OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parry, Richard (1560-1623)

​PARRY, RICHARD (1560–1623), bishop of St. Asaph, was the son of John ap Harri or Parry of Pwllhalog (in the parish of Cwm, Flintshire) and of Ruthin, and Elen, daughter of Dafydd ap John of Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, his wife. He was born in 1560, educated at Westminster School, and in 1579 elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford. Matriculating at that university on 20 Nov. 1580, he graduated B.A. on 5 Feb. 1583–4, and on 1 May was ordained deacon by Bishop Robinson of Bangor. On 4 May he was instituted to the comportion of Llanelidan in the diocese of Bangor, the endowment of Ruthin free school. While master of Ruthin he proceeded M.A. on 4 June 1586, became vicar of Gresford on 1 Jan. 1592–3, took the degree of B.D. on 4 March 1593–4, and on 24 Dec. 1594 (?) was made chancellor of Bangor. The latter office he resigned on 6 Jan. 1594–5. On 16 Nov. 1597 he received the degree of D.D., and on 11 April 1599 was installed dean of Bangor. When, in 1604, Bishop Morgan died, he became bishop of St. Asaph (elected 19 Oct., consecrated 30 Dec.), retaining also, in accordance with what had now become the custom at St. Asaph, the archdeaconry in his own hands. He continued to hold the vicarage of Gresford (resigned in 1609); other livings in the diocese held by him in commendam were Rhuddlan (1605–1618), Cilcen (the rectory, 1605–1622), Cwm (the rectory, 1610–1616), and Llanrwst (the rectory, 1616–1623). Bishop Parry is chiefly remembered as the author of a revised edition of the translation of the Bible into Welsh issued by Dr. Morgan in 1588. This edition was published by the king's printers in 1620, and since its appearance the text of the Welsh Bible has remained practically unaltered. Though the fact is not mentioned in Parry's dedication to the king, it is believed he received much assistance in the task of revision from his chaplain and brother-in-law, Dr. John Davies (d. 1644) [q. v.] of Mallwyd.
Parry died at his house at Diserth (whither he had removed in 1609) on 26 Sept. 1623, ​and was buried in the cathedral. He had married, about 1598, Gwen, daughter of John ap Rhys Wyn of Llwyn Yn, who survived him and married again. They had four sons and seven daughters; a full account of them and their descendants is given in the ‘History of Powys Fadog’ (v. 212). Parry's portrait, showing him in episcopal robes, was at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire (Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations, ii. 320 n.)
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. 1813), ii. 861; Browne Willis's St. Asaph (ed. 1801), i. 109–10; Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, ii. 320; Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd; Ashton's Esgob Morgan (1891); Foster's Alumni Oxon.; cf. Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales (ed. 1887), p. 142.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parry, John Docwra

​PARRY, JOHN DOCWRA (d. 1833?), topographer, a native of Bedford, was admitted pensioner of Peterhouse, Cambridge, on 15 Oct. 1818, and graduated B.A. in 1824, M.A. in 1827 (College Register). He took orders, and in 1827 was apparently serving the curacy of Aspley, Bedfordshire. In January 1833 he was living at Brighton, but probably died during that year.
Parry's compilations, which are of little value and poorly illustrated, include: 1. ‘Select Illustrations, Historical and Topographical, of Bedfordshire,’ 4to, London, 1827, with six plates; this work comprises Bedford, Ampthill, Houghton, Luton, and Chicksands only, ‘as, owing to the subscription having unexpectedly and totally failed,’ it was discontinued. 2. ‘The Legendary Cabinet: a Collection of British National Ballads … with Notes and Illustrations,’ 12mo, London, 1829. 3. ‘The Anthology,’ etc., 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1829 and 1830. 4. ‘The History of Woburn and its Abbey,’ 2 pts., 8vo, London, 1831, published under the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. The second part was issued separately the same year as ‘A Guide to Woburn Abbey,’ 8vo, Woburn. 5. ‘An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Coast of Sussex,’ 8vo, Brighton, 1833, with plates. He also aspired to be a poet (cf. Gent. Mag. 1831, pt. i. p. 634).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parry, John (d.1782)

