OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basset, Ralph (d.1282?)

​BASSET, RALPH (d. 1282?), baronial leader, was lord of Sapcote, Leicestershire. By the Provisions of Oxford (1258) he was appointed constable of Northampton (Ann. Burt.), and he was one of the sureties ex parte baronum for the observance of the Mise of Amiens (December 1263). He was again entrusted by the barons with Northampton (Pat. 47 Hen. III, m. 5), and was appointed, after Lewes, custos pacis for Leicestershire (4 June 1264). As ‘Radulfus Basset de Sapercote’ he was summoned to Simon de Montfort's parliament (24 Dec. 1264), and fought at Evesham (4 Aug. 1265) in the ranks of the barons (Esch. 49 Hen. III, n. 3).
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basset, Richard

1904 Errata appended.
​BASSET, RICHARD (d. 1144?), justiciar, was son of Ralph Basset [see Basset, Ralph, d. 1127?], and associated with him in the administration. Henry of Huntingdon speaks of him as a ‘justiciary of all England,’ and Orderic (lib. xiii. cap. 26) asserts that, under Henry I, he had power ‘utpote capitalis justitiarii,’ and built himself a stately keep on his paternal fief of Montreuil (au ​Houlme), which, however, was wrested from him on Henry's death. He appears in the Pipe Roll of 1129–30 as succeeding to his father's circuit, and as joint sheriff with Alberic de Vere for eleven counties. He married Maud, daughter of Geoffrey Ridel, the justiciary, and founded, with her, the priory of Laund, Leicestershire. Foss maintains (from the Pipe Roll of 1 Hen. II) that he was still living in 1154, but this roll does not exist, and he is mentioned as dead in the ‘De Contemptu’ of Henry of Huntingdon, which is attributed to 1145.
J. H. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.17 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 385 | ii | 9 f.e. | Basset, Richard: for 1154? read 1144? |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basset, William (d.1185?)

​BASSET, WILLIAM (d. 1185?), judge, was a younger son of Richard Basset [see Basset, Richard, d. 1154?], and grandson of Ralph Basset, who died about 1127. He acted as sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, 1163–1170 (Rot. Pip. Hen. II), till displaced, by the inquest of sheriffs, in 1170 (Pip. 19 Hen. II), and as sheriff of Lincolnshire 1177–84. He held pleas as a justice itinerant from 1168 to 1182 (Foss says wrongly till 1180), and sat in the Curia Regis, when not otherwise employed, from Michaelmas 1168 to 31 May 1185 (Foss says, wrongly, till 1184), after which he appears no longer. He settled at Sapcote, Leicestershire, and was father of Simon Basset, who appears as a justice itinerant in 1197–8.
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bassingbourne, Humphrey de

​BASSINGBOURNE, HUMPHREY de (fl. 1206), was an itinerant justice in the year 1206, when certain fines were acknowledged before him and Richard de Seing at St. Edmund's, Cambridge, and Bedford. On this occasion he is called Humphrey, archdeacon of Salisbury, and Foss has identified this Humphrey with the Humphrey de Bassingbourne who, according to Le Neve, was archdeacon of Sarum in various years from 1188 to 1222. The Rev. W. H. Jones, however, in his careful work, ‘Fasti Ecclesiæ Sarisberi​ensis,’ remarks that there were several archdeacons of the name of Humphrey in the diocese of Salisbury about this time, and that Le Neve is possibly confusing Humphrey, who was archdeacon of Wiltshire in 1214, with another Humphrey who was archdeacon of Salisbury in 1222. We learn from an entry in the Close Rolls for 1208 that in April this year the goods of the archdeacon of Sarum, which had been confiscated at the time of the interdict, were restored to him; and from the same authority we learn that in 1216 Humphrey, archdeacon of Sarum, received letters of protection from the king. It was probably just previous to this that he had incurred the king's displeasure, and been obliged to pay a fine of one hundred marks and a palfrey as the price of his restoration to the king's favour.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bassnett, Christopher

