OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bisset, William (1758-1834)

1904 Errata appended.
​BISSET, WILLIAM, D.D. (1758–1834), Irish bishop, was a member of the ancient family of Bisset of Lessendrum, Drumblade, ​near Huntly, in Aberdeenshire. His father was the Rev. Alexander Bisset, D.D., chancellor of Armagh, who died in 1782. William Bisset. who was born 27 Oct. 1758, was, like his father, educated at Westminster, where he was admitted a king’s scholar in 1771, and at Christ Church, Oxford, to which he was elected a scholar in 1775, and where he took his degree of B.A. 4 Nov. 1779, and proceeded M.A. 7 Feb. 1782 (Cat. Oxford Graduates). He was presented in 1784 to the rectory of Dunbin, in the county of Louth, which he resigned upon his collation, 31 Jan. 1791, to the prebend of Loughgall, or Leval-leaglish, in the cathedral church of Armagh. In 1794 he became rector of Clonmore, and in 1804 was collated, on 29 Sept., to the archdeaconry of Ross, in what had been, since 1583, the united episcopate of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. In 1807 he resigned his prebendal stall of Loughgall in order to become rector of Donoghmore, and was appointed, 1812, to the rectory of Loughgilly. All his preferments, with the exception of the archdeaconry of Ross, were within the diocese of Armagh. A few years afterwards he was appointed to the chancellorship of Armagh, to which he was collated on 23 August 1817, thus succeeding his father after an interval of twenty-five years. As his final preferment, Bisset was promoted by the Marquis of Wellesley, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 1821–1828, to the bishopric of Raphoe. His patent was dated 5 June 1822. He administered the affairs of the diocese with general approval. On the death of Dr. Magee, archbishop of Dublin, 19 Aug. 1831, Bisset was pressed to become his successor, but he declined on the ground of increasing infirmities. He built several churches in his diocese, and expended a considerable sum of money on the improvement of the palace at Raphoe; and when the parliamentary grant was withdrawn from the Association for discountenancing Vice, his lordship supplied the loss. Bisset died 5 Sept. 1834, whilst on a visit to his nephew at Lessendrum. His clergy erected to his memory a monument in the cathedral, with an inscription by W. Archer Butler. At his death the see of Raphoe became annexed to that of Derry. The authorship of a ‘Life of Edmund Burke,' London, 1798, was erroneously claimed for him, the real author being Robert Bisset, LL.D. [q. v.]
[Douglass Baronage of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1798; New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xii. Edinburgh, 1844; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ; Cork Evening Herald, quoted in the Record, 15 Sept. 1834; Dublin Evening Mail, quoted in the St. James's Chronicle, 16 Sept. 1834.]
A. H. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.28 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bisset, Peter

"In all probability Peter Bisset never existed" according to the ODNB.
​BISSET, BISSAT, or BISSART, PETER (d. 1568), professor of canon law in the university of Bologna, Italy, was a native of the county of Fife, and a descendant by a previous marriage of Sir Thomas Bisset, who after his marriage with the Countess Isabel, daughter and heiress of Duncan MacDuff, earl of Fife, received a charter from David II granting him the earldom, but left no issue by her. After completing his studies in grammar and philosophy at the university of St. Andrews, Bisset attended the classes of law at the university of Paris. Proceeding to Italy he received the degree of LL.D. from the university of Bologna, where he afterwards became professor of civil law. Tanner (Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 102), on the authority of Dempster (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, ii. 95), states that he flourished in 1401, a palpable error. He assigns to him, also on the authority of Dempster, ‘De Irregularitate liber unus,’ and ‘Lectiones Seriales liber unus,’ and to a Petrus Bizarrus, who flourished in 1565, ‘Orationes aliquot et poemata.' This Petrus Bizarrus he conjectures to have been possibly identical with Pietro Bizari [q. v.], called also Petrus Perusinus, but in reality Bizarrus here is a misspelt form of Bissartus, and Peter Bisset, the author of ‘De Irregularitate,’ is identical with the author of ‘Orationes aliquot et Poemata.’ Both works were included in the volume entitled ‘Patricii Bissarti Opera omnia, viz. Poemata, Orationes, Lectiones Seriales, et Liber de Irregularitate,' published at Venice in 1565. Bisset died in the latter part of 1568.
[Dempster's Historia Ecclesiastia Gentis Scotorum, ii, 95; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 102; Mackenzie's Lives of Scottish Writers, iii. 99, 101; Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsman, i. 129; Notes and Queries, 5th series, vi. 389-90.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bix, Angel

