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

​BERRY, CHARLES (1783–1877), unitarian minister, was born 10 Nov. 1783 at Romsey, Hants; a direct descendant of James Berry [q. v.], colonel of a regiment of horse, and afterwards one of Cromwell's major-generals; whose son John, a London West India merchant, married Anne, daughter of Sir Charles Wolseley, and was father of Rev. Charles Berry, of Shrewsbury (d. 1741, æt. 41). This presbyterian minister's son John was a jeweller at Birmingham, and father of Rev. John Berry (d. about 1821), independent minister successively at Shaftesbury, Romsey, and West Bromwich, classical tutor at Homerton College, and finally minister at Camberwell till his retirement from ill-health (so Clephan; Waddington, in Surrey Cong. Hist. ​1866, p. 171, gives William Berry of Warminster as the pastor who resigned Camberwell Green, from ill-health, in 1812). Rev. John Berry left four sons, John (d. 8 Nov. 1867, æt. 88); Joseph, an independent minister (d. 2 Aug. 1864, æt. 82); Charles; and Cornelius, for fifty-three years independent minister at Hatfield Heath, Essex (d. 8 Sept. 1864, æt. 76). Charles was educated for the independent ministry at Homerton, entering in 1799, at the time when Dr. Pye Smith succeeded John Berry as classical tutor. He acted as assistant to Pye Smith in a course of chemical experiments. In 1802 some of the students, including Charles Berry, developed heretical views. Berry left Homerton, and in 1803, at the age of twenty, became minister of the Great Meeting, Leicester, in succession to Robert Jacomb. Here he ministered till 1869, having Rev. Charles Clement Coe, F.R.G.S., as colleague from 1865. In 1808 he opened a school which he maintained for over thirty years. To him Dr. Parr addressed, 19 Dec. 1819, his famous letter on the methods of classical training (Parr's Works, ed. Johnston, 1828, viii. 481–6). His pupils included many who afterwards distinguished themselves in public life. In 1810 he married Ann (d. 24 May 1870, æt. 90), daughter of Thomas Paget. He was one of the founders of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, and of the Leicester Town Museum. A ripe scholar and mathematician, as a preacher he dealt with topics of common life in language pithy but studiously simple. His Christology was humanitarian; early in his ministry he had a pulpit controversy on the subject with Robert Hall, then baptist minister at Haney Lane, Leicester, with whom he maintained an unbroken friendship. He died 4 May 1877 in the house of his son-in-law, near Liverpool. He published several sermons, including: 1. 'The Duty of National Thanksgiving,' 1812. 2. 'Funeral Sermon for Queen Caroline,' 1821. 3. 'Remarks on Popery and the present Anti-papal Agitation,' 1851.
[Chn. Reformer, 1817, p. 323; Chn. Life, 1877, p. 230; Remembrance of Rev. C. B., 1877, by J. C. (James Clephan).]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Berriman, William