​PARRY, JOHN (d. 1782), musician, of Ruabon, North Wales, was familiarly known as the blind harper. He was harper to Sir Watkin Williams Wynne of Wynnstay, and for some time to Sir Watkin's father. In a harp-playing contest with Hugh Shon Prys, of Llanddervel, he was adjudged the victor (Jones). He went to London, and in 1746 appeared at Ranelagh House and Gardens. At Cambridge he played before Gray the poet, who, in a letter dated May 1757, says that he ‘scratched out such a ravishing blind harmony, such tunes of a thousand years old,’ that he ‘put my Ode [‘The Bard’] in motion again, and has brought it at last to a conclusion.’ Parry, though totally blind, was an excellent draught-player. He died at Ruabon on 7 Oct. 1782. A son, William Parry (1742?–1791), is separately noticed. John Parry is remembered as the editor, along with Evan Williams, of the earliest published collections of Welsh music, but the original melodies were much mutilated. Parry and Williams's published collections were: 1. ‘Antient British Music,’ London, 1742. 2. ‘Welsh, English, and Scotch Airs,’ London, n.d. 3. ‘Cambrian Harmony,’ London, 1781.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hericke, William

​HERICKE or HERRICK, Sir WILLIAM (1562–1653), goldsmith and moneylender, fifth son of John Hericke or Herrick (the name is also spelt Heyrick and Eyricke) of Leicester, by Mary, daughter of John Bond of Ward End, otherwise Little Bromwich, Warwickshire, was baptised at St. Martin's, Leicester, 9 Dec. 1562. About 1574 he was sent to London, and bound apprentice to his elder brother Nicholas, father of Robert Herrick [q. v.], who carried on the business of a goldsmith in Cheapside. He afterwards set up in the same way of business on his own account in Wood Street, and became one of the most prosperous merchants in the city of London. Elizabeth is said to have employed him on a mission to the Grand Turk; its precise object is not known, but on his return he was probably the bearer of the complimentary letter from the Grand Turk to the queen dated 25 March 1581, and printed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (1792, pt. ii. 1071). His own portrait in Turkish costume, with that of a Turkish lady whom he brought home with him, was long preserved at Beaumanor Park, Leicestershire, which he purchased in 1594–5 from the Earl of Essex, and which was subsequently confirmed to him by several royal grants. He was returned to parliament for the borough of Leicester on 16 Oct. 1601. After the accession of King James he was appointed (3 May 1603) his principal jeweller (Rymer, Fœdera, ed. Sanderson, xvi. 502), was granted the reversion of the office of one of the four tellers in the exchequer (20 June 1604), and on 2 April 1605 was knighted at Greenwich (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Addenda, 1580–1625, p. 446; Winwood, Mem. ii. 57). On 20 May he was chosen alderman for the ward of Farringdon Without, but being in embarrassed circumstances, by reason of the immense sums he had lent the king, obtained exemption from the obligation of serving the office by payment of a fine of 300l. On 10 June following the common council made an order exempting him for life from liability to serve the office of sheriff. In October he was again returned to parliament for Leicester. The king soon afterwards made him liberal grants of land in various counties and towns. He was re-elected member of parliament for Leicester on 8 Jan. 1620–1. On the accession of Charles I he was replaced in the office of king's jeweller by James Heriot (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1625–6, p. 52). He was evidently in disfavour at court, and in 1635 he refused either to pay ship-money or to attend the council when summoned to answer for his conduct (ib. 1635 p. 427, 1636 p. ​242). He suffered much in estate during the civil wars. He died on 2 March 1652–3, and was buried in St. Martin's Church, Leicester. Hericke married, on 6 May 1596, Joan, daughter of Richard May of Mayfield Place, Sussex. His son Richard Heyrick [q. v.] is noticed separately.
[Authorities quoted; Nichols's Hist. and Antiq. Leicestershire, ii. pt. ii. 615–16, 622–4, iii. pt. i. 150–5.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hering, George Edwards

