OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Balfour, Francis (fl.1812)

​BALFOUR, FRANCIS, M.D. (fl. 1812), Anglo-Indian medical officer, appears to have taken the degree of M.D. at Edinburgh. He entered the East India Company's service in Bengal as assistant-surgeon on 3 July 1769, was appointed full surgeon on 10 Aug. 1777, and retired from the service on 16 Sept. 1807 (Dodwell and Miles' Indian Medical Officers, 4-5). He afterwards returned to Edinburgh; but the date of his death is uncertain. He appears to have been living in 1816.
Balfour lived for several years on terms of some intimacy with Warren Hastings. He dedicated a book—'The Forms of Herkern'— to him in 1781, and addressed him a letter in the same year complaining of the want of courtesy shown him by other officials in the East India service at Lucknow (Addit. MS. 29151, f. 109). In May, June, and July 1783, Balfour, while at Benares, corresponded frequently with Hastings in an abortive attempt to disclose a plot between the resident of Benares, Francis Fowke, and Rajah Cheyte Sing, which he claimed to have discovered (Addit. MSS. 29159, ff. 257, 388, 394, 400; 29160, ff. 49, 50, 69, 83, 104, 116). Balfour not only interested himself in politics and medicine, but devoted much time to Oriental studies. 'The Forms of Herkern . . . translated into English ... by Francis Balfour,' was published at Calcutta in 1781, and republished in London in 1804. It is a state letter-writer in Persian; a vocabulary is given by the translator at the end. Balfour was one of the earliest members of the Bengal Asiatic Society, founded, under the presidency of Sir William Jones and the patronage of Warren Hastings, in 1784. To the 'Asiatic Researches' ('Transactions of the Bengal Asiatic Society') Balfour contributed in 1790 a paper on Arabic roots, showing how the Arabic language had entered into the Persian and the language of Hindostan (ii. 205), and in 1805 a paper entitled 'Extracts from Tehzeebul Mantik; or the Essence of Logic, proposed as a small supplement to Arabic and Persian Grammar, and with a view to elucidate certain points connected with Oriental Literature' (viii. 89).
Balfour's medical works were as follows:
* 'Dissertatio de Gonorrhea Virulenta,' 1767.
* ' A Treatise on Sol-Lunar Influence in Fevers,' vol. i. Calcutta, 1784 ; 2nd ed. London, 1795; 3rd ed. Cupar, 1815; 4th ed. Cupar, 1816. A German translation of the book, with a preface by Herr Lauth, appeared at Strasburg in 1786. Balfour here expounds his favourite theory, that fevers are under the direct influence of the moon, and reach their critical stage with the full moon.
* 'Treatise on Putrid Intestinal Remitting Fevers,' 1790; 2nd ed. 1795.
* A paper on the Barometer in the 'Asiatic Researches' (iv. 195), 1795.
* A paper on the Diurnal Variations of the Barometer,' Edinburgh Phil. Trans.' (iv. pt. i. 25), 1798.
* A paper on the Effects of Sol-Lunar Influence on the Fevers of India in 'Asiatic Researches' (viii. 1), 1805.
[Authorities cited above; Watt's Bibl. Brit; Balfour's works; Dict. of Living Authors. 1816.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Balfour, Andrew