​BASSNETT, CHRISTOPHER (1677?–1744), nonconformist minister whose birthplace is unknown, is believed by Wilson to be related to Samuel Bassnett of Coventry (whose father was mayor in 1625). Samuel Bassnett was ejected from the lectureship of St. Michael's in 1662 as a congregationalist, and removed to Atherstone in 1665, where he died. Christopher entered the Rev. Richard Frankland's academy at Rathmel as student for the ministry on 1 April 1696. He was an intimate friend of Matthew Henry, who says in a manuscript diary, 20 July 1709, ‘recommended Mr. Basnet to Liverpool,’ and 1 Aug. ‘he is inclined to accept.’ He ministered to the congregation at Kaye or Key Street, Liverpool, then included in the Warrington presbyterian classis (meeting-house opened on 24 Nov. 1707). He was incapacitated by illness from 23 March 1711 to 26 Jan. 1712. He married, on 9 Feb. 1713, Mrs. Cheney of Manchester, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Eaton (d. 1729). He assisted in establishing a school for the free education of poor children in Liverpool in 1716. He had John Brekell as a colleague from 1728. He died on 22 July 1744, æt. 68. Bassnett was a homely, useful preacher, with puritan unction. He published: 1. ‘Zebulun's Blessing opened and applied, &c.,’ 1714 (eight sermons to seafaring men and traders, occasioned by the construction of a new dock, and memorable for the comment on Luke xiv. 20: ‘But why could not the fool bring his wife along with him?’ &c., p. 55); and 2. ‘Church Officers and their Mission,’ &c., 1717 (sermon at ordination of Henry Winder and Benjamin Mather at St. Helen's).
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basset, Ralph (d.1265)

​BASSET, RALPH (d. 1265), baronial leader, was lord of Drayton in Staffordshire, and, joining the baronial party against Henry III, was appointed by them custos pacis for Shropshire and Staffordshire on 7 June 1264 (Rymer's Fœdera), and was summoned to Simon de Montfort's parliament on 4 Dec. 1264 as Ralph Basset ‘de Drayton’ (Claus. 49 Hen. III, m. 12 dors.). He fell at Evesham by De Montfort's side on 4 Aug. 1265 (Chron. of Edward I and II, i. 69), having refused, when urged by him, to seek safety in flight (Rishanger, 36–7).
Sir Rauf the gode Basset did ther his ending. Robert Brune.
His lands were forfeited for rebellion, but restored to his widow Margaret, as the daughter of a royalist, Roger de Someri (Pat. 50 Hen. III, m. 46).
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basset, William (1644-1695)

​BASSET, WILLIAM (1644–1695), divine, son of Thomas Basset, minister of Great Harborough in Warwickshire, was baptised there 22 Oct. 1644, became a commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1660, and afterwards a demy of Magdalen College in the same university. He graduated M.A., and took orders, was beneficed first in Surrey, afterwards (1671) at Brinklow in his native county, and in July 1683 was presented by the Salters' Company to the rectory of St. Swithin in London. His death occurred in the beginning of the year 1695–6, as he was succeeded on 25 March 1696 in his rectory of St. Swithin by John Clark, M.A.
In addition to several sermons, he published: 1. ‘Two Letters on Alterations in the Liturgy.’ 2. A ‘Vindication’ of the previous work, 1689. 3. ‘An Answer to the Brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians,’ Lond. 1693, 8vo. John Biddle's ‘History,’ to which this is a reply, appeared anonymously in 1687.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basset, William (d.1249?)

​BASSET, WILLIAM (d. 1249?), judge, was possibly son of Simon Basset, of Sapcote [see Basset, William, d. 1185? ad fin.], but his parentage is uncertain. Forfeited for rebellion in 1216, he was restored on returning to his allegiance in 1217. He assisted as a justiciar, in assessing the fifteenth for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in 1225 (Fœdera, i. 177), and was appointed a justice itinerant for these counties 27 May 1226. He again appears as a justice itinerant in 1227 and 1232, and he probably died about July 1249, when Robert, his heir, did homage. Another William Basset was an advocate under Edward II and Edward III, and was elevated to the bench of the Common Pleas about 1337. On 18 Oct. 1341 he was transferred to the King's Bench, where he sat till about 1350.
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Le Mesurier, John

