OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Hermocrates 3.

​3. A Rhodian, who, according to Plutarch, was sent by Artaxerxes Mnemon to Greece, during the expedition of Agesilaus in Asia, to gain over the other states of Greece by large bribes, and thus compel the Spartans to recal Agesilaus. (Plut. Artax. 20.) There can be little doubt that the same person is meant who is called by Xenophon (Hell. iii. 5. §1) Timocrates, and who was sent, it appears, not by the king himself, but by the satrap Tithraustes. [E. H. B.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Hertha

​HERTHA (contains probably the same elements as the words earth, erde), the goddess of the earth, in contrast to the god of the regions of the air, among the ancient Germans. She appears either as a female Hertha, that is, as the wife of Thor, or as a male being Herthus or Nerthus, and a friend of Thor. According to Tacitus (Germ. 40) there was a sacred grove in an island of the ocean, containing a chariot, which no one but a priest was allowed to touch. This priest alone also knew when the goddess was present, and such seasons were spent in great festivities, and people abstained from war, until the priest declared that the goddess wished to withdraw. Tacitus further calls her the mother of the gods. We cannot enter here into an examination of this great German divinity, but refer the reader to Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie; J. P. Anchersen, Vallis Herthae deae et Origines Danicae, &c.; Hafniae, 1747, 4to.; Rabus, Dissertatio de dea Hertha, Augsburg, 1842. [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Hesigonus

​HESI′GONUS. [Hegesigonus.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Hermocrates 4.

​HERMO'CRATES (Ἑρμοκράτης). 1. A disciple of Socrates, mentioned by Xenophon (Mem. i. 2. §48) as one of those whose character and conduct refuted the charge brought against Socrates of corrupting those who associated with him.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Hermocrates 6.

​3. A grammarian, a native of Iasus. Nothing more is known of him than that he was the instructor of Callimachus [Callimachus.] [C. P. M.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Hesione

​HE′SIONE (Ἡσιόνη),a daughter of Laomedon, and consequently a sister of Priam. When Troy was visited by a plague and a monster on account of Laomedon's breach of promise, Laomedon, in order to get rid of these calamities, chained Hesione to a rock, in accordance with the command of an oracle, where she was to be devoured by wild beasts. Heracles, on his return from the expedition against the Amazons, promised to save her, if Laomedon would give him the horses which he had received from Zeus as a compensation for Ganymedes. Laomedon again promised, but did not keep his word. (Hom. Il. v. 649, &c.; Diod. iv. 42; Apollod. iii. 12. §7.) Hesione was afterwards given as a slave to Telamon, by whom she became the mother of Teucrus. Priam sent Antenor to claim her back, and the refusal on the part of the Greeks is mentioned as one of the causes of the Trojan war. (Dares, Phryg. 4, &c.) According to Tzetzes (ad Lycoph. 467), Hesione, already in pregnancy by Telamon, fled from his ship to Miletus, where king Arion found her and her newly-born son, Trambelus, whom he brought up as his own child.
There are two other mythical personages of this name, one a daughter of Danaus, and by Zeus the mother of Orchomenus (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 230), and the other the wife of Nauplius, and the mother of Palamedes, Oeax, and Nausimedon. (Apollod. ii. 1. §5.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cotton, Joseph