​BALFOUR, Sir ANDREW (1630–1694), botanist, was born on 18 Jan. 1630 at Balfour Castle, Denmiln, Fifeshire; the youngest son of his parents. Sir Michael Balfour, and Joanna, daughter of James Durham of Pikerow. His eldest brother James [see Balfour, Sir James, 1600-1657] was thirty years his senior, the family consisting of five sons and nine daughters. He was baptised on the day of his birth, and his education was conducted in the parish school of Abdie, and afterwards at the university of St. Andrews; at the latter he began his study of natural history and medicine, and then came to Oxford. He spent some years in foreign travel; in France he studied in Paris, Montpellier, and Caen, also in Italy at Padua, but spent most time in Paris, studying medicine, anatomy, and botany, in the royal garden, of which Joncquet was then prefect. On his return, after taking his degree of M.D. at Caen on 20 Sept. 1661, he stayed long in London in the practice of his profession, Harvey, De Mayone, Glisson and Wharton being named as his compeers. He travelled as tutor to the Earl of Ross again on the continent, and spent four years in France and Italy, visiting Zanoni at Bologna, who showed him the unpublished plates of his 'Historia Plantarum,' and Torre at Padua. After fifteen years' travel abroad he returned to St. Andrews, where he recommenced the practice of medicine, but afterwards removed to Edinburgh. A year or two after his settlement at the latter place he began his botanic garden; procuring seeds from Dr. ​Robert Morison of Blois, and afterwards of Oxford, and M. Merchant of Paris, and others, he soon had more than a thousand species in cultivation. He founded the public botanic gardens at Edinburgh about 1680 by the good offices of Lord Patrick Murray of Levistone, and he transferred thither his own plants to the care of Sutherland, the first curator, who published a catalogue in 1683. On Lord Murray's death in 1671, the cost of maintenance fell upon Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbald, until the university granted an annual subsidy from the corporate funds. He died 10 Jan. 1694, aged 62, leaving his curiosities and manuscripts to Sibbald. After his death his son published at Edinburgh in 1700 'Letters writé to a Friend' [Lord Murray], containing excellent directions and advices for travelling through France and Italy. Sibbald published in 1699 a life of Sir Andrew and his brother Sir James, under the title of 'Memoria Balfouriana.'
[Sibbald's Memoria Balfouriana, Edin. 1699; Auctarium Musei Balfouriani e Museo Sibbaldiano, Edin. 1697; Pulteney's Sketches, ii. 3, Lond. 1790.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Balfour, John

​BALFOUR, JOHN (d. 1688), third Lord Balfour of Burleigh, succeeded his father Robert, second Lord Balfour of Burleigh [q. v.], in 1663. In his youth he went to France for his education. In an 'affair of honour' he was there wounded. He returned home through London early in 1649 and married Isabel, daughter of another scion of his house—Sir William Balfour [q. v.] of Pitcullo, Fife, lieutenant of the Tower. The young married pair set off for Scotland in March. They found the father strongly displeased. The displeasure took the preposterous shape of asking the general assembly of the kirk of Scotland to annul the marriage. The petition was quietly shelved. The plea for the dissolution of the tie was 'the open wound' he still bore, and which paternal wrath deemed a disqualification for marriage. He died in 1688, leaving besides Robert, his heir and successor, two sons and six daughters. This Lord Balfour of Burleigh has been traditionally styled 'Covenanter,' which he assuredly never was. On Sir Walter Scott must be laid the blame—if blame it be—by having appropriated the name and designation in his 'John Balfour of Burley' in 'Old Mortality.' John Balfour, the 'Covenanter,' was historically 'of Kinloch,' not of Burleigh, and the principal actor in the assassination of Archbishop Sharp in 1679. For this crime his estate was forfeited and a large reward offered for his capture. He fought at Drumclog and at Bothwell Bridge, and is said to have escaped to Holland, and to have there tendered his services to the Prince of Orange. It is generally supposed that John Balfour of Burley died at sea on a return voyage to Scotland. But in the 'New Statistical Account of Scotland,' under 'Roseneath,' strong presumptions are stated for believing that he never left Scotland, but found an asylum in the parish of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, under the wing of the Argyll family. According to this account, having assumed the name of Salter, his descendants continued there for many generations, the last of the race dying in 1815. Scott noted in his 'Old Mortality' that in 1808 a Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour de Burleigh was commandant of the troops of the King of Holland in the West Indies.
[Authorities as under Balfour, Robert, second Lord Balfour; Scott's Old Mortality, note 2, 3; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Letter from the present Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Kennet.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Balfour, James (1705-1795)