​BERRIMAN, WILLIAM, D.D. (1688–1750), divine, son of John Berriman, apothecary in Bishopsgate Street, London, in the parish of St. Ethelburga (by Mary, daughter of William Wagstaffe, of Farnborough, Warwickshire), and grandson of the Rev. Charles Berriman, rector of Beddington, Surrey, was born on 24 Sept. 1688. His first school was at Banbury, Oxfordshire; he continued there seven years. Thence he was removed to Merchant Taylors' School, London, under Dr. Shorting, in 1700. He was entered commoner of Oriel College, Oxford, on 4 March 1705. He went to reside in Oxford on 21 June 1705; was B.A. 2 Nov. 1708; M.A. 2 June 1711; D.D. 25 June 1722. His brother, in his memoir of him, lauds his learning at the university, and Glocester Ridley, LL.B., in his funeral sermon remarks: ‘Aware of the ridiculousness of that dangerous and troublesome acquisition, “a little learning,” he did not quit the university when yet but a novice there, and rush into the world to be a teacher of it, till he had formed his judgment by the compleat axle of academical sciences and the exercises of the school’ (p. 11). He mastered Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. He was ordained deacon at Oxford by Bishop Talbot, but continued in residence at the university till he was settled in London on 5 May 1712. He is found as curate at Allhallows in Thames Street in 1712. He was ordained priest on 12 Dec. 1712 by the Bishop of Hereford (Dr. Bisse). He was chosen lecturer of St. Michael's, Queenhithe, 22 July 1714. He became domestic chaplain to Dr. Robinson, bishop of London, April 1720, and resided at Fulham. On 26 April ​1722 he was presented to St. Andrew's Undershaft, and thereupon resigned his lectureship at Queenhithe. He was known privately as author of 'A seasonable Review of Mr. Whiston's Account of Primitive Doxologies,' 1719, and of 'A Second Review,' also 1719. In 1723-4 was delivered his 'Historical Account of the Trinitarian Controversy,' being the Lady Moyer's lecture, published 1725. In 1731 followed 'A Defence of some Passages in the Historical Account,'
On 17 Nov. 1724 he married Mary Hudson. On 16 June 1727 he was elected fellow of Eton College, and for the remainder of his life took special interest in this foundation. Eton became his summer residence. In 1780-1 he preached the Boyle lecture, published in 1733 (2 vols. 8vo). In 1733 appeared his 'Brief Remarks on Mr. Chandler s Introduction to the History of the Inquisition.' There were other occasional sermons and tractates. He died on 5 Feb. 1749-50, in his sixty-second year. His brother John [q. v.] published posthumously two volumes sermons, entitling them 'Christian Doctrines and Duties explained and recommended in xl Sermons' (1751).
[Memoir by John Berriman in his Christian Dfxitrines, 1751; The Good Christian never dies, by Glocester Ridley, 1750; Chandlers Answer to William Berriman, D.D., 1733; with A Second Letter, 1733, and A Vindication against the Misrepresentations of William Berriman, 1734; Biog. Brit.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 365.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Berrow, Capel

​BERROW, CAPEL (1715–1782), divine, was born in 1716, son of Capel Berrow; (of Christ's College, Cambridge, B.A. 1703, M.A. 1712), chaplain to William, Earl Cowper, and for forty years the curate of Northill, Bedfordshire, who died 28 Oct. 1761 (Lysons, Bedfordshire, 120). He was admitted into Merchant Taylors' School 16 Oct. 1728, and became head scholar in 1733 (Robinson, M. T. School Register). He proceeded to the university of Oxford, matriculated a commoner of St. John's College 7 Sept. 1734, proceeded B.A. 1 June 1738, M.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1758. He became curate of St. Botolph's, Aldersgate, March 1741, and afterwards of St. Austin's, and on 12 July 1744 was chosen lecturer of St. Benedict and Paul's Wharf. The title-pages of his different books show his further offices and dignities, as follows: 'Theological Dissertstions by Capel Berrow, A.M. Rector of Rossington, Northamptonshire; Lecturer of St. Bennet's and St. Peter Paul's Wharf, and Chaplain to the Honourable Society of Judges and Serjeants in Serjeants' Inn,' 1782. This work was simply a binding-up together on his death of the unsold copies of his separately issued writings: (1) 'Remarks on the Rt. Rev. Dr. Sherlock s Discourses on the Use and Intent of Prophecy: in a Letter formerly sent to his Lordship.' (2) 'On Predestination, Election, Reprobation, and Future Punishments.' (3) 'A few Extracts from a Discourse concerning Origen and the Chiefest of his Opinions; first printed in the year 1661.' (4) 'Observations on the End and Design of Christ's Death.' (5) 'Deism not consistent the with the Religion of Reason and Nature.' (6) 'A Lapse of Human Souls in a State of Pre-existence, the only Original Sin and the Ground Work of the Gospel Dispensation.' Among the subscribers to the collective volume stands 'Samuel Johnson,' who in the 'Rambler' had discussed Berrow's speculations. The last, originally published in 1766, is his only book now remembered. Berrow never mentions the Jesuit writer, G. H. Bougeaut, from whose 'Amusement Philosophique sur le Langage des Bestes,' translated into English in 1739 (there was a '2nd edition corrected,' 1740), he derived nearly all his theories. Nor does Berrow refer to Hildrop's Examination of Father Bougeaut's Philosophical Amusement,' 1742, from which he also borrowed. Berrow brings in, in the most reckless and uncritical way, the most famous names as holding the doctrine of 'the lapse of souls in a state of pre-existence.' His work is a farrago of ill-digested learning. While Bougeaut jested, Berrow was as grave as a judge. Local inquiries show that he was non-resident at Rossington. Various occasional sermons (1746 onward) were also published by him. He died on 5 Oct. 1782.
[Rawlinson MSS. 4to. 6304, Bodleian Library; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, xi. 341, 417; Gent. Mag. lii. 503; communications from Rossington and London parishes; Berrow's Works.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Berry, William