​COTTON, JOSEPH (1745–1825), mariner and merchant, the second surviving son of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton [q. v.], was born at St. Albans on 7 March 1745–6, and entered the royal navy in 1760. After passing the examination for lieutenant he left the navy and was appointed fourth mate in the marine service of the East India Company. After two voyages in command of the Queen Charlotte, East Indiaman, he retired on the fortune thus acquired, and lived for the rest of his life at Leyton in Essex. In 1788 Captain Joseph Cotton was elected an elder brother of the Trinity, and in 1803 deputy-master, which office he held for about twenty years. In 1803 the Trinity House raised a corps of volunteer artillery 1,200 strong, of which Pitt (as master) was colonel and Captain Cotton lieutenant-colonel, to safeguard the mouth of the Thames against a foreign fleet. A picture of the naval review held on this occasion is preserved at the Trinity House, and has been engraved. Captain Cotton compiled a ‘Memoir on the Origin and Incorporation of the Trinity House of Deptford Strond’ (1818), published without his name on the title-page, though it is appended to the dedication to Lord Liverpool. Shortly before this time the administration of the Trinity House had been the subject of parliamentary inquiry, and the special object of this work is to explain the public duties of the corporation and to defend the management of its large revenues. Incidentally the book gives much curious information about the lighting of the English coast at that time and formerly. Captain Cotton was a director of the East India Company from 1795 to 1823; he was also a director of the East India Docks Company (chairman in 1803), and a governor of the London Assurance Corporation. In 1814 the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures awarded to him a silver medal for the introduction into the country of rhea, or China grass, an Eastern fibre of extraordinary strength and fineness, which to this day has not been profitably utilised in manufacture. He was a fellow of the Royal Society. Portraits of him and his wife were painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and engraved in mezzotint by C. Turner. The pictures are now in the possession of his grandson, Lord-justice Cotton. A marble bust of him by Chantrey is preserved at the Trinity House. He died at Leyton on 26 Jan. 1825, and is buried, with his wife and many others ​of his family, in a vault in the churchyard of the parish church. His son William is separately noticed.
[Personal information; Gent. Mag. 1825, i. 189.]
J. S. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cotton, Richard Lynch

​COTTON, RICHARD LYNCH, D.D. (1794–1880), provost of Worcester College, Oxford, third son of Henry Calveley Cotton, was born 14 Aug. 1794, at Woodcote in Oxfordshire. He was educated at Charterhouse and at Worcester College, where he graduated B.A. 1815, M.A. 1818, and D.D. 1839. In 1823 he received the small college living (which he held for sixteen years) of Denchworth, near Wantage, and in 1839 he was appointed provost of Worcester College. From ​1852 to 1856 he was vice-chancellor of the university, and it was during his term of office that the first university commission—whose inquiries he merely acknowledged but did not answer—substantially changed the old Oxford into the new. Cotton published in 1837 ‘The Way of Salvation plainly and practically traced,’ and in 1849 ‘Lectures on the Holy Sacrament.’ He also printed some funeral sermons. He married (1839) Charlotte Bouverie, a sister of Dr. Pusey, and left one daughter. All who knew him loved and respected him, for his kindness was unfailing and his piety sincere. He died 8 Dec. 1880. His ten brothers [see Cotton, Sir Sydney John] gained high distinction in the army, the navy, and the church.
[Obituary notice by J. W. B[urgon] in the Guardian, 29 Dec. 1880.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cotton, Bartholomew de

Bartholomew Cotton in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​COTTON, BARTHOLOMEW de (d. 1298?), historian, was a monk of Norwich, and probably a native of Cotton in Suffolk, but nothing is known of his life. His principal work bears the title of ‘Historia Anglicana,’ and is in three books. The first book is a literal transcript from Geoffrey of Monmouth. The second book, which contains the history of England from 449 to 1298, consists of three portions: the first, extending to the Norman conquest, is an unskilful compilation from Henry of Huntingdon; the second, a chronicle of 1066 to 1291, is a copy of a work by an unknown writer, which exists in manuscript at Norwich; and the third, from 1291 to 1298, appears to be original, and has considerable value for the period to which it refers. The Norwich chronicle which Cotton has inserted in his history is largely made up of extracts from writers whose works have been printed in their original form, but for 1264 to 1279 and 1285 to 1291 it is an independent authority of some importance, and it contains throughout many interesting notices of local history. The so-called third book is a separate work, entitled ‘De Archiepiscopis et Episcopis Angliæ,’ which is an abstract and continuation of William of Malmesbury's ‘De Gestis Pontificum,’ but furnishes much information which is not to be found elsewhere. An edition of the ‘Historia Anglicana’ (omitting the useless first book) was published in 1859 in the ‘Rolls Series,’ edited by the Rev. H. R. Luard, who has carefully indicated the sources from which the work is compiled, distinguishing the original portions by larger type. The only complete manuscript of the work known to exist is in the British Museum (book i. Reg. 14 C. 1, books ii. iii. Cotton, Nero C. v. 160–280). As the handwriting of the manuscript refers it to the beginning of the fourteenth century, and its colophon contains a prayer for the soul of the author, ‘Bartholomew de Cotton, monk of Norwich,’ it may be assumed that he died in or soon after 1298, the date at which his history ends. It is stated by Wharton that the Lambeth library in his time contained a manuscript of Cotton's ‘History,’ with a continuation to 1445, but this appears to have been lost. The only other known work of Bartholomew de Cotton is a sort of glossary with the title ‘Optimæ Compilationes de libro Britonis secundum ordinem alphabeti, per Bartholomeum de Cottune compilatæ,’ a manuscript of which is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
[Cotton's Historia Anglicana, ed. Luard (Rolls Ser.), preface; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 202; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 397–402.]
H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cotton, John (12th cent.?)

