consent, contrary to the common rights of all mankind, and ​those great fundamental principles of the English Constitution for which Hampden bled.
I assert, sir, that it is a murderous war, because it is an effort to deprive men of their lives for standing up in the defense of their property and their clear rights. Such a war, I fear, sir, will draw down the vengeance of Heaven on this devoted kingdom. Sir, is any minister weak enough to flatter himself with the conquest of the Americans? You can not, with all your allies—with all the mercenary ruffians of the North—you can not effect so wicked a purpose. The Americans will dispute every inch of territory with you, every narrow pass, every strong defile, every Thermopylæ, every Bunker's Hill! More than half the empire is already lost and almost all the rest is in confusion and anarchy. We have appealed to the sword, and what have we gained? Bunker's Hill only—and that with the loss of twelve hundred men! Are we to pay as dear for the rest of America? The idea of the conquest of that immense country is as romantic as unjust.
The honorable gentleman who moved this address says, "The Americans have been treated with lenity." Will facts justify the assertion? Was your Boston Port Bill a measure of lenity? Was your Fishery Bill a measure of lenity? Was your Bill for taking away the charter of Massachusetts Bay a measure of lenity, or even of justice? I omit your many other gross prov​ocations and insults by which the brave Americans have been driven to their present state. Sir, I disapprove, not only the evil spirit of this whole address, but likewise the wretched adulation of almost every part of it. My wish and hope, therefore, is, that it will be rejected by this House; and that another, dutiful yet decent, manly address, will be presented to his majesty, praying that he would sheathe the sword, prevent the further effusion of the blood of our fellow subjects, and adopt some mode of negotiation with the general Congress, in compliance with their repeated petition, thereby restoring peace and harmony to this distracted empire.
END OF VOL. III
* ↑ The date of this speech is probably November or December, 1777, when Lord Chatham had already delivered against the American war the speech entitled "On Affairs in America."
* ↑ That is, by the overthrow of Burgoyne on October 7, 1777.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Couper, Robert

​COUPER, ROBERT, M.D. (1750–1818), Scottish poet, son of a farmer at Balsier, parish of Sorbie, Wigtonshire, was born 22 Sept. 1750. He entered the university of Glasgow in 1769 with the view of studying for the ministry of the church of Scotland, but, his parents having died before he had completed his studies, he accepted the office of tutor in a family in Virginia, America. On the outbreak of the American revolution in 1776 he returned to Scotland, and after studying medicine at the university of Glasgow began practice at Newton Stewart, Wigtonshire. In 1788 he settled in Fochabers, Banffshire, as physician to the Duke of Gordon. In 1804 he published at Inverary, in two volumes, ‘Poetry chiefly in the Scottish Language,’ dedicated to the Duke of Gordon, the first volume mainly consisting of poems on the seasons, and the second of odes and songs. Among the best known of his songs are ‘Red gleams the Sun,’ tune ‘Neil Gow,’ inserted in his own works under the title ‘Kinrara;’ and ‘The Ewebughts, Marion.’ He left Fochabers in 1806, and died at Wigton, 18 Jan. 1818.
[Stenhouse's Notes to Johnson's Musical Museum, ed. Laing; Charles Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel, 15–16.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Couche, William

​COUCHE, WILLIAM (1732–1753), scholastic of the Society of Jesus, eldest son of William Couche of Tolfrey, near Fowey, Cornwall, by Anne, daughter of Peter Hoskins of Ibberton, Dorsetshire, was born at Tolfrey on 5 Feb. 1732 (Boase and Courtney, Bibl. Cornubiensis, i. 95). He made his humanity studies at St. Omer, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1749, but was prematurely cut off by small-pox at Liège on 23 Feb. 1753 (Oliver, Jesuit Collections, 77; Foley, Records, vi. 696, vii. 177). He was a promising member of the jesuit order, and died in the odour of sanctity. His life was written by his cousin, Father Ralph Hoskins, under the title of ‘De vita, virtutibus et morte Gulielmi Couche,’ and is preserved in manuscript at Stonyhurst College (Oliver, Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 277; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vi. 112, 145; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 340). Its principal contents have been printed by Brother Foley.
[Authorities cited above.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coulton, David Trevena