​BALFOUR, JAMES (1705–1795), philosopher, was born at Pilrig, near Edinburgh, in 1705, and, after studying at Edinburgh and at Leyden, was called to the Scottish bar. He held the offices of treasurer to the faculty of Advocates and sheriff-substitute of the county of Edinburgh. In 1754 he was appointed to the chair of moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, and in 1754 transferred to that of the law of nature and nations. He was the author of three philosophical books:
* 'A Delineation of the Nature and Obligation of Morality, with Reflexions upon Mr. Hume's book entitled "An Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals."' This book was published anonymously, the first edition in 1753, the second in 1763.
* 'Philosophical Essays,' published anonymously in 1768.
* 'Philosophical Dissertations,' published in 1782 under the author's name.
These writings are marked by a calm tone of good sense and good feeling, but are not very powerful in thought. Dr. M'Cosh, in his work on the 'Scottish Philosophy,' says of him: 'He sets out (in his "Delineation") with the principle that private happiness must be the chief end and object of every man's pursuit; shows how the good of others affords the greatest happiness; and then, to sanction natural conscience, he calls in the authority of God, who must approve of what promotes the greatest happiness. This theory does not give morality 'a sufficiently deep foundation in the constitution of man on the character of God, and could not have stood against the assaults of Hume. … In his "Philosophical Essays" he wrote against Hume and Lord Kaimes, and in defence of active power and liberty. Like all active opponents of the new scepticism he felt it necessary to oppose the favourite theory of Locke, that all our ideas are derived from sensation and reflexion.'
Balfour's mother was a Miss Hamilton, of Airdrie, great-grandaunt of the late Sir William Hamilton, Bart., professor of logic and metaphysics in the university of Edinburgh 1836-1856. His eldest sister married Gavin Hamilton, bookseller and publisher in Edinburgh (also, it is believed, a member of the Airdrie family), whose eldest son was Robert Hamilton, professor of mathematics in Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, author of a treatise on the national debt.
[The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography; Anderson's Scottish Nation; M'Cosh's Scottish Philosophy; Letter to the writer from John M. Balfour-Melville, Esq., of Pilrig and Mount Melville, great-grandson of Professor Balfour.]
W. G. B.
# Desperate Remedies (Hardy)/Part 18
## XVIII. THE EVENTS OF THREE DAYS

    1. MARCH THE EIGHTEENTH
    2. MARCH THE TWENTIETH. SIX TO NINE O'CLOCK P.M.
    3. FROM NINE TO TEN O'CLOCK P.M.
# Desperate Remedies (Hardy)/Part 19
## XIX. THE EVENTS OF A DAY AND NIGHT

    1. MARCH THE TWENTY-FIRST. MORNING
    2. AFTERNOON
    3. FROM FIVE TO EIGHT O'CLOCK P.M.
    4. FROM EIGHT TO ELEVEN O'CLOCK P.M.
    5. FROM ELEVEN O'CLOCK TO MIDNIGHT
    6. FROM MIDNIGHT TO HALF-PAST ONE A.M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alderson, Edward Hall

​ALDERSON, Sir EDWARD HALL (1787–1857), judge, was the son of Robert Alderson, for many years recorder of Norwich, Yarmouth, and Ipswich. His mother dying in 1791, he was sent to live with his maternal grandfather, Mr. Hurry, and went to school at Scarning, near Dereham. Thence he passed to the Charterhouse in 1804, and after being a pupil of Maltby, afterwards bishop of Durham, at Buckden, Huntingdonshire, entered Caius College, Cambridge, in 1805. He was Browne's medallist in 1807, and in 1809 took a degree, only once equalled (by Brundish, of Caius, in 1773), being senior wrangler, first Smith's prizeman, and first chancellor's medallist, the last honour being then the highest attainable by classical scholarship. He became a fellow of his college, ​and immediately entered the Inner Temple, where he was a pupil of Chitty . He was called to the bar in 1811, and joined the northern circuit. From 1817 to 1822 he was reporter to the King's Bench (Barnewall and Alderson, Reports of Cases in the Court of King's Bench from 1817 to 1822) [see Barnewall, Richard Vaughan]. In 1823 he married Miss Georgina Drewe, of a family settled near Honiton, Devonshire. He had rapidly got into business, his most conspicuous performance as a barrister being his cross-examination of George Stephenson on the first railway case, that of the Manchester and Liverpool railway. In 1830 he was made a judge in the court of Common Pleas, never having taken silk. In 1834 he was transferred to the Exchequer, and was a baron of that court until his death. The remainder of his life was uneventful. He was a conservative, but never entered parliament, and took little part in politics. He was a strong churchman of moderate tendencies, and wrote three letters, printed with his life, to the Bishop of Exeter (Phillpotts), and to a friend who had thought of leaving the church of England upon occasion of the Gorham case, a step which he deprecates. He was a man of much religious feeling, a humane judge, with a desire to restrict capital punishment; and his literary taste was shown in some playful verses, and in his prolonged correspondence with his cousin, Mrs. Opie, till her death in 1853. His domestic life was happy, and he was the father of a large family. He died in January 1857.
[Selections from Charges and other detached papers, with introductory notice of his Life, by (his son) Charles Alderson, 1858.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Aldfrith