​HERING, GEORGE EDWARDS (1805–1879), landscape-painter, born in London in 1805, was younger son of a German who, although belonging to the baronial family of von Heringen in Brunswick, was established as a bookbinder in London. At an early age he lost his father. Hering was at first placed as clerk in a bank, but was soon permitted by his family to adopt art as his profession. In 1829 he studied in the art school at Munich, and was patronised by Lord Erskine, who sent him with letters of introduction to Venice. After residing there for about two years, he travelled in Italy, and round the Adriatic to Constantinople, Smyrna, &c. On his return to Rome he became acquainted with John Paget, and with Paget and Mr. Sanford went on a tour through Hungary and Transylvania among the Carpathian mountains. Paget published an account of this tour with illustrations by Hering, and Hering on his return to England published in 1838 a volume of ‘Sketches on the Danube, in Hungary, and Transilvania, etc.’ While a resident at Rome, Hering, owing to his mixed origin, was able to bring together the somewhat rival colonies of German and English artists in that city. Finally he settled in London, where he practised as a landscape-painter for the rest of his life, paying occasional visits to Italy. His favourite subject was Italian scenery, in which he showed a free touch, careful finish, and bright, lucid colouring. He especially excelled in lake scenery. In 1836 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, sending ‘The Ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars, Rome,’ and was a regular contributor from that time to the Academy and to the British Institution. In 1841 he exhibited a painting of ‘Amalfi,’ which, through the agency of Samuel Rogers, was purchased by the prince consort; it was engraved by E. Goodall for the ‘Art Journal’ in 1856, and a similar painting of ‘Capri,’ also purchased for the royal collection, was engraved for the same journal by R. Brandard. Hering seldom painted subjects of British scenery, though a few Scottish scenes by him are noteworthy. A picture of ‘Tambourina’ was engraved for him by C. G. Lewis. A small example of his painting is in the South Kensington Museum. In 1847 he published a set of twenty coloured lithographs, ‘The Mountains and Lakes in Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Italy.’ Hering died in London in 1879. His wife was also an artist, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853 and 1858.
[Art Journal, 1861, p. 73; Bryan's Biog. and Critical Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves; Clement and Hutton's Artists of the Nineteenth Century; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880, vol. i.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Herle, William de

​HERLE, WILLIAM de (d. 1347), judge, son of Robert de Herle, was probably born in Leicestershire, since both his father and he in 1301 and 1324 respectively were summoned by the sheriffs of that county to perform military duty and to attend the great council at Westminster (Parl. Writs, i. 355, ii. 639). Fuller, however, says that he was a native of Devonshire (Worthies, ed. 1811, i. 281). His lands lay principally in Leicestershire, but through his wife Margaret, daughter and heir of William Polglas and of Elizabeth, heiress of Sir William Champernon, he came into possession of considerable estates in Devonshire, including the manor of Ilfracombe. His name occurs frequently in the ‘Year-books’ of Edward II's reign. He became a serjeant-at-law, and as such was summoned to assist the parliament of the fourth and sixth years of that reign, and all the parliaments from the tenth to the fourteenth years. In the ninth year of Edward II he appeared for the king against the citizens of Bristol, and received a grant of 20l. per annum for his services. On 6 Aug. 1320 he received a grant of 133l. 6s. 8d. in aid of his rank as king's serjeant, and having been employed in conducting negotiations with the Scots, he received a grant of ten marks in 1325 (Rot. Parl. i. 359; Archæologia, xxvi. 345; Rymer, Fœdera, ii. 594). On 16 Oct. 1320 he was made a judge of the common pleas in succession to John de Benstede, and was knighted, and on the accession of Edward III, by patent dated 4 Feb. 1327, he was appointed chief justice of that court, and his salary was raised to 240 marks. On 3 Sept. 1329 he was displaced by John de Stonore, though he continued to act as a judge, and in December 1329 went as justice in eyre to Nottinghamshire, and in 1330 to Derbyshire. On 2 March 1331 he was again appointed chief justice, and was removed again on 18 Nov. 1333 in favour of Henry le Scrope, who, however, vacated the office immediately. De Herle returned to office and retained it until 3 July 1337, when he was allowed to retire at his own request upon the grounds of age and failing health. He was, however, a member of the king's council till he died in 1347.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Rymer's Fœdera; Cal. Inquis. p.m. ii. 135, 265; Nichols's Leicestershire, p. 622; Prince's Worthies of Devon.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hermann (fl.1070)

