OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hay, Alexander (d.1807?)

Date of death given as 1806 in the ODNB.
​HAY, ALEXANDER (d. 1807?), topographer, was a master of arts of probably a Scottish university, who took orders in the English church. He settled at Chichester, Sussex, where he taught at a school; became chaplain of St. Mary's Chapel in that city, and by December 1798 was vicar of Wisborough Green, Sussex. He never resided at Wisborough. About 1784 he wrote a small pamphlet entitled ‘The Chichester ​Guide,’ which passed through several editions. Twenty years afterwards, at the age of nearly seventy, he reissued it in an enlarged form as ‘The History of Chichester, interspersed with various Notes and Observations on the early and present State of the City, … its vicinity and the County of Sussex in general: with an Appendix containing the Charters of the City,’ &c., 8vo, Chichester, 1804. Lower, who states that Hay was vicar of Wisborough Green ‘between 1781 and 1807,’ failed to recover any information respecting his birth, education, and death (Worthies of Sussex, p. 337); his daughter, Lucy Hay, died at North Pallant, Chichester, on 9 Jan. 1861, at the age of seventy (Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. x. 233).
[Hay's Preface to the History of Chichester; information from the Vicar of Wisborough.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hay, Edmund

​HAY, EDMUND (d. 1591), Scottish jesuit, of the family of the Earl of Errol, studied theology at Rome, and took the degree of bachelor in that faculty. He volunteered to accompany to Scotland Nicholas de Gouda, who was engaged as nuncio from Pius IV in a secret embassy to Mary Queen of Scots in 1562. On his return to Rome he joined the Society of Jesus, and at the close of his noviceship was appointed rector of Clermont College in Paris. While holding that office he was ordered by Pope Pius V in 1566 or 1567 to go to Scotland with the nuncio on another special mission to the Queen of Scots. The nuncio proceeded no further than Paris, where, at Mary's urgent request, he remained till the times should become more tranquil; but Hay penetrated into Scotland, and during his brief stay there reconciled several persons, including Francis Hay, earl of Errol, to the catholic church. Subsequently he was appointed the first rector of the academy at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine. He was chosen by the French province of the Society of Jesus to attend the first meeting of delegates held at Rome in 1568. Afterwards he governed that province. Finally he was nominated assistant for both Germany and France to Claudius Aquaviva, the general of the jesuits, and he held that post till his death at Rome on 4 Nov. 1591. He is said to have left a work entitled ‘Contrarietates Calvini.’
[Burton's Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, ii. 334; Catholic Miscellany, ix. 35; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 134; Foley's Records, vii. 347; Leith's Narratives of Scottish Catholics, pp. 64, 65, 66, 69, 72, 78, 115, 198, 206; Sacchini's Historiæ Soc. Jesu, iii. 127; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 184; Stothert's Catholic Mission in Scotland, p. 564; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 387.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Higginson, Edward