​COTTON, JOHN (12th cent.?), is the author of a valuable treatise on music, first printed by Gerbert in 1784. Of this work there are two manuscripts at Vienna, and one each at Leipzig, Paris, Rome, and Antwerp. A sixth, from which Gerbert printed his edition, was destroyed in the fire at St. Blasien in 1768. The Vatican copy is said by Fetis to contain much the best text. The exact date of the treatise is unknown. The Vienna and St. Blasien copies entitle it merely ‘Joannis Musica,’ while the Paris and Antwerp copies have the name of Cotton or Cottonius. The anonymous monk of Melk who wrote the work (De Script. Eccles.) quoted by Gerbert, says that there was a learned English musician known as Joannes, and the English origin of the work is rendered more probable by the author's dedicating it ‘Domino et patri suo venerabili Anglorum antistiti Fulgentio,’ though the latter, like Cotton, cannot be identified. One theory attributes the work to Pope John XXII (1410–1417), but this rests on the very slight foundation that the author styles himself ‘Joannes servus servorum Dei.’ Gerbert has pointed out that this title was not solely used by popes, besides which it is improbable that a supreme pontiff would address Fulgentius in the deferential manner adopted by the author. The work is also clearly of earlier date, for it speaks of neums being in ordinary use at the time of writing. Another theory ascribes it to a certain Joannes Scolasticus, a monk of the monastery of St. Matthias at Trèves, all that is known of whom is that he was living about 1047, and that he wrote much music, but there seems to be no reason why the work should not have been written by the unknown Englishman, John Cotton. From internal evidence its date appears to be the latter part of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century. On the system of harmony of the period the whole work throws much light.
[Gerbert's Scriptores Ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra, 1784, tom. ii.; A. de la Fage's Essais de Dipthérographie Musicale, 1864; Coussemaker's Histoire de l'Harmonie au Moyen Age, 1852; Fétis's Biographie des Musiciens, vol. ii.; Ambros's Geschichte der Musik, ii. 192.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ewens, Maurice

​EWENS, alias NEWPORT, MAURICE (1611–1687), jesuit. [See Newport.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ewer, Isaac

​EWER, EWERS, or EWRES, ISAAC (d. 1650), regicide, 'at first but a serving-man' who 'began his estate with the wars,' joined the parliamentary army in 1642 and ultimately rose to be a colonel of foot. He besieged and took Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire, 25 May 1648, on which occasion his conduct, as detailed by himself in his 'full and particular relation' to the parliament, was marked by needless violence and cruelty (see Whitelocke, Memorials, pp. 357, 358). He was also present at the siege of Colchester during the same year, and formed one of the council of war upon Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle. It was Ewer who actually presented to the commons, 20 Nov. 1648, the remonstrance or declaration of the army wherein they insisted upon Charles, 'as the capital grand author of the late troubles,' being 'speedily brought to justice.' Ten days later Ewer was entrusted by the general council of the army with the custody of the king at Hurst Castle, of which he was made governor (Rushworth, Historical Collections, pt. iv. vol. ii. pp. 1338, 1340). He received the king 'with small observance.' 'His look was stern, his hair and large beard were black and bushy, he held a partisan in his hand, and (Switz-like) had a great basket-hilt sword by his side; hardly could one see a man of a more grim aspect, and no less robust and rude was his behaviour' (Herbert, Two Last years of Charles I, ed. 1702, pp. 85-6). On 14 Dec. the parliament voted him 200l. to defray the charges of keeping the king (ib. pt. iv. vol. ii. 1382). Ewer was chosen one of the king's judges, was present every day during the trial, and signed the warrant. In April 1649 his regiment was ordered to Ireland (Whitelocke, p. 397). He took part in the storming of Drogheda, 10 Sept., where most of his officers were severely wounded (ii. pp. 428, 429), was at Clonmel 9 May 1650, and during June and August of the same year assisted Ireton in the reduction of Waterford. He died suddenly of the plague soon after the surrender of Waterford (10 Aug.), and was buried there.
His will, wherein he describes himself as of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, was dated 1 Aug. 1649, and proved at London 20 Feb. 1650-1 by John Thurloe, the sole executor, whom he styles 'my brother,' and to whom he left the care and tuition of his two children, Thomas and Johanna (will registered in P. C. C. 20, Grey). His wife seems to have died before him. He had acquired considerable property in Essex, at Great Waltham, Great Leighs, and Boreham. At the Restoration his properly was confiscated (Commons' Journals, viii. 61, 286).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Exeter, Dukes of

