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

​BURY, Mrs. ELIZABETH (1644–1720), diarist, was baptised 12 March 1644 at Clare, Suffolk, the day of her birth having probably been 2 March (Account of the Life and Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Bury, p. 1). Her father was Captain Adams Lawrence of Linton, Cambridgeshire; her mother was Elizabeth Cutts of Clare, and besides Elizabeth there were three other children. In 1648, when Elizabeth was four years old, Captain Lawrence died, and in 1661 Mrs. Lawrence remarried (ib. 3), her second husband being Mr. Nathaniel Bradshaw, B.D., minister of a church in the neighbourhood. About 1664 Elizabeth described herself as 'converted,' and she commenced that searching method of introspection with the evidence of which her 'Diary' abounds. Her studies, begun rigidly at four in the morning, in spite of delicate health, embraced Hebrew (ib. 6), French, music, heraldry, mathematics, philosophy, philology, anatomy, medicine, and divinity. Her stepfather, Mr. Bradshaw, being one of the ejected ministers in 1662, the family moved to Wivelingham, Cambridgeshire. Elizabeth in 1664 began writing down her 'experiences' in her 'Diary,' 'concealing her accounts' at the onset 'in shorthand.' In 1667, on 1 Feb., she married Mr. Griffith Lloyd of Hemmingford-Grey, Huntingdonshire, who died on 13 April 1682. In her widowhood, which lasted another fifteen years, Mrs. Lloyd passed part of her time in Norwich. She was married at Bury to Samuel Bury [q. v.], nonconformist minister, on 29 May 1697, having previously refused to marry three several churchmen, whose initials are given, because 'she could not be easy in their communion.'
Mrs. Bury was mistress of a good estate, and was described as 'a great benefactrix' (ib. 6). ​She kept a stock of bibles and practical books, to be distributed as she should see occasion (Ballard's British Ladies, p. 425); her knowledge of the materia medica was surprising (ib. 424); 'her gift in prayer was very extraordinary' (Account, 36); and 'she had a motto written up in her closet in Hebrew, "Thou, Lord, seest me," … to keep her heart from trifling.' She became infirm after 1712, and died 8 May 1720, aged 76. Mr. Bury gave the fullest testimony to his wife's deep learning and unfailing excellences. Dr. Watts described her as 'a pattern for the sex in ages yet unborn.' Her funeral sermon was preached at Bristol on 22 May 1720 by the Rev. William Tong, and was printed at Bristol the same year; a third edition was reached the next year, 1721. 'The Account of the Life and Death of Mrs. Bury,' Bristol, 1720, included the extant portions of her diary, the funeral sermon, a life by her husband, and an elegy by Dr. Watts.
[Account of the Life and Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Bury, chiefly collected out of her own Diary, with Funeral Sermon, &c., Bristol, 1720; Ballard's British Ladies, pp. 262, 321, 424 et. seq.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bury, Edward (1794-1858)

​BURY, EDWARD (1794–1858), engineer, was born at Salford, near Manchester, on 22 Oct. 1794. His early education was received at a school in the city of Chester, and his youth was remarkable for the fondness which he displayed for machinery, and for the ingenuity which he exhibited in the construction of models. His scholastic education being finished, he went through the usual course of mechanical engineering, and he eventually established himself at Liverpool as a manufacturer of engines.
In 1830 the Liverpool and Manchester railway was opened, and for several years after this period Bury devoted his attention to the construction of engines for railways. He supplied many of the first engines used on the Liverpool and Manchester and on the London and Birmingham railways. In the 'Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers' for 17 March 1840 will be found a valuable paper by him, 'On the Locomotive Engines of the London and Birmingham Railway,' in which he discusses the relative advantages of four and six wheels, and contributes a series of tables which are of the greatest importance in the history of locomotive traction, and of considerable interest in the theory of steam-drawing engines. Bury about this time introduced a series of improved engines for the steamboats employed on the Rhone, which attracted much attention on the continent, and led to his being consulted by the directors of most of the railways then being constructed in Europe.
For some years after the opening of the London and Birmingham railway, in September 1838, Bury had the entire charge of the locomotive department of that line. He subsequently undertook the management of the whole of the rolling stock for the Great Northern railway. In each case his administrative services were duly recognised by the directors, and his engineering capabilities, his mechanical knowledge, his good judgment, and his tact, secured for him, in an unusual degree, the confidence of those who were employed under him.
On 1 Feb. 1844 Bury was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, his claim being founded on the great improvements which he had introduced, especially in adjusting, the dimensions of the cylinder and driving wheels, and the effective pressure of the steam.
In the 'Annual Report of the Institution of Civil Engineers' for the session 1866-7 we find Bury tendering his resignation. The council of the Institution permitted him to retire under exceedingly gratifying circumstances. During his later years he lived at Crofton Lodge, Windermere. He died at Scarborough on 25 Nov. 1858.
[Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1859-60, vol. X.; Minutes of Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers, 1859.]
R. H-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keepe, Henry