​HIGGINSON, EDWARD (1807–1880), unitarian divine, was born at Heaton Norris, Lancashire, on 9 Jan. 1807. His father was Edward Higginson (b. 20 March 1781, d. 24 May 1832), unitarian minister and schoolmaster at Stockport (1801–10) and Derby (1811–31), who married as his first wife Sarah Marshall (d. 10 Aug. 1827, aged 45) of Loughborough, Leicestershire. He was educated in his father's school, and in September 1823 entered Manchester College, York, as a divinity student. In August 1828 he settled as minister of Bowl Alley Lane Chapel, Hull. From 1829 he taught a school in addition to his other duties. He removed in 1846 to Westgate Chapel, Wakefield, West Riding, taking his school with him. In 1858 he became minister of High Street Chapel, Swansea, Glamorganshire, a position which he resigned from failing health in 1876. While at Swansea he assisted in the tutorial work of the presbyterian college, Carmarthen, and at the end of 1875 was offered the principalship. From 1877 to 1879 he was president of the Royal Institute of South Wales. He was a man of great industry and much independence of mind. In his own denomination he ranked among its conservative scholars, his theological position being akin to that of Samuel Bache [q. v.], who married his sister. His preaching was not attractive, but his ‘Spirit of the Bible’ was widely known and read. He died at Swansea on 12 Feb. 1880. He married first, on 25 Dec. 1839, Lydia (d. 8 Feb. 1856, aged 42), youngest daughter of Flower Humble of Newcastle-on-Tyne; secondly, on 5 July 1857, Emily, daughter of George Thomas of Carmarthen, and left issue.
He published, besides separate sermons and tracts: 1. ‘Orthodoxy and Unbelief,’ &c., 1832, 8vo. 2. ‘The Sacrifice of Christ,’ &c., Hull, 1833, 12mo; 2nd edition, 1848. 3. ‘Christ Imitable,’ &c., 1837, 12mo. 4. ‘The Spirit of the Bible,’ &c., 1853–5, 8vo, 2 vols.; 2nd edition, 1863, 8vo, 2 vols. 5. ‘Astro-Theology,’ &c., 1855, 12mo. 6. Six Essays on ‘Inspiration,’ &c., 1856, 8vo. 7. ‘The Morals of Belief,’ &c., 1860, 8vo. 8. ‘A Short Memoir of the Rev. R. B. Aspland,’ &c., 1869, 8vo. 9. ‘A Catechism without Questions,’ &c. [1869?], 8vo. 10. ‘Ecce Messias,’ 1871, 8vo. 11. In conjunction with his wife he published ‘The Fine Arts in Italy,’ &c., 1859, 8vo, a translation from the French of A. J. Coquerel. He frequently contributed theological and critical articles to the ‘Christian Reformer,’ edited by his friend Robert Brook Aspland [q. v.]; in 1857 and 1858 he wrote anonymously in this magazine a series of semi-autobiographical sketches, under the title ‘A Minister's Retrospect;’ from 1876 he contributed to the ‘Christian Life,’ edited by Robert Spears.
[Monthly Repository, 1827, p. 695; Unitarian Chronicle, 1832, pp. 138 sq.; Christian Reformer, 1856 p. 192, 1857 p. 528; Autobiog. Sketch in Christian Life, 21 Feb. 1880.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Higgins, William

[W. K. Sullivan in Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, new ser. viii. 487–95.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Austen, Ralph

According to the ODNB, the Ralph Austen who was the Oxford graduate was a different person of the same name.
​AUSTEN, RALPH (d. 1676), writer on gardening, was, according to Anthony à Wood, a native of Staffordshire, and became a student of Magdalen College, Oxford. On 7 April 1630 he was chosen a university proctor, and he spent the remainder of his life in Oxford, devoting most of his time to gardening and the raising of fruit-trees. In 1647 he became deputy-registrary to the visitors, and subsequently registrary in his own right. According to Wood he was, in 1652, admitted into the public library to find materials for a book he was then meditating. In the following year he published 'A Treatise on Fruit-trees, showing the manner of grafting, setting, pruning, and ordering of them in all respects,' and along with it a voluminous pamphlet on the 'Spiritual Use of an Orchard.' It was in all probability to find materials for the latter book that he desired admission to the university; for in his preface to the 'Treatise on Fruit-trees' he states that he 'had set himself to the practice of this work about twenty years, endeavouring to find out things of use and profit by practice and experience ​that he might speak upon better and surer grounds than some others who have written on this subject.' A second edition of the 'Treatise' with additions and improvements, appeared in 1657. Wood states that its sale was hindered by its association with the treatise on the 'Spiritual Use of an Orchard.' 'which being all divinity, and nothing therein of the practice part of gardening, many refused to buy it; but both Johnson and Watt mention editions in 1662 and 1667. The treatise on the 'Spiritual Use of an Orchard' was reprinted separately at London in 1847. In 1658 Austen published 'Observations on some parts of Sir Francis Bacon's Naturall History as it concerns Fruit-trees, Fruits, and Flowers.' Possibly through some misreading of the title-page, this work has been attributed by some to a Francis Austen, and there is apparently no foundation for the statement that it was published originally in 1631 and again in 1657. According to Wood, Austen was the author of 'A Dialogue or Familiar Discourse and Conference between the Husbandman and Fruiterer in his Nurseries, Orchards, and Gardens,' published in 1676 and 1679, and containing much of the substance of his earlier treatise. Watt erroneously attributes to Ralph Austen two books by John Austen. A work by a Ralph Austen appeared at London in 1676 entitled 'The Strong Man Armed;' but the fact that it was published at London, not at Oxford, and that it is entirely controversial, and contains no reference to gardening, militates against the supposition that its author was identical with the subject of the present notice. According to Wood, Austen died in his house in the parish of St. Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford, and was buried in the church belonging thereunto, in the aisle adjoining the south side of the chancel, 26 Oct. 1676, after he had been a practiser in gardening and planting trees fifty years.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Austin, Henry