​HERMANN (fl. 1070), hagiographer, probably a native of Lorraine, was the archdeacon of Herfast [q. v.], bishop of Thetford, and helped him in his attempt to assert the jurisdiction of his see over St. Edmund's Abbey, both dictating and writing letters for him [see under Baldwin (d. 1098)]. Being with the bishop when Herfast was injured in the eye, he persuaded him to go to the abbey and seek medical help from Abbot Baldwin. He repented of his part in the bishop's quarrel, became a monk of Bury, and at Baldwin's request wrote a book ‘De Miraculis Sancti Eadmundi,’ which contains, along with the miracles, an account of Herfast's quarrel with the abbey, and ends abruptly, soon after a notice of the translation of the saint's relics in 1095. It exists in manuscript in Cotton. MS. Tib. B. 11, in the Bodleian Library in Digby MS. 39, and in part in Bodl. MS. 240 and in Paris Bibl. Nat. MS. 2621; a seventeenth-century transcript is in the library of Jesus College, Oxford. It has been printed in part by Martene in ‘Amplissima Collectio,’ vi. 822, has been made the text of valuable comments by Dr. Liebermann, who, in his ‘Ungedruckte anglonormannische Geschichtsquellen’ (Strassburg, 1879), supplies the parts omitted by Martene, and it has been printed in its entirety in ‘Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey,’ vol. i. (Rolls Ser. 1890), edited by Mr. T. Arnold. It forms the basis of the work ‘De Miraculis S. Ædmundi,’ attributed to Abbot Samson, and printed in the same volume by Mr. Arnold.
[Liebermann's Heremanni archidiaconi Mir. S. Edmundi as above; Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, i. Introd. and pp. 26–92.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Herne, John

Dates c.1593–1649 in the ODNB.
​HERNE, JOHN (fl. 1644), lawyer, was admitted a student at Lincoln's Inn on 21 Jan. 1610–11, and was afterwards called to the bar there. On 5 March 1627–8 he was returned to parliament for Newport, Cornwall, but was unseated on petition. In 1632 he defended Henry Sherfield, bencher of Lincoln's Inn and recorder of Salisbury, on his trial in the Star-chamber for defacing a stained-glass window in St. Edmund's Church, Salisbury. He was also counsel for Prynne on his trial for the publication of ‘Histrio-Mastix’ in February 1633–4, and for the warden of the Fleet before a commission which sat to investigate alleged abuses in the management of that prison in March 1634–5. In 1637 he was elected a bencher of his inn, and was Lent reader there in the following year. In 1641 he was one of the counsel for Sir John Bramston the elder [q. v.] and Sir Robert Berkeley [q. v.], two of the judges impeached by the Long parliament. He was assigned (23 Oct.) to defend the bishops impeached the same year for issuing the new canons of 1640, but declined to act on the ground that as a commoner he was ‘involved in all the acts and votes of the House of Commons.’ He was also one of the counsel for Laud on his impeachment, and delivered a learned and eloquent speech in his defence on 11 Oct. 1644. It was supposed at the time to have been composed by Hale, another of Laud's counsel [see Hale, Sir Matthew]. The gist of the argument was that no one of the articles of the impeachment was sufficient by itself to ground a charge of high treason, and that therefore the totality of them could not do so any more than, as Herne wittily put it, ‘two hundred couple of black rabbits would make a black horse.’ After the trial was over Herne visited Laud in the Tower, procured him his prayer-book, which was in Prynne's hands, and was consulted by him about his speech on the scaffold. After his death, the date of which is uncertain, appeared ‘The Learned Reading of John Herne, Esq., late of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inne, upon the Statute of 23 H. 8, cap. 3, concerning Commissions of Sewers. Translated out of the French Manuscript,’ London, 1659, 4to.
Another John Herne (fl. 1660), who appears to have been the elder Herne's son, and the translator of the reading, entered Lincoln's Inn on 11 Feb. 1635–6, and published a collection of precedents called ‘The Pleader,’ London, 1657, fol.; ‘The Law of Conveyances,’ London, 1658, 8vo.; ‘The Modern Assurancer,’ 1658; and ‘The Law of Charitable Uses,’ London, 1660, 8vo.
[Lincoln's Inn Reg.; Lists of Members of Parliament (Official), i. 474 n.; Comm. Journ. i. 883, iii. 241, iv. 401, 405, 428; Cobbett's State Trials, iii. 519 et seq., 562 et seq, iv. 577 et seq.; Laud's Autobiog.; Prynne Papers (Camd. Soc.); Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1634–5, p. 566; Dugdale's Orig. pp. 255, 266; Bramston's Autobiog. (Camd. Soc.), p. 78.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pelham, Henry Thomas

