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

​REBECCA, BIAGIO (1735–1808), painter and associate of the Royal Academy, born in 1735, was of Italian birth, and is stated to have first acquired skill in his art by painting fruit, to imitate that which he pilfered as a schoolboy. He became a student of the Royal Academy in 1769, and exhibited some historical subjects in the three following years. He was elected an associate in 1771. Rebecca painted portraits and historical subjects of little merit. He was, however, specially skilled in decorative painting, especially in the imitation of antique basso-relievos on ceilings, staircases, and panels in large houses. With Giovanni Battista Cipriani [q. v.], and later John Francis Rigaud, R.A. [q. v.], Rebecca obtained a large practice in this mode of decoration, which was much in vogue in the town and country mansions of the nobility and gentry at the end of the eighteenth century. The ceilings of the apartments of the Royal Academy were partly executed by him. He was also employed at Windsor Castle, where it is stated that his eccentricities and facetious freaks caused much amusement to the royal family. Rebecca died in London at his lodgings in Oxford Street on 22 Feb. 1808, aged 73.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reay, Lords

​REAY, Lords. [See under Mackay, Donald, of Far, 1591–1649.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ready, William James Durant

​READY, WILLIAM JAMES DURANT (1823–1873), marine-painter, son of a clerk in the customs, was born in London on 11 May 1823. He was an entirely self-taught artist. He took some of his early works to a dealer, ​who bought them and continued to employ him after his return from a residence of four or five years in America. He painted chiefly scenes on the south coast of England, both in oils and water-colours. His pictures are signed ‘W. F. R.’ He was of a timid and retiring disposition, and exhibited only six times, sending one picture to the Suffolk Street Gallery, three to the British Institution in 1861, 1862 (coast scenes priced at 5l. each), and 1865 (coast scene near Harwich, 15l.), and two to the Royal Academy in 1867, on the encouragement of David Roberts, who admired his work. He died at Brighton, 29 Nov. 1873, of an illness contracted by painting in the open air.
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reay, Stephen

​REAY, STEPHEN (1782–1861), orientalist, only son of Rev. John Reay, born at Montrose on 29 March 1782, first studied at Edinburgh under Dalziel and Dugald Stewart, and graduated in 1802. After his ordination, in 1806, he was licensed to several curacies, but later in life resumed his studies at Oxford, where he matriculated in 1814 at St. Alban's Hall, graduating B.A. in 1817 (M.A. 1823 and B.D. 1841), and becoming for some time vice-principal of his hall. In 1828 he was appointed sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library, where he had charge of the oriental books, and in 1840 Laudian professor of Arabic. He held both offices till his death (20 Jan. 1861). Though contemporary writers pay high tributes to his learning and scholarship, his literary work was confined to a single pseudonymous pamphlet (‘Observations on the Defence of the Church Missionary Society against the Objections of the Archdeacon of Bath,’ by Pileus Quadratus, 1818); and his name will probably be remembered among scholars only by the references to it in the ‘Monumenta Phœnicia’ of Gesenius, who obtained from Reay copies of the Phœnician inscription at Oxford.
D. S. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reddie, James

​REDDIE, JAMES (1773–1852), legal author, born at Dysart in 1773, was educated at the High School, Edinburgh—where he was contemporary with Henry (afterwards Lord) Brougham—at the university of Edinburgh, and the college of Glasgow. He passed advocate in 1797. After giving promise of high eminence in his profession, he accepted, in 1804, the offices of town clerk, assessor of the magistrates, and presiding judge in the town court of Glasgow. These posts he retained until his death on 5 April 1852. His leisure he devoted to the study of the development of law and legal theory, of which the following works were the fruit: 1. ‘Inquiries, Elementary and Historical, on the Science of Law,’ London, 1840, 8vo. 2. ‘An Historical View of the Law of Maritime Commerce,’ London, 1841, 8vo. 3. ‘Inquiries into International Law,’ London, 1842, 8vo. 4. ‘Researches, Historical ​and Critical, in Maritime International Law,’ Edinburgh, 1844, 8vo.
His son, John Reddie, who died first judge of the Calcutta court of small causes on 28 Nov. 1851, was author of ‘Historical Notices of the Roman Law and of the Recent Progress of its Study in Germany,’ London, 1826, 8vo, and of ‘A Letter to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain on the expediency of the Proposal to form a new Civil Code for England,’ London, 1828, 8vo.
Both father and son are to be distinguished from James Reddie, author of ‘Vis Inertiæ Victa’ (1862) and other pseudo-scientific tracts.
[Lord Brougham's Autobiography (1871), i. 16, 69, with his memoir of James Reddie in Law Review, November 1852, xvii. 63 seq.; Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 208; Irving's Book of Scotsmen.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reagh, Florence MacCarthy