The ODNB states that Grosart's identification of H. A. with a Henry Austin has not been accepted by later scholars, and is unsafe.
​AUSTIN, HENRY (17th cent.), was the author of a poem called 'The Scourge of Venus, or the Wanton Lady. With the Rare Birth of Adonis. The Second Impression, corrected and enlarged, by H. A.' (1614). It has been reprinted in Dr. Grosart's 'Occasional Issues of Unique and Extremely Rare Books' (1876). The poem was for long anonymous beyond its initials on the title-page and the 'epistle to the reader,' but an incidental reference to it by Thomas Heywood discloses its authorship. In his address to the reader before his 'Brazen Age' (1613) Heywood writes:—'What imperfection soeuer it haue, hauing a brazen face it cannot blush; much like a Pedant about this Towne, who, when all trades fail'd, turn'd Pedagogue, and once insinuating with me, borrowed frō me certaine Translations of Ouid, as his three books "De Arte Amandi," and two, "De Remedio Amoris," which since, his most brazen face hath most impudently challenged as his own, wherefore I must needs proclaime it as far as Ham, where he now keeps schoole, Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores, they were things which out of my iuniority and want of iudgement, I committed to the veiw of some priuate friends, but with no purpose of publishing, or further comunicating thē. Therfore I would entreate that Austin, for so his name is, to acknowledge his wrong to me in shewing them, and his owne impudence and ignorance in challenging thē. But courteous Reader, I can onely excuse him in this, that this is the Brazen Age.'
This invective referred to the first edition of the 'Scourge,' published in 1613. It is noticeable and suggestive that H[enry] A[ustin], so far from pleading guilty or ​acknowledging Heywood's claim, quietly republished his poem, and, what must have been exasperating to Heywood, with Heywood's own publisher of the 'Brazen Age.' A third edition appeared in 1620, also printed by Nicholas Okes, The full justice of Heywood's accusation maybe reasonably doubted. Its gravamen seems at most to amount to this, that Austin had constructed his poem by help of Heywood's 'juvenile' translations, and in his rather ambiguous epistle to the reader Austin apparently admits so much, 'If it were my owne wit,' he says in reference to his book, 'and you condemne it, I should be ashamed of my publike intrusion; but since it was the labour of a man wel-deseruing, forbeare open reprehending: For as I haue heard, 'twas done for his pleasure, without any intent of an Impression: thus much I excuse him that I know not, and commend that which deserueth well. If I be partiall, I pray patience.' The 'Scourge of Venus' shows traces of the influence of Shakespeare's poems upon its author.
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Austin, John (1717-1784)

​AUSTIN, JOHN (1717–1784), an Irish Jesuit, was born in Dublin 12 April 1717, and entered the Society of Jesus in Champagne 27 Nov. 1735. After completing the higher studies, he was employed in teaching humanities for several years, and he held the office of prefect of the Irish College at Poitiers. In 1750 he returned to Dublin, where he obtained renown as a preacher. He was professed of the four vows 2 Feb. 1754. Topham Bowden, an English protestant, in his 'Tour through Ireland' (1791), remarks 'that Austin was a very remarkable character, of extraordinary learning and piety; he was a great preacher, and injured his health by his exertions in the pulpit.' Father Austin died in Dublin 29 Sept. 1784, and was buried in St. Kevin's churchyard. The inscription over his grave describes him as 'pius, doctus, indefessus operarius, apostolicis confectus laboribus. Divites admonuit, pauperes sublevavit, juventutem erudivit, orphanis loco parentis fuit, de omni hominum genere præclarè meruit, omnibus omnia factus ut omnes Christo lucrifaceret.' His portrait, painted by Petrie, and engraved by Brocas, was published in 1792.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Austin, John (fl.1820)