​PELHAM, HENRY THOMAS, third Earl of Chichester (1804–1886), second, but eldest surviving, son of Thomas, second earl [q. v.], born in Stratton Street, Piccadilly, on 25 Aug. 1804, was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge. On 24 April 1824 he entered the army as a cornet in the 6th dragoons, but, by the influence of the Duke of Wellington, was able on 14 Oct. of the same year to exchange into the royal horse-guards (Addit. MS. 33230, ff. 22–4). He became lieutenant in 1827, captain (unattached) in January 1828, and major in the army in 1841. In 1844 he resigned his commission. He was afterwards an active supporter of the volunteer movement. In 1825 the Duke of Newcastle invited him, without making any stipulation regarding Pelham's political principles, to accept his nomination for the parliamentary representation of the duke's borough of Newark; but Pelham succeeded to the earldom in 1826, before the election, and Mr. Gladstone became member in his stead. Chichester held whig opinions, but was not an ardent partisan. He was deeply interested in religious, social, and educational questions. On 22 Feb. 1841 he was appointed an ecclesiastical commissioner, and on 30 Jan. 1847 became a commissioner to report on the question of equalising the pecuniary value of episcopal sees. When the Church Estates' ​Committee was appointed in 1850 Chichester was made head of the board, with the title of first church estates' commissioner. He retained the position until October 1878, and after his retirement from it continued to be an ecclesiastical commissioner. To him were to a large extent due the important reforms carried out in the management and distribution of church revenues. Chichester was also for half a century president of the Church Missionary Society, and was connected with the Evangelical Alliance, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Church of England Temperance Society. He was also interested in the management of prisons; becoming in 1843 a commissioner of Pentonville prison, and editing in 1863 Sir Joshua Jebb's ‘Reports and Observations on the Discipline and Management of Convict Prisons.’ In spite of his evangelical views, he spoke on 16 July 1845 in support of the grant to Maynooth College. He was a regular attendant, and not infrequent speaker, in the House of Lords.
Chichester was appointed lord lieutenant of Sussex on 21 Nov. 1860, where he was very popular. He died at Stanmer House on 16 March 1886. He married, on 18 Aug. 1828, Lady Mary Brudenell, fifth daughter of the sixth Earl of Cardigan. She died on 22 May 1867, leaving issue four sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Walter John (b. 1838), who was M.P. for Lewes from 1865 to 1874, succeeded to the title.
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peirson, Francis

​PEIRSON, FRANCIS (1757–1781), major, the eldest son of Francis Peirson of Lowthorpe, Yorkshire, was born in 1757, and entered the army at an early age, rising to the rank of major in April 1780, when he was appointed to the 95th regiment, which was shortly afterwards stationed in Jersey. At this period the Channel Islands were subjected to the constant danger of attacks from the French, who made several futile attempts to gain possession. By far the most important of these raids was that of 6 Jan. 1781, known as the ‘battle of Jersey,’ when the French, under the Baron de Rullecour, a desperate adventurer, landed under cover of night and took possession of the town of St. Helier, making the lieutenant-governor, Major Moses Corbet, a prisoner in his bed. Under these circumstances the command of the troops devolved upon the youthful Peirson. Rullecour succeeded in inducing Corbet to sign a capitulation, and Elizabeth Castle was summoned to surrender, but the officer in command boldly refused to obey the order. Meanwhile the regular troops and the island militia, under the command of Major Peirson, advanced in two divisions towards the Royal Square, then the market-place, where a vigorous engagement took place, resulting in great loss to the French, who, though fighting with great obstinacy, became disordered and were compelled to retire. The victory was complete, but had been gained at the heavy price of the life of a promising young officer, for in the very moment of victory the gallant Peirson was shot through the heart, and fell dead in the arms of his grenadiers. Rullecour himself was mortally wounded, and most of the French soldiers were taken prisoners. Peirson, who had only attained his twenty-fifth year, was interred in the parish church of St. Helier with all the honours of war, and in the presence of the States of the island, who caused a magnificent monument to be erected to his memory. Peirson's death forms the subject of Copley's famous picture now in the National Gallery at London.
[The Death of Peirson, by Ouless, published at the centenary of the battle, 1881; Plees's Hist. of Jersey, ed. 1824, pp. 199–209; Ahier's Tableaux Historiques, p. 367 et seq.; Le Quesne's Hist. of Jersey, pp. 502 et seq.; Société Jersiaise, 7th and 8th bulletins, 1882 and 1883.]
E. T. N.