​BERRY, WILLIAM (1774–1851), genealogist, well known from his various works on family history, was in the earlier part of his life, 1793–1809, employed as a writing clerk to the registrar of the College of Arms. On his retirement from that post, he for some time resided in Guernsey, where he published a very able work called ‘The History of the Island of Guernsey, compiled from the collections of Henry Budd,’ 1815, 4to. Previously to this, in 1810, he had brought out a work entitled ‘Introduction to Heraldry.’ Returning to England, he resided at Doddington Place, Kennington, Surrey, and in 1832 commenced ‘A Genealogical Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland.’ It was a carefully compiled family history, with very beautifully engraved coats of arms, but it did not receive much support, and after the issue of the fourth number, which terminated with an account of the dukes of Rutland, no further parts were printed. His ‘Genealogia Antiqua, or Mythological and Classical Tables,’ published in 1816, met with more success, and a second and improved edition appeared in 1840. This work was dedicated to Lord Grenville. His next undertaking was entitled ‘Encyclopedia Heraldica, or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry.’ It was brought out in numbers between 1828 and 1840, and forms four quarto volumes. This is a valuable heraldic work, as it embraces the greater part of the contents of Edmondson and other writers, with much original matter. Perhaps, however, the writings by which Berry is best known are his county genealogies published in small folio volumes, at five or six guineas per volume. These were Kent, 1830; Sussex, 1830; Hampshire, 1833; Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Surrey, 1837; Essex, 1839; and Hertfordshire, 1842. The three latter volumes were printed by means of lithography from the handwriting of the author. The first portion of ‘The County Genealogies, Kent,’ being severely reviewed in ‘The Gentleman's Magazine,’ and objections taken to Berry calling himself on the title-page of that work ‘registering clerk in the College of Arms,’ he brought an action for libel against Messrs. J. B. Nichols & Son, the publishers of the magazine. The trial took place in the court of king's bench before Lord Tenterden on 1 Nov. 1830, when, although the plaintiff was represented by Henry Brougham, afterwards the lord chancellor, the jury, without hearing any rebutting evidence, almost immediately gave a verdict in favour of the defendants. He died at his son's residence, Spencer Place, Brixton, 2 July 1851, aged 77, having survived his wife two months.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey (d.1178)

​GEOFFREY (d. 1178), abbot of Dunfermline, was nephew of Geoffrey (d. 1154) [q. v.], whom he succeeded as abbot in 1154 (Chron. S. Crucis Edinb.; Anglia Sacra, i. 161). He was the recipient of two bulls from Alexander III, the first undated, confirming the grant by Malcolm IV of the church of the Holy Trinity at Dunkeld to Dunfermline, the second dated June 1163, confirming all grants yet made or to be made to Dunfermline (Reg. Dunf. Bannatyne Club, p. 151). He appears as witness to several charters of Malcolm IV, of William the Lion, and of Bishops Arnold and Robert of St. Andrews. He was one of the ecclesiastics who at the convention of Falaise in 1175 conceded that ‘the English church may have that right in the church of Scotland which it ought to have by right;’ a cautious method of saying that the church of Scotland was and always had been independent of England. This would harmonise with Dempster's statement that he was a vigorous defender of the independence of the church of Scotland, and wrote ‘pro exemptione ecclesiæ Scoticæ’ (vii. 611). Geoffrey died in 1178 (Chron. Melrose).
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey de Muschamp