​AUSTIN, JOHN (fl. 1820), a Scotch inventor, was a native of Craigton. He published at Glasgow, in or about 1800, a system of 'Stenography which may be learned in an hour,' on a single folio engraved sheet, price 2s. 6d. A note at the end announces the publication of a complete system by the same author, price one guinea, but this does not appear to have been brought out. He was also the author of an elaborate work ​entitled 'A System of Stenographic Music, invented by J. Austin, Glasgow. Dedicated to the Musical World, in English, French, Italian, German, and other Languages,' Glasgow, 50 engraved pages, oblong folio, no date, but published, according to the British Museum catalogue, about 1820. On the title-page is an engraved portrait of the author, who states in the preface that 'the design of this work is to represent to the musical world a new, easy, concise, and universal method of writing music completely on one line only, and adapted to all kinds of vocal and instrumental music and musical instruments, whereby an expert writer may note it down as he hears it performed, so that to those who make it their amusement or profession it will be equally interesting, together with the pleasure of improving and profiting by the art,' and, in conclusion, he remarks that 'if the shorthand writer is pleased in taking from the mouth of an orator, the musical stenographer will be no less so when catching those dulcet sounds which vibrate through the soul, convincing her that she is more than mortal.' Austin likewise appears to have turned his attention to the improvement of weaving machines.
[Thompson Cooper, in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, ix. 533; Works cited above; Evans's Catalogue of Portraits, ii. 20,]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Austen, Francis William

​AUSTEN, Sir FRANCIS WILLIAM (1774–1865), admiral of the fleet, son of the Rev. George Austen, rector of Steventon, in Hampshire, and brother of Jane Austen, was born on 23 April 1774. In April 1786 he entered the Royal Naval Academy, and in December 1788 joined the Perseverance frigate, and served in her in the East Indies. In December 1792 he was made a lieutenant, and after six years of active service was, on 3 Feb. 1799, made a commander. In 1801 he was posted, and in 1805 was flag-captain to Rear-Admiral Louis on board the Canopus, in the fleet under Sir John Duckworth, and at the battle of St. Domingo, 6 Feb. 1806. From 1807 to 1809, he commanded the St. Albans, of 64 guns, and in her made at least two voyages to the East Indies in charge of convoy; in the last of which, in 1809, his success in arranging a dispute with the Chinese was honoured with the approval of the admiralty, and substantially recognised by the East India Company with a present of 1,000l. In December 1810 he became for some months flag​captain to Lord Gambier, then commanding the home fleet, and was afterwards, 1811-14, in the Elephant, in the North Sea and Baltic. He attained the rank of rear-admiral in July 1830; vice-admiral, June 1838; admiral, August 1848; and admiral of the fleet, 27 April 1863. From December 1844 to June 1848, he was commander-in-chief in the West Indies. In February 1837 he was made K.C.B.; G.C.B. in May 1860; rear-admiral of the United Kingdom, 5 June 1862; vice-admiral of the United Kingdom, 11 Dec. 1862; and, full of years and honours, he died on 10 Aug. 1865.
[O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dictionary; Gent. Mag. 1865, ii. 510.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Aust, Sarah