​BIX, ANGEL (d. 1695), Franciscan friar, after filling the office of confessor to the Poor Clares at Aire, and to the community at Princenhoff, Bruges, was sent to England, and became chaplain to the Spanish ambassador in London in the reign of James II. He died early in 1695 whilst guardian of his order at York. Bix preached ‘A Sermon on the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Preach'd before her majesty the queen-dowager in her chapel at Somerset House, upon Good Friday, 13 April 1688;’ published by royal authority, London, 1688, 4to, and reprinted in ‘A Select Collection of Catholick Sermons,' 2 vols., London, 1741.
[Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 491; Oliver's Hist. of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 545; Cat. of the Grenville Library; Lowndes's Bibl. Man., ed. Bohn, 2243.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blaauw, William Henry

​BLAAUW, WILLIAM HENRY (1793–1870), antiquary, was born in London 25 May 1793. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where, after taking a first class in classics, he graduated B.A. in 1813, and M.A. in 1815. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1850; was treasurer of the Camden Society for many years, and member of many other learned societies. Blaauw resided at Newick, near Lewes, Sussex, and under his guidance the Sussex Archæological Society was founded in 1846. He was the editor of the society's collections till 1856, when the eighth volume was issued, and was its honorary secretary until 1867. He died 26 April 1870.
Blaauw's chief work was a history of the barons' war of Henry III's reign, which was first published in 1844. It is a very careful production, is especially valuable in its topographical details, and forms the chief modern authority on its subject. Its author was engaged at the time of his death in preparing a revised edition, and this was issued under Mr. C. H. Pearson's editorship in 1871. Between 1846 and 1861 Blaauw contributed nearly thirty papers on Sussex archæology to the ‘Sussex Archæological Collections.’ He communicated a paper on Queen Matilda and her daughter to the ‘Archæologia’ (xxxii. 108) in 1846, and he exhibited many archæological treasures at meetings of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Archæological Institute in London. A portrait of Blaauw is prefixed to vol. xxii. of the ‘Sussex Archæological Collections.’
[Sussex Archæological Collections, xxii. 9–11; index to the first twenty-five volumes of the Sussex Archæological Collections, where a full list of Blaauw’s papers may be found.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bisset, Robert

​BISSET, ROBERT, LL.D. (1759–1805), biographer and historian, born in 1709, was master of an academy in Sloane Street, Chelsea. He published, in 1796, a ‘Sketch ​of Democracy,' 8vo, the aim of which was to show, by a survey of the democratic states of ancient times, that democracy is a vicious form of government. His next work was a ‘Life of Edmund Burke, comprehending an impartial account of his Literary and Poetical Efforts, and a Sketch of the conduct and Character of his most eminent Associates, Coadjutors, and Opponents,' 1798, 8vo. In 1800 he published a, novel, entitled ‘Douglas, or the Highlander,’ 4 vols. 12mo, Another novel, entitled ‘Modern Literature,' 3 vols, 12mo, appeared in 1804; and in the same year he published his ‘History of George III to the Termination of the late War,’ in six volumes, 8vo. He died in 1805, and his death is said to have been caused by ‘chagrin under embarrassed circumstances. An edition of the ‘Spectator,' in eight volumes, was edited by Bisset in 1796. Two anonymous tracts in the library of the British Museum, (1) ‘A Defence of the Slave Trade,' 1804, 8vo, (2) ‘Essays on the Negro Slave Trade,’ 8vo (1805?), are attributed, in manuscript notes on the title-pages, to Bisset.
[Gent. Mag. lxxv. 494; Watt's Bibl. Brit]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bisset, John

​BISSET, Sir JOHN (1777–1854), commissary-general, served in the commissariat at home from 1795 to 1800, in Germany from May 1800 to June 1802, at home from 1802 to 1806, in South. America in 1800–7, and at the Scheldt in 1809. He was appointed commissary-general in Spain in 1811, and had charge of the commissariat of the Duke of Wellngton’s army at one of the most important periods of the Peninsular war, before and atter the battle of Salamanca. Bisset, who was made a knight-bachelor and knight-commander of the Guelphic order in 1830, was the author of a small work entitled ‘Memoranda regarding the Duties of the Commissariat on Field Service abroad’ (London, 1816). He was made K.C.B. in 1850. He died at Perth, N.B., on 3 April 1854.
[War Office Records; Report Select Comm. on Army and Ordnance Expenditure (Commissariat), 1850; Perth Advertiser, April 1854.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buxton, Bertha H.