​REAGH, FLORENCE MACCARTHY (1562?–1640?), Irish chieftain. [See MacCarthy Reagh.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spearman, Robert

​SPEARMAN, ROBERT (1703–1761), eccentric theologian, born in 1703, eldest son of Robert Spearman, attorney, of the city of Durham, by his wife Hannah, only daughter ​of William Webster, merchant, of Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, resided at Oldacres, Sedgefield, in that county, and amused his leisure with rambling speculations in theology. A pupil of John Hutchinson (1674–1737) [q. v.], he survived him, edited his works, and wrote his life. He died on 20 Oct. 1761, leaving only female issue by his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Sharpe of Hawthorn, Durham. His own additions to the sum of human error are:
* ‘An Enquiry after Philosophy and Theology, tending to show when and whence mankind came at the knowledge of these two important points,’ Edinburgh, 1755, 8vo; 2nd ed. Dublin, 1757 (a polemic against the Newtonian physics).
* ‘Letters to a Friend concerning the Septuagint Translation and the Heathen Mythology,’ Edinburgh, 1759, 8vo (an attempt to derive all mythologies from a primeval revelation).
[Surtees's Durham, i. 96, iii. 48, 398; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iv. 171; Wesley's Journal, 27 April 1758, 13 March 1770; Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica; British Museum Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Speechly, William

​SPEECHLY, WILLIAM (fl. 1776–1821), agriculturist, was gardener to William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, third duke of Portland [q. v.], on his estate of Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire. In 1776, by order of the duke, he wrote for Alexander Hunter's edition of Evelyn's ‘Silva’ a description of the method of planting trees on the Nottinghamshire estates, which afterwards appeared as an article in Hunter's ‘Georgical Essays’ (ed. 1803, iii. 50–71). Speechly also contributed a note on the possibility of raising the pineapple without the use of tanner's bark. In 1779 he issued a ‘Treatise on the Culture of the Pine Apple’ (York, 8vo), followed in 1790 by a ‘Treatise on the Culture of the Vine’ (York, 4to), which were republished in one volume in 1820 (London, 8vo). In 1797 Sir John Sinclair (1754–1835) [q. v.], when president of the board of agriculture, contemplated issuing a comprehensive work ​on agriculture, and, at his request, Speechly undertook the sections on gardening and domestic rural economy. But in the following year the project was laid aside, and in 1800 Speechly's manuscript was returned to him at his own request. Soon after ‘a severe domestic loss,’ which may perhaps be connected with the death of ‘Mr. Speechley, nursery gardener and seedsman of Newark,’ on 4 June 1804 (Gent. Mag. 1804, i. 600), Speechly relinquished his post of gardener at Welbeck Abbey, and undertook the management of a farm. During this time his manuscript on rural economy was neglected, but on his retirement to Great Milton in Oxfordshire he completed and enlarged it, and published it in 1820, with several other essays appended, under the title ‘Practical Hints in Domestic Rural Economy’ (London, 8vo). This work, which is devoted chiefly to discussing the management of cottage gardens, is very complete in its treatment, and contains judicious directions on most points connected with the subject.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spelman, Clement

​SPELMAN, CLEMENT (1598–1679), cursitor baron of the exchequer, was fourth and youngest son of Sir Henry Spelman [q. v.], by his wife Eleanor, eldest daughter and coheiress of John L'Estrange of Hunstanton. Sir John Spelman (1594–1643) [q. v.] was his eldest brother. He was born in 1598, and baptised at Sedgeford in Norfolk on 4 Oct. 1598. He was entered at Gray's Inn on 20 March 1613, and was admitted pensioner of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 16 Sept. 1616. In 1624 he was called to the bar, but appears in the first instance, after the manner of his family, to have devoted himself to antiquarian pursuits rather than to his profession. He apparently lived in London. On 24 Feb. 1635 he was one of the performers in a masque at the Middle Temple (Wood, Athenæ, vol. iii. 807 n., ed. Bliss). He was appointed on 22 Aug. 1638 member of a commission to inquire into breaches of the statute of 31 Eliz., which directed that to every cottage erected four acres of land should be attached, and at the same time he took part in another commission to inquire into breaches of the laws against usury (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Charles I, 22 Aug. 1635).
Spelman wrote a long preface, which is a kind of abstract of the ‘History and Fate of Sacrilege,’ to the edition of his father's treatise ‘De non temerandis Ecclesiis’ (Oxford, 1646); and in 1647 published anonymously a tract entitled ‘Reasons for admitting the King to a Personal Treaty in Parliament and not by Commissioners.’ The following year he wrote and published ‘A Letter to the Assembly of Divines concerning Sacrilege.’ He was also probably the author of ‘A Character of the Oliverians’ published in 1660 (Wood, Athenæ, iv. 7). The name of Clement Spelman appears in a list of sequestered delinquents on 24 April 1648, but there was another member of his family of ​somewhat similar age and the same name who was possibly the delinquent in question. He had been made an ancient of Gray's Inn in 1638, and was elected bencher in 1660.
On the Restoration his services were rewarded by his appointment as cursitor baron of the exchequer on 9 March 1663, which post he held till March 1679.
He died in June 1679, and was buried in St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street. Spelman married Martha, daughter and coheiress of Francis Mason, by whom he left two sons and two daughters; of the latter, Dorothy married Sir Robert Yallop, and was grandmother of Edward Spelman [q. v.]
[Foss's Judges, vii. 171; Norfolk Archæological Soc. vol. vii. pt. vii. p. 253; Cal. State Papers, Dom.]
W. C.-r.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reeve, Edmund (1585?-1647)