​LE MESURIER, JOHN (1781–1843), major-general, last hereditary governor of Alderney, born in 1781, was eldest son of Governor Peter Le Mesurier, who died in 1803 (see Gent. Mag. 1803, pt. i. 91), and grandson of Governor John Le Mesurier, who died in 1793 (ib. 1793, pt. i. 374). Alderman Le Mesurier (ib. 1806, pt. i. 84) and Commissary Havilland Le Mesurier [q. v.] were his uncles. He was appointed ensign in 1794 in the 132nd highlanders, from which short-lived corps he was promoted into the 89th foot, and became captain-lieutenant in 1796. He served with a flank battalion commanded by Colonel Stewart in the Irish rebellion of 1798, and afterwards with his regiment in 1799–1800 at the occupation of Messina after blockade and capture of Malta under General Thomas Graham, lord Lynedoch [q. v.], and in the campaign in Egypt in 1801, including the battles before Alexandria, the defence of Rosetta, and the surrender of Cairo. After the fall of Alexandria the 89th embarked on board Lord Keith's fleet on a secret expedition, the destination of which was supposed to be Brazil; but on reaching Malta peace was found to have been declared, and the regiment returned to Ireland. After attaining his majority in the 89th Le Mesurier retired on half-pay. The government of Alderney, to which Le Mesurier succeeded on his father's death in 1803, was originally granted to an ancestor of the family, Sir Edmund Andros [q. v.], by letters patent of Charles II, and was renewed to Le Mesurier's grandfather, John Le Mesurier, by George III, for a period of ninety-nine years, in 1763. Le Mesurier, who, while on the half-pay list, attained the rank of major-general, resigned the government at the end of 1824. He died at Bradfield Place, near Reading, 21 May 1843, aged 62. He married in 1804 Martha, daughter of Alderman Peter Pochard of London, a native of Guernsey, and had one son, in holy orders, the author of some small books of devotion.
[Army Lists; Gent. Mag. 1843, pt. ii. pp. 105, 204, and preceding vols. ut supra.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Le Moine, Abraham

​LE MOINE, ABRAHAM (d. 1757), theological controversialist, was probably the son of one of the Huguenot refugees of that name settled in England. From 1723 to 1743 he was chaplain to the French Hospital in London. In 1729 he became chaplain to the Duke of Portland, who in 1738 presented him to the rectory of Everley, Wiltshire. His handwriting appears in the register till 11 July 1756. He died in the following January, and was buried at St. James's, Paddington, 13 Jan. 1757 (Lysons, Environs of London), but his tombstone has disappeared. His principal work is a ‘Treatise on Miracles,’ a reply to Thomas Chubb [q. v.], London, 1747. He also wrote ‘A Vindication of the Literal Account of the Fall,’ London, 1751, being a reply to Middleton; and ‘A Defence of the Sacred History of the Old Testament against the groundless objections and false insinuations of the late Lord Bolingbroke in his Letters on the Study and Use of History,’ London, 1753. He published French translations of Bishop Gibson's ‘Pastorals on Infidelity and on Missions,’ London, 1729, and ‘Letters against Libertines,’ the Hague, 1732; of Bishop Sherlock's ‘Dissertations on the Fall, on Second Epistle of St. Peter, on Prophecy, and on Jacob's Blessing to Judah,’ Amsterdam, 1732, and of the anonymous ‘Tryal of the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus’ (1729), to which he added a ‘Dissertation historique sur les écrits de Mr. Woolston,’ i.e. Thomas Woolston [q. v.], the Hague, 1735.
Two brothers, Abraham Le Moine, born 10 Feb. 1724, and Joseph Le Moine, apparently sons of the above, entered Merchant Taylors' School, London, in 1735. The former graduated B.A. from Catharine Hall, Cambridge, in 1744.
[Everley parish register; Agnew's French Prot. Exiles, London, 1886; Sir R. C. Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, London, 1822–43; Gent. Mag. 1759 p. 593, 1818 ii. 116; Picot's Mém. Hist. Ecclés., new ed., Paris, 1855 (incorrect as to date of death).]
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Le Neve, William

1904 Errata appended.
​LE NEVE, Sir WILLIAM (1600?–1661), herald and genealogist, was the son and heir of William Le Neve of Aslacton, Norfolk, by his first wife, the daughter of John Aldham of Shimpling. His father died in 1609, and he was probably born before 1600. It has been erroneously assumed that he was the William Le Neve, son of Geoffrey Neve of Aslacton, who was educated at Norwich School and Caius College, Cambridge, and was aged 16 in 1624 (Admissions to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1887). Le Neve was appointed Mowbray herald extraordinary under a warrant dated 24 June 1622 (Ashmolean MS. 857, p. 343); York herald, 25 Nov. 1625; Norroy, December 1633; and Clarenceux, 23 June 1635, having been previously knighted at Whitehall on 23 April 1634. In 1640 he was in correspondence with Sir Christopher Hatton (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Rep. p. 26).
In 1642 he is said to have been sent by Charles I, on the day before the battle of Edgehill, to the parliamentary army under the Earl of Essex, ‘with a proclamation of pardon to all such as would lay down their arms; but when he offered to read it aloud, the earl reproved him with much roughness, for obeying which order he was very uneasy ever afterwards.’ His mental powers failing him, he was declared to be a lunatic in October 1658, and Sir Edward Walker (Garter) was empowered to execute his office. Not long after he died at Hoxton, on 15 Aug. 1661, and was buried at St. Benet's, Paul's Wharf. He was not married. In Ashmolean MS. 1113, pp. 225 et seq., there is ‘A Short Account of the Life and Actions of King Edward III, and of his son Edward, Prince of Wales,’ by him.
[Authorities cited; Ashmolean MS. 1113.]
W. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.181 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 38 | i | 32 | Le Neve, Sir William: for 1648 read 1642 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Le Strange, John