​GEOFFREY de Muschamp (d. 1208), bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, was probably a member of the family of Muschamp, barons by tenure of Wallovere in Northumberland (Nicolas, p. 343). Geoffrey was appointed archdeacon of Cleveland in 1189, after the death of Henry II, and without the knowledge of King Richard. Geoffrey of York had made use of his position as chancellor to affix the late king's seals on his own authority, probably acting on directions given by Henry before his death. In spite of the manner of his appointment, Muschamp sided with the chapter in the subsequent quarrel between that body and the archbishop; he was one of the envoys sent on behalf of the chapter to Rome, whence in September 1194 they returned with letters of absolution. Soon after the archbishop, having made peace with Richard, got Muschamp disseised of his archdeaconry on the ground that the appointment was informal. At Southwell in 1195 Muschamp resisted John, bishop of Whithern, who was acting for the archbishop. In June of the same year he was present as archdeacon of Cleveland at the legatine visitation held by Hubert Walter at York. In 1198 he was elected bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, apparently by the monks of the latter place without reference to the canons of Lichfield (Matt. Paris, ii. 444), but by the advice of Hubert and favour of King Richard. He was consecrated by Hubert at Canterbury on 21 June 1198 (his own autograph in the archives of Canterbury). He was present at John's coronation in May 1199 and at the council of Westminster in 1200. In 1204 he appears as a commissioner to decide the suit between the Bishop of Worcester and abbey of Evesham (Chron. Evesh. p. 130). According to Gervase (ii. 100) he was one of the bishops who fled from England in 1207. He died on 6 Oct. 1208, and is said to have been buried at Lichfield, which church he endowed with twenty marks annually for beer. Like other bishops of Lichfield and Coventry, he is also called bishop of Chester.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey (d.1235?)

​GEOFFREY (d. 1235?), prior of Coventry, was a monk of Coventry elected prior in 1216. In Wharton's 'Anglia Sacra' (i. 464) the exact date is given as 17 July, but it must have been earlier, for the royal assent was granted to his election, and the sheriff of Leicester was ordered to give him seizin on 8 July (Lit. Claus. 18 Joh. p. 276). In 1223, on the death of William of Cornhill [q. v.], a quarrel arose between the monks of Coventry and canons of Lichfield about the election of a new bishop. Both parties petitioned the king for leave to elect, Geoffrey appearing as proctor for his own church. Leave was granted in ambiguous terms 'to those who were accustomed and ought to elect;' the monks thereupon chose Geoffrey, and presented him to Stephen Langton for confirmation. The archbishop refused, and after hearing the canons quashed the election; this sentence was on appeal confirmed by Pope Honorius III, who with the assent of all parties appointed Alexander de Stavenby bishop in 1224. In 1232 Geoffrey resisted the visitation of Bishop Alexander, on the ground that he was not bound to accept a visitor not of his own order; he was suspended, and went to Rome, where the case was decided against him. In 1234 he was engaged in a quarrel with the abbot of St. Augustine's, Bristol. He is the author of a chronicle quoted in Dugdale's 'Antiquities of Warwick' (pp. 100, 105) as by an approved writer. The royal assent to the election of his successor was given on 19 Sept. 1235 (Pat. 19 Hen. Ill, cited in Monasticon, iii. 183).
[Annales Monastici, 'Tewkesbury' and 'Dunstable; 'Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 437-8; Dugdale's Antiq. Warwick.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey (d.1154)

​GEOFFREY (d. 1154), abbot of Dunfermline, monk, and afterwards prior of Christchurch, Canterbury, must have been elected prior about October 1126, for his predecessor, Conrad, died on 16 Feb. 1127, after having been abbot of Holme for eighteen weeks (J. de Oxenedes, p. 294). Geoffrey witnesses as prior a charter granted to the monks of Rochester by Archbishop William (Textus Roffensis, Hearne's ed. p. 156, not Archbishop Ralph, as stated in Anglia Sacra). In 1128, at the request of David of Scotland, he became first abbot of Dunfermline in Fife, and was ordained by Robert, bishop of St. Andrews. Florence of Worcester, who is our authority for this, calls him a man of distinguished piety. The church of Dunfermline was dedicated during his tenure of the abbacy in 1150 (Chron. Holyrood). He is stated to have written ‘Historia Apostolica,’ a work which has apparently perished. He died in 1154 (Chron. S. Crucis Edinb.) His name is given as Gaufridus or Gosfridus; the former seems the more correct.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carnaby, William