1904 Errata appended.
​REEVE, EDMUND (1585?–1647), judge, son of Christopher Reeve of Felthorpe, Norfolk, was born about 1585, and was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, 30 Sept. 1605. He studied law at Barnard's, and afterwards at Gray's Inn, of which society he was admitted a member on 8 Aug. 1607, and elected reader in the autumn of 1632. He resided at Norwich, where in 1624 he joined with Francis Bacon in repairing the font in St. Gregory's Church. On the renewal of the charter of Great Yarmouth in 1629 he was appointed recorder of that town. On 20 May 1636 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and on 24 March 1638–9 he succeeded Sir Richard Hutton [q. v.] as justice of the common pleas. His refusal at the summer assizes of 1640 to proceed upon the indictment of one of the Lambeth rioters evinces his political hostility to the crown; and his continuance in office was one of the stipulations of the parliament in the overtures made to the king in January 1642–3. He afterwards took the covenant, and in Michaelmas 1643, on being served with a writ commanding his attendance at Oxford pursuant to the royal proclamation for the removal of the courts thither, committed the messenger, who was executed as a spy by order of parliament.
Reeve died without issue on 27 March 1647, and was buried in the church at Stratton, Norfolk. He is characterised by Clarendon as ‘a man of good reputation for learning and integrity; and who in good times would have been a good judge.’
[Blomefield's Norfolk, ed. Parkin, iv. 274, v. 190, 192; Swinden's Great Yarmouth, p. 504; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. p. 111; Rymer's Fœdera, ed. Sanderson, xx. 381; Cal. State Papers Dom. 1638–9 pp. 573, 623, 1639 p. 99; Diary of John Rous (Camden Soc.), p. 101; Smith's Obituary (Camden Soc.), p. 23; Clarendon's Rebellion, ed. Macray, bk. v. § 417, vi. § 231, vii. § 317; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. pt. iii. vol. ii. p. 663; Whitelocke's Mem. pp. 76, 78; Comm. Journ. iii. 358, 374; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. pp. 33, 35, 100–1, 6th Rep. App. p. 46, 7th Rep. App. p. 29, 10th Rep. App. pt. ii. pp. 163, 164, 174, pt. iv. pp. 508–9; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
J. M. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.232 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 405 | i | 11 f.e. | Reeve, Edmund: after judge, insert son of Christopher Reeve, |
| | | 10 f.e. | after 1585 insert and was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, 30 Sept. 1605 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reeve, Joseph