​EXETER, Dukes of. [See Beaufort, Sir Thomas, d. 1427; Holland, John, d. 1400; Holland, John, d. 1446.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ewbank, Thomas

​EWBANK, THOMAS (1792–1870), writer on practical mechanics, was born at Barnard Castle, Durham, on 11 March 1792. When thirteen years of age he began work as a plumber and brassfounder. In 1812 he went to London, where he was employed in making cases for preserved meats. His spare hours were given to reading. In 1819 he emigrated to America, and next year began business in New York as a manufacturer of lead, tin, and copper tubing. In 1836 he was able to retire from business and devote himself to studies and writings on mechanics. In 1845–6 he travelled in Brazil, and on his return published an account of his travels as ‘Life in Brazil’ (New York, 1856). He was appointed commissioner of patents by President Taylor in 1849. He was attacked for the manner in which he fulfilled the duties of his office, which he held till 1852 (see Charges against Thomas Ewbank, Commissioner of Patents, for Official Misconduct, submitted to President Fillmore, January 1851, by five individuals or companies; also William C. Fuller's Charges against Thomas Ewbank, New York, 1851).
Ewbank was one of the founders and president of the American Ethnological Society. He died at New York on 16 Sept. 1870. Ewbank wrote:
* ‘A Descriptive and Historical Account of Hydraulic and other Machines for Raising Water, Ancient and Modern, including the progressive development of the Steam Engine,’ New York, 1845, 16th ed. 1876.
* ‘The World a Workshop, or the Physical Relation of Man to the Earth,’ New York, 1855.
* ‘Thoughts on Matter and Force,’ New York, 1858.
* ‘Reminiscences of the Patent Office, and of Scenes and Things in Washington,’ New York, 1859.
* ‘Inorganic Forces ordained to supersede Human Slavery,’ New York, 1860.
Ewbank also wrote a number of scattered papers on scientific subjects. Many of them appeared in the ‘Transactions of the Franklin Institute.’ His ‘Experiments on Marine Propulsion, or the Virtue of Form in ​Propelling Blades,’ attracted some attention in Europe.
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ewer, John