​ALDFRITH, EALDFRITH, or EAHFRITH (d. 705), king of the Northumbrians, was an illegitimate son of Oswiu. During the reign of his brother Ecgfrith, he took refuge with the Irish of the western isles, and on the death of Ecgfrith in 685 at the battle of Nectansmere succeeded him as king. He was in some measure successful in restoring prosperity to his kingdom, which had suffered severely from the wars of the last reign. Aldfrith was taught in his exile by Irish monks, and was famed for his piety and learning in the Scriptures. On his return Bishop Aldhelm wrote him a letter of congratulation, in which he speaks of the report he had heard concerning the learning of Aldfrith. This learning was not confined to sacred things, for Aldhelm dedicated to him his treatise entitled ‘Liber de Septenario et de Metris,’ or ‘Epistola ad Acircium.’ Adamnan, abbot of Hii (Iona), came to his old pupil Aldfrith to procure the liberation of some Irish captives, stayed for some time at his court, and was there converted to the Roman usages. When Adamnan finished his book ‘De Locis Sacris,’ he presented it to Aldfrith. The king caused it to be copied for the use of his people, and richly rewarded the writer. Aldfrith took great delight in listening to a monk named Hæmgils, who used to tell him the experiences of one Drycthelm, who was said to have risen from the dead. He married Cuthburh, sister of Ine, king of the West Saxons, but after some years separated from her by mutual consent from religious motives. When Aldfrith came to the throne, Bishop Wilfrith was in exile. Archbishop Theodore, however, was now reconciled to Wilfrith, and by his advice the king recalled him. Aldfrith did not upset the new bishoprics which Theodore had created, and Wilfrith was confined to the bishopric of the Deirans, the see of York. His Celtic education made the king disapprove the system of church organisation upheld by the Roman party which was headed by Wilfrith. And he determined fully to carry out the reconstruction of the church in his kingdom by placing a bishop's see in Ripon. At the synod of Onestrefeld, 702, Wilfrith violently refused to consent to this arrangement, and went to Rome to lay his case before the pope. Although John VI upheld the bishop and commanded that he should be restored to his see, Aldfrith refused the mandate with some contempt, declaring that no such writing should make him change one word of what he and his witan had decreed. His sister Ælfleda, abbess of Whitby, who was on the side of Wilfrith, declared that Aldfrith, when on his deathbed, repented of his conduct towards the bishop. Aldfrith died in 705, and was buried at Driffield.
[Bæda, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. v.; Eddius, in Hist. of the Church of York, ed. Raine, Rolls Ser.; Florence of Worcester; Will. of Malmesbury, Vitæ Pontif. lib. iii.; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccl. Documents, iii.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Aldgyth

​ALDGYTH (fl. 1063), the daughter of Ælfgar, earl of Mercia, was a woman of great beauty. She married her father's ally, Gruffydd, the ‘king over all Wales,’ and is said to have borne him a son and a daughter. When, in 1063, the Welsh were conquered by Earl Harold, Gruffydd's own men conspired against him and slew him. An alliance with the great Mercian house, which had so long withstood the power of Godwine and his family, promised to forward the accomplishment of Harold's designs. He was already pledged to marry a daughter of William, the Norman duke. Another woman was the mother of his children. Nevertheless, Aldgyth was married, probably in 1064, to the conqueror of her former husband. She was in London at the time of the battle of Senlac. When her brothers, Eadwine and Morkere, heard of the death of Harold, they came thither, and sent their sister to Chester for shelter. She appears in Domesday as ‘Aldgid uxor Grifin,’ which may perhaps show that the Normans affected to consider that the pre-contract of Harold to a daughter of their duke had invalidated his marriage with Aldgyth. Some lands which she held in Warwickshire were of course forfeited after the Conquest. Nothing more is known of Aldgyth, save that she had a son by Harold, who was called after his father, and that it is probable that she was also the mother of another of his sons, named Ulf.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alderson, John