​REEVE, JOSEPH (1733–1820), biblical scholar and Latin poet, son of Richard Reeve of Island Hill in the parish of Studley, Warwickshire, was born on 11 May 1733. In his fourteenth year he was sent to the college of the English jesuits at St. Omer; on 7 Sept. 1752 he entered the novitiate of the society at Watten; and he was professed of the four vows on 2 Feb. 1770. He taught humanities at St. Omer and at Bruges for eight years. Being ordained priest, he defended the whole course of theology at Liège in Lent 1767, and then he assisted the Benedictine nuns at Ypres for some months. In August 1767 he was sent to Ugbrooke Park as chaplain to Lord Clifford, and he remained there until his death on 2 May 1820. The funeral sermon by Dr. George Oliver (1781–1861) [q. v.] has been printed (Catholic Spectator, July 1825, pp. 279–82; Oliver, Cornwall, p. 396).
He was author of: 1. ‘Narrative concerning the Expulsion of the English Jesuits from their College at St. Omer,’ manuscript at Stonyhurst; some extracts are printed in Foley's ‘Records,’ vol. v. 2. ‘Ugbrooke Park: a Poem,’ London, 1776, 4to; 2nd edit. Exeter, 1794 (Davidson, Bibl. Devoniensis, p. 128). 3. ‘History of the Bible,’ Exeter, 1780, 8vo—mainly a free translation of the ‘Abrégé’ of Royaumont; in later editions Reeve completely recast the work. A new edition, revised by W. J. Walsh, appeared at Dublin in 1882, 8vo. 4. ‘Practical Discourses on the Perfections and wonderful Works of God,’ Exeter, 1788, 12mo; reprinted at Exeter in 1793, with a second volume, entitled ‘Practical Discourses upon the Divinity and wonderful Works of Jesus Christ.’ 5. ‘A View of the Oath tendered by the Legislature to the Roman Catholics of England,’ London, 1790; answered in ‘An Argu​mentative Letter,’ by William Pilling, a Franciscan friar. 6. ‘Miscellaneous Poetry, in English and Latin,’ 2nd edit., Exeter, 1794, 12mo, including, among other items, Addison's ‘Cato’ in Latin verse, and an eclogue, ‘S. Catharina de morte triumphans.’ 7. ‘A Short View of the History of the Christian Church, from its first Establishment to the Present Century,’ 3 vols., Exeter, 1802–3, 12mo; reprinted, 3 vols., York, 1820; and Dublin, 1860, 8vo.
Many of his letters and manuscripts are preserved in the archives of the English province of the Society of Jesus.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reeve, Edmund (d.1660)

​REEVE, EDMUND (d. 1660), divine, who is described as B.D., was appointed vicar of Hayes-cum-Norwood, Middlesex, on 30 Oct. 1627. In 1635 he reported that he had erected a new pulpit and seats in his church. He defended the ‘Book of Sports’ as tending to a ‘verie great encrease of godlinesse.’ He also wrote a work in defence of altars, with Richard Shelford and others. This is apparently not extant, but was answered by William Prynne in ‘A Quenche Coale,’ &c., London, 1637. Reeve was apparently rejected by the ‘Triers’ or examiners of the Commonwealth, since we find him in 1648 living in London, near the Old Bailey, teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He died in 1660.
He published:
* ‘A Treatise concerning Tongues,’ n.d.
* ‘The Christian Divinitie contained in the Divine Service of the Church of England,’ London, 1631, 4to.
* ‘The Communion Book Catechisme expounded,’ London, 1635, 4to.
* ‘A Way unto true Christian Unitie,’ London, 1648, 4to.
* ‘The ​New Jerusalem, the Perfection of Beauty:’ a Sermon composed for the learned Society of Astrologers, and published with an Appendix on Astrologie, London, 1652, 4to.
* ‘The Rules of the Latin Grammar construed which are omitted in the Book called Rules and the Syntaxis construed by William Lily' [q. v.], London, 1657, 4to.
[Calendar of State Papers, Dom. 1635, p. 69; Newcourt's Repert. Eccles. i. 641; Works; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parker, Thomas (1695?-1784)

​PARKER, Sir THOMAS (1695?–1784), judge, a relative of Lord-chancellor Macclesfield, came of a Staffordshire family, and was born about 1695. Educated at Lichfield grammar school, he afterwards entered the office of a London solicitor named Salkeld, where he was the companion of Philip Yorke, afterwards Lord-chancellor Hardwicke, and of John Strange, afterwards master of the rolls. From the former he received steady patronage through life. He was admitted a student of the Middle Temple on 3 May 1718, called to the bar on 19 June 1724, received the degree of serjeant-at-law on 17 May 1736, and was made king's serjeant on 4 June 1736; and on 7 July 1738 he was appointed a baron of the exchequer. Thence, on 21 April 1740, he was removed to the common pleas, and subsequently was knighted, 27 Nov. 1742, and returned to the court of exchequer as chief baron on 29 Nov. 1742. Here, in spite of Lord Hardwicke's endeavours to procure for him the chief-justiceship of the common pleas, he remained for a longer period than any of his predecessors, till, in November 1772, he resigned on a pension of 2,400l. a year, and was sworn of the privy council 20 Nov. He died at South Weald, Essex, on 29 Dec. 1784, and was buried in the family vault at Park Hall, Staffordshire. He published, in 1776, a volume of ‘Reports of Revenue Cases, 1743 to 1767,’ and left the reputation of having been a useful judge. He married, first, Anne, daughter of James Whitehall of Pipe Ridware, in Staffordshire, by whom he had two sons, George, the second, being father of Sir William Parker (1781–1866) [q. v.]; and, secondly, Martha, daughter of Edward Strong of Greenwich, by whom he had two daughters. The ​elder daughter, Martha, married, on 5 June 1783, Sir John Jervis (afterwards earl of St. Vincent) [q. v.], and died without issue on 8 Feb. 1816. An engraving, by J. Tinney, is mentioned by Bromley.
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parker, Robert (fl.1718)