John Lestrange in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LE STRANGE, JOHN (d. 1269), lord marcher, third in descent from Roland le Strange (who occurs as a witness in 1112), held extensive estates in Shropshire and Norfolk, including Knokyn in the former, and Hunstanton in the latter county. He served in 1214 under King John in Poitou, and between 1233 and 1240 was successively appointed by Henry III constable of the castles of Montgomery, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, and Chester. He spent a long life in defending the Welsh border as a lord marcher, and during the rebellion of Simon de Montfort stood fast to the crown. One of his daughters, Hawise, married Griffin, prince of Powys; his younger son, Hamon, accompanied Prince Edward on the crusade of 1270, and in 1272 married at Cyprus Isabelle d'Ibelin, widow of Hugh II, king of Cyprus. Another son, Robert, was ancestor of the Lords Strange of Blackmere. John le Strange died in 1269, and was succeeded by his son John (d. 1275), who by his marriage with Joan de Someri, co-heiress of Hugh de Albini, earl of Arundel, added much to the influence and wealth of his family. His grandson, John, sixth baron of Knokyn (d. 1311), gave in 1310 his manor of Hunstanton to his younger brother, Hamon, from whom the Norfolk Le Stranges come in direct descent.
[Eyton's History of Shropshire, x. 259; Carthew's History of Launditch, i. 139; Assises de Jérusalem, ii. 449, Paris, 1843; Historiens des Croisades, ii. 462.]
H. le S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Le Quesne, Charles

​LE QUESNE, CHARLES (1811–1856), a writer on the constitutional history of Jersey, a native of Jersey, was eldest son of Nicholas Le Quesne, a jurat of the Royal Court. From early youth he showed a strong predilection for the study of political economy, and his first publication was a series of ​articles on commercial questions relating to the Channel Islands, which were contributed to Jonathan Duncan's ‘Guernsey Magazine’ (1836–8). In 1848 appeared a remarkable essay by Le Quesne, entitled ‘Ireland and the Channel Islands, or a Remedy for Ireland.’ He attributed the discontent in Ireland mainly to the system of land tenure, and suggested the application to Ireland of the land system of the Channel Islands, which divides the land among many small proprietors. In 1856, the year of his death, Le Quesne published a ‘Constitutional History of Jersey,’ a standard work, from which quotation has frequently been made in lawsuits relating to the Channel Islands heard before the privy council. The ‘History’ is written in English, and prints for the first time many valuable documents. Part of its contents was borrowed from Edward Durell's edition of Falle's ‘History,’ 1837.
Le Quesne was elected a jurat of the Royal Court of Jersey on 2 July 1850; was officer in the island artillery, and president of the Jersey chamber of commerce.
Le Quesne was an active and liberal member of the states of Jersey, and, though attached to the constitution of the island, was a staunch supporter of useful and progressive reform. He died on 18 Aug. 1856 at St. Helier. He married Kate, daughter of Colonel English, R.E.
[Payne's Armorial of Jersey, p. 250; local newspapers.]
E. T. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Le Strange, Henry L'Estrange Styleman