1904 Errata appended.
​ALDERSON, JOHN, M.D. (1758–1829), physician, belonged to a family distinguished by its varied intellectual gifts. He was born at Lowestoft, the son of a dissenting minister, the Rev. J. Alderson, whose death (1760) ​was hastened by the adverse termination of a lawsuit. Mr. Elisha Barlow, a merchant of Lowestoft, deploring the narrow means of his minister, who had a numerous family, bequeathed a good estate at Mutford for the augmentation of the stipend, on the condition that, whenever Mr. Alderson should withdraw from the church, the estate was to devolve on him and his heirs for ever. Thereupon the whole body of dissenters in the town, out of regard for their pastor, drew up an instrument by which they expelled him from the church in order that he might acquire the estate. They afterwards re-elected him to the pastoral office. Their good intentions were however defeated by the heirs-at-law, who disputed the legality of the bequest in the court of Chancery on the statute of mortmain, and gained their suit. Mr. Alderson was shortly after taken ill while preaching, and died on reaching his home. His son John, after receiving a regular medical training, began to practise in Hull, and soon became the chief physician of the town. In 1788 he published at Hull ‘An Essay on the Nature and Origin of the Contagion of Fever,’ and four years later, ‘An Essay on the Rhus Toxicodendron, or Sumach, and its Efficacy in Paralysis,’ which passed through three editions between 1794 and 1805. In 1795 he was elected physician to the Hull Infirmary, and in commemoration of his services there, and of the public spirit he had exhibited in founding and presiding over various literary and scientific institutions in the town, a statue of the doctor was, in 1833, erected by subscription on the lawn in front of the infirmary, at a cost of 300l. He died 16 Sept. 1829. Dr. Alderson was also the author of a work not altogether of a professional character, entitled ‘An Essay on Apparitions accounted for independently of Preternatural Agency,’ 8vo, London, 1823. In this work he has given some extremely curious cases of mental illusion which came under his own immediate observation. He published two editions of a treatise ‘On the Improvement of Poor Soils’ (1802 and 1807) and several editions of ‘Orthographical Exercises.’
[Gillingwater's History of Lowestoft, pp. 366–7; Galton's English Men of Science, p. 41; Gent. Mag. Nov. 1830, p. 451; Biog. Dict. Soc. D.U.K.]
R. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.5 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 243 | ii | 5 f.e. | Alderson, John: for 1758 read 1757 |
| | | 3 f.e. | after born insert 4 June 1757 |
| 244 | i | 13-12 f.e. | omit and several . . . . Exercises' |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Aldis, Charles (1775?–1863)

​ALDIS, Sir CHARLES (1775?–1863), surgeon, born in 1775 or 1776 in Norfolk, was the son of Daniel Aldis, a medical practitioner. He came to London in 1794 and studied at Guy's and Bartholomew's Hospitals. In 1797 or 1798 he was made surgeon to the sick and wounded prisoners of ​war at Norman Cross barracks, Huntingdonshire (where from 10,000 to 12,000 French and Dutch prisoners were then detained). In 1800 he moved to Hertford, where he introduced vaccination into three parishes in spite of opposition from the doctors, but in 1802 began to practise in London, and in 1803 became a member of the College of Surgeons. He was surgeon to the New Finsbury Dispensary, and founded a special hospital, called the Glandular Institution for the Cure of Cancer, in Clifford Street. Charles Aldis was known as an antiquary as well as a surgeon, and was knighted by the lord lieutenant of Ireland, though whether for any special services does not appear. He died on 28 March 1863.
He wrote: ‘Observations on the Nature and Treatment of Glandular Diseases, especially those denominated Cancer,’ pp. 116, London, 1820, 8vo, and subsequently; also papers in ‘Defence of Vaccination,’ &c.; an ‘Essay on the too frequent Use of the Trephine;’ on the ‘British System of Education;’ and many articles in periodicals.
J. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Devis, Arthur (1711?-1787)

Date of birth 1712 in the ODNB.
​DEVIS, ARTHUR (1711?–1787), portrait-painter, was born about 1711 at Preston in Lancashire, and was a pupil of Peter Tillemans. He exhibited at the Free Society of Artists twenty works, chiefly portraits, between 1762 and 1780. He also was employed to restore Sir James Thornhill's paintings in ​the hall at Greenwich, for which he received 1,000l. He died at Brighton 24 July 1787. When residing in London his address was Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. There is a print by Chamber from a picture painted by Devis; it represents a whole-length portrait of Miss Conyers of Copthall, Essex. She is represented sitting at the mouth of a cave and playing on a guitar. In 1763 he exhibited at the Free Society of Artists ‘A Family, with a view of the Gentleman's House,’ ‘A Gentleman's Portrait,’ and ‘Two Young Ladies, with Grapes, &c., in a landscape.’ In 1767 he sent ‘A Lady, whole length,’ ‘A Gentleman on Horseback,’ and ‘A Small Portrait.’ In 1768 ‘a portrait, three-quarters, a new species of painting.’
L. F.