​BUXTON, BERTHA H. (1844–1881), novelist, was born on 26 July 1844, and when only a girl of eleven years amused herself by writing stories for her schoolfellows at Queen's College, Tufnell Park, London. Both her parents were Germans, her mother being Madame Therese Leopold, well known in musical circles, and with them she travelled in America, Germany, and Holland during her fourteenth and fifteenth years. At sixteen she was married to Henry Buxton, club manager and author, but still pursued her literary work as an amusement, translating a German operetta into English, and writing a modest one-volume novel, which was published at her husband's expense, under the title of ‘Percy's Wife.’ In 1875 she suddenly found herself poverty-stricken, and, becoming entirely dependent on her own exertions, she turned to writing for a living. In 1876 appeared her novel, ‘Jennie of the Prince's, by B. H. B.,’ dealing with theatrical life, which she had studied as a walking lady on the stage at Exeter. The book was a success. She wrote a serial for the ‘World’ during the following year, bringing out during the same period ‘Won! By the Author of “Jennie of the Prince's,”’ and a story for children entitled ‘Rosabella,’ published under the name of ‘Auntie Bee.’ From this period she wrote under her own name, and the following Christmas brought out another child's book, entitled ‘More Dolls,’ illustrated by Mr. T. D. White, and dedicated to the Princess of Wales. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Buxton met with an accident which rendered work impossible. Somewhat recovering, she produced ‘Fetterless though Bound together’ (1879); ‘Great Grenfell Gardens’ (1879); ‘Nell—On and Off the Stage;’ and ‘From the Wings’ (1880). The last two novels first appeared in ‘Tinsley's Magazine.’ Her other books were ‘Many Loves’ (1880), ‘Little Pops, a nursery romance’ (1881), and ‘Sceptre and King’ (1881). In collaboration with William Willhem Fenn she brought out ‘Oliver Gay, a Rattling Story of Field, Fright, and Fight,’ in 1880, and a tale called ‘A Noble Name’ in a volume published by him in 1883. She died very suddenly from heart disease, at Claremont Villa, 12 St. Mary's Terrace, Kensington, London, on 31 March 1881.
[Tinsley's Magazine, xxviii. 499–500 (1881); The Carisbrooke Magazine, with portrait, April 1881.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buxton, Richard

​BUXTON, RICHARD (1786–1865), botanist, was born at Sedgley Hall Farm, Prestwich, on 15 Jan. 1786. His father, John Buxton, was a farmer, and both parents were from Derbyshire. Richard was the second son of a family of seven, but his father, ​reduced to giving up his farm within two years of his son's birth, came to live in Manchester as a labourer. As a child his education was almost entirely neglected, but his chief amusement was picking wild flowers in the fields and brickyards near Great Ancoats. At twelve he was apprenticed to a bat-maker—that is, a manufacturer of children's small leather shoes. When sixteen he determined to teach himself to read, and did so. Among his books he numbered some of the old herbalists, but found their indications quite inadequate to find out plant-names. He then fell in with Jenkinson's Flora, also Robson's, and the first edition of Withering. For several years he plodded on, without making any botanical friends; but in 1826 he encountered a kindred spirit in the person of John Horsefield, another of the keen Lancashire working-men botanists, who introduced Buxton to their meetings. He afterwards botanised in Derbyshire, North Wales, and the Craven district of Yorkshire. When his ‘Botanical Guide’ was published, and for many years afterwards, he was living unmarried with a sister in Manchester, where he died on 2 Jan. 1865. He published only one book, entitled ‘Botanical Guide to the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Mosses, and Algæ found … within 16 miles of Manchester,’ Lond. 1849 (2nd ed. 1859); but he is frequently cited by Dr. Wood in his ‘Flora Mancuniensis’ as the authority for many localities of the rarer plants.
[Autobiography in Guide, iii–xv; Cash's Where there's a Will, 94–107; Seemann's Journ. Bot. iii. (1865), 71–2.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butts, John