1904 Errata appended.
​LE STRANGE, HENRY L'ESTRANGE STYLEMAN (1815–1862), art amateur and decorative painter, born on 25 Jan. 1815, was only son of Henry Styleman of Snettisham and Hunstanton, Norfolk, by Emilia, daughter of Benjamin Preedy, his wife. His father was grandson of Nicholas Styleman, who married Armine, elder daughter of Sir Nicholas L'Estrange, fourth baronet, and coheiress of her brother, Sir Henry L'Estrange, sixth baronet, of Hunstanton [see under L'Estrange, Sir Nicholas]. Styleman was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A. 1837), and on leaving Oxford travelled in Portugal, Spain, and Egypt. In 1839 he assumed by royal license the old family name of Le Strange, in addition to that of Styleman, and in the same year married Jamesina Joyce Ellen, daughter of John Stewart of Belladrum, Inverness-shire. In 1839 also he was declared by the House of Lords coheir of the barony of Camoys, and in 1841 coheir to that of Hastings. In 1847 he made an unsuccessful attempt to enter parliament for West Norfolk. Styleman le Strange was an amateur of art and practised painting. In 1853 he drew a design for the decoration of the tower of Ely Cathedral, which was accepted in 1854, and completed by him in 1855. In July 1856 he was invited by the dean and chapter to give a design for the decoration of the roof of the nave. After two years' research and study Le Strange commenced painting the roof in 1858, and worked on it for four years. In 1860 he was invited to co-operate with Mr. Butterfield, the architect, in the decoration of St. Alban's, Holborn, and spent two years in making and completing the cartoons for this work. In February 1862 he was nominated a member of the royal commission appointed to examine into the state of fresco-painting in England. Le Strange died suddenly of heart disease in London on 27 July 1862, and was buried at Hunstanton. He had only completed half the length of the roof in Ely Cathedral (finished by Mr. T. Gambier Parry), and his designs for St. Alban's, Holborn, on which he had not commenced work, were carried out by his cousin, Frederick Preedy. His designs were the fruits of much learned study and great religious enthusiasm. He left three sons and three daughters. Of the latter Alice was married to Laurence Oliphant [q. v.] A portrait of Le Strange is at Hunstanton.
[Information from Mr. Hamon Le Strange.]
L. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.181 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 117 | ii | 7 | Le Strange, Henry L. S.: after Cathedral insert (finished by Thomas Gambier Parry [q. v.]) |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jessop, Constantine

​JESSOP, CONSTANTINE (1602?–1658), presbyterian minister, son of John Jessop, minister at Pembroke, was born about 1602. In 1624, at the age of twenty-two, he was entered as a student at Jesus College, Oxford. Thence he went to Trinity College, Dublin, and there graduated B.A. He was incorporated B.A. at Oxford on 30 June 1631, and graduated M.A. on 8 May 1632. On 11 May 1643 he was appointed to officiate for six months at Fyfield, Essex, with half the profits of the rectory, which was sequestered from Alexander Reade, D.D. Later in the year he took the covenant, and received the rectory of Fyfield by order of the House of Commons, 3 Nov. 1643. His name appears in the sixth or Ongar classis of the presbyterial arrangements for Essex, sanctioned by ordinance of 31 Jan. 1648. But he left Fyfield for the sequestered vicarage of St. Nicholas, Bristol, in August 1647. Like other presbyterians, he seems to have been a royalist. On 23 Nov. 1650 complaints that he had preached against the government on the occasion of the election of a mayor at Bristol were laid before the council of state. He was allowed on 14 Dec. to remain in the ministry on condition of taking the ‘engagement’ of fidelity to the existing government, but was interdicted from going to Bristol, or within three miles of it. According to Wood he ministered at Coggeshall, Essex, after John Owen, D.D., left it for Oxford in 1651; but he did not obtain the vicarage. On 19 Feb. 1652 he was allowed to visit Bristol for two months, ‘but not to increase former factions.’ He was again allowed on 7 Sept. to go to Bristol and remove his goods within fourteen days. On 23 March 1654 he had the rectory of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, and in April the interdict respecting Bristol seems to have been removed. He was an assistant commissioner for Dorset to the ‘expurgators’ for removing scandalous and inefficient ministers. He died at Wimborne on 16 April 1658. An inscription on a mural tablet of black marble at Wimborne says ‘he had lived fifty-three years,’ apparently a mistake for fifty-five. His baptismal name is often erroneously given; it appears as Constant, Constantius, Constance, and Count. His son, Constantine, was D.D. of Oxford (4 July 1685); was rector of Brington, Northamptonshire, and prebendary of Durham; and died on 11 March 1695, aged 55.
The elder Jessop published: 1. ‘The Angel of the Church of Ephesus no Bishop,’ &c., 1644, 4to; reprinted, 1660, 4to. 2. ‘Concerning the Nature of the Covenant of Grace,’ &c., a defence of William Twisse, D.D., published as a preface to ‘A Modest Vindication,’ &c., 1655, 4to, by John Grayle or Graile [q. v.]
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 540 sq. (needs much correction); Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 461, 465; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 4, 342; Hutchins's Dorsetshire, 1803, ii. 546; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 375 sq.; Davids's Evang. Nonconf. in Essex, 1863, pp. 276, 467 sq.; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1650–4.]
A. G.