​KEEPE, HENRY (1652–1688), antiquary, born in Feuter (now Fetter) Lane, in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London, in 1652, was the son of Charles Keepe, who served as a cornet in Sir W. Courtney's regiment of cavalry during the whole of the civil wars, and was afterwards employed in the exchequer office. Henry entered New Inn, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner in Midsummer term 1668. Leaving the university without a degree, he returned to London and studied law in the Inner Temple. For eighteen years he belonged to the choir of the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster. He died at his lodgings in Carter Lane, near St. Paul's, at the end of May 1688, and was buried in the church of St. Gregory adjoining the cathedral. ‘This person,’ says Wood, ‘had changed his name with his religion for that of Rome, in the reign of King James II, his lodgings also several times, and died, as I have heard, but in a mean condition.’ Keepe's last publication appeared under the pseudonym of Charles Taylour.
His works are:
* ‘Monumenta Westmonasteriensia; or an Historical Account of … the Abbey-Church of Westminster,’ London, 1682, 8vo. Dedicated to the Earl of Arundel. Keepe projected a splendid edition of this work, with copperplate engravings, on the plan of Dugdale's ‘St. Paul's,’ and he issued a printed prospectus to solicit subscriptions, but failing to obtain sufficient encouragement, he abandoned the design.
* ‘The Genealogies of the high-born Prince and Princess George and Anne of Denmark,’ London, 1684, 12mo. Dedicated to the Princess Anne.
* ‘A true and perfect Narrative of the strange and unexpected Finding of the Crucifix and Gold Chain of that pious Prince S. Edward, the King and Confessor, which was found after 620 years' interment. By Charles Taylour, Gent.,’ London, 1688, 4to.
* A manuscript account of the city of York, begun about 1684, containing a minute description, in correct terms of blazon, of the coats of arms in the churches. Francis Drake, in his ‘Eboracum’ (1736), acknowledges heraldical assistance from Keepe's collections.
[Brayley's Hist. of the Abbey Church of Westminster, p. 71; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 463; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Gough's Brit. Topogr. i. 762, ii. 423; Jones's Popery Tracts, No. 349; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), pp. 1256, 2600; Moule's Bibl. Heraldica, p. 222; Willis's Current Notes, 1853, p. 81; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 238.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keeling, Josiah