​CARNABY, WILLIAM (1772–1839), musical composer, was born in London in 1772 and educated in the Chapel Royal as a chorister under Dr. Nares and Dr. Ayrton. He was subsequently organist of Eye and of Huntingdon. In 1805 he took the degree of Mus. Doc. at Cambridge, where he entered at Trinity Hall. In July 1808 he proceeded Mus. Doc., on which occasion his exercise, described as 'a grand musical piece,' was performed at Great St. Mary's on Sunday, the 7th. Previous to this he had left Huntingdon and settled in London, where he lived at various times at 18 Winchester Row and 31 Red Lion Square. In 1823 he was appointed organist of the newly opened Hanover Chapel, Regent Street, at a salary of 50l. per annum, a post he occupied until his death, which took place at 7 Middlesex Place, New Road, on 7 Nov. 1839. Carnaby wrote a considerable amount of meritorious music; six songs dedicated to Lady Templetown, two books of songs dedicated to W. Knyvett, six canzonets for two voices to words by Shenstone, and a collection of vocal music dedicated to Viscountess Mahon are perhaps his best compositions, but he also wrote many songs, vocal duets, and pianoforte pieces which are always respectable, if not remarkably original.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 316; Gent. Mag. 1808, 628; Musical World, 14 Nov. 1839; Times, 11 Nov. 1839; Luard's Cantabrigienses Graduati, 71; Brit. Mus. Music Cat.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carmichael, John (d.1600)

​CARMICHAEL, Sir JOHN (d. 1600), of Carmichael, a powerful border chief, was the eldest son of Sir John Carmichael and Elizabeth, third daughter of the fifth lord of Somerville. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich, sister of the regent Morton, and in 1581 he and his son Hugh were found guilty of a treasonable conspiracy in assembling two hundred men at the rocks of Braid, with the view of rescuing Morton from the Castle of Edinburgh. They, however, escaped punishment by fleeing the kingdom, and having afterwards returned were attained in 1584 for being concerned in the raid of Ruthven, when they again fled the kingdom. In August 1588 Carmichael was appointed captain-general of the troops of light horse raised to assist in resisting the threatened invasion by the Spaniards (Register of the Privy Council, iv. 315); and when his services were not found necessary, he was appointed warden of the west marshes. He was one of the ambassadors sent to Denmark to negotiate the marriage between James VI and the Princess Anne of Denmark. In 1590 he was despatched on an important mission to Queen Elizabeth, with a result entirely satisfactory. In 1592 he resigned the warden-ship in favour of the Earl of Angus; but on that nobleman resigning it in 1598, he was restored to the office. While on his way to Lochmaben, to hold a warden's court for the punishment of offences committed on the borders, he was attacked (16 June 1600) by a body of the Armstrongs and shot dead with a hacbut. For this murder Thomas Armstrong, nephew of Kinmont Willie [see Armstrong, William, fl. 1596], was executed in the following November, and Alexander Armstrong of Rowanburne in February 1606. According to Sir Walter Scott, tradition affirms the well-known ballad, 'Armstrong's Good Night,' to have been composed by Thomas Armstrong previous to his execution.
[Crawford's Scottish Peerage; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ii. 752; Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vols. iii. iv. and v.; Irving's Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, i. 13-16.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carnac, John

​CARNAC, JOHN (1716–1800), colonel, commenced his military service in the 39th foot ('Primus in India'), and, being in India when that regiment was ordered home in 1758, was admitted into the East India Company's service with the rank of captain. In 1760 Camac, then a major, succeeded Colonel John Caillaud [q. v.] in command of the army at Patna, and in the following year won an important victory over the troops of the Emperor of Delhi and a French contingent commanded by M. Law, who with fifteen officers and fifty of his men was taken prisoner. The courtesy with which the French general was treated by the English commander appears to have astonished the natives, who at that time had but little acquaintance with European usages in war. The author of the 'Sir Mutakharin,' adverting to this incident, remarks: 'Nothing can be more modest and becoming than the behaviour of these strangers, whether in the heat of battle or in the pride of success.' Carnac was appointed a brigadier-general in May 1764. In 1765 he drove the Mahrattas across the Jumna. Returning to England in 1767, he was elected M.P. for Leominster. Four years later he was again in India, and rendered effective aid to Lord Clive in quelling a mutiny of the English officers in Bengal. In 1776 he was appointed member of council at Bombay, and, still filling that office in 1778, he was appointed one of the civil committee with the ​ army who early in the following year executed the unfortunate convention of Wargam. For his participation in this affair he was dismissed from the company's service. He appears to have remained in India until his death, which occurred at Mangalore in 1800 at the age of eighty-four.
[Philippart's East India Military Calendar, vol. ii.; Mill's History of India, vol. iii. ; Marshman's History of India, vol. i.]
A. J. A.