​PARKER, ROBERT (fl. 1718), soldier, born near Kilkenny between 1665 and 1668, was son of a farmer, and was educated at Kilkenny. He joined a company of the protestant schoolboys formed by James Butler (1665–1745) [q. v.], afterwards second Duke of Ormonde, and with them learned military exercises. In October 1683 he enlisted in Captain Frederick Hamilton's independent company, which was afterwards drafted into Lord Mountjoy's regiment and ordered to Charlemont in North Ireland in April 1684. He was disbanded by Tyrconnel on account of his religion in 1687, and returned home. In April 1689 he again enlisted under Hamilton, who was major of the Earl of Meath's regiment of foot, and went through the campaign in Ireland. In 1694 he was serving in Flanders. At the action on 20 Aug. 1695, at the breach of the Terra Nova, near Salsine Abbey, he was badly wounded and invalided for thirty weeks. For his gallantry on this occasion he was given a commission, being placed over seven ensigns at once. His regiment was now styled the ‘royal regiment of foot of Ireland.’ He next served under the Earl of Athlone, and then under Marlborough (1702). At the storming of Menin in 1706, being then captain-lieutenant and adjutant, he was wounded in the head. He was now made captain of grenadiers. Upon his colonel, Lieutenant-general Ingoldsby, being appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland in 1707, he asked Marlborough to send Parker to him, in order to introduce among the raw Irish recruits the discipline enforced in Flanders. Accordingly, Parker left the army at Helchin and proceeded to Dublin, where he remained for two years. On the termination of his engagement the government presented him with a gratuity of 200l., and he returned to Flanders.
At the close of the war Parker was chosen by his brother officers to go over to London to lay the claims of their regiment before the board of general officers. He found it impossible to gain justice, despite the friendly assurances of the Duke of Ormonde, who remembered him, but for whose conduct as a ​soldier Parker had a great contempt. He rejoined his regiment, which was ordered to keep possession of the castle of Ghent until the question of frontier had been settled between the emperor and the States-General. In April 1716 his regiment was quartered at Oxford. The frequent conflicts between the Jacobite students and the soldiers are amusingly described by Parker in his ‘Memoirs.’ In April 1718 he resigned his commission to a nephew of his steady benefactor, now Lieutenant-general Frederick Hamilton, and settled near Cork. He was married, and had children.
Parker kept a journal, which was published by his son the year after the Duke of Ormonde's death, and was largely subscribed for. It is entitled ‘Memoirs of the most remarkable Military Transactions from … 1683 to 1718 … in Ireland and Flanders,’ &c., 8vo, Dublin, 1746; another edit., London, 1747. Marlborough is the hero of the book, while Ormonde is vigorously denounced.
[Parker's Memoirs.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parker, Thomas (fl.1581)

​PARKER, THOMAS (fl. 1581), Roman catholic divine, educated at Cambridge, graduated B.A. 1535–6, commenced M.A. 1541, and in 1541 was named a fellow of Trinity College in the foundation charter. He proceeded B.D. in 1548. Being a theologian of considerable learning, he took part, on the Roman catholic side, in 1549 in the disputation on the sacrament before King Edward's visitors (Cooper, Annals, ii. 31). In July 1555 he signed the articles of religion imposed by Queen Mary's visitors, and in October of the same year was present at the trial for heresy of Wolsey and Pigot. On 26 Feb. 1555–6 he was made one of Lady Margaret's preachers, and in 1558 was re-elected. In the records of Cardinal Pole's visitation of the university in 1556–7 his name frequently appears. In April 1556 he was presented by the crown to the vicarage of Mildenhall, Suffolk. After Elizabeth's accession he went abroad, where he obtained the degree of D.D., and was alive at Milan in 1581.
Henry Mason, an English spy, who had taken the oath of allegiance to the king of Spain, refers in January 1576 to a ‘Dr. Parker and the other English Louvainists,’ whose secrets he undertook to discover and report to Burghley; but it is not possible to establish his identity with certainty; his name does not appear in the published records of Louvain (cf. Andreas, Fasti Acad. Lov. 1635).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 452; Lamb's Collection of Letters, Statutes, and other Documents … illustrative of the History of the University of Cambridge, xxvii. 114, 116, 175, 205, 216, 226.]
R. B.