​COULTON, DAVID TREVENA (1810–1857), journalist and miscellaneous writer, a grandson of the Rev. J. Coulton, was born at Devizes, Wiltshire, in 1810. His father died during his early childhood. Owing to delicate health he was educated under a private tutor. At an early age he began to contribute both poetry and prose to the periodicals, and in 1839 he founded the ‘Britannia’ newspaper, the aim of which was to extend and popularise the principles of conservatism, and to uphold national protestantism as embodied in the institutions of the realm. As a journalist, while a close reasoner, he possessed considerable skill in the popular exposition of complex questions. In 1847 he withdrew from active journalism, and having in 1850 sold the ‘Britannia’ he settled at Goudhurst, Kent, where he took to farming, occasionally contributing to the ‘Quarterly Review.’ He published an ‘Inquiry into the Authorship of the Letters of Junius,’ and in 1853 a novel entitled ‘Fortune, a story of London Life.’ Yielding to the solicitation ​of friends, he undertook in 1854 to edit the ‘Press.’ His recreation was mechanics, and he planned an atmospheric railway. He died of bronchitis at Brighton 8 May 1857.
[Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. ii. 742; Art Journal, new ser. 1857, iii. 228.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Courten, William (1642-1702)

​COURTEN, WILLIAM (1642–1702), naturalist, grandson of Sir William Courten [q. v.], and son of William Courten, who died insolvent at Florence in 1655, was born in London on 28 March 1642. His mother was Catharine Egerton, daughter of John, first earl of Bridgewater. Courten seems to have had a good education. He travelled to Montpelier and there fell in with Tournefort and Sloane. It was here that he began his botanic studies. In 1663 he left to attend to his private affairs at home, probably on his attaining his majority. He lived in England till 1670 with his aunt, Lady Knightly, at Fawsley Lodge, Northamptonshire. After this he went abroad again for fourteen years. Much doubt hangs over his movements, but he is supposed to have spent some of the time at Montpelier. He was a close friend of William Sherard, afterwards consul at Smyrna and benefactor to the chair of botany at Oxford, other friends being Dr. Tancred Robinson, Martin Lister, Plukenet, Ilwyd the antiquary, and Sloane. During many years he lived under the assumed name of Charleton, and in 1684 he opened a suite of rooms in the Temple containing his museum, estimated then to be worth 50,000l. Sloane succeeded to this splendid collection, which forms no small part of the original foundation of the British Museum treasures. His dried plants are now at the Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road. Courten died at Kensington on 29 March 1702, and was buried there, with an epitaph written by Sir Hans Sloane. His name is perpetuated in Courtenia, a genus founded by Robert Brown upon a plant from Java.
[Kippis's Biog. Brit. iv. 334–52; Manuscripts in Brit. Mus. (Sloane).]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gaselee, Stephen (1807-1883)

​GASELEE, STEPHEN (1807–1883), serjeant-at-law, eldest son of Sir Stephen Gaselee [q. v.], was born at 77 Upper Guildford Street, Russell Square, London, on 1 Sept. 1807, and educated at Winchester School. He matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, on 4 June 1824; graduated second class in classics 1828, when he took his B.A. degree; and proceeded M.A. in 1832. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple 16 June 1832, and practised on the home circuit. On 2 Nov. 1840 he became a serjeant-at-law, and at the time of his decease was the oldest surviving serjeant. He unsuccessfully contested the borough of Portsmouth in the liberal interest 14 March 1855. Ten years later, 13 July 1865, he was elected M.P. for that borough, but lost his seat at the general election in 1868. For many years he was a director of the London and South-Western Railway, was a magistrate for the county of Middlesex, sometimes presided as assistant-judge at the Middlesex sessions, and was treasurer of Serjeants' Inn, in succession to Serjeant James Manning, in 1866. He died at 2 Cambridge Square, Hyde Park, London, 20 Oct. 1883. His wife, whom he married at Marylebone on 21 July 1841, was Alicia Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Tremayne Rodd, K.C.B. She was born 7 Jan. 1814, and died at Bournemouth 11 Nov. 1886.
[Solicitors' Journal, 27 Oct. 1883, p. 802; Law Times, 27 Oct. 1883, p. 435; Times, 23 Oct. 1883, p. 10.]
G. C. B.