​AUST, SARAH (1744–1811), topographical writer, is known as an authoress by the name of 'The Hon. Mrs. Murray, of Kensington.' Her first husband was the Hon. William Murray, brother of the Earl of Dunmore; but after his death, in 1786, she married, for the second time, Mr. George Aust. She died at the age of sixty-seven, at Noel House, Kensington, on 5 Nov, 1811. Mrs. Aust published in 1799 'A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland, to the Lakes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire, and to the Curiosities in the District of Craven, in the West Riding of Yorkshire; to which is added a more particular Description of Scotland, especially that part of it called the Highlands.' The book is written in a lively style, and gives a graphic picture of the modes of locomotion of the time, besides sketching in some detail the social condition of the northern peasantry. A second edition, in which greater attention was paid to the Hebrides and the islands round Scotland, appeared in 1803, and a third in 1810. In the latter an appendix treated 'of the new roads in Scotland, and of a beautiful cavern lately discovered in the Isle of Skye.'
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Nicholas

​HILL, NICHOLAS (1570?–1610), philosopher, born in London about 1570, entered Merchant Taylors' School about 1578, and in 1587 was elected scholar of St. John's College, Oxford, where he matriculated 21 July 1587, when he was aged 17. He graduated B.A. 27 May 1592, and became fellow of his college. He was for some time secretary to Edward de Vere, ‘the poetical and prodigal earl of Oxford’ (Wood), and afterwards lived under the patronage of Henry, earl of Northumberland, and shared in his philosophic studies. Wood mentions a gossiping story to the effect that he was concerned in a plot against James I, and being obliged to flee the country, settled at Rotterdam, where, through grief at the death of his son Laurence, he poisoned himself about 1610. His death abroad seems well established, although ​ Wood dismisses the story of its cause with the remark, ‘I shall only say that our Author Hill was a person of good parts, but humorous; that he had a peculiar and affected way, different from others in his writings, that he entertained fantastical notions in his philosophy, and that as he had lived most of his time in the Romish persuasion, so he died, but cannot be convinced that he should die the death of a fool or a madman.’ He left in the hands of his widow many papers upon the essence of God, the eternity and infinity of matter, and the like. Copies of these essays appear to have been made by several hands, but his only printed work was a treatise on philosophy, dedicated to his son Laurence, and entitled ‘Philosophia Epicurea, Democritiana, Theophrastica, proposita simpliciter non edocta,’ Paris, 1601, 8vo; another edition, Geneva, 1619, 12mo. Ben Jonson mentions Hill in his ‘Epigrams’ (No. 134) thus:
… those Atomi ridiculous, Whereof old Democrite and Hill Nicholis, One said, the other swore, the world consists.
[Wilson's Hist. of Merchant Taylors' School; Oxf. Univ. Reg. II. ii. 160, iii. 171 (Oxford Hist. Soc.); Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 86.]
C. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Robert (d.1425)

​HILL, otherwise HULL, ROBERT (d. 1425), judge, was perhaps born at Heligan, Cornwall (Bibl. Cornub. i. 240). He is mentioned as a lawyer acting as an arbitrator in 16 Richard II (Rot. Parl. iii. 302). In 1399 he was king's serjeant, and was called on for a ‘loan’ of 100l. to aid the king against the Welsh and Scotch. On 14 May 1408 (not, as Rymer says, 9 May 1409) he was appointed a judge of the common pleas, and in 1415 he was one of the judges who tried Richard, earl of Cambridge, Henry, lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas Grey at Southampton for treason. Two years afterwards he was appointed to hold sessions in Wales. In the first year of Henry VI's reign he was chief justice of the Isle of Ely. The last fine acknowledged before him is in Hilary term 1425, about which time he probably died. He lived at Shilstone in Devonshire, and married (1) Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Fychet; and (2) a daughter of Otto de Bodrugan, sheriff of Cornwall. Both ladies were Cornish heiresses. His son Robert was sheriff of Devonshire in 1428–9, and was ancestor of Abigail Hill, lady Masham (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 10).
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Cal. Inquis. p.m. iv. 462; Deputy-keeper of Records, 8th Rep. p. 163; Acts Privy Council, i. 202; Dugdale's Orig. p. 46; Cal. Rot. Parl. p. 234; Year-Books, 1 Henry VI p. 8 b, and 2 Henry V p. 5 b; Prince's Worthies; Fuller's Worthies.]
J. A. H.