​KEELING, JOSIAH (fl. 1691), conspirator, was a white salter or oilman of St. Botolph-without-Aldgate, London. Burnet says he was an anabaptist. In 1683 Richard Rumbold and Richard Goodenough [q. v.], two of the originators of the Rye House Plot, wished to test their strength in the city, and Keeling, being in embarrassed circumstances, took employment under them. He was also appointed a special bailiff under the coroner, and in that capacity had the temerity to arrest the lord mayor, Sir John Moore, on a fictitious suit at the instigation of Rumbold and Goodenough. Subsequently he revealed the existence of the Rye House plot to a courtier named Peckham, who took him to Lord Dartmouth (12 June 1683). The latter referred him to Secretary Jenkins, who took his depositions, but requested him to bring a witness. Thereupon Keeling introduced to the unsuspecting Goodenough, as a thoroughly trustworthy man, his brother John, a turner, of Blackfriars, who was entirely innocent of the conspiracy. Goodenough guilelessly unfolded the plot to him. Keeling by a trick took his brother to Jenkins's office as an independent witness to his revelations; John Keeling repeated Goodenough's story, and on leaving the secretary warned Goodenough and his friends of their danger (Burnet, Own Time, Oxf. edit. ii. 350–1, 374–5). The government had received all the information needful to enable them to proceed against the alleged chiefs of the conspiracy, and Keeling gave evidence at the trials of Captain Thomas Walcot, William Hone, Algernon Sidney, Lord William Russell, and others. He became a popular hero. His portrait, engraved by R. White, with a flattering inscription beneath, was widely sold (Granger, Biog. Hist. 2nd edit. iv. 204–5), and Secretary Jenkins procured him a general pardon of ‘all treasons’ in September 1683, after Hone's trial (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. pt. vi. p. 304). He received 500l. from the government, and Halifax gave him a place in the victualling office. When in 1689 the House of Lords instituted an inquiry into the value of the evidence which had been adduced at the trials of Lord William Russell, Algernon Sidney, and others, Keeling was sharply cross-examined (ib. pp. 287–8). His brother appeared against him, while he himself had to admit that he was drunk at a coffee-house shortly before he was called as a witness at the trial of Lord William Russell. He was dismissed from the victualling office in October of that year. In April 1691 he was arrested for drinking James II's health, was found guilty in the following November, and fined five hundred marks (Luttrell, Brief Historical Relation, ii. 211, 234, 307, 310). He appears to have died in prison. North, both in his ‘Examen,’ pp. 378–9, and ‘Lives of the Norths,’ insisted that Keeling was an honest man. ‘It is certain,’ North wrote, ‘no combination, temptation, or prospect of reward drew him forth’ (Lives, ed. Jessopp, i. 238).
An engraved portrait of Keeling, signed ‘R. White ad vivum,’ published in 1793, is among the British Museum Addit. MSS. (32352, f. 26).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keeling, William (d.1620)

​KEELING, WILLIAM (d. 1620), naval commander and agent of the East India Company, was captain of the Susan in the second voyage set forth by the East India Company under Sir Henry Middleton [q. v.], which sailed from Gravesend on 23 March 1603–4. When Middleton went on to Moluccas he left the Hector and Susan at Bantam. There a terrible sickness fell on them. The captain of the Hector died, and Keeling, left in command, moved into her, and in all haste quitted the deadly port. The sickness continued; the Susan was lost on the passage; and when the Hector fell in with the admiral off the Cape of Good Hope she had only ten men still living. They reached England in May 1606, and on 12 March 1606–7, Keeling in the Dragon sailed again in command of the company's third voyage, and with him Captain William Hawkyns (d. 1613) [q. v.] in the Hector. While touching at Sierra Leone on the outward voyage, Keeling's crew, according to a passage professing to be printed from his manuscript journal in the Hakluyt Society's edition of 1848, played ‘Hamlet’ on 5 and 31 [sic] Sept. and ‘Richard II’ on 30 Sept. But the leaves that should contain these entries, if they are genuine, have long been missing from the manuscript in the India Office. After touching at the Cape of Good Hope the ships went on to Socotra, where they separated, ​Keeling in the Dragon going to Bantam, and having there filled up with pepper and spices, he sailed for England, where he arrived in May 1610. Early in 1615 he again sailed for the East Indies with a special commission to use martial law during the voyage, and to be captain and commander-in-chief of all the English in India. As it seems to have been intended that he should remain in India, he applied for leave to take his wife out with him, but this, after a lengthy discussion, was refused, Keeling being given 200l. as a compensation (Cal. State Papers, Col. East Indies, 10 Dec. 1614). The prohibition, however, determined him to come home, and after obtaining a grant for trading in pepper from the king of Acheen, and establishing a factory at Teko on the west coast of Sumatra, he returned to England apparently in 1617.
Keeling was some little time afterwards appointed captain of Cowes Castle (cf. ib. 22 Dec. 1618), where, apparently in 1620, he was authorised ‘to levy one penny per ton on every ship that passed Dungeness light’ (ib. 1619–23 p. 210, 1625–6 p. 524). His will, dated 16 Oct. 1620, and proved in London on 20 Nov. 1620, described him as of the Park, in the parish of Carisbrooke in the Isle of Wight. His wife, Anne Keeling was left sole executrix, and, to provide for the children should she die, his brothers-in-law, Edward Bromfield and Thomas Overman, leather-sellers, of London, were to act as executors, and the estate, which is ‘much mingled and dispersed abroad in the East Indies and other places,’ was to be divided in equal shares among the eldest son, Edward, and the other children as they attain the age of twenty-one or marry.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keeling, William Knight