​EWER, JOHN (d. 1774), bishop of Bangor, was educated at Eton, whence he proceeded in 1723 to King's College, Cambridge, of which he become fellow. He took the degrees of B.A. 1728, M.A. 1733, and D.D. 1756. On leaving college he was appointed assistant-master at Eton. He afterwards become tutor to the Marquis of Granby, accompanied him on his travels, and in 1735 was presented by the marquis to the richly endowed rectory of Bottesford, Leicestershire. On 1 March 1737-8 he was appointed by patent to a canonry of Windsor (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 408), with which he subsequently held the rectory of West Ilsley, Berkshire, In 1749 he became rector of Dengie, Essex, and on 4 Nov. 1751 was instituted prebendary of Moreton cum Whaddon in the cathedral of Hereford (ib. i. 614). He was raised to the see of Llandaff 13 Sept. 1761 (ib. ii. 256), and translated to Bangor 20 Dec. 1768 (ib. i. 109). He died 28 Oct. 1774 at his seat near Worcester (Gent. Mag. xliv. 542), having married, 14 Sept. 1743, Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Barnardiston of Wyverstone, Suffolk, who survived him (ib. xiii.498). He left a daughter, Margaret Frances Ewer (will registered in P. C. C. 419, Bargrave), His library was sold in 1776 (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 658). Ewer took occasion, in a sermon preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 20 Feb. 1767, to reproach the American colonists because they failed to see any use for bishops or episcopally ordained ministers. He then proceeded to brand them as 'infidels and barbarians, . . . living without remembrance or knowledge of God, without any divine worship, in dissolute wickedness, and the most brutal profligacy of manners,' adding the extraordinary statement, 'That this their neglect of religion was contrary to the pretences and conditions under which they obtained royal grants and public authority to their adventures, such pretences and conditions being the enlargement of commerce and the propagation of christian faith. The former they executed with sincerity and zeal, and in the latter most notoriously failed.' These silly slanders were easily disposed of by Charles Chauncy of Boston, in 'A Letter to a Friend,' dated 10 Dec. 1767, and in a spirited 'Letter' to the bishop himself, by William Livingston, governor of New Jersey, in 1768. Ewer also published: 1. 'A Fast Sermon before the House of Lords,' 1702. 2. 'A Sermon before the President and Governors of the London Hospital,' 1706.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ewing, Greville

​EWING, GREVILLE (1767–1841), congregational minister, the son of Alexander Ewing, a teacher of mathematics, was born in 1767 at Edinburgh, and studied with considerable distinction at the high school and university there. Of a deeply religious temperament, he decided to prepare for the ministry, much against his father's wishes. On being licensed as a probationer he was chosen, first as assistant and afterwards as colleague to the Rev. Dr. Jones, minister of Lady Glenorchy's Chapel, Edinburgh (17 Oct. 1793). Here he soon acquired wide popularity as a preacher, and exercised his ministry with great success. Missions attracted much of his attention, and in 1796 he took an active part in the formation of the Edinburgh Missionary Society, becoming its first secretary. He was also editor of the ‘Missionary Magazine’ from 1796 to 1799. When Robert Haldane of Airthrey [q. v.] projected a mission to India, Ewing was appointed to go out, but the directors of the East India Company refused to sanction the undertaking, and it was abandoned. He then joined with the brothers Haldane in an important missionary movement at home. Among its supporters were many who had not received presbyterian ordination. It was condemned in a pastoral admonition from the general assembly of the established church. Ewing, who regarded the congregational system as more scriptural and more elastic than the presbyterian, had in 1798 resigned his charge as minister of Lady Glenorchy's Chapel, as well as his connection with the church of Scotland. In 1799 he became minister of a congregational church in Glasgow, and retained the charge till 1836. As a result of his labours with the Haldanes and afterwards with Dr. Ralph Wardlaw, congregationalism was introduced into Scotland. He was tutor of the Glasgow Theological Academy—a congregationalist foundation—from its foundation in 1809 till 1836, and did much to promote the study of the Bible in the original languages. In 1812 he helped to form the Congregational Union of Scotland.
Ewing was thrice married: in 1794 to Anne Innes, who died in 1795; in 1799 to Janet Jamieson, who died in 1801; and in 1802, to Barbara, daughter of Sir James Maxwell, bart., of Pollok, and stepdaughter of Sir John Shaw Stewart, bart., of Ardgowan. Ewing's third wife died 14 Sept. 1828, in consequence of an accident at the Falls of Clyde, and her husband published a memoir, of which a second edition appeared in 1829. By his second wife he had one daughter, who married James Matheson, a congregational minister.
During the last few years of his life Ewing was in broken health, and had to discontinue his regular work. He died suddenly on 2 Aug. 1841.
In 1801 he published a Greek grammar and lexicon for students of the New Testament (2nd ed. 1812, 3rd ed. 1827). He also published several pamphlets and sermons, and two larger works—‘Essays to the Jews, on the Law and the Prophets,’ 2 vols. (1809–1810), and an ‘Essay on Baptism’ (1823). He edited the ‘Missionary Magazine’ (Edinburgh, vols. i–iii. 1796–8).
W. G. B.