​BUTTS, JOHN (d. 1764), painter, was born and bred in Cork, and with but little instruction developed extraordinary powers in landscape. His compositions, in which he is fond of introducing figures, are Claude​like in subject and in treatment, but English in touch and tint, showing great breadth and harmony of colour. To supply the wants of a large family of young children, and, it must be added, his own vicious propensities, Butts was glad to do anything, from scene-painting to coach-panels and signboards. He thus fell an easy prey, when about thirty years of age, to a dealer in Dublin, with whom he shared a garret and squandered his earnings in drink. His vices brought him to an early grave in 1764. James Barry, R.A., was a warm admirer of the genius of Butts, and declared that his works were his ‘first guide’ (see a letter to Dr. Sleigh, Works, 1809, i. 20–22).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buxton, Jedidiah

​BUXTON, JEDIDIAH (1707–1772), an untaught arithmetical genius, was born at Elmton, Derbyshire, on 20 March 1707. His grandfather was vicar of Elmton, and his father schoolmaster of the same parish. Notwithstanding his father's profession, Jedidiah never learned to write, and continued throughout his life to be employed as a farm-labourer. His inability to acquire the rudiments of education seems to have been caused by his absorbing passion for mental calculations, which occupied his mind to the exclusion of all other objects of attention, and in which he attained a degree of skill that made him the wonder of the neighbourhood. He was first brought into more general notice by a letter in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for February 1751, signed G. Saxe (probably a pseudonym), which was shortly followed by two further communications from a Mr. Holliday, of Haughton Park, Nottinghamshire, who seems to have been the writer of the first letter. Among the many examples of Buxton's arithmetical feats which are given in these letters may be mentioned his calculation of the product of a farthing doubled 139 times. The result, expressed in pounds, extends to thirty-nine figures, and is correct so far as it can be readily verified by the use of logarithms. Buxton afterwards multiplied this enormous number by itself. It appears that he had invented an original nomenclature for large numbers, a ‘tribe’ being the cube of a million, and a ‘cramp’ (if Mr. Holliday's statement can be trusted) a thousand ‘tribes of tribes.’ In the spring of 1754 he walked to London, where he was entertained by ‘Sylvanus Urban’ at St. John's Gate. He was introduced to the Royal Society, before whom he gave some illustrations of his calculating powers. He was also taken to see Garrick in ‘Richard III,’ but paid no attention to the performance except to count the words spoken by the actors. In the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for June 1754 is a memoir of Buxton, accompanied by a portrait. His age is there given as forty-nine, which does not agree with the date of his birth as above stated on the authority of Lysons's ‘Magna Britannia.’ After spending some weeks in London he returned contentedly to his native village, where he was buried on 5 March 1772.
[Gent. Mag. xxi. 61, 347, xxiii. 557, xxiv. 251; Lysons's Magna Britannia, v. (Derbyshire), 157.]
H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fordyce, Alexander

[Gent. Mag. xlii. 310, 311, and 292, 293, 296, 392, 434-6, xxxviii. 274, xl. 344, vol. lix. pt. ii. p. 866; Grenville Papers, iv. 539-43; Walpole's Letters, v. 393-6; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
E. C-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fordyce, William

​FORDYCE, Sir WILLIAM (1724–1792), physician, son of Provost Fordyce of Aberdeen, and brother of David Fordyce [q. v.], was born at Aberdeen in 1724, and educated at Marischal College, also serving a medical pupilage with a local practitioner and with his brother John at Uppingham in 1743. It has been inferred that he qualified at Edinburgh, from the fact that he was admitted a member of the Royal Medical Society there, 22 Dec. 1744; but it is more probable that he left Edinburgh without qualifying, volunteering for the army during the war with France which ended in 1748, and obtaining an appointment as surgeon to the guards, with whom he served in three campaigns, enduring many hardships. Probably after the peace he travelled and studied in France. He was at Turin in 1750 (Fragmenta Chirurgica, p. 21), but returned to London in the same year. While retaining for many years his connection with the army, he entered upon general practice in London, and this and the growing note of his brothers introduced him to the best circles. In 1770 he was created M.D. at Cambridge by royal mandate, and was admitted licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 10 April 1786. He was knighted by George III in 1787. It is stated (Gent. Mag. lxii. 1218) that he was sent for to greater distances and received greater sums than almost any physician of his time, and accumulated much money. He aided his brother Alexander [q. v.] to his dazzling rise of fortune, and suffered great loss when he failed, generously taking upon himself the burden of his brother James's loss also. His generosity and hospitality were very great. His medical skill and knowledge were considerable for his time, as testified by his works, some of which went through numerous editions. The Society of Arts voted him a gold medal for his work on rhubarb. He died at Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, after a long illness, on 4 Dec. 1792, aged 68. At the time of his death he was lord rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen, to which he left 1,000l.
Fordyce's works (all published in London) are:
* 'A Review of the Venereal Disease and its Remedies,' 1767, fifth edition 1785; German translation, Altenburg, 1769.
* 'A New Inquiry into the Causes, Symptoms, and Cure of Putrid and Inflammatory Fevers, with an Appendix on the Hectic Fever and on the Ulcerated Sore Throat,' 1773, fourth edition 1777; German translation, Leipzig, 1774.
* 'The Great Importance and Proper Method of Cultivating and Curing Rhubarb in Britain for Medical Uses,' 1784.
* 'Fragmenta Chirurgica et Medica,' 1784.
* 'Letter to Sir John Sinclair on the Virtues of Muriatic Acid in curing Putrid Diseases,' 1790.
[Gent. Mag. lxii. 1217; Fordyce's Works; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 359-60.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fordyce, David