​KEELING, WILLIAM KNIGHT (1807–1886), artist, born in Cooper Street, Manchester, in 1807, was apprenticed to a wood-engraver of that town, and showed great aptitude for that art, but at an early age he went to London to become an assistant to William Bradley [q. v.] the portrait-painter, and helped Bradley not only in painting but in engraving portraits of some of his more celebrated sitters. About 1835 he returned to Manchester, practised as a painter of portraits and figure-subjects in oil and water-colour, and gave lessons in drawing. He made some excellent drawings from ‘Gil Blas,’ a few of which were engraved in Heath's ‘Annual.’ Many of his earlier works, especially his illustrations to Sir Walter Scott and other authors, were much in the manner of his friend Henry Liverseege [q. v.] In the exhibition of the Royal Manchester Institution, 1831, he was represented by an illustration to Scott's novel ‘The Betrothed,’ and he long continued a regular exhibitor both at the annual and occasional exhibitions. He was awarded the Heywood silver medal by the institution in 1833 for an oil painting, ‘The Bird's-nest.’
He was a member of the original Manchester Academy, and took a prominent part in the foundation of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was president from 1864 to 1877. To their exhibitions he regularly contributed figure-subjects and portraits till 1883. He was elected an associate of the New Society of Painters in Water-colour in 1840, and a full member in 1841. Most of his best work in water-colour was shown in their exhibitions. He also exhibited once at the Royal Academy, and once at the British Institute. His exhibited pictures included ‘Gurth and Wamba’ (in 1832), ‘Touchstone, Audrey, and William,’ ‘The Interdicted Letter,’ ‘Gil Blas' Adventure with the Parasite,’ and several portraits. He was a successful teacher, and among his pupils was Mr. T. Oldham Barlow, R.A. Keeling died at his residence, Barton-upon-Irwell, near Manchester, on 21 Feb. 1886.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keene, Henry (1726-1776)

​KEENE, HENRY (1726–1776), architect, born 15 Nov. 1726, was son of Henry Keene, by his wife, Elizabeth Elkins. He was bred to the profession of architecture. From 1750 he appears to have been employed at Magdalen College, Oxford, probably under Holdsworth. In 1769 Keene designed the buildings at the south-west corner of Balliol College. He was also employed at Worcester College, where he is said to have completed the additional buildings on the west side of the quadrangle, originally planned and designed by Dr. Clarke, and also the provost's lodgings. He designed the Radcliffe Infirmary ​at Oxford from the model of a similar building at Gloucester, as well as the Radcliffe Observatory, of which the first stone was laid 27 June 1772. The observatory was to have been 170 feet in height, but was unfinished at Keene's death, and the work was for some time suspended, being ultimately completed by Wyatt in 1795 on a new elevation, prepared by Keene, but unapplied before his death (Dallaway, Observations on English Architecture, p. 159). In 1775 Keene designed, in his capacity of surveyor to the dean and chapter, fittings for the choir of Westminster Abbey, contrived so as to be removable on public occasions when an exceptionally large number of persons would be present. He invested his money in house property in Golden Square, London, where he had a town residence. His country seat was at Drayton Green, Ealing, where he died on 8 Jan. 1776. In 1762 Keene married Anne, daughter of M. Desvalles or Deval, a French Huguenot refugee, by whom he had a numerous offspring, though only two children survived him, a daughter and a son, Thomas. The daughter became the wife of William Parry, Welsh harper to George III; and the son married Jane, sister of the first Lord Harris [q. v.], and was father of Henry George Keene [q. v.]
H. G. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nimmo, Alexander

​NIMMO, ALEXANDER (1783–1832), civil engineer, born at Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, in 1783, was the son of a watchmaker, who afterwards kept a hardware store. Alexander was educated at Kirkcaldy grammar school and the universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, where he achieved distinction in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. At nineteen he became a schoolmaster, and was appointed rector of Inverness Academy in 1802. Telford the engineer recommended Nimmo to the parliamentary commission appointed to fix the boundaries of the counties of Scotland, and he accomplished the work during his vacations. Interesting himself in his new occupation, he gave up teaching and obtained an appointment as surveyor to the commissioners for reclaiming the bogs of Ireland, for whom he constructed an admirable series of reports and maps. He next made a tour of France, Germany, and Holland to inspect the public works in those countries as a help in his new profession. On his return he was engaged in the construction of Dunmore Harbour, and was employed by the fishery board to make surveys of the harbours of Ireland, and build harbours and piers at various points on the coast. He also executed an accurate chart of the coast, and compiled a book of sailing directions for Ireland and St. George's Channel. In 1822 he was appointed engineer of the western district, and between that year and 1830 the sum of 167,000l. was spent in reclaiming waste land, thus giving employment to the distressed peasantry at the time of the Irish famine. During his life upwards of thirty piers or harbours were built under his direction on the Irish coast, and a harbour at Porth Cawl in South Wales. The Wellesley bridge and docks at Limerick were designed by him; and he was engaged in the construction of the Liverpool and Leeds railway, and of the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Railway. Nimmo was consulting engineer to the Duchy of Lancaster, the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, the St. Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway, the Preston and Wigan Railway, and the Birkenhead and Chester Railway. Although business occupied most of his time, Nimmo became proficient in modern languages, as well as in astronomy, chemistry, and geology. To the ‘Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy’ he contributed a paper showing the relations between geology and navigation. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of the Institute of British Architects. In Brewster's ‘Cyclopædia’ the article on ‘Inland Navigation’ is from his pen; while, jointly with Telford, he is responsible for that on ‘Bridges,’ and, with Nicholson, for that on ‘Carpentry.’ Nimmo won great distinction as a mathematician in the trial between the corporation of Liverpool and the Mersey company. It has been said that he was ‘the only engineer of the age who could at all have competed with Brougham, the examining counsel, in his knowledge of the higher mathematics and natural philosophy, on which the whole subject in dispute depended.’ Nimmo died at Dublin on 20 Jan. 1832.
[Conolly's Eminent Men of Fife; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen.]
G. S-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nimmo, James

​NIMMO, JAMES (1654–1709), covenanter, only surviving son of John Nimmo, factor and baillie on the estate of Boghead, ​ Linlithgowshire, by his wife Janet Muir, was born in July 1654. He was sent first to the school at Bathgate, whence, on account of a quarrel of his father with the schoolmaster, he was transferred to Stirling. He joined the insurgents after Drumclog, and was among those defeated at Bothwell Bridge, 22 June 1679. Being on this account proscribed, he fled to the north of Scotland, and was taken into the service of the laird of Park and Lochloy in Moray. There he married Elizabeth Brodie, granddaughter of John Brodie of Windiehills, the marriage being celebrated on 4 Dec. 1682 by the ‘blessed Mr. Hog.’ Shortly afterwards, on account of the arrival of a party of soldiers in search of outlawed covenanters, he had to go into shelter in the old vaults of Pluscarden. Ultimately he fled south to Edinburgh, where he arrived on 23 March 1683. Thence he went to Berwick-on-Tweed, and finally he took refuge in Holland. He returned to Scotland in April 1688, and after the revolution obtained a post in the customs in Edinburgh. Subsequently he was appointed treasurer of the city. He died 6 Aug. 1709. He had four sons and a daughter. Of the sons, John, like his father, was a member of the Edinburgh town council, and treasurer of the city. The ‘Narrative of Mr. James Nimmo, written for his own Satisfaction, to keep in some Remembrance the Lord's Ways, Dealings, and Kindness towards him, 1654–1709,’ was printed under the editorship of W. G. Scott-Moncrieff by the Scottish History Society, from a manuscript in possession of Mr. Pingle of Torwoodlee in Selkirkshire.
[Nimmo's Narrative, and the Preface by W. G. Scott-Moncrieff; Diary of the Lairds of Brodie (Spalding Club).]
T. F. H.