​FORDYCE, DAVID (1711–1751), professor at Aberdeen, born at Broadford, near Aberdeen, and baptised 1 April 1711, was the second son of George Fordyce of Broadford, provost of Aberdeen. After attending Aberdeen grammar school he was entered of Marischal College in 1724, where he went through a course of philosophy under Professor Daniel Garden, and of mathematics under Mr. John Stewart. He took his M.A. degree in 1728. Being intended for the church he next studied divinity under Professor James Chalmers, and obtained in due time license as a preacher, though he never received a call. In 1742 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in Marischal College. By Dodsley he was employed to write the article 'Moral Philosophy' for the 'Modern Preceptor,' which was afterwards published separately as 'The Elements of Moral Philosophy,' 12mo, London, 1754. It reached a fourth edition in 1769, and was translated into German, 8vo, Zurich, 1757. Previously to this Fordyce had attracted some notice by his anonymous 'Dialogues concerning Education,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1745-8. In 1750 he made a tour through France, Italy, and other countries, and was returning home in September 1751 when he lost his life in a storm off the coast of Holland. His premature end is noticed by his brother, Dr. James Fordyce [q. v.], in one of his 'Addresses to the Deity,' and a bombastic epitaph from the same pen will be found in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1796 (vol. lxvi. pt. ii. pp. 1052–1053). Fordyce's posthumous works are:
* 'Theodoras: a Dialogue concerning the art of Preaching,' 12mo, London, 1752, which was often reprinted, along with James Fordyce's ' Sermon on the Eloquence, and an Essay on the Action of the Pulpit.'
* ' The Temple of Virtue. A Dream [by D. Fordyce]. Published [with some additions] by James Fordyce,' 16mo, London, 1757 (other editions in 1759 and 1775).
[Chalmers's Biog. Dict. 1814, xiv. 468-70; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen, ii. 54-5; Irving's Book of Scotsmen, p. 149; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forester, James

​FORESTER, JAMES (fl. 1611), theological and medical writer, matriculated in the university of Cambridge as a sizar of Clare Hall, 26 May 1576. He proceeded B.A. in 1579-80, M.A. in 1583, and practised physic (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. iii. 58). By procurement of Henry Barrow, the puritan, he wrote out part of the book entitled 'A brief Description of the False Church,' but he says that he found fault 'in respect off the sharpe maner of wrytyng thereof,' and caused it to be reformed, but he alleged that he never saw the book in print. He was indicted with Barrow, Greenwood, and others, on 21 March 1592-3, for writing and publishing books to cry down the church of England and the queen's prerogative in ecclesiastical matters. As he expressed penitence, however, his life was spared.
He was the author of:
* 'The Pearle of Practise, or Practisers Pearle for Phisicke and Chirurgerie found out by J[ohn] H[ester] a Spageriche or Distiller, amongst the Learned Observations and Proved Practises of many expert Men in both Faculties. Published and drawn into methode,' London, 1594, 4to.
* 'The Marrow and Juice of 260 Scriptures,' London, 1611, 4to.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), p. 1256; Egerton Papers, pp. 166, 178; Strype's Annals, iv. 93; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
T. C.